Feeling safe in Belgrade

I sit here, watching my corner of Belgrade from my window, and try to recapitulate my time in Serbia so far. It’s amazing how quickly time passes.

On thing I realise is that I feel perfectly at ease in this big, foreign city. What a contrast to the nervousness I felt before I went here! I had the notion that it should be like in Ukraine and Russia where you feel that you have to be alert all the time as there are plenty of people with nothing more to to than stare at you (and my belongings, I suppose).

But yesterday, when I walked home from KC Grad on Braće Krsmanović, I observed this feeling of safety in myself; I was relaxed as if I was walking home in my hometown. Serbians seems to be busy people with a lot of other things in mind than to make a foreigner feel uneasy. On the streets where I have walked at night, there is a certain pace among the pedestrian on the sidewalks – men and women alike. Or to put it differently: purpose seems to be the motor, and not impulse.

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