Posts from ‘March, 2009’

This is a shot of 29th of November Street (Ulica 29. novembra). Here you can see an example of Belgrade’s mish-mash of architecture, which may not always be pretty, but it certainly makes the city interesting. The shop on the left is a travel agent, the middle one sells sweet and savoury pancakes (palacinke) and [...]

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The campaign, in response to the conflict in Serbia’s southern province of Kosovo, lasted 78 days and nights between March 24 and June 11, 1999.  It was the first international bombing of a European country since World [...]

Belgrade’s transport infrastructure is not one of the city’s finest features. The trolleybuses, buses and trams can get very crowded, sweaty and hot at peak times – and the regular traffic jams in the city only help to lengthen the torment. There are lots of new, modern air-conditioned buses and trolleybuses, many kindly donated by [...]

Dragan Markovic Palma, the mayor of Jagodina and a member of the Serbian Parliament as leader of the United Serbia party never fails to amuse with the ‘wisdom’ that sprouts from his mouth.
His most recent comment, following a parliamentary debate on the what-has-become-rather-controversial anti-discrimination law, was as follows (my own translation):
In Serbia, there are over [...]

This beautiful church is the Church of St. Gavrilo the Archangel (Hram svetog arhangela Gavrila). It’s located on Humska street in the Dedinje area of Belgrade, opposite the Partizan football team stadium. I just had to stop and take a photo as it was a pleasant, and very tranquil, contrast to the dozens of police [...]

I went to the opening of the Tito Effect (Efekat Tita) exhibition today at the Yugoslav History Museum (Muzej istorije Jugoslavije), which is also known as the 25th of May Museum (Muzej “25. maj”). The exhibition is a display of the presents given to Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of [...]

In other, less serious news, all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, plus Albania (ignore the Greek flag in the picture above), have picked their 2009 Eurovision entries:
Serbia
Albania
Croatia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Montenegro
Slovenia
Macedonia
Will Eurovision return to the region next year after a short break in Russia? Probably not.
For a rundown of Balkan Eurovision losers, head over to Belgraded.
Which is your [...]

Photo by lilit
As promised in my previous post, here’s a (quick, sorry I’m a bit under the weather today) update on the anti-discrimination law situation.
Well, unsurprisingly, the situation attracted much media interest with it being the topic on a whole host of programmes; both views for and against the withdrawal of the anti-discrimination law were [...]

Delta City is a large shopping and entertainment complex in Blok 67, New Belgrade. The first ‘real’ shopping centre in Serbia, it opened its doors on the 1st of November, 2007. The complex, spread out over 3 floors and 87,000 sq metres, has some 130 stores, including a Marks & Spencer and a supermarket, 15 [...]

The separation of the church/religious communities and the state is enshrined in the Constitution of Serbia. However, with today’s news that a draft anti-discrimination law was withdrawn [in Serbian] from adoption procedures in the Serbian Parliament under pressure from the Serbian Orthodox Church, it seems somebody didn’t get the memo.
The Serbian Orthodox Church has taken [...]