Our journey back into Croatia started pleasantly enough on the local bus to Novi Sad . We soon found ourselves on a badly maintained Serbian bus with a poorly functioning air conditioner , it must have been 50 degrees in the bus.We saw little evidence of wartime damages in the twon despite the fact Anka had mentioned the sky was alight at night frim the NATO/USA bombing. On crossing the Danube into Croatia there was an immediate improvement in road conditions. The modern air conditioned bus stop at Osijek was a welcome relief from the heat. The Croation bus to Virovitica was marked improvement over the previous leg. We found Lidija’s house and she was there waiting on the balcony. Lily had been to Virovitica 30 years previously and didn’t recognize the place; it is a city now. We visited Bukova and met Matija Perina  who is 87 and has a very large vege garden and is one of he most inspiring women I’ve ever met; and Matija Pavina who made apple strudel! We went to Trapinska where I was born and saw the beech forest that has totally overgrown the area. On the way back to Virovitica we went through Suhopolje and past the other house we lived in prior to moving to Australia and wondered how 4 of us fitted in that small place!  Lidija kept us full with all her cooking despite being  unwell herself, and we went to my cousin Rudi’s for dinner and he also drove us to Bukova.