Cold War, you say? I call it flippin' freezing!

While coming from a country that is situated just below the Arctic Circle, we are usually kept nice and toasty by the Gulf Stream. As such, it isn't often that we get very snowy weather, but when we do, it grinds the country to a halt, and all those countries to the north of us have a good laugh. Embarrassingly, while rather modest about their ability to cope with snow, the Serbs seemed to take the so-called 'Beast from the East' rather well, with all transport services running as though nothing had happened. It was on said public transport that I made my way into the centre of Belgrade with a friend, and spent a frosty morning wandering the grounds of Belgrade Fortress.

Located on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, Belgrade fortress is an imposing structure. Accessible by land only from the south, the area has been settled since the Neolithic period, with the first military encampment being established by the Romans to guard the Danube border. For the next two millennia, the city and fortress would be demolished and rebuilt several times over, as the strategically important location was fought over by Slavs, Byzantines, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Turks, Austrians, and finally being established as the capital of the Principality of Serbia in 1838, and later the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882. It was here that the First World War begun, with Austro-Hungarian troops shelling the fortress, and the adjoining city, from the north.

While the fortress serves no practical military purpose today, and was consequently left untouched by the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia in 1999, it still stands as a irreplaceable symbol of the city, and of the long history of human settlement in the area. This particular artillery piece is surrounded by dozens of other weapons of past wars, all freshly coated by snow. While the cold sun had begun to thin this layer on some of the armoured vehicles, this gun was sheltered by the fortress walls, and so continued to be blanketed in white. Although, judging by the icicles dangling from either side of the shield, some of the snow has tried to melt away, and had been caught red-handed by General Winter.

Hope you enjoy!