Bye bye blackbird

Here's my feathery neighbor, a blackbird:



Just as the songs says, he sings the blues all day... :)

Capturing a moment...

Inside St. Marko's church

A month ago was the first time ever I've entered St. Marko's church in the Old (Upper) town in Zagreb. Unlike its boastful and very famous roof with painted tiles (see here for some of the outside photos), the inside of the church is much simpler, yet beautiful, with true pieces of art (sculptures, frescoes etc.) shyly showing their beauty. Here's one:



PS. Sorry about the low quality photo, this was taken with my Nokia cell...

Fire in a classroom's corner and glagolitic alphabet

Another detail from another classroom:



Although this painted wall is interesting, I wonder if it causes pupils to be a bit more aggressive than usual because of the fire's image influence on their subconsciousness...

Btw, the weird script below the white board is so-called glagoljica or Glagolitic alphabet (don't mix it with Cyrillic), dating from around 9th century AD, and is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. Latin alphabet prevailed later on, and around 19th century, Glagolitic alphabet was made obsolete (it was officially made obsolete long before that, but it hung on here and there).

Just in case you were wondering, my name, Mirela, in Glagolitic, looks like this:

Smart police

I'm not quite sure what they can use this tiny car for. Chasing speeding drivers definitely isn't it. Maybe chasing slower cyclists? Or faster pedestrians :) Hmmm...

Either way, it's the first police Smart car I've seen in Zagreb or Croatia:

Zagreb bus || Bonus trip photo: all roads lead to Rome

Nicely painted bus, the link and company I've never heard of and confused people coming out of it:



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Bonus trip photo: all roads lead to Rome (or as Italians would put it - tutte le strade portano a Roma)... just in case you wondered where the new Zagreb photos were, I've been traveling, and this time, to Rome. Unlike the northern part of Italy which I've been to countless times, I've never been to Rome. Here's Fontana di Trevi:



The legend has it, if you throw one coin into the fountain, you'll come back to Rome. If you throw in the second coin, you'll fall in love with an Italian. If you throw in the third coin, you'll marry him/her... I threw in 3 coins... I'll let you know if the legend holds... :-)

June Theme Day: Funny signs

The photo was taken a few years ago on one of the islands near Dubrovnik:



As you can see, we like to keep our tourists awake, alert and on toes... :) lost too... they tend to spend more if they're lost. ;-D

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Bonus photo is from my second favorite city in the world - Seattle, and its famous "Curiosity shop". This has got to be the coolest warning sign for shoplifters:



Make sure you check out other funny signs around the world: Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

My lamp!

This little guy was making it very clear this lamp was his, and his only:

Spider attack

The blue spider truck in action, picking up irresponsible driver's car who thought parking on a sidewalk was a good idea:







Once the car is picked up, it's taken to a large parking lot. For every day your car is there, your fine goes up (starting at around 200EUR or $250) and you cannot pick up the car without paying... quite efficient way of dealing with (and teaching) people who think they're somehow entitled to park wherever they please.

Twirls in iron

Fancy iron work:

Happy

I always feel happiness as I exit Oktogon passageway - seeing the sunny weather, cafes, flower stands at the "Flower Square"... Very elaborate iron work at the exit/entrance helps the feeling too.

An ode to an overlooked tree

I bet this tree always gets overlooked because of the background. Here's my ode to the overlooked tree:

Sparrow

Classroom

Classrooms and their walls used to be quite dull when I was a kid. Classrooms in the school where I attend Italian lessons recently got flowery walls with purple/black details: