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Published: July 22nd 2018
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sun flowersIt wasn’t a good night for sleep there were AC problems plus emails and texts that came in from the East coast. The phone had to remain on for the alarm plus we wanted to make sure the kids arrived back in New York safely.
We woke up and our ship was tied to another ship. Our window looked into the side of the other boat. We got ready and headed to breakfast. They had champagne, but I didn’t indulge this morning.
The ship was docked in Kalocsa Hungry (pronounced - Ka low cha). We boarded the bus and headed out on our adventure. The bus trip took about 20 minutes and we passed several corn fields and fields full of sun flowers. KK, I thought of you. We arrived at the horse farm and they had a Hungarian horse show for us. These horses were amazingly trained. The riders would loudly pop the whips (not hitting the horses) and the horses wouldn’t even flinch. Then they would give the command to lay down and the horses did and again didn’t move with the sound of the whips. The whip crack was as loud as a gunshot and sounded
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musician playing oboe like instrument like one. We were told that they learned this technique because in battle it would confuse the enemy and make them think there were more soldiers. The horses were trained that well, so they would not flinch in battle. One of the riders rode a donkey and it too was trained. One of the events was a rider standing on two horses while leading 8 more. It was crazy watching his balance. I would not have made it 5 feet. They also showed a variety of carriages. During the whole event a musician played an instrument that looked like a clarinet or soprano sax but sounded like an oboe.
They then served everyone an apricot brandy. We then walked to the stables and headed back to the bus. On the bus trip back, we learned more about the Hungarian Paprika. I learned that paprika is the term for any kind of pepper, that is why when I had stuff paprika I was confused, since it was yellow. The paprika spice is made from just one variety of pepper.
We stopped in town after passing some old deserted Soviet buildings and saw the old church where there was an
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one of the carts . if you can zoom in, look at the horns. organ concert. The organ had 4600 pipes and sounded lovely. During the concert a bee landed on my nose. I quickly removed my glasses and it flew away. After the concert we saw the library where all the books are bound the same and learned that Franz Lystz was born in the town the first person to play on the organ.
Back at the ship we had a light lunch and the ship set sail. We worked on the blogs and looked at the scenery. The river here is not populated and is really flat. Trees grow right up to the river and there are lots of beaches along the way. Many people would take advantage of the beaches and we also passed boaters and jet skiers. About 3:30 we hit Croatia and the boat had to doc. Immigration officers came on board. Each floor was called and when your floor was called you had to go to reception for a face check. They opened your passport, checked your face and stamp. You’re ok. Cool, I have a new stamp in the passport. The process when very smoothly and later we learned that this was one of the fastest
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the riders. times. The cruise director said on a previous trip the officer was a real jerk – but I might have been too. It seems one couple said they weren’t coming to the desk and if they wanted to check their face, the officer could come to their room. This pissed off the officers, so they left and let the boat sit there for 10 hours before rebounding. This threw the ships schedule off for days. Today we were in and out in 45 minutes. we are glad we aren't on the reverse cruise as the face check is at 4 am.
We then went back to the room and changed then headed to the cocktail party where the cruise director told us about what was happening the next day and a little bit about the war in the early 90s. After that we went to dinner, then retired.
Before retiring, I wanted to download the pictures, but I couldn’t find the download card anywhere. After searching everything and giving up, I found it in the USB port in the computer. Duh… So at that time we decided it was best to take our showers and just go to
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the donkey bed.
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Barbara
non-member comment
Adventure
Wow. You two have some tales to tell! The inside of the church is magnificent. Loved the pix of horses too. Sounds and looks like a fabulous trip.