The Red Balloon...and The Blue Balloon...and The Yellow Balloon....

No, this is not a scene from the end of Albert Lamorisse's 1956 classic The Red Balloon, but rather a recent sighting in the Belgrade sky. Just happened to look up and there they were, floating free, off to who knows where.

Traffic jam

This isn't your run-of-the-mill traffic jam. It was caused by a trolley car whose electrical cable had become unhooked. Usually this isn't a major problem, since the driver just leaps out, grabs a long pole from the rear of the trolley, and tries to hook the cable back on to the overhead street wires. For some reason, it appeared that the trolley's cable couldn't reach the overhead wires. Serbian drivers are not patient, and leaned on their horns. A motorcycle policeman came along with another one to direct traffic. Then a rescue truck. Finally a small bulldozer came to lift one end of the trolley just a bit so the cable could be rehooked. This whole adventure lasted "only" twenty minutes, but in the meantime, automobile drivers were having fits, and even the bus you see in the photo grew impatient.

ABC Wednesday "E" is for Exercise

These trampoline parks are now popular here. When I was in junior high in the US light-years ago, friends and I used to spend hours bouncing on trampolines. Later I learned their demise was due to overly-exuberant bouncers who bounced right off onto the hard ground. At least now there's a mesh fence and padding around.

Lady in lavender

Just the other day I was wondering if I should color my hair again, but decided I'd stay with its current mature color. But while walking downtown on the pedestrian street, I glimpsed this lady, who made me wonder if I should reconsider... Then I got to wondering if it is really her hair---perhaps she has a series of wigs to match various colors in her wardrobe. (I'll try to find her again...)

Cool music in the fountain!

We've all had the occasion to be in the right place at the right time for a photo. I had another such occasion last Friday when I happened by this member of a band who was climbing into a fountain downtown. He happily tooted away for a few minutes on his tuba, and when he'd finished, he "smiled" at all of us who were clicking away on cameras or cell phones, climbed out, and joined his still-dry band to play some more tunes to practice for Nišville (NEESH-vil), a jazz festival take-off on Nashville to be held in the town of Niš, a couple of hours' drive from Belgrade. Last Friday temperatures rose to 37 degrees Celsius here, which is 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. All onlookers were envying his dip in the fountain.

No sunscreen for me!

Yesterday at the Market Blue you may have noticed the Chipsy (potato chip) banner. This fellow apparently enjoyed a couple of packs of chips, and then put the wrappers to good use. Saves on sunscreen...but what about those legs....? Sorry for the slight fuzziness--you can imagine this was a pretty quick shot. Just turned around and there he was.

At the Market Blue

Nothing like a cold beer with a friend, and if it's too hot to run down to your local cafe or pub, just pull up a crate at the Market Blue.

Skywatch Friday--Crows on Lavender Sky

This was a quick shot off my porch. Occasionally, due to temperature and haze (dare I say smog) factors, the Belgrade sky often takes on unusual colors, and this is a case in point. A minute later, this color was gone.

Roast corn

Corn season is in full swing, and Serbs enjoy corn in many shapes and forms, from corn bread and corn mush to corn-on-the-cob. Sometimes the latter is boiled and sometimes it's roasted, as you see here in the photo. No butter used though; just salt or plain. A type of sweet corn is grown here, but it's not the same as the US kind, which has smaller, softer kernels and is a bit sweeter. This seller was actually one of five, all very close together, on Belgrade's pedestrian street, Knez Mihailova. Behind him you can see an entrance to Kalemegdan Park, and a street sign that indicates other nearby attractions.

ABC Wednesday= "D" is for 'Dragonfly"

...and that's one big dragonfly, sitting on top of a water fountain in the Eastern Serbian town of Pirot we visited not long ago. The big bug's all metal, including its mesh wings, but I couldn't find any other info about it. People I asked didn't know who designed it or why, and there was no plaque. Behind the dragonfly to the right is "Beograd," one of a now defunct (another d!) socialist chain of department stores around Serbia and the former Yugoslavia. They've been bought out (privatized) by I believe some Greek store chain, so we'll see what they do with them.

Prince Mihailo and the National Museum

Mihailo (Michael) Obrenović III (1823-1868) was prince of Serbia from 1839-1842 and again from 1860-1868. His first reign ended when he was deposed, and his second when he was assassinated. I'd read somewhere that if a statue's figure is riding a horse with one leg raised, it means that he died of causes other than from a battle, which would be the case here. The more I looked around about this, it seems that it's an urban legend...who knows? In any case, Belgrade's main pedestrian street is named after him. The National Museum behind him was founded in 1844 and houses over 400,000 objects including many foreign masterpieces. The French Art Collection consists of more than 250 paintings, from the 16th to early 20th century including paintings by many major French impressionists such as Renoir and Degas, and several post-impressionists including Gauguin and van Gogh.