Belgrade Diaries, from abroad

Seventeen Years of Solitude

After 17 turbulent years "The European Union (EU) has abolished visas for the citizens of Serbia traveling to the Schengen Area countries" and we will finally be allowed to travel into Europe without having to apply for a visa.

I intentionally say only "apply" as that was often as far as one would get when attempting to travel nearly anywhere.

It makes me wonder though, what if we have become agoraphobic, and we like it that way?

During the years we began to avoid the humiliating process of "getting" a visa which resembled a procedure of receiving a prison release form. Instead, we magnetically brought the world to us, resulting in countless numbers of new life-long friendships with the foreigners who came to this paradoxical, enchanting country which they keep returning to.

I am now in the UK, and I realize, after so many years of travelling and living throughout Africa, New Zealand, America, Europe... that in some "Marquezian" solitude, we have found our independence and kept a spirit that few endure to resist...