I GREW UP IN THIS BUILDING

Kostolacka 78, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. Second floor, 48 square meters (around 500 square feet) apartment. My mom, dad and me.

We lived there until I was I think 20 or so, when we moved out, to another part of the city ... Right around the time we left (it was somewhere around 1991) civil war started in former Yugoslavia. All hell broke loose, economic sanctions, crime out of control, cheap booze and heroin. Half of my childhood friends got addicted to heroin, one of them, his parents only child, was found dead in a garbage container. He overdosed, his friends got scared and dumped his body.

This is the first time in probably over 10 years that I went there, and it all felt weird, depressing, and small. I guess I got bigger. There is garbage everywhere, concrete is all cracked, pretty sad picture.