Vrsac, Friday, May 28

We were on the bus at 8:30, got some gas, and on the road by 9. First stop was Sigmundsfeld. There is no church there, but we had some minor successes in the cemetery. Then it was on to Lazarfeld. Again, no church, but we found a few people of interest in the cemetery. At Klek, there was again no church. Stasa was of the belief that the old Catholic cemetery was in an impenetrable bush. On questioning one of the locals, however, we were eventually able to locate it. There is not much to see. The bush is very nearly impenetrable and, when you get there, there are only a couple of headstones and a few unidentifiable family crypts that are accessible. I suppose with a week of effort and a chain saw, you could find a lot more, but that is a trip for another day.

We received a pleasant surprise in Kathreinfeld. We have been there twice before and both times the bush was virtually impenetrable. This time, there had been substantial clearing. It was still pretty rough, but at least ou could get in. A man from the local village council had a conversation with Stasa. He seemed really sincere in wanting to do a better job, but made clear that they couldn’t commit a lot of resources to maintaining a cemetery for a bunch of strangers. I suppose you could argue that those strangers have already paid a high price and built the town the current residents live in, but their viewpoint is from the here and now. We had lunch across from the cemetery and moved on to Sartscha. Once again ther was no church. One of the locals told us that the old cemetery was beside the new one, but there was nothing there. We checked it out anyway. At the back of the Serbian cemetery is a network of old cement sidewalks, but there are no headstones.

At Ernsthausen, we again did better than expected. We had been here before also and recalled only a few headstones, most of them bulldozed to the edge of the slough. However, a close inspection turned up more than a dozen stones, including some from the Rollinger family that Bob is researching. That was a pleasant surprise.

At Setschan, I was initially disappointed that a part of the cemetery that I thought had old stones had been removed. But, as we worked our way through, we found that other areas had far more than we expected. Lee and Bob both found quite a few stones with names they were researching.

From Setschan, we drove on to Vrsac and arrived right on schedule at 5 pm. After checking in, most of us went to a wine tasting at the Kristov winery in nearby Veliko Srediste. We had been there four years ago and had a great time. This year the price was quite a bit steeper, but we got a lot more for our money too. Instead of just snacks, it was a full meal with wonderful ghoulash, chicken, sausage, bacon, bread, and very good coleslaw. Betty guessed one of the varieties of wine and received a diploma in a humourous ceremony.
We only got back to the hotel at 9:15, pushing our morning start back to 8:15.

Weather was very warm today. 25+ degrees C. About 80 degrees F. But it felt much warmer with the sun and humidity. It was mostly sunny all day, although clouds were building in the afternoon and we heard some thunder in Setschan about 4 pm.

Our hotel is OK. Smelled a bit stuffy and musty when we check in, but is much better now after having the window open and fan on all evening.