detail from: KRK Art dizajn

MY WORLD

SIMO JELACA, Ph.D.

PREFACE

This is My Travels, a story of observations from traveling around the world during my 50 years. Staying somewhere shorter or longer, I collected information about countries and cities, recorded events of meeting people and wrote down everything that I found beautiful in nature. My wish is to leave traces from my life's path, for myself as memories and for others to enjoy the descriptions if they like them. I deliberately leave out events from early childhood, since they were mostly difficult, and they have already been mentioned elsewhere. That's why I think it's most natural to start my description with Novi Sad, where I spent most of my life and I took that city with me in my heart when I left it. I also wrote a poem about Novi Sad, my beloved city, which I will include below, it always reminds me of everything I experienced there.

My intention is to bring impressions from many countries, from several continents, in order to present my world as I experienced it. I have unforgettable impressions from Poland, England, Czechoslovakia, Russia, France, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Switzerland, India, Peru, Venezuela, Netherlands Antilles, Cuba, California, Canada and especially from China, which really worth seeing at least once in your life.

Sometimes my descriptions will be longer and sometimes shorter, depending on what I liked where and how much I liked it and what impressions it left on me. There were countries where I didn't find everything nice, but I will try to shorten those events as much as possible. I prefer that beauties predominate in these descriptions. With what I have achieved in my work and the world I have traveled, I consider my life fulfilled.

The author

NOVI SAD

The city of Novi Sad spread out on the edge of the Vojvodina plain to the left bank of the Danube, narrowed by the Petrovaradin fortress, from where it bends to the right towards Sremski Karlovci. The city is characterized by buildings: Velika pošta, SPENS, DTD, NIS, Banovina, University, as well as Strand with its most beautiful sandy beaches along the entire course of this European beauty, along whose left bank the most beautiful promenade in the world was built. Novi Sad, a city of many winding streets, is intersected by boulevards built during the last few decades. The city abounds in numerous parks and green areas with the most colorful flower alleys.

Among the sights of Novi Sad, we should first mention the Motherland of Serbia, the fundamental insistence of Serbian culture, and then the Serbian National Theater "Jovan Sterija Popović", and the University with 19 faculties. Novi Sad can be considered the multinational and multicultural center of Serbia, and a large part of Europe.

Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, as the capital of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, with close to half a million inhabitants. Many national and world languages are spoken in Novi Sad, which makes it also multinational. Novi Sad is a three-century old Serbian city, whose landmarks are the Petrovaradin fortress, the largest building of its kind in Europe, and the Danube, also European and ours. In addition to the fortress, tourists are interested in Trg Slobode, with the monument to Svetozar Miletić and the town hall, Dunavska and Zmaj-Jovina streets, the Bishop's Palace, the University complex and several churches of valuable architectural styles. There are the Cathedral, neo-Gothic style from the first decades of the 18th century, and the Cathedral of St. George from 1734. Nikolajevska church is the oldest Serbian church in Novi Sad, from 1730, dedicated to the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas. The sons of Mileva and Albert Einstein, Albert and Edward, were baptized in this church on Little Lady in 1913. Their godfather was Dr. Laza Marković, a famous doctor and philanthropist from Novi Sad. There are also churches in Novi Sad: Assumption Church, Almaška Church, Roman Catholic Church, Church of St. Mary, the Church of Our Lady of the Snows and the Synagogue.

In the coat of arms of the city of Novi Sad, the white dove signifies purity and peace, as well as a welcome to all who visit it from the heart. The green branch in the beak of the white dove in the coat of arms is a symbol of peace and love, and the green field signifies the richness of the fertile plains of Vojvodina. The blue ribbon is a sign of the flow of life, and the three towers with closed gates represent defense against everything inhuman and backward. The name Novi Sad means a new nursery of human creativity.

The Petrovaradin fortress is the "Danube Gibraltar", built from 1692 to 1780 according to the project of the French architect Sebastien Vauban. It covers 112 hectares, with 16 km of underground corridors. Its defense was represented by 400 cannons and 12 thousand loopholes. The perfection of this fortification is confirmed by the victory of Eugene of Savoy in 1716, who defended the fortress with 70,000 soldiers of the Turks, of which there were 200,000.

On the bank of the Danube, on the famous promenade, there is a monument to the victims of the Raid, the work of sculptor Jovan Soldatović, and in the Danube Park there is a memorial bust of Đura Jakšić, in copper, all worn from the caress of passers-by, Đura's followers. Danube Park, in the heart of the city, is a true oasis of greenery and peace. In Novi Sad is the famous sports center SPENS, where the World Table Tennis Championship was held in 1983. Not far from Novi Sad are the famous "Cheney Farms".

FRUSKA GORA

Fruška Gora, a precious decoration of fertile Vojvodina, the granary of recent Yugoslavia, whose highest peak is Crveni Čot, 539 m, abounds in extraordinary beauty. Fruška Gora stretches 80 km from east to west. Grasslands, numerous vineyards and orchards abound on its slopes, and there are deciduous forests above 300 m above sea level. On its northern side, the Danube surrounds it, creating a series of backwaters and river islands. The slopes of Fruška Gora also abound with numerous springs and streams, so this area has been declared a national park

.

Fruška Gora abounds in numerous picnic spots: Stražilovo, Iriški Venac, Zmajevo, Popovica, Andrevlje, Glavica. There are numerous monuments in Fruška Gora, some of them come from ancient times, and some are more recent. All picnic areas and memorial sites are connected to each other by good roads. In Vučedol, there is an archaeological site that is over 70 centuries old. The Akumicium fortress near Stari Slankamen, Gustium near Ilok, Erdut near Šarengrad are from older times, and the Petrovaradin fortress and a large number of monasteries are from the Middle Ages. Many of these monuments were damaged during the Second World War, because Fruška Gora was a well-known partisan base. During recent decades, all these monuments have been repaired and renovated. Among the Fruškogorsk monasteries, the most famous is Hopovo, from 1541, a beautiful medieval building, where Dositej Obradović lived for a while. After the restoration, the Hopovo monastery was turned into a treasure house of works of art from the churches and monasteries of Srema. The partisan printing house was located in the Šišatovac monastery, and in 1943 the occupier destroyed it. Krušedol Monastery was the residence of Serbian metropolitans and Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević, King Milan Obrenović and other figures from Serbian history are buried in it. During the war, fortunately, it remained intact. The relics of Prince Lazar were placed in the Ravanica monastery in Vrdnik, and in the park next to the monastery there is a memorial bust of the poet Milica Stojanović-Srpkinje.

Several beautiful hotels and mountain lodges have been built in the forests of Fruška Gora. Next to the Andrevlje hotel are grounds suitable for winter sports, and there is an artificial lake next to Dr. Radivoje Simonović's mountaineering house. A monument to the national hero Boško Palkovljević-Pinki was erected near the Mala Remeta monastery. There is a NOB monument on Iriški Venac, the work of academic sculptor Sreten Stojanović. The monument to the poet Branko Radičević is located at the hiking resort Stražilovo.

On the slopes of Fruška Gora are the pleasant towns of Sremski Karlovci and Sremska Kamenica. The people of Sremski Karlovci have almost drowned in the surrounding vineyards, from which the famous Fruškor wines are produced. Karlovci was the center of the Serbian Metropolis. Sremski Karlovci is also home to the first Serbian high school from 1791, as well as the oldest Archives of Vojvodina and a baroque cathedral from 1758. There, near Sremski Karlovci, on the way to Petrovaradin, in a small church, peace was concluded between Austria and Turkey in 1699, the so-called Peace of Karlovac. The famous children's poet and doctor Dr. Jovan Jovanović-Zmaj lived in Sremska Kamenica. He was buried there. SOS children's village was built in Sremska Kamenica, which was sponsored by Jovanka Broz. In Kamenica, there is also a well-known institute for cardio-vascular surgery.

The Petrovaradin fortress has a complex system of underground lagoons and is the most attractive building in the area. The construction of the fortress began in 1692 and lasted for almost a hundred years, until 1780. There was an infamous dungeon in the Petrovaradin fortress where Karađorđe Petrović, Vaso Pelagić, A.G. Matoš and Josip Broz – Tito. Today, the Petrovaradin Fortress houses the Vojvodina Museum and a hotel with a high-class restaurant, which offers guests exceptional specialties. The view from the fortress to the Danube and Novi Sad is extraordinary and stretches up to 30 km along the plains of Vojvodina.

MY TOWN NOVI SAD

Here are the notes as I loved

every part of the Novi Sad,

Because I will be his as long as I exist

enchanted by the light and all the beauty of the beloved city.

The sky and birds are wonderful over Novi Sad

and the corso on the Boulevard,

Street lamps, parks and benches are wonderful.

Kindergartens on the sidewalk.

There are wonderful rainbows over the rainy city

and the noise of the city and the sound of sirens,

Yards full of decorative flowers

and a bunch of fond memories.

And sunny days and ripe fruit,

all journeys in the old train,

The smell of chestnuts when roasting

and literature that cherishes poems and prose.

And all the expenses outside the city

and Fruska Gora and its rocks,

And road signs on every road

and everything, everything else around me.

And only when I flew away to a world far away,

here it's midnight while it's morning there,

I realized that it's not something, but someone,

What makes a beloved city is its people.

Now the restlessness in me has subsided,

only memories remain,

I am no longer a part of that city,

Now Novi Sad is a part of me.

Toronto, Jul. 6, 2009

UNA AND KRUSNICA - THE BEAUTY OF PODGRMEC

UNA

Una is at its source in Serbia, Lika, as thin as a silver barrette in a girl's hair, for which there is no idea what kind of beauty she will develop into in her further course. Receiving passing streams into its basin, it becomes more and more powerful and wilder. In its upper course, the clearness and bluish color of the transparent river prevails, in which the surrounding nakedness is reflected and the sleeping beauty is just hinted at. And already at Kulen Vakuf and Martin Broda, she has become completely beautiful. From there, downstream, Una enchants visitors more and more. Even the Romans, in their time, gave her the name Una - Jedina. Flowing further, it makes its way between hills covered with dense forests, where the greenery replaces the Lika karst. And from there, the river adapted to its surroundings, a greenish color that is pleasing to the eye begins to prevail. Clouds and hills are reflected in the water, and the surrounding village houses can be seen like pearl stones, which sparkle in it. From there the river comes to life, narrows between the hills and jumps over underwater stones, and outside the hills it widens again and calms down. Her white falls look like hand-embroidered lace of singing shepherds. From Bihać to Bosanska Krupa (now Krupa na Una) it mainly flows between high hills, where it is the most beautiful. On its left side stands the medieval building Ostrožac, where Tito and Vladimir Nazor stayed. On the right side, parallel to the river, is the railway line, which enters and exits the tunnels every hour, allowing passengers to see every bit of Una's beauty. It would be the most beautiful to hike and enjoy or participate in the Una regatta of kayakers, who go down the rapids there.

Una waterfalls

When Una receives the river Unac in its course, it flows from there polluted by the waste of the wood pulp factory, a work of human mercilessness. In Bosanska Krupa, Una offers visitors a view of numerous mills on poles, erected long before the arrival of electricity. Each of these water mills is reached by narrow bridges. On the right side of the Una is the medieval building of the old town, whose peaks are reflected in the blue-green water of the newly clean river. There are also several small river islands, which can also be reached by bridges, suitable for sevdah. Huge beauty is compressed in a small space.

From Krupa, in its further course, Una weakens quite a bit, as if she has exhausted her energy, although she does not lose anything from her beauty there either. Behind Otoka there are several cascading waterfalls, next to which a wonderful restaurant with outstanding fish specialties has been built. Before entering Bosanski Novi (now Novi Grad), Una again receives the polluted waters of the Sana River, which also brings waste from the pulp factory in Prijedor. Unfortunately, all that waste destroyed numerous trout, which Una had always had until the arrival of industry. Further, towards Kostajnica and Dvor Una, it completely calmed down and almost imperceptibly flows into the Sava River, from where the mixed flows towards the brother Danube, with which they continue their quiet journey towards the Black Sea.

KRUSNICA

On its short course in Lika, the Krušnica plunges and, unaccustomed to the underground darkness, emerges again as a surface river only six kilometers from Bosanska Krupa. Its source is under a vertical rock 50 meters high and it immediately jumps over large stones, breaking into millions of white drops, like pearls. Seen from the road that leads from Krupa to Jasenica and Sanski Most, a huge valley opens before the eyes of passers-by, and in the green fills a pearly river, which flows peacefully from there towards its older sister Una. And right where it bends in front of the cattle market, it crawled under a few houses built on stilts. There is also the house of the beautiful Dušanka, whose picture was in the window of the photographer Niaz for ten years. There one beauty touched another.

Krušnica, with such a short course, looks quite shy, because not even many geographers know about it, let alone random visitors. Those who see it once swear that they will not forget it. There are mostly fishermen who crouch on both sides of it and enjoy its calmness and beauty. A small hydroelectric plant was built at the spring of Krušnica, which once supplied all of Krupa with electricity, and when they built a large one at the Una Falls, they declared it unprofitable, even though it employed only one operator. And Krusnica, the little one, is paid little attention as a little man.

VOJSKOVA

The Vojskova river also enters the Una river basin, formed from fourteen sources at the foot of Kestenar, below Todor's field, on whose course 50 village mills were once built, which meant life to the surrounding peasants. The springs of Vojskove, some smaller, some larger, never dry up even during the hottest summer. The families of Jelača, Drljača and Nedimović, who were the first to settle here, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, were supplied with drinking water from the nearby Bisovac spring. On its course from Podkalinje and next to Dobovik, Vojskova murmurs and its voice blends with the chirping of countless birds, which nest in the surrounding forests. And when it reaches the ports of the plains, it spreads out and calms down, showing all its beauty and the charm of its clarity to the shepherds and village shepherds. Good-willed, tame, hard-working and hospitable people have always lived along the streams of Vojskova. And most of those who left here for decades to go out into the world, returned, usually under passion, to die and be buried in their region. The people of this region of Podgrmečlija are gladly accepted everywhere, because they are hardworking and honest.

According to an old legend, a huge army gathered in this area, which almost drank the water of the river, which they gave the name Vojskova from there. The first tributary of the Vojska is on its left side Jelački potok, formed by the waters of Ciganovac, Drezginovac, Drljački toč, Duman spring and Mišić spring. Followed by streams Klokočar, Stara voda, Podvoda and others. Along its course to Rudica, where it flows into the Una, Vojskova has several picturesque waterfalls, along which trout swim, on their way upstream to spawn. Flowing into Una, Vojskova willingly surrenders her beauty to Una and together with her they become even more beautiful, whispering on the way to the Black Sea.

THE GRMECH AND THE KOZARA - THE EPIC OF THE REVOLUTION

GRMECH

Grmeč is a mountain rich in wood: fir, pine, beech and others. Hence, the wood industry was developed in Sanski Most. This mountain also abounds in animal life: bears, roe deer, wild boars, wolves, foxes, martens and grouse, and in the lower regions, rabbits, so there are conditions for the development of hunting tourism here. Not far from Sanica, on Međeđe brdo, in the middle of August, the Grmečko Corrida bullfights are held every year, whose tradition has been going on for more than 200 years. In Sanski Most, citizens care a lot about taking care of flowers, so the balconies of their houses and parks are real flower beds. At the end of September, the Month of Flowers, Flower Festivals are organized here. And at the beginning of October, poetry events are held in Paths of Childhood, with performances by poets in schools, in the city and in the surrounding villages.

During the National Liberation War, there was very strong resistance to the enemy and support for the partisan movement. Nine kilometers from Lušca Palanka, in Grmeč, is the Korčenica memorial zone, where the Central Partisan Hospital was located since 1942. A monument in the form of a flower, 15 meters high and 10 meters wide, was erected there in the memorial column of the wounded who left here in 1943 towards the Neretva. The inside of the flower represents the open bosom of Grmeča, the shelter of the people and partisans.

THE KOZARA

Kozara - Svetiljka Revolucije, a mountain in the Bosnian Krajina located between the rivers Sava, Una, Sana and Vrbas, an area about 100 kilometers long and about 50 kilometers wide. During the National Liberation War 1941-1945. the partisan movement was very strong here. There were continuous battles for four full years, and the enemy never managed to gain control of this area.

Kozara abounds in rich forests, and is also a deposit of ore, rich in fertile fields and hills suitable for orchards. Kozara belongs to the medium-high mountains, it does not exceed 1000 m in height, it is an endless sea of greenery, a real mountain spa, which attracts with its silence. Its forests are full of flowers and medicinal plants, and there are also many small streams, which freshen its air and are a source of life for many kinds of game. Potkozarje villages and towns are strung along the edges of Kozara, like a pearl necklace around a girl's neck. Kozara is the first in the number of victims given for the liberation of Yugoslavia, and yet she survived death. Skender Kulenović sang the tragedy of Kozarac with the poignant poem "Stojanka Majka Knešpoljka", before which no one can survive without shedding tears.

Kozara gave birth to 21,000 sons and daughters, first-time soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, of which 9,864 names are inscribed on the Memorial Wall of the monument on Mrakovica, and 35,350 Kozara residents disappeared in the death camps.

Kozarac's 35,350 hectares of forests were declared a National Park, and a grandiose monument, the work of sculptor Dušan Džamonja, was erected on Mrakovica. On Mrakovica, the people of Kozar every year play the Kozaračko kolo and sing songs from the Revolution. On the steps of Mrakovica are written the lines: "Oj Kozaro, you don't need rain, heroes will soak you in blood". The Memorial Museum was built on the elevation above the monument, and an eternal flame burns behind the Memorial Wall. On the wall are written the names of people from Kozara, whose graves are scattered all over Yugoslavia, who gave their lives to contribute to the tragic glory of Kozara. Their sacrifices, like bright dawns, shed light on the future until today.

It will be continued

SHARE THIS PAGE ON: