Week 6

Dancers at the 2012 Belgrade Folk Festival 

As my time in Belgrade draws closer and closer to an end, I am happily seeing my days fill up with more and more activities (and unfortunately less time for photos). While the first two-three weeks were spent wondering the city solo, I have now been catapulted into life inside the large ex-pat community. When I first got here, someone told me that all you have to do is meet one person, and from then on the number of acquaintances and experiences grows exponentially. I was not sure what this meant when I first heard it, but now, as I split my time between friends at the German and US embassies, I have witnessed first-hand the wisdom of those words. 

Belgrade Streets and Sava River

Meeting new people opens up a whole world not accessible to a sole tracker. Just this Thursday, I was introduced to a wonderful bar/restaurant, hidden behind a beautiful yellow house in a garden covered with overhanging greenery and flowers. Saturday, I joined the other Americans for a party at one of the bars on Ada Ciganlija, Belgrade's man-made lake. With bars and small clubs covering the southern shore of the lake, you get lost in the cover bands belting out everything from Michael Jackson (with a Serbian style of course) to Carly Rae Jepsen to Serbian hits from the 80s. 

City Streets

While I would have found these great places on my own, I am sure I would have shied away from going into the BIGZ building solo. BIGZ is a huge warehouse style building, originally erected in the late 1930s and largely abandoned in the 1990s. Now it is a haven for young artists, designers, and musicians. Imagine a mostly dark building, no lights from any of the factory-style windows, some guards drinking rakija in the front, large dimly lit hallways covered in graffiti, metal music coming from indistinct rooms. Friday, along with a friend, I found myself climbing the seven flights and trying not to remember just about every horror movie I have seen. Finally, we found our way to the top, to a jazz bar with an incredible view of the Sava River and New Belgrade. This, I would not have ventured to by myself, but now I must go back. Something about the entire horrific vibe draws me in. 

Magnificent 7 Movie Screening

The more time you spend with other people, the more you also cherish the time by yourself. Monday night I ventured out solo to a movie screening of the Magnificent 7 @ Belef Festival, situated between the tight walls of the Kalemegdan Fortress. The movie I saw was "The Furious Force of Rhymes" about hip-hop as protest music in France, Germany, Palestine, and West Africa. Primarily in French and German with Serbian subtitles, I am proud to say that I understood a lot. Now, I am desperately hoping that the film becomes available on Netflix where I can watch with English subtitles. I strongly recommend that everyone interested in music watches this; it is what hop-hop was in the US in the 90s when lyrics were about social issues. 



Walking home from the movie, I stumbled upon this little gem, occurring just on the other side of the Kalemegdan wall. 

Dancers at the 2012 Belgrade Folk Festival 

I missed where the first performers are from, but I am almost certain that the second two groups are from Turkey (although since my Serbian is not the best, I could be wrong). 

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