Belgrade by www.born2travel.it

if you want to know more or see all the photos visit: 14. 08. 2003 Belgrade (SERBIA) It all began one quiet summer afternoon in Caserta when, by chance, in a travel agency, I overhear a boy booking a flight to Belgrade... But wasn't there a war there? I get curious as always and... after crossing four borders in one night: here we are! We're staying at the Zeleznicki Hotel (a hotel for railway workers), naturally inside the railway station! The first image the city showed, torn apart until a few years earlier by the bombings of the Balkan war, is that of a mix of big grey buildings typical of communism and real Roma neighbourhoods, like Brazilian favelas... Serbia is the only nation that recognises the gypsies as its own inhabitants... Wandering around we met a very likeable Australian couple, Bret and Liz, and a 62-year-old Serb, Slobodan.

[Luca]: That guy struck me as cool, he knew about music and cinema. He said he had met Fellini, his wife and a certain Franco Fabrizi... While we were all sitting in a bar in the centre he slipped away for a moment to go home and listen to my CD! He never came back. Belgrade is still too unknown to talk about it; we've only sniffed it and it strikes me as quite "Eastern Europe". In the central square we met a small group of local lads and arranged a football match for tomorrow! 16. 08. 2003 Belgrade (SERBIA) [Luca]: Bombs? Not here... this city seems very calm... Everything keeps going better and better, so much so that we've changed the departure ticket for the fourth time! But this time it must be final because "the show must go on". Every morning when we hand in the room keys to go out they always prepare the bill for us... "No thanks, we stay one more night!" is our reply.

The match with the Serbs was thrilling! We were losing 3-0. Our line-up: Gabry in goal, Roscio in defence, the foreigner Bret in midfield and me up front. Our Australian ace equalises and by the end of the first half we're a goal ahead. In the second half there was no contest: 9-5 for us (Scorers: 5 goals me, 1 Roscio and 3 Bret). The poor Serbian lads were so sad; they were keen to make a good impression with us Italians, so much so that they challenged us to basketball tomorrow... [Bret from Canberra, Australia]: Four days later and we're still wandering around. We've admired some of the Italian-style "chat-up" techniques. Brilliant! In the evening we meet the likeable Joana and Danijela and the very beautiful Ana. It's the latter who, at the end of the evening, decides to introduce us to her best friend...

So at half past one in the morning we take a bus that takes us to a place forgotten by God... From there we walk for about 45 minutes through dark streets, with no light, dirty paths, lonely avenues that cut straight into real woods, isolated parks lit only by the special light of the moon; at that hour, with those people, in that place, my heart was pierced! I'll never forget it. I wish I could convey through these pages at least a thousandth of what I felt in those moments, feelings so contradictory: fear, because it felt as if I were reliving the same scenes as the horror film "The Blair Witch Project" as we entered those dark parks, and a peace of the senses talking with Ana and her friend: a huge centuries-old tree, like a baobab, fairytale-like! 17. 08. 2003 Belgrade (SERBIA) [Luca]: It's nine in the morning...

another hard day has begun and let's hope it never ends because this time tomorrow we'll be on a train bound for Budapest. We're in some God-forsaken part of Belgrade at the house of a friend of Ana's... Who would ever have said it: to come to a place considered so dangerous and hostile and then find yourself in such a beautiful paradise... at the home of local people, met by chance, cordial, genuine people, far from us, in every sense... sometimes I'm ashamed of owning what I have... we no longer appreciate anything... for them, having taken a trip to Budapest a few weeks ago was a wonderful thing, we no longer appreciate anything! [Luca]: At the friend's house, Ana introduced us to her world... poor, sweet and intense... The people were extremely cultured and attentive to the most problematic aspects of life.. something very rare.

Belgrade reminded me so much of the relationship that can exist between human beings... One state, one single people... and yet they've been fighting among themselves for too long.... Why? For a territory, for a church, for a past... The warmth of the people is the magic of Belgrade... We are their dreams and they are our sins; these young people have a truth in their eyes deeper than the wells where coins are thrown. I admire them, they admire me... [Ana Pozeg from Belgrade, Serbia]: Moments. Life is full of them! You feel some of them more than others! Sometimes it happens that the union of desire and imagination creates a magnificent moment! The moment when in your life you feel something that has no name, no real definition, but you alone feel it... you have reached the top in life when you feel that you are part of the air, of the universe...

The more aware you are of it, the more you will live a perfect moment! And I did. I wish you a wonderful trip! Enjoy every day in every sense... May the force be with you! [ continues on: ]