Three Capitals in Three Days

It's all aboard in Budapest. As previously posted, this Tonic writer is in the middle of a riverboat trek to Amsterdam, and the 15-day journey started with three capital cities in the first three days. Each of these places -- Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna -- was covered in previous posts, but there were a few new highlights worth mentioning.

For starters, the Leopold in Vienna's Museum Quarter is currently displaying Edvard Munch's famous The Scream painting through Jan. 18. Apparently I'm the only art nerd on the boat because my joke about stealing The Scream again produced only confused stares. The painting was famously stolen from an Oslo museum in 2004 and returned safely two years later.

I also visited the Museum of Modern Art in the same Museum Quarter, and while most of the works are too random even for my diverse tastes, they have an incredible exhibit in which an artist recreated the Oval Office using nothing but paper and cardboard. How good was it? My friends and I thought they were actual photos until we finally got around to reading the captions.

In Bratislava, we learned that Slovakia actually has popular vineyards that don't export their wines since the domestic demand is so high. They are famous for their white wines, but I opted to try a pair of inexpensive red wines and especially liked the Cabernet.

The most humorous moment, though, definitely came in Budapest. In the matter of three days, the average temperature dropped more than 40 degrees, moving us from summer right into winter. As someone who's been backpacking all summer, all I had were t-shirts, so I nearly froze on the Budapest tour.

Why is that funny? Because the riverboat features mostly retired couples and all those poor grandmas nearly hyperventilated watching a young man their grandkids' age shivering in the bitter cold. One by one they approached me, either begging me to wear one of their husband's jackets or offering to buy me warmer clothes. Ironically, one lady didn't even bother to ask and simply bought me a hat and scarf from H&M. How cute is that? I decided to preempt any other charitable acts by buying warmer clothes at Tesco and thanking the lady with a bottle of Bailey's.

And that's how this riverboat adventure tale will be told -- I received hat and scarf souvenirs that attest to a lady's kindness and generosity, and that lady gets to tell her friends how a younger man got her buzzed on Bailey's. Sounds like a fair trade to me!