I walked by this cafe yesterday evening when the patio was filled with patrons drinking their cocktails under a slanted roof, thinking the cafe had good energy.
This morning, I delay my visit because of a torrential downpour that seems to go on and on.
When it changes from a downpour to a steady light rain, I brave the elements.
Though the cafe patio is dry, I take a seat inside at a small table by the window, watching pedestrians walk by with their umbrellas of all colours, although more than half are black.
I order a large latte and a piece of raspberry cheesecake, which are delivered quickly, the latte with a little cookie on the side in a wrapper.
There are a handful of customers in the cafe, a couple of business meetings over laptops at one end of the room, two couples chatting, and a man in the far corner writing something into his journal.
An attractive young couple arrives, she fashionably dressed in expensive clothes and he in a white t-shirt and blue jeans.
Initially they sit across from each other, but then the man sighs, stands, and moves in beside her on the bench.
She moves ever so slightly away from him and they don’t touch the whole time I am at the cafe.
I wonder, perhaps, if he has made a move that she thinks is too forward for a first or second date.
The cafe is furnished with wooden tables on metal rods.
The chairs are all painted blue with a covered seat the same shade.
The only outlier is a single chair at a table by a column, which is identical to the other chairs, right down to the blue covered seat.
Except this chair is painted red.
I look at it for a while and think of individuality, personal expression, and courage.
The walls are decorated with circular artworks, each about a metre in diameter, with pictures and words associated with cafes – Relax, Espresso Yourself, Drink Coffee, Awaken Your Senses.
One reads ‘Good Morning Belgrade’, but my favourite is a drawing of a coffee cup with the subtext,
Shh…
Almost…
Now you may speak
