Places
I idealize the charm of a European city, and when I travel am often disappointed by the reality. Belgrade delivered. Sidewalk cafes, historical buildings, churches, amazing views of breathtaking landscapes, and people making interesting use of interesting places.
St. Sava temple taken from the restaurant “Pizza and Beer”. I call this “Photo spot for Americans”.
A morning routine I can get behind on that middle terrace.
A beautiful building with amazing statues framed by the rubble of a side street that is presumably under construction?
The weakest picture I have here, but I like the juxtaposition of the fountains with the light showing through the water and the underexposed traffic. That's also a pretty cool Landcruiser there on the left.
From a fortress in the middle of the city, looking out at an example of the amazing green space Belgrade offers.
There’s a section of the river with all these house boats converted for various things. This was by far the “funkiest”. I don't know what everyone's doing there but I mostly wish I could have been a part of it.
People
I was enchanted by the people of Belgrade. I generally assume that people are people wherever in the world they tend to live, but the people I met in Serbia were warm, hospitable, interested and interesting. Sometimes they even worked in a “street photography” style photo.
This gentleman could not WAIT to sit down. He’s glaring at me, right?
These folks were opening the store for the day. There were more bookstores in Belgrade’s city center than anywhere I’ve seen.
The color on this bus really popped. Photo taken through the open window of a moving car.
The best picture I took on the trip. Cafe life personified. The light was perfect.
The photographer in reflection.
Statues
I don’t generally like to photograph statues. An amazing statue becomes a boring picture very quickly. The statues I saw in Belgrade surprised me though.
Republic Square. I like the two guys in red in the bottom right corner. I assume those are uniforms but I like to think these two friends just randomly wore the same all red outfits for a day out on the town.
This guy is one of the lucky ones. He gets to hang out by the cafes where all the best people watching is.
I took this photo because I was fascinated why they put a bird on his arm. Did he have a bird friend in real life? Only after looking at the picture I took on a computer did I realize it was, in fact, a real bird.
I KNEW this was a real bird, but I liked it anyway. The indignity!
This was a very cool statue with an amazing patina in an area that was a bit run down on the river. I liked how green the patina had gotten.
Art
From the amazing mosaics in the St. Sava temple, to the bold, huge street murals, there was art on every corner of Belgrade.
This was an amazing mural and my photo didn't do it justice. The colors stretch much higher. It's on a busy street and it's honestly hard to pay attention to anything but this.
This was in the courtyard of the hotel I stayed at. I liked how there were birds in the air above the mural of a woman with a bird. The photo is mediocre at best, but the light was perfect.
A sepulchre in Saint Sava's Temple. It was in the basement. I was hoping someone would come and open it, but after a few minutes of waiting it didn't feel like that was going to happen.
Part of the ceiling at Saint Sava's Temple. The interior of the temple actually did take my breath away. It was amazing. This is just one small piece of it.
I liked the pop of color in this, as well as the different textures in the stone and the wood. Also, "hope" being front and center is nice.
This served as the "ceiling" over the outdoor seating section of a cute cafe. The sun was too high for good pictures of most things, but I thought this worked. You can also see some of the grander architecture of the city poking through in the top right.