Croatia; Osijek and Vukovar: 7/11/2025

This morning we awoke in another country, 

Croatia! The river banks of the Danube were short sand beeches before rows of trees on the far side. Our side however was the bank of Vukovar, our small city of port. Our morning routine was much the same as yesterday. A nice breakfast of eggs, cheese, toast, etc, and then an early excursion. We exit the ship and boarded a bus by 8:30, taking us north-west from the banks of the Danube to the small city of Osijek.

Our first stop was the Church of the Raising of the Holy Cross. First constructed in 1714, this was the local cathedral that celebrated its 300th anniversary just recently. Fortunately, through it’s history the original structure has remained standing. However, it did require some repairs to its roof and the stained 

glass needed to be restored after the War for Independence in the 1990’s. After some time to examine the arches, paintings, murals, etc, we were presented with another musical performance, this time from a local piano teacher and singer who had just returned with her choir from winning an international competition. Her performances included Ave Maria and Hallelujah. Both were terrifically preformed. Finally, we were given some time with the gift shop where we were once more offered a snack and some beverages. We tried a pear liquor and a cherry liquor. This prior tasted mostly of pure alcohol while the latter resembled fruit juice. I think mixing them could have struck a good balance.

We got back on the bus and headed (this time on a much shorter ride) to Osijek Citadel complex; in other words the city center. Here we had a great walking tour. The buildings didn’t have the same size or stereotypical beauty that you see in many western European cities, but the way they preserved history – both modern and ancient – brought it’s own fascination. One of my favorite locations we saw was a back ally locally called the Turkish street. This is because the street itself contained cobblestones from three different eras: Roman, Ottoman, and present day. Meanwhile 

the buildings on either side were all marked as historical sites, some had been restored while others remained damaged from the recent wars. The whole collection left us with an admiration for the care and culture that the city has put into their history.

Other highlights of the tour included seeing…

• a variety of University buildings
• a newly constructed town square (which is apparently not very popular by the locals)
• the former town square (which used to be home to a monthly antiques market)
• the original “headquarters” of the local futbol club (not the team and the players – but the fans)

And we learned a whole bunch of history related to the flag, the Croatian involvement in various wars, city restoration attempts, the first city tram/public transit system, etc. It was all-in-all a great tour.

Our final stop of the excursion was a visit to a local home and family. While there we could see a local village home and hear about life, in general, from those who live here. This household was a family of three, the two parents spoke little to know English but made the guests a lemon-apple gelatine cake along with elderflower soda and Turkish coffee. They were a former salesman and teacher. Meanwhile their daughter was a factory worker, currently on leave having just had hand surgery. She generously answered all of the questions that the guests asked and offered us information on topics ranging from education to insurance and healthcare to local activities and trends. We saw their lovely garden where they had a few chickens and split their crops with some flowers for aesthetics and some foods for consumption (in the past farming for consumption was a necessity for the area). On the whole it was a slightly uncomfortable experience for me, but also nice, and a pleasant addition to an otherwise great excursion.

We had a simple lunch on the ship and then set up a plan for our afternoon. We had no “official excursions” planned, but we still wanted to make sure that we made the most of our time in the Croatian cities! So, while docked in the small city of Vukovar we decided to take an afternoon walk and see what local monuments there were. Fortunately, not far from where the ship was moored, we found a map with numbered locations of the best things to see.

Our walk took us up and down two main streets (with just a few small detours). Regardless of the marked sites to see, our favorite discovery was about just how

much time and care is clearly being given to green spaces; we saw new trees being planted, well-tended gardens, flower pots all over, and more! It was wonderful to see so much time, effort, and money, being put into those places. Meanwhile we saw most of the local buildings of interest including the post office, two churches, two statues of crosses, a museum, two palaces, a bridge, and a cultural center. The architecture continued the trend we saw in Osijek – a blend between modern buildings, restored historical structures, and buildings that still preserve the damage that they’ve received through the years.

Our final site was not one that we’d walked to, but we had a great view of it from where our ship was docked; specifically the Vukovar Water Tower – A Symbol of Croatian Unity. It was constructed in the mid 1960s but was notably destroyed by

Yugoslav forces in the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence. Reconstruction efforts were considered when Vukovar was reintegrated into the Republic of Croatia, but instead it has been preserved in it’s damaged state as a memorial to the war in this region. Apparently it is a “Tower Member” of the “World Federation of Great Towers” (I did not know this was a thing, and at the time of writing have done NO research, but that sounds like a fun/cool/silly thing to exist so I wanted to mention it).

And then the end of the day was straightforward. The ship provided a local folk band to play music during happy hour, dinner continued to offer daily local menus, and the company was good. We didn’t partake in any of the evening events, leaving us a more relaxed night and a slightly early flop into bed.

Nautical Term of the Day: Go for the Pig & Whistle

“This term was used in the early sailing days of the English Navy. Once a week, the sailors were allowed a ration of rum (known as the ‘pig’). A young subordinate sailor would be sent down to ‘get the pig and whistle.’ If he stopped whistling while he was out of sight, he was believed to be drinking the rum and so was lashed.”

A Country Perspective of Hungary: 7/10/2025

Our first morning on the boat! As always, we begin with the short story of breakfast; a great but simple start to any day. Omelets seemed to be the name of the game (for me at least ... shocking!), supplemented by the 24-7 coffee service. Note that the lines in the dining area really started forming around 7:15, so getting there early was a great move! Omelets aside, there were also many options for muffins, pastries, fruits, cheeses, spreads, and items to be ordered from the kitchen.

Then, we headed out on our first excursion at 8:30, opening with a 20 minute bus ride to the small village of Kalocsa. Of note, we were far from anything resembling a city at this point. Instead we were in the Great Hungarian Plane and farms stretched as far as we could see. The most notable crop was clearly the sunflowers, but there was also some corn and others we made little note of. The other named crop of great importance is the paprika, but frustratingly, we have still not seen where any of this legendary herb being grown?
 

At last (it wasn't that long) we arrived at our first stop, the small village of Kalocsa. It was a cute town, with a color palate that permeated most of the structures, a pale

yellow finish was applied to most of the houses, the palace (I later learned that the word "palace" is used much more liberally than in western Europe), the cathedral, etc. And with that in mind, we headed straight to the cathedral! It was notably larger than one might expect for a town of this size, but also far smaller than those you'd see in the more populated cities. Some of the prominent features of this cathedral included an organ with over 1000 pipes, and the claim to fame that composer Franz Liszt often came to practice here (a statue of him stood in the gardens outside). This is also the fourth iteration of the same cathedral, having been destroyed time and again through incurring invasions, and always rebuild. They are currently working on an adjacent museum built among the ruins of the former foundations. 

Once inside we enjoyed a color array that we were not as familiar with in cathedrals.

White walls with hues of pink and light gold. It was a much brighter space and felt more open than some of the cathedrals that we were more familiar with seeing. Once inside we were given time to browse and explore, before taking our seats in the pews for a musical performance from a local artist. She played 4 songs on the piano, and sang, and it was a lovely time. But, we did little else in this village so afterwards we walked back to the bus. As we walked, and passed by the palace (basically the mayor's house) we learned that  the archduke here had a passion for collecting rare books, and owned an extensive library of one-of-a-kind books.

Our second stop of the excursion came after another 20 minute drive or so, but it was

well worth it and one of the cooler stops we had on the trip. We traveled to Bakodpuszta, home of the Bakod Horse Farm (I recommend opening the link and watching the 5 minute video included to get a sense of it). This was a local farm of horse trainers, a historical trade in the area. But, they didn't simply "train" horses, they taught them to do tricks! We watched a variety of performances (unfortunately the ground was quite muddy - but at least we were served snacks and drinks!). This started with the huge oxen pulling a cart. We then

saw the riders have their horses lay down, or sit ... like dogs! This was followed by the horsemen playing various games on the horses and demonstrating their control of the whips (don't worry - not hurting the animals!). We also saw a variety of different styles of carts that would be pulled by different numbers of horses. Then, the finally was a single rider standing on the back of two horses with another 10 leading the way! After the show we had about an hour in which we were able to explore the barn, pet the animals, and go for a carriage ride in their fields. Petting the animals was pretty great...

We returned to the cruise ship for a break – little more than an hour – before we headed back out for our afternoon excursion. We departed at 1:30 and would not be returning to the ship … here. Instead, our route would take us south and inland, and we would then meet up with our ship again in the evening at a more southern port.

Our second excursion was also a major highlight of the trip. We would be traveling far inland and southwards to a winery for a tour and tasting and then a cooperage where

we'd see the barrels being made. Unfortunately, this began with a very long drive, and thought the scenery continued to be a beautiful combination of sunflower fields and rolling hills, many of us fell asleep. But, when we finally arrived we had a chance to stretch our legs, and then hop into some jeeps to take us up some trail roads into the grape fields. The views were amazing (though there were times that the drive felt unsafe). Then, as we were sampling 

our first two kinds of wine, the whole growing and harvesting process was explained to us. For such a small crew it was amazing how many acres upon acres of land they were using. Then, some incoming storms hastened our return from the fields but we then got to explore the wine "cellars" which were actually long caves dug into the local hillsides. Apparently these caves could be found at family homes throughout the region as a common way to store cool items. We sampled four more wines, and had some snacks, before we moved on from the venue. 

Our final stop of the day would then be a local cooperage, nearly 30 minute drive away – and the sister company of the vineyard. We received a full tour that described the process of making a wine barrel. While we did not see ONE barrel completed from

start to finish, we did see all the steps done on some barrel. This included:

• Splitting the felled logs
• Sanding a finished barrel
• Attaching the metal rings
• Cutting and assembling all the slats
• Heating and bending the barrel so that it holds its shape
• Having a hole drilled and sanitized
• And being tested for air-tight quality

The process was both fast and enlightening, and all together impressive! The speed of the workers, the custom tools, and the efficiency of the whole process was amazing. And, simply their comfort with manipulating wood, fire, and steam to bend the boards was so cool to watch!

Upon leaving the cooperage we had one final trek on the bus, another 30 minutes a Danube port closer to our current location (I regretfully missed the name of the location). Here, we re-boarded, and before long it was time for dinner. The main courses of note were a mushroom ragout and some New York strip steaks (classically local ... hah!).

After dinner we attended and played a trivia game at the ships bar/lounge room, this one titled “And the Top Answer Is.” This was a fun twist on trivia as being “most correct” was not important, rather it was important to guess the answer that was guessed by the most teams! In otherwards, have the most popular answer. Then, in the end, we won!

Finally, after great excursions and with trivia victory in hand (and the booze that came with it), it was time to head to bed! I hope tomorrow is just as great, but honestly, maybe a little shorter, two full excursions was quite a lot.

Nautical Term of the Day: Scuttlebutt

“A ‘butt’ was a barrel. ‘Scuttle’ meant ‘to chop a hole in something.’ The ‘scuttlebutt’ was a water barrel with a hole cut into it so that sailors could reach in and scoop out drinking water. The ‘scuttlebutt’ was the place where the ship’s gossip was exchanged.”

Buda and Pest, Through and Through: 7/9/2025

As is often the case our day started with breakfast – the hotel’s included breakfast was certainly delicious. While it had cheese, eggs, fruit, … the works, I ended the meal (for the second time) with two core take-aways. (1) it’s hard to beat fresh-made omelets and (2) hash browns are always worth it! Granted, my dad was left with an inkling disappointment that among their fish offerings there were no salmon loxs. Hopefully he’ll get that craving sated in the coming week.

While breakfast was straightforward, checking out was it’s own hurtle of anxiety. Specifically, we were to check out of the hotel by 10, but our bags needed to be prepared for collection by 8. This meant that we really had to do all our packing the night before, and ensure that we were fully equipped for the full day ahead of us. Then, in the morning we had to leave our bags outside our hotel room door as we went to breakfast. Goodness I do not like that model(!) but it did all work out well in the end.

So, come 9:15 Archer and I, as well as my parents, departed the Corinthia Budapest for the last time and headed out into the city. This time we were more deliberate with our plan to use the public transportation to see the sites

we wanted (rather than doing any pre-planned excursions that Viking provided).  Honestly, Budapest’s public transit is awesome! Simply buy a day pass and then hop on any bus, tram, or metro car you see. From there it was only a matter of knowing which line and direction you wanted to go, but even that was relatively straight forwards. With that in mind, we headed into the center of the city to the covered market; Klauzál téri Vásárcsarnok, also known as the Klauzál Square Market Hall. Note, the Wikipedia link here includes a few pictures that do not do the place justice. It was PACKED, both with vendors and shoppers.

We’d been to other international markets before and this one was just as fun. Row by row the grounds were packed with stalls. Many were selling cured meats, others fruits, more still focused on spices (paprika especially). The grounds had both an upstairs and a downstairs where you could visit souvenir stalls, textile vendors, take-away restaurants, and more! One way to think of it was a super-farmers-market. We all found one thing (or more) to purchase, and we all had a great time. Our only regret was that we did not by more paprika (especially as it turns out the sweet variety). We incorrectly assumed we would have much more access to it in the coming days; alas, we got only what we got. Finally, while perhaps not the most prominent feature of the market, we enjoyed a particular corner where there was a display of cases upon cases of mushroom-terrariums. We got no explanation for why these were here, but they were super cute!

This brought us to a little before noon, at which point we knew there was a tram line that would bring us very close to our cruise ship, but also some other local

monuments. We still had a few hours, so we sought a few more sights! First, we headed north up the Danube River to the Parliament building with its beautiful red-tiled domed roofs. We never went inside, but as the rain began to pester us, we learned of an underground exhibit, the 1956 Memorial depicting the history of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and its brutal backlash from the Soviets. It was a short exhibit, but another glimpse into the past of the

city. Afterwards we hopped back on the tram south where we exit next to the Chain Bridge and walked a few blocks inland to Saint Stephen’s Basilica. It was a newer church – with it’s most recent construction being completed in the early 1900’s the church was in pristine condition. But, the most interesting exhibit we saw was the hand (literally - it's encased in the image here) of St. Stephen. Apparently he was killed under unknown conditions, but his hand was found and has been passed around European caretakers for centuries!

Exiting the church the rain was still upon us so we found a local venue for lunch.  Amongst us our meals included Aperol Spritzes (which are clearly a favorite drink in this city), goulash, chicken paprikash, and Hungarian sausage. It was all, as usual, delicious. Leaving lunch we made our way back to the Chain Bridge to check into our rooms on the Viking ship for the first time! Our ship is named Ullur after the Norse got of hunting and step-son of Thor. The other two docked boats were the Ingvi (the god of fertility and perhaps and earlier incarnation of Freyr) and the Gymir (a giant most notably the father of Gerdr, who becomes the wife of Freyr). Note, I've gotten really into Norse mythology over the past few years so (A) we got the best boat and (B) it was fun to find all the Nordic references in the boat names and other boat-base paraphernalia.

After a quick pause to learn about our rooms we headed out again, this time to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge which was literally right above where we were docked! We made the not-very-long trek across the bridge, enjoying all of it’s lion-facades, to the Buda side of the river. There we boarded the funicular that took us on a lift up the massive hill back to the Palace Grounds. The trip was short, but provided us an amazing panorama of the city (and we saw a bunch of local crow-friends!). After some time among the ramparts we took the funicular back down, crossed the bridge one more time, and bid farewell to our land-based time in Budapest.

It wasn’t too late yet, so we had a relaxed cocktail hour on the boat, followed by a 

greeting from the crew and safety instructions. This led to a family style (seating at least) dinner downstairs. I enjoyed beef goulash (again), a local-style perch dish, and ended with a crème brulé. Other meals included a chicken dish, a pear salad, a local-style bread pudding, and more.

By the time dinner ended the ship was on the move, but, it was headed north up the Danube, despite the fact that our travels would take us south and east). This was deliberate, and was just taking us around Margaret Island so that we could head south and pass through the city by night-light. We passed under the many illuminated bridges, and obtained stunning views of the numerous landmarks we had seen on land, all spectacularly lit to contrast the dark night sky. It was, a stunning hour of cruising as we headed out of the city. All in all, two thumbs up for Budapest!

Finally, the ship crew provided a daily newsletter each evening that included a "term of the day" each based on nautical history. I thought these were awesome and fun, so I will be sharing them at the end of each day's post!

Nautical Term of the Day: Start Over with a Clean Slate

“A slate tablet was kept near the helm, and was used by the watchkeeper to record speeds, distances, headings and tasks during the watch. If no problems occurred during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watchkeeper could ‘start over with a clean slate.’"

Sightings in Budapest: 7/8/2025

The day started with breakfast in the hotel, and we all had different approaches to the diverse offerings they had. Ranging from fruit and yogurt, to toast and cheese, pancakes, omelets, and more; there was something for everyone. However, it had to still be a quick meal as our first excursion would be ready to head out come 8:30. We each enjoyed our meals, grabbed any bags or coats as needed for the day, and then boarded one of the busses provided by Viking for the “Scenic Budapest” tour. The tour began with a 1 hour drive – accompanied by historical explanations – around the city. We began by heading northeast to a large green, Heroes' Square, within the city. Our guide referred to it as the Champs-Élysées of Budapest. This was both a joke because it was a local monument in a large town-central square, but also there was historical precedent to try to be like Paris at the time. As we drove around the square, we also saw what appeared to be a castle a few roads over. This was apparently not a castle, but a modern building – the Vajdahunyad Castle - which is a modern collage of buildings from diverse eras in Budapest's history. The building is now the home of the Museum of Hungarian Architecture. Our tour then took us through the heart of the city. We passed the local opera – which was part of an ongoing competition with Vienna to always one-up each other with the scale of their buildings. We passed the magnificent Istvan-Bazilika, St. Stephan's Basilica, and learned that it is the second cathedral in the same place, as the first one collapsed into soft earth. We had our first of many passes today past the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, as well as another town square. And there were many sites as well, but this all led us into the palace grounds of Buda Castle on the Buda half of the city, on the West side of the Danube River.

After walking around the palace grounds we were brought to the most notable site, the local cathedral. Unlike so many buildings in the city, this one has stood and endured

the years of history and war, notably due to being linked as an education building to survive the bombings that the city had received. The church itself had touches of a wide variety of styles. My personal favorite aspect was the golden-metallic paint inlaid with the otherwise matt coloring. As you moved throughout the building the light would catch this paint at different angles and appear to illuminate features of the walls and artwork. The roof tiles were also of particular note as they, along with the floor tiles, were a locally made and stained porcelain, but the exact formula for them was kept secret. This is also what made the exterior of the cathedral so eye-catching from afar, as the roof itself had intricate designs and vivid colorings (despite the slightly gray pictures we're able to provide sue to weather).

While we would have loved to wander the area more, the rain was coming

down harder, so we found a local bier-garden on the grounds to enjoy ourselves. We ordered a pretzel with sausage, one beer a piece, and we were talked into trying the local “shot” called a Palinka. While it comes in different flavors it is a raw alcohol mixed with a fruit flavoring – much like schnapps – and what we tried was apricot. Little did we know at the time just how often we would be offered variants of this drink over the next two weeks! Afterwards, we returned to the tour bus, and then the hotel for a short rest. After which, we headed right back out to explore the city via public transportation and return to the palace grounds again! Public transport was pretty smooth sailing. Senior citizens could ride for free and adults could buy easy single-use tickets at frequent stands (that said, you hop from bus to train so often it is likely just best to get a day-pass). The same tickets could be used for all forms of public transport, including busses, trains, etc., making the exact number we bought at the start a bit more flexible. Then a bus ride and a subway trip dropped us off a 30 minute walk from the palace grounds where we returned to experience the Budapest Museum of History, also known as the Castle Museum, as it is located inside the old Buda Castle structure.

Upon entering the building we enjoyed many impressive statues, including a grand fountain of Mattias’s Dog and numerous fabulous lions guarding the palace grounds. Many of these had clear “patches” and repairs done to them, as they had been earlier described to us as the result of bullet holes that can be seen on building-scapes throughout the city. Inside the museum the different floors were separated to different parts of the history. Our favorite was the basement which was a walkthrough of the medieval history of the castle grounds. This included a demonstration of how the water-pump systems worked, as well as a reconstruction of the chapel. One of my favorite aspects of seeing historical recoveries was to see reconstructions of statues and arches, where they marked in pictures where they had recovered

specific pieces. Those pieces were then displayed on an adjacent wall panel. By contrast, the upper floor included some interactive exhibits and comparisons to present day Budapest. I thought this exhibit included some good humor as it compared an ancient axe-head to a modern (circa 2024) plastic-handled hatchet. We concluded our tour by walking around the exterior ramparts before the long trek back and another sampling of the public transit system. After a quick break for a whiskey in the hotel we headed out to dinner again, again to the Café Vian Ferenc ter. It wasn’t that we weren’t interested in variety, but it was local and there were plenty of dishes we were still excited to explore. It was again, over filling and delicious. And so after a wonderful meal we headed back to the hotel for our last night before boarding the boat!

From Budapst to Bucharest, Heading to Hungary: 7/7/2025

Travel days are always a bit of a wash. Flight from BWI to London Heathrow was uneventful. Better seats than we usually have, had dinner serve on a plane (for the first time in a long time!) and when I asked for red wine was asked ”one or two”?

 

Unfortunate headache and potential nausea interrupted any potential fun “chilling” we would have done during our overlay.

 

Second flight from London to Budapest was shorter and simple. Easy nap was a good final reset to the system. Upon leaving the airport and getting through customs … and collecting our bags … we were met by representatives of Viking. After a short delay as they gathered all other expected passengers, we headed for the hotel.

 

Our hotel of stay was the Corinthia Budapest, and it was lovely. Great service and nice accommodations; despite this being a river cruise we would be spending two nights here in the city. After a quick check in, we met up with my parents and headed out for a short walk to a local restaurant for dinner; Café Vian Ferenc ter. Amongst the four of us we had Beef Goulash, a Mushroom cream stew, a Chicken Paprikan, a Red Wine Beef Stew with Dumplings, and a local style steak with grilled goose liver. The food was amazing all around, and really brought to light the rumors of the local paprika use. While this was obviously notable in the Chicken Paprikan and the paprika-slaw served with the steak, its best appearance was with the chili-salty spread, I believe called Eros Pista, that was provided with the soup. That one is a must!

 

After dinner we returned to the hotel and crashed into bed – as expected after the many hours of travel to get here. Our adventure begins in full tomorrow!