Up at 8 and the sun was beautiful. It was a perfectly blue sky and we docked for just about 2 hours at Mohacs, the border town, to get our papers cleared. Here in 1526, Ludwig II King of Hungary and Bohemia was defeated by Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Turks occupied Austria for 150 years. Not until 1687 did Turkish rule over Austria end when Karl von Lothringen and Ludwig von Baden won a decisive victory over the Ottoman troops on Harsany Mountain. We sailed through a very marshy region with side canals and side branches forming islands beautiful beaches.
In 1918, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia were united. In 1927, the area became known as Yugoslavia (meaning South Slavs). On April 6, 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia which was ruled by Tito (communist dictator) from WWII – 1980. The USA funded Tito since Russia was being controlled by Stalin and Stalin ordered troops be brought near the border of Russia and Yugoslavia. The USA did not want Russia to control Yugoslavia as they would have closer access to Europe, therefore, $30Billion went from the USA to Tito – one of the only known times we have funded a communist. Yugoslavs were allowed to travel freely among their own region but if a passport was needed, it was $5000. In 1992, the countries decided to separate - Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. The Turks were moving north. Muslins now control Kosovo and it is an autonomous region with a population of 2M. Albania is now pure Muslim. There was a terrible 78-day war of ethnic cleansing of the Croatians, Bosnians and Serbians.
We docked at Apatin Serbia and again had to wait to be cleared by the officials (same country – so why the clearance requirement?). After an hour, we were allowed to walk around in the small town of 15,000 and saw a beautiful church, which is being newly re-painted and restored. We went via bus to Sombor, a town of about 30,000 and toured an art gallery by Milan Konjovic, a Sombor native. We visited their ornate baroque Orthodox church and then toured the public library. They were extremely proud that they were now able to process library books using the bar code on the book for check-in/out. The fee is about $5 for the library card for the year and they have a few computers for internet use.
We saw a priest wearing the long black robe with his wife (yes, they are allowed to marry), in normal dress, and a young woman and a soldier wearing his camouflage uniform. It is compulsory for all young men between 18-29 years old to serve six months in the military or nine months in civil service and you are only given reprieve if you are in school.
Dinner with the entire group – French and English -- at Andric restaurant. We enjoyed a huge cauldron of fish soup with wide egg noodles which had been cooked on an outside hearth and a whole catfish in the bouillon and then a fried catfish steak and potatoes, carrots, corn, broccoli and salad and a sour cherry crepe with ice cream! Delicious!! AND we were serenaded the entire time by four musicians – accordion, two guitars and a bass who all sang and played. www.restoranandric.co.rs Back to the boat around 10 and waited again for the local authorities to clear us for departure.
