The spirit of the place

by Natalija Živadinović (Serbia)

I didn't expect to find Serbia

I wanted to get away from everything, I needed some space, so probably the rocky beach overlooking Valletta was the right place then. I remember that I took only a few things with me on that trip, but I reluctantly brought a lot of bad and messy thoughts that didn't give me space to enjoy upon my arrival on the island. The bus that I used to go to, primarily, took us through most of the island and somehow I didn't expect to be there far from my daily obligations, on the bus, in architecture, in the air, to feel the pervasive problems that I was obviously took. And so my first experience of this Mediterranean place was identified with the bad mood that was present in the rest of the day. The afternoon walk was like moving through a dense forest of specific Maltese traditional houses, which stood so proudly and defied the weather, and opposite them stood new buildings that sought to take the lead in shaping the place. The big harbor along the coast was kind of repulsive to me, and all I needed then was to escape from the hustle and bustle and the idea of running in the morning somehow sounded extremely interesting to me. The next morning I headed to the other side and somehow everything became amazing because all the human activities suddenly slowed down and running I could feel every ray of the sun, the sound of the waves and every movement ... I slowed down. The trip led me to a newly built neighborhood that I had to go through, so I continued enjoying the view. What particularly caught my attention was the rocky beach at the bottom that seemed pretty inaccessible at first glance. As if it was part of the whole city, it had the spirit of the place, but again it was so isolated. So I decided to spend some time there. I slowly gave in to all the senses, and then to the thoughts that were changing, and as if in that solitude, I was able to resolve the chaos caused by various feelings by other people. The weather seemed to stop then, and the sign that a long time had passed was given by people who were slowly starting to come and after a while a few meters from me sat a man who was also alone. At the beginning, he too enjoyed the view of the city proudly standing across, and then his worried face could express concern and the rhythm of the waves reminds me of him, the look from his eyes blending with human creations across the street. Indeed, if something surprised me, then it was definitely that combination of the untamed nature of the sea with the city that attracted attention with its grandeur. Suddenly, I was overjoyed that I was there because I realized that it was not necessary to escape from all but to see certain and uncertain spaces in people, so the flight of everything suddenly became a meeting with an unknown man who is the bearer of that amazing place...