Nothing without Serbia!

Caught sight of this sign at a recent street fair.  These are typical Serbian shoes, still worn in places around the country and for special occasions like folk dancing.  You can read the English on the sign, and the word "Bre" (pronounced 'breh') is one of those words that doesn't so much mean anything by itself, but is thrown in for emphasis, something like 'man'.  The plums are a symbol of Serbia, since they're used for anything from brandy to pastries.

This fellow's all for Serbia, as his bag says (in Cyrillic) and as shown by his šajkača (shy-KAHT-cha), the typical Serbian hat.

All he's missing is the national shoes called "opanci" (O-PAHNT-see). See what they look like right here.

ABC Wednesday ---'Z' is for 'zounds'!

"Zounds," though somewhat outdated, is an expression denoting surprise or anger. For me, it was 'surprise' when I saw this old typewriter in a bookstore window. Not because it was an older manual machine, but the keyboard is in Latin characters, while it appears to have 'typed' a text in Cyrillic! :) Surprising, for sure.

Check out other Z's on ABC WEDNESDAY.

ABC Wednesday "X" is for 'barber shop'?

Okay, I know those scissors aren't an X, but they sort of look like one, and I don't have another X....

This building apparently used to house a barber shop, founded in 1885, and lasting until I do not know when, for now below is a fast-food restaurant. Kind of sad, since the restaurant doesn't go with the building.

See other X's or sorts of X's at ABC WEDNESDAY.

Old hat, new hat

It's definitely wintry out now; cold, sleet, rain, and a teeny bit of snow. Do you like these hats? This shop has been around (and has not changed) since I arrived in Belgrade 33+ years ago. Of course these are newer hats, but their style remains the same.

Which one do you like?

S.O.S. Market

A chain of S.O.S. Markets opened about a year ago in Belgrade, with the intention of helping citizens with low incomes to save money on groceries. There are several of them around town. This one, with its "S.O.S. Market" sign in Cyrillic, stands beside a green market downtown, next to a 'Pekara" (bakery), whose sign is also in Cyrillic.

If you read Serbian, you can find out more about S.O.S. Markets right here.

Dine at Pectopah Byk!

Some of you may have a hankering for some of that yummy food I posted yesterday, so if in Belgrade, choose perhaps the "Pectopah Byk." No, wait, that's "Restoran Vuk"! (RES-toe-rahn vook). Just another little Cyrillic trap for foreigners, many of whom believe that there's a chain of restaurants called "pectopah"! "P" in Cyrillic is "R" in the Latin alphabet, "E" is "E," "C" is "S", "T" and "O" are just what they look like, then the P=R again, a simple "A,", then finally the "H" is an "N"! Simple as one, two, 2/987 to the n-th power. Oh, yes: "B" is "V," "Y" is "U," and "K" is just that. And finally, the person for whom the restaurant is named is Vuk Karadžić, 1787 -1864, who standardized the old Cyrillic alphabet to make one letter stand for only one sound, therefore the alphabet is phonetic. So if you do learn the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, you'll be able to pronounce anything...then you have to learn what it means.

All the news that's fit to print!

Here are the newspapers I buy on a daily basis. Politika, on the lower right, is printed in Cyrillic, while quick-glimpse Blic (Flash) and Danas (Today) are in the Latin alphabet...oh, yes, and every Monday Politika prints a selection of articles from the New York Times in English, along with a handy dictionary of terms on part of one page. This helps those Serbs who are reasonably fluent in English to further enhance their knowledge. And I like to read it, too!

Can you read some of these signs?

Cutting through Belgrade's pedestrian street, Knez Mihailova (yesterday's photo), are several passages that lead to other streets. Inside them, you'll find more stores. These signs hang outside one such passage. Serbia officially uses the Cyrillic alphabet as seen in the sign above with the red raven, but children learn the Latin one as well. More alphabet lessons to come!