Tim and Lynda's Travels: Rural Hungary and Croatia

elementary school in Osijek

Rural Hungary and Croatia, May 16-17, 2013

If this is Thursday this must be Mohacs (pronounced 'Moe-hosh") Hungary. Otherwise, we would not have known. It looked like we were in the middle of nowhere. The included tour today was a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to a town called Pecs. There would be a walking city tour, a porcelain factory tour, then back on the bus to someplace else for a wine tasting. But we had hit a wall. We were both exhausted and even free wine tasting could not convince us to join this tour. After all, we have already experienced Hungarian wine. So we stayed on the boat. So as not to waste the whole day nor disappoint our faithful readers we did do a brief walk about in Mohacs. One thing we have noticed is that all of these towns and cities are not afraid to put up contempary monuments. As soon as we left the boat there was a striking, modern stainless steel monument. We have no idea for what or whom it was erected, but sure was nice. Attention Jeff and Rob: we went into the local post office to buy stamps for postcards rather then leaving them at the reception desk on our boat. Across the street from the post office we found a lovely church. It was called the Votive Church and, interestingly enough, was built during WW II. Money must have been a problem because bits were added to the church over the years. For example, the beautiful, contemperary stain glass windows were installed and dedicated in 1980. It was really quite minimalist compared to the cathedrals we have been in, but was much the better for it. We went in a few shops, converted our hungarian florins into euros and went back to the boat where Lynda took a nap and Tim did the laundry, both important necessary jobs.

The Johnsons went on the bus tour to Pecs and we have invited them to submit a guest blog. . We would not want to disappoint those of you that had been looking forward to a report on Pecs. Lyn and Don have submitted the following report on their trip to Pecs. We boarded our buses to find something had not changed - our guides were the friendly ones from Budapest. We drove through Mohacs, where the Hungarian royal forces lost another battle, this time to the Ottoman Turks in 1526 who ruled for the next 160 years. We drove on to Pecs, a small walkable city with several architectual styles and highlights. After stepping over the remains of the old city wall embedded in the pavement, Lyn convinced Don to cross the remains of a dry moat on a rotted unstable bridge to pose at the last remaining city gate tower. (Editor's comment: and Tim thought he was the only person forced to do this sort of thing) We discovered Pecs had been an important Roman town from at least 200 A.D. Frescoes have been uncovered with early christian burial sites from 275 A.D. These have been declared a World heritage UNESCO Site. We stood on the glass ceiling over the catacombs and looked down on the restored underground chambers. St. Peter's Cathedral has been burnt and rebuilt so many times that it now resembles a do-it-yourself church in different colors and pieces (yet it was all rebuilt at once) in a plain style with few embellishments (rare for this area). The nicely preserved Bishops Palace next door has a bronze statue of Liszt on a balcony in a raincoat facing away from the street! We walked on in sunshine to the Gazi Kasim Mosque/Inner Parish Church, interesting because of its blend of history. It is an early stone church rebuilt by the Ottomans to make it a mosque by adding an octogan upper story topped by a blue dome. It has been returned to a christian church without rebuilding and features a small spire with both a crescent and a cross. There are still passages from the Koran inscribed on walls alongside christian decorations. Perhaps we all could learn to be so tolerant. (Editors comment: amen) We sat in the main square and had a gelato followed by capicinno as we observed the well-preserved buildings, clean streets and pedestrians in the car free town center. Then it was on to the Villany hills to visit local wineries which are dug into basements behind houses and then the tunnels are bricked over and sodded so each house appears to have a Hobbit tunnel attached to the back. We walked through on of the larger complex of tunnels past many large oak casks. We tasted three wines, rose, red portugaese, and red cabernet along with cheese platters while the local owner described his wine making prowess. They are very proud of their wine making ability and that they remain family owned. The wine was available for purchase but is not exported, keeping good red wines for themselves and their guests. A good time was had by all as an inebriated accordian player led family and guests in an impromtu dance.

Thursday night the Johnsons and Crandalls were among the lucky 20 people who signed up for a special al fresco dining experience on the sun deck of our boat. Unfortunately, it rained so we could not be out on the deck but were rather in an enclosed area. Still, the meal was exceptional. Unlike all of our other dinners this was a fixed menu. We started with a green salad, followed by roasted eggplant soup. The entree was a veal tenderloin medallion served with white asparagus, potato and a broccoli spear with bernaise sauce. Dessert was ice cream "Hot Love", vanilla ice cream with berries. The wines served with this meal were of a higher quality then the wine that is served in the main dining room.

We had been warned by the crew that once we left Budapest, customs would be a problem. They were right. About 10:00 p.m. we all were required to present ourselves and our passports to the customs people who came on board. The crew call this a "face check." They told us that many times it is only the crew that must do the face check even though customs checks all passports. When Lynda presented her passport to the customs officer he went through her passport one page at a time rather slowly, taking particular time with the pages containing vistas from our "Around the World" trip four years ago. Satisfied, he found an empty page and stamped it. When Tim presented his passport the officer immediately found an empty page and stamped it. Tim, Lyn, and Don teased Lynda the rest of the evening about her obvious shady character.

Friday morning we were docked in Vukovar, Croatia. After the elegance of Vienna and Budapest, Vukovar was a reality check. 90 percent of Vukovar was destroyed during the break up of Yugoslavia in 1991. The surviving buildings still show many holes from the shellings by the Serbians. There also are many buildings still standing that had been destroyed and the Croatian government has done nothing to remove them. We walked through Vukovar with a feeling of saddness rather than the feeling of wonder we have experienced in pervious stops on this cruise. Once on the bus we had a 30 minute ride to Laslovo where we visited the local elementary school. The children presented a 20 minute program and then we were able to walk about the building visiting with the students and teachers. In Croatia, all third graders start learning a foreign language which for most is English so we were able to converse easily with the children. These kids were like kids anywhere in the world. As soon as a camera came up to take a picture someone put up bunny ears behind the head of the person next to them. Tim and Don wanted to meet with the principal of the school to raise a major concern that they had. In one of the classrooms someone had very carefully drawn an outline of the United States on the chalk board. The concern was that the only state actually drawn in on the map was Ohio. Unfortunately, the principal was busy and did not have time to meet with Tim and Don. In all seriousness, it was a really fun, uplifting experience. The children were very friendly and obviously enjoyed having us there and interacting with us. From the school we rode on the bus another 15 minutes to Osijek (pronounced "oss-yech") the cultural center of the Slavonia region of Croatia. We walked through the main square of the old town, visited a lovely church, but did not see much in the way of culture. Today is the last day of school for the seniors graduating and it is a tradition for them to gather in public areas where they party and drink heavily. In Osijek the local officials actually set aside one park for the seniors to gather in and provide police protection, doctors and ambulances for those who party too hard. When we returned to Vulovar the partying had started in a park near our boat and we noticed a large contigent of police officers nearby. The nicest part of the day was lunch. We were taken in groups of 8-10 to local homes where we were hosted for lunch. We went to the home of a young women who prepared vegatable soup, a green salad, roasted chicken accompanied with a simple risotto and a cabbage salad. We finished with poppy seed cake. This was only the third time she had hosted a group and she was obviously very nervous. But as we talked (her English was very good) and drank wine she relaxed and we had a delightful time with her. Once lunch was completed our bus picked us up and we came back to the boat. It was an interesting day but I don't think any of us are planning a return trip to Croatia.

n Dinner back on board was an Epicurrean Adventure. Local dishes filled the menu. Lynda enjoyed a different variety of borscht (beet soup). Rather than the Russian recipe (pureed beets) this was a tomato-based broth with thinly sliced beet strips and other vegetables served with the tradional sour cream. We haven't blogged much about the food on the River Duchess but we've all found it excellent. Lots of variety and good quality We finished the evening enteretained by a group of five men singing tradition folk songs and playing a variety of guitars. Two were mandolin like guitars, the other two were different size guitars, all four having only 5 strings. There was also a tradition string bass. While we could not understand the words, singing and the guitar playing in particular was excellent.