We enjoyed celebrating as a family the Serbian Orthodox Christmas yesterday. The Serbs celebrate Christmas on January 7th. Here is a link to a great blog post on the traditions of Serbian Christmas. We tried to do some of them yesterday. On Christmas instead of the usual greetings of hello or how are you (caio, kako ste?) Serbs say “Hristos se rodi” which means Christ is born. The person receiving the salutation then replies, “Vaistinu se rodi” which means, “Yes, indeed, he has been born.” I tried this a several times and I always got a surprised look and a smile, and an immediate response. They do this for the two days after Christmas, so I hope to do this some more in the next couple of days.
The other tradition we did was to burn the badnjak (yule log). On Christmas morning, the father and eldest son are supposed to fell a young oak tree and put it on the family fire. This dates back to pre-Christian times, so I told the boys the story of the Slavic god Perun and his battles with the underworld god, Veles. We’ve been listening to podcasts on storynory.com about the Greek myths. The site is great for kids and I highly recommend it. If I have the time, I would like to make one for the boys on Perun.
Burning of the Badnjak
The weather has been horrible. Lots of rain and grey. I would prefer either snow or sunshine and I don’t like this in-between stuff. It has been limiting our outdoor activity so I took the boys to the ISB gym yesterday to play soccer and tennis. Great fun.
I said “Hristo se rodi” (Christ has risen) to every Serb I met.
We are shown above in front of a statue of Vlad Tepes, or the famous Vlad the Impaler. He was the Romanian ruler in the mid-1400’s who defended Wallachia, a region in Romania, from the Ottoman Turks. He is remembered today because of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula” is loosely based on him. We arrived back in Belgrade last night after a week long stay in visiting Transylvania.
We stayed with Claudiu Fuiorea pictured above to my right. He is from Sighisoara, the hometown of Vlad. On our final day with them, he took us on a tour of the city. Sighisoara one on of the 7 fortified cities built by German immigrants in the 12th century in Transylvania. Claudiu lives in Belgrade and works for a multinational corporation. We have become good friends and he and his family were wonderful hosts. We ate and drank extremely well, and got much insight into Romania.
Playing up the Vampire Image of Transylvania
We visited the Bran Castle near Vesna’s (Claudiu’s wife) hometown of Brasov. The castle looks like Dracula’s castle in Stoker’s Gothic novel, but was actually customs office for traffic coming into Transylvania from Ottoman lands to the east. The town of Bran really plays up the precarious relationship with Dracula. The market was full of vampire kitsch and was packed with tourists.
The Beautiful Carpathian Mountains
I wondered what it would have been like for those German immigrants 800 years ago. They went to the far eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, lured by the chance for freedom and land. They built fortified cities to defend themselves and the empire from invaders from the east. It was an interesting relationship they had with the local Romanians. Basically, they were not allowed inside the citadels. The immigrants had very separate lives. Sadly, almost all of the descendants of the Germans and Hungarians have now left. Most left during the communist era (1945 – 1989) and the horrible rule of Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceasescu. He sold visas to families wanting to escape the horrible conditions. He also made them sign over all property to the government. They did leave these beautiful old cities however, the today they are tourist attractions.
We are pictured in the plaza of the lower city in Sighisoara
The effects of Ceasescu are quite visible in Romania today and it will take a long time for the country to bounce back from his horrible rule. Friend’s of Claudiu were telling us of the December 1989 revolution. One of his friends was in university at the time and he went out and tore down posters of the dictator immediately after his execution in Bucharest. It was a strange time he said, as everyone was confused about the transition. As with other “iron curtain” countries, the secret police kept extensive files on everyone and had many informants. Also, most people joined the party as they had to.
One thing I noticed were the many socialist housing blocks built during this era. They are more prevalent in Romania than Serbia. Below is one of the nicer apartment buildings. They were built for workers for the truck and tractor factory in Brasov. The factory sold low quality vehicles to other eastern block countries and it today abandoned. The apartments however, are still occupied. Vesna was telling me that they were designed for single men, many from Moldovia and Wallachia, specifically in Brasov to work for the company. Today families live in these, despite having shared bathrooms and kitchens at the end of the hall.
In the 20 years since the opening up of the country, Romania has come a long way. We noticed many more products in grocery stores and department stores in Romania than Serbia. It is part of the EU and the economic development that comes with it shows. They do have a ways to go however and it will be interesting to see where they are in another 20 years. The Romanian language is fascinating. It was the first of the Romance languages to split from Latin, the language of the Romans. There are many words similar to Spanish, and Nadia and I tried to speak Spanish when a Romanian did not understand English. The Romanians are generally darker and shorter than the Serbs and a bit less outgoing. It is hard to form a solid opinion because of limited amount of time in the country and not having visited the capital of Bucharest.
We really enjoyed our holiday there. A huge thanks to Claudiu, Vesna and their extended families!
Above is an old map of south east Europe. If you look at the backwards “c” shape of the Carpathian Mountains, you can look for cities of Brasov and Sibiu. These two fortified cities held off the Green Flag of the Ottoman Turks from going further north into Europe. The Emperor of the Austro-Hungarians placed seven citadels in the Carpathians, specifically to stop the Turks.
Today the Romanian cities are tourist attractions. The German immigrants who built the citadels did an amazing job. Beautiful huge walls, churches, schools, etc. They lived in Romania, but lived completely separate lives within the walls of these cities. As you can see from the photo below, Brasov was strategically placed in a tight valley. This made it easier to defend.
The Romanians today owe much to these German settlers. The beautiful old cities bring in many tourist dollars.
Ocean is pictured above chasing pigeons in Opera Plaza in Timisoara, Romania. Timisoara is the most western city in Romania. We stopped there for lunch and a walk around Christmas Market in the plaza. On Day One of our holiday we made it to Sibiu, Romania. We are spending a few days in Transylvania, visiting our friends from Brasov. Transylvania is one of the historic regions of Romania. Brasov is in central Romania, about a 3 hour drive north west of Bucharest, in the southern Carpathian mountains.
Sibiu and Brasov were two of the seven citadels of Saxon immigrants in Romania. The emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire had them settle in what is today central Romania, but at that time, part of the Austrian empire. It was the border between the Ottoman Turk world and Austro-Hungarian world. The Saxon immigrants built cities and basically kept the locals (Romanians) out of it. They lived separate lives. (more later)
We had a nice day yesterday as a family. The kids were up early and so excited to open their gifts. Nadia and I have been using the “Santa Card” to get them to be calmer and to listen to us. Too bad that option is now over. it was so funny that Oliver even asked had he been good enough to receive gifts when he first awoke on Christmas morning.
Ocean really wasn’t sure what was going on, but she got into it when she saw her “Dazzling Dreams Castle” doll house. She also enjoyed her Princess car. We bought a monitor and key board to go with Nadia’s old Mac Mini for Owen so now he has his own computer. Ollie’s favorite gift was a car race track.
We ate a real Serbian turkey. I am used to those industrial factory raised turkeys from the US with the bland taste. This turkey tasted “meaty” and for example, had bones and cartilage on the drumsticks that I didn’t know existed. In the US, turkeys are not bred to walk and so the drumsticks have less connective tissue to get in the way. Nadia also made a raspberry dessert that was absolutely spectacular. I ate way too much and had a hard time jogging in the afternoon due to a full stomach.
As you can see in the photo above, our Christmas tree is doing fine. We bought it from a tree farm, roots and all a few weeks ago. We intend to plant it in our yard after the holidays are done. We bought a large pot and extra soil for it to stay alive. This is common with Serbs, as the culture appreciates trees and almost regards them as sacred. Belgrade is filled with trees on every street and there are strict laws which prevent people from cutting them down. I guess that trees helped the Serbs survive against the Turks. The hajduks hid in the forests while the Ottomans inhabited the fortresses in the cities and towns. I think it is a great tradition and our family will never again use a fake tree or cut a tree to use for a few weeks.
As you can see, all of the snow melted in Belgrade the past couple of days. Just in time for the Western Christian Christmas. We had a really nice family Christmas Eve day. In the morning, Nadia and I went for a long walk through Dedinje with temperatures in the mid-60’s, it was a beautiful sunny day. The temperature rose from 20’s to 60’s in only a couple of days. Oliver and I played against Owen in soccer and as you can see above, he got a bit dirty.
It is nice to be on holiday to do the simple things with my children and wife. I took a hot bath with Ocean and blow dried and combed her hair. Owen and I went to the Automobile Museum. Oliver and I ran through Karađorđje Park.
Last night after visiting the museum, we went out to eat at Byblos, a Lebanese restaurant near St. Sava’s Cathedral.
Lebanese Christmas Eve Dinner
Santa Claus visited us this morning. Ollie had the quote of the morning when he came down the stairs into the living room. “Was I good?”
Owen shot this video yesterday of us going down Senjak Hill. Kablarska street is blocked off to traffic by two garbage containers and made into a sledding hill. We are planning to go again today. I promise no more snow videos. it is just after so long in the tropics, I am really enjoying the winter. It reminds me of my childhood in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I am happy to experience this with my children.
I have used the opportunity to introduce the boys to the Olympic sports of luge and bobsledding. We did a bobsled competition last night in the house. They were having trouble understanding the concepts of tenths of a second and the lower number means a faster time and a higher place in the standings.
Yesterday both Nadia and I took advantage of having our housekeeper working this week and we both went for runs. I went outside and Nadia inside. Despite a temperature of -11 C, the whiteness was refreshing and I enjoyed a long run.
In the afternoon we almost completed our Christmas shopping. Nadia baked gingerbread cookies last night and we ate tacos. I hope I can take the boys to the Red Star basketball game this evening.
With all of the snow we received last week and the cold temperatures this weekend, conditions are perfect in Belgrade for sledding runs. Last year, we had to go over to Banavo Brdo (Ban’s Hill) which is a neighborhood on the other side of Kosutnjak park. This year, there is a sledding run 100 meters from our house. The street is blocked to cars with two large garbage bins. A bunch of kids were there yesterday afternoon. I took the kids over with a toboggan we bought in Slovenia last year. Owen and Ollie loved it. Ocean didn’t as she was a bit scared. Above is a video of one of Owen’s run. If you listen closely, you can here Nadia in the background. We’ll head back today for another run.
It was a nice Sunday. I went for a long run in the morning and cooked a hearty pancake breakfast. We went grocery shopping in the late afternoon. We finished off the night with dinner and watching Mythbusters and Atlantis.
We had a nice first day of our zimovanje (winter holiday in Serbian). Nadia, Owen, and Ocean are shown above in downtown Belgrade. We did some shopping (kupovina) for Christmas. We stopped at the Turbo Limac, a toy store, similar to Toys R’ Us but smaller. I think it is Croatian.
It was very cold yesterday with below freezing temperatures. It snowed again last night, adding an inch or two. It truly is a winter wonderland.
Owen is not feeling well, with occasional fever and headaches. We went to the US Embassy commissary also. Oliver had a birthday party at his friend Oscar’s house.
With the rush of the end of the semester this past week, I didn’t have time to do a blog post on Owen’s birthday. He turned seven last Sunday and in honor of the occasion, we invited some of his close friends for a day at the Usče Mall here in Belgrade. It was the hyper mega Usce day with five hours of fun. We did it all, with bowling, dance competition, playland, food court, and movie. Owen and this friends loved it.
For posterity, Matija had the high bowling score of 97. Riana had the high on the other lane of 79. Owen bowled a 60 and Oliver bowled a 64. We watched the movie, Planet 51 dubbed in Serbian. The winners of the dance competition were the employees of the bowling center and the crowd gathered around watching. Very talented and entertaining kids.
I can’t believe it has been seven years since the birth of Owen. He is growing up too fast!!!! Happy birthday big boy, we love you.
Below is a short video of Oliver dancing. The boy has some moves and tons of charisma and charm.
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