Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, and recycling plays a large part in taking care of poor Mother Earth. Here in Belgrade you won't see hardly any recycle bins for glass, paper, or plastic, and convenient recycling isn't made easy for those who want to. Many less fortunate people earn some extra dinars by recycling paper, as this fellow is doing, by either rummaging through dumpsters or picking up discarded boxes beside them.

Reluctantly into spring...

Yesterday morning my husband and I were driving along the main street in Zemun (see March 16, 17, and 22 posts), and I took this photo out the car window. Serbs are really careful not to catch cold. It was early, but already reasonably warm. This girl wasn't taking any chances in her boots, tights, and jacket....but her skirt was ready for spring, and I wonder what kind of ice cream she bought.

Easter bells and willow branches

Since Serbian Orthodox Easter falls on April 27th this year, today is Palm Sunday or Vrbice, the last Sunday before Easter when willow branches (vrbica=Vur-BEET-sa) are carried or worn as wreaths by little children, who hang little bells with Serbian tricolor ribbons—red, blue, and white—around their necks and parade three times around the church.

Ouch!!!

It started out as a gray day here today, so to brighten things up, I couldn't help but post this amusing (at least for the viewer) billboard advertising an alum spray for cuts. Poor guy. Looks like he needs to change his razor--his wife probably has been using it, or at least that's what my husband says if his razor is dull.

"Belgrade is the world!"

From April 16th to the 19th Belgrade is holding its annual celebration "Days of Belgrade." This year, the theme is "Belgrade is the World," and so the city has been divided into four compass points, each celebrating in a different way on one of the four days. For example, the western part of the city (New Belgrade) has been deemed "California/Hollywood," and the Faculty of Drama there organized a day-long film program. There was a best Hollywood star look-alike competition, and the winner won win a trip to Hollywood for two. Not sure yet who it was!

This big globe floats over Slavija Circle downtown. The Circle is home to the first McDonald's ever built in Eastern Europe, which was behind me in this photo. You've seen one anyway, right?

Shocking colors and shocking news!

It's still very chilly here and so this lady is all bundled up. But she's probably warmed by the sizzling news inside her scandal newspaper (click on the photo...) She's selling shoelaces in shocking colors, too, plus hairclips, barrettes, and insoles. Above you can see packages of those foam hair curlers, too.

Hand-painted ties!

Not like me to post such unusual shoes yesterday and not do a posting for the guys! This little hand-painted silk tie store downtown has been around for years, so the ties must sell! I have no idea what the TA on the cow one means, but the one on the right says in Cyrillic "Christ is risen" (It's an Easter tie!), and the brown one shows a little Belgrade sparrow, the city's symbol.

Bunny shoes

I'm not sure any fashionable young girl would wear these bunny shoes, but aren't they just too cute? Since Serbian Orthodox Easter isn't until April 27th, I'm going to ask the Bunny for a pair...but, whoops, there is no Easter Bunny here. Oh, well. Back to my Birkenstocks.

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.

Who said "cholesterol"?

Serbia is a meat-eater's paradise. On Saturday my husband and I went on a road trip with a friend, and this was her lunch. It's a grilled hamburger stuffed with ham and cheese, and topped with two generous dollops of kajmak (rhymes with 'hijack'), which is made from skimming layers of cream off milk. Kajmak is used like butter to spread on bread or to cook with, and of course, to add an extra dose of cholesterol to your red meat! (Notice the spring onion. Serbs love to crunch 'em.)

Branches like hands or hands like branches?

Is this statue in the garden around the Yugoslav Drama Theater imitating the tree's branches, or is the tree mimicking the statue? You decide!