Croatia

Early this morning we entered Croatia. Here we do not have to keep our passports on us at all times like we did throughout our stay in Serbia. This little town of Ilok, (6,700 folks) took pride in making sure every part of their village was clean and neat. As we walked up the path to the fortress the church bells were ringing and the service could be heard in the courtyard area. They are working on redoing the old wall and have added a staircase to get amazing views of both sides of the Danube. Like so many towns this was ruled by the Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Yugoslavia and now the Republic of Croatia. The Euro is the official currency here, which is another perk that Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania did not have. We learned that just because they are a member of the EU, that doesn’t mean they take the Euro.

The ship moved in the morning to Vukovar, just a little way up the Danube, about 20 miles. The city currently has a population of about 23,000. While the city has been inhabited for 5,000 years, about 80% of the city was destroyed in 1991 after Croatia voted to succeed from Yugoslavia and Serbia attacked the city. Defending themselves against tanks and planes, 1800 defenders and civilians were killed, 800 went missing and 22,000 were forced into exile. We started our afternoon tour at the Vukovar Museum watching a very moving video which showed the area immediately after the bombing and siege beside pictures of the area now. The damage was extensive and quite moving.

We then traveled to Osijek where we visited a Catholic church which survived the 1991 war and heard a short concert by one of the local woman and a walk around the Tvrdja fortress. This fortress is the best preserved and largest assembly of Baroque buildings in Croatia and is described as a unique example of an eighteenth century baroque military, administrative and commercial urban center.