Maybe it was the excitement of the underground clubs and floating restaurants, learning the national dance, meeting the Crown Prince or gazing out from the ‘wall of the in-loves’ to where the Danube and Sava Rivers meet, but whatever it was about the Balkan state, it truly captured....
If I say it in London, I am met with surprise. If I say it in Belgrade, I am met with disappointment. But I just keep on saying it, hoping that eventually the simple and ineloquent truth of the statement will eventually penetrate stuffed ears and thickly conditioned minds:
Serbia....
I found myself in a slightly odd position eighteen months ago: applying for a job in a city I’d never been to, in a country I knew little about and in a region that didn’t have the best reputation back home. Mention Serbia in the UK and you might get some people asking....
Before I arrived, I heard Belgrade described as a cross between Paris, Buenos Aires, and India: Paris because of the architecture and small retail; Buenos Aires because of the graffiti and gritty atmosphere; and India because, well, parts smell bad.
Since I haven’t been to Buenos....
