Home, Sweet Home

Edinburgh City Centre – Click to enlarge

I’ve just returned from a two week holiday to the UK, visiting my home city of Edinburgh and friends who moved to London after we all graduated from university. It was lovely to be back in my own country, and in particular Edinburgh. I went to all the old spots with friends whom I haven’t seen for nearly a year now and did some touristy things with V who’d never been to Edinburgh or London before.

Regardless of how wonderful it was to be back ‘home’, I must admit that I was most relieved and extremely happy to land back in Belgrade on Saturday – a sense of comfort and familiaraty overcame as the drab blocks of New Belgrade came into view from the taxi.

Yesterday, I took a stroll round the centre of Belgrade; the sun was shining (unlike in the UK where it rained, got a bit sunny, rained again and even snowed), and the city looked remarkably green and summer like. I had a coffee and a cigarette, inside the cafe and simultaneously – something I missed whilst the UK for two weeks due to the smoking ban (I was even reluctant to light up in Belgrade at first). I also treated myself to some comforting Sarajevo cevapcici (grilled sausage-shaped meat) in somun (type of flat bread) – which was whole lot better than the overpriced Indian take-away I had been craving for in London.

I think I can safely say that Belgrade and Serbia are now my true home. I don’t think I could move back to the UK, well perhaps Edinburgh as I spent most of my life there, but probably not London. Both Belgrade and London are large, bustling cities, but Belgrade has a much more relaxed feel to the place, I can walk virtually everywhere – I detest the tube -  and two coffees and two slices of cake don’t cost 2,000 dinars/£20 (admittedly, we were in Covent Garden, but still!).

So, while walking around Belgrade, even the mundane small streets near my flat, I couldn’t help but smile and be thankful that I discovered this place. Regardless of all the problems this city/country has, it is a fantastic place to live in and somewhere which is now my home.

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