I snapped this photo a couple of weekends ago at the Knez Mihailova Street in downtown Belgrade, Serbia. It is the famous walking and shopping street that is only open to pedestrians. There is an old art gallery with high curb where street vendors sell souvenirs. Ocean sat down while Nadia and Alejandra were buying some ear rings. I took a series of photos showing the various emotions of her. She is very expressive and I absolutely love her. I call her my “Angel Princess” because she is so heavenly. It has been amazing to be a father to a daughter. I think I am learning as much from her as she is from me.
We went back to the Staro Hopovo (Old Hopovo) monastery in the Fruska Gora National Park Saturday. We were there last January and it was so cold that I said I wanted to go back in warm weather. We did on Sunday for a family picnic.
We had a nice lunch in the sunshine and then I took the kids for the hike. The boys were complaining a bit, but in the end, they found some sticks and were pretending to be soldiers as we walked along the stream. There is a spring behind the monastery that people go and fill up bottles.
This is a short video of my two sons and nephew “playing” in our garden. I don’t understand how this is their version of fun. I enjoyed watching them. They were constantly beating on each other while Sebey, our nephew was here. Alejandra and Sebey left today for Bahrain, via London. We’ll be visiting them possibly in December.
It is nice to have my nephew Sebastian visiting us for a few weeks. This morning I took this photo of my sons and nephew sleeping next to each other in their room. They like to set out the quilts and sleep on the floor instead of the bunk beds. Little sister Ocean would also like to sleep on the floor too, but we put her in her room with a bottle of mleko.
I was also on a cruise on the Sava and Danube rivers earlier this week. Fans of my blog on the boat with me, wanted me to post this photo. I took this photo of the Danube (Dunav in Serbian) while we were pulling in to the dock. It was a peaceful time and it gives one a different perspective of Belgrade. I wondered how invading armies must have been challenged in taking Kalemegdan Fortress above the rivers. I think Strauss would have written a sequel to his “Blue Danube” waltz if he had seen my photo above.
Tuesday evening we took the kids to the Kalemegdan Park in Belgrade. The park is a huge public green space surrounding the ruins of a fortress. The city was originally only the fort as it commands a strategic, and more importantly for us today, a position with gorgeous views over the city and rivers. It is nice in Belgrade that most people live in apartments and do not have private gardens. They must use the public spaces, and this creates a real community feel. That is lacking in many western nations as people tend to stay in private homes more. There is also not a lot of crime in the parks so families can enjoy them without worry. In developing nations, the parks are not very nice or safe from crime. I think this is one of the reasons expats like Belgrade so much, is this sense of community.
You can see Alejandra above (black dress) and my family, watching the old guys play chess. We had a nice evening, meeting several people and having the kids run around the fort walls and scramble on the collection of tanks they have on display.
The hot weather continues here in Belgrade and we’ve been trying to keep cool. Both Nadia and I have become huge fans of carbonated mineral water and our favorite is shown above, Knjaz Milos. It is named after the Serbian King, Milos Obrenovic, who believed the waters of a town Arandelovac, just south east of Belgrade in the Sumadija region, had curative powers. I would like to visit the town some day.
Many Serbians drink carbonated water and at first, I didn’t like it much, as it is not very common in the USA, but it grew on me. Now I prefer this over regular water. I see the attraction and it is like a drink, but water and healthy for you as it has less calories than soda pop.
Without a car our options are limited of getting out of town so we’ve been going to Ada Ciganlija often. Below is a view from Saturday.
Readers of my blog are curious to the origin of my last name. The name sounds Slavic and I get a lot of guesses. One Czech reader did correctly recognize it as a Bohemian surname. This post is the story of my Great Grandfather who came to America. This summer I spent some time going through some old scrap books in our basement. The sources I used for this post were the 1942 newspaper (either Marinette, WI or Menominee, MI daily) obituary of my great grandfather and conversations with my father.
Andrew John Kralovec (the name was “Americanized” – it was originally Andreas) was born “in Bohemia” on July 17, 1860 and he came to the USA in 1888 when he was 18 years old. I can only guess why he left for America. At the time, Bohemia was a peaceful entity under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and they had a relatively good level of autonomy. His decision to leave changed my destiny completely.
Andrew first came to Menominee, Michigan, but moved to Odanah, Wisconsin. He lived there for 20 years from 1900 to 1920. Andrew married fellow Bohemian immigrant, Anna Rebic, shortly upon arrival. They were wed on February 7, 1888 in Stangleville, Wisconisn. Andrew and Anna had seven children, three girls and four boys, one being my grandfather, Charles Kralovec. The other children listed in the obituary of 1942 were as follows and a bit about what my Dad remembers about them:
1) Anna Kralovec – She remained single her whole life and worked as a nurse in Oak Park, Illinois.
2) Mathias Kralovec – He lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin and worked as a carpenter. He didn’t have any children. My father lived with him for two weeks every summer in Green Bay.
3) Mary (Feich) – She lived Greenwood, a small town just south of Ishpeming in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She didn’t have any children.
4) Charles Kralovec – My grandfather, lived in Menominee. He attended Ripon College (Wisconsin) with his brother John for a couple of years. He left the school because of his lack of hearing. I will post on him more later.
5) Jennie (Paitl) – She lived in Menominee and had several children.
6) Frank Kralovec – He house painter in Ewen, Michigan. He married late in life and had no children.
Andrew worked in a sawmill in Odanah. Lumber companies back then advertised in Europe for jobs. He was a skilled “sawyer” who could accurately determine how many boards could be cut from a log, thus avoiding waste. Odanah is a small town in northern Wisconsin on an Indian Reservation. My grandfather attended the St. Mary’s Indian School on the reservation. The big event of the day was the arrival of the train at the depot, everyone watched it to see if the inspectors would find any contraband whiskey, because alcohol was not allowed on the reservation. In 1900, not much of the Chippewa traditional life was left, my Dad said there were a couple of wigwams (tepees) left, and they got rid of those “smelly things.”
Andrew then returned to Menominee, Michigan in 1920, where he worked as a lumber grader for 14 years. At that time, Menominee, located at the mouth of the Menominee River, produced lots of lumber because of the great number of trees in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan being harvested and its position on Lake Michigan.
Andrew died in 1942 at the age of 82. He passed away quietly in his sleep. The newspaper reported that he suffered from heart disease for some time before his death.
Anna lived another 5 years after the death of her husband. She died of stomach cancer. My father remembers that she cooked all the time and always wore an apron. She always had a crock of sauerkraut fermenting in the kitchen, my father remembers the smell, and she cooked fresh bread everyday.
My father remembers a bit about his grandfather. He was a big guy, about 6-2, 200 pounds. Andrew loved to play pinochle with his brother and they were always cheating at cards. He did not speak English very well but he understood everything. His left arm didn’t move from when he tripped over the woodblock making kindling for the stove about 10 years before his death.
Andrew Kralovec (1860 – 1942)
I would have loved to have met him, but he died 25 years before I was born. It would have been interesting to ask him why he came to America. My father said that because of the language, he didn’t speak much to him. My grandfather spoke Czech, but not my father. He lived a good life according to my father, so I guess he didn’t regret coming over. I also wish the newspaper would have had a bit more about where in Bohemia he came from.
We are without a car for the next 10 days. Our beloved “Eidelweiss” was scheduled to get a new compressor, but as the mechanics found out as they began to replace it, another part was needed. I bought parts at a Honda dealer in the USA because we have an American car. The parts are much cheaper there, and the guys here in Belgrade, kindly gave me a list of parts to buy. They overlooked a part, hence they are ordering a new one. We’ll be without a car for a while.
We also found out the car was low on oil after the long holiday. We needed a tow truck coming back from the airport last Friday evening. Nadia is shown above calling as we pulled over on E75. It is doubly inconvenient because Nadia’s sister and my nephew are visiting and it would be nice to have a car. I’ve been working this week and Nadia and the kids have been going to Ada and biking and swimming.
Owen Playing Chess Against His Cousin Sebey as Ocean Looks On
We are back in Belgrade and enjoying the beautiful weather and relatively empty city, with everyone on vacation. We are also hosting Nadia’s sister and my nephew for the week as they do not have to be back to school until September. I am working hard getting ready for the arrival of the new teachers. In the photo above, we had a pizza at “Brodic” one of our favorite splavovi (restaurant floating in the Sava River) and Sebey taught his cousin how to play chess.
We also are spending time at Belgrade’s “seaside” or Ada Ciganlija. The family is shown below on the rocky beach cooling off. It is an amazing place and the thing that most impressed Nadia and I was the fitness level of the Serbians. There are not many overweight people in Serbia as it is the US. We were discussing why that is so. I think it is a combination of more activity and less food intake.
My village of Caspian is located in a beautiful, sparsely populated region of the USA. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is located between the Great Lakes of Superior and Michigan. It has the area of Maryland (500 km long and 200 km wide) and only about 300,000 people. It is a land of forests, rivers, lakes and cool weather. This summer renewed my love of this land. We hiked, camped, swam, etc. in the beauty of the northwoods. It is a great place for enjoying wilderness and has a slower pace because of the lack of people. It reinforced my desire to eventually retire or live up here, at least on a part-time basis. Real estate is cheap as well as the cost of living. We also have lots of family and friends in the region. It is a summer paradise for kids.
The Mighty Fishermen
Above is a photo of our campsite at Golden Lake (285 acres – max depth of 100 feet). We actually enjoyed a night in a tent and the kids loved the camping experience. We’ll definitely have to do it again. We also stayed at the Aurora Borealis Resort in Skanee, Michigan last week. We spent two days swimming and beach combing at Lake Superior. Ocean is shown below on the beach front of Huron Bay. The resort is owned by a retired doctor from Milwaukee, and him and his wife have made the cabins and gardens look like Martha Stewart designed it.
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