Oct 232006
 

Autumn2006pics_027 READ this photograph this way:

1. The railway track in the foreground; as if this is where we got off en route from Vienna to Istanbul, Belgrade representing the FRONTIER between those two states of mind (that of Europe and of the Middle East) better than any other city.

2. ABOUT "The Spice of Danger" – Although some might think this kind of criss-crossong dangerous, here in Belgrade it is unexceptional for all and sundry on foot to walk accross railway lines and busy city highways with no pedestrian crossing points (note the crash barrier) in order to reach the relaxing and delightful grounds of the famous Kalemgaden fortress. Indeed, this kind of ‘touristic walking’ is considered so normal a thing in the city that somebody kind has constructed concrete steps to ease our passage up the embankment between railway line and road: the spice of danger. The equivalent gastronomically is the standard "Serbian Salad"; sliced tomatoes and onions, deliciously sweetened by the sun, with oil and vinegar, and then the whole spiced with chunks of raw red chilis.

3. "BALKAN" is one way of saying how geography creates a squeeze: our backs here were at the junction point of the mighty rivers Sava and Danube, between north and south, or east and west. Our route was to the south, the Holy Man leads the way- straight up the ramparts of course!

mmj