Belgrade Day 2 (10/7/07)
Not surprisingly I woke up a little later than I wanted to, and I immediately hopped into the shower, got dressed and wandered out to the pedestrian street and Kalemegdan park/fort to talk with people. Along the way I stopped at a store to buy a disguise. To this point I was clearly sticking out as American, and more than once I had been asked if I was a spy of some kind or another. I wandered into a clothing store and found a Scandinavian-style jacket—one of those grey, military-looking things so common in Europe. I figured it might help me blend in a little better. From there I stopped off at an outdoor café/restaurant to get some food and make calls. I ordered a seafood pizza, which under the circumstances was perhaps more of a risk than I should have taken on my first full day in town. I seemed to get through it ok, and I pressed on to Kalamegdan. The park/fort stands on a point of the city overlooking the Danube River. The spralling grounds include various gardens, monuments, fountains, the Military Museum, observation posts along the fort perimeter, and even a set of tennis courts in what used to be a section of the moat. I spoke to a few people, most of whom had no desire to say anything official. I ended up convincing a popcorn vendor to speak with me, although both his English and his thoughts were spotty. He introduced me to a 15-year-old boy who spoke English well, and had some interesting thoughts. We talked for a while, and then he offered to walk around the park with me and translate. We spoke with a few people and got a few more perspectives on Serbian attitudes over Kosovo and Russian involvement. One girl we spoke with was a 19-year old Serb from Pristina, and she began to tear up when talking the prospects of her ever being able to “go home” to the place she was born. My translator had to go—probably home for dinner—and I walked around the park some more. I came across a giant circle of people, easily 75-100 all of whom looked to be in their late fifties or higher. They were surrounding two accordion players and an acoustic bass player who were clearly playing Serbian folk music. Between the musicians and the outer circle was an inner circle of people dancing hand-in-hand and circling around the musicians. People laughed, clapped, and cheered, and the music and dancing showed no signs of abating. It smacked of a centuries-old ritual and was a precious site to see such a strong demonstration of culture and tradition in an ever evolving, and arguably westernizing, city. After enjoying the scene for 20 minutes, I wandered back to the Hotel Moskva to sit down and regroup. I made some calls, organized some logistics and interviews, and then went back to my hotel to figure out my next move. I tried to persuade my hotel desk clerk to speak with me on tape. I figured she’d have a number of stories to tell about Belgrade during 1999 and thoughts about the current process. She was tempted, but decided to use the excuse of her English not being good enough. She did direct me to a small university near the school where I could find cafes full of students I could interview. I wandered around and eventually came across what looked like a student café. I should point out that the street signs are in Cyrillic, and not always present to boot, so I really had to follow maps by eye since street names meant absolutely nothing. Anyhow, I found the Hot Spot café and wandered in for a look. It was full of young people, and music was blasting. They all made me for a spy immediately. Still, I at down and ordered a beer. I scanned to the room to get a sense whether anyone looked open to talking. It didn’t look good. Plus, with the music so loud, there was no way to record inside. I approached a few people hoping I could convince them to step outside for a few minutes, but I was waved off. I took one more walk through the pedestrian street and people shied away from me. I bought a bag of popcorn for dinner and wandered back to my hotel to do some work and turn in early in anticipation of a chaotic day of travel to Kosovo.
