Day 5

AUGUST 16, Monday
Vukovar
Up bright and early this morning to get a city tour of Vukovar and then a trip to Osijek for a home hosted lunch.
Vukovar is, of course, on the Danube, but there’s little to recommend it. This was a place of very heavy fighting during the war, and now has 30 percent unemployment. Most things look pretty seedy and there are lots of bullet holes in various buildings. It’s a very old city with an old fortress and a sort of charming downtown area, but you just can’t imagine anyone planning a vacation here. We went to a lovely little farmer’s market where you could tell that people were bringing the contents of their home gardens to sell. The watermelons here look fabulous, though the watermelon we get on the ship is tasteless. There was also a huge flower market in this farmers market, but on closer inspection, all the flowers were fake!!
From Vukovar we went to Osijek which is a considerably larger town. Along the way there are signs showing that many fields still haven't been cleared of land mines. We visited the Holy Trinity Church, known locally as St. Anthony’s. At the end of the visit we walked around the altar, which is supposed to allow you to get a wish granted. St. Anthony is also the finder of lost things, so the little prayer iis “Tony, Tony, walk around. Something’s lost and must be found.” Cute.

Our home visit was with a woman who looked something like Susan Ballew and was a real go-getter. Her name was Ramona. We had a wonderful lunch of tomato soup, some sort of meatballs, cabbage salad and potatoes. She was born of Croatian parents in Austria, and came here when she was five. I got the distinct idea that she was the one making just about everything this family had, possible. She was running a little farm out back, planning to develop a summer camp for city kids, was raising two of her own and two foster children.

In the afternoon, I went out hunting for an internet signal, and in fact, found one very close to the ship. I couldn’t go into the café, because I didn’t have any local currency, so I stood outside and used my I-pod. Later I decided to go back with the computer, but it was too sunny, so I ended up squatting behind a dumpster (for shade) trying to use the computer to upload the blog. I never could actually see it, and then it started raining. I’m pretty sure this qualifies as addictive behavior.

Tonight on the ship we had a local Croatian band who were very good and lots of fun to listen to.