We are currently in Transylvania and enjoying the holiday.
More when I get a chance.
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Hiking On Mount Avala
This past weekend I was alone with the kids as my wife went to Budapest with girl friends. On Sunday I took the kids out to Mount Avala for a morning of adventure. It is only 18 kilometers outside of Belgrade and a nice day trip.
This is our second time there, and we found some areas away from the monuments that were great for kids. It was a foggy day (the fog seems to stay around Belgrade for days) and with the woods had a special feel to them. We played hide and seek in the trees near the monument as well as hiked some of the trails going down the mountain. A highlight was going through a tunnel that ran under the road near the Roman mine shaft. The mountain is a former island in the Pannonian Sea, and was always a focal point for people heading to Belgrade. The name “avala” means obstacle or shelter in Turkish. Both the Ottomans and Romans settled the area.
There are plenty of trees, herbs, and wildflowers to identify and the kids loved it, so we will definitely be back. They are reconstructing the TV tower that NATO took out ten years ago. It will have a restaurant and tourists will be able to go up to enjoy the view.
Serbian Parliament
Serbian Parliament Building, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
I took this photo on last Friday’s field trip to the ivo Andric museum. Both the Parliament building and Andric’s former apartment on on Pioneer’s Park. It was a beautiful sunny morning. This week has been grey and rainy. Temperatures are in the 40’s and 30’s (F) and the sun is supposed to be back on Friday. It looks like temperatures will dip below freezing next week and I am hoping for snow.
Serbia’s parliament has one house called the National Assembly consisting of 250 members. That is one representative for every 26,000 Serbian citizens. I don’t know how that compares to other countries, but it seems to be a bit of overkill. The school is planning on having some of our older students serve internships in the parliament next semester through an international NGO. I am looking forward to that. The public can visit the parliament on the last Saturday of each month. I would like to do that with the boys.
School Picture Day 2009-2010
The traditional school photos were taken a couple of weeks ago. I usually post the photos for family back home to see the boys as they grow. Above is Owen’s grade 1 photo from this year. He is definitely an improved version of me, thanks to Nadia’s beauty. Oliver’s a handsome fellow also, and his Pre-Kindergarten photo is below.
The boys teachers this year are Ms. Marianne Whaley (Owen) and Ms. Duda Vesić.
If you want to see how they changed, check out the April 2008 school photos, and the November 2008 school photos.
Weekend in Belgrade
I snapped this photo of Ocean yesterday while we were having lunch at Usce. The light was perfect and she was looking so adorable. What an absolute angel! We got a lot of things done around the house and played quite a bit with the kids.
A highlight of the weekend was visiting Supermarket, a concept store here in Belgrade. A very hip place. It is a restaurant, spa, store, art gallery, etc. We went on a Sunday evening and the place was full. We want to check out their Sunday Jazz brunch which one of the attendants says is well attended by families. They had great gifts there and Nadia bought an agenda. I highly recommend a visit. It is located in Dorcol, #10 Višnjičeva street.
Owen’s Presentation and New Haircut
Owen’s Presentation, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
I listened to Owen’s presentation on Bolivia. The first grade class in celebration of International Week in the Lower School, had all of the students give presentations on a country of their choice. Most students chose either nations of their families or where they spent most of their lives. At an international school, there is always a lot of mixed families. Owen chose to do Bolivia because there are not many South Americans in Serbia. He was also born there and is a Bolivian citizen. We spent several holidays there and he also had an extended stay when Ocean was born.
Owen had many photos and stories to share with the parents and people at the presentations. He also finally got a haircut last night. This is the shortest he has had his hair in a long time. He looks very different! I didn’t recognize him when I first walked in today.
He did an excellent job and we are proud of him. Way to go Owen!!!!
Wine Tasting at the Kovačević Cellar
Responsible Mom and Aunt, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
Yesterday we visited Kovačević Wine Cellar located in the village of Irig, which is about 70 kilometers north of Belgrade. The village lies in the Fruška Gora National Park. Fruška Gora means “Frankish Mountain” in English. It is a region of hills that are in the middle of the flat plains of Vojvodina. The hills were a natural frontier of the Frankish Empire back in the 400s. I prefer the Roman name for the area, Fertile Mountain because it is a great region for growing grapes. The Franks have not been around in a long time. Besides wine, Fruska Gora has some hiking and 12 Serbian Orthodox monasteries, and we will come back again for those.
We found the address of Kovačević in a guide to the wines of Serbia and it was recommended to us by friends. It is not the vineyards and elegant tasting experience of the wineries we went to in Australia, but a nice experience nonetheless. There is no sign in front and so we went around the side of the building. The workers were busy with crushing the grapes and the kids got to see the process of fermentation and storage.
I was most excited to try the Bermet, which is a type of wine only produced by the Fruska Gora wineries. It is a strong dessert wine, that is infused with herbs and spices. It used to be very popular with the Austro-Hungarian royalty and it was on the wine list of the Titanic. Today, it is not known outside of Serbia. We liked both the white and red versions of the Bermet. We bought two bottles of the red. We also liked the Aurelius, a mix of Cab Sav and Merlot, aged in the barrels below. Nadia also bought a Rajninski Reisling and Chardonnay. I also liked the Reisling, which had tones of green apples. We will be visiting the region again! After the winery, we had dinner in Novi Sad and walked around the beautiful old part of town.
The highlight of the day however was not the sightseeing, but just spending time with the kids. Below they are eating another of my delicious breakfast entrees. It is good also to have my nephew Sebey visiting us.
My Take on Budapest
Budapest, Hungary is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Above is just one tiny example of the amount of architectural beauty that abounds. Everywhere one looks, down hundreds of streets, towers, facades, statues, etc. can be appreciated. And all of the buildings are massive. It felt a bit like Washington DC in the fact that there are so many areas with landmark buildings and squares. I can see why most of the city is an UNESCO World Heritage site. I can’t believe all of the buildings survived WWII and the communist era.
The international school is also spectacular. It is set about 7 miles out of the city amidst orchards and villages. The K-12 campus is huge and it looks like a university campus. If I was working at the school, it would be nice to live in the village near the school.
Now the bad side – The over 3 million inhabitants of the Budapest metro area and more than 20 million tourists make the city feel crowded. Every where we went, from the cinema, to the grocery store, to the zoo, was packed with people. We felt it and it must increase the stress level of everyone. It will be something to consider when we make our next move to another international school. Many international schools are located in large cities and this will be a consideration. Belgrade is a nicer size. We also saw many more homeless people in the streets. I am not sure where they are in Belgrade, but you just don’t see them. Only the occasional gypsy, but they usually have a home. We also noticed that the street people were drinking publicly, bottles full of a yellow alcohol.
Our first hotel choice was hilarious. Nadia picked it over the internet and it looked like a nice family apartment. When we got there, it was in the middle of the red light district. They did not accept credit cards – only cash and I had to go to an ATM. While walking to the ATM, a prostitute said hello to me. Nice, with the family in the car 10 meters away. We called the owner and got out of our obligation and found a nice suite hotel in a better part of the city.
The Hungarians were much nicer this time than when we went in Christmas of last year. They make a big point of helping tourists and I had locals explain the IKEA parking lot ticket machines, people apologize for rude salespeople, etc. I imagine tourism brings a lot of money to the city. We saw tour buses and groups everywhere!
The country is much more developed than Serbia. The standard of living and cost of living are both much higher. This is good and bad, especially for expats living in the country. In talking with the international school’s principal, childcare and domestic help would be too expensive there.
The Hungarians look central European and Slavic, but their language and ethnic background is distinct from their neighbors. The language is very complex, with most words having over 10 letters and lots of symbols above the vowels. it is related to Finnish, but distantly related and the Finns don’t understand it. There are around 10 million Hungarians and the country is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world. With the architecture, wine industry, thermal baths, history, I can see why.
This was our second trip to the city. Our first I blogged here. There is still more to explore and we will definitely return.
Family Trip to Budapest
This weekend we headed 4 hours north to the capital of Hungary, Budapest. Our boys’ soccer teams were playing the American International School of Budapest. I brought the family up to watch the game and enjoy the weekend in a beautiful city. The kids are shown above playing in the hotel room.
That is the funny thing about kids, they enjoy different things than adults. Nadia and I were appreciating the amazing architecture of the buildings of Budapest. Most of the city is an UNESCO World Heritage site and I can see why. Everywhere one looks, there are huge, ornate facades on these magnificent buildings.
The kids enjoyed most the hotel rooms and the swing at the zoo.
More later on our trip and the city.
Owen & Ollie’s Grand Hiking Trip
On Saturday I took Owen and Oliver with me on the CAS hiking trip. CAS stands for Creativity, Action, Service and is part of our International Bacchlaureate program at our school. One of the seniors, Luka, is an avid hiker and he planned out a great route for us. The trail is part of a larger system of trails in Serbia and there are hiking clubs here. Trying to find basic information about them is difficult and I haven’t seen any maps. Because of Serbia’s isolation for many years, these types of things aren’t developed yet for tourists.
The hike took place outside of the village of Slavkovica, which is located north of Čačak. It is part of the central Serbian region known as Šumadija (Wooded Land). The land of Sumadija is a mix of rolling hills, pastures, pine and deciduous forests, villages, and orchards. The hike contained all of these and was a very pleasant day. This specific hike and village are not mentioned in the Bradt guide to Serbia. The route began at a restaurant, and it was under 2 hours from Belgrade.
The high school students were patient and kind to the boys and they loved hanging out with the high schoolers. I had to carry Oliver in some of the parts, but both of them did very well. We hiked from 10:30 AM until 5:00 PM and they kept up the entire way.
Šumadija being central Serbia, was and is the most “Serbian” part of Serbia. The two uprisings against the Turks started here as well as resistance to the Nazis in WWII. It was the center of the Belgrade Pashalik in Ottoman times. I think at its heart, Serbia identifies itself with the small family farm. Although Belgrade is cosmopolitian, many Belgraders have relatives still living in the countryside.
The trail is well marked, although there were several trails intersecting that might be confusing. Red and white circles and signs (above) guide hikers. You need to read Cyrillic and the top sign indicates the direction of our goal. A WWI battle occured at Suvagora Summit between the Serbs and the Austro-Hungarians. There were several parties of hikers and there is the occasional farmer or local that you can ask if you get lost. We spotted some hang gliders on the way back.
And with many of my hikes with Oliver, it ended up with him falling asleep on my shoulders as we headed down the final decline to the car.
Bill's Blog 