W e are in his favourite part of the city, in Cetinjska Street. The man, a young Brit and a gamer, chose the place according to his own tastes. Cafés, graffi- ti, cheerful colours, a hipster area with re- laxed people... He arrives dressed in a plain white T-shirt, smiling as though he doesn’t have a single care in the world. His name is Lance Winter and he is 38. A job at Nor- deus, one of the most successful Serbian companies, brought him to Belgrade from London last year. Founded and based in Belgrade, Nordeus is one of the top Euro- pean gaming companies, and their focus is mobile gaming. Despite growing up in New Zealand, Lance has spent most of his life in London, though it seems that his arrival in the Ser- bian capital was neither a cultural nor a so- cial problem for him. To him, Belgrade is an adventure, a place that needs to be re-
je čudno, ne znaš šta da misliš o nje- mu, izgleda pomalo zapušteno. A onda počneš da upoznaješ ljude koji su ta- ko strasno zaljubljeni u svoju zemlju i grad da ti odjednom sve oboje dru- gim bojama i počneš da vidiš ono što je isprva bilo skriveno. Otkrivajući sve te ulice polako, ne shvatajući da se to dešava, počneš da se zaljubljuješ. Beo- grad ima sve što i drugi evropski gra- dovi, i nešto što ne postoji ni u jed- nom. To nešto mora da se otkrije na licu mesta – objašnjava Lens. Zato je svoje prijatelje pozvao da dođu i sami se uvere u to. Došli su za Novu godinu i videli grad ušuškan u barove, razigran u božićnim čarolija- ma, ali Lens kaže da će svoje prijate- lje iz Londona ponovo pozvati na le- to, zato što želi da upoznaju i zimsko i letnje lice Beograda, a on misli da su oba sjajna. – Leti su svi na rekama, skaču
passionately in love with their country and city that everything is suddenly painted in different colours, and you start to see that which was initially hidden. Discov- ering all the streets slowly, without real- ising that it’s happening, you start falling in love. Belgrade has everything that other European cities have, and something that doesn’t exist in any of them. That some- thing has to be discovered on the spot,” explains Lance. That’s why he has invited his friends to come and see for themselves. They came for New Year and saw the city during winter, sheltered in warm bars, enjoying the play- ful Christmas magic. Lance says that he will invite his friends from London back again in the summer because he wants to show them how Belgrade has winter and summer faces, both of which he thinks are great. “During summer, everyone is by the rivers, ‘jumping’ from raft to raft. There’s none of that on the Thames,” laughs this likeable Brit. When this is coupled with the fact that Nordeus is an excellent company where its people comes first, it’s no wonder that he is happy. This is especially true considering that he makes a living from making games (including some which he worked on for Disney and Dreamworks), that are played by millions of people across the world. For now, Lance is working on Nordeus’new title called Spellsouls: Duel of Legends, which is currently in a limited release. While we walk along Cetinjska Street towards the Skadarlija Bohemian Quarter, Lance explains that he likes these bars in the city centre because they are occupied at any time of the day by relaxed, unbur- dened people who do not take themselves too seriously. Apart from that, and no less importantly, he claims that Belgrade is a city where one feels safe and protected. Of course, he has discovered the tra- ditional kafana inns; he loves plum rakija and any other homemade brandies be- cause he tastes the passion and love with which they were made and why he be- lieves they are so good. He likes the fact that, in all places and at all times, someone has a desire to sing and is joined by every- one, and that in a kafana people who are both known and unknown instantly leap on chairs when they are “stung” by some song… In time, Lance has become a true ambassador of Belgrade. -“Come to Belgrade”, he says“because everyday here is a beautiful adventure , one that is never boring. Come, before it is discovered and awash with tourists, be- fore the world spoils it,” concludes our in- terlocutor, a successful game designer at Nordeus who has become a Belgrader.
vealed, a place where he feels great — or as the English would say — Belgrade has turned out to be his cup of tea. “I have to correct you: Belgrade is my cup of coffee,”he says, laughing. “You have amazing coffee. It looks as though the Turks left two good things behind for you: coffee and ćevapi ke- babs, though I’m also mad for sar- ma [stuffed cabbage rolls] and ka- jmak [milk curd]. When it comes to food and drinks, I fit in perfectly.All I miss from home is the Sunday roast dinner — roast meat from the oven, with Yorkshire pudding, vegetables and potatoes,”says Lance cheerfully. Until almost a year ago, he worked at Nordeus’ London office and initially didn’t know what to
sa splava na splav, toga nema na Temzi – smeje se ovaj simpatični Britanac. Kad se u to uklopi činjenica da je Nordeus odlična kompanija ko- joj su ljudi na prvom mestu, nije ni čudo što je tako veseo. Naroči- to imajući u vidu da za život zara- đuje praveći igrice (među kojima su neke rađene za Disney i Dre- amworks ) koje igraju milioni lju- di širom sveta. Lens trenutno radi na Nordeusovom novom naslovu Spellsouls: Duel of Legends . Dok šetamo Cetinjskom na pu-
Come to Belgrade before it is discovered and awash with tourists, before the world spoils it pohrle turisti, pre nego što ga svet pokvari Dođite u Beograd, pre nego što ga otkriju i u njega
tu ka Skadarliji, Lens kaže da ove kafiće u centru voli zato što u sva- ko doba dana ovde sede opušte- ni, neopterećeni ljudi, koji sebe ne shvataju preozbiljno. Osim toga, ali ne i najmanje bit- no, tvrdi da je Beograd grad u kojem se oseća bezbedno i zaštićeno. Naravno, otkrio je kafanu, voli šlji- vovicu i svaku drugu „domaćicu“ u ko- ju su, kaže, ljudi ulili strast i ljubav, pa je zato tako dobra. Voli što na svakom mestu, u svako doba, neko ima želju da zapeva, pa mu se svi pridruže i što u kafanama ljudi, znani i neznani, začas poskaču na stolice kad ih „ubode“ ne- ka pesma... Vremenom, Lens je postao pravi ambasador Beograda. – Dođite u Beograd – kaže – jer je ovde svaki dan predivna avantura i nikad nije dosadno. Dođite, pre nego što ga otkriju i u njega pohrle turisti, pre nego što ga svet pokvari – zaklju- čuje naš sagovornik, uspešni dizajner igrica u Nordeusu , koji je postao Be- ograđanin.
think of the invitation to relocate to Bel- grade. All he knew about Serbia was relat- ed to football and to the Balkan conflicts of the ‘90s. His first impressions weren’t exactly the most cheerful either: “On the road from the airport, the first thing I came across was New Belgrade. I’d never seen anything like it! Brutalist archi- tecture, unusual, a little scary. In time, I re- alised that this place has a strange beauty and actually resembles the set of a sci- ence fiction movie from the‘70s,”says Lance while sipping his coffee contentedly. When asked what he likes the most here and how he began to fall in love with Belgrade, he says that its people are re- sponsible for that. “In order to enjoy yourself here, you have to understand Belgrade. It initially seems strange; you don’t know what to think about it; it appears a bit neglected. Then you start to meet people who are so
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