Today was a day filled with goodbyes.
Today was our last day in Belgrade - we leave tomorrow.
I must say I am going to miss it & the people I have met here.
Today we met at Magacin and reflected on our time here in Serbia working alongside Nela, Mimart Teatar and the TCFT project. Nela also gave us encouraging feedback on our performances at SPOT Festival.
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Here are some inspiring quotes from Nela this morning:
"If you don't have contact with the youth you don't have a connection with the future"
"If you don't fall down you don't know how to go up"
"All performance must ask a question"
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After our feedback session we went to the cultural centre in Belgrade and stopped off at KC Grad to meet Milena for coffee.
Everyone in Serbia drinks Turkish coffee that is served with Turkish delight.
I don't drink tea or coffee, much to the dismay of my colleagues at work. So I had a Coca Cola.
I think of tea and coffee like I do smoking. It's a habit. It's a buffer. It's something to fill the gap. It's a social obligation. It's something everyone does and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's a reason to talk? Or a reason to have a break? Perhaps it's a reason to share a moment with another person.
I don't know. I just don't understand the appeal. And after trying Turkish coffee today I really don't understand the appeal!
As you know, I'm not a coffee person, but Cody dared me to try Katie's Turkish coffee... And I did...
I had instant regrets.
It smelt like detergent and tasted like ethanol.
I obviously haven't tasted ethanol before... but the smell used to be so strong in science you could almost taste it. And that, my friends, is what Turkish coffee tasted like (to me that is).
Of course there are many people out there that love coffee and love Turkish coffee. But I am not one of those people.
Either way, it was nice (not nice) to give it a go...
We then had a quick look upstairs at their current exhibition 'Traces - Keep Away from All the Elements' by Niclas Zander. It didn't look like much. It looked like a room in transition. The room was dusty with random wooden plinths scattered around the space. In his written accompaniment, Niclas questions art, what defines art and "What happens if we remove the protagonist?"
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Moving on, Katie, Cody, Sammy & I went for lunch. After this we headed back to the apartment to gather up our rubbish and prepare our things.
Later on we made our way to meet with Lidija to then walk to the Student Centre where Nela was presenting a talk about TCFT.
After that we went for a drink to say our goodbyes.
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