soundbytes from serbia

I love living back in a city that has a river. Somehow, rivers (and any body of water) have soothing effect on me. Just strolling by the banks or sitting and watching the ripples and waves can calm me.

When I was young, I used to join my cousins on their boat and cross the Danube to an island in the middle of the river, and then we would jump in and swim. Since the currents were very strong, after the swim you’d end up at a different place from the place you jumped in, further downstream. Now that I think of it, it was kind of dangerous swimming in such strong currents.

My grandma, who used to be schooled in traditional classic styles and knew all the classic music pieces, always wondered why there is a masterpiece “Blue Danube”, when in fact, Danube (at least in Belgrade) is never blue, its muddy and brown.

Recently, there was an exhibit in the city center, made up of all the plastic bottles pulled out of the river. Its horrific, such garbage thrown in the water, and having it displayed like that is really a strong impression. Here is a photo. The little paper tags on the bottlecaps are meant to be taken and they have the link to a website and more notes about the project. The notes say something along the lines “We are returning your bottles, please return us clean water”. Hope it makes people think about this magical river and importance of keeping it clean, for all the other kids who dive in and swim carelessly.