Our cruise included visits to the Czech and Slovak Republics. Together they were the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, established in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I. They became independent states in 1993. Hungary's present borders were established following the collapse of the Empire. The opening of its previously restricted border with Austria in 1989 accelerated the collapse of the Eastern Bloc - the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe under the control of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.