Further up the Creek

We left Serbia and moved further upstream to Hungary. We docked at Kalosca and then took a bus to the city of Pecs, about 1 hour inland by bus.

This absolutely fascinating spot is the cultural capital of Europe for 2010. There are a lot of ruins that date back to Roman times. This whole region has seen many invasions and wars over the years. In the 1500's the Turks from the Ottoman Empire invaded and the area was converted from Christian to Muslim. The churches were changed to Mosques.

Then the Hapsburg Empire took over and it was converted back. That lasted until late into the 19th century. After WWII the Russians moved in until 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Since 2004 Hungary has been part of the EU but it does not officially use the Euro. Euros can be used in many stores. The US dollar is not widely accepted here.

Budapest is the capital and is one of the world's most beautiful cities, by day or night. The Hungarian revolution began in Hero's square in 1956 and ended tragically.

In spite of the massive destruction over the years the city has been largely rebuilt. However ther are still bombed out building left over from WWII that are too badly damaged to be repaired and there is not enough money to fix them.

As with all things we seem to be forever moving on nad we churned out way upstream to Croatia and Austria. We never did see any red sludge along the way.