Robert Choban

Postcard

Snows of Ararat

Caught between Europe and Asia, the Soviet past and aspirations to be a modern metropolis of a future EU member - Yerevan today is a city of great contrasts, but also optimism that can be seen at every step

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Captured head of the Solitary Buddha

After a 14-month siege, Burmese forces destroyed the former 417-year-old Kingdom of Ayutthaya. Behind it are numerous magnificent temples, which are easiest to get around on two wheels

Robert Shepherd

Women

Discovery of Vidosave Kovačević

There are not many painters who had such a large and important oeuvre and lived such a short life like Vidosava Kovačević. If it weren't for Pavle Beljanski, it is possible that she would not even be known about

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

The last republican port

In a world in chaos, the Spanish Mediterranean city of Alicante, where migrant waves from Africa and Russia intersect, seems like an almost unreal oasis of peace

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

One night in Bangkok

Mouse house at the Thompson Museum and Chinatown with worms and scorpions on the menu are just some of the reasons for the world's craze for Thailand's capital

Robert Shepherd

The culture of memory

Passengers from Platform 21

In the basement of the Milano Centrale Railway Station is Platform 21, from which 1200 Jews from the northern parts of Italy were taken to Auschwitz. A unique museum - Memoriale della Shoah - was opened there in 2013

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Don't lean out the window

Between Tirana and St. Moritz the "Bernina Express" passes through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges and viaducts, and if you travel on a sunny winter's day, you will see some of the most spectacular views in the Alps

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

White lotus, black flags

The Maldives, a symbol of exoticism and luxury tourism, in the past quarter of a century had a very stormy history filled with numerous riots and upheavals, which included the Otpor team from Serbia, which was promised one of the islands for "consulting services"

Robert Shepherd

Cultural heritage

Lenka Dunđerski for the 21st century

Just as the Dunđerski family was a symbol of the rich Serbian commercial and industrial elite in Austria-Hungary, so the new owners of the Sokolac castle symbolize the newly rich Serbians, so it can be said that Maja Buha - Lenka Dunđerski is the measure of 21st century Serbia

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

The exodus of millionaires from the banks of the Thames

While the opponents of Brexit in front of Big Ben play songs in which they mock Nigel Farage, the most responsible for the exit of Great Britain from the EU, it is estimated that 30.000 millionaires have left London in the past 10 years

Robert Shepherd

Roman exhibitions

Fly, Mussolini and Milena

Within the framework of two exhibitions in Rome, for the next three months, there are also traces of Serbia: among the works of Alfonso Mucha is Coronation of King Dušan, and among the works at the exhibition opened by Mussolini 90 years ago, there is a self-portrait of Milena Barili

Robert Shepherd

Protection of cultural heritage

Huns and Avars had more mercy

Those who demolished, mined and burned the places of worship of all three sides during the war have an identical attitude towards their heritage, their own and others', even in peace 30 years later

Robert Shepherd

A pop culture phenomenon

Who is Jakov Jozinović: Hurricane "Jakov" reached Serbia

Without a single original song, the twenty-year-old student from Vinkovci, Jakov Jozinović, is currently the number one pop-cultural phenomenon in the entire region. The combination of Balasevic's, Oliver's and Chola's old songs and his youth, energy and spontaneity causes hysteria among girls that can be compared to that of the Beatles.

Robert Shepherd

Cultural heritage

If the Trianon ruler had gone a few millimeters lower

Corrupt (or just careless and incompetent) decision-makers, greedy investors, insufficiently aware locals conspired against cultural heritage in Vojvodina, and only in the end - the ravages of time.

Robert Shepherd

Exhibitions

Fascism beautifully packaged

An exhibition of 75 posters from the Mussolini era is underway in New York, testifying to the ever-present connection between artists, companies, marketing experts and a totalitarian regime.

Robert Shepherd

World promotion

Death and the Horsewoman

Last week, the world premiere of Dan Brown's new book The Secret of Secrets took place in Prague. This novel is also set in that city, and the "Vremena" reporter was in the right place at the right time.

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Jackie, Don Ivo and Our Lady of Mercy

The Feast of St. Elijah in Gornji Stoliv and the islet where Our Lady of Mercy is located, less known than the famous Our Lady of Škrpjela, are the hidden gems of the Bay of Kotor

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Palaces will shine, and maybe they won't

Montenegrin minister Slaven Radunović proposed a referendum on whether Kotor should remain on the UNESCO World Heritage List and caused more furore than the appearance of a whale in the Gulf, but also brought the first prize to the boat "Don't throw pearls before swine" on Bokeška night

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Bella, are you beautiful?

The genie that was released from the bottle at the Zagreb Hippodrome at the beginning of July, flew over Split's "Poljud" and landed in Sinj, where Thompson's second big concert was held, and arrived, admittedly somewhat weakened, at the Rovinj waterfront

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

On the ruins of the Republic of Aca Apollonius

The picturesque town of Cavtat in Konavle hides the birthplace of the famous painter Vlaho Bukovac, the mausoleum of the Račić family, the work of the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, but also the story of a bizarre episode from the recent history of these areas, when the new Republic of Dubrovnik was proclaimed here

Robert Shepherd

On the occasion of the exhibition

Belgrader on Stradun

About Goran Tomašević, a photographer who was not good enough to be hired by a Belgrade daily, but who did win the Pulitzer Prize, and about his exhibition in Dubrovnik

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

From Solil to Bjelil

Apart from luxury hotels, apartment complexes and golf courses, the Luštica peninsula in Boka Kotor also hides numerous natural, historical and architectural pearls that are easiest to explore on two wheels.

Robert Shepherd

A story from life

The accountant who bought a Ferrari

Sol Kerzner, the son of Russian Jews who moved to South Africa, decided one day that he wanted a new life. He became the owner of a chain of hotels, two of which are located in Montenegro

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

What would Eleanor Rigby see from her window today

Liverpool is home to the largest cathedral in the United Kingdom, one of the oldest football stadiums in the world and two museums dedicated to the Beatles. However, it reached the media around the world this time because of a 53-year-old who was anonymous until yesterday

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Waiting for Frank Gehry's 100th birthday

Famed architect Frank Gehry, 96, is still waiting for the opening of his masterpiece, the Guggenheim Museum Abu Dhabi, which has now been pushed back to 2026. Until then, if you're in the UAE capital, you can visit two other impressive buildings - the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the Louvre Abu Dhabi

Robert Shepherd

Postcard

Avetinja railway Šid–Bijeljina

All the other stations on the route of this railway - Adaševci, Morović, Višnjićevo and Sremska Rača - are neglected, full of garbage, in some of them parts of furniture, maps, signaling have been left, and in one even the entire (locked) safe.

Robert Shepherd

Serbian-Chinese affairs

Year of the Wood Snake on the Begei Coast

In Ecka, on the former property of the Armenian livestock trader Lazar Lukacs, in addition to native Serbs and Romanians, more than 800 Chinese people live today, who go to work at the "Linglong" factory every morning at six in a long line on bicycles.

Robert Shepherd