Another long day of travelling concludes a long week of work in Serbia. I am now back in Belfast (via Heathrow) where the temperature is higher than it was in the Balkans and where friends and family are pink-faced and red-shouldered from a week of endless sunshine.

The weather wasn't all bad while we were in Belgrade - we had one dry day when the sun attemepted to shine, so we used our time well and crammed in some sight seeing. When the sun shines in Belgrade it reveals one or two places worth visiting. Chief amongst the city's summer spots is the park, which houses an old fort.

I can't recall much about the history of the place, but, set high on a hill overlooking the two rivers that flow through Belgrade, the fort was clearly of strategic importance. These days it's something of a curiosity, huge in scale at times, where young people relax on ramparts and book sellers set up stalls along the main drag. The views of the Danube are breathtaking from here.

A few hundred yards away is the entrance to an old Roman well (though the well's age is in dispute) and for 100 dinar (less than 80p) you can pop in and have a look down - or, on hot days, just enjoy a few minutes in the cool. Next to that stands Belgrade's most famous statue (and they have hundreds of the things).

"The Victor" is a large, naked man originally designed to be placed in a fountain in the city centre (until the local population disapproved) and who now resides atop a large column, displaying his wares proudly to the entire city.

"The Little Mermaid" was a big success in Belgrade - the estimate of three and a half thousand tickets sold for the three performances turned out to be an underestimate. Last night, at the final performance, there were close to two thousand spectators. Our largest single audience which, as it happens, coincided with the show's 100th performance!

I'll leave you with the view from my hotel room this morning. You'll see that the sun was beginning to peep through the clouds as I packed my case, just to annoy me. Hopefully I'll get to see some sunshine here in Belfast as I recover from a very busy four weeks.

We arrived in Serbia having undertaken a five a.m. dash from Leicester to Heathrow only to find that we had left the sunshine well and truly behind. Subtropical Belgrave gave way to dark and cloudy Belgrade.

The hotel is reminiscent of an old soviet office block – my walls are part carpeted, my shower curtain consists only of a few small pieces of waterproof material suspended from hooks (left over, it appears, from some incident when the curtain was forcibly removed) and my toilet has flushed continuously for two days with no sign of ever stopping.

Food consists, mainly, of over-boiled vegetables and not-necessarily-identifiable meat. The city itself appears trapped in a time-warp or some black and white war movie, cafes and restaurants all seem as lifted from a John Le Carre novel and virtually every street has both a fountain and a statue. It is rich in character if cold in apperance.

There are some beautiful parts of the old town which contrast sharply with the austere, grey concrete of the city centre – but they seem to exist in a parallel universe and could be confused for a poor man’s Italy or a more serious incarnation of deepest Spain.

On a positive note – the people here are friendly, the festival is delighted to have us and all tickets for our three performances (over three and a half thousand of them) are well and truly sold out. We are topping the bill at this event and, despite being only one of many companies from across the world, the marketing campaign and technical assistance that we have been allocated is unparalleled in the rest of the festival!

We have now finished our run here in Leicester. The show has been a huge success - with audiences, critics and the festival organisers - and tickets were nigh on impossible to come by.

The weather has been equally phenomenal, with the incredible summer temperatures here in the East Midlands pushing up the humididty inside our swimming pool venue to such an extent that it evoked memories of performing in Taiwan. This afternoon, at the last show, the temperature in the balcony, from where I was operating, topped 35.7 degrees.

So with the crew and technicians still hard at work packing the van and disassembling the set, myself and the cast have an afternoon off. Early tomorrow morning (at about 5 am, I think) we board a coach bound for Heathrow where we are booked on the 9.15 flight to Serbia. We think the weather there is currently less hot than it is here in England. Never mind.

We have had a wonderful time in Leicester and the people of the Belgrave area have been most hospitable - welcoming us into their lives and, in some cases, their homes. The festival too has been incredibly welcoming.

So tomorrow morning, then, it's from Belgrave to Belgrade - not so much changing countries as swapping consonants.