Terezin, Hungary

Terezin Work Camp

Terezin was originally built as a fortress by the Hapsburg's Franz Joseph and named for Theresa his mother. It had been used as a prison through the years. It's most famous inmate was Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Franz Ferdinand that began World War I. But it's more recent fame is as a Jewish Ghetto and transfer prison during World War II. The Germans in January 20, 1942 at the Wannsee conference came up with the "final solution" for the Jews and Gypsies. They created a timeline to deport every Jew found in their census beginning in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. Terezin became part of their plan. All 7000 residents of the town were forced to move in September, 1941 and a work camp was created to turn the town into a Jewish Ghetto (it had fortifications around the town already) and the small fortress into a work camp for Jews, political prisoners, Gypsies and gays. In front of the camp is the burial ground, where both the first occupants and last occupants are buried. Later they used mass graves and when they ran out of room, they cremated the bodies. The prisoners worked on the roads, railroads, and gardened to provide food for the Germans. In the small fortress, 32,000 were imprisoned and 1500 died. In the ghetto 150,000 Jews passed through this camp and 35,000 died here and another 87,000 died in transports to or at their final camp. Of course, we saw the sign "work makes you free" as we entered the fortress. The original barracks became mass prison cells where 300 soldiers had lived, they now housed 1700 prisoners. One of the mass cells, we visited held 40 prisoners, then 60, then 100 with only one toilet. Sanitation was a huge problem. They were fed a 1/2 liter of coffee and 200 grams of bread a day. If packages arrived from the Red Cross, all the ingredients were dumped together and fed to the prisoners (including the tooth paste). There were also 20 isolation cells, where the prisoners could be kept in the dark for days or weeks to soften them for interrogation. In one room, we saw a line of sinks, which was supposedly the barber shop. This was only for show, however, the water wasn't hooked up. We also saw a section of the fortress, built by the Nazi's for prisoners of war and political prisoners. It held 700 inmates and required only one guard to patrol the entire place.

Child's picture of life in the Ghetto

 

The Terezin Ghetto is famous for a propaganda film, created by the Red Cross on June 23rd, 1944. Before the Red Cross visit, 17000 old and sick were deported from the Ghetto to other camps. The Red Cross came for a four hour visit, the ghetto had been cleaned up, the people were in civilian clothes, they staged a football game and concert during the visit, and of course, everyone was smiling and happy. The visit lasted four hours, two of which were at dinner.

The camp was liberated on May 8th, 1945, but even after the liberation another 700 people died because of a Typhoid epidemic which had swamped the camp.

We ended our trip with a farewell dinner up in the Castle area. It has been a tough trip for Mary, she came on the trip with tight muscles in her shoulders and back, and that problem remains on this last day. But we found Eastern Europe quite interesting especially hearing about the varied history of the area. The personal stories of our guides and special guests were also fascinating, especially about their experiences during the end of communism. Our group of nine travelers worked out really well. Highlights of the trip included: the snow and castles of Transylvania, the surprising clean and beautiful city of Belgrade, the cruising down the Danube with its mists, flat farm land, and the Iron Gate, and finally the two stately cities of Budapest and Prague, which were as beautiful as their reputation. For those who would like to see more pictures and videos, a 20 minute narrated video of this trip is available on youtube.

Our traveling group

 

Lesser Town, Prague

We continued our visit to Prague with a walking tour from our guide. The highlight of the day was the Charles Bridge built in 1357 by Charles IV. His statue is right at the foot of the bridge. This bridge was preceded 200 years earlier by the Judith Bridge, which was swept away by a flood. The Charles Bridge was completely underwater in 2002, but is still functional. The secret they claim is that the mortar was made with egg yolks. From 1600 to 1800 several statues have been added to the bridge. But the views from the bridge were simply spectacular, we just wished that the sun had been out. As it was the hills around us were wrapped in fog. After crossing the bridge from Old Town we were in Lesser Town at the foot of Prague Castle. Many of the government buildings and embassies are in Lesser Town. We visited the Church of Our Lady Victorious to see the Infant Jesus of Prague. This Jesus statue was given as a wedding gift in the 16th century, but it eventually ended up in a monastery. The legend goes that the monastery and Infant Jesus were damaged in 1861 at the start of the thirty years war. It was found 30 years later missing its hands and the man who discovered it heard a voice that if he would restore the hands, peace would return. Many people have been cured on pilgrimage to the Infant Jesus.

Charles Bridge

After our visit we header to Lesser Square from where we could see one of the three St. Nicholas Churches in the city (the one we had seen from the Castle). Then we entered the Wallenstein gardens and palace built in the sixteenth century. This palace became the home of the Senate after World War II. The unique part of the garden was the weeping stone grotto at one end.

Weeping Stone Grotto

In the afternoon, we went about 50 miles north of Prague to visit the Sychrov(Shivering) Castle. It came by this name because it is at the foot of the mountains of Bohemia where the weather is cooler than Prague. Sure enough the temperature was about 12 degrees cooler than in the city. The Castle should be called a summer palace. It was built by the Rohan family, a high ranking family from France that left after the French Revolution. They built this palace beginning in 1791 and the family owned much of the surrounding countryside. The palace was taken from them after World War II because they were "German Collaborators". Previous to the war, there were 3 Million people of German descent in Czechoslovakia. At the end of the war, only 500,000 were allowed to stay. You had to prove that you hadn't collaborated with the Germans during the war, in order to stay. Our French family was considered collaborators because they took German Citizenship during the war, and the owner had German clients in his law practice.

As we entered the palace, the first thing we noticed was all the coats of arms decorated on the exterior walls. These were the coats of arms of the Rohan’s relatives, proving their royal lineage. The palace is of neo-gothic style. We had a short organ recital in the chapel. This organ had been played several times by Anthony Dvorak since he was friends with the castle keeper. Of course, part of our concert included a movement from his "New World Symphony".



Ceiling in Sychrov Castle

Upon entering the house, we immediately noticed all the woodwork. The wood worker, Peter Bushek, spent 36 years at this castle. His work was exemplified by the master staircase as well as a number of the ceilings. The family coat of arms had a shield with diamonds on one shield and ermine tails on the other - this pattern showed itself in numerous rooms. As we toured the palace, it had all of the original furnishings from the 1800's since the state had confiscated all of the furnishings at the end of the war.  We then walked through the gardens (mostly trees and bushes) which were in full fall colors to the orangery where we had our meal. The best aspect of this tour of the palace is that we had the place all to ourselves, no hurry, no crowds, you could really appreciate the building.

Prague, the old city

We had a 2 minute version of Czech history. The Czech kingdom was formed in the 9th century and lasted until the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. There were two kings of note: King Wenceslaus from the 10th century who is the patron saint of the country and King Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who built the Charles Bridge, the cathedral and started the first university. From 1500 until 1918 the Czechs were part of the Hapsburg Empire.

We started out tour in the Prague Castle with its three courtyards. Hard to believe, but the guard at the entrance to the castle has a uniform that was designed in the 1990's by a movie costume designer. The castle today houses the office of the President of the Republic. The most beautiful part of this area was St. Vitus Cathedral, the back half of the church was built between 1344 and 1420. At the time it had its own entrance, called the Golden Gate. The church was restarted around 1870 and completed in 1929 in the exact style of the original medieval church. It's hard to tell where one part ends and the other begins. The front façade is quite ornate and appears to be medieval. The church has many fantastic stained glass windows from the early 1900s and one famous painted glass window created by Mucha.



Painted Glass by Mucha



In the first courtyard of the castle, the main gates have fighting giants from Greek mythology. The courtyard is surrounded by what were elegant houses of the aristocrats. One in particular has interesting geometric patterns formed by black plaster, covered with a brown plaster, and then the brown is cut away to form the patterns. From the courtyard we could see down into "lesser town" and up to a miniature version of the Eiffel tower. It was particularly beautiful with the trees in their fall colors.

We then walked to the old town area beginning in what used to be the Jewish Quarter. Created in the 12th century it used to be surrounded by walls. In 1780, the Hapsburg king gave the right of citizenship to the Jews, which allowed them to leave the quarter. This area then became an impoverished area, the buildings were torn down, and rebuilt in the 1800's and today, it is a high rent area.

Old Town Square and Tyn Church

Our guide, Pavla, explained that he and his wife own a 800 square foot flat in the city. Cost is $700-800 per month for rent or about $200K to buy. Typical salaries in the city are about $1300/mo. We continued on to the Old Town Square. Here is St. Nicholas church built in the 1700's with its white facade and green roof as well as the Tyn Church built in the 1300's. I walked around the church and never found a front entrance, they must have been behind some of the restaurants built right in front of the church. The major attraction of the square is the astronomical clock on the Town Hall Tower. The clock was created in 1410 and then the builder was blinded to avoid him building another clock. On the hour the 12 apostles appear in the two windows above the clock and the figures make minor moments like ringing a small bell. Below the main clock is a second dial with the day, a picture representing the month, and the sign of the zodiac. We had lunch off the square, a good Czech meal with beer.

In the afternoon, we toured the countryside. This is a large agricultural area with either flat land or at most, rolling hills. We stopped at the village of Nosalov founded in the 13th century. The unique aspect of the village is the homes built in the late 1800s with their pine timbers and plaster. Then it was off to have another Czech dinner with potato soup and pork roast mixed with lots of beer. We had a Czech dance exhibition, followed by some polka instruction, and finally we got to dance both polka and more traditional ballroom dances. With all the beer and wine flowing freely, we all had a good time.

Bratislava, Slovak Republic

National Theater, Bratislava

Today, we're going to be in 3 capitals: Budapest, Bratislava in Slovakia, and finally Prague in the Czech Republic. Slovakia has about 5.4 Million inhabitants and is about twice the size of New Hampshire in area. It was the capital of the Austria-Hungary Empire from 1536 to 1860. In 1918, it became part of Czechoslovakia, though the Slovak and Czech portion were separated during the Nazi occupation from 1938 to 1945. In 1993, after communism, Slovakia separated from the Czech Republic. Slovakia became part of the EU in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2009. An interesting thing happened when they went to the Euro. People started spending more money largely because they lost a feeling for what items cost. 30 Crowns were equal to one Euro, but an item that they might have considered expensive, felt much cheaper when expressed in Euros. Sort of what it like when we hear temperatures in Celsius, when we think in Fahrenheit. There are about 600,000 people in the capital which has low unemployment, largely because so many foreign firms have established offices here. The national unemployment rate is 14%, the lowest of our trip. We toured the old town area with its National Theater, City Hall and St. Martin's Cathedral where the kings were crowned. An interesting story which contrasts with the Jewish stories in Budapest. Here during the Nazi era, the government actually paid 500 DM for every Jew that the Germans removed from the city. We viewed the Jewish memorial here, right next to a wall with a picture of the former synagogue. The Nazi's hadn't torn the synagogue down, but the Soviets did - to make room for a new bridge across the Danube. While here we had a traditional Slovak lunch of Beef Svickova with dumplings - the dumplings looked like bread and in fact, that's what they were made of.

Holocost Memorial and St. Marten's Cathedral

Our guide, Michael, told of living in a Panelak, a Soviet built apartment house. Each apartment has two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and living room all fit into about 650 square feet. The Soviets gave you an apartment (after a suitable wait), but after living there for 20 years, you could purchase the apartment for $2000. Today, those apartments go for about $80,000. Many of the apartment buildings are being insulated and painted in bright colors, not quite as drab as the old grey concrete.

We traveled for another five hours in the afternoon. The Czech Republic is about the size of South Carolina and has 10 million residents, 1.3 M of which live in the capital, Prague, the city of spires. Prague is known for drinking more beer per capita than any other city in the world. Michael told us that while beer has been brewed for several thousand years, it was the monks who perfected the recipe. Why? Because during fasts, they could still drink up to 5 liters of beer a day, their liquid bread.

Exploring Budapest

Orthodox Synagogue

This morning we visited the historic Jewish Quarter of Budapest, the area that became a Jewish Ghetto in 1944 where 10,000 Jews died. Our first stop was the Orthodox Jewish Synagogue built from 1911-13. In 1867, time of the Austria-Hungary compromise, when Hungary gained its own king, the Jews became citizens. But the following year, the Jews split into two: the Orthodox Jews following the Jewish laws and traditions, and a unique branch in Hungary, the Neologue (similar to Conservative Jews elsewhere in the world). The Orthodox synagogue is quite traditional with the Torah stored behind a curtain, the eternal light, a reading desk in the middle, and balconies for the women on the sides. The synagogue was quite spectacular in its decoration: menorah style wall paintings, floral patterns (similar to Hungarian folk art) under the balconies, and stain glass windows in the ceiling. Today, the synagogue has only about one thousand practicing Jews.

We then visited the Great Synagogue of Budapest built in 1854-9 and the second largest in the world after New York. This is a Neologue synagogue and the design looks almost like a church in order to better assimilate with the surrounding Christians. In front, there is what looks like an altar, the reading desk is in front, there are pulpits in the middle, and a large organ around the altar. Behind the church is a garden dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg who save 25000 Jews. Here are a number of memorials - the tree of life with over 4000 names stamped on the leaves and with plainly missing tablets, displaying how the Nazis had violated God's laws. Nearby is a stained glass with a snake being consumed by fire.

Great Synagogue

In the afternoon, we visited the Hospital inthe Rock. Underneath Castle Hill are many caves. In the late 1930's the caves were connected to form an air raid shelter. Later these caves were outfitted as a hospital. The hospital has been used twice - in 1944 during the Soviet liberation, the caves became a bunker for the German command as well as a hospital for the troops. The Soviets were initially stopped at the Danube when all five bridges crossing the river were destroyed. Eventually they surrounded castle hill and shelled it for 108 days. Then during the 1956 revolution, it was again used as a hospital for the revolutionaries for about 2 months. In the 1960's it was secretly expanded to be a bunker in case of nuclear war. Today there are over 2400 square meters of rooms.

View of Danube from the Citadel

After our tour of the Hospital the bus climbed to the Citadel with its gorgeous view of the city. From here we could see Castle Hill, the Parliament building, Chain Bridge, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and the Great Synagogue and a view off into the distance of the expanding city. We had our farewell dinner later that night. It was sad to realize that Hunor would be leaving us. It was clear from the outset that he was a superb guide, providing us not only with the background of what we were seeing, but also his personal stories about growing up in this region. After dinner, we went again up to the Citadel, but this time all the buildings along the Danube were lit up. What a sight! Both in daylight and at night. The city truly earns its nickname, Paris of Eastern Europe.

Entering Budapest

Hungarian Parliament Building

Our ship arrived in Budapest about 9:00 AM in the morning, and we went on a scenic cruise of the city, since we won't be able to do the evening cruise. (We had been informed that one of the locks upriver will close in a few days, so the ship must leave today and we'll stay in the Marriott Courtside in Budapest.) Well...the river was covered in fog and we could barely see the shore. As we went further along, the fog started to clear. By the time we reached the Hungarian Parliament, the highlight of the Pest side of the river, the fog had almost cleared. The parliament building was spectacular and had most of its reclamation had just been completed.

Topic: 1956 Hungarian Revolution
After our little cruise we had Professor Szachi join us to talk about the 1956revolution. He was born in 1945 and remembers that even as a boy, their textbooks would praise Stalin and his parents would hesitate to answer some of his questions, worried on whether he would repeat the answer. But most of all they feared the doorbell being sounded in the middle of the night.His grandfather had the bell ring one night and spent three years under police arrest.

On October 22, 1956 students met together and created sixteen demands. The next day, they were given permission to march to the Radio Station where they asked that their sixteen demands be broadcast. By 11 PM the crowd had gotten quite large, and the police shot into the crowd, but the crowd shot back with weapons from a nearby armament factory. Within days, the Russian troops were withdrawing, and a new communist government had been created and had acknowledged the demands. But Russian troops had gathered on the border and came back to crush the revolution on November 4th. At the same time, Britain and France were occupied by the nationalization of the Suez canal by Egypt and did not come to the aid of the Hungarian people. Within 5-6 weeks, Russian troops had regained Hungary, but during that time, the western border with Australia was left open, allowing 200,000 to leave the country. From 1956 to 1963, over 10,000 past dissidents were jailed and 400 executed. But by the mid-70's what became known as Goulash Communism had taken over, a mild form of communism. As long as you followed the rules, you were left alone. In fact, on June 16th, 1989, people went to Hero Square to pay homage to the freedom fighters and within a few months Communism ended in Hungary.

John and Mary on top of Castle Hill

In the afternoon, we took a bus to see Castle Hill, the site of the old royal palace, the cathedral, and some of the oldest buildings in the city. Matthius Church, the oldest church in Hungary was established by King Matthius over 750 years ago, it is the place where the King's Coronation takes place. Next to the cathedral is a statue of St. Stephen, the first King of Hungary, crowned by the Pope in 1000 AD. This area is just the driver thought we were headed straight and got crunched when we made a right turn as she tried to sneak by. We spent an hour waiting for the police and a replacement bus. Then we crossed the river to the Pest side of the city, following Andrássy út Avenue, what they call the Champs Elysee' of Budapest, a wide street with beautiful classical buildings on each side. It was easy to see why this street got its nickname. At the end of the street was another spectacular sight: Hero's square. In the center of the square is the Millennium Memorial to the original seven tribal leads as well as the primary kings of Hungary through the ages. On one side is the Museum of Fine Art and on the other the Hall of Art. Meanwhile in the background is the city park with turrets for the spas and a replica of a Transylvanian caste, built for the millennium in 1896, The city is truly beautiful!

Hero's Square

Kalocsa, Hungary

Topic: The European Union

 

Many of the Eastern European countries have a set a goal to belong to the European Union. This morning, our guides offered some of the history on it.  After World War II, the Marshall plan restarted the Western European economies. In 1951, a number of countries began the European Coal and Steel Community allowing the free trade of these commodities across their borders. A key principle behind it's funding was to reduce the risk of a future European war over natural resources by removing the economic incentive. This was followed in 1958 by the formation of the European Economic Community, allowing more goods to be freely traded. In 1962, the European parliament was created. EU laws generally superseded national laws. The original members: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Brussels and Luxemburg have been joined through the years by other countries. In 1973, the U.K., Denmark and Ireland, in 1981 by Greece, in 1986 by Portugal and Spain and so on, today there are 28 countries in this economic zone. While theoretically, citizens of any EU country can work in any other country, the reality is different. For example, a Romanian has to be nominated by a corporation to work in the U.K and they must show that they can't find that particular skill from local residents. The Romanian will be granted a work permit that must be renewed equally. As Hunor told us: all countries are equal, but some are more equal, especially the older established members versus the new members.

Another agreement is the Treaty of Schengen, allowing the free movement of people without passport control among the 25 members. The country base is slightly different, for example this agreement includes Switzerland, but excludes Romania and Croatia. Every country has veto power for other countries to join. We experienced the strictness of entry this morning, when we were wakened at 6:15 AM to show our face to the border police of Hungary.

Finally, there is the Eurozone, consisting of 17 countries using the same currency, the Euro. The only Eurozone country we are visiting on this trip is the Slovak Republic.

 

Paprika

Hungary

Most of the people of Hungary live in the countryside. Of the 10 Million inhabitants, 1.7 million live in Budapest and there are several cities of about 150K, but the rest are in villages, similar to Kalocsa. This village was founded over 1000 years ago and is filled with individual houses, most owner-occupied. We stopped first at the Paprika Museum. Paprika originally came from Peru, spread from Spain and arrived in Hungary from the Turks. It became the dominant spice here after black pepper became expensive. There is both a hot and a sweet version of this pepper, the hot version usually is a pepper substitute, while the more common sweet version spices the typical Hungarian dish. Planted in April, harvest starts in August and continues until the first hard frost (which occurred about 10 days ago).

A few blocks away was a small folk art museum. Here a couple demonstrated typical Hungarian dance, and we visited a 200 year old peasant house. One of the rooms was particularly decorated with floral patterns on the walls, and a brick furnace opposite the kitchen fire on the other side.

We ended our day at a horse show with the horse dressed in traditional garb. The key weapon used from horseback was the whip which they could use to stun small game as well as warfare. They demonstrated their horsemanship on Hungarian half-blood horses (mixed with Arabian horses) with their whips through a series of games. The hit of the show was the seven year old boy in training on top of a donkey. We enjoyed a wagon trip out into the fields where we could see the cattle and horses on their pastureland and some typical thatch buildings. Overall, this was more a chance to see the Hungarian countryside than to have an exciting display of horsemanship.

That evening, we had our farewell dinner on the M/S River Concerto. The meals on board have been top-notch throughout. The first night, we had managed to turn a table of eight to a table of nine with the help of our waiters. We quickly learned to send someone early to claim this table, since they couldn't reserve it for us. After our meal, the crew entertained us with a "talent show" that was mostly silly comedy and dancing, but quite entertaining.

Vukovar, Croatia

Bombed House from 1991-95 war with Serbia

Vukovar is a small city of 32000 which along the border between Serbia and Croatia. During the 1991-95 war, this city was severely bombed by the Serbians and occupied for most of those years. Serbia without Croatia is a landlocked country and Serbia had half the population of the former Yugoslavia, so they were determined to keep as much territory as possible upon Tito's death and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Peace accords were finally signed in Dayton, Ohio in 1995 creating the country of Croatia. Near our ship was a memorial to 15000 Croatians who died during this war. We did see a few homes and other structures which have yet to be repaired from the bombings. But they have done a wonderful job of rebuilding, thanks to government programs that paid based on family size and the relative destruction of your home, so that most of the houses are relatively new (1998) and everything looks well cared for. Many of the residents had spent 7 years abroad as refugees, and after returning left again for their other life, so the population is down considerably.

While Croatia has historically been part of Serbia for centuries, the people are very different: each has their own language, Croatia uses the Roman rather than the Cyrillic alphabet, and most are Roman Catholic rather than Eastern Orthodox. As part of Serbia, they were discriminated against, now as an independent country it is the remaining Serbs who are discriminated against. This country too has very high unemployment, 28%. For example a shoe factory in town that used to employ 15000, now only has 300 employees. Average salaries are about $1000/mo.

Cross made of ammunition

Croatia just joined the European Union on July 1st this year. We visited the city of Osijek with it central courtyard, the Church of the Holy Cross built in 1732, and we sampled more plum brandy. Almost every house in the country has a still from which to make plum brandy. Outside the church was a cross made from ammunition and grenades from the Serbian war, the theme being "forgive, but don't forget". We visited one of the local elementary schools, where the school children presented us with a musical program. They tend to learn English with poems and songs and their enunciation was quite good.



In the afternoon, we had lunch at the home of Sujezanna. They have a beautiful home, built primarily by her husband, with a view of the Danube below in the village of Aljmas. They have lived here for about 10 years after living 3 years with her mother-in-law. She remembers living in a building basement in Vukovar, hearing the two to three thousand grenades that exploded daily. Her twenty year old brother was killed in the war on his 15th day in the army. The village itself was not bombed, but was occupied by the Serbs, who blew up the Catholic church. In the evening, back aboard ship, we were entertained by a group of six men playing Slovenian music with local instruments.

Belgrade, Serbia

Kalemegdan Fortress

We visited the city of Belgrade situated at the junction of the Sava and Danube rivers. Our first stop was the Kalemegdan Fortress built originally by the Romans. This fortress not only protects the city but it sits on the last hill before the Central European plains that continue on to Budapest. The fortress has been rebuilt 38 times in its history. Belgrade became the capital of the Serbian kingdom in the 12th century. The Ottoman Turks conquered the area in the 1521 until 1862, only being challenged by the Austrians during this period. Outside the fortress is the Victory monument celebrating their freedom from the Turks. This monument was controversial since the statue is a naked man. Originally planned for Victory square, it was erected at the fortress, facing away from the city, but ironically, it now faces the most populous region of the city.

After World War I, the kingdom of Serbia was joined by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro to form Yugoslavia. The country broke up just before World War II, various parts were under the control of Germany, Italy, and the Allies. Tito united Yugoslavia as leader of the partisans and then as President for life after World War II. On our tour, we listened to Mr. Vasilie who lived during this time. Since Tito would not give in to Hitler, the U.S. sent a lot of aid to Yugoslavia. (For example, the powdered eggs sent by the U.S. were known by the children as Truman eggs.) By the late 50's life had improved significantly. Tito created labor camps to build roads and other infrastructure. Typically 500 people would sign up for 200 jobs because it included food and clothing for hard work. By the 1970's and 80's Yugoslavia was living better than other communist countries. Their GDP was higher than Spain and Portugal. But after Tito died everything went downhill. Mr. Vasilie said, " for me it was almost like my father dying. We had health care, apartments, good paying jobs and would have pensions that were 80% of our salary. Now we have to pay for everything, most people rent their homes and pensions are only 54% of salary. I have to live on $400/month. We do have freedom of religion and speech, but I'm not happy because our standard of living is much lower and we have 24% of unemployment." Our guide pointed out that Mr. Vasilie's opinion is not the opinion of everyone in Serbia. Average salaries are $450-650 per month.

Tito Statue

We visited the Tito Memorial: his statue, tomb, many of the gifts given to him, and a display about Youth day, May 25th. The display had running batons carried through the years by youth runners. The run ended in the stadium in Belgrade on Youth Day. The gifts included those given from people of the country as well as leaders from other countries. Our final stop was St. Sava Orthodox church in the center of the city. Construction was begun in 1911, but was suspended during the two World Wars and Tito's rule. At this point, the exterior is mostly done. In 1989 they lifted the dome to the top of the church using 16 cranes. The plan is to complete the interior including mosaics over the next fifteen years. When completed it will be the largest Orthodox church in the world, holding 10,000 worshipers.

St. Sava

In the afternoon, Mary, Ruth, and I just wandered the pedestrian mall from Republic Square back to our ship. Belgrade impressed us as a clean, livable city. Here one loses sight of the Balkan wars of the 1990s with Croatia and Kosovo.



Topic: Gypsy or Roma Life

In the evening, we had a Roma, a Gypsy woman, tell us her story. The Roma originally came from Northern India, but now live throughout the world. She was an unusual story, since she did not live in a Roma community. Her Grandma was married at 14, but left a widow at age 19 with two kids. She encouraged her children and grandchildren to get educated. Our speaker has a master's degree. But today, in the Serbian University there are only 200 Roma, of which only 20 are girls. Roma are discriminated twice - first as Roma and second as a woman. Seventy five percent of Roma women experience domestic violence from verbal abuse to marital rape. Few are educated - first they are discriminated against, often sent to special needs schools or shunned by other students. The girls usually quit early because their parents want to keep them away from boys so that they keep their virginity. When they are married the mother-in-law will test the girl for her virginity and if there is no blood on the sheets she will be returned to her parents and shunned for life. Without education, it is difficult to find jobs. But she has also experienced discrimination: asked why her skin was so dark in a job interview, she said she was Roma, and that company wouldn't hire a Roma. For another company, upon discovering she was Roma, the Roma manager wanted sex from her to get a job. Many of her relatives don't accept her, both because she is educated and because she has chosen to live with her boyfriend.

Of course, we also heard the story from others about what they think about Roma. Gypsies are  known for being the robbers and crooks. For example, they will squat on the land and build illegal houses avoiding the payment of any taxes. They are known for stealing crops from the farmers and then reselling it in the market or cutting trees in the state forests and selling it as firewood. In every European city, we've been warned about pickpockets, especially the Gypsies with their babies. Many of them have large families, do not educate their children, and instead rely on thievery for their livelihood. Some countries have tried to remove the populations that immigrate to their countries, returning them to their country of origin. But this can be viewed by the Romaas a free trip home and then they will return again to practice their trade.

The Iron Gates

Iron Gate Two at Sunrise

The Iron Gates are two dams that were built in 1960 and 1971, between Yugoslavia and Romania, raising the level of the water 108 feet to make navigation of the river possible year-round though the Kazan Narrows (cataracts). We went through the first lock at about 7:30 AM at sunrise and the second at 11:30 AM. Before the dams were created you could only pass through the cataracts about 220 days a year and one year they were passible for only 46 days.

Topic: Communism

In the morning, our program directors talked about their experiences under Communism. Each is a Transylvanian, so they all experienced what happened in Romania. Szabi was nine in 1989. "As a kid, life was okay. I didn't know about the struggles my parents had to get food and electricity. I remember being at my Grandfather's when the TV transmission of Ceausescu's speech suddenly ended and people started marching outside our door. That is when we heard about the shooting of the protestors and we saw the people being shot on TV, and even our neighbor was shot. I was afraid for the first time."

"I am Hungarian, and we were hoping that after the revolution, we would get our Hungarian school back again, which had been discontinued. We were protesting for our rights the new democracy. Two months after the revolution, sadly, we almost had a ethnic war between the Hungarian and Romanians. "

Elana lived in a small town. "We did have food and were religious, going to church every Sunday. We had German friends and they sent us things like chocolates. While I'm Romanian, I actually went to a German school in the town. I lived with my Grandmother in town and I would visit my parents who ran a motel outside the town. My parents had to report everyone who stayed there. For example, they had to report when an unmarried couple stayed there. I remember that one time they had a bear that was eating our pigs. My parents had to prove that they didn't slaughter the pigs and sell it to others. They had to take pictures of the bear to show the police. We were poor, but we didn't know it. We had two hours of TV a day, mostly propaganda. If you wanted to buy a car, you would wait for five years to get the car. One of our neighbors said the communists’ biggest mistake was to air Dallas on TV. We didn't even see a color TV until the 1990s."

Hunor lived longer through the Communist days (He's 50). "We were used to one pair of shoes, one grey pair of pants, you don't know what you are missing. My first protest was how rough my school uniform was. My mother put in an extra lining otherwise my legs would itch. 'There must be something wrong, if they can't supply us pants that don't itch'. I was a member of the Communist Youth Organization. We had a competition to collect scratch paper. The winning team would get to visit the theater during school hours. We won and were quite excited. But out theater performance was listening to a woman and man reciting poems about the greatness of Ceausescu. We never tried to win a competition again. We were trained not to think on our own, but just follow. It was safe and comfortable. But if you had the initiative to think on your own and express it, you would have a police visit. You tended to have two different lives: what you did inside the house - like listening to Voice of America versus what you said and did outside. I used to listen to western music through all the jamming. We had quotas for food and waited in line to get it, yet the Communist propaganda  spoke of how well the people were cared for. The transition to Democracy has been good for some and difficult for others. For me, it was a good transition, but for others life was safer under Communism. For example, they needed to compete for the jobs, when the factories began closing because the factories weren't competitive."

But we must remember that each country has a different experience. Romania For example, under Tito in Yugoslavia, life actually was very good. But after he died, there were many ethnic struggles and wars. Hungary opened up much more after their 1956 revolution. Romania suffered more than the other countries during the 1980s because Ceausescu paid off all his foreign debts in a few years at the cost of consumer goods. Our guide in Bulgaria was of the opinion that life was better under Communism. When we asked "Will people re-elect the Communists?" Not likely, because of the internet. People have a voice today, and I don't think they will give away that freedom to speak up.

 

King Decebalus

In the afternoon, we passed through the cataracts which is where the Danube passes through the Carpathian Mountains. Our first major site was Trajan's tablet, a plaque created in 106 AD to celebrate the road created along the Danube. The road was constructed by drilling holes in the cliff face and supporting a road of planks on beams sticking out of the cliff. It was roofed over to stop attacks from the cliff top. Trajan marched his legions along this road to the bridge he had built across the Danube for his war campaigning against King Decebalus. Further along we passed the Statue of the King Decebalus built in the 1990's and 130 feet high. We then passed a recently completed church. It was built based on a former river pilot station, no longer needed since the dam was built. The sheer walls of the canyons in this part of the Danube, rise 900 feet above us, and 900 feet below us. There is something about a river carving through the mountains which make for the ultimate scenery. Best of all, the sun came out shortly after we entered the canyon, lighting up the scenery and as we left the sun hid behind the cloud bank.

Cruising the Iron Gates





Vidin, Bulgaria

Topic: Eastern European Traditions

Christmas On December 23rd families slaughter a pig and then burn the hair off by fire (today, often with a blowtorch). Plenty of plum brandy is drunk during the procedure .The skin and ears are crispy and eaten immediately as a treat. The pig is divided up for ham, bacon, and sausage to be eaten during the Christmas holidays. Hungarians will use the bone to make a soup. The big Christmas feast is on Christmas Eve. Families attend the two hour service ending about midnight followed by a family meal of stuffed cabbage. In the morning, the Christmas tree is decorated.

Easter starts with the midnight service. At the end of the service everyone "takes the light", gets a lighted candle, process around the church three times and then take the lighted candle home. The typical Easter meal is lamb. This will usually last the family about a week. They paint hardboiled eggs, typically red, and each family member eats one before each meal of Easter week. On Easter Monday, it is traditionally for the young boys to visit the girls, read them a poem about spring, sprinkle them with perfume and get a kiss in return. The family will invite the boys in for an egg and cake.

Births, Weddings, and Funerals. In the Orthodox religion, it is customary to keep new born babies in the house until they are baptized at the church. They submerge the baby three times and the boys will be brought to the altar, for the only time in their lives. The Godparents are in charge of the ceremony. Godparents, typically an older couple, are also used for weddings. There is first a civil ceremony with just family and then a church wedding follows. The reception is usually an extended meal with dancing between each course of the meal. In Romania, it is also traditional to steal the bride, and then the Godfather negotiates for the return of the bride to the groom. Funerals are to occur within three days of death. It is considered quite important that a candle be lit upon death. The wake is held at the home for three days with all the mirrors covered (to ward off spirits). After the church service the body is taken to the cemetery with the procession stopping at every crossroad with a short ceremony to ward off the in-between world. There are further ceremonies at the cemetery after 40 days, 3 months and every year for 7 years. At the end of the seven years, the body is dug up and the bones blessed for a final time.

Vidin

Turkish Mosque in Vidin

In the afternoon, we had a walking tour of Vidin, a town of about 35000 people. Bulgaria followed the Communist pattern we saw in Romania. Factories were built in the city, attracting people to move from the farms. But at the end of the Communist era, these factories were not efficient and many of them closed. Unemployment is 25-30%, so over a million Bulgarians work in other countries, sending money home for their families. We visited a local Mosque built in the Turkish style. It was quite small, serving only 30 families. Because the Turks ruled Bulgaria for 500 years, there is quite a lot of discrimination. So the local Imam has been trying to open up the Mosque to help people understand the Moslems. The Imam provided a blessing for our guide, Hunor and his family before we left. We passed a former synagogue built in 1894 which had been destroyed by fire in 1950. The Bulgarian people are well known for saving the local Jews by hiding them in their homes from the Nazis. The highlight of the city is the Baba Vida fortress. The fortress is named in honor of Grandma Baba, who took care of the people of the city in the Middle Ages.







Baba Vida Fortress

In the evening we had a folk dancing troop come onboard for a show after dinner.





Ruse, Bulgaria

     While Ruse is the local port on the Danube, we took an hour and a half bus trip to visit the village of Arbanasi and the city of Valiko Tarnovo. The route we're taking is the main route from Turkey to Europe, across what used to be the only bridge between Bulgaria and Romania until a couple years ago. On the way, we learned about Bulgaria.

   Bulgaria has a population of 7 million people, 2 million of whom live in Sofia. Bulgaria has been primarily an agricultural society, but during the Communist regime many of the farmers moved to the cities and became factory workers, such that 70% of the population now lives in the cities. After the end of Communism, the land was returned to the original owners, but many of them didn't want to return to their farms, so they use cooperatives to farm the land, and then take the profit from their farm. We also found that the population twenty years ago was 9 million people, but they have lost 2 million to emigration or the natural aging of the population. This has led to a very generous pregnancy leave policy: for one year you get 80% of your salary, you can have a 2nd year at minimum wage, and finally a third year where you don't receive any money, but your job is still guaranteed upon your return from leave. The history of Bulgaria includes two kingdoms, the first from the 7th century to the 10th century, the second from the 12th century to the 14th century. Then came the Ottoman Turks who rules this area for 500 years until1878 when Bulgaria formed its own state.

Interior Church of Archangels Michael and Gabrielle

The village of Arbanasi we visited was founded in the 15th century by Christians from Albania, Greece, and Bulgaria. The people were privileged and rich, they ended up building seven Orthodox churches and large homes. We visited one of the churches, Archangel Michael and Gabrielle. It was small and rather plain from the outside, but inside it was completely decorated with murals - the saints, the life of Christ, and stories of the bible. It is a typical Orthodox church of the Turkish period with the altar area separated by a gate with icons, the main church where only the men worshiped, and then a large chamber where the women worshipped. Here was a unique mural of a pregnant Mary with a smile on her face. Christ was shown within a circle near her womb. While there, we were entertained by a four men singing Church Slavic, similar to what we had heard on Sunday in Constanta. In the orthodox church they don't use any instruments, so everything was acapella.

Dining Room

The home we visited was built primarily of wood and stone. We saw the reception room, dining room, kitchen, and several bedrooms, but every room had a bed, since the families were large. It looked quite comfortable to live in. Unique was an indoor toilet (a triangle cut in the floor), even today in the countryside, only 20% of homes have indoor facilities.

Fortress at Valko Tarnovo

After lunch, we visited Valiko Tarnovo, which was the capital of the country during the kingdom period. The hill is picturesque since it is built on a series of steep hills. At the top of one of the hills is the restored fortress of the city. Today, the city is a youthful city since it both has a university and an army school. For the tourists, there is a pedestrian street filled with craftsmen: silversmiths, potters, artists, etc. Our group was filled with shopaholics, who couldn't wait to get here.