Croatia

Monday, August 18, 2025

We were parked when we got to breakfast, but I noticed we were on the move shortly thereafter. The view was lovely out the window, but mostly I was eating a bagel and chatting with Keith and Mark from Kentucky. I noticed we passed a house near the shore. Quite a while later, I noticed another house that looked similar. I wondered if it was a thing – they all looked the same. As we got up to leave, I realized we had not started moving – the river was just rivering along – and I had looked at the exact same house all the times.

I spent a lovely couple of hours walking around the sun deck at the top of the boat, then sitting in the front and watching us sail along. The weather was almost cool. A lot of people sitting on deck had wrapped themselves in towels. Of course, I didn’t need that, but I wasn’t repelled by the idea. Just yesterday I was walking around carrying a portable fan! Keith was sleeping, because he has a runny nose and sneezes.

Our outing today was really different. In groups of ten, we visited a home of someone in a small town. We gathered at Rosie’s dining room table and shared delicious treats, Turkish coffee, blackberry juice, and plum brandy (that’ll take your skin right off). We were encouraged to ask questions. Rosie was a talker (in Croatian) and our guide, Karla, would translate. She told us about her family and about the treats we were having. One of our group asked a question about the Serbo-Croatian war of 1991-95 and unfortunately the war and its effects were all we talked about. It was still a very interesting outing. I talked to others about their very different experiences. Ours seems kinda sad compared to others, but I think it is cool that Viking hasn’t homogenized it so everyone gets the same experience.

We went to a church and a lady sang for us. She played the ukulele and sang and it was so beautiful. Unfortunately she invited us to sing with her on several of the songs, so the mumblings of us interfered with the beauty of her voice.

We went to the old town/fortress of Osijek. It was so clean and nice. Our friends Joe and Alex commented that it was so different from Serbia – which is not part of the EU. Carla said the EU had given a lot of money to help Croatia. It really was noticeable.

Keith skipped dinner and stayed in bed. I brought him potato soup, a Hungarian meat/cheese plate, and breadsticks.