Category: Family Journal

An archive of our family’s daily life.

27 Улица Козјачка

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Gazebo, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

The title of this post is the address of our home in Serb Cyrillic script. In English, is 27 Kozjаčka Street. Kozjačka is the name of a mountain range near the Serbian and Macedonian border.

I took some photos of the house and our yard so my family back home can see where we are living. The school provides our housing and we are very happy at how nice it is. The yard is nice for the kids and the gazebo above is spectacular. Pity I am not much of a griller because we have a beautiful stone BBQ.

Our house is actually and apartment. They call these old buildings here “villas” and they are usually rented out each floor or section. The ground floor is our basement and two car garage. The second floor is our home, and the third floor are two apartments. We also have exclusive access to the yard so it feels like a home. Nadia has made the house her own and worked hard at arranging the furniture and buying lamps and carpets to make it look to her taste.

For more views, just go to our flickr account to see the rest of the house. 

The neighborhood (suburb) of Senjak is located in the south part of the city, near the Sava River. It definitely has a European feel, it is similar to Mediterranean style of architecture and narrow streets of my summers in Mallorca, Spain. It is contrast with New Belgrade across the river, that feels more American with its wide streets. We are a 10-15 minute walk to school that is mostly through parks and the shops are just down the block. The river has a nice bike path and there are many parks and embassies just south us.

Family Journal: July 27, 2008

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It was a very nice Sunday we had together as a family yesterday. In the morning, we went to Home Market to buy some lamps for the house. We looked at some area rugs, but didn’t like anything we saw. In the afternoon we went to Topcider park and Nadia took some great photos. You can see all of them on our flickr.com account. We played whiffle ball and wrestled in the grass. It is a large park and on a late Sunday afternoon, it was filled with families. Prince Milos had a good idea in setting up a park there. The park is a 5 minute drive from our house and the bucolic setting makes you feel like we are not in Belgrade.

We then ventured downtown again and had a late dinner at Pizza Hut. After that we strolled along the Knez Mihailova Street (Prince Mihailova – one of Milos’ sons). A taxi ride from our house to the downtown is about 5 dollars.

Family Journal: July 26, 2008

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Ocean in New Stroller, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I went for a run this morning in our new jogging stroller. Actually the frame is the same, but I bought a new canvas seat for it. I have put on so many miles on the old one, that the fabric was getting worn out and the velcro straps no longer worked. The new seat will give me several more years of morning running. I highly recommend to any running parents to invest in one of these. The key is to find one with the large bicycle tires. I can go anywhere in the thing.

I checked out Topcider Park, just south of my neighborhood of Senjak, here in Belgrade. Belgrade has the most parks of any city in continental Europe! I have been exploring several near my home and it is great. I feel like I am in the country, although Belgrade metro area probably has around 2 million people. Ocean is shown above in the new stroller.

The park is huge and fabulous. The name of the park means “Valley of the Cannons” in Turkish. It dates back to the 1521 when the Ottoman Turks set up makeshift foundries to produce cannons to attack the city. In 1831 Prince Milos Obrenovic set aside the area for a park and his mansion, which is now a museum. The park has lots of monuments, trails, fountains, and trees. I only explored a portion of it and it is the perfect place for a picnic. There is a nice restaurant there also. Another view to the park is below. Thank you to Laurence Mitchell and his Bradt pocket guide to Belgrade for the background on the park. We’ll try to take the kids down there tomorrow.

We finished unpacking finally. We took care of the Venezuelan boxes and the last two suitcases. In the afternoon I took the boys over to the school and they rode their bikes and we played soccer. Then we took the whole family to Home Center and Nadia bought some stuff for our house. We are getting settled in and making it our home. Nadia then cooked a delicious chicken and prepared a salad and we ate outside. The rain came again and we had to move the table under the gazebo. Home Center was very nice and had everything we were looking for. The boneless whole chicken was stuffed with ham and cheese and it was absolutely delicious. The food here has been fantastic.

It has been lots of work getting everything unpacked and into place. We are very happy with our home and the kids really like it too.

Nadia and Owen Venture Out: Family Journal July 23, 2008

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Nadia and Owen Venture Out, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Our first day in Belgrade was a busy one. I spent most of the morning cutting the lawn and doing yard work. The house has been vacant for about a month and lots needs to be done. We also moved furniture and continued to unpack our 11 suitcases. We were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful our home and our neighborhood of Senjak are!

Nadia and Owen are shown above at the end of our street. The name of our street (ulica in Serbian) is Kozjacka number 27. We took a cab downtown but due to the protest we headed back close to our house. We had a delicious dinner at the Zodiac Restaurant and did some grocery shopping. It is now 4:00 AM and the boys and I are up because our internal clocks are still on Central Daylight Savings time in the US. We’ll finish the unpacking and organizing of the house today. I hope the cool and rainy weather continues.

Below is a photo of us at the Zodiac.

Kralovec Flight Plans: July 21 – 22, 2008

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We leave tomorrow for Belgrade, Serbia. We have been working hard on packing, cleaning, and getting ready to go. Still a few more things to do tomorrow morning before we leave in the afternoon. We fly out tomorrow evening. The tickets cost $1,429.43 each for the adults. We are flying Northwest Airlines out of Austin Straubel Airport in Green Bay Wisconsin at 6:00 PM. Our connecting flight is through Detroit on Air France. We leave Detroit at 9:30 PM and land in Paris at 11:35 AM the next day. On Tuesday then we fly from Paris to Belgrade landing in Serbia at 3:20 PM local time. The flight from Paris to Belgrade is 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Bill & Nadia’s Hot Date: “Run Your Bass Off”

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Bill & Nadia Warm Up, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Sunday Nadia and I ran the 28th annual “Run Your Bass Off” 10 kilometer road race in Crystal Falls, Michigan. The race is part of the Bass Festival held at Runkle Lake. We were unsure of going when we got up Sunday morning as it was 50 degrees F and drizzling. We powered through however and got the kids up and packed and drove the 15 miles to the other side of Iron County. We dropped the boys off with our good friend’s the Bonetti family and dropped Ocean of at my aunt Ione’s home in Crystal Falls. It was great! We felt like we were on a date with no kids. As you can see, I was a bit more excited about running in the cool weather than Nadia.

Most of the 279 present were running the shorter “Half Bass” or 5 kilometer run/walk. Crystal Falls should be renamed Crystal Hills as there were killer hills throughout the race. There were some nice scenic spots as we ran by the Paint River. Nadia and I ran together as it was a rare opportunity for us to do something together sans offspring. Nadia started off slow but then got her second wind and we passed some runners. There was a large hill however at the 4 mile mark that took the wind out of her sails and she slowed a bit. In the last 2 miles she recovered and we finished strong together at 1 hour and 2 minutes. We didn’t win but that wasn’t the point. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and got out and did some exercise.

My favorite meal: Pizza Rolls

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Every time I come home to Caspian for a visit my mother makes my favorite meal. She calls them pizza rolls, and they are an Italian dough and meat cinnamon roll shape covered in a red sauce. It is a simple recipe and the only work is in preparing and shaping the dough.

To the right is how the dough is laid out and the meat placed. It is then carefully rolled and cut into small slices.

My mother got the recipe from her mother who got it from Mrs. Stiffe, a neighbor in their Italian neighborhood of Caspian. I’ve eaten these since I was a kid and always eat too many of them.

Below my Dad and Mom enjoy the pizza rolls in the foreground. My brother and his family came from Iron Mountain to enjoy the rolls and spend some time with us. We went up to the baseball field and played with the kids after the meal.

Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of flour
  • 6 eggs (2 eggs per 1 cup of flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt
  • 1 large cup of tomato sauce
  • 1 large cup of pizza sauce
  • 1 can water per each can

Meat: 1 – 1 & 1/2 pounds of hamburger (add 1/4 – 1/2 ground pork), salt, pepper, garlic salt, onion (mix well together)

Instructions: Mix flour & salt – add eggs (dough will be soft and sticky) add a little milk if too dry. Put oil on hands and over dough. Divide in half – roll on floured bread 1/4 ” thick. Spread on meat – roll like a jelly roll-cut 1″ slices – place 1″ apart in cake pan. Mix sauces and water – pour over slices – cover – bake 350° F for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Andy’s tip – mix the meat the night before to make it easier and it gives the pork a chance to give more flavor to the beef.

Lake Superior Pilgrimage – Family Journal July 13-14, 2008

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Ontanogan City Park, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Sunday we drove up to Ontonogan for our annual trip to one of the Great Lakes. My town of Caspian is located an hour from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and every summer we try to at least spend a day at the beach. We usually go with my brother’s family and our good friends the Bonettis. This year Jim couldn’t make it, but we went up with Mark, his wife Danell, and children Brandl and Lauren.

We wanted also to explore the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It was about 90 miles away from Caspian. We stayed at the Superior Shores Resort located on the Lake about 6 miles outside of the park. The annual trip is also a celebration of “Yooper Culture” and we try to stay in locally owned motels and eat in local restaraunts.

Lake Superior is one of my favorite places in the world. It has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world (82,178 km square). It’s average depth is 149 meters. It is the Lake that took down the ss Edmond Fitzgerald in 1975, memorilized in that famous song by Gordon Lightfoot. British poet Rupert Brooke had noted in 1913, “These monstrous lakes, which ape the oceans, are not proper to fresh water or salt. They have souls, and they are wicked ones.” It is also a very cold lake, with an average temperature of 40 degrees F. The lake is huge and cold and beautiful. (I like that Hemmingway-esque description)

The weather was cold on Sunday, we we loved it. After we settled in to the motel, we went for a hike at the Lake of the Clouds inside the park. We made it down to the lake in back. In the evening we went to the Kontecka Supper Club in near by White Pine. This is a dying little town near the park. There used to be a big copper mine, but when it shut down in the late 80’s, so did most of the town. The club feeds local wild bears and it was great the kids had a chance to watch the big black bears come in. I do not like this artificial feeding, but it has helped the club survive. Many tourists go there to watch the bears and have a bite to eat.

The next day we made a short stop at Bonanza Falls after lounging at the motel and a pancake breakfast at Syl’s Cafe in Ontonogan. There was a bad smell downtown Ontonogan from the big paper mill. The mill makes corrugated cardboard and employs around 300 people. We then drove just east of town and there is a nice public beach on the lake. It was a nice sunny day and we really enjoyed a day at the beach. I took the photo of Owen above.

We came home and then I took the kids up to the weight room as my brother needed to watch the football players. You can click on our flickr photos to see more photos from the trip. I would like to that Mark and Danell for being such wonderful company!

Family Journal: July 11-12, 2008

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There was no time to blog on Friday or Saturday. Friday morning we went up to the Ice Lake hospital and met with Dr. Naseem Rizkalla. He is a very nice gentleman from Jordon who has been practicing in the US for over 20 years. At Nadia’s physical Thursday, Dr. Cloutier referred her to Dr. Rizkalla for her diastisis. Dr. Rizkalla agreed to see us free of charge since the insurance would have taken a few days to authorize. He quickly examined Nadia and did concur with Dr. Cloutier that surgery would be necessary. Nadia’s abdominal muscles are stretched from three preganncies (especially Owen’s) and there is a bulge. Since we are leaving so soon (July 21) he did not want to do the procedure now. It will be painful and Nadia is still nursing. She will have to wait for a better time. It is not a matter of life or death and she can continue to do all the activities that she normally does as there is no threat for a hernia according to Dr. Rizkalla. I also went to get my blood test for the William Russell life insurance in case I cannot be insured locally. More on that later, but I did can say I did not have TB.

In the afternoon we went to Iron Mountain to meet with our friend and real estate agent, Monica Maule. She works for Stephens GMAC and is trying to sell our house in a really bad market. We then went shopping at Dunham’s Sports for running shoes, shorts, etc. After that was done, we went to my brother’s house. Jimmer and I took the boys for a hike above the hills of Iron Mountain. There are still lots of wood ticks around the woods as we found dozens of them on us. Nadia absolutely freaks outs about wood ticks! My sister-in-law Michelle prepared her famous north side lasagna and we stuffed our faces.

Saturday was spent packing. We have 8 boxes to send to New Jersey to ship to Serbia.

In between packing, I played football and soccer with the kids and took all three up to Community Center to play in the park. The boys helped Grandpa in the garage in the morning too. He can still box at age 75!

In the evening, we went up to the Gaastra Field and watched my brother Andy play soccer. Every Saturday evening at 6:00 PM, people get together to play soccer there. I got into the game for awhile and it felt good to run around a bit.

This morning we are getting ready to do the Run Your Bass Off 10KM in Crystal Falls Michigan. It was 53 degrees F when I woke up with the wind howling! We will then spend the night in a motel on the shores of Lake Superior near the Porcupine Mountains wilderness area.

Family Journal: Wednesday July 9, 2008

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Uncle Dan, Mom, & Aunt Darlene, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

We had a nice visit yesterday from my Uncle Dan and Aunt Darlene. The three Heikkila siblings are shown above. My mother is in the middle. The other surviving sister Ione could not make it, but she came up earlier in the summer. I haven’t seen Dan and Darlene in a while and it was good to sit and talk with them. My uncle Dan donated his kidney to his sister/my mother years ago and has always been kind to my family. Both Dan and Darlene are enjoying their retirement and live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. We spent many of a family vacation when I was growing up staying at their homes. I have lots of good memories of the fun times I had with all of my cousins.

Of course on the way home they needed to stop for a Riverside Pizza. The Riverside Bar and Restaurant is a landmark in Iron River. They make a unique pizza that is sliced in little squares instead of the normal big pie pieces. the sauce, cheese and other toppings are delicious as well as the thin crust. A one-of-a-kind pizza that I don’t understand why they never tried to spread it. All tourists and former residents have to eat one during their visit.

In the afternoon I went for a physical at the Iron County Community Hospital. I need to get a physical and TB test for my new school. I got a booster vaccine of DTP (diptheria, tetanus, pertussis). I was four years late with the last booster shot received in 1994.