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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