Prince Michael's Street

Prince Michael's Street, or Knez Mihailova ulica (KUH-NYEZ Me-HIGH-Low-va OO-leet-sa) is Belgrade's main walking street. I took a picture yesterday, but goofed and posted this summer one instead! No matter; it's pretty active at any season and hour, full of cafes and restaurants, boutiques, and near a number of old-world hotels. In high tourist season, there are many street sellers too, often selling without a permit and making a mad dash for it with their wares when insepectors pass by, only to reappear a few minutes later.

Seltzer bottles!

It's theme day and the theme is "water"! These are seltzer bottles, empty at the moment, but which can be filled with carbonated water, also known as sparkling water, plain water into which carbon dioxide gas has been dissolved. Nowadays hardly anyone uses these classic bottles, but there are still a few stores around town where you can take yours (if you still have one...) to be filled to add to white wine to make wine spritzers. Otherwise, most people opt to use already the Serbian bottled naturally sparkling water, Knjaz Miloš (Kuh-NYAZ MEE-lush), named for a Serbian prince, which comes from mountains near Arandjelovac (Ah-ron-JEL-o-vats). Quite a mouthful of words to pronounce today!

Sunset in Kalemegdan

The sun sets in Kalemegdan and on my first month of blogging. I hope you've enjoyed my pictures. Tomorrow is theme day, "water" for April, but after that we'll be moving "in town".
Keep watching! (P.S. This photo reminds me of Maxfield Parrish's paintings.)

Belgrade's Cathedral Church

Just to the left and a bit below the man walking in my March 28th photo and looking back in the other direction you can see the tower of Belgrade's cathedral church, done in classic style with late baroque elements. It was finished in 1840 and is dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. The interior is richly decorated with a gold-plated carved iconostasis. The icons on thrones, choirs, and pulpits, as well as those on the walls and arches were painted by Dimitrije Avramović, one of the most distinguished Serbian painters of the XIX century. In the distance you can see the dome of Saint Sava's cathedral, which dominates the skyline from almost all over town.

Spring cleaning

Right now Belgrade is doing its spring cleaning. Workers from the city's official park service are around, quite visible in their grass green overalls, tidying up here and there. With the better weather and blossoms (just starting!) comes a desire to spruce up one's surroundings. This lady is using an old-fashioned twig broom (still sold on markets for around 100 dinars or $1.50) to sweep inside one of Kalemegdan's passageways. Notice the mish-mash of stones and brick again!

The Golden Years

Many who walk in Kalemegdan are retired people, especially on weekday mornings and afternoons. They sit on benches bemoaning their meager pension checks, recalling stories from their youth, or engaging in a game of chess. Kalemegdan is also home to Belgrade's zoo, and a doting grandma (baka; BAH-kuh) or indulgent grandpa (deda; DAY-duh) often treat their grandchildren to a visit. This "deda" appears to be headed for the statue of The Victor, visible in the distance.

Patchwork wall

It's still a bit nippy here, but this gentleman is out for a stroll in Belgrade's famous park, Kalemegdan, whose name is derived from two Turkish words kale (fortress) and megdan (battlefield). Kalemegdan has a very long history, going back at least to Roman times. It was destroyed several times by invaders, rebuilt as a castle by the Byzantines in the 12th century, and in the 14th century became the capital of the Serbian kingdom. The wall behind the walker tells the story of successive rebuildings.

Here's a photo of part of Kalemegdan fortress with Ivan Meštrović's (died 1962) famous statue The Victor (Pobednik). The statue, now a symbol of Belgrade, was originally intended to stand in the center of Belgrade, but in 1928 protests against having a naked male statue downtown resulted in its being placed in Kalemegdan, a public park!

Buddha in Belgrade

Nope, this isn't a Buddhist temple; far from it! It's one of Belgrade's many floating restaurants/cafes/discothèques (splavovi, in Serbian) that line the riverbanks of the Sava and Danube rivers. These are tremendously popular places, especially in the summertime. The back of this one is visible in yesterday's photo taken from the Old Belgrade side.

NATO Bombing anniversary

This is a view from Belgrade's ancient fortress, Kalemegdan, looking across the Sava river toward New Belgrade. The tall building is the Ušće (OOsh-chay) Tower, built in 1964 as the communist party headquarters, and is the tallest building in the Balkans. During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, 12 Tomahawk missiles were fired at this building when no one was inside, and amazingly the structure withstood these attacks. It originally measured 105 meters, but has been renovated and now stands 134 meters tall. An adjacent twin tower and a megamarket/shopping center are scheduled to be completed in 2010.

The Eternal Flame

The Eternal Flame (Večna Vatra), unveiled by former president Slobodan Milošević on June 21st, 2000, is located in Friendship Park (Park Prijateljstva) on Belgrade's famous river area Ušće (OOsh-chay), In this park during Tito's rule many visiting politicians anddignitaries were invited to plant a tree. Due to its convenient location and wide-open spaces, Ušće, (meaning "river mouth," for it is located where the Sava and Danube rivers meet), has been the site of many meetings and concerts over the years, including the recent Rolling Stones' "Bigger Bang" tour in July 2007. The monument itself rises from behind this wall, not from it.