I've just returned from a two week holiday to the UK, visiting my home town of Edinburgh and friends in London. It was lovely to be back in my own country, and in particular Edinburgh. I went to all the old spots with friends whom I haven't seen for nearly a year now and did some touristy things with V who'd never been to Edinburgh or London before.
Regardless how nice it was to be back 'home', I must admit I was very relieved and extremely happy to land back in Belgrade on Saturday and even the blocks of New Belgrade on the way back from the airport were a comforting and familar sight, and perhaps even more familiar sight than Edinburgh or London.
Yesterday, I took a stroll round the centre of Belgrade, the sun was shining (unlike in the UK where it rained, got a bit sunny, rained again and even snowed), and the city looked remarkably green and summer like. I had a coffee and a cigarette, inside the cafe and simultaneously - something missing from the UK for two weeks! I also treated myself to some delicious Sarajevo cevapcici - which was whole lot better than the overpriced Indian take-away I had been craving in London.
I think I can safely say that Belgrade and Serbia are now my true home. I don't think I could move back to the UK (perhaps Edinburgh as I spent most of my life there), and definitely never London. Both Belgrade and London are large, bustling cities, but Belgrade has that much more relaxed feel to the place, I can walk virtually everywhere - I detest the tube..eurgh), people are not rushing around and two coffees and two slices of cake don't cost 2,000 dinars/£20 (admittedly, we were in Covent Garden, but still!).
So, while walking round Belgrade, even the mundane small streets near my flat, I couldn't help but smile and be thankful that I discovered this place. Regardless of all the problems this city/country has, Belgrade is a fantastic city to live in and somewhere which is home to me now.
Here's some photos I took while walking around on Sunday:
3 comments:
I feel the same whenever I arrive in Serbia, rarely you can feel so free like in this wonderful country!
Reading your blog a week before getting back to Belgrade (on august 4th), just made me get more and more excited about it :)
Like you, I seem to have this weird obssession with Serbia - I've always wanted to visit the country and, when I finally managed to (dec. 2007 and jan. 2008), I completely fell in love with it, and with Belgrade specially.
Just curious, for how long you've been living in Belgrade?
Hi Maria,
Thanks for reading my blog :-)
My obsession with Serbia/Yugoslavia started out of the blue in the late 1990s, most likely due to the rather disturbing news reports on TV at that time. But it was only in 2003 that I decided to do something practical about it and studied the Serbian language.
Just like you, I fell in love with Serbia and Belgrade, and as you can see, I moved back here as soon as I could! I've been living full-time in Belgrade for just over 1 year, but I did spend 1 year here during my year abroad studying at Belgrade University - so you could say 2 years in total.
There's just something about this country/city that's addictive, but I can't put my finger on it!
Post a Comment