Scenes from Belgrade

I had a chance to get out on Saturday and take a very long walk through Belgrade with my camera. As you will see, Belgrade is a dichotomous place -- at once dirty, grimy, beautiful and fascinating. I hope that these images will give you a taste of what we've been experiencing here in Belgrade:


Very busy 6-lane bridge crossing from Old Belgrade into "New Belgrade."


A beautiful, but clearly crumbling, European-style building



Another beautiful sight -- this is on one of the main streets in downtown Belgrade (the U.S. Embassy is located on this street)

A Serbian clothes dryer -- we have one of these, too, although we have the real thing, as well!

Serbian woman selling pajamas and other assorted items of clothing on a car (these cars are parked on the sidewalk outside of the building in which the church we've been attending is located)

Family visiting their loved one in the hospital -- he apparently has had some sort of eye surgery, and they most likely are bringing him some edible food

Another hospital patient taking a break from the hospital -- he was standing on the sidewalk outside the gates of the hospital -- it's actually very common in this part of town to see hospital patients walking around the neighborhood in their pajamas

Roma boy wheeling about in a home-made cart carrying junk that he is collecting from around town

A beautiful Serbian bride and her new husband!

It's hard to tell what's going on here, but this lady and her son are washing off grapes they just purchased at the market

Red peppers (called "paprika" here) are EVERYWHERE. This is high paprika season, and soon everyone will start roasting the peppers for canning or to make a delicious red pepper paste called "ajvar."

A scene from one of Belgrade's biggest outdoor markets

Vestiges of communism -- a very unattractive and down-at-the-heels communist-era school or office building (this is in our neighborhood -- about 3 blocks from our house)

A corner market in our neighborhood -- looks can be deceiving -- this place has just about everything one could need -- not very pretty, but extremely functional!

Again, a beautiful, but beleaguered, old Serbian home not far from where we live -- it surely was a fine and grand home back in the heydays of the former Yugoslavia