The Honey Fair

Yesterday was the last day of the annual Honey Fair in Tašmajdan (tash-MY-dahn) Park downtown. This fair is the largest honey fair, though there are smaller ones held occasionally at different times during the year throughout the city. Several hundred honey farmers or apiarists gather in the park to sell royal jelly, candles, beekeeping equipment, cookies, cakes, mead, and of course, all kinds of honey. I bought a kilo (large jar) of almond blossom honey with the comb inside. You can see that it was raining and quite chilly, which didn't deter crowds from taking advantage of some price reductions during the last day.

National Assembly of Serbia, then and now.

Construction on the National Assembly of Serbia started in 1907, with the cornerstone being laid by King Petar I. World War I delayed construction, and the original plans to the building were lost. The sculpture, Black Horses Playing, visible in the second photo, was placed in front of the building in 1939. You can see that the building visible in the first photo has been torn down, and that there are a lot of cars around now, whose drivers pay around 100 dinars per liter (approx. $8.00 a gallon) for gasoline, as opposed to the 8 dinars it sold for back in 1934, as in the first photo. But I guess that was a lot then. If you were expecting me to tell you about Serbian politics, you're probably disappointed, for I have yet to figure them out. However, I can tell you that 8 years ago this very day, Slobodan Milosevic's regime finally fell, with protesters storming this building.

To read more, go here.

A bit of the village in the city

On September 30th (http://yankee-in-belgrade.blogspot.com/2008/09/roasted-peppers.html)posted I posted two photos of what one can do with long, sweet peppers. Another option is to make ajvar, a pepper/eggplant/garlic relish that one can enjoy on the side , mixed with a kind of cream cheese, or spread on bread. Because it can be messy to roast the peppers at home, many housewives in the city's urban areas take to a nearby field...or even just hike all their gear downstairs in the area around their apartment building. Such was the case of this grandma and her grandson helper. I love the equipment she has, and also am pleased that this little boy will have fond memories of his childhood and grandma when he grows up. (Photo quality isn't great...took this with my cell phone...)

Wall Art

Often walls here are covered with grafitti, random street art, posters, or just scribbles. Here, however, this piece of wall art is the product of a major undertaking, and I wonder if the guys on the scaffolding are preparing another urban "canvas." Click on the photo to enlarge it. It seems as if this angel has something unangel-like protuding from one of her sleeves...oh.

Update: Want to know the story behind this mural? Check Bibi's comment under "Comments."

Forty days later...

Hard for my family and me to believe, but yesterday marked the 40 days following my husband's sudden and unexpected passing. According to Serbian Orthodox tradition, a memorial attended by close family and friends is held at the graveside on that day (yesterday October 1st), whereupon the priest offers more blessings. It is believed that the soul passes through the natural and supernatural world before moving on, and many prayers should be offered during the 40 days. This we have done, and we are still struggling to come to terms with this tragedy in our lives. He is missed every day, and will be loved forever.

I want to thank our very good friend and fellow photographer, Francois, who visited us this summer from Paris, and took this photo in the same cemetery where my husband lies. It dates from the early 1900's, and shows a ceramic photo of the person lying there.

Theme Day---Lines

Here's a cafe/restaurant on the Sava with lots of lines. Even the fisherman has his own line...but no fish yet.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Roasted peppers!

You haven't really enjoyed peppers unless you've eaten them Serbian-style. Especially around the end of September when they're at their peak, these sweet peppers, either green as above or red as below, are roasted on a grill or even directly on the burner on one's stove like I did above, until their skin is black. When they're cool, peel the burned part away, place in a salad bowl as below, add plenty of chopped garlic, oil, and vinegar, and enjoy! Yum. Serbs also make roasted peppers into ajvar (pronounced EYE-var) by adding roasted eggplant and garlic, and running it all through a meat grinder. Ajvar is then eaten as a garnish, spread on bread, or mixed with a kind of feta cheese. Yum again.

The Before and After of Branko's Bridge

This is a case of where the "before" definitely looks better than the "after."
Branko's Bridge is the second-largest bridge in Belgrade across the Sava River, connecting the city center with New Belgrade, visible in the background of the second photo. (New Belgrade did not exist until around 1965.) The bridge was built in 1957 to replace the former King Alexander I bridge that was opened on December 16th, 1934, and blown up in 1941. The bridge actually uses lower parts of the former bridge's pylons for its two secondary spans. It is crossed by nearly 90,000 vehicles daily, and traffic jams are frequent. Its official name during communist rule was " Brotherhood and Unity Bridge," but that name never caught on. It isn't certain whether the bridge was named afterBranko Radičević, a Serbian Romantic poet, or after another writer, Branko Ćopić, who committed a suicide by jumping from the bridge in 1984. (Such occurrences or attempts are quite frequent, actually.)

This post is dedicated to Marie at Vintage Postcards! Check out her blog at: http://www.cpaphilblog.com/

Cruising down the Danube...

For a number of years, interrupted only by the NATO bombing in 1999, tourist ships cruise down the Danube and pass through Belgrade. This one (and it's one big ship) is the Swiss Gloria, run by http://www.scylla-tours.com/dynasite.cfm?dsmid=1523, and she passes through Belgrade on her way to the Black Sea. You can see some tourists happily clicking away at Kalemegdan Fortress, which of course you can't see, since it would be behind you! The ship docks for a few hours in Belgrade, giving the tourists a chance to walk around, buy souvenirs, and take more photos. I helped a couple from New York find their way the other day while downtown....and was complimented for my excellent English!

Snoozing by the river

No comment, apart from "Sweet dreams!" And also to say that this was taken just a couple of weeks ago, when we were still in summer....

FLASH! The Flintstones Visit Belgrade!

I'll bet Fred and Wilma pimped their foot-powered car and drove it to Belgrade, where I had the great fortune to photograph it, though the Flintstones were nowhere in sight. This little eco-friendly beauty has it all: air conditioning, spacious trunk, great visibility, padded seats and headrests, plenty of headroom, and space for the family dog...or small dinosaur. Its easily-readable gas gauge tells you at a glance how much fuel you have left, and entering and exiting is a breeze (literally). Best of all, spare parts are never a problem, and I think Fred and Wilma were probably out shopping for headlights. (I was wondering if those green ropes are seatbelts... )



P.S. This actually is a car that is regularly driven by Romi, or gypsies, as they make their rounds throughout the city, picking up old newspapers, metal, or odds and ends.