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Lazarac – a place for dancing behind famous restaurant Three leaves of tobacco, which doesn’t exist anymore.
This is where Nada lives, sister-in-law of Stole Janković, the director of the film “Višnja at Tašmajdan”.
That part of Masarikova Street behind King Milan Street is Vračar. I guarded Beograđanka while it was built, I was policeman then.
Cvetni Trg (Flower Square) – A place for dancing in the open and the first supermarket in Belgrade – C Market.
During lunch break, I started my Mercedes from the parking and went to Cvetni Trg to buy grilled chicken. For the first time, there was rotating barbeque in the supermarket. In that triangle were flower shops, cafes Arilje, Polet, Dalmatinski Podrum (Dalmatian Cellar)
Grgeč – McDonalds is in my building now, I am in the building by Grgeč.
Grgeč was a fish restaurant; I went there for a long time. It was a very good establishment, just by Beogradska Street.
I was buying smelts there.
I climb on the top of the building, I have a terrace there, you can see everything to Cvetko market. It is a pleasure in the summer and we sit by night, a table, coffee, something to munch, we are not even aware how long we stay and we are pensioners!
We all stand up and sing and now we do not meet each other. Things changed, instead of twenty of us, now there are five, six, so escape, dying, disappearing. But Tašmajdan Park is lit.
Hotel Slavija - underneath the hotel, the pumps are working 24 hours because the lake is there – Mitićeva hole.
And Dafina Milanović (owner of a pyramid scheme bank during the 1990s) wanted to build there, but she couldn’t.
Tram Prištinac went from Slavija to Crveni Krst and it got the name by Prištinska Street which is now called Cara Nikolaja Street.
The corner of Njegoševa and Alekse Nenadovića streets – workshop participant Mina Mitrović
Kneginje Zorke Street – a flat of the editor of the magazine Bazar
Kičevska – XIV Belgrade gymnasium – Čeda Jovanović (contemporary Serbian politician) lived in Avalska Street and went to that gymnasium.
In Molerova Street there was a garden, wonderful one for dancing.
St. Sava Temple – a symbol of Belgrade and Vračar. That is the highest spot of the old urban Belgrade.
Baba Višnjina Street – I live in the building where all residents arranged either for us to clean the snow or to pay someone or those building investors. What do they think – for us to fall here…
The corner of Kursulina and Njegoševa streets – That is where Cvetković from Red Star lives and across the road Dragan Tomić lived, the ex-president of Serbian Parliament. Somewhere here, under the third high rise, there should be the exit, where some atomic shelter is and there should be a passage to Vukov Spomenik.
Restaurant Trandafilović – Pity they destroyed Trandafilovića café. I live in that building. That is where Red Star veterans used to gather, every Thursday at 11, but they moved to the restaurant Srbija in Maksima Gorkog Street.
Vračar council building - And my granddaughter says: “This is where mum and dad got married”, and he says “That is where we will marry too” and so they come to mine. In ten days they gathered all the papers and now they live here, they want to have a baby so they go back.
Dubljanska Street - Dušica Kočić, the daughter of Petar Kočić (writer, 1877-1916) was a class leader and she taught us Russian. They lived in Dubljanska Street - that is why in Čuburski Park there is Petar Kočić monument.
Little city Peyton – still it is a crafts quarter, there is a hairdresser, an optician… by them there are little cafes with a domestic atmosphere…
Čuburski Park – the best park here, we sit down and keep the friendship going. Yes, there are many dogs, but now they made a separate part for dogs.
Čuburska Lipa (Lime tree of Čubura) – I pop in sometimes, I do not drink anything, I ask for a glass of water and enjoy the music.
I do not like the perspective, we had a good life, we will fight for the young people.
These children go to work, they do not get paid, if they do not work, they fire them, they are not paid the insurance.
I danced in cultural-art society “Boško Buha” and then as 11-years old pioneer I was at Tito’s birthday with the group of pioneers.
There was so little people, people appreciated each other, respected each other. For example, we come from school and my mother is not going to go to the market for one kilo of tomato – buses did not exist till 1962/’63. There was the cobblestone, there wasn’t asphalt. We, kids, rode sleighs from 14th of December Street to Južni Bulevar.
My mother sends me for potato, my friend Marina for tomato and we get a bit for ice cream and my mother says: “Listen, do not dare to pass by someone and not to greet them so I hear tomorrow – Ljubice, your daughter passed by and did not say hello”. Whoever I meet I say: “Kissing your hands, have a good day”, because I do not know if they know my mum or not – if I do not greet them, I will be beaten. That is how it was – you mustn’t pass by without greeting someone elder.
Kalenić open market is the belly of Belgrade, the best market. Now there are the worst dealers, cheats and conman. Before, they would come to the market with horses, cows and bulls. On Đeram and Kalenić markets only peasants used to sell, the food was not polluted then, the peasants from Belgrade surroundings were selling because for the ones who lived further away, it was a great effort to come to Belgrade.
People had trust in tradesman, you knew who you are buying from, now there are only dealers, the food is full of chemicals, quickly rotting.
In all stadiums – Obilić and now Sinđelić, there was plenty of food, dear God… domestic houses.
I was ten years old when my mother took me to take out tonsils while she was at the market. She returned from there to pick me up and take me home. I accepted to have a surgery just because there was a sweet shop on the corner of 14th of December Street and Maksima Gorkog Street. And can you believe it, my mum buys me a jar of ice cream and I had a surgery because of it.
One of the landmarks of Niška Street is bakery “Gvozden” and there was a shop for soda water. I lived there and worked like a caretaker for houses, locksmithing for terraces, gates and fences.
The corner of Sredačka and Niška streets – doctor’s surgery was in Sredačka Street.
Tomaša Ježa Street – Bora Kostić, footballer of Red Star
I am not the president of the tenants’ council, but I am doing all the jobs. Now they started cleaning downstairs, you should see how they washed our entrance. I thought they painted it, but they washed it, the entrance is shining because they got a letter and I did not even know – the letter I sent to Mayor got to them. She showed me that letter and I only wanted to see the signature and it was mine. You can even smell bleach everywhere. They come in, leave little children, relieve themselves, take drugs on the stairs, you would not believe it. The gate is not locking after their working hours, it is broken. Centre put the new door and removed the door that was there when the building was built. They do not want to open, they are bothered with interphone because there are a few of them, so the tenants fixed the gate themselves. I gave them the information and the receipts, but they do not want to. Now we are asking that they put a camera on because we have unpleasantness with them, the people are not unknown, you saw mister Kalenić, he is an academic, on the fourth floor there is a solicitor of the national television, first programme of Tijanić (director of the Serbian Radio-Television), next door to her is a judge of cassation court. Her small daughter was home alone and they got there to the 4thfloor and broke a door – the ones who should have been in the Centre and the mother was at work, so she had to call the police. All sorts of people come. Police has work there all the time, especially because the pub is next door and it has a cellar, „Lili“ has the cellar too and it now opened a pharmacy, so they think in the cellar there are medications, so they broke the door and the electrical room.
In this building, ex ballerina Jasmina Puljo lived: http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Kultura/Odlazak-Jasmine-Puljo.lt.html
In Vojvode Dragomira Street, my grandchildren went to school and then they moved to Medak.
The borough council was in Božidara Adžije Street by the Adventist church.
Božidara Adžije Street – National University "Božidar Adžija" - "Božidarac"
In my time, we went out in the evening and got back home at 11 the latest, while the dancing lasted. Now, as I see by my grandchildren, one goes out at 11. In the 50s there were performances there. I am delighted with Božidar Adžija, it organises workshops for elderly, courses of English, computing, painting.
I organised for my buddy to buy a house in Božidara Adžije Street.
The corner of Južni Bulevar and Maksima Gorkog Street
I was born on the 31st of August in the house opposite gas station, Vardarska Street exits straight onto my house, where buses 55 and 46 stop now. In that house we had 9 flats for renting and a grocery store. That is where Todor Živkov, president of Bulgaria, lived. Communist party cell was then in Neimar – Lola Ribar, Moša Pijade and whoever...His wife Mara Maleeva worked in the grocery store and he went to the Communist Party meetings. He had two daughters – Božana and Savina. Every morning in 1939, a couple of young men were taking him to communist meetings.
My house was knocked down on the 18th of May in 1944. That was the last bombing of Englishmen as allies. They targeted Autokomanda and carpet bomb dropped on my house and on Neimar – what was called Neimar at the time. My house collapsed and that corner was hardly left. It was built again in 1947 when brothers got back from the partisans.
Marulićeva Street – primary school Milica Pavlović, now renamed to Kralj Petar II
Čučuk Stanina Street
On the corner of Niška, Žarka Zrenjanina and Čučuk Stanina streets, there was cobblestone. There was a wine guy who had rooms in the yard where carriage men stayed and they tied horses outside. Even today there is a cellar with arches which was wine cellar once, but after the war the municipality took that. That is where I was later tying my Vespa.
On the other side of that wine cellar is my best man Žika Stojković, whom I wed in Banja Vrujci because his darling is from there...I baptised his children, first Jelena (she was named after my wife) and Milena (after my brother’s daughter) – two daughters. Žikica is a wonderful guy; he opened the shop for television sets, among the firsts. First colour television in our country was Japanese Hitachi, and later English Decca. He worked for Micrometal, specialised that television set Decca and then opened his private shop on the Bulevar – Decca television sets. But, that all died down, he begun working with remote controls, his children grew up, time did its deed and we parted...
Žarka Zrenjanina Street - I arrived to Belgrade because I enrolled to business school. When I finished it, I moved to Lazarevićeva Street. I lived there while I was single, until I got married in ’63. When Toma was born, we moved to Žarka Zrenjanina Street and there were my most beautiful days.
Crveni Krst
It was hard to get milk during the First World War and in Vračar, close to Žička Street there was a milk shop.
When I was little, in my street, there was a granny that kept a goat. That goat fed me. Crveni Krst area was almost a village in the fifties.
And if we are to compare that time and today, no one makes friends and knows each other that much, all hide in their flats, a person has nowhere to go, there are no more parks. Now, the bus 83 goes through Crveni Krst and it is very polluted.
On the corner of Branka Krsmanovića and Žička streets Smajo held a shop for watch repairs. Smajo now lives in Budva. Above Budva there is a little village of 3 – 4 kilometres where he has a complete overview of Budva. He calls me on the phone “Come, here is Đorđe Došljak, director of “Radmilovac” restaurant and there is Mića Stojanović whose family is selling pasta”. I went there and they left me a land in the middle.
Žička Street is famous for shops and little cafes, like for example “Rudo“.
In Žička Street, there was a man who had a well in his yard and during the war, when there wasn’t water we waited at his for a jug of water.
Cinema Avala – was very popular, it was just behind the theatre.
Belgrade Drama Theatre
On the spot where BDT is today, there were corn fields in the 50s. The theatre was lovely, my sons went there and my grandsons are sportsmen. When the theatre was built, it raised reputation of the Crveni Krst area – we became a part of town, we were not a village anymore.
From the first day when Belgrade Drama Theatre was built, the director was Predrag Dinulović, a personal friend of my boss from Zlatiborska Street, he was coming to engineer Sulajdžić and I worked on his car and he said "This kid will have a pass for every performance". When the theatre and cinema Avala were built, I watched there every new performance in ‘52 and ‘53 and met Rade and Olivera Marković (famous actors). He was beautiful, black haired, manly type with a guard and she was a beauty.
A café by Belgrade’s Drama Theatre – “The Eternal Bachelor” was named by the famous comedian Čkalja. That is where actors gathered, and there was a lot of little cafes in the area.
Grčića Milenka Street – In 1951 the Gymnasium was built in Grčića Milenka Street. That was VI female and VII male Gymnasium.
Vojislava Ilića Street – Here, there were all makeshift homes, I love that those old structures were brought down, they were full of bugs and rats. Bulevar is renovated too, it is beautiful now.
Academic Mihajlo Kalenić: My father died near Lapovo. 900 Germans they lost, but 450 of our soldiers died, 5 officers among them – my dad, and then Germans found out from the captured soldiers who were the officers and where they lived. In June, they came to us in Đerdapska Street and threw us out on the street because our host died against German Reich.
In Golubačka Street, my friend Gojko was building a house. There was an empty space in number 2. Now, there is a new house built there.
I am in Branka Krsmanovića Street, but I had a big house in Milana Rakića Street near sports center “Olimp”. The house had three floors, it had 360 square meters, my living room was 120 square meters long. I made that house by an American project, because I liked people a lot, I liked to come with friends after the pub, and there we had a party. However, the old people are dying, my wife got ill and daughters got married: Vesna graduated from law school, Jasmina has teacher’s degree and works in school Jelena Ćetković, so we remained, my wife and me, to chase each other across 3 floors. That space was huge, costs for maintaining it were high and I retired. Then a man from Syria came who bought the house and I bought an apartment for Vesna in Kalenićeva Street, for Jasmina near Cvetko market and for me in Branka Krsmanovića.
We meet at my place, I invite my retired ladies to sing to them. I love to spend time with friends a lot. People don’t believe that I am that old. I made a contract with St. Peter until 92. It’s nice, after that age man starts to loose himself. My sight is my weakest point and I am very sorry because of losing my sight – I would drive a car, I would go on picknicks, now I have to pay for all that. I would go right now with one of my retired ladies to have a nice time during this cold weather somewhere in the spa Vrujci, or Vrdnik....
Cinema Slavija, it used to look nice, but now there is a parking lot there.