October in Belgrade

The worst and at the same time the best thing that can happen to you when you head to Belgrade is to forget your phone. I realized in Zeta that it was left on charging. It was too late to go back. I thought with sadness "whom I won't be able to call" and with joy "whom I don't have to call".

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There were 65 direct publishers at the 416th Belgrade International Book Fair, of which 325 were from Serbia and 91 from abroad. 17 countries participated. Among the 163.616 visitors were the two of us.

The fair used to be one of the biggest manifestations of culture, which was attended like a prize trip, organized by trains and buses from all over Yugoslavia...

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My first association with the Fair is always pain in my legs. And a burger, of course. The barbecue in front of the Fairground is no longer there, and when they see me like this, "in the prime of my life," many offer me a chair themselves.

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I usually came on the last day of the Fair, when the stands are closing and unsold books are being packed. Only then could it be traded at a reduced price at an already large discount. Now we were on the penultimate day and I'm not haggling anymore.

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And Belgrade, who is Belgrade and what is there to talk about - a parade of spirituality and good food.

We watched two theater plays: "Children" at the National Theater and "Miracle in Šargan" at the Yugoslav Drama Theater.

The play "Children", based on the lyrics of the novel of the same name by Milena Marković, this year's winner of the Nino Prize, was performed that October 30 for only the third time. It was a one-hour interesting, explosive combination of music and poetry, with more than 30 actors on stage: actors, singers and musicians.

If the play at the National Theater was unusual, then "Miracle in Šargan" at JDP was typical for its director Jagoš Marković. To the contemporary text of the academician Ljubomir Simović, Jagoš added what he often adds in his stage works, mixed, old and newly composed music, a real flood on the stage (all the actors, all the time, were in boots) and some lasciviousness and a gag, which "fire " on the first ball. But what makes this show exceptional and what will make it last at least as long as the one from the mid-seventies at Atelier 212, are the actors. It is not known who is better than whom, more impressive: Anita Mančić, Nenad Jezdić, Ljubomir Bandović, Boris Isaković, Nebojša Dugalić, Miloš Samolov, then the talented Sanja Marković, Marko Janketić, Aleksej Bjelogrlić, sister and brother Dragičević, Tamara and Miodrag, Jovana Belović and the oldest of all, Slobodan Tešić.

Although the tickets are peppered, they were 1.800 dinars in Narodni, and 2.000 dinars in JDP, there were no free seats.

As for the food, that Balašević verse "but there was good food once" does not apply to Belgrade, because there was always good food in Belgrade. Even at the time of the greatest crisis, the sach and grill were in operation from morning until the wee hours and beckoned the sighs of gourmets. Admittedly, food is no longer as cheap as it used to be, prices are roughly the same as in Montenegro. What is a quarter more expensive is - coffee. An extended espresso with milk costs two euros.

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In Belgrade, you must either have a lot of money or comfortable shoes. In four days, we walked 52 kilometers, like from Bar to Ulcinj and back. We were located in Palmotićeva street in the center and everything seemed close to us, just a step away... And, let's say, from Slavija to the top of the Kalemegdan fortress, which is, after all, Belgrade's biggest tourist attraction, it is at least five kilometers.

Belgrade perhaps lacks a metro the most. The crowds on the streets and sidewalks in the center are a bit depressing.

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There, in Belgrade, a person can best feel how tiny and fleeting he is. Everything is like it used to be, like in the late seventies and early eighties, and Terazije and that fountain, and Knez Mihailova, and the monument to Prince Mihailo, and Kalemegdan, and Slavija, and Tašmajdan and the Faculty of Law and Narodno and JDP and Atelier 212 and "Moskva" and "Mažestik" and Ušće... but there are no people who made decisions and "shaken" Belgrade at that time.

True, there is no "Jadran", "Kozare", "Kosmaj", "Odeon"...

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On the landscaped promenade next to the Sava, where the "longest Yugoslav river" flows into the Danube, looking at the swans that were not chasing us, but were calmly playing some of their own games, untouchable, harmonious, with slender necks, I thought that an innate Belgrade predominance and that they also seem to be a little above other swans.

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Different languages ​​can be heard on the streets of Belgrade. However, young people from the former Yugoslav republics are somehow the loudest. From their every gesture, every word, it would be said that they like Belgrade, despite the fact that it is one of the most polluted cities in Europe.

I believe that they will be some new cohesive factor once this time of hatred is over.

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While we were having coffee in the garden of the "Moskva" hotel with the godfathers Marković, Lidija and Milan, in the immediate vicinity, next to the Terazija fountain, both young and old mingled. My namesake explained to me that they exchange pictures of football players who will participate in the World Cup in Qatar. It was as if I saw myself almost half a century ago before the World Cup in Germany.

"Really, what happened to that album?" I asked out loud. From the discreet smile of my better half, I realized that he had not even seen the first anniversary of our marriage.

In Germany, Yugoslavia played at the opening of the championship with Brazil, in Qatar "Karioke" will be Serbia's first rival. The neighbors' football euphoria is huge, I'm afraid it won't be such a disappointment.

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Already after the second visit to the cafe in Kosovska Street, the waiter addressed me as "neighbor". That "neighbor" sounds nowhere like it does in Belgrade. At first you think that we don't really need to be that close, and then you realize that "neighbor" actually means everything: welcome, it's a nice day, feel comfortable, we make you the best coffee, etc.

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In restaurants, cafes, bookstores, boutiques... it's like listening to Radio Bar. Relaxing, light music, Yugoslav and foreign evergreens can be heard everywhere. And the street musicians, mostly violinists, arranged on both sides of Knez Mihailova, are in sync with that rhythm. The lady at the piano in the lobby of the "Moskva" hotel did not hide her delight when she received praise for her musicianship and happily played "Stanica Podlugovi" one more time.