Oliver is pictured above with his buddies Oskar and Mihailo at the “Who We Are” Museum. The students were as to make posters and bring objects that were important to them. Oliver brought in his shark stuffed animal, a painting (in front of him) and you can see one of his posters in the background.
The little guy did a good job of typing captions for all of the photos and explaining what was important to him. The first graders had two tables of toys and it really brought home how important toys are to 6 and 7 year olds.
Oliver is pitching to Owen in the entrance road to our apartment building yesterday morning. Both of the boys are practicing baseball as part of the school’s after school activity program. They are also following the Tiger’s run in the MLB baseball playoffs. The Tigers have Game 5 tonight in NY against the Yankees. They have to win to move on to the American League Championship Series. I am worried about the Yankees $200 million payroll of hitters, but with one game, anything can happen.
I feel good about passing my interest of baseball to my children.
The sunny warm weather continues here in Belgrade and we took advantage of the weather to have a sporty weekend. We are pictured above at the Lokomotiv Tennis Club in the industrial suburb of Želiznik. We invited our friend Nemanja to play and had a great family outing.
On Saturday we went to Ocean’s School picnic and to her friend Mark’s birthday party. We wrapped the day up with a nice dinner at our house with our friends, the Fureiras. We used the balcony in our apartment for the first time. On Sunday we ran down at Ada Ciganlja and I played soccer, baseball, and basketball with Owen and Ollie. We then finished the day with the tennis and a pizza at Brodic. A really nice weekend with perfect weather – I hope it continues being warm and sunny.
In an explosive European Soccer Transfer, Owen and Oliver Kralovec moved from the Atacante Soccer Club to Poscico “Little Posco” Club. The 3,000 RSD move was announced this week at a Press Conference at the Kralovec Apartment in Dedinje.
The headline is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but we did put the boys in a new soccer school. The club is closer to our home and the times are more convenient. The club is owned by former Serbian professional soccer player, Rade Bogdanović, who has quite a story as you can see on his wikipedia page. He is a really nice guy who actually helps out at the trainings. Owen is flourishing at the practices because he is the oldest member of the club. Oliver is also much more focused this year and a heck of a player, although he is struggling with the team play. He demonstrates much more abilty in the back yard where he has the freedom of movement. I’ll be blogging more about the club as the season progresses. The facilities are great, reasonable costs, and good coaching. I highly recommend it.
Monday we celebrated Ocean’s fourth birthday as a family. She had a party at school and then we had a small celebration at home. I didn’t go back into work after returning from Vilnius that day and spent a bit of extra time with her. She had a great day and loved her presents. The kids are into legos right now, so most of the gifts had something you could build with. She also got a couple of Barbie ponies.
It is amazing how fast she is growing up. When we first came to Belgrade, she was just a baby. Now she is going to school and is such a sweet little girl.
Of course Oliver had to pull the jealous brother routine as you can see from the photo below. Congratulations to Ocean and Mama!
Last weekend I went on a retreat with the High School Student Council. We stayed at the Majkin Salaš, which is similar to a country bed and breakfast. Salaš means ranch or farm in the Vojvodina dialect of Serbian. Vojvodina is the northern autonomous province of Serbia. In a geological timescale, it was a sea and today is called the Pannonian Plain. It looks like Iowa or Illinois or southern Michigan, being very flat and full of agricultural fields.
The Majkin Salaš has rooms, a conference center, a swimming pool and a working farm with a pond. They have a huge apple orchard and they were harvesting last weekend. The apples were delicious and I even harvested some. As you can see, we also rode the horses a bit. The Salaš is only about 12 miles from the Hungarian border.
We went to the famous Lake Palić, which is nearby. It is a shallow lake with very poor water quality. I wanted to go swimming in the lake but the water was so green with algae that it was not suitable for swimming. In researching about studies done on the lake, the algae growth is caused by high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients come from agricultural fertilizer run-off and treated wastewater being flushed into the lake. The lake is about 900 acres in area but only has a maximum depth of 2 meters. There is a lovely park on the shores and bike path. We rented bikes and had a good time on a perfect late summer day. The town of Palić on the shores of the lake has a Hungarian majority population and the architecture reflected that. If I was in the area, I would come back but I wouldn’t make a special trip, unless the kids wanted to ride their bikes around the lake.
Nadia and I attended the Serbia versus Argentina Davis Cup Tennis match at the Belgrade Arena yesterday. On Friday, Argentina won both of the singles matches and could have won the best-of-five competition with another win.
The second day of the competition is the doubles match. Serbia featured Nenad Zimojnic, one of the best doubles players in the world and his partner, the up-and-coming world number 16 Victor Troiki. They were up against the world #23 Juan Chela and world #27 Juan Monaco. Serbia won in straight sets 3-0 to keep Serbia in the competition.
Serbia has to win both matches today. In the photo above are the key players and the Davis Cup trophy. On the far right is Novak Djokovic, who did not play on Friday due to an injury. He will play tomorrow and if his season continues like it has been (65-2), he will probably win against Del Potro, the world #17 and former US Open Champion. He is still not listed as playing, but he was practicing on the court right after yesterday’s match. He looked fit and ready to go.
In the other singles match, it will probably be Janko Tipsarevic (world #13) going against David Nalbandian (world #74). This will be the deciding match. Nalbandian, although he has a low ranking, beat Viktor Troiki on Friday and will be a challenge for Tipsarevic.
I am predicting a Serbian victory tomorrow. If they do win, they will most likely host Spain, who is leading France 2-1 in the other Davis Cup semifinal. It would be great to see Novak against Rafa that first week of December to end the season. I would also like to thank my friend Angelo for the tickets!
On a side note, Serbian President Boris Tadić arrived right after we did and stood near the tunnel, about 20 feet away from us, and watched the entire match (see photo below). There was a bit of controversy after the second set. The Serbian doubles team ran to the locker room between sets. As Nenad Zimojnic was jogging towards the tunnel, he accidently bumped into the President. When his partner Victor Troiki followed, one of the body guards grabbed Troiki and gave him a rough bear hug. He then let go and eventually, President Tadic had a word with both the Serbian players when they left the tunnel, wishing them luck. It was like a soap opera which Nadia and I enjoyed watching.
President Tadic (gray hair with black spot) and body guards
But if you have to pick just one essential starting point, perhaps it is best to drive south from the capital toward the still-disputed border with Kosovo and follow the serpentine mountain road to Kopaonik, Serbia’s leading ski resort. Like so much of this diminished nation, Kopaonik has seen better days and is preparing to see them again.
It was here that Novak Djokovic’s family, much more familiar with schussing down slopes than hitting balls over nets, once operated several small businesses — including a pizzeria, a sports equipment shop and an art gallery — on the ground floor of a large complex during the winter and summer. And it was here that the state-owned Yugoslav company Genex, which developed much of Kopaonik, chose to build three tennis courts just across the parking lot from where the Djokovics opened their Red Bull restaurant in the late 1980s.
Now full of cracks, holes and undulations, the green hardcourts are hardly a playground for the elite. It is hard to believe that the world’s third-best player, the man who held off Roger Federer at the United States Open in September, emerged from this.
As the excerpt from last year’s New York Times article describes, above are the home court of the current world’s best tennis player, Novak Đoković. On Sunday morning we took the kids and rented the courts for for 8 euros. We were the only ones there early in the morning and it was cool to play on courts where Nole got his start. Nadia and I played a set and the kids played around. She got off to a quick 5-1 start, and it looked liked I was going to lose. I then looked for inspiration in the Kopaonik pine trees and mountain landscape and made a Đoković-like comeback to win 7-5. I also think the reporter from the NY Times was a bit melodramatic with his description of Kopaonik and Serbia. It is quite nice there!
We made it back safely from the mountains and are now back in Belgrade. We had a bit of trouble with the brakes coming down from a high elevation, but after a consultation with our maintenance man Goran, the car settled down and made it home. The kids were good while we were waiting for a solution to the problem. They are shown below all watching a movie on Nadia’s iTouch. I was a fantastic weekend! Hopefully Novak can win the final tonight in the US Open. All of Serbia is watching!
We are spending the weekend at the biggest ski resort in Serbia, Kopaonik. Kopaonik is a national park located in southern Serbia near the Kosovo border. It is a beautiful region of mountains (peaks to almost 7,000 feet), valleys, pine trees, and sweeping vistas.
As you can see above, we rode up in one of the ski lifts to the top. We had a fantastic day yesterday! The weather was perfect and the cool mountain air was a relief to hot Belgrade. We spent a lot of time in the pool at the Grand Hotel and went for a hike in an amazing gorge.
The kids are having fun and Nadia and I are re-charging our batteries after a month of tough work getting school off and running. The pine trees and fresh mountain air is really refreshing my soul! We are all impressed with the beauty of the park and we will definitely be coming back for skiing trips this winter.
Owen, Nadia, and Oliver are shown riding bikes in front of the ex-Yugoslav Executive Council Building in New Belgrade. Last Sunday we went for a long family bike ride on the trails of the city. It was a fantastic day and we really enjoyed as a family, exercising and exploring the city together.
The highlight for the kids was to take the ferry across the Sava River. From the back side of Ada Ciganlija Island, there are three ferries that shuttle people between the island and the mainland in New Belgrade. New Belgrade was a Communist planned city built after World War II by the victorious Partizans. You can see one of first buildings constructed over there, the Executive Council of Yugoslavia. It housed the Presidential Offices for the Republics that made up the Federation.
There are kilometers of trails near river as well as in New Belgrade. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and the kids got a kick out of “biking to McDonald’s. We will definitely do this more often. It was an extremely hot day, but I personally loved it. With autumn coming, we might not have many more hot, summer days.
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