Who wants a Frikam ice cream?

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That is a line that never gets old.

For those non-native English speakers, it sounds like “frickin'” which is a non-vulgar way of saying a vulgar word. Frikom, is pronounced in Serbian, “freekohm” but we say it a bit differently when we ask the kids, “Who wants a Frikam ice cream?” and they all shout, “me!!!!” Hilarious.

Owen is shown above holding the sign of all the different kinds of ice cream bars the company produces. They are from Croatia and besides ice cream, they also produce frozen berries which we eat all winter. Delicious. There colorful tents are seen in many places in Belgrade. There are lots of ice cream/refreshments/cigarette/newspaper stands on the sidewalks of busy intersections. The one below is next to a Maxi supermarket in Senjak. Owen and Ollie’s favorite is the Classic King. I bought the Frikom version of the “orange sherbet push-ups” for the kids over the weekend. They are not quite the soft ice cream I remember eating as a child, but they are a pretty good orange/pineapple mix.

The Pushup of My Childhood

Frikom is also getting into the World Cup spirit. They produced a set of cards and a special “soccer” ice cream bar. The advertisement below features Nikola Žigić, the big 6 foot 8 inches striker on the Serbian national team. He regularly plays for Valencia in the Spanish league. He is Ollie’s favorite player because he is so tall.

Belgrade Marathon 2010 – We Really Did It This Time!

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Yesterday we ran the half marathon in the 23rd annual Belgrade Marathon. Nadia and I had the goal of completing the half marathon (21 kilometers which is about 13 miles) and we did it. We ran together and finished the route in 2 hours, 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Above is the International School of Belgrade group and we are proud to say that we all finished the race. It was nice to have a group of students, parents, and teachers to support each other and along with the 3,000 other people running the half and full marathons, it was an exhilrating and exhausting morning. Once again, the Belgrade sun was shining brightly which made the sights all the more beautiful. We set the goal last year after we tried the 22 nd Belgrade Marathon. The last 5 kilometers were tough on both of us. For me personally, I find that now the limiting factor in my speed and distance is my legs and joints, it used to be my lungs. That is age starting to kick in.
I don’t think we are going to step it up again next year and do the full marathon, but you never know… Oh, and by the way, as we were finishing the half marathon, we watched the Kenyans finishing the full marathon. Wow.
An Exhausted Nadia Just After Finishing

Family Journal: Saturday With the Kids

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Yesterday Nadia attended a CPR / First Aid Training course so I had the three kids all day by myself. It was a wonderful day! It was a perfect, spring sunny day and so we went over to a nearby school for some tennis. They have a large cement wall and cement basketball court which is perfect for the kids. For the first time, Owen and Oliver played more against each other than against me. You can go to my flickr.com page to see the video.

Ollie Hits the Ball

The day included basketball in the back yard, purchasing fruits and veggies from Mali Kalenic, a speciality natural grocer, lunch at McDonald’s and then a nap and yard work before Mom got home.

Nadia and I are both excited for today’s Belgrade Marathon! Nadia has a bad cold however, and I hope she can make it. Weather conditions look perfect again today, so it should be a beautiful run through our beloved Belgrade! I’ll try to get some photos today of the run.

Aleksandrovic Winery

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Ocean Samples the 2008 vintage Euphoria dessert wine

We visited the Aleksandrovic Winery last week in Vinca, a small village next to Topola in Serbia’s Šumadija region. I have not been to too many wineries here in Serbia yet, but the cellar had the nicest facilities I have seen yet. There is a beautiful wine bar on the ground floor connected to a huge restaurant, and in the basement, there are many large oak barrels. They obviously have invested lots of money into the place.

In their promotional video and website (link above), they tell the history of the winery. The name Vinca comes from the Latin (Roman) wine, as the area has been a place of wine production for a long time. The winery is located a the bottom of the Oplenac hill, the estate of King Petar I, that I blogged about yesterday. The Aleksandrovic family produced wine there for the Serbian royalty for over 100 years. The winery was abandoned after WWII during the communist era of Yugoslavia.

The family began developing the winery again about 10 years ago. The signature wine of the cellar is “Triumph” a mix of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc, and Riesling grape varieties. The recipe for that wine was sent from Canada by the former royal cellar master who fled the country after WWII. The winery is unusual in that they only most of their wines are mixtures of grape varieties. Even the few pure (100%) wines with only  one variety, they give a name to them like Harizma (Chardonnay), Varijanta (Black Muscat), etc. The wines we sampled were all pretty good and we bought 4 bottles. They also have home delivery service which is an excellent idea. It takes about an hour to drive from Belgrade to the cellar.

Grape Vines of the Aleksandrovic Winery at the bottom of Oplenac

Holiday Ends

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We are heading back to work today after a restful holiday. We stayed in Belgrade and just enjoyed time with the kids and doing things around the house. It is always great to reconnect with the kids and Nadia and I as a couple. School gets hectic for all of us and it is just nice to have the luxury of free time with each other.

Family Poses on King Petar's Grounds in Topola, Serbia

We did manage to make a couple of day trips into the Sumadija region of central Serbia. “Shoomadeeaaa” is located just south of Belgrade and it is a region of farms, rolling hills, pastures, orchards, and forests. It is the traditional heartland of Serbia at the time of Ottoman occupation. We visited a winery and toured the grounds of King Petar I, who was the King of “Yugoslavia” in the early 1900’s. He had a house near the village of Topola. It was a beautiful sunset and with perfect lighting and trees, we took some photos of the family.

April 6-7, 1941: Destruction of Serbian Library

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On the sixth of April 1941, the Germans bombed Belgrade heavily for two days. Hitler called it “Operation Punishment” for the Serbs for not becoming an Axis satellite in World War II. The Germans wanted to use Yugoslavia as an area for industry and agriculture and setting up military bases. They controlled much of it, but the Serbs chose the high road and suffered greatly.

Above is a photo of the wreath and flowers placed at the site of the former National Library of Serbia. The bombing of Belgrade by the Nazis targetted not only military targets, but civilian as well. Tragically, thousands of civilians died in the carpet bombing. The library was also destroyed, taking with it valuable 900 year old documents and a treasure trove of the history of the Serbian people.

The bombing was made worse by the ex-Yugoslavian pilots in Croatia, an ally of Germany during the war. They knew where to strategically hit the Serbian part of the Yugoslavian military infrastructure.

I visited the site yesterday with Owen and Oliver and gave them a history lesson about Germany’s ambitions in World War II. The site contrasts well with the buildings left from the NATO bombing of 1999. It would be good for Belgrade to leave one of the sites like this as a physical memory. I wonder if the Yugoslav Defense Ministry building will look like this in 70 years.

Visiting the site also made me think of the long battle the Serbs have had with the German/Austrian people. One reads much about the 500 years of subjugation of the Ottomans, but throughout the years, the Austro-Hungarians and Germans have also inflicted much pain on the Serbs. Hitler could have eliminated the Serbs in World War II if they would have won the war.

I would like to see the site made more into a museum. On the site within the ruins, they could set up rooms with photos and memorabilia from World War II or perhaps a bit on the type of documents that were lost.

Family Journal: April 7, 2010

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. We have been spending a lot of time in the yard playing with the kids. I play soccer, basketball, and football with the boys on a daily basis and we’ve stepped it up during the Easter holiday break. It is so nice to have loads of time at home with my family. The weather has not been great, but we don’t care. It has been a relaxing and rejuvanating holiday. As you can see in the photos, the boys like to jump off the swings.

 
Ollie Gets Into the Act Too
Yesterday I cut the lawn for the first time this spring. It really needed it. I am almost finished with planting in the garden. This year besides herbs and flowers, we’ll be trying to grow veggies and fruits. I don’t know why the fascination with gardening hits people as they get older. I can’t get enough of it.
 
Nadia and I went for another run yesterday. We’ve exercised every day this break. My left knee is a bit sore and I should rest it, but we are getting ready for the Belgrade marathon which takes place next Sunday, April 18th. We will both try to complete the half marathon. Last weekend, we ran 15 kilometers and it felt good. So good that it started me thinking about going for the full marathon. But, with my knee in the shape it is in, I would be unable to do anything for a few weeks afterwards. Nadia is looking as beautiful as ever…
 
 

Pig Roast

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Goran With His Masterpiece

Yesterday it was a rainy day, and despite the wet weather, we still ended up having a great day. The highlight for me was going to a pig roast at the school hosted by our good friend, Goran. He is shown above with a fresh, Obrenovac-raised pig. I joked that it was a “prase” which means piglet in Serbian. That was my word for the day, svinja that means an adult pig and pork. The meat in the store would be referred to as svinjetina.

The Serbs are masters of preparing pork. For many centuries, they specialized in raising pigs and selling them to the Austro-Hungarians. The Royal Family of the Serbia, the Karadjordje dynasty started as pig dealers. I think they should have a pig sty in the White Palace grounds as homage to their past.

Goran served the svijetina with kupus (coleslaw), bread, and condiments of light green peppers or green onions. Delicious! A big thank you to Goran for letting us share in the feast.

Joseph holds Ocean After the Party

Artist Miloš Tutuš

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Last night we visited the home of our friends, Vera and Miloš Tutuš. I didn’t have my camera, so  the photo above was taken September of 2008 at party we attended together. Miloš is a 28 year old artist and art teacher at the Chartwell School, a British private school here in Belgrade. He is a fine artist and we have a couple of his works hanging in our home. He is both a sculpture and painter and he has a wide range of works. He maintains an on line gallery of his work where you can view and purchase many of his pieces. The web site with his page is managed by a non-profit organization called ARTE that focuses on promoting artists and web entrepreneurs with emerging technologies.

Keyhole "Engrova" - A piece by Miloš in the Kralovec Home

The Eastern Gate of Belgrade

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Yesterday errands took us over to the suburb of the famous “Eastern Gate” of Belgrade. The gate is an apartment complex that is a highly visible landmark as cars enter Belgrade on the main E-75 freeway from the east. The Genex Building, also on E-75 but on the other side of Belgrade is known as the “Western Gate.” The two communist era “Socialist Realism” architecture style buildings are the most highly visible of a city full of these monsters.

I personally love looking at them and have been reading some on their development. The Eastern Gate Apartments were built in 1976 and there are three buildings that form a circle and they house around 2000 people. They were built in 1976 and the complex is named after the town of Rudo, Bosnia. The idea behind communist architecture was to glorify the common worker and downplay individualism. They loved cement in those days as it is the main structural and decorative medium. Today’s apartments are made more of brick, wood, glass, and steel.

I am so curious to know what it is like to live in them. As I wrote, they are interesting to look at, but I am not sure what the residents think. I would imagine the hallways, stairwells, and elevators must be a disaster because they are not well-maintained. The majority of Belgraders live in apartments, but it seems that they do not devote much resources to communal upkeep of the buildings and grounds.

I guess the reason I like this architectural style so much is that it is so different from anything I have ever seen. They remind me of a science fiction movie of a Orwellian future, a type of “Blade Runner” post-apocalypse skyline.

I hope I get a chance to go into one. All of my current Serbian friends live in smaller apartment buildings. I’ll be blogging more about these Socialist Realism buildings in future posts.

Another View of the Rudo Apartment Complex