Meet Radovan! or, "Radovan Goes to Greece!"

Driving down to Greece for our vacation, my husband and I stopped to ask directions from this little man, who was waiting for a bus to go visit his daughter and son-in-law. He hinted he had never left his native village in the once very heavily forested Serbian region known as Šumadija (SHOO-mah-dee-ya), and so it wasn't hard to convince him to postpone his intended visit for a while, and join us! (All we had to do was show him the guidebook below...) His name is Radovan (RAH-doe-vahn), and I invite you to see a bit of Greece through his Serbian eyes and my ex-pat lenses! It'll be two-a-day-photos for about 10 days or so!

Radovan believes ladies in Greece love birds more than fancy dresses.

Another brush shop, but far away.

I told you yesterday there weren't many such brush shops around, and indeed, the next quaintest one I found was in Negotin, a city in Central Serbia that my husband and I visited a while back. This one, named "Vulcan," is owned by Miodrag Vlajsavljevic (VLAY-sav-lyeh-veetch), whom we did not meet, since the shop was closed all day. But it looks like he too has a wide selection of brushes and brooms. This shop dates from 1907, so is older than the Zivkovic-es.

P.S. PLEASE stop by my blog in the upcoming days, starting tomorrow, since I'll be posting some of my Greek vacation photos seen through the eyes of a tiny Serbian traveler who accompanied us.... Mystery man, at least until tomorrow!

The little brush shop that was...and still is.

There aren't many of these shops around anymore, in Belgrade or even elsewhere. The Zivkovic-es (ZHEEVE-ko-veetch) have had this shop in the family for over 70 years. It's very small, as you can see, and the buildings that surround it are scheduled for demolition, so it's anybody's guess just when it will happen and where the little shop will go. Inside you'll find just about every kind of brush you can dream of, natural bristles and synthetic ones. All the brushes are hand-made. The sign in Cyrillic above simply states "brush shop."

ABC Wednesday "Y"--buzzing in on Yellow!

"Y" is for "yellow," and I'm probably not alone with this connection. I had really just meant to take a photo of a field of gorgeous sunflowers and some individual ones, but when I clicked on this giant flower, I realized I'd also captured this little guy zooming in. I dedicate this post to my favorite artist, Vincent van Gogh.

It's not two-twenty-one.

Another excursion for us, this time yesterday with a French friend to Novi Sad, a city 70 kms. to the north of Belgrade, where my husband grew up. This clock, located on Novi Sad's famous fortress, Petrovaradin, shows the time, but not the time you might think it is. It was actually 4:15. The reason is not a mistake, but rather the long hand was purposedly made to show the hour to ships passing on the Danube below. It was more important, I guess, for them to know the hour, not necessarily the minutes!

Someone got married.

The other week my husband and I went to Negotin, a town in north-eastern Central Serbia (how's that for precision?) near the borders between Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria. It's a region known for its wines, and its annual musical celebration in honor of the famous Serbian composer, Stevan Mokrajnac (MOE-kraye-nahts). In any case, the garland above this door indicates a wedding took place some time before, since the flowers and wreath were already dried.

Buy it by the case.

If you enjoyed a beer yesterday at the Blue Bar, maybe it was one of these popular Serbian brands. Nothing like a good, cold beer on a really hot day, and in Belgrade it's been really hot for a while. I've never heard of the "Fructal Alko" on one crate here; not sure it's some kind of beer, but it doesn't sound like it...

Feeling blue?

"Bibi" couldn't help but post this blue photo with all the blues and Beck's Beer. The bar's down a one-way street, but you can park there...if you can find a space.

Skywatch Friday--reflections in a puddle

It's about time I posted a Skywatch photo, and here it is, though you can see it isn't a recent one. I've just returned from vacation a few days ago, and am planning to thrill you soon (?!) with some special vacation shots, seen through the eyes of a small Serbian traveler (mystery man...) we took along with us. Stay tuned...should be reasonably soon, though I have two sets of houseguests at the moment...

Who's got a sweet tooth?

Yesterday it was bread, today it's cookies and little cakes. Some may look familiar to you, and rightly so, since half of these aren't typical Serbian fare. The reason? They're made by a Serbian man and his "Serbian-but-born-and-raised-in-the-US" wife, who brought her favorite American recipes along with her. In addition to the tiny cream puffs, known as 'princes krofne' (PRIN-cess KROF-nay) here, some chestnut cream cookies, and fig cookies stuffed with walnuts, you'll find an assortment of doughnuts, muffins, and chocolate chip cookies to tide US expats through a bout of culinary nostalgia.

ABC Wednesday "X" is for "bread!"

Yes, honest, "X" is for "bread," because here in Serbia, the word for bread is written in the Cyrillic alphabet as "ХЛЕБ," prounounced "hleb." Here are two kinds of bread I buy regularly, a really good, moist, fresh-daily wheat one, and a lighter wheat flour (but not actually white) one. Yum. It's easy to get spoiled with such bread here.