Friday, June 17, 2011

The Ravages of War, your Reporter visits Vukovar, Croatia

The next morning we docked at Vukovar in eastern Croatia. The name
Vukovar means the town on the river Vuka, which is the river that flows
into the Danube here.

Before the war for Croatia's independence Vukovar was a prosperous small
town in the country. The town was an important objective for the
Serb-dominated Yugoslav army. Before the war Serbs and Croats occupied
the town in about equal numbers, then the Yugoslav army set about ethnic
cleansing. After a three month siege in November of 1991, Vukor was
completely destroyed. The towns' beautiful red brick water tower was used
for target practice
by the Yugoslav army, that tower has been left as a symbol of the Croat
resistance.

Today the town is making a remarkable recovery. We enjoyed
the local beer at a street side café and noticed that a first priority in
their reconstruction was installing ATM machines for the tourists. It
seemed like there
was a "bank-in-the-wall" at every corner. The town did have modern shops and
stores but what was not seen was the
beautiful old architecture from before the war.

The planned bus tour of the day was to Osijek, Croatia which was about two
hours away and is the
economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region. But, I was
one bus ride over my limit, so we soaked in the newly restored atmosphere of
Vukovar.

My Sweetheart shopped till she dropped. I carried her back to the ship where there was a party going go. We dined that evening on local cooking and local beer. Of course, finished off with plum brandy.

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