No more star

Spire on the city parliament of Belgrade. On top once stood a star, representing the communist government.  It was removed during protests of the last decade.

See other skies at SKYWATCH.

From the past....

Relics of the past.  Three manual phones (yes, of course some of us still have them), and a SKJ Yugoslav Communist Party flag. (Some people still have those, too!)  The only things on this photo that are present-day are the crocheted doilies, sold on Knez Mihailova street by the ladies who make them.  The phones were for sale, too; not sure about the flag...

ABC WEDNESDAY - "K" is for "Kalology"

Kalology is the study of beauty, and the ways in which beauty influences society.  You never know when a shot will appear, and seated in a trolley bus, I snapped this photo of the young woman eating an ice cream.  When I uploaded it, I saw that it echoed the advertisement for Breakfast at Tiffany's, which originally starred a famous beauty, Audrey Hepburn.  "Audrey" is eating a croissant. (The woman in the advertisement is a local actress.)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say.  Do you agree?

See other K's on ABC WEDNESDAY.

Forced labor?

One of these kids has a (toy) gun and he looks like he's being told to make that guy work or else!

Do children play with toy weapons where you live?

Great tastes start here....

Another inadvertent juxtaposition for you...are these paintings to your taste?

SUNDAY BRIDGES--goatherd beside the bridge-to-be

 Another photo thanks to my friend Marianne (bottom one is from the Internet), who snapped this goatherd riding along the embankment near another one of Belgrade's new bridges, due for completion at the end of 2013.  You can read about this Chinese-Serbian project on this link.

This is what the new bridge will look like.

See other bridges on Louis La Vache's SUNDAY BRIDGES.

WEEKEND REFLECTION--twisted

Twisted architecture....or so it seems, reflected in the windows of still another building in Nis, Serbia.

See other reflections on James' WEEKEND REFLECTION.

SKYWATCH --clouds and clouds?

The clouds in the sky echo the clouds on the wall...but actually I think the 'clouds' on the wall are stylized something else, but they look like clouds.

Anyway, whatever they are, for SKYWATCH there's a sky!

Roman days in Hrtkovci

True, there is nothing Roman about this Serbian girl, except that her village, Hrtkovci celebrates Roman Days every year in September. Near the village of Hrtkovci (HURT-kuv-tsee) lies an ancient Roman excavation (Gomolava). I went to the celebration this year, with lots of people in togas and even more folk dancing from various regions of the former Yugoslavia.

It's the custom here for people (men/men, women/women, men/women) to kiss three times when they greet each other, and someone got her!

ABC WEDNESDAY--"J" is for "Jewelry"

You've seen jewelry right here and a disembodied arm on this earlier post, so here's a combination of both with a disembodied hand.

See more J's on ABC WEDNESDAY.

"Un fort des Halles" in Belgrade

My first thought upon seeing this man hauling a leg of beef to nearby Kalenic Market here in Belgrade was that he resembled one of the  strong men (les forts), of the now gone Les Halles market in Paris, who were licensed to carry inspected merchandise to and from the daily auctions of fish, fowl, meat and vegetables.  Due to heavy congestion in the city center, Les Halles were transferred from the center of Paris in 1971 to a location outside the city. I feel fortunate to have visited the real Halles many times before that, watching the comings and goings of masses of produce and meat.