DAY 32 JUNE 26 IRON GATES, SERBIA and ROMANIA

The Iron Gate is a gorge on the Danube River. It forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania.  It encompasses 134 kilometers of water way. At this point, the River separates the Carpathian Mountains from the northwestern foothills of the Balkan Mountains.  Yes, that's a semi truck driving through that rock....must have been one heck of a tunnel/road build project and lots of super commie dynamite.

The Iron Gates of the Danube River originally consisted of four narrow gorges and three wide basins spread over several miles of the river dividing Romania and Serbia.  In the 1960's, a huge lock and dam was built to control the speed of the river and make navigating a section of the Danube safe.

The first narrowing of the Danube is known as the Golubac Gorge.  It is 14.5 km long  and 230 meters wide at its narrowest point.  At it's head is a medieval fort, on the Serbian bank.  Through the valley of Ljupovska is the second gorge and the next gorge is Sip Gorge....gorgeous but a rainy day.  We have been quite lucky with the weather but today our "luck" ran out.  Although not too bad, it's our first and only sailing day (as the cruisers call it a sea day).

But wait here comes the sun...and what is that ahead, so to speak...

What the heck???

Can you believe this was carved 100's of years ago????  Holy Moly!  yelped Pleep.  That is Decebalus- he led his army into battle with the Romans many times.  He committed suicide when the Roman emperor Trajan conquered Dacia.  Bubs remarked, "it's no Mt. Rushmore- it was carved in 1994-2004".

Only to be followed by....of course a church on the river.  Taking fishers of men to the next level.

The river cruise has been  grueling.....every day lots of excursions and walking on those cobble stones.  Some of us needed a day of rest and lots of homemade ice cream.

Not much river traffic down here- commercial or tourist.  The Danube is more susceptible to floods and trickier to navigate.  As mentioned the Rhine connects the countries that do a lot of trading...not down this way.  The economically "backwards" countries of east Europe has not  had much trade between them.  Not an active commercial waterway.  And of course there is always a historical reason....the Turks attempt to conquer all of Europe and did occupy the land of the lower Danube and settled here after 5 centuries.  So when they finally left, this part of the world was culturally and economically backwards compared to the rest of Europe.  The difference between Christianity and Islam was  constantly at war- over 200 years.   The only ships on water were the fighting between these two empires.  When communism was adopted here comes the Iron Curtain to go along with the Iron Gates.  The commie's were quite isolated....not much trade.  Then 1989 happened and communism fell...democracy becomes adopted.  Then (another then) the 1991 Serb/Croatian/Bosnia war happened, stopping the Danube from serving as a main waterway and progress.  And in 1999 bridges bombed in Novi Sad...stopping the travel and taking years to clean up.  Amen...Serbia is the only country in this neck of the woods, not in the European Union.   We can remain optimistic that all these east European countries will become stable.

I have to say the one good by product of the Commie Rule...is that they kept this area so isolated it is absolutely clean and gorgeous noted Hilly.

THE WAY YOU SEE THE WORLD MATTERS
Our young tour guide, Glorija (born in Serbia-mother 1/2 Bosnian-grew up in Novi Sad- and living in Nashville the past 15 yrs) shared her "story".  Excerpts from her talk.... she is  34 yrs old.  She was born 2 days before Tito died in 1980.  When he died each republic took a turn as "the" President of Yugoslavia.  1991 war started with the Croats...after living together for years (Serbs, Croats, Muslim (Bosnians)) down came Tito's pictures in her school and up went Vuk Karajich's pic went up-author of Serb alphabet).  Her family moved to Vukovar for a job...bombing starts.  Serbs start to escape Croatia- go "home".  Glo's uncle was a policeman in Croatia and they told him "go home".   Her aunt was married to a Croatian and had lived in Zagreb (capital of Croatia, for 20 years).  She was pregnant.  He came home from work tried to kill his wife and did kill the baby- he snapped.

Another family member was living in Bosnia and same thing, told to leave.  He was Christian not Muslim.  Glorija was walking home from school with a friend, near the river.  Found bloody river with dead bodies floating in it.  It was horrifying and confusing.  Neighbors surrounded the house and decided to shoot at her family (because of the family members now staying with them).  Silence, Knock at the door from the next door neighbor, told them to come over to their house as it would be safer.  They stayed in their own house.  Her Dad taught them how to shoot immediately.  Then they decided to leave the country due to the danger.

Why were the neighbors so hostile?  The sister married to a Croat, the uncle from Bosnia (due to accent but not Muslim)...the Serb neighbors were so sad about all of the deaths they had to take it out on someone...left in 1992 for Berlin.  Went to school with Bosnian kids...but they got beat up everyday from the Bosnian kids.  Changed schools....then in 1999 NATO bombed...due to Kosovo- the Serbs fought the Ottoman Empire there so it is like the Alamo for the US.  Father then moved them to Nashville.  And start all over.  Her boyfriend was killed (MIA) in Kosovo...so Glo decided to move to Nashville to join them.  She is always very emotional about coming back...her mantra today is "don't have hate in your heart".

Quite a sad story Glorija and thank you for sharing your personal experience and loss making the war personal for those of us who watched it unfold on CNN.