Zlatibor

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We visited the region of Zlatibor this weekend for the first time. This is a part of Serbia south east of Belgrade, along the border with Bosnia. It was a wild and beautiful part of Serbia and now my favorite place in the country. “Zlatibor” means “Gold Pine” in English and it is an area of mountains (3000 feet), pines, and rugged beauty. We stayed outside the village of Mokra Gora, and it was about a 4-hour drive from Belgrade. Nadia is shown in the parking lot of the hotel. You can see the terrain behind her. If I was to buy property here, it would certainly be in this part Serbia.

We are in the Nikola Tesla Plaza in Kusturicas Village
We are in the Nikola Tesla Plaza in Kusturica's Village

We stayed at the Hotel Mecanik which is part of the Serbian Ethnic Village that the famous movie director Emir Kusturica built. It is called Drvengrad and as an excerpt from the article in the Guardian describes it as follows:

I turn up in Belgrade as the thermometer sinks south of -20 degrees. “Come to my village,” he demands. “I have something to show you.” Three thousand feet up on Tara mountain the next morning, the full effect of his latest piece of “inspired lunacy” sits under 2ft of snow. Kusturica has sunk himself deep into debt, spending more than £1m to build a pastoral paradise, his own version of Plato’s republic, in one of Europe’s last great peasant redoubts.

“This is my Utopia,” he declares. “I lost my city [Sarajevo] during the war, now this is my home. I am finished with cities. I spent four years in New York, 10 in Paris, and I was in Belgrade for a while. To me now they are just airports. Cities are humiliating places to live, particularly in this part of the world. Everything I earn now goes into this.”

What started as a couple of salvaged traditional wooden houses 18 months ago, on a bluff above the spectacularly beautiful Mokra Gora valley in western Serbia, has mushroomed into a modern take on the great monastery-universities of the middle ages. The village is equipped with a library, Serbia’s most advanced cinema and, most incongruously of all, an underground basketball arena – a tribute to the three world championships won by the former Yugoslavia. For Kustendorf, as he calls the place, is also a hymn to Serbian cultural achievement and traditional living – a kind of cultural Alamo, as a country that has been cut off from the world by war and sanctions opens itself up to the gentle mercies of globalisation.

“I am making a stand here. I want to do something constructive. In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don’t have experience of the west, they even believe that western shit is pie.” Given that the prophets of the free market in Serbia often tend to be the same gangsters, war profiteers, smugglers and chancers that Kusturica lampoons in his films, you can see his logic.

I have never seen any of his movies and did not know much about him before writing this blog post. He is a very interesting character to say the least! Some people don’t like him and I can see how he would shake some people up. There are lots of articles on line that describe his conversion to the Serbian Orthodox Church from his Bosnian Islamic roots. The village we stayed at is temple to Serbia.

Emirs Unusual Touch
Emir's Unusual Touch

On one level, it was a great place to stay with my family. The kids loved the swimming pool, we all loved the clay tennis courts and indoor basketball court. The food was delicious, although the waiter and some of the help were a bit quiet to us. Not exactly rude, but a bit cold. The views are spectacular and the cool mountain air is refreshing. The cabin we rented was comfortable and it even had a fireplace. I would love to return in the winter for a skiing trip.

On another level, it was fascinating to see his take on life. He is very much anti-Western (aka Anti-USA) and against the cultural hegemony of the US. He put photos of Che Guevara, Maradona, Fidel Castro, Pancho Villa, etc. in the restaurants. I think my buddy in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez would get along great here! I don’t like Che, I think he was  an Argentian bum who got lucky to be in the right place at the right time and ended up killing a lot of people. I wish people would read up about his background before wearing a shirt of his because he looks cool. Serbs love him and his image is around Belgrade a lot. Nadia was laughing because she is from Santa Cruz, Bolivia where Che was killed by the Bolivian army. One of her relatives on her mother’s side of the family was probably in the unit that found him in the mountains of Valle Grande, near Santa Cruz. He also didn’t serve Coca Cola, and so we ordered Emir’s Revolution Raspberry Juice (delicious). There was a picture of George Bush behind bars. I think he is a bit carried away with the anti- imperialism stuff, but I do agree with a lot what he has to say. The war of the breakup of Yugoslavia was tough on him and before I can judge someone, I need to walk in his shoes.

The Small Chapel at Drvengrad
The Small Chapel at Drvengrad

I think Kusturica is an original and I enjoyed getting to know him a bit better. I will definitely look up his films and I do plan to return again. I will probably do some more blog posts on him and his work. You can see more photos on my flickr.com account.

I recommend the place for families and I also hope to explore Zlatibor and across the border in Bosnia. I saw on the map that the city of Visegrad, from “The Bridge Over the River Drina” is very close by.

Family Journal: September 3, 2009

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Getting the kids ready for school in the mornings is always hectic. We are a 2-minute drive from school but it is easier for us to drive instead of walking because of the back packs and stuff we have to carry. I snapped this photo earlier this week of the boys while we were waiting for Nadia to get ready. As you can see, our garage is on the street level, while our yard and the rest of the house is one floor up. The Virginia Creeper vines can be seen hanging down. It covers up the garage doors a bit, kind of like the bat cave entrance in the Batman TV series from the 60’s I used to watch as a child. Also in our ground floor we have a second garage that we use for storage and then we have another room that we use for guests.

Nadia and Lekisha At the Concert
Nadia and Lekisha At the Concert

Wednesday night we got free tickets to the Leonard Cohen concert at the Belgrade Arena. We had one of the suites around the arena and it is a great way to watch a concert. Leonard Cohen is a legendary musician, songwriter, and author, and he career spans 5 decades. It was the first time that I ever heard him sing, live or recorded. He influenced a great number of musicians. His music was very mellow and okay to listen to. Nadia and I also went to dinner before the concert at The Corner restaurant downtown. Quite nice.

An Artistic Shot
An Artistic Shot

Family Journal: Sunday August 30, 2009

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Mark, Ocean, Owen, Tudor, Oliver, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Sunday evening we visited our friends, Claudiu and Vesna. They have two young children and are a very fun couple. We always have lots of laughs wtih them, not only Nadia and I but the kids also as you can see.

They are from Romania and both of them were in 8th grade when communism and dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu went down. They are the last generation to remember how life was under communism. It is interesting to hear their stories about growing up in those conditions. They now work for Kraft and work throughout Europe. Kraft, which we know for Macaroni and Cheese and other processed foods in the US, only sells Jacob’s coffee and Milka Chocolate (like a Nestle Quik) here in Serbia.

 

Nadia and Vesna
Nadia and Vesna

Morning Jog Along the Sava

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Romany Children Playing, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday morning I went with Ocean in the jogging stroller. The weather cooled down considerably from Saturday, which must have been 35 C or in the 90’s F. A storm came in Saturday evening and Sunday was overcast and cool for most of the day. We saw these gypsy children playing on the banks of the Sava. It shows the pollution in the Sava River. There are several gypsy families that live in makeshift homes underneath the New Railroad Bridge, near the railroad tracks below. They are squatters as the rail yard is kind of a no-man’s land.

Hauling In a Silver Carp
Hauling In a Silver Carp

We also watched several fishermen catching, I believe, is the Silver Carp. I can’t remember the word they said in Serbian for the fish. But by the manner they were catching it, I am pretty sure it is a carp. The carp is a filter feeder, so they use a ball of dough or corn meal surrounding a group of hooks. The carp bump against the ball to knock loose the grains and will eat them as the fall to the bottom. As the carp bump against the bait, the fishermen jerk the line quickly and hook them on their bellies. We watched them haul up two pretty good size carp this way. The hooks were near the tail, and not in the mouth. They had probably 10 each. I would never eat a filter feeder like the carp taken from the Sava. I imagine the toxin buildup in the flesh of the fish.

Old Apartment Buildings Along the Sava
Old Apartment Buildings Along the Sava

One sees buildings in Belgrade in desperate need for renovations. Inside, the individual apartments are quite nice, but many facades and public areas in buildings are deteriorated. I guess it is because of a lack of money and this is something one rarely sees in Western Europe.

“They Would Never Hurt A Fly: War Criminals On Trial in the Hague”

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I finished reading the book earlier this summer, “They Would Never Hurt A Fly: War Criminals on Trial in the Hague” by Croatian auther, Slavenka Drakulić. I couldn’t put it down and the ideas presented stayed with me the past few weeks. I was reminded about the book last night when we watched the film, “The Reader” an account of a German war crimes trial from WWII.

One of the reasons that I came to Serbia was to understand why war broke out when Yugoslavia separated into its constituent republics. This was a war that occurred in the 1990’s and in Europe and I couldn’t fathom how. While it was going on, I was fresh out of university and working in my first international school in Colombia. I remember seeing the reports on the news and I remember when the Dayton Accords were announced. I was thinking, why Dayton, Ohio? I also vaguely remember the bombing of Serbia in 1999 by NATO and seeing the shocking images of refugees. But even though I was interested in foreign affairs, I was busy with falling in love and getting my career going.

What first piqued my interest in the Balkans was the book by Robert Kaplan, “Balkan Ghosts.” The American travel writer married a Greek woman and traveled through here. He mixed history with descriptions of recent events and his own adventures of traveling. I should read that book again now that I have lived here for over a year. When I saw the job opening here in Belgrade, I sent in my application, partly based on my interest in the region.

The war started in 1991 and finally ended in 1999. The worst of the war occurred in Bosnia and Croatia and was ended by the Dayton Accords of 1995. The separation of Kosovo led to NATO intervention in 1999, and what might be the end of it finally, the declaration of independence of Kosovo. I have read accounts of the war ranging from National Geographic to Misha Glenny’s “The Fall of Yugoslavia” which I previously blogged about. All of these works were beneficial to give me background on the “what” of the war. They touched on the “why” and “how” of the war, but the book by Drakulic, really focused on the last two questions.

She travels to the Hague where the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is convened to get to know and tell the stories of the individuals on trial. It is a personal account, and she weaves her family stories in with the stories of people in front of the tribunal. I loved the book because it delved deeply into how normal people, when put in extraordinary environments, could do horrible things they would not normally do.

The war was messy, and as I think about it, most wars are. I mean “messy” in the sense that the front lines were the cities and villages filled with civilians and not battles in remote areas involving only soldiers. Villages were ripped apart because they were ethnically mixed and people fled or were killed based on their ethnicity. I couldn’t understand why, after years of living together peacefully, that such an intense civil and ethnic war could break out. I now understand that it was a combination of media manipulation, selfish and disastrous leadership, ignorant villagers, bad luck, history, and the uncertainty of what came after Tito and communism. As I read and hear more individual stories, I think I’ll get a better understanding. The stories are tragic from all sides and the book is a sad and terrifying read. I recommend it to all who want to learn more about the break up of Yugoslavia.

I would like to note that the purpose of this blog post is to assist me in processing my reading of the book. I want to learn as much as I can about Serbia. The more I know, the more I get out of the experience of living here. I do this in all of the places I live in my career in international education. This post is not an opinion of validity of the ICTY or a judgment of who was right or wrong in the war. I do believe that every country in the Balkans needs to document what happened better and so some conclusions can be drawn and to prevent this happening again. It will also help future generations of Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, as they enter this era of globalization.

Drakulic writes that the ICTY could have prosecuted 15,000 – 20,000 people. That is a staggering figure. I would like to know more about who they decide to prosecute and why. Below is a listing of the people she chose to write about.

  • Milan Levar – A Croatian war veteran from Gospić, Croatia that was murdered after he testified at the Hague. She describes the trial involving the leaders of that small town.
  • Three Bosnian Serbs from Foča, Republika Srpska that were found guilty torture and mass rape.
  • Goran Jeselić, a Bosnian Serb found guilty of executing prisoners at a detention camp in Brčko, Bosnia.
  • Radislav Krstić, a general in the Bosnian Serb army found guilty of participating in the siege on Srebrenica, Bosnia.
  • Dražen Erdemović, a Serb-Croat soldier from Tuzla, Bosnia.
  • Slobodan Milosević and his wife Mirjana Marković, former President of and First Lady of Yugoslavia.
  • General Ratko Mladić, leader of the Bosnian Serb army.
  • Biljana Plavšić, a female politician, high up in the Republika Srpska government.

She wrote several other books about life here and several novels about the war. I will be looking to read some in the future. Below are some links to other reviews of the book. Here are some other reviews of the book.

New Belgrade Flea Market

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New Belgrade Flea Market, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Update: August 31, 2009  Here is an article about the possible move of IKEA to Belgrade. (courtesy of the Balkan Insight)

My son Oliver is above checking out bathroom fixtures at the New Belgrade Flea Market (Buvljak – in Serbian). I needed a new plug on an extension cord I use to mow the lawn with my electric lawnmower. I found the plug and the guy connected it to my cord for 300 RSD ($4.50).I also saw some small soccer goals I’m thinking of purchasing for the school.

The place has everything, literally everything. From Nike shoes, to fans, from pirated DVDs to ladders. It is a huge open market with narrow stalls. The flea market is located in New Belgrade, just down from the Delta City mall. It is always busy and there is a variety of people there. Everyone is pretty friendly and we’ve never had a problem there. Nadia found a booth selling IKEA products. IKEA is one of her favorite stores and the nearest outlet is in Budapest, 5 hours away.

In front of the flea market is an unofficial flea market. It is filled with gypsies selling junk they find in the dumpsters around the city. I’ll take some photos there the next time we go.

2009-2010 School Year Begins

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We stopped for a family photo earlier this week on our front steps. This week we began school. Owen is a first-grader and will turn 7 years old this year. I can’t believe it! Oliver is in Pre-Kinder Age 4. Ocean turns two next month and is still at home with the nanny, but she had her back pack too. Nadia is teaching kindergarten again, and I return for my second year as the Secondary Principal.

We look forward to a year of teaching and learning.

Serbia Versus France

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I photographed this sign close to my house. It is in the Cyrillic script and reads in the Serbian Latin script, “Srce Na Teren” which in English translates to “Leave Your Heart On the Field.” I guess some other rough English translations would be to “Give 100%” “Do or Die” “There is No Tomorrow”. They are all sport cliches refering to the big World Cup Qualifying match that will occur September 9, 2009 (09.09.09).

Serbia leads the Group 7 European Qualifying for next summer’s World Cup in South Africa. They have a five point advantage over second place, and group favorite France. France has an extra game to play on September 5, hosting Romania. If they win, they will then come into the Serbia game only 2 points behind. After playing Serbia, France has only to host the tiny Faroe Islands and Austria in October when group play completes. Serbia has a bit tougher after France, hosting Romania and then traveling to Lithuania. So it looks like the September 9th game will decide the group winner. 

Serbia lost to France 1-2 back in September of last year. This is their only loss and they have been impressive, winning in Romania and Austria. France has stumbled twice, losing in Vienna and a draw in Romania. It will be a fantastic match. The team finishing second place in the group will have to play a second place team in another group to qualify for South Africa. I’ll definitely be blogging the game live. 

I have previously blogged about the Serbian soccer team here, and our near death experience here.

September 9th Update: I watched the game from my home. I had the High School Open House at my school the same night as the game. I got home in time to watch it. I saw the Serbian penalty goal. It didn’t look like much of a foul, but the ref had to call it. I think the red card was a bit excessive. Great penalty kick, however, and Serbia was up 1-0. France came back to equalize on a good goal by veteran Henry. I had to put my daughter to bed at halftime and missed the second half. I watched the highlights immediately after the game. Serbia hit the crossbar on one good attempt but couldn’t get another goal. 

I think they played well and with a tie, it makes next month’s game (Serbia hosting on Saturday October 10) with Romania huge. They are still four points clear of France, but with France hosting the Faroe Islands in the next round, they can expect France to get three points. A win at home against Romania would clinch a spot in South Africa. Another tie, and it will come down to the last game on Wednesday October 14. Serbia goes to Lithuania and France hosts Austria. 

Serbia controls their own destiny and I would like to see them beat Romania to earn their place in the World Cup this summer! 


 

Warm Summer Nights

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Ollie Doing His Usain Bolt Impression, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

The weather the past couple of days has been wonderful. Blue skies, cool breezes, and plenty of green and sunshine. Ollie and I took advantage of the warm night last night, one never knows how many are left!  We rode down to Ada Ciganlija and went swimming. There were lots of people enjoying the “Belgrade Sea.”

On the way back, I snapped a nice photo below of the New Railroad Bridge (Novi Železnički Most). The bridge is visible from our house in Senjak. There were some people fishing with glow in the dark bobbers.

New RAilroad Bridge - Belgrade, Serbia
New RAilroad Bridge - Belgrade, Serbia

Ocean – Such a Girl!

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Ocean is certainly not a “tomboy” as she likes feminine things like shoes, dresses, hair clips, etc. I am not saying she isn’t tough, she can handle anything having two older brothers. She is just so cute. Last night I did an experiment with her. I usually lay down with her in bed to get her to fall asleep. Last night, the boys were making noise so she kept getting up and walking out of the room. I finally resorted to fake crying everytime she left. Every single time, she came back and tried to sooth me with a hug, caress, or kiss. Only a girl would do that as I know Ollie and Owen wouldn’t try to soothe me.

We have been extremely busy with the start of school. I am putting in long days dealing with scheduling, photo copiers, etc. I am especially busy as we are changing software for administration of the school and they need to know everything.

Will blog more once things calm down and school is off and running.