We cruised at night and ended up 152 miles down the river in Vidin, Bulgaria. On board our ship, there is a fitness center and a 'Wellness Host' who has exercise classes during the day. His name was Pedrag. Today, an announcement came over the loud speakers. “Hello, this is Lonely Pedrag, we will have a Morning Stretch in the lounge” It cracked me up – evidently not too many people have been joining his classes. Poor Pedrag.
Today is going to be a stellar day. A fortress visit, an on ship Balkan barbecue, an afternoon at sea (can we all it that if we are just cruising down the river?) and the IRON GATES.
After an overnight cruise, we arrived in Belgrade Serbia. Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and it's largest city. It is also one of the oldest continually occupied cities in Europe. They have found artifacts from around the sixth century B.C. That said, because of Belgrade's location, it has been fought over, conquered and architecturally destroyed many times over. Belgrade sits on the confluence of the Danube (which I have been floating down) and the Sava Rivers. Hence the name of our morning outing - “The City By Two Rivers”
After a three-hour cruise we arrive in a new country, another stamp in my passport. We have landed in the Serbian town of Novi Sad. During the early twentieth century, Novi Sad was the capital of Serbian culture which earned it the name “The Athens of Serbia”. Almost every Serbian poet, novelist, publisher lived in the city at some point in their career. Nowadays, it is Serbia's second largest cultural center (after Belgrade) and is home to one of the biggest music summer festivals in Europe. I would have really liked to go to the festival but even is the timing was right, we only had an afternoon to wander the city.
After an overnight cruise, we landed in a new city and a new country – Vukovar Croatia, located on the eastern side of Croatia. In 1990, when Yugoslavia started to break up, the Croatians wanted their independence. The Serbians wanted Croatia to remain as part of Yugoslavia. Starting in August 1991, the Serbs started a full out attack on Vukovar which turned into an 87-day siege.
The first day aboard the lovely ship AmaBella, was a day of introductions to ship life, from a mandatory safety meeting, getting into the rhythm of the ship and to finding our way around the ship. I took a few wrong turns and ending up in the crew quarters. I was there no longer than three seconds before I was told quite forcefully by several crew members that this part of the ship was off limits.
I looked at my passport. I had renewed it in 2014 and it did not have a single stamp in it. I used to travel internationally all the time and I had not set foot off US shores in like forever. I'm so ashamed. I guess I've been spending all my time traveling around the US in the RV and overseas travel got overlooked. This definitely needed to change. I've always wanted to do one of those river cruises and now was the time to do it. I'm so used to figuring out how to do everything myself – where am I going to sleep, what am I going to eat/do? This river cruise with every thing taken care of for me would be a perfect way to start to get my international chops back. So, off to eastern Europe with my traveling buddies, Mike and Marina – my brother and sister-in-law.
