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.

Do not enter--danger of poisoning!!!

This is the entrance to the underground garage of a large office building, right next to a pharmacy. What the heck are they doing in there that's poisonous, even if it's only from time to time??

Two-for-one Trashed Trash Cans

A few years ago the city replaced its metal trash cans (the ones on posts) with plastic ones. You can probably guess that the front of these is missing from the first photo, and some careless person has tossed most likely a cigarette butt into the second one, resulting in a melted mess. Interesting though, how people have stuck their trash in the frame of the first receptacle!

The smoke before the storm.

Snapped this photo the other night of a seemingly very bored cook who's having a puff on the deck of one of Belgrade's river boat-restaurants. It was early evening around 7:30, before the onslaught of patrons wanting to dine al fresco.

Quality time

Another scene along the Sava in New Belgrade. You don't see too many lady fishermen, but here is one who I imagine is with her husband enjoying some quality time and perhaps will enjoy some of their catch later on. In the background you can see some of the little houseboats people use as a summer/fair weather get-away, and the little yellow boat is on its way back from a river island to shuttle some more passengers across.

A view from my terrace

Normally on a pleasant summer evening there are people around downstairs in the garden, on the plaza, or even in the apartment windows (not that I am a peeping Tom...) But this wasn't the case in this photo; nary a soul to be seen. Something good on tv?