Question Mark Cafe

"Znak Pitanja" or "Question Mark,"constructed in Balkan style by Greek craftsmen, is the oldest Belgrade restaurant, and was built in about 1820 for Prince Miloš Obrenović. His brother-in law opened a restaurant with his own name over the door, the "Ećim Tomina". His heirs sold it in 1878, and its name was changed to "At the Shepherd's". Then in 1892 it became "At the Cathedral," since Belgrade's main cathedral is just across the street. This name had to be immediately removed, because it did not comply either with local regulations or with the views of the Cathedral authorities. As a temporary solution until another name could be chosen, the owner put up a sign with a question mark on it, which has stuck to this day. (The 'Avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie" sign is of course not its real address; I imagine this souvenir sign was brought back from Paris.)

The "?" was a favorite of mine for quite a while, but I hadn't been back for many years until the other evening. Though inside it is practically untouched since I first came to Belgrade, the service and food were terrible, far from what they once were. It left me with a big question mark in my head: "Why didn't I choose another restaurant?" Definitely now a tourist trap, so if you come to Belgrade, let me know, and I'll point out another place for you to go!

If you enlarge the menu, you'll see that the Question Mark does serve some local specialties: enjoy the translations of the 5th, 6th, and 7th items...

Stefan Uroš Dušan IV's Code of Laws

Stefan Uroš Dušan IV (c.1308 – 20 December1355), now called Dušan the Mighty, was King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks (from 16 April 1345). Under his rule, Serbia reached its territorial peak and the Serbian Empire was one of the larger states in Europe at the time. Apart from significant territorial gains, in 1349 and 1354 he made and enforced Dušan's Code, a universal system of laws. He is also the only ruler from the house of Nemanjić (a medieval Serbian ruling dynasty) who has not been canonized as a saint. Dušan was also noted as a man of gigantic proportions, and according to Papal ambassadors, he was the tallest man of his time, estimated at close to seven feet tall. Today he would be on Serbia's national basketball team, and we hope, still mighty.

Stefan, Uroš, and Dušan (STAY-fahn, OO-rush, DOO-shahn) are still popular names for Serbian boys.


To paraphrase the inscription on the base of the statue, it reads, "All judges (must) judge according to the law, and not out of fear of the Emperor," which is Law Number 172 in Dušan's Code.

ABC Wednesday "I" is for 'incongruous'

Stefan Nemanja (1109 – 1199) was a Medieval Serb nobleman. He established control over the territories of neighboring Serb states, and unified them into a single state. He founded the Nemanjić dynasty and became recognized as an Orthodox Christian Saint (Simeon) after numerous miracles following his death.

This photo shows the Church of Saint Simeon currently under construction in New Belgrade.

"Incongruous" indeed, with the juxtaposition of posters for the group Slipknot's upcoming visit to Belgrade. "All hope is gone," say they, but churches claim that there's always hope.

Join ABC Wednesday right here .

The Munching of the Green!

It's Saint Patrick's Day, a holiday that will be celebrated in many cities around the world where there's a considerable number of Irish. In Belgrade there's an Irish Pub, and I've heard they've planned festivities for the beer-drinking crowd, though few Serbs know who Saint Patrick was. Spring still hasn't shown us much green, so I decided to go out and buy myself some. Pictured above are two kinds of greens I like a lot. The long, thin ones are called zelje (ZELL-yeh) and are often used to wrap around seasoned meat and rice, then covered with a broth and baked. Serve with thick yogurt! The smaller leaves will actually grow much larger (not these; I ate them), and are usually cooked/steamed and served with sour cream and garlic. They're called blitve (BLEET-veh). I think they're called collards in English, and I honestly don't know what zelje are. I've Googled, but nothing looks quite right. Help?

Saint Mark's Church Optical IIllusion

St. Mark's Church was built from 1931 to 1940 on the site of an older church (1835). It was designed in the Serbo-Byzantine style by architects, Petar and Branko Krstić. At the south end of the church there is a sarcophagus with the remains of the Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan (he'll be coming up on this blog in a couple of days).St. Mark's Church is home to one of the most valuable collections of Serbian 18th and 19th century icons.

I took this photo outside at night because I liked the light on the arches. When I changed it into black and white, I realized the light and dark form an optical illusion. Stare at it a bit....

Franklin College in Belgrade!

What better way to spend my one-year blog anniversary yesterday than to spend a couple of hours with a delightful group of American students from Franklin College , located in Lugano, Switzerland? The students were on an academic tour of parts of the former Yugoslavia, where they'd not only seen sights, but attended lectures related to their majors. Naturally, the highlight was a lecture by yours truly (ha, ha), who enlightened them on the Cultural Differences Between Serbs and Americans. I truly enjoyed every minute of being with them, and I hope they did, too. (Oh, and by the way, the lecture was at Hotel Moskva !)

My One-year Blog Anniversary

Yes, it's been one year since I first posted my number one entry at Yankee-in-Belgrade. Many things have transpired in my life since then, good and bad, but among the good are you, my many cyberfriends I've met through this blog and visiting others. In your honor, I invite you to have a glass of (cyber) wine on me.

This is my very, very first photo I took way back in 1973 with a screw-mount Praktica SLR camera I bought while living in Paris. My former boss helped me choose it, after I kept bugging him by showing him photos in magazines and saying, "I want a camera that can do this!" I loved my little Praktica and miss it. I was a complete novice when I got it; I'd take a photo (film, remember?), jot down the aperture, speed, and distance, then compare the results when I got either the contact sheet (remember those?) or the photos. Would you believe I even snipped individual negatives, thinking it was easier than keeping them on the strip??

This photo was taken in my apartment in Montmartre the same afternoon I bought the camera. I only had bread and wine (Paris!), and quickly put together this still life. (You can see that I didn't "do windows" at the time...)

Here's to you!!

Waiting for a handout

I caught sight of this little fellow who was staring intently up at a window on a building on the left. I imagine someone throws him a morsel from time to time. I whistled to him, and he posed for the photo. This lot just off the center of Belgrade, and is a real eyesore. Real estate prices being what they are, I imagine the City is holding out for top price. Note the old and new architecture behind. Hotel Moskva is just behind the brick building on the right.

(Please drop by tomorrow for Yankee's one-year anniversary...)

Poppy Seed Cake

Having grown up in the US, I remember the poppy seed rolls that my grandfather used to bring home to accompany our Sunday dinner. That was the extent of my poppy seed experience. Here in Belgrade, they're put to a different use in the form of poppy seed cake roll like the one pictured above. Sometimes raisins are added, too. My husband LOVED this cake very much, but I never acquired a taste for it, since poppy seeds for me are for dinner rolls, not sweets.

This is a Happy Birthday photo is for my very, very good friend, Marianne, who is now in New York, but who, dare I hope, will return to Belgrade in the not-too-far-off future. Marianne and I weathered many storms here, including the NATO bombing of 1999, and she has been a faithful friend.

Enjoy your cake, Marianne. This cake comes from your favorite shop, and I even made you a Turkish coffee, but it's cut off on the photo.... Come on over and get the real thing.

(And all of you come back on Saturday for Yankee's one-year anniversary!)

ABC Wednesday "H' for "houseboats again"

I keep reading in a number of people's blogs that spring has arrived in their area, but it's slow in coming here in Belgrade. Okay, I know it's not supposed to officially arrive until the 20/21st, but still. This is a photo of two houseboats on the Sava that won't be visible from where I took them once the trees get leaves. I want color! Green!

I posted another ABC Wednesday about houseboats right here .

Join ABC Wednesday at Mrs. Nesbitt's .

Layers of past and present

This bulletin board hangs on a wall on a street downtown. I love the collage that was unintentionally created here. There are advertisements, some old, some new, for a ballet school for little girls, jazz ballet, schoolbooks, and a vocational school to become a waiter/waitress, locksmith, carpenter, and other trades.