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?

Arriving in Belgrade

 The arrivals area of Air Serbia smelled like an ashtray with a swirl of exhaust. With 90% humidity it felt like the fumes coated the inside of my nostrils. 

  Just a word of advice, if the tourist information guy recommends taking a taxi, and a travel website recommends taking a taxi, and your hostel recommends taking a taxi, then...take a taxi. Trying to get by on 20 eu for the next 24 hours did not fit in a 16 eu taxi ride. But, first I had to change money.

 

  It took me three tries to get the exchange machine to change my 20 euro bill into dinars. When it gave me a couple of 1,000 and 500 dinar bills I took a breath and reminded myself that Michael prepared me for this really large bills of funny money. He also warned me that not all locks or ATMs work the same. 

  I realize now how much I relied on him during our trip to open doors, get money, carry my luggage going up stairs. I had the sinking feeling I was in for a rude awakening. 

 

  The A1 bus driver was kind. He showed me how much the ticket cost (300 dinar, paid with a 500 bill and he gave me "change") and he didn't let me get off at the wrong stop(took it all the way to the end of the line).

  On the way to the city center broad fields were interrupted by large tenement block housing that increased in density as we got closer to the city center.  

I was dropped off at the beginning of downtown and using my thumb to measure out on the map, I had a 1500 meter walk ahead(about a mile).

I passed quite a few interesting buildings on my way to the pedestrian square but I didn't stop to take pictures. It may be because it was my first day on my own, or that I know nothing of the culture but I felt vulnerable. Taking pictures while carrying every item I own on my person never feels prudent so I had to take mental pictures.

Once I got to the pedestrian area I did risk a couple of pics...

 

 

 

And then I got a little more daring and composed a bit more...

 

Five flights of stairs later(I didn't know how to work the elevator) I made it to my hostel. Relieved and weary. It's only day one!!