In my mind today, reading Henry James in Studentski park, or maybe at the coffeehouse at the corner, waiting for the philharmonic concert, after which I might try the microbrewery beer hall just above Dorcol and Baljoni market for the first time. Given the parsimony of past visits, I've limited myself to staring at the chalk-board lists and imagining the tastes as I walked past after the theatre or the concert, but it might be time to finally stop in for a pint or a half pint, and read on the porch in the evening.
Studentski is nothing in itself, much like WSQ before the renovations that turned the latter into a quad for NYU, but it's a comfortable place to read, surrounded by the academic buildings. I actually stumbled upon it on my first visit when looking for a place to drink the thermos of coffee and eat the $1 bread from the convenience store before the theatre, after walking over from the other side of the Sava. A few days later, I was looking at a map (which I try to avoid at first, in cities, the opposite in the countryside), as I needed to buy a ticket for the orchestra, and noticed that the venue was next to a large park, surrounded by academic buildings, so I envisioned a broad, majestic green space, like the quads at universities in the American South. And then I got there, and found instead my friend, the run-down spot that had proved so hospitable. On my most recent visits the dogs seem to have taken over the place in the evenings (city yuppie power dogs, not strays, though I have a Beograd stray story or two), but I still have a sentimental fondness for the place.
Double workout this AM -- lifting, as opposed to morning Mass, as I've been a bit confounded as to the latter. Physical strength was a big part of the survival plan for this recent stretch, so I've been lifting fairly hard and skewing the meals towards the more expensive protein-rich options (100% peanut butter, $2.69). (I started this turn at Pirin before being cast back down into the city via a flight from Bucharest, at the ski resort in the mountains in the off-season -- a weight machine or two and some barbells, but it was enough.) Emphasizing the physical strength seems to have been a wise call, but I'm not sure all of the innards are in the right place and functioning after those months of biblical adversity.
And I must remember that I am not my strength; my strength serves me, and a different sort of strength (like running 5-6 mi. before dawn, as usual on the most recent Balkan peregrinations) would serve me equally well. Easy enough to say, but as one walks down the street after lifting weights hard for an hour to ninety minutes, the temptation exists to walk through the world as an animal might. So I force myself to sit and read Henry James for 45 minutes. Enough for the nonce.