It was once again that time of my life when I visit one of the sons. So off I went.

The first thing I check out when I am visiting the sons is for the perfect place for walks. You see, I love my morning and evening walks, especially so if they are in serene surroundings and/or grass and tree-filled parks. Fortunately for me, the places where my children live have no dearth of them.

As you all know, back home, I have no such luck. I simply go round and round, not the mulberry bush as the children’s rhyme would have it, but my apartment block, walking not on pathways, but on interlocking tiles. That, I can tell you, is no fun, but one’s gotta take what one gets in life and make the best of it. So I persist, because like I already mentioned, I love my walks.

Anyways…

Even before leaving for Belgrade, the Second Born updated me on the parks closer to his apartment. The one I frequented on my last visit, the Student Park and the Kalemegdan Park, were both no longer easily accessible since he had moved. Don’t worry, Amma, he had said. Tasmajdan Park is close enough, as also another park on the way to it.

I have been to the Tasmajdan Park the last time I was there, when we had leisurely cut across it after a visit to the Tesla Museum, and on our way to a restaurant in Skadarlija, otherwise known as the Bohemian Quarter. By the way, there is nothing bohemian about it during lunch hours. Or it might be that it had rained and the sky was still overcast that day.

This time, when the Second Born took me to the Tasmajdan Park to familiarise me with the way, I got a second look at St Marks Church in the bright evening sun. On the way back, he pointed out the Ćirilo i Metodije Park (also known as Vuk’s monument Park), apparently one of the oldest and most famous parks of Belgrade.

The Ćirilo i Metodije Park was the place I made a beeline for every morning during my stay, of course only because it was closer to the apartment and didn’t need me to wait for the traffic signal to change, thus interrupting the flow of my walk (which would have been the case if I had decided upon Tasmajdan as my destination)

There’s no doubt at all that the Tasmajdan Park was bigger and more beautiful, and I did go there a couple of evenings too, but the mornings belonged to Ćirilo i Metodije.

Here are some pictures from Tasmajdan Park:

Here are some pictures from the Ćirilo i Metodije Park:

I want to write more about the figures in the Ćirilo i Metodije Park. But this post is already too long (or maybe I am too lazy to do it right now, take your pick!). So that will have to wait for another day.

Oh, there’s more. Dogs!!!

What I love about my visits to the son is the many dogs I get to see whenever I step out, in the parks, or sometimes when I am just relaxing in the balcony of his apartment which looks down on a play area. It appears to me as if every second person in Belgrade owns a dog and are out to walk their buddy. You can rest assured that some extensive dog-watching was done by yours truly and a few of them paparazzi-ed as well. But that too is for another day.

©️ Shail Mohan 2025

Note: Do click the pictures to see them more clearly.