Bye Beograd

This is about a post of the white city Belgrade, capital of Serbia, and its many everyday “adventures” for the past 1.5 weeks. It is a pretty unusual travel journey, because for one of the rare times, we decided to just “feel” and decide, and not be harried by the need to visit many different places or cover all the touristy "must-dos". And at the end of this trip, I must say I look back and thought it was just a very enjoyable holiday.

In a nutshell, Belgrade is called the White City because when it was discovered, apparently there were huge slabs of white stones (limestone) and bel means white and grade means city. It is also not an expensive city, ranked 421 out of 500+ cities in the whole world, and the average monthly salary is just about SGD$650. Serbia had a war-torn history, part of the previous Yugoslavia, and had communist remnants. In the last 29 years, the Serbians saw 4 passport changes, and now, there is the disputable Kosovo conflict as well as their waiting to join EU. Over the course of 1.5 weeks, we visited museums, spoke to different guides… and the above, summed up a quick overview of Serbia and Belgrade.

And so… with the above (which you can easily google), I shall journal some personal reflections and thoughts of this trip.

I personally so enjoyed this holiday because it is really a holiday. We slept enough, had 3 (and more than 3) full meals daily though these meals were mostly just simple stuff. I discovered this really delicious Serbian pastry, and found out it was called Serbian Strudel, and it was made of poppy seeds. Meals with Steve… were great sources of conversations, and I think we went to proper restaurants perhaps only 2 times throughout this entire trip, mainly to experience the Skadarlija bohemian lover street. Most often, we ate at the local Chinese food shop, and dinner time was just spent eating rice with vegetables, mushrooms, chicken / beef. But I love it. This Chinese blood in me… as long as there is the familiar soya and Asian taste, it is enough. If Abu Dhabi has such variety, I would be most happy.

And then, I love our times chilling at cafes and exploring the area by foot… We would do all the touristy things of course, and we walked and walked, and walked and walked. We went to the zoo, visited Nikola Tesla museum and the Military Museum, went to a prisoner torture exhibition, visiting gardens and parks, did day trips out of Belgrade to Budapest and Novi Sad, went to a winery, joined the local walking tours, went on a historical communist tour, did an underground tunnel tour, went to an underground pub, met some new international friends, went to visit their orthodox churches, watched a movie (Thor) and ate popcorn, visited local markets, etc, etc.

Beautiful Serbia

Serbia in the night

He says he has superb photography skills. I think - yeah, not bad. :-D

Haha... but I think my skills also not bad right. And I capture the animals.

Of cats and dogs

New friends found underground

I wanna drive this old Yugo.

Tall Serbian people

Visiting the Military Museum

The external exhibits - day and night shots

Prisoner Torture Exhibition

In Budapest

Beautiful Budapest

Rural and quiet town Novi Sad

While the visits were enriching and enjoyable, the best times during this trip were just spending time together - talking and chilling over coffee and drinks. Because we would talk about all these short visits we have been on - discussing how it was during the war, how it must be a different experience to live in a country where winters are so cold and summers so hot, how we could get so up close with the animals, how if only the place were much more taken care of (you could still see ruins, remains of construction that had stopped, etc), tourism might have boomed, the different government systems, how the wine and rakja (local fruit brandy) were so tasty, how affordable the prices here were, how breakfast daily was so yummy, how Serbian people are so tall and generally the women are very beautiful, how cold and windy it was at times. 
Conversations were never static and it was not just about Serbia. We talked about Liverpool and how they had been winning and maybe we should have been in London, only for them to draw 3-3 when they were up 3-0 last night… talked about SG MRT woes, shared our dreams and aspirations, reflected about 2017, talked about family, about Kenji, about 2018, about my work and his, about how different both of us are, and he always likes to ask me this – so did your friends text you? And time just passed like this.

Both Steve and I are really quite different. We did the pymetric test in this trip, and it was so funny that what was assessed was true to a really huge extent. So this is the part – apparently I am a high risk-taker and he is so so so not… we had a super huge laugh. 

Well, this is the story. Because we had only booked our accommodation for the first 3 nights (based on this trip philosophy that we would have a different adventure, to feel and decide where we wanted to go as the trip unfolded, and then decide where to stay for the remaining segments of the trip), we found out that we were really really very different. For me, I would think – aiyoh, why did he need to think so long to make a decision on where to stay? Just read the reviews, feel it, sense it, if need be, just drop in and visit (and we did... we visited 4 accommodation choices) and then, just book. He would however, spend a lot of time thinking through the various shortlisted hotels, read them a thousand times, think and then re-think, and then re-think again, and then asked me which accommodation I prefer, and when I suggested “A”, he would go… how about “B”, “C” or “D”? And then the whole process repeats itself. 

Of course, I am drawing a parallel of our experiences to the risk-appetite results, but it was just pretty hilarious. In the end, to me, we human beings are super adaptable… so whichever place we stayed, we enjoyed it. And if you want to know, we stayed at a few different places, from the luxurious Marriott at one end of the spectrum, to a 2.5 star kinda backpackers accommodation.

We are so different. I think the person who took this pic for us has the best photography skills. :-D

Happy Cafe Times

And of course, you can see all the beautiful pictures taken of the trip, and beautiful they are. J 

But regardless, these would too become just a beautiful memory. Like the many trips we had done. And one day, these too would become a topic… Ey, u remember the lady you gave an electric shock to at the breakfast café? I somehow zapped her with my finger and she screamed a little and her colleagues, esp that one female colleague, laughed so loudly at her. And.... 

Ey, how did I ever capture such a picture?  What are they staring at, and why do they look so intense?

Beautiful moments cannot be summed up enough in a post like this, or just from looking at the pictures taken. However, these pictures and this journal do sum up the “now”. While I learn from the past and look forward to the future, one key thing 2017 has taught me was how I can live in the present, enjoy the moment and give thanks. So while this chapter in cold Serbia shall also become a beautiful memory and a chapter of our lives in future, for the now, I am thankful and happy that we had a super awesome 12 days.

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“I’m alive,” he said to the boy, as they ate a bunch of dates one night, with no fires and no moon.

“Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.”

…

But the boy was quiet. He was at home with the silence of the desert, and he was content just to look at the trees. He still had a long way to go to reach the pyramids, and someday this morning would just be a memory. But this was the present moment – the party the camel driver had mentioned – and he wanted to live it as he did the lessons of his past and his dreams of the future. Although the vision of the date palms would someday be just a memory, right now it signified shade, water, and a refuge from the war. Yesterday, the camel’s groan signaled danger, and now a row of date palms could herald a miracle.

(Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist)