Category: Family Journal

An archive of our family’s daily life.

My Little Pioneer

billkralovec
My Little Pioneer, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday, May 25th, was a special day for me as it is my birthday and my adopted Slava. In Serbia, this date is the famous birthday of the ex Yugoslavian leader, Josip Broz, “Tito.” I’ve adopted him as my Slava patron. He was an athiest, as I am, so I guess it is appropriate to have him. I don’t agree with much of what Tito did and I don’t respect him as a hero, but it is a funny way to connect to Serbia and I love the idea of “the slava.” It is also funny that I have the same birthday as Sveti Tito.

For my birthday, I had Ocean wear the Pioneers of Yugoslavia uniform. This was a Communist propaganda movement that all children 7 and over participated. Ocean is wearing a “titovka” hat with the Yugoslav Communist Red Star and matching scarf.

My friend mentioned the pledge the kids took and it is underneath in English.

Today, as I become a Pioneer, I give my Pioneer’s word of honour -That I shall study and work diligently,respect parents and my seniors, and be a loyal and honest comrade and friend. That I shall love our homeland, self-managed socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia. That I shall spread brotherhood and unity and the principles for which comrade Tito fought.And that I shall value all peoples of the world who respect freedom and peace!

I had a great day with my family. We had a “brownie” birthday cake. Later on I attended our school’s prom, which was an elegant dinner at the Madera Restaurant downtown. It was a special day.

Srećan Rođendan and Happy Slava!

Great Day in Košutnjak

billkralovec
Finish, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I ran yesterday in the Košutnjak Challenge Race here in Belgrade. Košutnjak is a large park near our apartment that used to be the hunting grounds of the Serbian Royal family before World War I. Today it is still mostly forest with lots of public recreation areas.

The race was 5 kilometers with an obstacle at every kilometer. The obstacles included a narrow, deep ravine, hay stacks, ropes, even an old carnival ride we needed to climb over. I finished in 29 minutes. I didn’t feel great yesterday, but it was fun, barelling through the forest. There were about 100 runners and we had a good day with my friend Michael and my family. I would like to thank the running club of Serbia, trcanje.rs for organizing the run and for having a calendar of runs in the area.

Owen runs down the hill at the Cafe

Later in the day we went back to Košutnjak to meet up with friends at Alexander’s Cafe and Ski Hill. It was the first time I went there, and the views of the city are spectacular. I highly recommend the place for drinks and we’ll definitely go back this winter for some skiing with the kids.

A Bit of Heaven

billkralovec

 

I loved it earlier this week the opportunity to ride my bike to school with my two sons. Oliver turned seven recently and now he can ride his bike with Owen and I to school. He was a bit nervous the first time and walked his bike down the hill and when crossing busy streets. The second day he made it the entire way without stopping.

It is a great way to start my day! When will the girls join us?

Happy Birthday Oliver

billkralovec

 

We hosted a birthday party for my son Oliver who turned 7 on April 30th. His birthday fell during our Spring Break Holiday, so we waited until after we got back so all of his friends could come. The weather was dreadful on Sunday, and so it was perfect that we rented a playground in the big shopping mall in Belgrade, Usce. They have a massive playground and big area of eating.

About 30 of his friends attended and Oliver has been loving playing with all of his toys. He got a lot of legos, cars, and books about pirates. Mom made batman cupcakes and we ordered a batman cake. Oliver loves super heroes and comic books. It was cool to see his name in the Serbian Cyrillic script. Oliver looks like ОЛИВЕР in Cyrillic and they added an “e” at the end because of the noun case. Happy Birthday (Srećan Rođendan) Olivere.

A great time was had by all including parents. Happy Birthday Oliver, you are growing up too fast!

Family Journal: May 4, 2012

billkralovec

 

Ocean, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

We’ve been focusing on our health this week and visiting Bel Medic. The photo above is classic. My daughter Ocean is getting a blood test and she wanted to do it by herself, like her older brothers. Her arm started to bleed a little, but she made it through. I love the expression of when needle enters her arm.

Tara National Park: My Favorite Place in Serbia

billkralovec

 

.

We spent four glorious days in the Tara National Park. The park is in the Dinaric Alps, a limestone mountainous area with deep ravines, rocky outcrops, turquoise rivers, and thousands of tall pines. It is only a three-hour drive from Belgrade and we rented an apartment in Kaluđerske Bare (Monk Pond), a small town inside the park. The peaks get up to around 5,000 feet and the park is located on the border with Bosnia i Herzegovina.

The kids had a wonderful time and each day we went hiking. The views are spectacular and the kids just love running in the meadows and picking up sticks and rocks under the towering pine and beech trees. I love the mix of farmland and wilderness of the park. The distinctive haystacks and Serbian traditional wooden farmhouses with green meadows of rolling hills, make for a idyllic, bucolic setting. I am also impressed with the amount of old growth trees all over the park. Big trees are one of the few things I feel spiritual about, and the mountain air, the quietness, and green, really refreshes my psyche.

I am trying to instill in my children a love for wilderness and an interest in natural history and ecological field studies. We identified many flowers, insects, birds, and trees and descriptions of these can be found on my Serbian Nature web site.

This was the first time we spent significant time inside the park. In previous visits, we stayed outside the park in the town of Mokra Gora. We will definitely go back.

Oliver Turns 7

billkralovec
Oliver, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

The above video shows Oliver playing in a park near our house. His birthday is coming up this week and he is really maturing into a cute little guy.

Nadia and I are getting a big laugh out of Ollie’s books he writes at school. He brings one home every few days and you can tell by the titles, what he is interested in.
“Military Alien Attack”
“Sea Wars”
“Milateree (sic) Break In”
“The Stealth Jets World War Death and Life”
“Zombie Attack – 18 Living Death- Season 2”
“Zombie Attack – 18”
“Materials Monster Attack”
“Misile Shooter 1”
“Sea Monsters in the Ocean and Rivers and Ponds and Trees and Forest and Poison and in Ground”

The books are well illustrated in a comic book form. Here is the transcript of one of his short stories, “Sea Wars.”

One day Jack and Oliver, Oskar, Marco were on their own boat. Sudely somthing grabbed the boat and went under water. Where did they go?
The boys search everywhere for the boat and they found it. Shark people were garding the boat. The boat transfored into a subereen
The boys froze a shark that was mashing the top. The sharks got in their machines and went after them. The boys got out of the water with a jet. The sharks got in their base and went after the boys.

Lukily the boys got safe to the base. Affter that,, the boys had a feast. They ate roasted chicken. ” – THE END

Brilliant!!!! I think he will be the next best selling action author.

Happy Easter – Srećan Uskrs

billkralovec

 

Egg Tapping, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

We enjoyed the traditional Serbian Easter traditions last week during the long weekend. The Orthodox Easter is celebrated a week after the Catholic Easter. Above, is a video of the “egg-tapping” competition. This tradition started in Eastern Europe in the 1300’s and has now spread across the world. The egg is the pagan symbol of the renewal of spring and life. I never saw egg-tapping in Michigan. The champion in the video for this year was Ocean! Her egg didn’t crack. Late in the competition, Aca’s mother Mira gave Ocean a wooden egg, which is against the rules.

We had a second round of egg-tapping with our Romanian friends later in the day. Claudiu was explaining that while breaking the egg, they have the tradition phrase, “Christ Has Risen” which is answered by “Indeed, He has.”

We also liked coloring the eggs in the traditional Serbian method. We dyed the eggs in onion skins and it give it a deep red color. We bought some eggs with writing and Easter designs on them from the market, and when dyed, as you can see, they markings appear lighter. I don’t know what the acronym, XBBB means? It is in the Cyrillic script, and in Latin it would be HVVV. I know the “H” means Hristos (christ), but I don’t know what the three Vs mean. Any help from my Serbian readers? I also used some Easter Egg decorations from the company, http://www.jaje.rs. They have some great designs from based on ornaments from Serbian Medieval churches and monasteries. Very cool!

At “The Farm Nikolići”

billkralovec

 

Nikolić – Kralovec Families, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

We had a great long weekend at my friend’s country home in Obrva, Serbia. Obrva, which means “eye brow” in Serbian, is a small village near the city of Kraljevo, which is about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive south of Belgrade. Aca and his family were gracious hosts, and my family and I had a wonderful time. We ate well, were very comfortable, and had many laughs!

The kids were calling it “the farm” which was very cute. Aca’s father is from Obrva and after retiring from working in Belgrade, is now spending more time at the country home he grew up on. The weather held out and the kids enjoyed playing in the yard and seeing all of the animals. His father grows corn and soya for feed and he raises cattle and sheep.

Ocean loves the animals.

Aca and his girlfriend Milica took us on a tour of the sights. We walked around downtown Kraljevo and saw the airport Ladjevci, which was an air force base and it is being converted into a regular airport. We also stopped at an historic church which I’ll blog about later.

We were really shown some Serbian hospitality and on behalf of my family I would like to say thank you. “The Farm” is really a 5-star country bed and breakfast. We will have some fond memories of Aca and his family and hope to return to Obrva.

Museum of Aviation Visit

billkralovec

 

Owen and Ollie, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I can’t recommend enough for young children on a cold day, a trip to the Museum of Aviation in the mushroom-shaped building at the Nikola Tesla Airport. Oliver was so happy to see the jet fighters. Both Owen and Oliver were running around the complex, inside and out, shooting at each other and playing military games. They also learned a bit about the history of aviation in Yugoslavia and military planes in general. They are shown above in front of my favorite plane in the museum, the SOKO F-22 fighter. The jet fighter was made by the SOKO (Falcon) company in Mostar for the Yugoslavian Air Force and is still in use today.

The kids were also especially interested in the American and NATO planes that were shot down during the bombing campaign of 1999.

I also wanted to show everyone the boys’ new haircuts. I finally got sick of looking at the two hippy-children and we took them downtown Senjak for a good haircut. They look so much better and so much younger. I love the little guys so much!!!!