We are in transit for Michigan and I am blogging from the comfortable Budapest Airport. We had to get a flight on short notice and so are flying out of Budapest, Hungary instead of Belgrade because of a much lower cost. We had a nice stay at the Hotel Stacio last night, which is near the airport. I highly recommend it, with free WiFi, beautiful spa/pool, free breakfast, it is a very good deal for 80 Euros a night.
It has been a very sad past couple of days with the passing of my father. I was cheered up yesterday afternoon when I picked up Ocean from school and we spent an hour playing in the yard. I helped her build a “snow house.” She is such a lively, beautiful little girl! It was the highlight of my day!
It has been a tremendous week of early mornings for Goran and me dealing with the snow and cold temperatures. Goran is the head of the maintenance and security at the school. He and his crew started the week plowing the school grounds, parking lots, and nearby roads to make them passable for the community. He also was dealing with getting the buses to the homes through the snow-filled streets of the Belgrade suburbs. Finally today, he was trying to heat up diesel engines on four of our buses as the cold, bitter temps were freezing our fleet at school. That doesn’t include clearing the icicles from the roofs, salting sidewalks and steps for pedestrians, and maintaining the heating system.
We are pictured in the parking lot of the high school, still managing to smile after a crazy, but very interesting week. We are all looking forward to February Break which starts this weekend.
Winter has finally come to the city and it is a snowy wonderland. We had another 3 inches last night. In the past week it has probably snowed at least 1 and 1/2 feet. Temperatures are well below zero celcius (right now 14F). The city is struggling with keeping the streets clear and lending help to the villages and towns in southern Serbia hit even worse by the snow. The government has declared a “State of Emergency” and the local schools are closed this week.
Being from Northern Michigan, USA, I am used to lots of snow so it brings me back to my childhood. I am happy my children can experience the snow! Above is a photo of our apartment and below is a photo of our balcony. It is piling up even more this morning!
Saturday we went out tobogganing to Košutnjak Park and we are looking forward to skiing next week.
During my visit to London last week I made the pilgrimage that all tennis fans should do once in a lifetime, I took the train to Wimbledon. The grounds are located in the suburb of Wimbledon, which was a good 40 minute train ride and walk from my downtown hotel. The museum/gift shop was open and they even featured a look at centre court. I thought it was cool that the last match played at last year’s tourney was still on the board. Looking at it now, I see that it was a short, 4 hour and 43 minute victory for our beloved Serbian champion, Nole!
It was great to go through the museum and learn about the history of the game. Professional tennis does not really have a long history. For hundreds of years it was a recreational game played by royalty and the upper classes. The highlight was a talking hologram of John McEnroe talking about his Wimbledon tournies.
Wimbledon is one of the four grand slams and I see how the traditional and reserved British culture is appealing to the players and tennis fans. It is a much different tourney than the other grand slams – a lot less commercial. Centre Court is very small and the grass is surface that few tourneys are played on. It was like visiting Lambeau Field for American football or Wembley for soccer. I hope to come back in July and see it in action.
I am at a recruiting confernece in London and after being in front of a computer all day, I went for a long run along the Thames River. It was really cool to see all the famous sites like the London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, etc. There are a lot of tourists here, even in late January.
My hotel is in the City of London, an independent city-state inside of metro London. It is mostly a tax-haven for investment bankers and it is the financial district. There are a lot of business men and women walking around. They were one of the causes of the global economic crisis and it is a group of people devoted to greed.
The city is very well-kempt and really beautiful. A bit too big for my taste however and very urban. I am also impressed with the diversity of people. So much different than Serb-dominated Belgrade.
The Thames is brown and has a fast current. It looks much like the Sava or the Danube. They have done much to develop the banks, and it is loaded with cafes, sidewalks, museums, etc. It was a lovely run along both the north and south banks of the river.
Finally some snow! Yesterday morning was a winter wonderland in Belgrade. We awoke to a white world as you can see with Nadia above. While I was cleaning the car off (we don’t have a garage) Ocean was dancing around and throwing snowballs. She was very excited for the “sneg.”
Unfortunately, I had to leave Belgrade for a recruiting trip to London and I didn’t get to enjoy the snow. It was still snowing when I called home last night.
Southern Serbia has been hit hard with snow and it seemed like it was all around Belgrade, but not in the city itself.
My children love going to the New Belgrade Skate Park, located very close to the Ušče Mall and Friendship Park. I don’t have much experience with skate parks but I am impressed with the facilities. The park has a “half-pipe” and a wide variety of ramps of different heights, angles, and curves. Owen is getting pretty good as you can see in the video above. Oliver rides his bike around the park and all three love playing in the half pipe.
It is great that the municipality of New Belgrade built the facilities. They are quite well used as there are always a few kids skating or bmx biking about the park.
The video above is a recording of the song, Marš Na Drinu or “March on the Drina” by Serbian composer Stanislav Binički from Friday night’s concert of the Belgrade Philharmonic. The concert was part of their New Year’s Cycle which celebrates different New Year celebrations throughout the year. Friday evening was the New Year in the Julian Calendar, which several Orthodox Christian churches in Eastern Europe still follow.
I think the song should be the Serbian national anthem. Binički was inspired by the Serbian army’s Battle of Cer against the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I. The lyrics celebrate the bravery of the Serbian soldiers and the flowing rivers of Drina. The Drina River is a tributary of the Sava River and forms the border between Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia. I love the melody when I first heard it played at the stadium during Serbia’s run to the World Cup a couple of years ago. I especially like the haunting rhythms which begin about halfway through the four-minute composition.
The song was overwhelmingly voted by the Serbian public as the national anthem, but due to its use by the Bosnian Serb armies in the wars of the 1990’s and the song was associated with the war. Too bad, because the current Serbian national anthem, is a weak, rip-off of the Monarchist God Save the Queen.
It is somewhat similar to Australia, where Waltzing Matilda is a much more loved song than the Scottish written, Advance Australia Fair, the official national anthem.
The song was the encore to Friday’s concert which featured Russian and Serbian works of classical music. As time goes on and the wars of Yugoslavian Secession move out of people’s living memory, the song will eventually be adopted as the national anthem.
Nadia and I really enjoyed the concert! The Belgrade Philharmonic this year has spiced up their concerts with bringing in opera singers and as you can see in the video, a “stereo” choir on both sides of the auditorium.
I just completed reading Serbian author Srdjan Valjarevic’s book, Lake Como. I was very curious to read the book because so few contemporary Serbian authors are translated into English. I’ve read a lot of Ivo Andrić and Daniel Kis, but no more recent authors. I would like to thank Geopoetika Publishing Company for translating a series of contemporary Serbian authors. I will definitely read others in the series.
Lake Como is the story of a Serbian writer who wins a month’s refuge at an expensive Villa on Lake Como to work on his novel. The author however, is not really working on the book and a friend helped him fill in the application to receive the grant award. He is a part-time writer and full-time alcoholic. Not much happens in the book and he describes his month at the lake. He does a lot of drinking, sightseeing, eating, and observing the other guest scholars in the villa. He also mingles with the local townspeople quite a bit and is a bit of a ladies man.
The unnamed antihero, or hero of the book I guess represents Serbia and the people of his generation. Valijarevic is my age although the book was written 5 years ago. It made me think about what it would have been like to lose your country (Yugoslavia) and living standards that went with it after years of war and embargoes. It was quite traumatic for people his age who were just starting out in their careers when the whole thing went to pieces. The best review I read on the book is by Daniel Kelleher and here are the other books in the series by Geopoetika.
Titles that fall within the Geopoetika Serbian prose in Translation series under review include: —
While waiting for my wife to come out of the movie at the Ušče Mall earlier this week, I explored the Friendship Park. This park in New Belgrade was established in 1961 to commemorate a big meeting of the Non-Aligned Nations Movement. Through the years, when foreign statesman visit Serbia, a tree is planted in the park in their honor. I walked around and noted some of the famous names. These included Fidel Castro, Moammar Gaddafay, Leonid Brezhnev, Hafez El Assad, and of course the first one, Tito in 1961. My favorite is from 1976, Jimmy Carter planted a California Sequoia which must have died because there was a large bush near his marker that certainly didn’t look like a 35-year old Giant Redwood. One of the latest trees planted was by current Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mohamed Kemel Amr in September next to the Serbian Foriegn Minister, Vuk Jeremić in September of 2011.
The other interesting part of the park is the Soviet-style monument erected by Slobodan Milosević after the NATO bombings in 2000. It used to contain an eternal flame. In the background of the photo to start this post, you can also see the former Central Committee building. It was destroyed in the NATO bombing campaign, but is now office buildings.
Bill's Blog 