Whenever I am travelling abroad, I like spending time in local bookshops as I am always eager to know better the country I am visiting through the taste in books of its people. Belgrade was no exception to this little pleasure of mine. While exploring the shelves of several bookshops on Knez Mihajlova, amusing myself of the funny way foreign authors’ names are phonetically written in Serbian, I found a book in English that immediately caught my attention: The scent of rain in the Balkans by Gordana Kuic.
While the whole book is nonetheless enjoyable, I noticed a beautiful description of Belgrade:
“Laid waste, burned to the ground, besieged and occupied over a hundred
times, and yet, still reposing on the banks of the two rivers, lifting its courageous brow over the Sava and the Danube to oversee their meeting place.. Always airy, its fog blown away with the roistering north wind.. Bright and drab, modern and primitive, pretty and ugly, lively and subdued, never boring because of its contrasts.”
I guess this excerpt says it all about Belgrade!
And for all of you Serbian-speakers, maybe you would consider going to the Madlenianum Opera House and Theatre in Zemun to see the play adapted from this book.
