Serbia Ties Italy

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Last night we attended the Serbia versus Italy in a Euro Cup Qualifying Match at Red Star Stadium here in Belgrade. It was exciting to see one of the greatest soccer teams in the world, Italy, live with great seats at almost mid-field. It was an entertaining game but Serbia only managed a 1-1 tie. The extra point did help however as next week is the final round of group play. The Serbians are 2 points below Estonia and in third place. They play at Slovenija Tuesday and have to win to get second place in the group. The second place team then enters a playoff. The Euro Cup is this summer and hosted by Ukraine and Poland and it would be nice to have Serbia in the competition.

The stadium had a great atmosphere, but Italy quieted the crowd with a goal in the second minute of play. The Serbs fought back however, and with aggressive play, got an equalizer mid-way through the second half. They continued to play hard in the second half, but Italy shut them down and dominated the last 20 minutes. Serbia had no options but long passes to their 6-8 forward, Nikola Žigić. I can see why the Italians are so powerful, Serbia desperately needed a goal to secure the second place finish, but they couldn’t do anything.

Best of luck to the Serbs as they take on their former countrymates in Ljubljiana. I would like to thank Eric and Luiz for the tickets.

Marakana!!!!!! Srbjia Navija!!!!

Oliver’s Presentation

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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.

Baseball

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Ollie & Owen, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

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.

Weekend Fun

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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.
Ocean and Owen at the INSB Picnic

Kralovec Boys Join New Soccer Club

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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.

Ocean Turns Four

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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!

KGB In LIthuania

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I visited the Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, Lithuania last week and really learned a lot. Above is a photo of Lithuanian Resistance Fighters in the cold woods of Lithuania. They first fought against the Nazis and then the Soviets, and continued fighting for 20 years after World War II ended! They were waiting for the Allies to come and take on the Russians, but they eventually lost hope and were either killed or escaped to the west.

What happened to the Lithuanian people last century is tragic and the museum documents many aspects of it. Stalin might be worse than Hitler. He exiled whole families to remote work camps in Siberia. Those were the lucky ones that were not executed. There are many stories of families trying to stay together in those harsh conditions.

The building is where the Gestapo and then eventually KGB were headquartered. I took the tour of the cells and execution room. What a horrible feeling that would have been to be carried away in the middle of the night and locked away in the basement of the secret police. One of the cells in particular struck me. As you can see below, there is a small, metal pedastel in the center of the cell. The floor was flooded with water and the prisoner’s only dry area was that little space. What cruel bastards they were!

It was strange to see eventually that Lithuanians replaced the Russians as KGB officers. I can imagine the effect of all those conspirators, informants, and spies on a society. It will take probably as long as the communist regime was in power to take away the effects of mistrust and hate sown in the people and structures. I can see why the Lithuanians are very closed and withdrawn to foreigners today.

It was a moving and informational experience and I highly recommend a visit if you are in Vilnius.

A real Molotov Cocktail

Bill’s Take on Lithuania

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Central Square in Vilnius, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I’ve been in Vilnius, Lithuania for the past several days attending the CEESA Secondary Principals’ and Athletic Directors’ Conference. Due to the few flights leaving Belgrade, we had a couple of extra days in the city. This is my second visit to Vilnius and I got to know the city and culture better. Below are my thoughts.

Lithuania is where the Baltic States meet the Slavic world. The Poles and Lithuanians have a long history together and undoubtedly had a profound influence on each other. The languages however, are much different. Lithuanian is an ancient language which is related to Sanskrit of all things. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn.

Vilnius does have a beautiful, historic old city. We stayed in the heart of it and walked around the tiny streets, admiring the ornate architecture and quaint plazas. The Lithuanians are much more reserved than the Serbs. They are just as tall however, and they are a good looking, thin, race of people like the Serbs, although with blue eyes. Basketball is very popular here, dating back to before World War II. I wonder how it got started?

Basketball is King in LIthuania

The highlight of my trip beside the gorgeous walks around the city and a round of golf, was the trip to the Genocide Museum. The museum is housed in the former headquarters of both the Gestapo and KGB and documents their activities in Lithuania. The Soviets were very cruel to the Lithanians, deporting entire families to Siberia. I can’t imagine the impact of the war and two invading armies (Red Army and Nazis) on Lithuanian society. The Russians and eventually Lithuanian communist party members controlled society through informants and spies. It must have been horrible to live with that. The most impacting for me was the basement cells and interrogation rooms. The amount of suffering, fear, and sadness that passed down there! Tragic! I don’t understand why the Russians would want to basically occupy and enslave the Lithuanians. I also can’t believe that only 20 years ago, it was Lithuania S.S.R. and not an independent nation. It has come a long way and they are making stronger relations with their fellow Baltic countries and other north eastern European nations.

Birdie Putt

Achoo Vilnius!

Vojvodina Retreat

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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.
Lake Palić

Serbia Still Alive in Davis Cup Semifinal

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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