Belgrade, Serbia

 Overnight we traveled a bit further on the Danube to Belgrade. Belgrade is the capitol of Serbia, and was once the capital of the former Yugoslavia. It is located where the Sava and Danube meet and has always been a contested area. "The White City" as its Serbian name translates to has been destroyed, and rebuilt 20 times. 

Here we visited the Church of St. Sava which is one of the largest Orthodox buildings in the world. The church was rebuilt at a very high cost and they are still working on the outside.

Our guide went to the "small" church on the grounds of St. Sava.

Notice that there are no chairs or pews. The only people that are allowed to sit through a service are the elderly and chairs are brought out for them to use at that time.

This is where I had my own bit of excitement. As we were leaving and getting closer to the bus, I was asking the guide a question when all of a sudden I tripped on the tiniest difference in the pathway stones. Down I went, gracefully I have been told and not a single bad word left my mouth (not to say I wasn't thinking them). Harvey said I went down like I was trying to reach home plate before the ball did. As it was a very hot day, I was wearing a knee length dress as well. I turned over to see the guide wide-eyed asking me if I was okay, and about 8 men trying to pull me up, or should I say help me up. I handed my phone and wallet to the lovely Macedonian couple we had supper with the night before, asked the men to wait a moment while I checked things out to see if legs and arms were still working. Once helped to my feet I noticed I had cut my palm a bit (well there was blood running down my arm) and continually telling the guide I was just fine, a hoard of the ladies descended upon me. One cleaned my wound with wipes she had, another applied some antiseptic, and a third bandaged me up. 

I really was surprised that the cut was the only real damage. I was more worried about the entire world seeing my underwear!!!

We got back to the ship and as we got off the bus everyone was asking me if I was okay (got to be slightly annoying after a few days). 

Lunch was had and then we were off on another tour.... With as luck would have it the same tour guide. Sighs. 

This time we went to the Nikola Tesla Museum.

Such an interesting place to visit. One of the most interesting things was the fact that Nikola Tesla's ashes are in the museum, just where he wanted them. That is the top picture. His urn has a special room all to itself.

Went back to the ship, had supper, listened to the piano player for a bit and went to bed fairly early. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 I will get back to posting about our trip tomorrow. I will say the funeral of my Aunt Alice has been draining. She was the closest to Mom in age, and they always seemed to be able to finish each others sentences. Staying at the farm was one of the highlights of our biyearly trips from Scarborough to Saskatchewan. I am really going to miss her.

Here is our menu for the upcoming week.

Monday

Pork chops, creamed potatoes and green beans from the garden.

Tuesday

Lentil curry on rice. I will serve a salad with this meal.

Wednesday

Leftover roast beef from Sunday made into a casserole.

Thursday

Chicken in Siracha sauce on noodles. This will be pulled from the fridge freezer and the salad leftovers from Tuesday will round out the meal.

Friday

Tuna pasta salad, and I will try and make some garlic bread out of the buns.

Saturday

Leftovers from Wednesday, and pretty sure there will be corn from the garden.

Sunday

Roast Chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots from the garden, and gravy. I will probably slice up a cucumber and have some dip to go with the cuke slices.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Novi Sad, Serbia

 We woke up in Serbia and got ready for our included excursion of the city.

Our first stop was at the Petrovardian Fortress. 

This is one of the largest, best preserved, and complex fortresses in Europe. It was built in the period 1692 to 1780 and contained the upper and lower Town. The clock tower (did not get a photo of this) is very different the large hand shows the hours and the small hand the minutes. 

This fortress is in a star shape just like the one in Quebec, and was never conquered. 

There are a few gardens in the fortress that honour various countries around the world. 

Next we were off to sample ustpci at the market. There were various dips ranging from sweet, to hot and spicy. This was quite an enjoyable treat. 

Fried dough made with no milk. It was the various dips that made the treat taste great.

We had a bit of time in the city center before we traveled to the Jevrejska (Jewish) street to visit the Synagogue. 

This is one of four that exist in Serbia today. It is built in the Art Nouveau style and the facade (which of course I didn't get a picture of) is highly ornamented. 

This Synagogue is mostly used for concerts and that is what we enjoyed today. The Trio "Maya" entertained us with instrumental music and songs reflecting Jewish traditions and of course Fiddler on the Roof. 

After this we returned to the ship for the rest of the late afternoon and evening. 

Evening entertainment was some Serbian dancers.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Menu Plan Monday and Day 5

 Getting very close to the end of the month once again, and I seem to be collecting a great deal of leftovers in the fridge freezer. I will need to start using those up once again or making tinfoil meals for the larger freezer to use when I just don't feel like cooking.

Monday

Chicken breasts baked on rice with Cream of Mushroom soup poured over top. The leftover salad from yesterday will round the meal up.

Tuesday

Leftover ham made into a casserole. I will probably make two of the same casserole and put one in the freezer downstairs for later.

Wednesday

Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thursday

Leftovers from Tuesday. Since Harvey plans on picking corn we will have corn on the cob with this meal.

Friday

If we are home and not at my Aunt Alice's funeral 4 hours away we will have Tuna Pasta Salad.

Saturday

If the funeral is today we will probably just munch on something when we get home. If we are home it will be Smoked Sausages, Baked beans, and a tossed salad to get the lettuce used up that is in the crisper.

Sunday

Beef roast, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots, and probably corn on the cob.

Day 5

We were finally aboard the ship and spent some time looking around and learning where everything was.

Up on the sundeck, Harvey and I played a game of shuffle board, and he did some putting while I walked on the walking track. I tried to walk every day that I possibly could.

While we had breakfast most mornings in the restaurant on board, most of our lunches and quite a few suppers were taken where we could sit outside and enjoy the evening.  

Time was spent in the lounge listening to George play and sing, enjoying an adult beverage or two as well.

The ship started to cruise in the evening and when we woke up in the morning we were usually at our next stop.

Day 6 tomorrow.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Day 4

 This day was rather boring all told. It was the first of the bus journey times. 

The journey took about 6 hours with an added stop for lunch and a few stops where we could get out, stretch our legs, and use the toilet facilities. 

Now, some of the toilet facilities were free to use and some one needed to pay for. The paying for usually meant purchasing something, which really wasn't too hard. Gum or mints were always available, but at a very high cost. 

Much of the area we passed through was farming. It seems like the Hungarian farms practiced strip farming. This is something not often seen in other countries.

One picture taken on the bus of the fields as we passed by. I missed some of the sunflower fields and there were a great many of them, well as corn and what looked like sorghum. I could be wrong on the last one though.

The other photos are of the place we stopped for our lunch. It was very good, and even had a plum tree which Harvey enjoyed picking a plum from. 

The dumpling was not to our liking at all. It seemed a bit doughy. I managed to eat one, but could not eat the second one. The rest of the meal was awesome though.

At the end of this bus trip we reached the ship and managed to get onboard and enjoying the fact we could really stretch our legs. 

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Day 3 Continued

 We moved on to the Memorial Garden after the mass grave site. 

The garden is named after Raoul Wallenberg. It holds the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs, this is also known as the Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial. At least 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. It was made by Imre Varga and resembles a weeping willow whose leaves bear the inscriptions of the names of the victims. This ensures that those who lost their lives will never be forgotten. There is also a memorial to Wallenberg and other Righteous Among the Nations. 

The Tree of Life was commissioned in 1989 and unveiled in 1991. A notable contribution to it's funding was from actor Tony Curtis, whose Hungarian Jewish parents had fled Budapest. 

So many diplomats tried to save as many as they possibly could. Carlos Sampaio Garrido, the Portuguese Ambassador who resisted the Hungarian political police who raided his home arresting his guests, and even though also arrested, managed to have his guests released by invoking the extraterritorial legal rights of diplomatic legations. The Italian Prelate Bishop and Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest issued protective passports to Jews in Budapest, also gave misrepresentations of baptism and Vatican passports to thousands of Jews in Budapest saved ten's of thousands of Hungarian Jews. So many others also gave passports to thousands. 

Around the outside of the garden against the walls are the names of all the Hungarian Jewish actors, actresses, scientists, doctors and other notable figures.

The granite plaques hidden in the trees give the names of all those who tried to save as many as they could.

This is where my camera started to act up (it was 40C most of the time we were journeying) and after this I could only take a few pictures at a time and had to turn off the phone in between so that it would cool down.

If you make the photo bigger you will see some bronze shoes by the Danube. This is just down from the Hungarian Parliament and was one of the few days the bus could travel past this memorial. 

The Hungarian branch of the Nazis (I believe it is the Red Arrow, though I could be wrong) would take Jewish people down here. The prisoners would be tied together and shot in the head. The victims would then fall into the water and be carried away. Our guide said in some cases the Nazis would only shoot the first person in line and when they fell in the water, would drag the remaining in after them still alive. It did not matter the sex or age of the victims, there are many small children's shoes in the lineup. 

This is as close as we could get to the palace. It has been undergoing repairs for a very long time.

The monument in front of the flag in the distance is the only Soviet monument still outside in Budapest. It was erected when the Soviet Union "freed" Hungary from the Nazi occupation. Mind you the Communists stayed so how "free" was the country. Now the younger generation calls this the giant bottle opener.

While so much of our day was spent reflecting on the horrors of what had happened, most of us on the excursion looked at each other and came out with the same conclusion. That was we have learned nothing as we are still persecuting people who we think are different. We can say "Never Again", but do we really mean that.

So ends our third day of excursions.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.