Last weekend we enjoyed the fresh spring weather and went for a picnic and hike in the Fruška Gora (Frankish Hill) National Park. The park is the hilly area in the northern part of Serbia in the center of the Panonian Plain. We first had a nice picnic on the grounds of the Stari Hopovo Monastery. After lunch, we went for a walk up into the forest. The boys brought their nerf guns and played hide and seek with Ocean. There are no leaves on the trees yet, so one could see a long way. A few spring wildflowers were out.
Serbian National Elections were on Sunday and as expected the Serbian Progressive Party won an absolute majority (48%) and do not have to form a coalition with any other party. They will name Aleksandar Vučić as the Prime Minister on May 1. This is the first single-party majority this century since the fall of Slobodan Milosević. He is from New Belgrade (Blok 45) and when a young man, he was a vocal member of the Serbian Radical Party, a far right, ultranationalist party. He called for the killing of muslims and protecting war criminal Ratko Mladić. He is now pro-Europe and much calmer as an older man. He is quite popular because of his anti-corruption stance and fighting organized crime. I am not sure how much is rhetoric and how much he is really doing because I don’t follow politics and the news enough. He is shown below saving the lives of school children trapped in a bus during a bad snow storm this winter in Vojvodina. The Serbs have a sarcastic sense of humor and they saw a political photo opportunity. Very funny!
It is such a privilege to be a father! I can’t put adequately into words how I feel about the truly awesome responsibility of fatherhood. I am a very lucky man to have two sons. As they are getting older, our relationship is getting more interesting as they are developing their own opinions and personalities. I wish I had more time and patience for them! As my mother says, we do the best we can.
Last week we noticed that we were wearing the same outfits. The dark blue, long-sleeved shirt and black sweat pants are “my uniform” according to Nadia. They are comfortable and on weekends I am usually playing sport, so I wear them often. The boys love wearing their black sweat pants and were fighting over them last week. It dawned on me it is probably because they see me wearing them all the time. It made me realize they are always watching me, and taking cues on how to be a man. That is a big responsibility.
We wanted to give mom a hard time, so we took the photo above. 🙂
Below is a photo from last week’s basketball game. It is one of the best parts of my week- the practices and games I have with the Junior Dragon basketball team. I love coaching Owen, Oliver and their friends. What an honor it is to coach them!
This is my second visit to Skopje, as I was here in September 2012, about 1 and 1/2 years ago, which I blogged about here. I am here this week for a basketball tourney so haven’t had much time to see the city.
We did a walking tour of downtown last night, and you can see above the Palace of Justice behind one of the many statues along the Vardar River. That is one thing I will miss about living in Europe is being able to see so many different countries in such a short time. The drive from Belgrade to Skopje is about 5 hours. Skopje was once part of Yugoslavia and one can still see the distinctive Socialist architecture here and there. The Macedonians are trying to re-do the city in their own image with many new buildings. There is also a Turkish/Albanian influence, as the country is about 25% ethnic Albanian. Our host Aleksandar said that the fortress is closed to the public due to a dispute between the muslim community and the Macedonian Orthodox community. City officials were to build or open an Orthodox Church there and the Albanian community opposed it.
Macedonia was a smaller part of the ex-Yugoslavia, with only about 2 million inhabitants. Beside Tito’s Partisans wanting the area, the Macedonians have also been sought after by the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Ottomans, etc. I am happy they have their independence, but feel if they wanted a larger country, they would best fit with the Bulgarians.
Boris Trajkovski Sports Center – Skopje, Macedonia
I am here for a basketball tournament with our High School Boys’ team. We are playing games at the Boris Trajkovski Sports Center, which is named after the former President of Macedonia. He died in an airplane crash while visiting Bosnia 10 years ago. He was a Methodist Minister and was known as a moderate who promoted inclusion of all ethnic groups in Macedonia. This is a quality still much needed today in the Balkans. He is regarded as a hero by the Macedonians and the government has built a beautiful center with a hockey rink, pool, arena, gymnasium, etc.
We really had a nice holiday this week in Istanbul. I had wanted to visit the city for a long time because of the Ottoman Empire’s long domination of Belgrade. It was interesting to see what the Serbs took from the Turks that can still be seen today. There are many Turkish words that were adopted by the Serbs and customs as well. Istanbul is also one of the world cities that everyone should visit and the Turks are the classic, East meets West regarding its history and culture. I am fascinated with contrasting the liberal, European-type aspects of the city with the conservative, Islamic side of the society. The contrast could be seen in the dress of the people in the streets, with head scarves on some women and tight mini-skirts and flowing hair on others. There also seemed to be a lot of tourism from both European countries and Middle Eastern nations. For example, we met three people from Saudi Arabia on the ferry and there were lots of “ninjas” as the expats call them in the Arabian Gulf region, or women wearing full, black covering seen in the city.
Seagulls chase the ferry with Maiden’s Tower in the background
We saw the secular side of the city in talking with the manager of the Asitane Restaurant. He was complaining about the high taxes the conservative Islamic government puts on wine, making it very expensive and hard for vineyards to make a living. I highly recommend the restaurant, by the way! It specializes in old Ottoman recipes. His team was testing wines to put on the menu. We also met our former colleague Alison, who teaches at Robert College, for lunch, and she told us some stories that illustrated both sides of Turkey. The Turkish faculty working at the school are very secular, with few going to mosque on Fridays. Robert College is one of the oldest and largest American International schools in the world. However, she also said that Islam was put on her children’s birth certificates automatically. Another example is the many beer advertisements, bars, and transvestites in Taksim, the neighborhood where we stayed, while hearing the call to prayer several times per day. The call to prayer is a reminder to all muslims of the main tenets of Islam. It sounds so foreign and exotic to me, and you really get the sense of being someplace different. I don’t know about the 5:44 AM call to prayer that we heard in the mornings. I am sure a mosque in a Christian country would not do this as they would receive complaints from the neighbors.
Ollie contributes to Istanbul’s daily tea total – Kabatas
I wanted to reflect on the final few days here. On Thursday the weather cooperated and we took advantage of the blue skies and took the ferry to the nearby Andalar (Prince’s Islands) in the Sea of Marmara. The kids were thrilled to feed the seagulls that followed the boat the entire journey. We rented bikes and rode around and stopped at a beautiful park. The beaches off season were not maintained, but we also collected some shells. There are no cars on the island, but plenty of horse-drawn carriages, which were fascinating to the kids. It was a lovely day and I see why the islands are a popular day trip from the city.
Meeting With Friends at the Spice Bazaar
There is so much history to the city! We visited the Basilica Cisterns, which the Byzantines constructed 1,500 years ago. Oliver and Ocean turned temporarily to stone after seeing Medusa’s head, which was used as a base of one of the pillars to hold up a column. We also enjoyed the Spice Bazaar and learned all about Iranian saffron. I was joking with the shop attendants about the Turks’ obsession with tea. One said 99% of Turks drink tea and probably about a billion cups are drank on a daily basis. I would estimate it would be more like 50 million per day, if one assumes 3 cups per day for most inhabitants.
Columns supporting the Basilica Cistern
We finished our shopping with another carpet. Nadia loves Turkish carpets and I like the stories behind them. They will look great in our apartment. The shop owner said the Prime Minister urged Turkish women to have 3-5 children and I was faithful to his wishes. The shop was owned by Kurds, and we got to know them quite well. One brother married a Bosnian from Mostar and the other a French woman who was shopping for carpets at one of their stores. The younger brother is moving to Houston later this month, because their father died a couple of months ago and he wanted his son to continue their business in the US. They have great sales of Turkish carpets there. I can see why people get into carpets, it is a lot like art collecting.
We head back to Belgrade today. As I write this, I am sitting in Starbucks…Thanks Istanbul for a relaxing and fascinating visit!
It was with mixed emotions that I ventured with my family to Istanbul’s famous Grand Bazaar. I really wanted to see one of the world’s famous places and learn about how it worked, but on the other hand, I detest shopping and I loathed the idea of a few hours of browsing and purchasing items. Would it be a glorified mall trip?
Upon reflecting the day, it was a mixed experience. The most positive aspect were the joy it brought to my wife and daughter, purchasing pillows (Nadia) and belly dancing outfit (Ocean). Ocean especially reminded me that I have a daughter and she loves shopping! She even came home and we watched belly dancing videos together for her to pick up some moves and then she performed for the family! I hope to post the video soon.
Taksim Square – Istanbul
The negative was the hassling we received as a family from vendors. I guess walking through the bazaar with an Indiana T-shirt on, three blond children, and carrying several large bags of stuff, would be a signal to vendors that they can make some money off of us! It is so foreign to me however, to sell and use a variety of offers to try to maximize the profits from an interaction with a visitor to my country, or anyone for that matter. For example on the way to the bazaar, we stopped at Taksim Square. The shoe shine men used a ploy on me to drop their brush and so I would pick it up and that would give them an opportunity to quickly start shining my shoes and asking for money. I did give him some Serbian money, but he was asking for 100 Lira $45. Another example was the taxi driver, wanting 50 Lira for a 20 Lira metered taxi ride. It gave me a very negative view of my trip because they try to get as much money from tourists as possible.
It was fascinating to watch the salesmen and their support people. I think it would be very boring to own a shop in the bazaar, attempting daily to sell the same wares to tourists. The vendors looked bored, playing solitaire on their phones, drinking tea, and talking with each other. This is the winter and off season, so business was slow, so I assume in the summer they are busier with sales. I wonder how much vacation time they get and how much do they make a year? Do they get insurance, pregnancy leave, and other benefits? Many were trying to avoid paying government and credit card fees and asked for cash so they don’t need to report their sales to the Turkish IRS. I wonder how many generations they have been working in the bazaar?
We are staying in Istanbul this week for our February Break. Our first day in the city yesterday was exciting, with a visit to the famous “Blue Mosque” and shopping for carpet. This is our third Islamic country for our family and it is nice to hear the call to prayer and the warm responses children receive from the locals.
The back view of Sultan Ahmed’s Mosque
The city is breathtakingly huge and beautiful, with the minarets of mosques rising up from the hills and dramatic views to the blue Bosphorus. I can see why it is one of the world cities!
The Blue Mosque, was built by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed 400 years ago. It is a huge example of classic Ottoman architecture. We had to remove our shoes and the girls put on head scarves. After touring the mosque, we went over to the Arasta Bazaar and bought a beautiful carpet from Murat Metin, in the Er Ne Hali Gallery. He was very helpful and we purchased a rug from his part of Turkey, the eastern Kurdish part.
Enjoying Tea While Contemplating Carpets
I will try to do a few more blog posts from Istanbul this week.
The Head of Serbian Little League Baseball, Nikola Vučević invited the International School of Belgrade to form a Team USA and participate in an Indoor Baseball Tourney yesterday. We headed up to the beautiful facilities of the Serbian Institute of Sport located in the Belgrade suburb of Banavo Brdo. There were six teams from Belgrade and Novi Sad participating. I never saw this type of baseball before, the rules are described here in Serbian. The ball is hit off a tee and there field is a triangle, with two bases and a home plate. Runs are scored by the team in the field by recording an out and by the offense by the batter going around the triangle to score. We played with seven people, one catcher and six in the field. All defensive players must be beyond the triangle. All seven batters bat every inning. The games were 25 minutes long and scores were in the high teens or low twenties. It took the team awhile to get going because we haven’t played in such a long time, and these were new rules to us. It seemed like a game we would make up as kids! It was especially exciting when a ball was hit off the wall and came bouncing back towards the bases. Owen played excellent at first base and Oliver played some outfield and some catcher. The team made it out of the group stage and finished fourth out of six teams. They were excited about the medals. Most importantly, the boys really enjoyed themselves.
I would like to thank Nikola for inviting us and my colleague, Brian Lettinga for organizing and coaching the team. It was my first time inside the Institute. Here is a video on Vimeo that describes their mission and it will give you a good idea of how the Serbian language sounds.
Earlier this month we were surprised when a friend pointed out that my son Oliver appeared in the Serbian children’s magazine, Mali Zabavnik.The parent magazine, Zabavnik (translation – Party / Amusing) is very famous in Yugoslavia. It was one of the only western style magazines dating back to 1950s published in the former Yugoslavia. It featured Disney and domestic comics and articles with a broad appeal. Its tagline was “For Everyone from 7 to 77”. All of my Serbian friends grew up with the magazine and it is still published today. I also read that when former Yugoslavian leader Tito was asked permission to publish the magazine, he said, “Why not, I like Donald Duck.”
The Serbian government is publishing a version called “Little Zabavnik” for schools and that is where Oliver’s photo appeared. They must have got the photo from my Flickr.com account. I took the photo years ago and it shows Ollie holding the “žito” standing in front of a badnjak , two Serbian Christmas traditions. The photo is used on page 26, in an article about the upcoming Serbian Christmas. I don’t mind the photo was used without my permission, but people usually ask me to use the photos on my Flickr account. Through the years, my photos have been used for the Egyptian Airlines in flight magazine, a solar eclipse photo, or in a web site banner for a conference on the Great Lakes.
It is another nice souvenir of our time in Serbia and I am honored that my son got to be a part of Yugoslavian tradition. The cover of the January 1, 2014 issue where Oliver is on page 26 of the magazine is pictured below.
Last weekend we celebrated Nadia’s birthday. We invited friends to a nice meal on the Belgrade riverfront at the restaurant, Communale. From there we went to the Canadian Embassy where our good friend Kevin, opened the Canadian Club for us and we sang karaoke and had a lot of laughs. It was a good way to celebrate – with good food and good friends. As you can see below, we finally have some snow!
The next day we celebrated by going to Owen and Ollie’s basketball game. The Junior Dragons defeated KK Sava 33-31. Owen scored 10 points and Ollie had an amazing pass that fooled everyone. Ollie is pictured below with his best friend Jack, the only two third graders on the team.
It was a really nice weekend. Happy Birthday Baby!
I took this photo on Saturday during a bike ride around Ada Ciganlija. The weather in January so far has been surprisingly warm. The historical mean high temperature for the month is 4C and this weekend, temperatures will go to 15C. So far this winter it only snowed once in late November. When one sits in the sun, it is almost warm! We did have several days of thick fog and cold, but mostly it has been sunny and warm. We biked around the lake at Ada, as always spending time at the exercise park and the excursion pictured above, exploring the woods on the island. The new bike path under the bridge project saves a lot of time and makes Ada much more accessible from Senjak.
In speaking with my friend over the holiday, I said life’s pleasures change for every age. As I am getting older, going for walks or bike rides in nature is just so refreshing and re-energizing. Belgrade is blessed with many parks and easy escapes from the city life. Ocean is shown below being silly in our walk on Sunday in Košutnjak Park. With no leaves in the trees, one can see across the valley from the park into the Royal Palace grounds in Dedinje. I can see why the Košutnjak started as the King’s hunting grounds. He could probably look across from the palace and see the wooded hills on the other side of the valley. We had a nice father-daughter outing talking about all kinds of things. She was really interested in moles after seeing the many piles of dirt made by them, and I ended up having to explain the natural history of the European Mole. We even went on line after we got back so she could see their tunnels, what they looked like, and the traps used to catch them. We finished the hike by collecting sticks for our fireplace. What a great day!
Bill's Blog 