New York, I am coming again but feel so sad

New York, I am coming again, but I feel so sad... My close friend, my beautiful friend who loved NYC as much as I love it has died in June... And we had so many plans for NYC, for us together in NYC... Now, I am on my own...
I plan to come with my boyfriend, it will be great I believe... But that is a different NYC from one I could feel if my beautiful friend were alive... This time, I dedicate my trip to NYC to her, great friend, and great artist, great person and beloved friend Olga Olja Ivanjicki.

Njujork, dolazim ponovo ali sam veoma tužna... moja bliska prijateljica, moja divna prijateljica koja je volela NYC koliko ga i ja volim, umrla je u junu... A imale smo toliko planova za NYC, za nas zajedno u Njujorku... Sad sam prepuštena sebi...
Planiram da dođem sa momkom, verujem da će biti divno... Ali to je opet drugačiji Njujork od onog koji sam mogla da doživim da je moja divna prijateljica živa... Ovog puta, posvećujem svoje putovanje u NYC njoj, velikom prijatelju, velikom umetniku, divnoj osobi i voljenom drugu Olgi Olji Ivanjicki.

West Side Story

First visit to NYC (June 2007) and a month of preparation. I was to go to NY alone, all by myself and couldn't take a risk to make some mistake... I wanted to do it all by myself. I found few hotels I like online and asked my friend which to choose - Uptown or Downtown. One hotel was near Soho and the other at the Upper West Side. My friend said: "Go downtown, everything is near and it is great - shops, galleries etc". "Ok, she knows the city, she is right", I thought.But, I changed my mind - booked West Side hotel. And, when I came to the City, I was congratulating myself for my intuitive decision. Upper West Side (95th Street) was a great choice. Great part of Manhattan. I really love it! It is a part with old and new buildings, but mostly with great architecture, beautiful streets, with mixed cultures, nations... Looks very human. I felt like home in such unexplained way... Year after, during June 2008 I went to NYC again and in a moment I thought I should try another part of city, but NO, NO, I went back t o 95th street. I couldn't think of changing it and not living in it for few weeks...
Upper West Side is for me the most beautiful part of Manhattan. I don't know what I like most - Broadway, Columbus Avenue, Columbia university neighborhood, Barnard College, West End Avenue or Central Park West... I recommend to everyone.


Prva poseta Njujorku (juna 2007) i mesec dana pripreme. Isla sam u Njujork potpuno sama i nisam smela da rizikujem da napravim bilo kakvu gresku... A i zelela sam da sve organizujem sama. nasla sam na internetu par hotela koji su mi se dopali i priupitala sam prijateljicu koji da izaberem - u gornjem ili donjem delu grada. Jedan hotel bio je blizu Sohoa, a drugi na Aper vest sajdu. Prijateljica mi je rekla: "Idi u Dauntaun, tu ti je sve blizu, sve radnje, galerije, tamo je super." Pomislila sam: "Sigurno ej u pravu, ona ipak poznaje grad". Ali, nisam je poslusala, predomislila sam se. Rezervisala sam hotel na Aper vestu. Kad sam stigla u Njujork, cestitala sam sebi na intuitivnoj odluci. Aper vest sajd (95. ulica) je sjaja izbor. Divan deo Menhetna. Zaista ga i volim! To je deo grada gde ima i novih i starih gradjevina, ali uglavnom divne arhitekture, prelepih ulica, pomesanih kultura, nacija... I deluje veoma humano. Osetila sam se kao kod kuce, na jedan neobjasnjiv nacin... Godinu dana kasnije, tokom juna 2008. trebalo je ponovo da boravim u Njujorku neko vreme i za trenutak sam pomislila da ne bi bilo lose probati i neki drugi deo grada, alil NE, NE, opet sam otisla na 95. ulicu. Nisam mogla ni da mislim o tome da odem i ne zivim tamo par nedelja...
Aper vest sajd (Upper West Side) za mene je najlepsi deo Menhetna. I ne znam sta najvise volim - Brodvej, Kolumbus aveniju, deo oko univerziteta Kolumbija, Bernar koledz, Aveniju vest nd ili Central park vest... Svima preporucujem...

Walking around NYC, 2007

For the first time, I was in NYC in June 2007. First time and in love forever. New York City was exactly what I was expecting from him to be. Great, alive, vivid, full of nice people... I stayed in some cute hotel/hostel at Upper West Side.
For two weeks I was all alone, except few friends I met... alone with him, NEW YORK. Best and most beautiful city in the world. Me alone, walking and walking and walking...
The best way to see some unknown city, to understand it is to be alone and to walk and talk to people... New York is one of those cities where you easily meet new people, where you can't feel as stranger...
I want to write more on NYC, I need to write and talk about it... I will put some photos, so, this will be continued...

Prvi put sam u Njujorku bila u junu 2007. godine. Po prvi put i zaljubljena zauvek. Njujork je bio upravo ono sto sam od njega i ocekivala da bude. Veliki, ziv, zivopisan, pun nekog finog sveta... Odsela sam u jednom slatkom hotelu/hostelu na Aper Vest Sajdu.
Dve nedelje sam bila potpuno sama, izuzimajuci par prijatelja koje sam srela u Njujorku... Sama sa njim, sa Njujorkom. Najboljim i najlepsim gradom na svetu. Sama, hodajuci i hodajuci i hodajuci...
Najbolji nacin da se vidi neki nepoznati grad, da se razume je biti sam u njemu, hodati i razgovarati sa ljudima... Njujork je jedan od onih gradova gde se lako upoznaju novi ljudi, gde ne mozes da se osecas kao stranac...
Zelim jos da pisem o NJujorku, imam potrebu da o njemu govorim... Postavicu i fotografije, tako da se ovo nastavlja...

What can You Do in Belgrade when You're Alone

What could you do in Belgrade while being alone? Really? What am I doing these days, these few days of sunny weather, after a month of raining?
Not much... Sitting on the balcony and watching the River, one of two big rivers that meet right here. Or yesterday, I went in park - the oldest and biggest one in Belgrade, the core of the city called Kalemegdan. I was sitting there for hours, like some lizard at the sun.

What else could some do?
Belgrade people like a lot sitting in cafes, maybe just drinking some coffee but sitting and watching other passengers. But Belgrade people do not sit alone often. We always have some reason to go somewhere with friends or family. To talk, to chat, to smile, to enjoy. To have fun everywhere.
Shiny happy people...

Šta sve može da se radu u Beogradu kad je neko sam? Zaista, šta radim ovih dana, ovih nekoliko dana lepog vremena, posle mesec dana kiše?
Ništa posebno...Sedim na terasi i posmatram reku, jednu od dve velike reke koje se ovde susreću. Ili juče, otišla sam do parka - najstarijeg i najvećeg u Beogradu, u srcu grada, poznatog i kao Kalemegdan. Sedela sam tamo satima, kao neki gušter upijajući sunce.
Šta još može da se radi?
Ljudi u Beogradu vole da sede u kafićima, možda samo pijući kafu, ali sede i posmatraju druge prolaznike. Ali beogradski ljudi ne sede često sami. Uvek imamo razlog da negde odemo sa prijateljima ili porodicom. Da razgovaramo, da se smejemo, da uživamo. I da nam svuda bude zabavno. Shiny happy people...

Skiing on Deluge

While the Danube River or Sava River are getting out from the riverbends to the streets of Belgrade in this biggest floods in last hundered years, some people make fun of it. Three surfers from some Belgrade wakeboarding club made few days ago an interesting and funny happening. Car has a role of the boat and streets under water were wakeboarding place. Three surfers were atraction to everybody that has seen them, even the police.
There is no place like Belgrade, really...


Dok reke Dunav i Sava izlaze iz svojih korita na ulice Beograda u ovoj poplavi najvećoj u poslednjih sto godina, neki su u tome pronašli zabavu. Tri surfera iz jejdnog beogradskog kluba skijaša na vodi pre nekoliko dana su priredili veseo hepening. Kola ovde imaju ulogu čamca a ulice pod vodom su bile mesto skijanja na vodi. Tri surfera su izazvala pažnju svih koji su ih videli, čak i policije.
Zaista ne postoji mesto ko što je Beograd...

Film and smoking

From February 24th until March 5th this year we had a Film Festival called FEST, and this was 34th year.
We had the opportunity to see lot of fresh new movies, few days before Oscar and this year's FEST gave us lot of nominated films etc.
Something was a little bit weird with new movies. In lot of them all actors smoke, because films are related to some topics from 50's or 60's. Like "Good night and Good Luck" or "Capote". Everybody smokes cigarettes!
In other, like this years Oscar winner "Crash", in the first scene we may hear "Do you have a cigarette?" - "No, I quitted." -"Me too." - "When?" - "Two months ago". At the end of this film - same sentences about cigarettes.

So, what is the point of this story. I think, as though the smoking is almost everywhere forbidden, that this is something very interesting. They pick themes for their films realted to the time when smoking was not taken as some criminal act just to have the opportunity to shoot some smokers and cigs in the movie. It is like some not very strong rebel against this campaign. no one likes when everything is forbidden. First it comes with cigs, then with coffee, than with chocolate and so on and on.

Snow and the Saint Valentine's Day - Sneg i Dan svetog Valentina

New York City is covered with snow, some folks go to work skiing. In Belgrade, it begun to snow only, nothing special, nothing much of a winter idyll. Newyorkers have probably done all the shopping for super-commercial, overdone, silly St Valentine's Day through the snow. In Belgrade, this is too in little bit relieved way, but for those who do not love this Love Day, we have an option Saint Triphune's day, who is a saint that protects wine and wine-consumers... People believe that with Saint Triphune there comes the spring, day is becoming longer and that affects to love and relations.So, even the orthodox version of this day is in some relation to love...

New York City je zavejan pod snegom. Ljudi idu na skijama na posao. U Beogradu sneg tek provejava, nista posebno, nista od zimske idile. Njujorcani su pod snegom odradili verovatno i sve kupovine za super komercijalni, izvikani, blesavi Dan Zaljubljenih, ili St. Valentine's Day. U Beogradu i to u blazoj varijanti, ali ovde ima za one koji ne vole taj komercijalno-pateticni momenat zvani Dan zaljubljenih i rezervna varijanta zvana Dan Svetog Trifuna, poznatog zastitnika vina i vinopija... u narodu se veruje da sa Svetim Trifunom dolazi i prolece, da se produzava dan i da to utice i na ljubav. Znaci, i pravoslavna varijanta Valentina se uhvatila ljubavi...