I haven’t posted anything on Steemit for a while, because I have been preparing myself on coming to Belgrade and meeting Jeff in person. And what a week it was. So much has happened that I am still going through my impressions.
I first made contact with Jeff through Facebook about doing an interview for The Dollar Vigilante newsletter about my experience on living in Serbia, and starting TDV Serbia Facebook group. After talking for a while he said that he is planning on coming to Serbia in August, so we arranged a meeting.
The reason that I’ve wanted to meet Jeff, besides the fact that he is the guy I’ve been following for years and have learned a lot from that, is that I felt a strong connection with him and the people he is surrounding himself with. Also as a person who aspires to improve the world, and having ideas on how would I go about it, I wanted to discuss them with him and figure out the ways I can contribute to the freedom movement. Thirdly after hearing so much about Acapulco, how beautiful it is there and how you can live there for the same price as in Serbia I am looking to move there, so I wanted to learn more about it, and have someone who is already there share the experience first-hand.
We arrived in Belgrade on Tuesday, me from my hometown Jagodina, and him from Frankfurt Germany. I came by to his hotel around 9 PM to pick him up so we could go for dinner. We shook hands, exchanged names, and started talking.
I asked him about his flight, the reason he came to Serbia and some other small talk topics. As we are both vegans I wanted to take him to a vegan restaurant, but he wanted to try some traditional Serbian cuisine, so I took him to the most popular street full with restaurants – Skadarlija. If you ever come to Belgrade and want to try our traditional food, that’s where you should go. Serbia has a lot of problems, but one thing is sure - you will never leave it hungry.
Restaurant Mala Kuća
the table beside us
My first impression about Jeff was that he was not so talkative as I thought he would be. After all he makes money from talking to the camera. He was really quiet and calm, so I did most of the talking, but that didn’t bother me, as I was excited to share with him everything about me: who am I, what’s my professional background, and what do I stand for. But at times I thought to myself that he wasn’t that interested in what I had to say: “After all”, I was thinking, “he met a lot of people who are way more interesting than me.” But that wasn’t the case, as I’ve learned through hanging out with him every single day throughout his stay in Serbia. He is just quiet and introverted guy.
We ate, listened to some live music and called it a night. He mentioned a meeting he had with some of the people from Liberland the next day, and suggested that I should come with him and meet them also, because of the ideas I have involving the creation of harmonic society, and their alignment with Liberland’s mission.
The next day I was sitting on a bench in the park with my lady friend after walking around the town all day, when I received a message from him that the meeting is tomorrow and that I am welcomed to join him for poker at the local casino, as he had itchy palms. As it turns out, poker tournaments are organized only on weekends so we went out instead, on the riverside of Danube, where all of the most popular rafts turned clubs and bars are.
It was Wednesday so we didn’t have a lot of choice, and we found ourselves in the fanciest club there. It tuned out that the most popular rap group called THCF is performing that night, so Jeff being the second best white rapper in Canada back in the day, was curious to check out the place, even though his not a club guy. It was funny that we had to order a bottle of liquor just to have a both table, but neither of us wanted to drink it. I ended up drinking couple of glasses and we offered it to the girls near buy, so that it wouldn’t be a complete waste of money. I used the opportunity to hit up on some girls and the girl promoters who were coming to our both, while Jeff kept it cool. In that moment I realized: “I am out clubbing with Jeff Berwick.”
Freestyler
It wasn’t crazy or anything, for the most part we were talking, listening to some music and enjoying the breeze that blew by the river after a hot day, but that realization was funny to me. He shared his experience with alcohol and cigarettes, and offered advice to me about how should I go about quitting smoking. He recommended a great book called Easyway by Allen Carr, that I’ve heard of before, but never believed that a book can help me out with that, till he reassured me.
On Thursday, we attended a Bitcoin meetup. It was organized symbolically at the Miners Pub. I didn’t know what to expect from the meetup, but I was thinking in the terms of presentations, conference type vibe. It was just crypto enthusiast drinking craft beer. I came there first, and while a was waiting for Jeff to arrive a saw a familiar face. It was Vit Jedlička the last president of Liberland. I came up to him, introduced myself and said that I am waiting for Jeff, who mentioned “some people from Liberland”, but I didn’t expect him to be there. It was a pleasant surprise. We made small talk, as it wasn’t the right ambient to discuss anything serious, but we had the opportunity to do so later. Vit introduced me to Daniel, an American who moved to Belgrade to be close to Liberland, who was also the organizer of the meetup.
Bitcoin meetup
Miners Pub
Jeff arrived, so we all came together, introduced one another, took some pictures, and went to see Liberland’s Serbian office.
Liberland office in Belgrade
It was a great opportunity to meet some other Serbians involved in Liberland, and make connections with them. After a little bit of chit chatting and taking some photos, we went to dinner, where I had the opportunity to talk to Vit one on one.
Restaurant Smokvica
Me and Vit covered a lot of ground. I was telling him about how I enrolled in Sociology to figure out all the principles behind societies, so that I can create my own model of harmonic one, my professional experiences with developing and managing projects, and my most recent project revolved around helping artist with exposure and institutional backup trough opening an Alternative Centre for Culture in my hometown, my desire to help people achieve happiness trough opening an Institute for harmonic human development… And he talked about his background, why he is so passionate about Liberland, what he aspires to achieve with it, and how he plans on going about it.
After talking for more than an hour, we have introduced ourselves to one another properly, and we exchanged phone numbers, so that we could further discuss my involvement. I was invited to come to Liberland on Sunday for the gettogether, but I ended up not going cause of the other matter I had to attend to back at home, like finishing my study on “Crisis in masculinity among fathers in Serbia”, that still needs a lot of work.
The next day was Friday so I was feeling like I should take Jeff out again, because I didn’t want him to have an impression that Belgrade has to offer what we experienced on Wednesday. It was nice, but we didn’t end up have a great time, what I aimed for. This time my lady friend Andrea who is a fashion designer went out with us, and it’s always nice to have a good-looking girl around when you go out. We went out to another raft called Sloboda (Freedom), which name I found to be really symbolic, but we didn’t go there just for the name. It was more chilled with a great terrace by the river, which suited mine and Jeff’s taste better.
Raft Liberty
Unfortunately, it was empty, having only around 100 people scattered across the venue. After hanging there for a while we decided to go to another venue, but that was empty also. We were disappointed, me in particular, because I wanted to show Jeff a good time, but he didn’t mind, as he is the person who doesn’t expect anything, and is not excited nor bored. He just is, as he said.
He went into detail on how he views the world, and how his experiences with Ayahuasca taught him a lot. As a person who traveled over 120 different countries, experienced a lot of things, he isn’t easily amused. And I get. I am also overcoming going out. After 10 years of going out, going to festivals, rave parties… nothing can happen that I can’t expect. I can’t imagine what would have to happened to him. He couldn’t also. That’s why he doesn’t go out for the most part.
On Saturday, we just hanged out at the place I was staying with my lady friend Andrea who’s also like me in the way that, she’s also thinking in the terms of figuring out what happiness is, what freedom is, how can she achieve those, and how can she further develop herself as the most authentic version. She was curious to know more about Jeff, and found him to be highly interesting, because she viewed him as the man who achieved what she aimed for: wealth, freedom, happiness.
Anyway, we stayed till 6:30 AM, talked about every single thing, going deep into topic’s like: what’s freedom for us, can money buy it, what’s independence, what’s excitement, what’s out purpose… and other “meaning of life” topics. I was glad that I had the opportunity to get to know Jeff so deeply. I was expecting to see him maybe 2-3 times for a coffee or something. Everyday we spent together we got to learn more about each other, so I thought that this was a great way to sum up the week, and leave it on the high note.
I walked Jeff back to the hotel. When we arrived, it came to my mind that I’ve accomplished what I wanted, and that is to spend meaningful time with the guy I view as my mentor and a role model for a lot of things.
But that was not all. Most importantly, I also wanted to be assured that this mission I have, is something that I should pursue, and devote my life to it. My mission is to change the world, through creating new systems that will make the old ones obsolete.
I have an idea for a school system replacement, in which people should learn about themselves and the ways then can build themselves as the ultimate versions of themselves according to their own values, and learn about how they should go about it, not just pile up information about things they will never use. I have an idea for creating a society in which you can live without anyone pressuring you to do the things you don’t enjoy just to earn the right to live, and how that can become the first ever state located in the cyberspace – the real Utopia. But not state as in government, but a state of mind, that every individual has the equal right to be free to travel this planet where ever they wish to. To have the right to choose where their money is spent if they even want to pay taxes…
For me freedom is associated with choices. Freedom to choose the life you want to live, and not having any one over you governing your life! This is the battle for fulfilling what God-given talent is – free will.
While mentioning God, it’s funny how he played with me. He put me to the test just a few weeks back, and I passed. Gave me a tough time, just to make me realize what my next move is in life. I went through an existential crisis like never before – what should I do with my life?! I didn’t know in what city I should live even. Nothing had sense to me. It was because I was not in tune with my purpose, and I was not aligned with what I cared about. I felt like all the paths are closed at this point.
On one hand, my heart was in Acapulco - I imagined myself living there freely, working with all sorts of smart people, on the things I care about. On the other hand, I have nothing but ideas. I tried to devise a plan on how I would accomplish that, but the lack of money, social capital or the sheer grandiosity of the idea, discouraged me. I started to believe that it was not possible, not yet at least. That's whats called a limiting belief. I have putted it there upon me.
Just after two or three days, after I decided that I will strive to achieve my goals, no matter how crazy they sound to other people, and no matter how impossible they look, it started to open up – my path in life. The Universe broth Jeff Berwick to my doorstep – the man who introduced me to a lot of people through his podcast that I share ideas with and feel a strong sense of belonging with. Just two or three days since I’ve decided to move to Acapulco, and were looking at AirBnb’s, Acapulco came to me, to let me know that this is what I’ve wanted. Some would call this the "Law of attraction".
So that’s how I ended my saga with Jeff, I reached my hand and decisively said: “Farewell and see you in Acapulco.”