Tag: Belgrade

Kralovecs Visit Novak Tennis Center

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Ocean is shown in front of a statue of Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star and current world’s number one men’s tennis player. He got the statue from the Master’s Championship in Beijing last year. It is in the style of the terracotta warriors from the famous archeological site.

We visited the Novak Tennis Center in downtown Belgrade last night. The family with the help of the city has created a tennis center that can host an ATP tourney as well as become a tennis academy. We looked around and will book a court for later this week. They had some reasonable prices and the club seemed very nice. I’ll do a blog post when we play.

Cashing in on his fame - Novak Tennis Center Pro Shop

Djokovic won the Roger’s Cup last night in Montreal, Canada. He raised his record to an amazing 53-1 this year. That is a 98% winning percentage and he is on pace to beat the best single season record ever of 82-3 set by John McEnroe. His 43 consecutive wins to start the season was the most since the ATP era began in 1990. Only Ivan Lendl (44) and Guillermo Vilas (46) have had longer streaks. Federer’s longest streak was 41 and Nadal’s was 32 wins.

The Roger’s Cup victory was his fifth “Master’s” series, also a record in a single season. The Master’s series are tournaments that all the top-ranked players must play and are worth more points and money on the tour. Djokovic skipped the Master’s tourney in Monte Carlo because of a knee injury, otherwise he probably would have had six. He is playing in the Cincinati Masters this week. Besides the Master’s wins, he also won two majors, the Australian and Wimbledon. The US Open begins at the end of this month. Novak also has accumulated almost 8 million dollars in prize money this year and is heading towards the record of Rafael Nadal, who won over 10 million in one season.

I don’t think that his season is getting enough attention. I hope he can finish out the season undefeated, it would be a remarkable feat.

Lido Beach

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Last night we visited Lido Beach in Zemun. It is located on the northern tip of “Great War Island” (Veliko – big Ratno – war Ostrvo – island). The island is situated at the spot where the Danube River (Dunav in Serbian) splits into its tributary, the Sava River. The island gets its name from the numerous armies that use the island as a launching pad for attacks on the city. The Turks, Serbs, and Austro-Hungarians all used it and the Serbian Army still has a presence on the island today.
In the summer, the city of Belgrade, with the help from the Serbian army, they make a pontoon bridge from the island to the suburb of Zemun. I wanted to check it out so we took the family over last night. There is a small beach on the northern point of the island, called “Lido Beach,” named after the Lido sandbar in Venice, Italy. Of course it was a body of water, so I had to jump in. The kids took off their shoes and splashed in the water a bit. Ocean loved the sand. We will probably head back there sometime. It is much like Ada Ciganlija, but the currents are a bit faster. The island is also a big bird sanctuary so I should try to do some birdwatching.
The View from Lido Beach at Sunset

There have been numerous attempts to develop the island. The Danube occasionally floods it in the spring, which is good for stopping people from putting hotels on it! It is a large green area in the city as you can see from the ariel view. It is supposed to be quite popular swimming beach and they do have a life guard, a couple of restaurants, and two volleyball nets.

Summer Holidays Begin

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Ollie, Ocean, Mom, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia is shown above with the kids at our favorite place for pizza in Belgrade, Brodic. It means “little boat” in Serbian and it is basically a boat and raft, moored along the Sava River, near the Sajam Fair. They serve a sesame seed crust pizza that is absolutely delicious. It is more a hangout place for beers, than a family restaurant, but it has a friendly atmosphere and serves Paulander Wheat Beer, which is a favorite of mine. I highly recommend the “The Pizza Boat” as the expats call it.

We are busy packing for our summer holidays. I’m wrapping things up in the office at school. We bought a new car as our beloved “Eidelweiss” is on her last legs. It is a 2005 Town & Country and it is THE family vehicle. I love that both rows of seats can be stored underneath easily and it is quite luxurious compared to the 1996 Honda we are currently driving. We are trying to figure out a name for the car. The paperwork is taking forever however, and we won’t get our license and registration until we return to Belgrade in August. That is one difficult part of living in Belgrade, sometimes simple things like transferring a car title and registering for a license plates take forever and require several trips to government offices. It is one reason why the economy is bad here, is that it is hard to do simple business transactions because of too much bureaucracy.

The New Ride

I took the kids to the zoo on Sunday while Nadia was getting her hair and nails done. We had a great time. I recommend visiting it with the family. I am ambivalent about zoos. It is good the kids can see the animals and learn about them, but it is basically a prison for animals. The conditions for the animals in the Belgrade Zoo are not great, but in my travels around the world, I’ve seen worse.

Cooling Off at the Pool

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Yesterday we went over to the Košutnjak Pool which is a large sports complex owned by the city. It is located near the sledding hill in the suburb of Banovo Brdo (Ban’s Hill). It was our first time to pool and we were impressed by the facilities. There were five outdoor pools, restaurants, changing rooms, in a nice woodland setting. It looked very communist, but it was well maintained. The only problem was the 1000 other people enjoying the pool. That is one thing you get in Belgrade during the summer. Any water is just full of people. The kids enjoyed it and it was refreshing. Europeans are in so much better shape than Americans and not as body conscious. There was plenty of flesh of all ages on display. There was a baby pool and it is a nice place for families, although I recommend getting there when is opens at 10:00 AM and leaving around noon when the crowds pull in.

My bow-legs are visible as I dive into the pool

For lunch we went to restaurant nearby for some BBQ lamb and sausages which was delicious. We finished the day with some tennis at the school and saying goodbye to friends who are leaving today for the USA.

 

School Year Ends

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Ocean, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

With the end of the school year being such a busy time, I’ve had no time to keep up with my blogging. We had our last day of classes yesterday. I’ll be working this week finishing up in the office and then summer holidays!

Ocean is pictured above at last week’s Art Exhibition our school held. Our school is very “hip” and the students exhibited many different mediums of art, including sculpture, digital film, and music. The exhibition was held in the former Military Academy in downtown Belgrade. It is now being turned into a museum and exhibition center after the Serbian army donated the building to the city, It is such a fabulous space to feature student art. As you can see from the photos, the interior of the building is quite striking. The building was damaged twice in WWII and the 1999 NATO bombings.

Oliver and Owen’s art work was featured as well and so I snapped a couple of photos of their work. It was such a nice event for our students and parents and I am happy that ISB supports the fine arts.

Oliver's Sculpture

Sting Performs in Belgrade

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We thoroughly enjoyed attending the Sting concert last night at the Belgrade Arena. Sting is the former lead singer of the Police and is a pop music legend. He is on the second European portion of his long tour promoting his new release, Symphonicities. The real name of Sting is Gordon Sumner and the former British school teacher has been a pop star for 30 years. He looks great at age 58 and his voice and energy is of a man 20 years younger. The idea of the album and concert is to rearrange his songs for a symphony orchestra. I really felt that for most of the songs, it gave them a new life and I found that it brought out his voice more and the story behind each song. It made for a varied evening, with featured players including the trumpet, clarinet, violin, cello, etc. Sting is a true musician and played the guitar, lute, harmonica, among other instruments during the course of the 2-hour, 23 song concert.

I grew up with the Police in the 1980’s and as he has aged and developed more complex musical tastes, I’ve been along for the ride. He is one of the my all-time favorite musicians and it was a great concert. Nadia and I took Owen and he managed to stay up the entire evening. It was the first time we all “partied” together. I hope the exposure to music will inspire him to appreciate music. He is taking guitar lessons. I hope to learn the piano and develop that side of my life.

I would like to thank my friend Claudiu for buying the tickets for us way back in February. The seats were magnificent, near the stage and up above the seats on the floor. With Serbians so tall, it is tough to view a concert if you are a row behind someone. The view was perfect. Nadia kept asking me to dress more like Sting! I’ll post photos tonight when I charge my Blackberry.

Spring Break Begins

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Owen and Ollie, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

It was a fabulous day yesterday as we began our Spring Break! We have 12 days off of school. It felt like a long time since Ski Week, especially for me with the basketball season and the accreditation visit. We are staying in Belgrade for the time off and enjoying our new apartment and the spring weather.

The boys are shown above playing basketball. They love playing hoops and with the smaller ball, Oliver can make baskets. Besides playing a lot in the back yard, we did some shopping for more plants and did somethings around the house. I am growing flowers, herbs, and vegetables on our balconies.

We wrapped up the day with a great meal at the Sheher Restaurant (Park Cafe) with friends Claudiu, Vesna, Per, and Maria and families. It is located in our neighborhood and it has a big outside area for the kids to run around while the adults can socialize in peace. The food was delicious and a great ambiance outside on their patio. I highly recommend the place.

I’ll try to blog as much as I can for the holidays. Today we’ll begin dyeing the Easter eggs. We are trying to have a full Serbian Orthodox Easter this year.

Nadia with Tulips from Kalenić Pijaca

Slow Art Day 2011

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Sanja, Nadia, Sara, and Lisa, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia and I attended the “Slow Art Day” event organized by our friend Lisa on Wednesday. Some of the girls are shown above on Kneza Mihailova, the famous walking street in Belgrade. It was a gorgeous sping evening and Nadia enjoyed contemplating the art and we both enjoyed the camardarie and atmosphere of the event.

Slow Art was started by Phil Terry, an internet entrepanuer who wanted to change the “8-second rule” of art museums and galleries. This is the “widely reported statistic that most people spend on average 8 seconds in front a piece of art when visiting a museum.” The idea is to look at a piece for up to 10 minutes and then discuss your interpretations with friends.

Lisa organized several pieces to look at in 5 galleries downtown. Two of the exhibitions were by the same Yugoslavian artist (find name). My favorite was by a Serb-Spaniard, Vecev Vecel. He left Serbia during the war and settled in Mallorca. His exhibition was named 3,727, which refers to the number of days he was outside of Serbia. This was the first time he was back in the country since his family fled. The words in his works are in both Serbian and Spanish.

I didn’t realize how many galleries there are in Belgrade. The city is so full of cultural opportunities. Thanks to Lisa for putting it together!

Serbia 911 (or should I say 94)

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This weekend I took a refresher course in first aid and CPR with a group of colleagues from the school. Our school physician, Dr. Lilly, brought us down to the City Institute for Emergency Medical Aid (Gradski Zavod Za Hitnu Medicinsku Pomoć 94). As you can see, the building is a bit run down, but it has a fleet of around 100 ambulances with a staff of paramedics, nurses, and doctors on call. The “911” number here in Belgrade “94” which you can see in the title of the Institute. I also learned that “92” is the police department and “93” is the fire department. And “95” is to get the time, which in the age of cell phones is a relic. I remember growing up, my brothers and I thought it was the coolest thing to call the automated time “8212” in my village of Michigan. I don’t want to give this number to the kids yet, because they will be calling it all the time.

A "Yugo" Emergency Medicine Vehicle

 They even had a couple Zastava vehicles as you can see in the photo above. The Zastava company is the Fiat/Yugoslavia(Serbian) company most famous in the US for producing the Yugo back in the 1980’s. You still see a lot of Zastava cars here in Belgrade and people make a lot of jokes about them. I could do a bunch of blog posts on the beloved Yugo and the other cars from the Communist Era.

It was a good course to do because I haven’t done one in about 10 years. The CPR rhythm has changed from 15 pumps / 2 breaths to 30 pumps / 2 breaths. I also learned how to use a defibrillator and the importance that all schools should have one handy, although they are expensive. We also reviewed what to do in a variety of emergency situations and we all earned a certificate after the class. I would like to thank Lilly and the team at the Institute for giving the course. I also learned some Serbian phrases “Ne diše” (He/She is not breathing.) and “bez svesti” (without consciousness) to help me with the 94 call. I’ll go over the numbers with my family so everyone knows. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it, but it is good to know.

A Great Serbian Comeback in an Empty Stadium

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It was a strange scene last night at the Red Star Stadium here in Belgrade. Northern Ireland came to town for a Group C Euro Cup Soccer Qualifying Match. No one except for 200 VIP Northern Ireland guest supporters were allowed in the stadium. The normal packed scene of lines of fans around the stadium was eerily empty. The only people we saw the press corp and plenty of police and military personnel to keep spectators and hooligans away. (photo below) The Serbian Football Federation was serving a 1-game penalty for fan behavior in October’s match in Italy. The match couldn’t start because of a group of hooligans and Italy was awarded a 3-0 forfeit victory. Last night’s game was the second part of the sanction.

 

It was an entertaining match. I was surprised because Northern Ireland plays a defensive style and after scoring a beautiful goal off a set play in the first half, (screen shot above from the Serbian television station RTS – Radio, Television of Serbia) I thought it would be more boring delay tactics with nine men in the box for the visitors. Fortunately, Serbia kept on pressing and in a dominant second half, scored two goals to win 2-1. It was odd to watch on TV and hear individual voices of players and coaches.

The first round of games in the group are complete. Despite the forfeit, closed stadium, losing their coach, and suffering many injuries, the “White Eagles” are tied for second place with Slovenija in their group behind Italy. The top two teams qualify for next summer’s European Cup hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine. They have 5 more games with the next game being in Talin, Estonia on Tuesday. Hopefully the momentum of the victory will carry them through a probably cold and dreary game in the far north of the European continent.

Note that the “Gazprom” painting on the seats is the owner of the Red Star professional soccer club in Belgrade. Gazprom is the Russian National Petroleum company. Earlier in the week, Vladimir Putin was in Belgrade and the stadium. Red Star played an exhibition match in his honor with a Russian team.

I can’t wait to go to the next Serbian in September against the Faroe Islands. I think it is good that FIFA penalized the Serbian Soccer Federation. They need to invest in the stadium and clean up those disaffected youths that give the country a bad name. I also feel that the Serbian government is also to blame in that it does not have a good economy to provide opportunities for these young men to put their energy towards making Serbia better and establishing careers.