September 24, 2017
21 Countries in 21 Days, If This Is Sunday, This Must Be Croatia: Day 48 - Mohacs to Vukovar
Back in 1991 when K and I were living in Glasgow, one of my colleagues was set to go on holiday in Split Yugoslavia. He had to call it off because a war had erupted.
What? A War? In Europe? In the ‘90’s? WTF?
The wall had just fallen, the Soviet bloc countries had all, more or less, made peaceful transitions to democracy. The Soviet Union was in the process of splitting apart (more or less peacefully). War was over in a European context.
Or so we thought.
1991 was the start. Roll on a few years to the summer of 1993. K and I are back in Calgary with our newborn daughter strolling through the grounds of the University with one of my cousins. We’re showing off all the facilities from the 1988 Olympics (nearly all of which are still in regular use at world class level!) when we all stopped in our tracks and reflected on what was going on in the world, in particular, in the part of the world that we are in tonight.
In 1984 Sarajevo successfully hosted the Winter Olympics and at the end of the games, as per Olympic tradition, handed over the Olympic flag to the mayor of Calgary, the next hosts. On that same day that we were peacefully strolling with our baby through the green, leafy peaceful University and Olympic grounds in Calgary, Sarejevo was a year into a bitter siege that would last until 1996 and virtually destroy the city and kill thousands.
Vukovar had its siege the previous year. When that started, I, like probably most other North Americans had probably never heard of Vukovar, however, by the summer of 1993 it was well known, unfortunately, as a place where ethnic and religious animosity descended into allout war. How could this be happening in my lifetime? This was the sort of stuff that happened in our parents and grandparents time. We were supposed to be beyond this, but we weren’t.
Cycling into Vukovar today, the signs of that tragic civil war some 25 years ago are still evident. People are moving on and rebuilding, but I hope that they, and all of us, remember how and why this happened, and learn from it so it doesn’t repeat.
That’s a heavy intro to what was actually a pretty nice day of biking, most of it in our 7th country, Croatia. We set off from Mohacs under bright sunny skies with a bit of morning fog burning off the fields. We had pretty much dedicated bike paths and extremely quiet country roads for the 15 km to the Croatian boarder. It was quite a novelty to arrive at the border, see actual fences and barriers, and have to produce our passports! First time in over 3200 km and six countries!
Once in Croatia, the E6 route continued along rural roads with a few sections of separate bike paths near some of the towns. We actually saw farmers harvesting their crops today too! Corn, paprika and the biggest pile of turnips I’ve ever seen.
Fortunately it was Sunday morning so traffic was extremely light, and there were no trucks. We made good time to Osijek at the 80 km mark, the largest city in this area of Croatia, and stopped for a sit down lunch. Unfortunately, by the time we set off on the road again, a lot of car drivers had the same idea. Our quiet morning gave way to an unpleasant hour or so as we left Osijek with moderately heavy traffic. The majority of drivers were ok. But it only takes one a-hole to kill you. There were a lot more than one this aft!
Fortunately, once were 15 km past Osijek, the traffic dropped off again and we were back to quiet rural roads for the last 30 km to Vukovar.
Checked into a really nice pension (less than 40 euros), crap internet (but I’m over that) but great showers. We had dinner at a traditional Croat restaurant right beside the Danube. When we arrived, the place was empty, save for about half a dozen staff. There were several tables set with ‘Reserved” cards on them. When we were done our excellent dinner, at about 8:30, we were still the only people in there! Don’t know if folks eat late here or what the story is, but our dinner was great!
Off to country eight tomorrow, Serbia. We’ll be there for a few days, more than our Croatian whistle stop.
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Song of the day:
I have Seen the Rain by Pink
Although this is about the Vietnam war, it resonated with me today. I first heard this when we were living in Vietnam. This is one of the only other country or place that I’ve been to where there was a war during my lifetime. By the time we were there, it had been over for 30 years and the country was rebuilding and moving on, much like the folks of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. However, the effects of the conflict were still there if you looked
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Today's ride: 129 km (80 miles)
Total: 3,381 km (2,100 miles)
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