Your own dream landscape ...

Flight # 7 was to get me from Vienna to Belgrade. Now its been 10yrs since my last visit and I can truthfully say that there were large periods of time in those years where I thought I'd never come back, but as the Socceroos have taught us, 'Never say never !', and so it was that this was to be a sort of homecoming. As I was explaining to Jase whilst I was in Belgrade, this place holds a lot of good memories for me as 'we' would, (mum/dad/myself), travel to Belgrade each year and spend anything from three weeks to two months there. As nearly all my extended family
live in Belgrade I often felt that this was a second home for me even though it was so far away.

Landing in Belgrade after such a long time away was an experience I won't forget. Aside from 'turbulence panic', a phenomena that my brain has only recently introduced me to, I just overwhelmingly excited....ahh, there must still be a small amount of Serbian left in me yet. For about a week after arriving the whole experience still felt surreal almost like I had overshot my alarm by a couple of hours and slept in.

It's not the Eiffel Tower but for me
it's still a Belgrade landmark

When it all comes together

Maybe it was the time that I spent away, being with family or the fantastic friends that I made whilst away but there were elements of myself that I found again and a type of inspiration that I took back to Aust that will hopefully stay with me for a long time. For the last 5-6 6months of last year I was really on auto-pilot, just getting by and not thinking about my next move or planning too far ahead or even doing things that I've previously enjoyed but that's changed for me now. Whether that's a temporary 'holiday afterglow' thing or a permanent fix remains to be seen but for right now I'll claim it.

Now Belgrade isn't the most attractive city on earth, it has some golden areas but it wouldn't make anyone's list of priority 'must see' places. Never the less as I've already mentioned my family/friends that made this one for me, gave me a shift in my own perspective and allowed me to see and experience normal things, normal thoughts etc in a different way. I don't think it's something that I'll be able to qualify absolutely and maybe its not even necessary .

'Top Hill State'

I only just notice that the written name to the right hand side of my dad is 'Henry'



So without going into the boring drivel about how great my cousin/Aunt were, because they were, and what I'll take away from the two weeks I had there, all I'm going to say is 'thankyou' and to those of you that may be reading this - I'll be back to visit as soon as I can...and if my quest for Austrian or 'some other' citizenship comes through, then who knows what might happen :)