Belgrade

OK lets settle one thing, it is not warmer than home. Today on a walking tour I got caught in the snow. I also learnt that by some definitions I have just entered the Balkans.

I started however by discovering the last Ottoman mosque in the city before visiting the gallery of frescoes

 The actual tour started at midday by a theatre built in the 19th Century, then again in 1922

 Somehow the descendents of the people who painted the Byzyntine icons created this!

 We then headed down a narrow pedestrianised  street lined with cafes and art galleries that is apparently the Belgrade answer to Montmarte, though possibly only in better weather

 This is a statue of an artist, while we were there an old man came up and rubbed the statues knee. I asked the guide if this was meant to be for luck and he said that no, the old man was just a bit strange.

 This is supposedly the oldest house in the city and still inhabited

 I'm not sure this was officially part of the tour since it wasn't mentioned but an interesting take on zebra crossing.

 Rather confusingly this is apparently an Ottoman house despite the fact that would make it older than the Austrian  oldest house in the city.

 Nearby was a mosque, also from Ottoman times

 After a brief talk on the dangers of hyperinflation illustrated by a 50 billion dinar note

 we walked through the fortress, where by now the snow was getting quite thick.