Once more from behind.

This post may remind you of another rear view from a short while ago. This large lady angel stands not far from the Cvijeta Zuzorić Pavilion, used primarily as an art exhibit venue.

Ah, spring...

Ah, spring...the sound of birds chirping, flowers popping open, and the click of cameras' shutters.

Spring brings many tourists to Belgrade like the ones above, who are spending a few hours in the city and Kalemegdan Park before returning to their cruise ship down the Danube.

The building in the back is a small gallery of Belgrade's Museum of Natural History, which is located in another part of the city.

SUNDAY BRIDGES--The Military Museum

Kalemegdan Park also houses a large indoor and outdoor military museum. Not of the least interest to me, but I needed a bridge for Louis La Vache's SUNDAY BRIDGES!

That cute little black dog doesn't look too interested either....

ABC WEDNESDAY "G" is for....lots of words....

Well, let's see...there are gobs of words that begin with G.
Here's a glimpse of a guy in a museum, surrounded by a painting of a grande-dame, a girl, and maybe a sexy girlfriend. But he's totally gone, not paying any attention at all to these gems of the art world or to the gazes of the ladies on the wall. He appears to be engrossed in a crossword puzzle and making very sure he writes the correct grapheme in the right space. And might that be a gabardine he's wearing?

See other G's at ABC WEDNESDAY.

And don't forget today is Leap Year. Make it special. Next one rolls around in 2016.

SKYWATCH FRIDAY--Modern Art Museum

Misty sky over the Modern Art Museum in New Belgrade, seen from Kalemegdan Park.

See other skies at SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

Guess who's (not) coming to dinner....

I can't say I blame the passer-by for not wanting to come to dinner...the family looks quite bored and disinterested.

If you walk along Belgrade's pedestrian street, Knez Mihailova, and a few surrounding ones, you'll see reproductions of paintings from the city's National Museum, which, unfortunately has been closed for repairs for quite some time and is scheduled to reopen in 2012. If you'd like to read more about this (the translation isn't so good, but still...), click here. The article dates from 2009....

THEME DAY: postcard-worthy

HDR-ed this one, but since the Theme Day is 'postcard-worthy' and postcards are often retouched, so....

This is part of an outdoor museum in the small town of Sirogojno, a couple hours' drive south of Belgrade.


Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Roll 'em!

Here we are on Republic Square again. That's the National Museum on the left, the statue of Prince Mihail in the middle, and the National Theater in the background. The black 'Baltimore Police' car is a prop for the filming of John Cusack's new film, The Raven, depicting the final days of Edgar Allan Poe, which is being filmed partly here in Belgrade. If you click on the link, you'll see that the actor has been enjoying Belgrade's well-known nightlife.

ADDENDUM: Below is a photo I snapped last Saturday when I saw the film crew, and this time the actor (seated), in Kalemegdan Park, waiting for 'action'.

'Old timers' Museum

This post goes out for Louis La Vache of San Francisco Bay Daily Photo, who loves cars. Belgrade has an automobile museum, affectionately known as the 'old timers' museum. I passed by the other day and took this photo of an old Opel (ask Louis what year....).

I must go in sometime....

Sunday Bridges- "Walls and Bridges"

Here it is Sunday again and I am without a real bridge. What's a girl to do except think really hard?

As you see, the spirit of the fabulous John Lennon inspired me with the cover from his album Walls and Bridges. And two of these pairs of glasses are sitting on the bridge of my nose or close.

Long Live John Lennon.

Check out other bridges, the regular kind and the maybe not-so-ordinary at Louis' Sunday Bridges.

Merry Christmas Part 2

Srećan Božić (SREH-chan-BOW-zheech) or Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Serbian Orthodox Christmas, which is today. I took this photo at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade a short while ago. It shows a typical village Christmas table with the oak branch, nuts, prunes, candle, and the straw and corn, which is usually scattered under the table. There's also a flask of Serbian plum brandy! The round cake is not actually a cake, but rather a bread called a česnica (CHESS-neet-sa), which you can read more about right here. Basically, there's a coin inside that will bring good health and happiness to the finder. Bite carefully.

Out to lunch?

Slowly getting better, but this is a shot from a couple of weeks ago...now this sidewalk would be covered with snow, since it fell last night.

Anyway, looks like the accordionist stepped out for a bit. Trusting fellow, leaving his instrument behind.

Drawing on the window....

The other day I had the opportunity to chaperone two kindergarten classes from our school on a trip to the Ethnographic Museum. The 25 or so kids were much better behaved than some of the older classes I'd helped before...and so, so interested in everything in the museum and out.

This little girl, the daughter of a colleague of mine, was happily puffing on the window and drawing little pictures....

'Opanci'

I photographed these opanci (OH-pahn-tsee) that I showed you once before here at the Ethnographic Museum downtown. Please click on that link, for there are some wonderful photographs of the exhibits inside. A museum not to miss should you come to Belgrade.

downtown.

Gotcha.

I wonder how many of you saw this "naked lady" on the portal and clicked just to see what it was. This painting, along with many, many others, is part of an exhibit of One Hundred Years of Serbian Art at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, one of the most eminent scientific and art institutions in Serbia. It is also one of the oldest (founded in 1886) and largest academies in South-East Europe.

I attended the exhibit, which is free to the public, and was very impressed by the paintings, especially those of the Impressionist period.

Crossing to Kalemegdan

An elderly man takes advantage of the early Sunday morning hours to safely cross from Knez Mihailova street to Kalemegdan Park. Notice the decorated manhole cover that I showed you close-up right here.

The Bolivian Witch Doctor

Yes, there is a Bolivian Watch Doctor in Belgrade...or sort of. This costume stands in part of the museum "25th of May," dedicated to Josip Broz "Tito". In the same complex is his tomb. In any case, the costume was presented to Tito by the government of Bolivia. Don't you just love the doc's shoes?

Africa in Belgrade

Located in Senjak (SEN-yak), one of Belgrade's most beautiful residential areas, the Museum of African Art is the only museum in the country dedicated entirely to the culture and arts of the African continent. After many years of having acquired art throughout West Africa, Veda and Dr. Zdravko Pečar formed an extraordinary collection, which they donated to the City of Belgrade, and in 1977 the Museum of African Art was established. The collection now consists of over 1700 authentic objects of art from Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo, Cameroon, and Congo. Along with numerous masks and wooden sculptures, the Museum's permanent exhibit displays other objects made of various media for magical or decorative purpose.

This photo shows a typical West African dwelling, which stands on the grounds of the Museum.

Read more about the Museum here

P.S. I would like to thank Jacob of FloridaFotos for the Creative Blogger Award on the sidebar!

My photo in a museum...sort of.

Snow has recently fallen quite heavily on Belgrade, making driving (at least for me) quite difficult. This weekend is part of a three-day one, Monday being a holiday (40 days after Serbian Orthodox Christmas.) Except for some long dog walks, I plan mainly to just squirrel up and look at the snow outside, sort of like the folks in this photo are doing. They're gazing at the same scene I have from my kitchen window. If you'd like to create your own museum photos and some other fun ones, see here .

A present from JFK

Josip Broz Tito was a towering figure in Yugoslav politics for more than 30 years and even after his death his legacy is still felt in each of the former Yugoslav republics. He is largely credited, and rightfully so, for keeping Yugoslavia together for so long, for better or for worse. Tito is also famous for his policy of non-alignment during the Cold War. There's a museum in Belgrade called The House of Flowers, where Tito was laid to rest. I had never gone, but a friend and I dropped by not long ago. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting it was---you can see his famous blue suit and white suits, massive desk and bookcases that stood in his office, his Mercedes, over 200 batons, each more elaborate than the next, carried by runners during various celebrations, and hundreds of presents received from local and foreign dignitaries. Above is a stationery set received from John F. Kennedy. Well worth the visit should you be in Belgrade...and so far, the museum is free!