Timišvarci!

We went to Timișoara, Timiș, Romania, which Serbs call Temišvar ("Tim-eee-shvar") on a day trip yesterday. This trip has been in the works since the day after we arrived in Beograd in late June. Getting a group this big organized and motivated for a sight-seeing tour in a Romanian border town is nothing short of a small miracle, and we pulled it off! The cast of characters: Ana and Vlada; Nikola and a different Vlada; Mirko, Iva and their friend, Duda; and of course, Natavid. We had an incredible time, laughed until it hurt, and ultimately made it home completely exhausted. Border crossings, beautiful Secessionist Architecture, sunflowers, cows, and an intense summer shower.. Aventura!

 One thing I have come to admire about people in this part of the world is the priority they give to sitting down for coffee time. As an impatient Amerikanac, it was at first frustrating years ago, but now... Stopping halfway through the trip, just to sit at a cafe and drink an espresso? Of course we would do that, who wouldn't do that? (Notice in my eyes just how badly I needed that espresso, too).

 And since we are here in Vršac drinking a coffee, we might as well walk to the end of the square and go check out that Neogothic cathedral from the late 19th century, right? Right.

 Detail from above the main entrance.

 I am not sure that the happiness on my face can be adequately explained... Shortly after crossing the Serbian/Romanian border, we saw some Romanian cows, and I waved, and they waved backed. I got excited because I have never seen a Romanian cow in person. Then, after parking at the local mall in Temišvar, there was another Romanian cow, ready to take a picture with me! Some boys just have all the luck.

 Obligatory kitschy tourist trap market on the way over to the center of town.

 Piaţa Victoriei, or Victory Square, an ode to the Romanian revolution against... someone, very likely the Hapsburgs, or the Ottoman Turks, or some other empire. Nevertheless, the Square was just incredibly beautiful.

 So beautiful, in fact, that Vlada (left) and Nikola (right) felt compelled to jump, and I just managed to catch it spontaneously in what is definitely not a carefully orchestrated photo. Actually, this is the third jumping photo and Nikola pretty much broke his toe on the landing, which made using the clutch on the drive home painful for him. But look at that perfect jump!

 The square, unadulterated with jumpers, in all its beauty.

A pretty fountain. Probably has a name, but we called it "The pretty fountain in the square."

 The giant Orthodox Cathedral with a very interesting roof, located at the far end of Victory Square.

 The dudes, Mirko (above) and Vlada (below), were fond of pointing and using very commanding gestures about which way we should go next, which direction was south, and where the rain was going to come from, etc.

 Certain aspects of masculinity are definitely trans-cultural and I am confident that orienteering is one of those tendencies, which means that Mirko has the photo of me pointing off into the distance on his camera...

Piaţa Unirii, or Union Square, was very large and seemed to be much more informal than Victory Square. The alternative crowd preferred this more relaxed environment. A young, local couple took a group photo for us here while speaking very comprehensible English, just before the teenage girl with green hair and roller blades sat and observed us with a bemused look on her face.

 And then, the rain came! Oh boy, did the rain come! We found ourselves trapped in a residential area, running for cover with no public spaces around. Finally, we found a little hotel whose staff was gracious enough to let us mill around the lobby with the German tourists until the downpour let up a bit. Those not pictured hid out under somebody's balcony.

 The rain, though predicted ahead of time, certainly put a bit of a damper on some of the beauty of the city, but only until I discovered that I could take Puddle Pictures!:

 It was a bit treacherous because cars would rudely drive by and disrupt my compositions, getting the camera wet if I wasn't careful.

We had such a fun adventure that we felt like we should share our story with the world. Thus, began the development of the pilot Serbian television series, Temišvarci! which is an amusing and probably mildly offensive collective noun that we made up for people who dwell in Temišvar.  Here are some scenes from the opening credits:

 Each character's stance and expression clues you in to their personality on the show... For example, Nikola is the thoughtful straight-man to Mirko's comedic mishaps, while Vlada in the striped shirt is the tough guy, and Vlada to the right is timid and has some lessons to learn about self determination. Natalija is always lost in her own side story, and Ana and Iva are the practical and good-natured co-matriarchs of the gang... Unfortunately, Duda didn't test well with focus groups which is why she is mostly obscured by the other characters.

"Oh, you..."

 "We are so young and fun, Ha ha ha!"

 "Awwwwwwww..."

 Final scene from the closing credits... Temišvarci!, a Natavid Conquers the Balkans Production.

Babies and Family

In keeping with the bland and hackneyed style of a bad travelogue, I will go ahead and state the obvious: Family is extremely important to most folks here in Serbia (as though the inverse is true in the States, or in any other country for that matter...) Nevertheless, no matter how bland and hackneyed, nor how obvious, the truth is the truth. So here are a few pics documenting evidence in support of the Truth. They occur in two sections: Babies (or, Our friends starting their own families) and Nata's Family (members whom you may not have met).

Part I: Babies

This is Tadija. He is Ina's little man. Sadly, Ina has yet to be pictured this year, but you can refer to past posts if you really need the visual. We have only seen Tadija once so far on this trip, mostly due to the fact that he and his parents live far away and are busy taking care of him... But he looks like a little version of a full grown Serbian man... with puffy cheeks. He is so cute and super social for a baby. 

Not pictured: Dimitrije,who is Maja's son and is also incredibly cute and social for a baby his age.

And this mischievous face belongs to the one and only Dušan, Nataša's son. He was the first baby of the friend group here, and he is about to turn 4! He was just a wee little baby when we first moved here for that long stint in 2009. He is just as hyper active now as he was then, but now he moves on his own volition, so he is a lot more fun!

This little guy is Vuk (a name which means, "Wolf"), and he belongs to Mirko and Iva. He is incredibly shy when anyone first meets him, but Nata and I have become two of his new favorite toys, as evidenced by the picture above and the video below. We have a lot of fun together!

Part II: Natalija's less frequently photographed relatives.

This incredibly tall fellow is Miša, short for Miodrag, and he is Natalija's brother. He is only fourteen and now towers over both of us by a head's length or more. Miša is a very funny, very smart, and very talented fellow (runs in the fam, I guess). He studies piano and just got recognized for perfect grades throughout his entire school career thus far.  

The Milutinovic crew: Sveta, Nata, Miša; Father, daughter, son. A tall, smart, talented bunch! We go out to visit Sveta at his house to have lunch and spend the day sitting in his garden catching up and listening to him play guitar. He is semi-retired and plays in a traditional folk band in the Old Bohemian section of Belgrade, known as Skadarlija.

The cousins! Roby and Danny are permanent and permanently loved fixtures in our lives both here and in Texas. This particular photo was taken during the intermission of an opera gala concert that Vesna dragged us to (which we all enjoyed more than we expected). A good looking group if I do say so!

So there you have it... Babies and Family. In reading this over, it occurs to me that it may seem a little weird that I included Natalija's friends' babies in the family post, but that is exactly how it feels. It is as though Nata is an aunt to each of these kiddoes, and even though we are here for a short time every year, it is nice to be a part of their lives and vice versa. 

Noćni Život

Belgrade is a beautiful city at night and there is really a lot to do. In the past, our favorite night-time activities included karaoke, going to ridiculously large clubs, and just generally being young and drunk. These days, it's not that we have completely lost our taste for those beloved past-times, but more that- like the connoisseur- we inevitably began to seek out novel and more refined variations on those same themes. Though not pictured in this post, Pivnica Tošin Bunar (aka: Džakarta) is where most every evening out on the town begins. They make delicious white wine in house and have an amazing garden patio surrounded by very tall evergreens. It is also located in "New Belgrade," which makes it the most convenient meeting place for everyone. From there, the night can go any number of ways, depending on conditions such as weather, the collective mood of everyone in the group and how much money people have to spend. Here are a few of the places we have been, just in the first week! 

The first thing to learn about Belgrade night life is that the whole city is split in half by the Sava River and is bordered to the north by the Dunav (aka: Danube). Everything immediately Northwest of the Sava is considered New Belgrade. There is also an area known as Zemun around the banks of the Dunav on that side of town. Most of the nightlife in New Belgrade is centered around the rivers. Here are some pictures of New Belgrade from the Old Town side of the Sava. 

 The newest bridge to cross the Sava was completed some time last year. It is really something to behold, especially for engineers, I am told.

David, Vlada, and Nikola sitting on a wall in Kalemegdan, a centuries old Turkish fort built in the middle of Old Belgrade during the Ottoman Empire. It sits on the confluence of both rivers and has an amazing view (New Belgrade behind us). Even though it is really interesting how the geography of this place influences EVERYTHING, I understand it can get boring and/or confusing quickly, so: Geography lesson over... for now.

Nata taking a picture of me taking a picture of her... It was very meta. We sat here and caught up a bit, while Nata and I took pictures of each other taking pictures.

Dijana, Sasa, Nata, and Ana enjoying a little rock n' roll show at one of the floating bars (called splavs) along the Zemunski Kay, which is on the Dunav river. The splavs are a great way to spend a mellow evening out while enjoying some good music and atmosphere.

There are also the inevitable house parties. This one was for a friend of a friend's birthday and was held in an amazing apartment in the old part of Belgrade. More than anything else, despite my geographic digression earlier, we enjoy being with our friends here! These are people that Natalija has known almost her whole life and who took me in as one of their own, despite my obvious lack of Jugoslavian-ness, and we have so much fun when we are all together!

They told me to act natural in order to get a spontaneous looking picture...

Ana (middle) gave Vlada (right) a really hard time about his t-shirt before we went out for the night. Much to her dismay, this guy walked in wearing the same exact thing, just to double her distaste for it!

The girls, bein' all silly and stuff.

So this guy is named Filip and it was his birthday, which still only partially explains how drunk he was... But he was a very generous and gracious host.

Ride the train!

Random going home shot. Time for bed... Laku noć!

Danas nam je divan dan...

I have always wanted to write a really hackneyed and over the top travelogue about being in Serbia. One in which I overuse trite phrases like "land of contrasts," "majestic," "customary," and "cuisine." Perhaps one day I will get around to it, but until then, Natalija's cousin Roby had a birthday yesterday. He in fact had his 15th birthday yesterday, and there was of course a majestic celebration, with delightful offerings from the local cuisine, as is customary for such occasions in this land of contrasts. (Nailed it!). Here are some pictures:

Here is the whole spread, just as everyone was getting settled. Vesna bought I don't know how many kilos of roštilj (Serbian BBQ), but it was enough to feed about 25 hungry Eastern Europeans and still have plenty left over.... that is to say, it was a whole hell of a lot!

Danny enjoying himself immensely in the company of Stiv ("Steve) and Jotsa. In his heart, Danny is really a good 'ole boy from Surčin.

And here we have Lela and Nata looking sweet. Hard to tell that they both worked all day cleaning and cooking.

 Obligatory Natavid photo. For us, the party was mostly a spectator sport. Jotsa played guitar and the elder crowd enjoyed themselves immensely as they drank and sang into the night.

 Baba Kosa, Vesna, Jelica, and Nataljia. Four beautiful ladies making stuff happen in the world! Each of them incredible and tough as nails in their own way.

 In the movie, the role of Baba Kosa will be played by this actress... Kidding, that is Bisa, one of Vesna's closest friends.

And finally, we see the guest of honor emerge from the back room where he was allowed to hang out with his friends instead of having to endure the old folks singing old folks' tunes. His patience paid off, as he was released into the night shortly after this photo....

 ....But not before he had to stand there looking embarrassed for his friends' benefit while we all sang Happy Birthday to him.

 The kids left and the party went on just fine without them! More roštilj! More pivo! More of those delicious home-grown tomatoes! Idemo dalje!



So, there you have it. Roby is 15. We love him. We showed our love by throwing him a party and then giving him the best birthday present any normal 15 year boy could ask for: We let him leave the party his family threw for him and go hang out with his friends!

In case you are wondering any of the usual stuff, we had an excellent trip over. We just started sleeping normally last night, and everyone is healthy and doing well for the most part. It is so great to be here and to be enjoying so many comforts of home (or second home in my case)! Be well and stay in touch!