English
Since the end of the devastating war that destroyed the old Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Belgrade has been regaining its previous magnetism as a favourite tourist destination and there are more and more tourists who decide to visit it in recent times along with its neighbouring Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Among them there are many young people who have many reasons to choose the Serbian capital as their holiday destination. However, it´s one of the most important cities of the ancient Danubian civilization, and both its privileged geographical location, right in front of the confluence of the rivers Danube and Sava, and its long, rich and multicultural history are more than enough reasons to justify more than one visit here.
Often, travellers inevitably feel called upon to the city by memorable places such as the Cathedral of St Sava, the Genex Tower, Knez Mihailova Street, St Mark´s Church, the bohemian district of Skadarlija, the Serbian Accademy for Arts and Sciences, the National Museum or the Bajrakli Mosque. However, among them there is another activity that´s become more and more popular thanks to the word of mouth, an activity that´s as incomprehensible as it is changing and polyedric: a tram route. More specifically, the circular route of the Number 2 tram line of the city´s public tram system, popularly known as ´Riding the circle´.
It´s a circle that starts and ends in the beautiful and evocative dock of Pristanište, tracing a circle around the heart of the city, as imaginary clock hands tick around its sphere all the way around, reaching the total of 60 minutes which is the duration of the whole route. An hour that spent this way hands time back its nature of a circular adventure, only that like in all circles, beginning and end cannot be anything but illusory. On board this almost magical tram, we are invariably shown the most genuine and deep side of the city from the surface and also a way of understanding life in key of eternal return. We feel the whole strength of the medieval adagio that informs both the symmetrical miracle of the polyphonic music of Guillaume de Machaut and the Goldberg variations of Johann Sebastian Bach: “My end is my beginning”.
For less than a euro, this journey will take us through the districts of Vukov Spomenik and Slavija. The former has many cinemas and theatres, preserving the same mysterious air that it had in the 1930s, when the Yugoslav freemasons decided to establish their Great Lodge inside, and the authorities began to built a university campus. The latter stands out for its great examples of socialist civil architecture, being one of the cities main commercial areas.
If you stay in an apartment for rent in Belgrade and you wish to enjoy an unforgettable experience that distances itself from the strictly conventional, perhaps you´d like to try this unique and peculiar circular voyage.
