EuroTrip '08
clock | April 26, 2008There were quite a lot of events and actions in Belgrade for the Earth Day last week. I came in on that day so I did not have time to see anything. But I loved the balloon they placed in the center of the Slavija square: it was a globe with recognizable outlines of the continents. But the parts of the world were labeled with the names of main streets, parts and neighborhoods of Belgrade (with some effort to match "characters" of the places):
The balloon was supposed to be set free on Earth Day, but, just as I was speaking at the Pediatric Center, a huge storm started outside and broke…
clock | April 26, 2008I already mentioned my friend Srdjan Milovanovic before. Like his father, he is a psychiatrist now, but we go waaaaay back. We have been friends since we were really small - he was two and I was three years old. We grew up in this house - Srdjan on the 8th floor, I on 7th floor:
We were in the same classroom in the elementary school (grades 1-4), in the same middle school (5-8), and kept in touch even when we went to different high schools and later when I went to vet school and Srdjan to med school, and once I left for the USA.
Growing up, we spent a lot of time visiting each other. His…
clock | April 26, 2008It took a century to build the St.Sava Cathedral. I remember playing on its foundations as a kid - a great fortress to play in. But the enterior has just begun to be worked on - I am not sure if the pictures can show the immensity of the space in there:
clock | April 25, 2008Last night's dinner - crepes filled with a mix of cheese, eggs and sugar, baked in the oven with some sweet cream:
And, for the drinking game, we used 'Vranac', an excellent Montenegran wine:
clock | April 25, 2008I was kicking myself all day yesterday because I forgot to take my camera with me for most of the day. First, my mother and I went to the bank to do some business which, of course, made us hungry so we stopped by a bakery and got fresh djevrek (no, although it looks like a sesame bagel, it is not - it is much lighter and crispier). Mmmmmm....
Then we went to the main building of the Natural History Museum and made some contacts there. The Director was at a meeting, but the secretary is smart, hip and on-the-ball and will be a great contact for the future as they try to design a new website…
clock | April 23, 2008OK, I posted a lot of pictures of Belgrade and my Mom's food so far, but the real business was on Tuesday, when I gave two talks about Open Access, PLoS, Science 2.0, the future of the scientific paper, Open Notebook Science and science blogging.
In the morning, I gave a talk in the gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art in front of about 20 people, mostly specialist librarians. That session was recorded and, as soon as the podcast is available, I will link to it. There were many good questions asked at the end and the excitement was palpable.
Afterwards I gave an interview for Radio…
clock | April 23, 2008Museum of Natural History in Belgrade is 113 years old. Tomorrow, I will go to the main building to talk to people and perhaps check the library and some specimens - there is no real exhibit there. But today I went to the ancient and tiny exhibit building, all the way out on Kalemegdan (the old fortress). Since the space is so small, they can only showcase a small portion of the collection at any given time. These few months, the exhibits is about Skeletons. Very nicely done. I particularly liked a whole series of skeletons of a fox and another series of a rat, both showing the various…
clock | April 23, 2008Food is probably the most nostalgia-inducing facet of life....
Tuesday breakfast - prosciutto sandwich (right) and rosehip jam sandwich (left):
Poppyseed (left and center) and Walnut (right) roll:
Wednesday breakfast - cream and cheese and prosciutto and hot pepper and coffee:
Home-made, exceptionally strong plum brandy:
The internationally famous sarma (stuffed cabbage):
Turkish coffee:
clock | April 23, 2008Cathedral of Saint Sava:
Kalemegdan:
Chestnut puree:
Scenes from Knes Mihailova street:
A comic strip for kids, explaining what to do and what not to do if stuck inside the elevator:
clock | April 23, 2008Nothing better than coming back home after a long time (13 years since my last visit), seeing my family and eating Mom's food:
Matzo-ball soup for Passover:
Beef and bone marrow - I dug it out of the bone and salted it:
Spinach&cheese pie:
Around the dinner table:
Grandpa:
The best chocolate/walnut torte in the world. It takes about two days to fix and is very rich. I had it every birthday when I was a kid, and also every time when I cam back home from travels. This time included:
Cannot visit Belgrade without having a chocolate banana....
.... and Niksicko pivo, the amazing…
clock | April 20, 2008In the end, late at night, I had dinner (goulash - excellent) with the Director of FEST and a bunch of young science journalists, all graduates (Masters) of the Trieste program in Science Communication (SISSA) and most of them involved in some way in the organization of FEST:
clock | April 20, 2008The podcast of the radio interview with Derek Law and me about Open Access is now available online. Most of the show is in Italian, but if you cannot understand it, our interview is in English and it starts at the 22:07 minute point.
clock | April 20, 2008Some more pictures....
Saturday dinner:
Alessandro interviewed me for the newspapers:
We were sitting on the edge of Adriatic:
Then I gave another interview, this time about blogging (there will be no podcast - this material will be used for a written text):
clock | April 19, 2008Professor Steve Steve went to FEST with me yesterday and made many friends (I told his story 50 times at least). Here he is with Lawrence Krauss:
And I hope Mrs.Coturnix does not click on the "Read on...." button, as Professor Steve Steve is a well-known and certified babe magnet:
clock | April 19, 2008The science blogging session yesterday was really fun. I am wearing headphones as everyone else was speaking Italian, so I listened to the simultaneous translation. The locals also listened to me via the interpreter:
clock | April 19, 2008Not many people know that James Joyce spent 11 years in Trieste as a lecturer at the University. Now, his bronze statue still walks the bridge across the canal on Ponte Rossa: