In the first half of July I participated in the SEP student internship in Serbia. The reasons why I chose this country were clear. It's not too far away, it's cheaper to get there by bus, I've never been to the Balkans before, they speak a Slavic language. Actually, I didn't think too much about the choice of the country and I believed that every country has something to offer. I probably wouldn't have ever visited Serbia on holiday, so I took the opportunity to explore it as a student myself.

When the offer came for an internship in Kragujevac in a private pharmacy, I didn't hesitate and I was very happy. The journey was very difficult. I went from Hradec Kralove by train to Prague, then by bus from Prague to Budapest and from Budapest to Belgrade. From Belgrade I had to take another bus to Kragujevac. The worst crisis came on the bus from Belgrade to Kragujevac. After long hours on the bus I was very tired, it was almost 40 degrees in Belgrade and the local bus had no air conditioning. It was hard to find my way around the bus station in Belgrade. Almost all the signs were in Cyrillic, which is the Serbian Urdu script. People didn't speak much English, and it was a strange experience for me to have to pay a fee to enter the platform where the buses arrive. On the bus, I found that the SEO didn't answer if there would be anyone waiting for me at the place, which he announced in advance, but he didn't really know what time I was supposed to arrive. I also didn't know what my dorm address actually was. Stress was replaced by more stress when I found out that the only student I knew was supposed to be in Kragujevac at the same time was not coming. At that moment I was really anxious. 

Fortunately, everything turned out for the best when a friendly pharmacy student, Angela, was waiting for me upon arrival and helped me with my suitcase and called a taxi to take us to the dorms. There was quite a problem with the accommodation as I arrived with only my ID card, which is allowed, but they had no information about when and where I had crossed the border. Serbia is not in the European Union. I had to tell them this information and they verified it with the police. But everything was fine and I was happy to have a nice big room with a private bathroom. Angela was also very nice and tried to advise me with everything, she also introduced me to her friend Mina who was also very nice. During my stay she tried to show me around the city and explained everything I could think of about Serbia. I was also very lucky that at the same time, medical students were arriving in Kragujevac, who were going to have an internship in a hospital there through IFMSA. Their president contacted me to say that he was counting on me to participate in their program in my spare time as well. Indeed, I was the only pharmacy student in Kragujevac at the time. I was very happy for this offer from their president. The plan was to visit various bars, restaurants, cafes, and the surrounding areas of the city. 

So I tried to attend almost all the events and thanks to that I had the opportunity to meet students from different countries all over the world. There were students from Mexico, Finland, Denmark, France, Russia, San Salvador, Poland, Brazil, Taiwan, Cyprus, Turkey and Jordan. 

My internship at the pharmacy was a few meters from the dorms. It was a private pharmacy that was characterized by its focus on homeopathic treatment. The owner of the pharmacy was a doctor who had special courses on homeopathy. It was also possible to buy things like wigs or medical shoes and uniforms in the pharmacy. The pharmacy did not prepare any magistraliter, so for me the practice consisted a lot of observation and by having already done my practice in the Czech Republic, I knew what to ask in order to compare the two systems. In Serbia you can buy almost all medicines without a prescription, except antibiotics and sedatives and hypnotics. There are electronic prescriptions there, but they don't take the form of a QR code as they do here, but the patient brings them in on a card that is read and the prescription appears on the computer, which is then downloaded. 

I found it sad at times to see that the pharmacist gives almost no information for the drugs except the dosage. In Serbia, I have also seen the problem of doctors prescribing antibiotics too often, but one can also do resistance tests, the result of which is brought to the pharmacy. A special information for me was that it is possible to buy only one blister of the whole package of medicines. So there were really a lot of boxes in the pharmacy that were not complete, and someone had already bought only part of them. 

However, in the pharmacy and elsewhere, the Serbs were very friendly to me, people are really nice there, but there is always smoking everywhere, even in restaurants. A nice bonus was that I ended up having free accommodation including lunches and dinners in the dorms. The dorms actually had a canteen where the students cooked. I think I enjoyed my stay in Serbia as much as I could, I improved my English, I met new people, I got to know a foreign country, I found out how their pharmacy works, I got used to their nightlife which I wasn't used to from home and most importantly I got to know myself a little bit more. I am very happy for this experience and I will never forget it.

Nikola Janečková