Last year on a work trip, I had the opportunity to visit Belgrade in Serbia, a place that was never really on my radar for travel at all. One of the benefits of visiting customers on location is that I can't choose the location - which means my own preferences don't come into it and it is like a "mystery flight" destination.
When it came to actually getting to Belgrade, it was one of the worst flight schedules, as it required several short-haul flights on local carriers, since there was nothing even remotely direct - which speaks of how "off the radar" it is for most people.
I was there for a few days of intense training, as didn't have a lot of time to spend as a tourist and my hotel was outside of the city, which meant taking taxis to get anywhere. While the taxis weren't expensive (from Finnish standards) they were on strike a lot, as they were protesting their local ride-share application stealing their work. From all reports I heard, the strikes pushed more people to try the service than ever.
Regardless of not having time to do much, what really stood out for me from a photographic perspective were the buildings, industrial, grimy and very much uniform in design. Serbia as part of the former Yugoslavia has past and quite recent history that has obviously heavily influenced every aspect of the design and has probably affected the culture of the people to a tremendous level. Not something I want to get into here, but I was training people from all regions of the former Yugoslavia and - it was a joy - one of the best groups of people I have trained, even though all of them remember much lesser times in their relationships as regions.
Anyway -
The buildings were great and while there were some beautiful buildings from much older times, I enjoyed the industrial the most, which is what will mostly be featured here. One thing to note is that some of the locations in Belgrade are old - dating back 2000+ years as settled places, like the fortress. As an Australian, that kind of city history always seems foreign.
To lead in - this is the "Cultural centre of Belgrade" - which speaks volumes in my opinion about what else is going on in the city.
I loved this place too, which I think was a theatre, but the juxtaposition of the crumbling courtyard was just too good to pass up.
I also chanced upon (in the old town area of Skadarlija) an advert for Mini being shot, which was a lot of fun to watch and take some pics of from various sides. Because of the narrowness of the streets, it was pretty much in the way of the locals, but everyone seemed to be curious enough not to mind and the set staff were making sure people got through the tangle of equipment easily.
This next shot are two of the actors between takes, but framed like this I think the guy in the apron looks pretty creepy.
Back to some buildings.
The patterned and uniform nature of the design, combined with the years of street grime and disrepair means that there are layers of age and time that build upon each other to tell a story. In some ways, it is dystopic, like out of a movie set in the future where the state of the world has changed - in other ways it is like the past frozen in time to remind of the way things were.
While I was there, my camera was acting up a bit and I wasn't able to capture quite what I wanted, but the washed out tones is not added after, it is just the way it was. The city (in general) felt grey and the weather most of the time added to the sense of "heavy air" - although there were other times with the sun shining that gave the city a glow like it was made of dulled gold.
One thing that surprised me was that there were relatively heaps of tourists around and was wondering what the attraction was. Perhaps the shopping (which I didn't really do) was good there, or maybe there is another reason - but Belgrade didn't strike me a a tourist hotspot and would suspect that most would end up in Croatia instead.
I think for me, the highlight of the trip wasn't the place itself, although I believe that it is going to transform a lot over the next decade - it was the people. One night I was able to go out to dinner with my clients (a group of about 20) and spend several hours eating bloody fantastic food in brilliant company. They were open, willing and enthusiastic to talk about their lives and histories in ways I wasn't expecting, with a pragmatism, acceptance and the will to look forward that was highly refreshing.
While perhaps Belgrade isn't on many people's map, I think for the food and company at least - it should be.
Taraz
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Welcome to Eastern European reality. These industrial grimy looking buildings are the product of the communist era. The most important thing for communists (besides totally control and keeping people obedient) was to demolish any old buildings and build new ones, mostly the same style, changing history this way.
In my county there are new cities, built during communist times around industrial parks, specially for workers, brought there from all parts of the country, mixing them, forming them in a way to lose their origin. I could go on and on about this but I'd better stop here.
Good thing some of the old buildings and statues are still standing in Belgrade and I'm happy you at least had a good time with them, they treated you with the highest respect and hospitality. That's what it counts.
Sorry for the long comment :)
Yeah, I understand the process of the communist era, it seems much like a whitewashing and brainwashing at the same time - forget your past, get into this box. I don't know enough for certain, but perhaps now there is a push to remember what was lost?
I don't mind good comments - even if long ;)
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Jangle and I had a partner in a venture that lived in Belgrade until summer when he also had a place in Montenegro very near the beach. He was a hairdresser to refer to a recent post. The place in Montenegro had been his grandfather's before Tito and they somehow hung onto it.
Anyway, he walked away one day and never came back. I did enough checking to be sure he wasn't ill or in trouble and never heard from him again.
I have heard Montenegro is beautiful.
Do you have any idea why he walked?
None. The business wasn't flourishing but headed that way.
There may have been a little darkness in his past. Hacker type darkness. He may have gotten a better offer.
Depending on life circumstance, perhaps he couldn't afford to wait, so if a better offer arrives - it is taken.
Yep. He'd lost his father and brother in the same year. That may have also played a part in it.
Or maybe he just got tired of Jangle and I.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.I have seen many pictures from your travels, but these certainly look dystopian! There is something of the future destroyed, of the frozen past, of the non-existent present. There are several images that stand out for their uniformity, for example those last two are incredible. In Venezuela, the government has not only managed to make people uniform (red is the color of the governing party) but has tried to do so with the buildings: many of them have the eyes (1984?) of the late Chavez and have the same shape in their construction. Thank God that this idea has not prospered much. The best thing and I have commented this with many friends, a country is its people! And if you ate and had a great time, and took these great pictures, the trip was worth it. Interesting experience! Nice Sunday, @tarazkp
I like the "textile" nature of the uniform buildings.
Around the entire region on the eastern side of Europe, thre are buildings like this I hear - I am guessing the pattern runs with the communist nature of things. In Finland, there are also a lot of 70s prefab buildings that look similar - built because they were cheap, not because of any kind of style.
Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #963.
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Thank you very much @lizanomadsoul - Hope you are well on your travels :*
You are welcome @tarazkp 👍🙂 I always try my very best 😉
It's great when we do trips to places we never had planned to go and for whatever reason, it turns out to be a great trip that we enjoy. That is the mystery of travel, similar to a movie we never thought of watching because of the title but when we do we enjoy every frame of it.
This reminds me of something I do while travelling. When I see an interesting situation, I imagine it as a movie scene and play out the character roles of the moment and wonder where it might lead :)
Cool mini tour of Belgrade, which somehow reminded me of the industrial areas in my Ukraine.
I am guessing there are similarities with many of the countries of the area. This was my first trip (so far) to anywhere around there and I thought it was pretty cool. The food was brilliant!
Sounds as though you had a good time. I think when you go somewhere and have no expectations you are more than likely to be pleasantly surprised.
Yeah, I had no idea what I was walking into there. The city seems to be split between the past and the future and slowly awakening.
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Good company and food can make any place enjoyable. Judging by the pictures, I wouldn't guess that Belgrade is a tousity hotspot. Nonetheless the pictures are fantastic in their own way. I love the run down urban-industrial feel to them. Very cool.
Sounds like a great experience overall.
One of the things that they seemed proud of was the culture of eating what is grown locally, without important a lot from other countries. Pretty much everything I had there tasted good :)
There were a lot of Asian tourists around, but not fully sure why.
Local food often makes a huge difference in quality and taste. France is the same. They seel mostly local product. North America is terrible for that though. Canada sells its produce to the US and imports vegetables back from them. Its an ass backwards system but I suppose they make more money that way. Meanwhile all the produce taste like shit because its all picked early and ripened on a truck.
I have heard that the apples in the supermarkets can be 8 months old - I wonder what it does to the actual apple and if there are subtle changes that affect us. I am guessing, there must be.
Yeah, I believe that apples last as long as they do because they are irradiated and sprayed with a very thin layer of wax. Sometimes you can see the waxy film on red apples. If you pour boiling water over an apple overtop a bowl of cold water the wax melts off the apple and then solidifies in the cold water in the bowl. Its a very small amount but its noticeable. I dont know if every apple is treated this way but I'm pretty sure that many of them are. I always wash my apples in hot water. I imagine the wax also seals in the pesticides left on the skin as well lol. I try not to think about that.
I figure, it is impossible to avoid it all in the life that I have, so aim to stay away from the worst offenders. I know that what we consume changes our dna though, so who knows what we are doing to future generations - perhaps millennials are broken because of what their parents ate :)
Beautiful pictures! You're talented with the camera