These are my faithful sandals that I showed you once before on the Brooklyn Bridge three years ago. They've trod over many parts of India, the US, and Qatar and are still in pretty good shape. Now they're preparing for another season of pounding the pavement (and cobblestones) of Belgrade.
"Jumping" into spring is what I've been waiting so long to do. Not a cold weather fan anymore. I just couldn't resist buying snowdrops from this springishly dressed man.... Two bunches for 100 dinars, which is about $1.25.
Not too crisp a shot, but it was from far away. Kind of cool how the sides of his head are shaved, all but for some pony tail hair.
Not really amethysts, of course, but the purple beads and glasses remind me of amethyst, my birthstone.
N, S, E, and W are the letters I grew up seeing on a weather vane, but since I've been living in Serbia, I have to get used to seeing Cyrillic letters for 'sever', jug', 'istok', and 'zapad', which stand for north, south, east, and west respectively. In Cyrillic they would be: С, Ј, И, and З, and so they are here on this vane! And in Serbian, weather vane is: vetrokaz, so that's another "V".
Near where I live there's a dog groomer who works late at night in the basement in an apartment building. He may work in the daytime, too, but I never pass that way then. He's got a jazzy salon and a fluffy clientele. I love to peek through the window at them.....and sneak a photo....
A couple cuddles while watching the sunset from a knoll in Kalemegdan Park.
Summer's finally here and even the art is hot. Couldn't resist this very happy purple whatever, with steam coming out of his ears.
Four for the price of one to join in Louis La Vache's BRIDGES meme today. These are walkways to some of Belgrade's floating restaurants along the Sava River.
I've shown you chessplayers once or twice before like on the street, but these gentlemen in Kalemegdan Park are true enthusiasts. Check out the little cushion under the man in beige pants' derriere (Serbs have a mortal fear of catching cold), and it appears that the man with the bandaged hand is particularly concerned about the safety of his bag that he has draped over his arm.
Days are getting shorter and shorter... Recently from inside a restaurant I snapped this photo of the trails two airplanes had left on the violet sky.
A head of cabbage is made from layers of leaves, which form a ball. Here you can see the tiniest leaf inside a head of cabbage that I made a salad out of. Serbs LOVE cabbage in all its forms, but usually use the white cabbages in salads and for sauerkraut and stuffed cabbage rolls, for example. In the winter, it's common to see a huge plastic barrel filled with heads of fermenting cabbage on people's porches. Red cabbage, much higher in antioxidants, is unimaginatively shredded or sliced for slaw. (Sometimes a head is thrown into the barrel to add color, and the sour cabbage juice is a sure cure, so they say, for a hangover.) I like to jazz up my slaw by adding some shredded carrots, walnuts, and dried cranberries, with a vinaigrette dressing.
Not sure this is what Prince had in mind when he wrote Purple Rain, but there's not an umbrella in sight here. These balls are part of an advertisement for Komercijalna Banka, a Serbian bank founded in 1970, with 251 branches all over the country. These purple and white spheres are actually large stickers on the bank's window, and what you see behind the balls is actually a reflection of part of Belgrade's recent annual Flower and Plant Show.
These traditional Serbian plum dumplings are indeed soft and flavorful. Grandma made them from scratch, but I fell for the frozen ones that ...
