20110906 Vukovar, Croatia

Mostly cloudy, breezy, and cooler. Think I'll take my windbreaker along – I can always leave it on the bus if I don't need it.

Breakfast as usual with the rest of the Gang Of Ten. Some stayed up later last night than we did. Tom said he found the ball had dropped off our Dolphins flag, so he tied it back on. Looks fine.

Later:

The day's tour was well done. First, another fortress and church in Vukovar, a city of 30,000 on the Danube where the Vuka river flows into it. We were guided on a walk into town and through the market. The market had an impressive array of home-grown produce and a lot of other things – clothing, mainly. I stopped in a small shop and found a cap with the note Vukovar “Grad Heroj”, which means Vukovar “Town of Heros”. The place held out for about three months during the 1990 war until Serbia brough in the artillery and it was forced to surrender.

Then we traveled by bus to Osijek, a larger city of 800,000 to look around it. We saw the local fortress and an impressive small church built in the early 1700's on the site of a destroyed mosque.

We again saw a lot of abandoned houses where people left during the 1990 war and never returned. Some of these houses have been raided for materials by residents for their own sheds, etc. It's hard to believe that the “ethnic cleasing” took place here.

Then we went to a real Croatian home for lunch. Eva Gajnok served our gang of ten with the traditional brandy starter (cherry this time) and then put out wine, both made by the residents from their garden. She lives (unmarried) with her parents in a nice little home, very neat and compact. We had a tomato soup with noodles, then a spicy meatloaf with chopped cabbage, cooked yellow peppers, lightly pickled red pepper and mashed potatoes. Very good. Dessert was a selection of cakes. She had us sign her guest book.

She took us on a tour of the garden. They have three pigs and a bunch of chickens (some for eating and some for eggs). They have two grapevines (green and purple), two greenhouses full of tomatoes, strawberries, walnut trees, various peppers and many other vegetables. Looks like a lot of work, but it makes them much less dependent on stores.

We took leave of her and returned to Vukovar. It had warmed up considerably, so we changed. We weren't leaving for a few hours, so we decided to hike into town again. The girls went off by themselves and we guys did the same. We found the market deserted. The little store was still open, so I bought a few blank DVDs for picture distribution later.

Then we found an awning-covered set of tables where a young lady named Victory (she was born in 1992) was serving beers. We had a few of the local beers and told stories and jokes, then walked back to the ship. We settled in the lounge and had a couple more beers. Then dinner with a bunch of wine.

Then a nightcap in the lounge, which I really didn't need. Then time for bed. I tried to read but fell asleep almost immediately.

Owen Photos     Dolores Photos