Man, I like Belgrade.
Not that Bucharest isn't just fine. Bucharest is very nice. But Belgrade... Belgrade has that special something.
It's hard to put my finger on just what. It isn't a particularly beautiful city architecturally; there are a lot of nice old buildings, but also a lot of nasty crumbling socialist stuff. And the air's not very clean, and it can get really unpleasantly sticky in summer.
But it doesn't matter. Somehow I just like Belgrade. Is it the cherry strudel at the little cafe on Teraziye? The view from the top of the Hotel Casina? The friendly booksellers on the Knez Mihajlova? The summer outfits? The mostly honest taxi drivers? The countless little cafes? The rivers?
Or maybe it's just that I have friends there, so I see the place differently.
Anyhow, it was good to be back. I took the overnight train on Thursday night, which gave me three days and two nights. The Hotel Casina is a grubby little place with painfully slow elevators, but it sits in the center of town, and if you know which room to ask for, you can get a balcony with a breathtaking view: eight stories down to Teraziye, with the cathedral to your left, the pedestrian mall on your right, and the Sava River directly in front of you. It's really something.
(Oddly enough, the balcony rooms cost the same as the no-balcony rooms. This suggests to me that the Hotel Casina is still owned by the state. In a few years someone will buy it, and turn those rooms into very, very expensive apartments. Progress, I suppose.)
It was a very full three days, with friends and business and shopping and more friends. At the end, I was very glad to collapse back on to the train. There was something wrong with the electrical system in the sleeper car and the lights wouldn't work and -- this is how tired I was -- I didn't care. I didn't even want to read (well, not much). I fell asleep as soon as we crossed the border and didn't wake up until sunrise, seven hours later and 500 kilometers further east.
Mm, Belgrade. Hope to see you again soon.
Posted by douglas at July 28, 2003 03:01 PMBelgrade : Minneapolis :: Bucharest : Houston?
This could make an interesting party game.
Posted by: Carlos at July 29, 2003 01:54 AMIn one year you'll be feeling this way about Bucharest. I find that living and moving does that to one. If you would have told me a year ago how much I would miss po-dunk Imari BEFORE I EVEN LEFT, I would have said you are nuts. But here I am with one week left and already missing the hell out of stuff that I can still do. Life is strange, nest pa?
Posted by: Mike Ralls at July 29, 2003 03:33 PMjust searching around the web i found this site... i moved to belgrade in november 2002 and yes, i love belgrade as well. must try and check out bucharest sometime.
the one thing i have noticed is the lack of expats here, maybe im looking in the wrong places... ? seems that all of them did what you guys did and moved before i found them. (not sure if thats a good thing or not *grin*).
Posted by: duncan at August 4, 2003 04:31 AM