2015_08_RWT_P13_Vojv.. - University of Alberta

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24 August to 30 September 2015
Round-the-World Trip: Vojvodina (Serbia) and the Area
Dear Friends,
We have arrived to the region of my
childhood and youth – Slavonia (Croatia)
and Vojvodina (Serbia). Weeks ahead of us
brought visits to many dear places and
cities, tons of wonderful memories and lots
of great get-togethers with dear people in
this part of the Balkans. First we visited my
home town Vukovar (Slavonia, Croatia)
and then travelled through half of Vojvodina
(a province in Serbia).  We spent a few
days in Backi Monostor with my friend
Valika and her family, went to Novi Sad for
a day (to stay at the house of my parents in
Bocke ), spent a weekend in Vrsac with our friend Natasha, travelled for a day to
Belgrade to visit our Canadian friends Sneska and Lav and dear people in Belgrade,
and then spent a month in Novi Sad socialising with many dear people from my high
school and university days in this city. It was a few weeks packed with tons of old and
new memories…  More about all that in the pages that follow…
Quick Visit to My Home Town of Vukovar (Slavonia, Croatia)
We arrived to Vukovar (from Ljubljana) with
the night train around 3:30 am. We stayed
at my mom’s place and got a few more
hours of sleep before the dawn – we were
not in a rush to get up early that morning…

Adriana and Oliver went to a playground in
Vukovar with their grandma Mileva while
Philip and I went for a walk in the city
centre of Vukovar. We walked along the
streets that I knew very well and visited
dear places from my childhood. We walked
through the residential area of Olajnica, passed by my formed primary school, walked
along the Danube River with the beautiful views of the castle of the Duke Elts, rowing
club building, former Hotel Danube and Vukovar’s Water Tower in the distance – a
symbol of the town of Vukovar.
We walked through the city centre that after the war looked quite different from what I
remember from my childhood. Anyway, a few renovated beautiful buildings from the
past – The Home of the Workers and famous Vukovar’s arches were reminding me of
the scenes from the past.
It was a wonderful walk in Vukovar with Philip. For me, that was the most pleasant was
in Vukovar since the war years (I just could not figure out if it was due to the visit of this
particular town – or due to the fact that we went for a walk without children ). The
scenes in between the renovated buildings were reminding the visitors of the sad history
of this town…
Bački Monoštor (Vojvodina, Serbia)
That afternoon we travelled by bus from Vukovar to Sombor (Vojvodina, Serbia) and
then continued to the village of Bački Monoštor to visit my friend Valika and her family
(husband Saša and daughter Tisa).
We enjoyed many traditional experiences from Vojvodina these days – from the quiet
village atmosphere and traditional scenes to bike rides in the village and the area and
traditional dishes (fish “paprika”, “knedle”, tomato soup, “proja” and freshly picked
grapes – yummy!).  It was a real experience of Vojvodina for Philip, Adriana and
Oliver while for me it was a wonderful reminder of a familiar life from my past. 
Adriana and Oliver had tons of fun playing with Tisa… 
One trip to the playground those days
turned into an ice-cream trip on a rainy day.
Nobody complained! 
Before we continued our travels, we
stopped by to visit Valika’s parents and a
brother in Sombor.
That was wonderful few days spent with an
excellent company!  Thank you very
much, Valika, Sale, Tisa and Eva for being
such great hosts and company! 
As it usually happens in this part of world, we also had an unplanned surprise visit with
my friend Jaca and her family (Vlada, Anja and Aleksa) in Bački Monoštor – where Jaca
spent her childhood. Long live the Internet – and cars! (Although I still greatly prefer
riding a bicycle! ).
From Backi Monostor we travelled to Novi Sad for a day – for Philip to have the
opportunity to have a stroll in Novi Sad. 
Vršac (Vojvodina) – Visiting Natasha
After spending a day in Novi Sad, we hit the
road again.  Our kids were so used to
travelling by that time that Oliver decided
that sleeping under his bus seat is more
spacious than sleeping on it – he was able
to stretch better down there. 
After a 2-hour bus ride we arrived to Vršac
to visit Natasha. With high summer
temperatures of +37 C to +40 C in a shade,
instead of walking and visiting Vrsac, we
went to a nearby park. Adriana and Oliver
immediately discovered a water fountain
there. It would have been a better fun from being on a playground if mom and dad did
not stop it after Oliver stepped into a muddy puddle in his clean white shoes after only a
few minutes…
Bela Crkva (Vojvodina) – with Natasha
We spent three relaxing days with Natasha in the cottage house of Natasha’s family in
the village of Bela Crkva. Swimming in the lake on the doorstep of the cottage house
was a highlight of our stay for most of us. A boat ride was a bonus!  It was an ideal
place to during those hot summer temperatures of +37 C to +40 C those days. Here are
a few smiles from Bela Crkva…  Thank you, Natasha!  We had a great time…
A Day in Belgrade (Serbia)
In the last minute we decided to stop for a
day in Belgrade on our way back from
Vrsac to Novi Sad – to see dear people in
that city some of whom actually live in
Canada.  It was another hot summer day
with +38 C. We decided to spend this day
of socializing on playgrounds for children in
Kalemegdan (a big park in the city centre of
Belgrade). The children had a great time
and parents got lots of chatting time – it
could not have been a better combination!
 It was another great travel day.
In Belgrade we met my friend Vesna from my university days. 
We also met with our Edmontonian friend
Snežana. Snezana and her family now live
in Toronto. We met her one year old son
Lav. It was so great that we managed to
meet in Serbia since our paths did not cross
in Canada this spring or summer! 
Here are a few more smiles from our get-together with Snežana and Lav that day.
At the end of the day we also met with my
uncle Vaso.
While I was socializing with friends, Philip
went for a walk in the city centre of
Belgrade for a couple of hours and
enjoyed visiting the city.  And everyone
was happy!
It was a busy and wonderful day of
socializing with friends. After so much heat
and running around the playground, Oliver
did not stay awake for two minutes on our
bus ride to Novi Sad that evening – it was another successful day of parenting for us…

Bocke (Sremska Kamenica, Vojvodina)
And then we arrived to the suburb of Bocke
(near Novi Sad) for a month. We stayed in
the house of my parents where I lived
during my university years at the University
of Novi Sad. It was so wonderful to see
Adriana and Oliver running in the garden
among the trees and bushes.  They
played with the water, picking up (and
spilling! ) walnuts, climbing onto the gate,
being scientists and doing experiments with
ice… It was endless fun… 
They also made their campground and tents, played with the fire, made faces, set up
market stalls and shops where they sold everything from fruit and veggies to the bus
tickets and mobile phone credit… 
They kept themselves busy cooking, chopping, painting nails with markers, drawing and
writing. They were drawing even on the outside house walls so one white wall got an
airplane drawn on it with a colouring pen one day – fortunately, we managed to wash it
off!  Philip started to figure out how to write and read in Cyrillic so Adriana joined him
in studying. Here are some moments of children’s fun in Bocke this fall… 
We had fun in the city of Novi Sad too… 
We spent a few wonderful weekends with my mom. Adriana and Oliver had tons of fun
playing with their “baka” Mileva [grandma Mileva].
Just before leaving Novi Sad, my dad Vladimir also came to visit us. Adriana and Oliver
had a great time with grandma and grandpa. 
The month spent in Novi Sad was an excellent opportunity to meet with tons of dear
people in this city and to introduce to entire McKague-Mandic team to them.  Here are
few smiles from those wonderful get-togethers…
(Jaca, Vlada, Anja and Aleksa; Djordje, Zorica, Tara and Kristina; Dana, Saša, Milica
and Mihajlo; Marija and Nikola; Valika; Višnja, Srećko and Marina)
And more wonderful moments spent with dear people who are the main reason for my
regular travels to this part of the world… I would like to thank all of you who made an
effort to speak English for at least a part of our visits this fall so Philip could participate
and get to know you better too. 
(Jaca, Dejan, Djordje, Jovica, Valika, Danijela)
And a few more get-togethers… (Sesa and Steva; Višnja, Srećko and Marina; Minja)
We also visited my hairdresser Ceca two times and made a whole party in her hair
saloon – especially the second time when we showed up with both children. 
Fortunately, it was a rainy day so Ceca had more time for us. Those were two wonderful
afternoons of socializing – and great haircuts.  Thank you, Ceca! 
I also had a few academic meetings at the University of
Novi Sad – with former professors and colleagues… I had
a chance to show Philip the Faculty of Physical Education
and Sport where I finished my undergraduate degree. One
of the outcomes of those academic meetings is that I
already have an airplane ticket booked to return to Novi
Sad in six months again – this time for academic reasons.
 Also, my academic work in Spain this summer seems to
be bringing new academic trips around the world already
too.  More about that in some of our upcoming letters…

(Dr Saša Dejanović, Professor Nikola Grujić, Professor
Djordje Nićin, Professor Bora Obradović)
And many wonderful moments of playing with our little friends in Novi Sad…
(on the photos below are Marina, Anja, Djuradj and Kristina)
During that month we celebrated Philip’s birthday – with tons of grapes instead of a
birthday cake and a family barbeque in Bocke that evening. 
We also celebrated Oliver’s 3rd birthday. Adriana remembered that for her 3rd birthday
we made Thomas the tank engine cake so we had to make the Thomas cake for
Oliver’s 3rd birthday too.  When I was decorating the Thomas cake with the grapes
and wanted to write number 3 for Oliver’s 3rd birthday, Adriana told me that I couldn’t
write number 3 on the Thomas cake since Thomas is the engine number 1! 
Adriana in Action
Adriana has become our little princess. She
is spending more time in front of a mirror,
changing dresses, picking up her clothes,
putting hair clips in her hair and now she
decided also to grow her hair long.  Our
little princess also wanted to pierce her ears
those days and wear earrings – like
mommy.  She was really brave when
piercing her ears. Well done, Adriana! 
Adriana also started to speak SerboCroatian amazingly well during this month.
It was fascinating hearing how her
vocabulary was expanding day by day. For
me, it was the most interesting to hear my
phrases coming out of Adriana’s mouth. 
Here are a few Adriana’s saying in SerboCroatian during this month (some of them
will be impossible to translate in English
without losing the nuances of the original
language but I will try my best! ):
“Pa to stvarno nema smisla.”
[Hm, not sure how to translate that one! ]
Sandra: “Adriana, da li znas sta znaci “blabla-bla”? [“Adriana, do you know what it means when someone says ‘bla-bla-bla’?”].
Adriana: “To je kad neko priča engleski a ne zna hrvatski pa kad drugi pričaju hrvatski
on ne razume pa je sve bla-bla-bla.”  [“That’s when someone speaks English and
doesn’t know Croatian so when others speak Croatian he doesn’t understand and then
everything is ‘bla-bla-bla’”]. 
My heart melts listening to Adriana speak Serbo-Croatian. That language has become a
special bond between us. Before sleep Adriana would tell me stories in Serbo-Croatian
about “a girl with the red hair that had a
garden and in that garden she had the most
beautiful flowers in the world.” 
Adriana enjoys drawing and writing letters.
She even started to study writing and
reading Cyrillic with Philip - so cute to see
her making that effort!  It is truly amazing
to see how much Adriana has grown in
these few months of travelling! She will be
our big school girl when we return to New
Zealand in a couple of weeks. 
Oliver in Action
Oliver does not stop all day long. There are
simply too many things to touch, lift, throw,
climb onto, spill, stretch (or break in some
cases)…  Pens and colouring pens have
many different uses in addition to scribbling
on the paper such as making trains on the
floor and why not also drawing on the walls
and furniture? – those are great surfaces
too…  Oliver is currently fascinated with
the stickers so the stickers are ending up
on furniture, floor and other suitable
locations. 
Oliver is captivated with things around him.
One day when we were at the Strand
Beach in Novi Sad, Oliver found a small
bottle, filled it up with water and sand and
said to Philip: “Look, daddy. A beer!” 
Oliver is also starting to speak SerboCroatian. He is learning the language by
repeating what Adriana says so it sounds
like this: “Mama, ja sam pojela… ja sam
popila… ja sam skočila…” [“Mommy, I
ate… I drank… I jumped…” - with all verbs
being in a feminine form in Serbo-Croatian]
 One time when Oliver pied a bit in his underwear, he said to me: “Mama, ja sam
upiškila u gaćica.” [“Mommy, I pied in my underwear.” - but with a few cute mistakes in
verb and noun conjugations in Serbo-Croatian language. ]. Keep talking, Oliver… The
only problem is now when all three of us start talking in Serbo-Croatian, Philip will not
understand any more what is going on around him! 
Visiting Novi Sad
Somewhere in between our dental appointments, academic meetings and socializing,
we managed to visit Novi Sad. We walked in the city centre, visited the Štrand Beach…
We also visited Petrovaradin fortress – with Natasha from Vrsac.
Here are a few more scenes from walking around the Petrovaradin fortress with
Natasha and our little munchkins. 
Hikes to Popovica (Fruška Gora)
On two occasions Philip and I went for a walk/hike from Bocke to Popovica on the
slopes on Mt Fruska Gora. (Thank you very much, my dear mom, for playing with
Adriana and Oliver during those times! ). The views of Fruska Gora, Danube River,
Novi Sad and Vojvodina’s plains were spectacular as always…
Here are a few more wonderful views from Popovica…
Philip managed to get out for a few quick bike rides on Fruska Gora too…
It was great six weeks spent in the Balkan
region where I lived the first 23 years of my
life. What a wonderful opportunity to meet
again with dear people in this part of the
world and connect the entire McKagueMandic team with this region. Thank you all
for many wonderful get-togethers and
unforgettable memories that we are taking
with us from this trip! 
Adriana and Oliver had tons of fun in Bocke
and socializing in Novi Sad. On this trip
they also got new nicknames. Adriana
became Nedriana Palčić (from “Ne [“No”]Adriana” and “palac” [“thumb”]), while Oliver
got (and confirmed many times! ) a
nickname Noliver Prljavko (from “No-Oliver”
and “prljavko” [“messy/dirty little boy”]). 
By the way, these nicknames sound way
cuter in Serbo-Croatian than in English! Just keep playing, our little munchkins! 
So the time came for Philip to say good-bye
to the Balkans and return to New Zealand
(with 3 days in Singapore ). Adriana,
Oliver and I still have 3 more weeks in the
Balkan region before heading back to New
Zealand. So we all went together to the
Belgrade airport on 01 October 2015.
Adriana, Oliver and I flew to Ljubljana while
Philip went to Frankfurt. We look forward to
the next get-together with Philip a month
from now in New Zealand. Until then we got
a bit more socializing to do in the Balkans.
More about that in our next letter. 
Another big thank-you to all dear people in Vojvodina (and the area) with whom we
sent so many wonderful moments on this trip. It has been amazing to be reminded yet
another time that our friendships reach over the time and geographical limits…
Tons of happy autumn greetings from Vojvodina from the McKague-Mandic team! 
Sandy, Philip, Adriana and Oliver
02 October 2015
Ljubljana, Slovenia

2015_08_RWT_P13_Vojv.. - University of Alberta

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