Travels with Debra during the Pandemic: Southeast Europe

Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania
River Cruise, November 2021
             
     Our first dilemma strikes when we try to check in for our flight in Nashville. We present our vaccination cards, and evidence of a negative COVID test. The flight attendant glances at the phone screen and asks for a printed copy. We hand her one.       She stares at it for a moment, then at her computer screen, and finally speaks.
“They don’t accept vaccinations from the U.S. in Hungary, only from a few countries near them. Also, your COVID test isn’t one they accept, I think. I’m going to make a phone call to be sure.”
      She returns a few moments later. “I have some bad news, sort of. They don’t accept your vaccination card or COVID test. But there’s a clinic about fifteen minutes from here that does the test they want—it’s a non-rapid test, but they do it quickly.”
       We take this in. A rapid non-rapid test?
     We had been given a ride to the airport by a friend, who had dropped us off and left for work. I called her. She was about halfway there, she said, and would turn around and come back. She did.
     With the exception of one COVID test we took in France, most of the others we’d taken previously had been free to us. This one cost $298.00. We paid it, crossing our fingers we’d get results in time for our flight. We did, barely. They were negative.
      Our seats were near the rear of the plane on all three flights: one to Atlanta, one from Atlanta to Paris, and one from Paris to Budapest. Things went smoothly, though the customs process in Paris was so slow many people were cutting the line for fear of missing connections. We did not, though we wondered if we should. An overhead sign several aisles in front of us flashed wait times, varying from fifteen to thirty minutes in what seemed a random fashion.
     Arriving in Budapest, we located our driver and made our way to the Rum Hotel, small but nice. We were exhausted by then. Our room wasn’t ready as it was only around 11:30 AM, and check-in was 3:00 PM. We stowed our luggage and walked to the Market. From the outside it resembled a train station. The weather was cold and rainy, so we spent a fair amount of time inside the Nagy Vasarcsarnok (Central Market Hall). The first couple of booths were already decorated for Christmas. We bought a paprika gift for my cousin Rebecca, and some foi gras for our son and foi gras with truffle for me.
      I was feeling hungry at this point, but Norm was not. We tried to find a Hungarian restaurant; they all seemed full, so I settled for a Hummus Café. Inside was warm and dry, and I ate all the hummus I could hold. Returning to the hotel, we fell into bed and set the alarm to wake us in 1.5 hours. Then we managed to stay awake until around 8 PM. We slept until nearly 9 AM. A restaurant on the rooftop of our hotel (7th floor) was owned separately. Although we had failed to make breakfast reservations, they served us: cappuccino for Norm and a soft-boiled egg salad for me, which was a bit underdone but quite tasty. Great views too.
     Then we checked out and headed to the port. We had booked the cheapest cabin for this river cruise, figuring we wouldn’t spend much time in the cabin except to sleep. They had upgraded us to #226, which has a balcony with sliding door and ceiling to floor windows. All this glass makes it a bit chilly this time of year, but our cleaning person tidies up after us a couple of times a day. Makes me want to take her home with us, and the masseuse as well. Beautiful lights as we left Budapest!
     Our cabin, however, is very cold, and I’ve become convinced the heat is not working properly. We have it turned to nearly 30 degrees C, and I’m wearing five layers of clothes on top and three below my waist and still chilly.
      Our first stop was in Monaco, where we took a bus to Pecs, originally established as a Roman wine-producing colony named Sopianae. Pes was an early Christian enter. We took a guided walk through the old town, visiting the Christian Necropolis, St. Peter’s Basilica with underground burial chambers, Szechenyl Square, and Dom Square.
     Monday afternoon I swam in the heated pool on the sundeck, which was very nice. Monday evening a violinist and Hungarian dancers entertained us after dinner. I thought they were great.
     On Tuesday, our morning tour was in Vukovar, Croatia. Our tour guide was excellent. He told us a lot about the internal fighting in Yugoslavia once Tito died. People either loved or hated Tito, he said, but he kept the area unified. After he died in 1980, things fell apart. Our guide led us to some locales of massacres of Croatians by Serbs. Croatians were killed in their homes after the war, but also nearly a thousand rounded up, transported, and shot. Croatians are predominantly Catholic, Serbs Orthodox Catholic, and Bosnia Muslim.
​      Our tour guide, who is Croatian, says he doesn’t hate the Serbs and admits Croatians have done “bad things” too. “I just hate stupid people, wherever they are from,” he said.
      I had a massage on the boat in the early afternoon, which was really intense and may have led to a migraine later in the day. I also reserved the gym and walked on the treadmill for about 12.5 minutes—not much, I know, but some is better than none, I always tell myself. Next, we crossed to Novi Sad, Serbia, where we took an afternoon walking tour of the Athens of Serbia. Since the sun sets around 4 PM, we were late enough to see the Christmas lights coming to life. They were quite spectacular.
      The Captain’s dinner on the boat consisted of prime rib, perch, eggplant caviar, and key lime pie. We were going to take an evening fortress walk after dinner, but I had a migraine by then; so. we decided not to go. Instead, we went to the lounge and listened for a while to a classical concert. Too much opera, really, for our taste, and too loud for my migraine. I took some abortive migraine pills and finally went to sleep.
      We were all tested (rapid COVID-19 test) before entering Serbia. Our temperature is checked each morning. We wear our masks in the halls and outside the boat but remove them in the dining room and lounge. Staff wears masks at all times. Precautions are a bit more rigid than our previous cruise on Avalon, south of France. No buffets here, and they serve our coffee from the self-service machines.
      On Wednesday, my head was better. Our cruise took us to the confluence of two rivers: the Danube and Sava. We toured Belgrade, Serbia, capital city. The fortress is considered the highpoint of the historic city. In the afternoon we went to the Tesla Museum and enjoyed an exhibition of some of Tesla’s inventions, then to the Bohemian part of the city, where we sampled local cuisine at a lovely old restaurant said to be Tito’s favorite. I avoided alcohol altogether, but then had trouble sleeping. We went to the lounge for a bit to watch some Serbian dancers and listen to music by a clarinetist and accordion player. Dinner on top of the “tasting” was probably too much food.
      On Thursday, we cruised through the widest part of the Danube, so wide it looks like a lake. We toured a huge fortress of unknown origin, Golubac, that’s never been penetrated and has been around since (at least) the 13th century, controlled by Turks/Ottomans for a long time, claimed by Hungary. Back on the boat, we moved to the cabin next door since the engineer indicated it would take about a full day to fix the AC/heat/blower. The new cabin is a bit smaller, but, I’m hoping, will be warmer.       The staff were very helpful in moving our things, and it went quickly.
This afternoon was a cruising day. Though the weather was foggy in the morning, the fog lifted and visibility was great by afternoon. As we cruised into Romania, we passed a monastery, standing at the water’s edge, which has about three guest rooms and stays booked far in advance. Romanian flags were flying. Next, we saw a gigantic sculpture of a king’s face carved into the rock, which took ten years to finish.
      On the opposite side of the river, to commemorate a Roman road, a tablet was carved into the stone, later moved as the water rose—about two thousand years old. The river is quite wide at this point. Steep mountains rise around us. As the sun sinks, the peaks are backlit and rosy, gold tones above in the clouds. Some autumn color in the trees, but also a lot of evergreens. Very little wind this afternoon.
      I stayed in the lounge, while a number of people, including Norm, stepped outside or up to the sundeck to snap photos. One lady, white cape billowing about her (so there must be some wind) smoked at the bow of the boat. Plenty of glass in the lounge allows great viewing from inside. I’m warm in my puffy maroon jacket. Yawning badly, though, as I slept poorly last night.
      We had leg of lamb for dinner, and I had crepe suzettes for dessert, ice cream for Norm.
     On Friday morning, November 19, we took a bus to Belogradchik in Bulgaria. Huge sandstone and limestone rock formations resembled elephants, monkeys, rabbits, etc. Then, in the city center, we took a quick bus tour and walked around a well-preserved medieval fortress, Baba Vida. I had red fish for lunch, as did Norm, and coffee ice cream. Then I took a quick dip in the heated pool on the sundeck. It was sunny today, pretty blue skies with white clouds, coppery trees, some golds, a few reds remaining. Bulgaria suffered economically after communism was overturned, largely due to lost industry with communist countries. We saw lots of buildings with broken windows, shabby and abandoned.
     Beef wellington for dinner was quite delicious. I was very tired though. My cell phone died, and Norm became very frustrated trying to revive it. Each evening the lady cleaning our cabin leaves a chocolate of increasing cocoa content, beginning in the 50% range, moving to 70%, 71%, 72%, and 75% tonight. I’ve always thought 72% is optimal, but 75% is very nice also. My mom called at 2 AM (Bulgarian time) to wish Norm a happy birthday, thinking it was the 19th rather than the 24th.  
     On November 20, our boat anchored in Rousse, Bulgaria. We chose the full day excursion to Veliko Tarnova. Our tour guide for the day was English, though he had lived in Bulgaria for eighteen years. His commentary was concise, informative, and entertaining. Bulgaria, population 7 million, was founded in 681 AD, the first of two golden periods in its history. Bulgaria invaded Constantinople repeatedly, losing each time, finally being told if they tried again, the Bizantines would take control of Bulgaria. They tried again and failed. Bizantines remained in control until the 11th century when four teenagers got lucky and managed to overtake the Royal Fortress while the Bizantines were away and the fortress was poorly guarded. Then the Bulgarians rallied behind the young new King Peter and held them off. Peter died a few years later in a duel. The next king’s sons couldn’t agree, and they fell to the Ottomans, a dark period for Bulgaria for about 500 years, from the 13th to the 18th century.
     We visited a lovely church, which was built during the Ottoman rule. Ottomans, though Muslim, allowed the Christians to build seven simple churches for a fee. Beautiful frescoes divide the Nativity Church into section for women, for men, and for socializing after the service. A choir of four elderly men sang acapello for us.
     Bulgarian lunch at a local restaurant consisted of salad (cucumber, tomatoes, white cheese), vegetable soup, a bread similar to naan or pita, a chicken and mushroom dish, and yogurt with honey and nuts for dessert. The town is nestled on three hills overlooking the Yantra River.
     After lunch, we decided to stick with our tour guide and go shopping for souvenirs in the town center rather than climb the steps at the fortress. The street is called Samovorska Chershia. Norm bought a bottle of local wine, a sauvignon blanc after a tasting of two reds and one white. Then, back to the boat. Osso bucco for Norm and white grouper for me for dinner. Then they surprised us by bringing Norm a delicious chocolate cake for his birthday (a couple of days early), with dark chocolate shavings on top, chocolate pudding between the layers. He still got his ice cream afterward (pistachio) and I had tiramisu. Then we packed for departure on Sunday.
We cruised into Romania but realized that, since we opted for the excursion to Veliko Tarnovo rather than Bucharest, we would really see much of Romania beyond the airport.
     Our tour arrived at the airport at 9 AM though our flight to Amsterdam from Bucharest wasn’t until 1:55 PM. Our taxi driver stopped at a church, got out of the taxi, and knelt in front of the gate to pray. We were too early to check in at the airport. The drive was about an hour and a half. I bought a forest berry smoothie, and we both had yummy chocolate croissants, and finally they posted our check-in location so we could check our luggage, etc. Everyone was wearing masks in the airport, and on the planes. Also, they were checking for both vaccination cards and negative COVID-19 tests. We were tested twice on the ship, once to get into Serbia and once to return to the U.S.
      No luck getting my phone to work.
     We flew from Bucharest to Amsterdam, where we hit our biggest delay. We knew our layover was less than an hour in Amsterdam, so we rushed to our gate, which was not nearby. When we got there, we got into line, not overly concerned because Norm had scanned vaccination records and we’d had our negative COVID tests. When we reached the front of the line, a lady handed us papers to complete. The papers simply required us to check a box that we’d been vaccinated and tested, sign, date, and hand it back. However, when we handed our papers back and showed our boarding passes, we were pulled out of line and sent to another line. This line was not moving at all. At first, we thought they were simply doing random checks of vaccination records, etc.
     Then, a young man at the front of the line spoke shrilly. “Who says I have to be vaccinated to go back to the U.S.?”
     I could not hear the reply given, but his voice continued to rise. “I want to see the rules, section and verse.”
     Murmured replies.
     “I want to speak to a manager.”
     More murmured replies.
     “What are you going to do with me?”
     This went on for some time. Another person, not far in front of us, was an older woman travelling with her daughter. “I’ve been vaccinated. I’ve been tested,” she protested.
     Apparently, her vaccination was too recent to be considered “fully vaccinated.” She wasn’t going to be separated from her daughter.
     When our turn finally arrived, Norm asked why we’d been singled out. “Because the standards in Bucharest,” we are told, “are not up to U.S. requirements.”
     By the time we stumbled into our seats, near the back of the plane (presumably because I’d bought really cheap tickets), I was dropping papers, boarding passes, and more. Where was my passport?
     “I’ve lost my passport,” I told the young man in the aisle seat next to us. “We’ll have to get back out.”
     He got up, and I located my passport on the floor near my seat. “Never mind,” I told him. “Sorry.”
     We kept an eye out for the individuals who had been in front of us in line, but we never saw them. The young man from our row found another seat. I didn’t blame him. And there were plenty of empty seats, as it was far from a full flight to Atlanta.
     Now, thee years later, I can still see in my mind’s eye the images of the young man and the older woman traveling with her daughter. I hope they resolved their issues without too much added stress. Travel always offers its share of stress, no matter how much you—if you’re like me—enjoy it. Next blog will probably be my 2022 trip to Yellowstone.