dancers

Bombs Over Belgrade 7/1/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged Belgrade Serbia / Castle / dancers / Danube River / river cruise / Slobodan Milosevic / Tomahawk missles / war by

After yesterday’s Croatian atrocity stories, I was curious to hear Serbia’s side.  Our Belgrade guide blamed politicians for stirring up tensions between different peoples in order to break off a little piece of their own to rule.  (Pretty much sums up human history doesn’t it?)  Slobodan Milosevic, she said, orchestrated the attacks on Croatia.  The Serbs finally got so fed up with him that a million gathered in protest.  When the military refused Milosevic’s order to fire teargas on them, he decided not to “contest” his lost election after all. We Americans were the attackers in Serbia, and Belgrade is a shining […]

Holloko Hoedown 6/26/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged dancers / Holloko Hungary / pickles / river cruise / soup / spatzle by

On our side trip to an olden town in the hill country, I climbed down into a wooded gorge lush with oaks, bird cherries, and flowering vines.  Just outside the gorge, heavy equipment clattered and roared, but the gorge was blissfully quiet–nothing but bird song and buzzing flies.  Clearly I’m seriously nature-deprived when even fly-buzz soothes my soul. The village is called Holloko, which means Raven Stone.  Other than a requisite castle ruin on the hill the building are all modest homes.   We were welcomed with cheesecake that looked more like strudel with cottage cheese on top.  Then a group of dancers in traditional costumes chanted to accompany time worn footwork. The home-hosted lunch included do-it-yourself […]