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May 18, 2012

The Gates of Belgrade

The Western Gate.
I took this picture the other day on my way to Ada.  I had never been that close to it. 
I feel a deep, almost personal connection with this building because it is the last big Belgrade building I see on my when driving out of the city to go to my other home in Bosnia and the first one to greet me when I come back.

The beer banner says: "Belgrade, you either love it or you will get to!"
This is the view of the Western Gate as I see it from the highway, driving into the city.  Back when I took the b&w picture, the right tower was banner-free. 
The architect who designed the Western Gate was promised an apartment in the spaceship-like tower that connects the two buildings but the big kahunas of the communist era saw to it that eh never does. Or so they say. Another legend about the Western Gate claims that the highway was supposed to run between the two towers but that the plan was abandoned as the noise would make the buildings uninhabitable and/or unsafe.


If the Western gate wishes me a farewell every time I leave and a welcome back every time I return, the Eastern Gate is my unevictable house mate, my living room fixture, my permanent window dressing and my three wise monkeys, all at once.
As seen through my living room window on a summer morning...

... and on a winter morning.
What follows is the very first photo I took when I moved in. 
A crane from a nearby construction site tried to stand in the way of my admiring the three giants but to no avail... They are there for me all the time...
..and greeting me when coming back home from my long, weary travels in the south.
I cannot take credit for this last photo of the Eastern Gate. I snatched it from Yankee-in-Belgrade's site.
I am sorry, I had to...

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