As I write this, I’m sitting at a tram stop in Zagreb on the way to the gym, feeling hurt, anger and all those feelings in between. I was up for hours reporting two air bnb host to their customer service reps. Finally I received an email escalating the situation, this morning.

This blog post was supposed to be about Travel, food, nightlife, music and all the beautiful things that my husband and I enjoyed about Belgrade. I’ll mention some of those things of course. I’m even going to do a part two of this blog post next week.

I’ll start off with an incident at H&M in Belgrade’s city center. I was followed by a security guard throughout the store. I felt so confused and hurt. Being that I’ve never stole anything in my life, I felt dirty and embarrassed. I Confronted him, and because he didn’t speak English, he called over one of the H&M employees. This young lady was the same person I asked about a Fanny pack earlier. Of course she had excuses as to why he did it, which isn’t surprising. He apologized profusely and right then and there I wanted to throw all the merchandise I had on the ground and walk out.

I said to myself, okay, this is an isolated incident b/c so far the locals have been amazing. I chopped it up as that and continued shopping, but unfortunately another incident occurred straight after this one.

As I was standing in line, the same employee who helped with the security guard issue, was at the register, with a “closed” sign sitting on her register, as she was putting alarms on some clothes. Another female employee at the register beside her, was dealing with a customer. However, there was a man in front of me who had some clothes to buy. The employee with the “closed” sign on her register decided that she would still help the gentleman, although her register was closed. No problem, I guess…… but….no, b/c here’s where this gets interesting.

Both employees were finished with their customers around the same time, and I was next in line. Instead of either employee acknowledging me, they both decided to get some clothes to put alarms on, instead of taking me next in line. I stood there awkwardly with my husband, waiting to be acknowledged, and waiting to be checked out.

The employee that had the “open register” tells the employee with the “closed” register( after about 2 minutes) to take me next. NEVER acknowledging me, never looking at me. I’d about had it, right then and there! To make a long story short I spoke to managers, and made a big fuss! Starting from the beginning with the security guard. I decided to forgive all of this and not take all this to heart. My husband and I went on to have a fabulous time for the rest of the day.

Now on to air bnb… it’s about 3 hours from when I started to write this post. It’s now 1:17pm here in Zagreb. I’ve went to the gym, and let some steam out from punching the punching bag. I’ve purchased myself some flowers and I’m now sitting down having a glass of my favorite champagne and Ramen 🍜. I just received news that only one of the hosts violated the discrimination codes but one of them didn’t do anything wrong. They won’t disclose why, but I’m still baffled as to why both of them are not being held accountable.

Basically, before I booked either of these places(for a month stay) I inquired and messaged them about some specifics about their apartments. They both told me that their apartments were not available to me. Although the dates were fully open. One even proceeded to block her calendar on the dates I requested. Then when I asked about the next month, I was completely ignored.

To be fair, this same thing happened years back when I was booking a stay in Japan, as well as in Queens, NY, and not surprisingly in Texas as well. I guess it’s common for air bnb to continue to have these types of host on their platform. It’s all about the money, and it’s a shame. I’ve called them out about this 10 minutes ago as we were corresponding by email, concerning both host.

So, to conclude the whole matter, Travel is something that will always be apart of my life. As a black woman, my experiences are unique. I come across the most amazing people from all around the world. At the same time, there are some grim experiences, that help shape me and allow me to see the world for what it is, through my eyes.

On my next blog post or the one after I share the good experiences in Belgrade 😅, I’ll be discussing the matter that everyone was tuned into this summer concerning me. My phone getting stolen in Morocco. On the menu, is Racist United States embassy managers and corrupt Moroccan police. I will NOT be silenced any longer. Thanks for sticking around. ✊🏽