Vukover and Batina Croatia, Mohacs, Hungary

October 3, 2016

Croatia was one of my favorite visits so far.  Croatia gained its independence in 1995 and has been in the process of rebuilding since then.  Our guide told us that virtually all homes were destroyed during the war so to facilitate rebuilding, families applied for building supplies and based on the number in the family the size of their home was determined and thus the supplies.  It was not uncommon for neighbors to band together to create big "families" to get bigger homes for each other.

Our tours today included a short walking tour through Vukover, then a coach ride to Batina to tour the fort and monastery.  From there we split into two groups:  one going for lunch in a Croatian home, the other going to an Eco Farm for lunch.  One complicating factor that arose was the level of the river.  It was so low the boat could not dock in Croatia  near the Hungary border as planned, so instead of returning to Croatia, we drove from our lunch to cross the boarder with Hungary to meet our boat.  This meant a face/passport check at the border and not being able to meet our boat until about 6 pm.  To fill time, Agnes added an impromptu wine tasting at Vina Belje near the Hungarian border.

We drove about 30 minutes or so to Osijek to visit the fort and Monastary.  It was a lovely town with cobblestone streets.  Most the cobblestones had been replaced except one street we walked down that had the original cobblestones that date back to Ottoman times.  Like so many places in this area, they were once under Ottoman rule.

The monastary was simple on the outside yet the church was beautiful and ornate inside.  The altar was gold with the beautifully painted domes inside.  In the courtyard were statues made from weapons from the.

From the monastary we walked to the town square which were at one time the four walls of the fort. It was a lovely square with a fountain in the center. Once side of the square was lined with shops with side walk cafes that extended into the square. Government and tourism offices filled the other buildings.

From Osijek we split for our different destinations.  I chose the lunch at the Eco Farm.  It was a lovely place that the farmer had built from scratch.  He started with 70 hectars and had gradually added more land to grow crops then bought land to build a buffer between his land and other lands to assure his crops remained organic and were not impacted pesticides carried throught the air or the ground water.

He had been working on the farm about 15 years and the last 8 years he had realized his dream of eco tourism.  He hosted parties, weddings and tours like ours that come for the ambiance and food. We had lunch in a large gazebo that he had built with furniture all made from local wood from the wetlands.  All the food was produced on the farm.  We had red and white wine and apple juice.  Of course I couldn't help wondering if the apples juice was pasteurized, which I'm sure it was not, but I cast fate to the wind and had some anyway.  Lunch was house made bacon, venison sausage, beef sausage, hard boiled eggs, fried black pudding (like blood sausage) green peppers stuff with something (like maybe a bulgar wheat), homemade breads, jams and honeys.  Except for the black pudding, it was all delicious.

We then had a tour of his home which was lovely but I skipped the animals mostly so when asked in customs about being on a farm and being exposed to farm animals I could honestly say no.  They had a lot of nice products for sale but I wasn't sure of the packaging so I passed (oh how Public Health jades one LOL).

We finished at the farm and started our 40 minute drive to the Hungarian Border.  We stopped at the Vina Belje winery for a wine tasting.  I felt for the young man hosting us, it was kind of like herding cats and I think he finally gave up on the tour idea and just gave us all wine.  But it was beautiful inside.  Orginally built in 1697, it had been restored inside.  They didn't have anyone locally who could make wine barrels so they brought them all in from Italy.  Each barrel holds 10,000 litres.

We finished there and headed towards the border.  The Hungarian border had been the site of refugees charging through to get into the EU.  Once in the EU, they were then free to travel throughout the EU.  To combat this, Hungary has erected a fence topped by barbed wire.  Since we were coming from an area not yet part of the accord for free travel between countries, we all had to get off the bus and pass one by one through border control.  Not hard just time consuming.  From there we continued on to Mohacs, Hungary to meet the boat which had also made it through the border successfully.

So ended a really wonderful day in Croatia.