Baba Vera's house + playground in Banjica

Today we dropped by to see Boogie's grandmother, "Baba" Vera, who at 90 years old lives alone and is completely self-sufficient, cleaning and cooking, keeping busy. She seemed happy to have her great-granddaughter running around her apartment, eating everything and taking things off the walls to play with.
yummmm, homemade preserved peaches....


Maya found Boogie's toy crocodile, brought back from a trip to Trieste when he was 10...

*****

After visiting Baba Vera, we went to the neighborhood of Banjica to find an indoor playground Dragana had heard about. It was closed, so we ended up at the small local playground, where Maya finally got to play and also managed to make a new friend...





here is one of Boogie's photos of Banjica:

OLD TREES

The city authorities have decided to cut down ALL the trees that line one of the main Boulevards here in Belgrade, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra. People are really upset about it, and on the street today there were police everywhere as workers and their big machines worked to strip the neighborhood of all the beautiful old trees, leaving big stumps and a massive mess in their wake.
Their excuse is that the trees were sick, and yes, there may have been a handful that were not well, but that's no reason to cut down hundreds of hundred year-old trees.

It was a really sad sight...

Divna's house

Today we went to visit Boogie's aunt, Divna, a textile designer, who lives right in the center of the city, off the Trg Slavija. If you google "Belgrade Serbia", the arrow that shows up is a block away from her apartment.

as she loves to announce, "Maya is so smiling!" usually followed by equally broken Serbian translation, "Maya smeje!"

She has a collection of strange and interesting things....




Maya didn't care that Dragana and I were going to leave without her.

MAYA is 2 years and 5 months old today

MAYA MAJMUNCE ("Maya the Little Monkey")

dancing to the White Stripes on Serbian MTV

Serbian TV ::::: TURBO FOLK!!!

Bad TV is bad TV, but there's something innocent in SEKA ALEKSIC's very unrefined and vulgar sense of style. I don't know if it's the mohawk, glam makeup or gold spandex dress, but hey, people love her!

MAYA ::::: 28 months

BG textures

Chubby ready for Kosmaj

So excited to go, Maya was ready with boots and gloves and scarf an hour before leaving with Dragana for KOSMAJ, a mountain 40km southeast of Belgrade, where they'll stay with Mimi and Robert for a couple of days.

How to Buy a Refridgerator in Belgrade

Buying household appliances in cash over a shot of RAKIJA (plum brandy)

more from the weekend snowstorm

at the green market near our apartment "BAJLONOVA PIJACA"