serbia, i miss you

today i woke up in a bed that wasn't perched on the highest part of a five-story building. the roof didn't have quirky looking slanted roof windows, and when i woke up i didn't find my arm and back riddled with mosquito bites. 

no, this new room had none of these features. 

yet

still, i miss it. 

i miss the turkish coffee in the morning.

i miss the faint rumbling noise of traffic from down below

i miss the random conversations of earlier former yugoslavia 

i miss the fact that a half liter of beer was never more than $2

these past 4 days spent in belgrade were great. nobody really treated us like tourists. maybe because hardly anyone comes here. if i'm right, i sure hope it stays that way.  

if you ask me, i can't really say why i came to belgrade other than my friend brianne being an insane novak djokovic fan and wanting to visit his cafe; which is amazing if i might add. 

the specifics of choosing a city are never set in stone. 

it's rare to find a city that once done circling and prodding, you'd come back to. 

belgrade, is one of the few exceptions.

last day in belgrade

you know the guy, the one who thinks he has all the time in the world? 

yeah, 

i've been that guy lately.

and so with that it saddens me to think that this will be my last day in belgrade. 

serbia-not to be confused with syria-has been nothing but a pleasant surprise. it might not seem like much at first. you wont find any slabs of distinctive architectural stone or an intricate system of fountains running through city. 

but take a walk to the city's fort and you might be lucky enough catch a sunset over the danube.

and if you keep walking further you might stumble upon bašta, a jazz club perched next to the danube river bank.  

as i write from the top bunk of my room- scratching and turning- the sun has made it's climb up through our ceiling window. 

there is still one day to go and plenty much to see. 

the cure for august funk

a few weeks ago I met up with my sister and brother in law, along with some other friends in las vegas, nevada.

and in the course of just a few hours, i had my wallet and phone stolen.

i haven't really been able to shake that off. actually, i haven't been able to shake off much of what seems to be a parade of disappointments, all being tightly packaged in this month of august.

 

i just keep thinking about them. 

so, in order to remedy this depressing month i decided to do what I normally do during these kind of situations; get some new ink.

this time, it's the city of belgrade in serbia. this is the view from my hostel balcony on the 5th floor. 

and just like that, august isn't as depressing as it was yesterday.