Unexpected Belgrade

Belgradians are proud of their city. It makes me feel badly that I was not initially impressed. But after I wiped down the sweat from my 5 floor climb, and cleared the exhaust stench out of my nose I regrouped and headed out from my hostel  to walk to the medieval fortress, just 10 minutes at the end of the pedestrian zone. 

 

 

 

The city has turned this fortress into an all purpose park, similar to Central Park although not as large. 

 

 The fortress overlooks the river and people gather on the wall to watch sunset. 

  

It makes me feel a little lonely. It's the time of day when people connect. They walk together, have dinner talk about their day. A Belgradian woman who now lives in DC tells me, "Here, we really live. It's Tuesday night and everyone is out walking around, visiting with each other. It's not just the weekend that we do this. We live our life. We're not just chasing after money and sitting on the couch with the remote to unwind." I completely understand what she is saying. She lives with her husband and kid in DC but she feels like she really lives at "home." 

"Please tell people about this beautiful city!" She gives my hand a big squeeze before we part. She is not trying to be derogatory about Americans but how they live is the norm in this country, not an exception like in the states. 

  Michael and I noticed this in Greece as Well. Even at 11:00 at night families were still out. Kids playing, old people sitting, everyone, all ages together, sharing the space of their community.

   My taxi driver tells me, "We don't work more than 25 minutes away from home. Right after work we go home to be with our family.  We like spending time together. And we don't move to different cities. My children are 4th generation born in Belgrade. Family is the most important thing."

  There's alot of factors at play in how we live in America. What would it look like if we adopted more of the life friendly aspects of European culture?