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Belgrade, Serbia
A knife, a train yard, lots of running and Police,
A tale of a Serbian night.
**Urban exploring is fun but dangerous, I made mistakes in this night, explore safely**
It was a gloomy evening when myself and a mate arranged a meet up with some cool locals,(names protected ;))
Dark clouds gathered in the distance as we headed to an abandoned train yard in Belgrade, Serbia.
A long walk through a city like I've never seen, centuries of destruction and reconstruction, hundreds of refuges, hustle and bustle of the city people, famed night life kick starting for the night.
But for us we headed somewhere far from the light of the parties, under the bridge of one of one of the biggest highways in Europe, lay forgotten trains from times gone. The first we found I only just started walking through its trashed corridors when security saw the others. We ran, they chased, apparently there were dogs, we ran faster. We ran back to the "safety" of under the dark bridge with many strays barking at us. There was more abandoned trains, myself and my mate walked through them while the locals waited for us. At the end we saw the actual end of the train station, the control room that spins the trains around was empty. We went in and sat down watching the train workers in the building opposite. Just as we went to leave, my friend pressed a button on the control panel for some stupid reason and the whole control room started moving, very loudly at that. All the workers heard and came running at us with flashlights yelling in Serbian. We shouted to the others to run and we all ran. My phone flew out of my pocket on to the rocks and ruins of an collapsed building. We ran on, I tell them to "go on without me I dropped my phone, cya later".
And now it gets interesting.....
We are still being chased and yelled at, I hide in spiky bush, waiting until the workers are gone. It starts to rain, but with 7 months of world photos I'm not leaving my phone behind. I sneak back to the area where I dropped my phone. The floor is just old bricks and rubble, perhaps from the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999. It's dark, I have no light, I'm trying to hide from the workers and search, focused on what I'm doing I don't see the group of youths until they shout at me and throw a rock at me. The exit is between us, they meet me as I reach it. A flurry of Serbian/Romanian shouting ensures, I repeat I don't know what they are saying and I only speak English. The main guy my age and bigger speaks broken English and his pack of three 14? Year olds are getting aggressive. He threatens to call the police, I invite him too. He's confused. I accidentally knock my pocket with my wallet. The coins jingle..
That sets them off, one of the boys grabs a rock and starts getting super aggressive threatening to throw it in my face. He's going nuts. Big guy tells me to give him my money. Nah bruh. Give me your wallet. I laugh, not happening. Another boy flicks open a pocket knife. Cute. Until he starts trying to get close for a jab. I push him off with my hand, got a little p****on the hand for it. Kids are going crazy now. Faking throwing rocks at me, kid flashing his knife around. Big guy sizing himself up, he keeps telling me to give him my money. He has a satchel bag, he starts to open it, intimidatingly. Nope I'm out. I push one kid and bolt. They run after me, not a chance mate! I reach the highway and climb some stairs to a bus stop. Still from below the kid wants to throw a rock at me, he's got war paint on too.
They try to circle up to the bus stop, I ran back and up to the next highway above. Running across the highway to above where it started. I wait in the stairwell till they walk back to their makeshift bedding under the bridge. Carefully and painfully I sneak through thrones vines the long way to the rubble where lies my phone. On all fours and often lying down u search for my phone all the while waiting to make sure they don't see me from their fire. After a good 30 minutes crawling around on the floor in the pouring rain, I decide I need help. I sneak off, run the 4Km to my hostel, get my flashlight, tell my tale a bit. The hostel owners tell me not to go back and say the police will help. They translate for me the whole time. The police come and we go for a drive to the bridge. With two big Serbian Police with me I feel much safer. The police were confused as to why I would have been down here, bad part of town in a dark and dingy wasteland. They still help me. Lucky we find my phone easily now that we have lights. The police approach the family under the bridge. It's a hard life for them as they huddle under blankets on make shift flooring. The three boys are there, I easily recognise the boy with the knife as he's still got his war paint on. After much Serbian talking the boy gives up the knife. His parents seem angry at him. The bigger guy isn't around.
They tell the police a different story and it changes often apparently. The police write down a lot and take names and IDs. But the police wanted to take the kids to the station, because if they let it go then that doesn't teach them a lesson and they might hurt someone in the future. But I leave Serbia in a week and the process would take many months in told. In the end we decide it's tough enough for them to live on the street and life's hard enough for them, I always felt sorry for them but trying to mug someone isn't cool. The mother tells how very sorry they all are and we leave.
The police drop us to the hostel. I'm covered in dirt and scratches, soaking wet, my hearts been going 100 miles for the last 3 hours. But I have everything and I am well.
If you made it to the end, I thank you!
Explore the world and be safe ✌
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