Serbia, Day 5, Monday

(Or else “One day in Belgrade”)

Emy: “Wake up, Pako! It’s a national holiday in Greece today!”

17 November… “Down with the junta*”, up with Pako, to the north! Yeaaah!

(*junta: a group of military officers ruling a country after seizing power. Happened in Greece from 1967 (21st April) to 1974. On 17th of November 1973, a tank crashed through the gates of the Polytechnic where students were barricaded, protesting!!!)

I get ready in a hurry, take a taxi and go to the bus station. I get there just before the local bus for Belgrade leaves… as usually, i catch the bus for a second!!!

On the way to the capital of Serbia, i’m listening to radio B92 (a station of Belgrade), in order to listen to songs as this, this and this, because the screens of the bus are showing a concert of Zeljko Samardzic (mercy… even if i have druuunk with his songs), but also because i want to get in the “mood”. More or less, the accent of Serbs in Belgrade is different from the one that i’m used to hear in Nis.

We make a stop in restaurant Evropa, outside Veliko Orasje and i get confused… i think that i am somewhere between Thessalonica and Athens! Only that the cold is different, is more “tough”… I got the chills only thinking about it!!!

We arrive in the unknown for me Belgrade, round 2 o’clock. Nice, i have one hour free until my friend gets off work, time to make a walk around the city and “suck” some of its energy and take some pictures!

Round 3:30 i meet my good friend Lana. Young girl, born and raised in Belgrade, but with tremendous love for Greece. Her sister lives in Athens, so she has one more reason to like our country and learn our language. Bravo, Lanitsa!

My good Lana, takes the role of guide and leads me through the central pedestrian walk “prince Mihailo” (Knez Mihajlova) to Kalemegdan park (park Kalemegdan) which is above the delta of rivers Sava and Danube. We walk in the park, take some pictures, have some silly laughs, while we also talk about what’s new in our lives, both in Serbian and Greek language!

It’s getting dark (early enough for me, since Greece has one hour difference with Serbia) therefore we leave the park and go for a walk in the city.

We return in the pedestrian walk, we get in shops with clothes, not because we wanted to buy something, but because i wanted to feel a little bit of the everyday routine of Lana and her fellow-citizens. We get in one shop, we come out from another, i buy a few souvenirs, and my friend buys me one as a present! We laugh, we laugh and once again we laugh!

We decide to go for a coffee and on the way we eat pizza with sauce (which i can’t say that i liked). We sit in one café in the centre, but in a small road so it’s “quiet”. Precisely what we needed, in order to talk a lot and of course… to take some more pictures!

Time passes pleasantly and we think of changing café. We walk, i continue looking at and feeling the city, taking pictures, thinking, remembering the history of Serbia and all that it has been through. We go to a jazz café bar with nice decoration, as it should be for jazz-o-situations! We drink “boiled wine” that warms our bodies and our hearts!

As always, when you are having fun, time goes by fast! I should catch the bus back to Nis soon! We make a last walk through the small streets of Skadarlia (Skadarlija), the bohemian region of Old Belgrade, with some splendid bars and restaurants! Not far from that, we separate. The only bad thing, is that we don’t know when we will meet again. Belgrade - Athens for Lana, Thessalonica - Nis for me. Huge distances, as huge is our friendship!!!

I travel with the last bus for Nis, which makes a lot of stops; it tires me and… makes me veeery hungry! I have to eat something, i’m telling you! The only thing that “satisfies” me (at this moment) is the full day that i had! I worshipped Belgrade, even if i didn’t have the chance to see the ethnographic museum nor the field of Partisan (i saw however a demonstration, ha), i passed pleasantly each moment, and for that i am grateful and thank “little crazy” Lana! ;)

I arrive in Nis, run at Emy’s, where i find her with Stavroula, talking and drinking! Oh, nice, now i have two “small goats” together to “investigate” me (in a good meaning), while i am in a hurry to have a bath, eat something and go to sleep!

Dr Pako: “I had a great time, it was pretty nice, you will see pictures! Leave me now, i am in a hurry!”
Stavroula: “Hey, Pako, calm down, you just came some minutes ago and already made us anxious!”
Dr Pako: “Sorry, girls, but it’s 3:30, i want to sleep in a while, so i can wake up early! Tomorrow i am going on a… journey!!!”

To be continued…