Last night in Serbia

Hotel Drustar

Silistra, Bulgaria

  добро утро  dobro utro = Good Morning

We’ll spend today in Silistra mostly to stock up on “fizzy water” from the supermarket and a few other things, see about checking out of Bulgaria this afternoon (or have to wait until we leave tomorrow depending what the officials say.)  Our next stop will be Cernovoda in Romania.  This email is about final night in Serbia.

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Negotin  Serbia (just near the Djerdap 2 dam) our final stop in Serbia just before our final lock of the river trip

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The small town/yacht club nearby was too shallow so we tied up here.  A guard told us we couldn’t.  We said we had no place else to go.  Two fishermen told the guard we had no place to go.  So he let us stay for the night.  Randal sent Mary with some beer for the fishermen.  They spoke no English and we no Serbian but it all worked out.  There really was no place else to go and no one else needed the dock, so logic and common sense won out.  And good will.

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Down this road was a small restaurant.

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Kafé bar Laguna located 10 km from Negotin on the banks of the Danube, on Kusjak beach just  near (but not too near) the hydropowerplant “Djerdap II.”  They also run a guest house.  You can borrow a boat for fishing on the Danube.  And it’s located on the international bike route that follows along the Danube. 

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Grape arbor

Randal and Rick ordered white wine.  When asked if they liked it, the owner said he’d made it himself!  Maybe from these grapes.  Randal wasn’t so fond of it though managed to drink several glasses.  Rick liked it.  I tasted it and thought it was pretty good actually.

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We were early

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Laguna’s owner posing with us

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The woman standing was originally from Negotin and was back visiting family.  She has a brother who lives in Chicago.

Derdap 2 OUR FINAL LOCK OF THE JOURNEY!!!!!!  From Vlissingen in The Netherlands until Derdap  2 near the Serbian/Bulgarian border we’d done about 57 of then.   Praise the inventor of the floating bollard where you tie on and it does the work rather than Mary and me chaning hooks the whole way up and one lock that went down. 

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I didn’t draw this but it’s certainly how I felt!  It was on the side of the floating bollard chamber.

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Life jackets became mandatory in Austria so we continued to wear them the rest of the way.

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Checking out from Serbia: we showed up but no one was there.  Finally someone called us and said they would be back to the office as soon as they’d dealt with the big barge ahead of us. 

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