Sightseeing in the Mindfields
Current Events 30: The Synagogue in Novi Sad
August 15, 2019
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Thanks to our guide Radi's accurate directions, we were able to find the main synagogue in Novi Sad. In 1905, the Jewish community erected a fine synagogue in the Secessionist style, of ocher brickwork accented with white. Novi Sad was part of Hungary at the time. The congregation was comprised of Hungarian-speaking, Neolog Jews.
There had been fo...
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Current Events 29: Novi Sad, Past and Future Cultural Capital
August 08, 2019
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From the park we progressed to Novi Sad's historic main street. It was closed to vehicular traffic. The dock was at the far end of the wide street, so our guide bade us farewell, confident that we could find our way back to the ship and avoid getting stranded in Serbia. A fin-de-siecle Roman Catholic church with a clock tower dominated the first pa...
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Current Events 28: The Bridges of Novi Sad
July 31, 2019
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In Danube Park, Novi Sad
Our guide Milena directed us through Danube Park as she explained the history of Novi Sad. We passed smiling, tall Serbian preschoolers trailing after their tall teachers. A Habsburg fortress had been erected on the ruins of earlier fortifications, on a hill above a narrow bend in the river. The formidable Austrian Empress...
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Current Events 27: Novi Sad, Serbia
July 25, 2019
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The ship sailed while we slept and we awoke in Serbia, we passengers having been spared the attentions of border control agents. We had docked in Novi Sad, Serbia's second largest city and the capital of Vojvodina, a northern province classified as semi-autonomous. Despite my curiosity, I refrained from delving into the intricacies of the place's p...
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Current Events 26: A Rally in Vukovar
July 18, 2019
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The liveliest area of Vukovar was a paved strip near the Vuka River channel. There we encountered a gaggle of several dozen young people. The paucity of facial hair on the boys inclined me to think that they were secondary school rather than university students. Most sat in rows of folding chairs, facing a space serving as an impromptu stage. A ban...
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Current Events 25: Vukovar, its Swings and Arrows
July 11, 2019
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It was early evening when HL and I decided to stroll through Vukovar. Adjacent to the dock was a lawn where what appeared to be an array of stone windows leaned on one another to form a line. A closer inspector revealed that it was a sculpture of gravestones. We surmised that it was a war memorial. A young man in a nearby souvenir stand knew enough...
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Current Events 24: Vukovar, Croatia
July 04, 2019
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We met our ship at Vukovar, Croatia's largest river port, where The Danube joins The Vuka. Osijek bore signs of shelling, but Vukovar looked as if it had been deliberately scheduled for demolition by artillery. It was in such a state of disrepair that it was hard to tell if it were being rebuilt or razed. There were bulldozers parked behind wire fe...
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Current Events 23: Lunch with Rejna, continued.
June 27, 2019
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Seated at the head of the table, Rejna described her labors. She was quite an industrious young woman. Earning one's livelihood in rural Croatia requires both energy and ingenuity. In addition to feeding tourists, Rejna worked as a caretaker for the elderly, tended a market stall, and helped her parents on their farm. Her father was completely disa...
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Current Events 22: Lunch with Rejna
June 20, 2019
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The tour company touted a home-hosted (sic) lunch as a special feature. HL and I had been apprehensive about this lunch from the first moment that we had read about it in the itinerary. We were reluctant to inflict our vegetarian requirements on a stranger who cooked for tourists in her home. We had told Radi the Guide that it might be best if HL a...
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Current Events 21: No Lack of Monuments (After the Children's Concert in Osijek)
June 13, 2019
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I was touched by the children's buoyant mood, though I should not have minded in the slightest if the stop at the school had been omitted. The pupils and their teachers seemed happy to have had visitors from The States. The adolescents in the upper forms maintained their sang-froid, but the younger students trailed us to the bus, waving and calling...
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© Star Arts by Tamar