The morning was slightly overcast as we peered out the window to test
the sky, needing to judge whether or not we should have a day out and about. We
discovered that there was a man-made lake on the outskirts of town, which
Belgrade folk frequent. Despite no clear sunshine at the moment, we decided
that the heat was enough for us to deserve a trip out to see what was on offer.
After a few minutes of translating the Belgrade transit website, we found the
details for the bus we would need to get us there. We packed a few essentials –
sun cream, snacks that we had about the apartment, towels, books and sunglasses
– and departed.
Conveniently, the bus stop was on Trg Republika. So we walked up to the
square, and stopped at a kiosk that was adjacent to the bus stop we needed. We
wanted to get a good supply of water, as we were unsure of the facilities
available at the lake; handily this was also where you had to buy bus tickets.
In English, accompanied with gesticulations on par with that of an orchestra
conductor, we managed to convey, to the lady hidden amongst the confectionery
and magazines, where we wanted to go. A few dinars later, we had our return bus
tickets. The wait was not long, but the sun was starting to burn through the clouds,
increasing the feeling of warmth somewhat. I was glad my gamble with shorts and
a vest was starting to pay off.
Sadly not a trolleybus, rather a modern diesel ‘bendy bus’ came to carry
us to our destination; and was quite busy too. I felt that other city dwellers
or tourists thought this day might be a good one to head to the lake too. We
sat two thirds of the way up, and I did my usual thing of tracking our route to
ensure we were going in the right direction. Half an hour later, a bell was
pressed ahead of the stop we intended to get off, upon which a sizeable number
of people joined us in doing so. We were let off next to a bypass that headed southwest,
on towards more suburban parts of the city. With our backs to the road, across
from us was a rather unkempt marina for medium-sized leisure boats, and to our
right back towards the city stood the newest of the bridges to span the Sava
River. We walked left, and then bared right on to a raised dam-cum-road that
separated the marina and the leisure lake now on our left. Once we walked over,
we were on an island that sat between the lake and marina behind us, and the
Sava River, hidden ahead of us by a wood. This was quite dense to our right, but
thinned out as we gazed to our left, with leisure structures dotted around in
the clearings. It was in this direction we walked.
We meandered along a windy path, intersected by bicycle lanes heading
into the wood, as we approached a small collection of one and two storey
concrete buildings housing a café, a non-descript indoor leisure hall, and a
couple of stand alone kiosks selling food. There was a handful of uniformed
staff amongst them, joined by an equal number of customers who seemed to be on
friendly terms with them. The path turned towards the lake as we walked by
these conveniences, and then curved back to run alongside the lake next to a 4
storey boating tower. The long and slim shape of the lake either proved coincidentally
ideal for boat races or was built specifically for this purpose. We continued
along this concrete walkway for a good mile and a half. Every 200 meters or so
there would be a shack or small bungalow to our right, acting as a café or
restaurant. The staff would cross over the path to customers sitting at the
café’s tables hidden under a dozen or so parasols, on the pebble beach that
sloped down at a fair gradient to the waters edge. Every now and again there
would be a base for a functioning activity – a zip wire across the lake,
pedalloes etc – and one or two that had been long forgotten. There was a
mixture of activity going on along the lakeside; people paddling or swimming,
many sunbathing, most lazily drinking pivo in the shade and conversing loudly.
At some point we turned right into the wood to get some shade, and walked back
on ourselves. We then rejoined the path and stopped for a soft drink to quench
our thirst.
Not necessarily endeared towards the café’s we walked past, we decided
to go around to the other side of the lake. We retraced our steps and returned
to near the bus stop, and then took the path that ran between the bypass and
the lake. The noise of the road soon faded as at first a car park, then another
wood, emerged to our left pushing the road off into the distance. The bars on
this side were a lot livelier; the clientele were a lot younger and mostly in
groups. Evidently they were university kids who had returned and were catching
up with their childhood friends. We perched near them and ordered some beers so
that we could enjoy the camaraderie going on around us and indulge our pastime
of people watching. We had now reached mid-afternoon.
We drank a couple more beers before we finally decided to walk back to
the other side of the lake and see if the café’s there had a change in their
clientele. A mixture of the beer and slight dehydration made us a bit giddy and
woozy as we walked around in the early evening heat. I think we only had some
crisps and a sandwich as a snack. We sat down at a generic café and ordered
some more beers. In-between reading our books, we chatted and commented on
passersby, many of whom were scantily clad whilst cycling or rollerblading. The
background music pumping from the café across the path had now stepped up a
gear, and was playing some terrible generic dance music. Our fellow patrons
were somewhat older than us, and I am sure this was not their cup of tea
either. To mix it up, we decided to walk to another café, and settled on one
300 meters closer to the start of the lake in the direction of the bus stop
home.
We sat at a table by the waters edge. There was a small group of people
in their late teens, which the waitress seemed to be familiar with. After our
beers came, we continued our chatter and drew the attention of an older man in
his 40’s who seemed to manage the bar. He started to talk to us about football.
A strong point of conversation for John that could deflect away from why we
were visiting and how we knew each other. However, the team that he began to
talk about, according to John, had links to crooks and killers. The longer the
conversation went on, and with no escape as we were at the waters edge, the
more I felt uncomfortable. He soon had to attend to other patrons. We finished
up, and made our escape.
The next few hours were rather a haze. We managed to locate the bus stop
back into town, mostly by following other people over a footbridge and waiting
alongside them at a busy section of the road. The bus we boarded was packed,
and had a certain drunken and friendly atmosphere as the bus swayed knocking people
into each other. Unfocussed glances and half–smiles were the language of this
bus ride. We arrived back at the apartment and showered and changed. We had
arranged to meet Nemanja and Danilo at a bar around the corner from where we
were staying. We had still only snacked by this point in the late evening. The
bar was called Blaznavac and it was a 90 second walk away. It sat in the middle
of the block, with an iron gate guarding its open courtyard, the main bar being
some 30 feet back from the road. It had a mass of memorabilia and other
trinkets scattered through out it. We saw Nemanja and Danilo perched on stools,
on one half of an 8-seater table, straddled between the courtyard and the sheltered
bar within.
After exchanging pleasantries John ordered a round of drinks and we
continued our conversation of introductions from the other night. The way we
were sat meant that Nemanja and I began to chat to each other separately, as
did Danilo and John. We discussed a lot about the city, about its LGBT scene,
and recent history – the latter only fleetingly. After an hour or so Danilo
said he had to head off and catch his train. He was staying with family who
lived in Nova Pazova, just outside the city but could only be reached by the
last train at around 23:15. Nemanja accompanied him, so we said our goodbyes
and off they went. We stayed for another round of drinks. After this, we
returned to Bucko pizza from the previous night and ordered a whole one. We ate
some of it whilst staggering back to the apartment and taking pictures of each
other. We crashed into bed, leaning over its edge, feeding off the last of the
pizza from the floor.
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