Vukovar, Croatia

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Day 10-Vukovar, Croatia
8/26/10

We woke this morning docked in the city of Vukovar. Like most Americans, I don’t think I have ever heard of this town. But it was significant in the early days of the split up of Yugoslavia.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, the communist leader Tito died in 1980. Over the next ten years Yugoslavia continued to exist but the old divisions grew each year. By 1989 some of the parts, like Slovenia, started to declare their independence. By now, Serbia was controlling the military and made it a mostly Serb army.

Many Serbs were living in Croatia and when they started a move towards independence the military was ordered into the country to “protect” them. Only, it seems that it was only about power and control. Anyway, this little town was under siege for three months with daily shelling from the army. The town was leveled.

Everywhere we walked we could see buildings still abandoned and destroyed. We even saw a farm that was being de-mined. There are still places that are restricted.

The highlight of this stop was a lunch at the home of family that lived through all of this. The home was located in a new neighborhood that was established to bring unity in the city. There were a dozen of us at the house. The woman there was very nice and spoke good English. The food and wine was good too.

That evening we were entertained on the ship with a local band. I thought they were very good.

Tomorrow we leave Croatia and sail into Hungary. The first stop is the Kalocsa, the home of paprika. Now that should be fun….

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Photos

Water Tower
Note the damage that this odd shaped water tower had. One large section was missing.

Jackie
It is hard for us to not make a photo when we see these flower shops.

Tank Road
These folks have seen more than their fair share of military hardware. But it seems that tanks are their favorite. This one was used here.

Minefield
Note the men in the distance searching for mines.

Luncheon
Here is the crew at lunch.

Residence
We had lunch in this house. It seemed like a typical neighborhood. It was not.

Hostess
Here we are with our hostess. She was very nice.

Comments

[Irene]

I love that you are always next to the flowers, Jackie!

[sister P.]

more good stuff and pix
I'm enjoying the history lessons...very much. I've forgotten so much. The bombed out buildings and all reminded me of our going to Germany in 1957. There were many bldgs with damage still...it was just 12 years after the end of WWII. It's strange to see this in person, isn't it?

[Brenda]

History Lessons
Really enjoying the lessons in history - making up for when I was not paying attention in school! Pictures are great too!