Each of us, whether we live in a small or a large city, in a village or in a sparsely populated region, has something he likes and dislikes about that place.
One of the topics given by galenkp for this week's #Weekend-Engagement, refers to just that:
What do you love about your city/town and what do you hate/dislike?
I was born and have lived my whole life in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia and now Serbia. To the city at the confluence of two rivers below Avala (just like in this song).
Malicious people who consider themselves more citizens of Belgrade than others like to say that you can only be considered a citizen of Belgrade if you are the third generation born in Belgrade, that is, if your grandparents are from Belgrade.
I didn't.
According to that calculation, I am only the second generation.
But I consider myself a citizen of this city. As I think that anyone who has registered residence, who works, lives and studies in this city can be called a citizen of this city.
Those same malicious ones, they are angry that the city is full of settlers.
It is not their fault, because due to the wrong economic policy of the state and the wars that took place, they moved to a bigger city in search of better-paid jobs, thus leaving their ancestral homes and centuries-old hearths.
The fact that because of many compatriots who moved to the capital, it became overcrowded, but it is not their fault, but the fault of incompetent city authorities and city planners, who did not work adequately on urban plans and expansion of the city.
And so, I, along with all my natives and newly arrived fellow citizens, are from Belgrade.
I love Belgrade, I live in it and I take care of it as much as I can.
I was born, educated, worked and still work there.
Someone mentioned that this topic will be the easiest: "You just go out on the street and take a few pictures and that's it."
But how easy it is to write about a city you love, what you don't like about it. Criticizing something you love is a bit more difficult.
But I will not criticize Belgrade.
I will criticize us, its citizens, who have made it such that I can dislike or hate something in it.
I love spring in Belgrade.
I love the neighborhood I live in, as well as the city center, pedestrian zones and parks, with the great Belgrade fortress.
A song was sung about April in Belgrade.
As soon as I leave my apartment, one of the symbols of Belgrade appears before my eyes.
There is greenery at every step, which brightens up my every day in the spring.
Even when the linden begins to bloom, all the streets where there are linden trees smell fantastic.
Then the temperature is most pleasant, around 20 degrees, with the smell of linden blossoms, ideal for a walk.
When Belgrade turns green, the grass covers all those imperfections that sometimes make me love it a little less and sometimes disgust me...
Then I like to walk around the streets of my neighborhood, as well as the central city streets, pedestrian zones, and I have a habit from my childhood of walking around Kalemegdan when the weather is nice.
I love the Kalemegdan Fortress.
As a kid, I used to find the most inaccessible parts of the fortress from which the most beautiful view can be seen, I climbed the walls and lay on the grass...
Now, I usually choose one of the restaurants on the fortress and enjoy the view of the river.
Or I just walk around the fortress and look at these old walls and gates.
One song about Belgrade has a music video with a symphony orchestra under these walls in my pictures and this wooden bridge.
I love downtown
And I love these old buildings with beautiful facades, as well as the cafes they installed on the promenade.
While the smell of linden wafts through the streets, in these side streets where there is no traffic, I like to take a break for a walk and drink a coffee.
I love Belgrade and whenever I have the opportunity, I walk around it and take pictures of some interesting details.
Where is my Belgrade now?
A few days ago, while I was approaching Belgrade on the plane, I took some photos that I would not have been able to take otherwise, even with a drone.
Here is my Belgrade 😀
But...
In these pictures, until now, you have not seen everything that we have done to Belgrade and what we are doing to it, and what I do not like or what I hate.
Crowd and noise
Many people have moved to Belgrade in the last 20, 30 years.
This led to an increase in the price of real estate, so we, who lived in Belgrade until then, had to go to more distant settlements if we wanted to buy real estate to start a family.
So I moved from the city center, 15 minutes' walk from the Kalemegdan fortress, to a settlement half an hour's drive away.
With the increase in the number of people, the number of cars has also increased, so now crowds on the streets and for parking are a daily occurrence.
Those malicious people like to say that it is nice to live in Belgrade, when there are some holidays, "When the citizens of Belgrade return to their homes, to the villages from which they left".
I believe this to be true, because on holidays the streets of the city are empty and only then is it even more beautiful to drive through them.
When you ask me where I traveled for the holidays, I jokingly say, "I traveled to Belgrade, which I enjoyed...".
That crowd bothers me, but not so much that I hate it. Fuck it, we are all in the same pot, as it is for me, so it is for others.
Dirt and trash
Is it because of the increased crowd, different culture (or should I say lack of culture and lack of manners), in recent years there is a lot of garbage on the streets of the city.
Garbage is regularly removed, the streets are washed, but again, despite the "Clean up Belgrade" organized actions, there is often a lot of litter thrown on the streets and parks. I don't understand my fellow citizens who can afford to leave trash behind, especially those who leave trash in parks, next to rest benches.
I don't like that dirtying and leaving garbage, I hate it and it makes me sick.
I appeal to parents to teach their children from a young age that it is not nice to throw garbage outside the bin. Perhaps some new generations will adopt these suggestions and behave culturally, thus reducing the amount of garbage on the streets and in nature.
City expansion, buildings and corruption
Unplanned construction, construction sites at every turn, are another thing I hate. The expansion of the city and new constructions are something I should be proud of, however, as unplanned construction is carried out or construction is often linked to bribery and corruption through which money is laundered, the appearance of every new crane and the opening of a new construction site raises doubts about spending our money (people's money) from the budget to enrich someone else.
I am ashamed of this, because I consider myself partially responsible for what is happening, because I did not raise my voice enough and support some of my fellow citizens who did rebel and protest.
Ugly graffiti
And I am personally ashamed, disgusted and hated, that some uncultured people from our city allowed themselves to spray paint on the facades of buildings and write all kinds of nonsense!
Fan groups, ill-mannered kids and arrogant young people, give themselves the right that they should and can express their views on the walls of buildings.
It's for nothing that we team up with our neighbors and maintain flower gardens together, when these savages ruin clean walls with spray like this.
Their arrogance exceeds all limits, so they ruined the paint on one of their neighbors' van by writing their fan graffiti.
I support the initiative of painting the facades of buildings with some works of art or graffiti dedicated to some personalities, but this kind of senseless painting and destruction of beautiful facades is absolutely reprehensible.
I don't know why and how the city authorities don't start monitoring and preventing the destruction of facades. I just remember how the facades look like in some European metropolises, where the facades are not painted (Prague, Vienna, Ljubljana, Florence...).
Would I decide to move to another city because of these things I don't like?
I haven't for now. I still believe that Belgrade will return to the paths of its old glory, when some of the most beautiful songs of our music scene sang about it.
Although many of you will not understand the words of these songs, the melodies are beautiful, like my Belgrade.
Saturday has passed, but I would put the selection of songs about Belgrade this weekend in #SaturdaySelections
I hope you like the tunes.