ABC Wednesday "R" is for "Rollerskating"

These girls help each other on their inline skates. And who says it's only drivers who text while they're in motion...?

Join ABC Wednesday by clicking here.

Just fooling around.

I love cacti, but if I buy the tiny ones, they never seem to make it. I brought this bigger fellow home and decided I'd have a little fun with him. He's ogling the geraniums on my terrace and sports a šajkača, a typical Serbian hat that you can see here.

A View from the Bridge

Last Friday a romantic young Belgrader wanted to do something special for his girlfriend of one year. With the help of a friend who owns a restaurant, he arranged for that friend to set up a small table and two chairs on Branko's Bridge from where this photo was taken. The friend was to serve the surprised young lady and her boyfriend dinner from his restaurant while they both enjoyed a view of the sun setting over the Sava Bridge that you see here. True love never runs smooth, and a concerned motorist called the police when the restaurant owner was setting up the table and chairs, assuming he was going to jump (?). The police put a damper on the boyfriend's plan, but not the romance, and the two lovers + the owner headed to his restaurant. (Sorry for the blur, but despite my having used a tripod, there's a lot of vibration from traffic on Branko's Bridge!)

Roof tiles

Came across these carefully stacked roof tiles in a town not far away. They're waiting to be put back on the roof of a house that's having some repair done. I like it when people make an attempt to keep the original building materials on old houses, insofar as possible. Thrifty and pretty at the same time.

What do you believe?

This graffiti is on one of the side entrances to Saint Marko's church downtown, and reads, "What do you believe?"

Dear Readers, I apologize that I had to change my settings not to allow anonymous comments, since I've recently been visited by a rant-and-raver. The Internet's a wide territory, and I'm sure that person will find another outlet to vent his/her dissatisfaction. These City Daily Photo blogs are for enjoyment and fun, and are not to be used as a soapbox.

Skywatch -Three Cranes and a Rainbow

A few weeks ago we had a major rainstorm, and this is the rainbow that appeared over a still dark sky afterwards.

Join Skywatch right here.

Red!

Frequent readers may think red is my favorite color, but it isn't. I am just fascinated when I see people wear it well. This lady was strolling down Belgrade's pedestrian street, oblivious to the looks of passers-by....well, maybe she was enjoying the looks of the passers-by.

ABC Wednesday 'Q' is for 'Quite a fork!'

A weekend trip to the country yielded this photo of 'quite a fork'. A hayfork, I believe!

Join ABC Wednesday by clicking here.

"I'm lovin' it!"

She must be lovin' it with so many fishing rods.

Le Rouge et le Noir

Nothing at all to do with Stendahl's novel 'The Red and the Black' other than the title. These two young women were attentively listening to an animal rights group's speaker downtown on Sunday's Europe Day celebration. Serbia is not yet a member of the European Union, but would like to be. To do so, Serbia has to meet EU requirements, and one is the humane treatment of animals. Although both of these girls appear to be wearing leather boots and perhaps a leather skirt (the speaker was ranting about not eating meat or wearing leather), one has a faux-fur purse!

And yes, I couldn't help but photograph still another redhead!

Give me back what's mine!

Can you imagine owning a home or property, then having it confiscated by the State? This woman most probably had parents to whom such a thing happened, and as their descendent, is protesting the fact that only Serbia has not yet adopted laws regarding the return of property that is rightfully hers. This photo was taken at yesterday's Europe Day Celebration in downtown Belgrade.

The Network for Restitution (NFR) or 'Mreza za Restituciju' as it is known here, is a non-profit citizen's group that offers support and free legal advice for Holocaust and Communist terror survivors trying to regain confiscated homes from the W.W.II era.

In Serbia, the only country in Europe that did not return to its citizens' property confiscated by the communists and the Nazis, there are around 500,000 people waiting to get their property back.

Restitution of property to the rightful owners is not just the righting of a historical wrong. When foreign investors inquire about buying land in Serbian cities, they encounter serious problems with land ownership rights.