Wednesday, July 30, 2008

ABC Wednesday: Radovan on Vido Island, site of Blue Grave

Today "B" is for "Blue Grave," as explained further on. Here Radovan is standing in front of the Serbian Mausoleum on Vido Island, just off the coast of Corfu Town. During WWI, Corfu served as a refuge for the Serbian army that retreated there across Montenegro and Albania from Serbia which was occupied by the Austrians and Bulgarians. As a result of their long march, a large number of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and different diseases. More than 5000 of them were buried at sea (known as the Blue Grave or Plava Grobnica) near the island of Vido. A monument of thanks to the Greek nation was erected on Vido island by the grateful Serbs in the 1930s. The Greeks were not the only ones to aid the Serbs during WWI on Corfu. The French and British also came to their aid, treating the ill and wounded in their hospitals and establishing schools. Behind Radovan you can see a poster in French and two in English. This photo was taken in the Serbian House, which houses the Serbian Consulate and is also a museum about the Serbs' WWI experience on Corfu.

6 comments:

Marie Reed said...

Radovan is certainly soaking in museum culture!

Meead said...

:) nice.

Bibi I love the toy you have/put in your photos. I may find something similar to do so.

Pat said...

Thank you, Meead, for your comment about liking "Radovan." (Recently there has been a "bad" Radovan captured here; war criminal I'd forgotten about--I chose the name because it was easy to pronounce!)

I only had one negative comment about using this little figure, but it made me feel bad. I took "Radovan" on our trip and photographed him in various places, and posted those photos to somehow tie in our trip to Greece with Serbia, as you've probably noticed. I could have just posted our vacation photos, but I thought it was better to link our trip to Belgrade/Serbia.

Someone didn't think so, I guess, but well, what to do? Radovan will end his trip as planned anyway on August 3rd, then back to Belgrade.

Sarah said...

I agree with Meead,I love Your Radovan too.I want something like that!!!
Visit our blog BiBi,it's Updated
By the way,I will travel On friday afternoon ;)

Jane Hards Photography said...

Tell me no one has seriously objected to Radovan's Greek adventures with a Serbian tie in! I was going to say the opposite. How clever of you to tie in your holiday with your adopted home country as I know there is a history between the two. Well I for one, totally disagree with Mr/Ms objectionable. Please Radovan, contiune, I am a huge fan.

Pat said...

'fraid it's true, but thanks, Babooshka. Anyway, Radovan will finish his trip as planned on August 3rd, and on the 4th will be back in his village, and Bibi will post photos from Belgrade!

THE MARKET AFTER HOURS

 Merchants have all packed up and gone home....