Laugh, and the whole world....

...laughs with you. This girl was undoubtedly thinking happy thoughts, or else she was very pleased to see these brilliant, gigantic flowers at Belgrade's recent Plant and Flower Show. She even kept smiling when she saw me take this photo.

"Happy ever after in the market place..."

Well, I'm definitely somehow on a rock "roll" now, with this photo named after the Beatles' song. This happy couple have a stand in a small market downtown, where they sell all kinds of batteries, plugs, extension cords...enlarge the photo to see. Before I took their photo, I'd been trying to photograph on the sly a woman selling cabbages, but she wasn't lining up as I liked. This lady gesticulated to me, making "clicking the camera motions," and said in English, "Please--photo!" (Imagine--she thought I was a tourist!) She was happy to find out I could really communicate with her, and we had a little chat. She pulled her husband over, and there's the photo. I promised her, as I often do with people, a hard copy.

Gimme Shelter!

You may think I'm on a music gig with my Purple Rain title yesterday and my reference to the Rolling Stones' song title today. But this pup was seeking shelter from our cold weather that we had a little while back. Oh, if those curtains just hung down a little bit more...

Purple Rain?

Not sure this is what Prince had in mind when he wrote Purple Rain, but there's not an umbrella in sight here. These balls are part of an advertisement for Komercijalna Banka, a Serbian bank founded in 1970, with 251 branches all over the country. These purple and white spheres are actually large stickers on the bank's window, and what you see behind the balls is actually a reflection of part of Belgrade's recent annual Flower and Plant Show.

A Politician with a Sense of Humor

Nikola Pašić (PA-sheech) 1845 - 1926, was a politician and diplomat. He was the most important Serbian political figure in the country for almost 40 years, twice mayor of Belgrade (1890-91 and 1897), several times prime minister of Serbia (1891-92, 1904-05, 1906-08, 1909-11, 1912-18) and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the future Yugoslavia) 1918, 1921-24, 1924-26). He was also an important politician in the Balkans who, together with his counterparts in Greece and Romania, managed to strengthen their small, still emerging national states against strong foreign influences, most notably from Austria, Hungary, Turkey, and Russia. This is all quite admirable in itself, but Pašić was also known for his sense of humor. I wonder if he'd think it was funny that there's often a pigeon on his head.

ABC Wednesday "L" is for "lashes"

At Belgrade's recent annual Flower and Plant Show, I caught this seller taking time out to refresh her make-up. Gotta get those lashes ready to flutter. Join ABC Wednesday at: http://abcwednesdayround3.blogspot.com/

Back in Belgrade...15 years later!

This is probably my first really personal photo. Here are Chris and Jenny, two teachers who taught at the International School of Belgrade 15 years ago! They fell in love with Belgrade and the Serbs, and have always kept up contact with me and with Chris's Serbian cousins. Their travels have taken them to China (10 years!!), Costa Rica (4 years), and now they're in Doha, Qatar. But their hearts are in Belgrade, where they've just visited over their school's Ramadan break. In this photo they're about to enjoy a starter dish of kajmak (KY-mak), a rich, creamy type of spread guaranteed to eventually clog your arteries. Bon appétit, or Prijatno! (pree-YET-no), as they say here.

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."