Kalemegdan

The park around Belgrade Fortress above the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, Belgrade, Serbia.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Neither Here Nor There	Bill Bryson	setting	Chess players, heroes’ statues and a view of two rivers becoming one.

Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)

Source: Readwise highlight

I strolled through the main shopping streets to a central city park called Kalemegdan, built around an old fortress and neatly arrayed with trees and benches and statues of Yugoslavian, and particularly Serbian, heroes.

• Role: setting
• In the book: Chapter 20. Most benches are taken by men hunched over chessboards, each pair with onlookers advising both players. From a high terrace at the park’s edge he sees “the spot where the Sava and the Danube flow together to make one truly monumental river.”
• Why it matters: It is the calm heart of a Belgrade he is “rather taken with”, before his long, frustrating attempt to get a ticket out to Sofia.