a passage to

Eastern Europe

Publication Report for Viking River Cruises

Kristin Winet SEPTEMBER 2017
 thank you!
Dear Chad and the teams at Edelman PR and Viking River Cruises,

Thank you so much for sharing the wondrous Passage to Eastern Europe voyage with me! From our
email correspondence and pre-trip planning to the unparalleled customer service and meticulous-
ly-planned shore excursions while on board, the Viking team has continued to impress me every step of
the way. My second tour with Viking has been an unforgettable journey, and I can’t wait to share what
I’ve produced for you.

Our trip was absolutely phenomenal. From spending our first few days exploring old Bucharest to
sailing through the Iron Gates to finally arriving in the magnificent city of Budapest, every day was
unique, well-planned, and beautifully executed. As I considered how to cover the trip, I decided to
focus on publishing articles that highlighted a cruising experience that was unique to each country
and that would garner interest in the individual destinations (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, and
Hungary). As you’ll see, what I’ve published so far demonstrates this commitment: from experiencing a
local brew on our first night in Romania for Anthony Bourdain’s Roads & Kingdom’s “Five O’Clock Some-
where” series, to dishing on the hottest new Hungarian sausage trend and profiling a female paprika
farmer for Paste magazine’s “Travel” section, to reminiscing on how to explore Budapest by foot for
Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, I’ve left no destination untouched. Each article specifically
mentions Viking River Cruises and our itinerary (except for “There’s No Better Way to Drink Than Like a
Transylvanian Saxon” due to the publication’s editorial policies). As a writer, I pride myself on diversify-
ing my content and focusing on what matters to readers; as a partner with Viking, I pride myself on
being a champion for your services and a voice for your organization. I hope, after reading this report,
that you’ll agree.

Again, thank you for this unforgettable life-changing experience. I look forward to continuing our
partnership for many years to come and joining you on many future voyages around the world. Please
give my special thanks to the crew aboard the Viking Adonia!

Very sincerely,

Kristin Winet
Writer | Blogger | Photographer
kristin@kristinwinet.com
www.kristinwinet.com | www.bontouriste.com

1
Trip Planning

How I Packed for Two Weeks in Eastern Europe in a Carry On

Bon Touriste, 6/6/2016
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Temps would be ranging from a chilly 55 to a balmy 89. Because I was traveling with Viking, I knew I’d be doing a lot of
walking on the city tours, so I knew I’d need some city-appropriate clothes with sleeves (for cathedrals, synagogues,
and the like). I’d also signed up for a couple of excursions to the Croatian and Bulgarian countryside, too, so I knew I’d
need some comfortable, warm-weather clothes with good hiking shoes. From past experience, I also knew I wouldn’t
need a lot of formal clothes or high heels, as the dress code tends to be incredibly informal on river cruises.

Why I’m Spending Two Weeks in Eastern Europe

Bon Touriste, 5/23/2016
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Try it….Tell the next five people you meet that you’re going to be spending two weeks in Eastern Europe this summer
and see what they say. You’ll probably hear that Budapest is supposed to be nice. Or that coastal Croatia is just as
beautiful as its other Mediterranean neighborhoods and still super cheap. You’ll probably hear some jokes about
goulash. Yeah…that’s exactly why I’m going to Eastern Europe.
 t - a -
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Articles and photography that were inspired by Viking River Cruises and the Passage to Eastern Europe
itinerary have been featured in the following media outlets. Articles are broken down by location on the
following pages, along with URLs (when applicable). Additional coverage will be sent to Viking River Cruises
as it is published.

Roads & Kingdoms: Gritty, Narrative driven stories

266k unique pv/mo 48.5% of readers from u.s.; 3% from canada*

Paste Magazine: contemporary pop culture & travel

8 million unique pv/mo 107 million pv/mo
71.4% of readers from u.s.; 14.6% from EUROPE**

Perceptive Travel: off-the-beaten-path travel stories

28k+ unique pv/mo 2k+ newsletter subscribers
UHDGHUVZHŹWUDYHOHG(84% take more than 3 trips per year)
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Panorama Journal: LQWHŹLJHQWJOREDOVWRULHV
5K+XQLTXHSYPR 61.6%RIUHDGHUVIURPXV10.8% IURPFDQDGD

Hotel Scoop: WKHEHVWLQDFFRPRGDWLRQV

13K XQLTXHSYPR 50,000+ )DFHERRN7ZLWWHU)RŹRZHUV&RPELQHG
20-300RQWKO\ERRNLQJVWKURXJKDIILOLDWHVLWHV

Bon Touriste: ,QVSLULQJ%HDXWLIXO7UDYHOV

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**online media kit: KWWSVFGQSDVWHPDJD]LQHFRPZZZ3DVWH0HGLD.LWSGI

 Social media
Instagram: 3.6k http://www.instagram.com/kristinwinet
Facebook: 1.8k http://www.facebook.com/kristin.winet
Twitter: 1.7k @kristinwinet

p s h o t :
Sn a Instagram
Kristin Winet (and her brand Bon Touriste) have a following that is educated, international,
well-traveled, and looking for travel experiences that are meaningful, individualized, and
life-changing. Many of her followers are travelers themselves and come from diverse locations:
According to data culled from Iconosquare, nearly 50% are from the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, and
the majority of the remaining followers are from Western Europe, Australia, and other countries
worldwide.

During the trip, I used the hashtag #kwineasterneurope to tag posts (32 of them) from the trip. 2
 Romania: Finding Moldovan pies in Bucharest
Perceptive travel, 6/8/2016
http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2016/06/08/moldovan-pies-bucharest/
I couldn’t have predicted that the night I arrived in Romania, I’d end up eating food from Moldova instead. In all
honestly, I had no idea what kind of food I’d be eating in general on this trip–a trip in which I’d be cruising the Danube
River. If pressed, I’d have imagined some sort of stuffed cabbage, a meaty stew, or some kind of sausage, but I couldn’t
have told you what was Romanian, what was Moldovan, or, for that matter, what was any national cuisine in Eastern
Europe.

Romania: Gateway to Eastern Europe at the Intercontinental Bucharest

Hotel Scoop, 6/29/2016
http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2016/06/08/moldovan-pies-bucharest/
The Intercontinental Bucharest is my first memory of Romania. I had flown to Bucharest with my husband to spend
two days in Romania’s capital city before embarking on our 9-day Passage to Eastern Europe cruise with Viking River
Cruises, so when Viking told us they’d arranged for their early travelers to stay at the Intercontinental, I knew we’d be
both centrally-located and in very good hands. In fact, I couldn’t have been more right.
Romania: There’s No Better Way to Drink than like a Translyvanian Saxon
Roads & Kingdoms, 7/14/2016
http://roadsandkingdoms.com/5-oclock-somewhere/theres-no-better-way-drink-
like-transylvanian-saxon/
We’re in a pie place in Bucharest. The walls are covered with wooden kitchen utensils and stuffed chicken dolls with
button eyes and the servers are dressed in white aprons with frills along the seams. It’s the best place in the city for pie,
we’ve been told, pies that aren’t cherry or lemon meringue but pies that are filled with warm, savory meats and fresh
cheeses.

Bulgaria: Hiking Bulgaria

Perceptive Travel, 8/10/2016
http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2017/01/10/hiking-bulgaria/
Vidin, Bulgaria is, by all respects, a sleepy town. If you’ve never heard of Vidin, you’re in good company—before I’d
stepped off the boat and onto its soil, I hadn’t either. Vidin sits, pleasantly, on the Danube River in northwestern
Bulgaria.
Croatia: Photographing Osijek
Perceptive Travel, 8/10/2016
http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2016/08/10/photographing-osijek/
I started thinking about what it means, ethically, to take photos of a war-torn place and to highlight those cracks and
peels rather than the buildings that have been rebuilt and restored. As I went through my photos again this week, I
realize I am still figuring out what to say—and what to write, and how to write it—about Osijek, the fourth largest city
of Croatia, this city of 100,000 survivors.

Serbia: Belgrade, City of Books

Perceptive Travel, 7/12/2016
http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2016/07/12/belgrade-city-books/
It didn’t take us long to see it: elderly ladies with scarves tied delicately around their necks reading on park benches.
Outdoor cafés with patrons spanning ages, genders, and ethnicities sipping cappuccinos and perusing newspapers.
Words like Kant, Marx, and Freud on the spines of paperbacks in window displays. Painters painting scenes from
Serbia’s most popular new novel, Bridge on the Drina, in the middle of the pedestrian street. Kiosks set up on the sides
of the road selling used titles for just a few dinar.
 Hungary: A Chimichanga in Budapest
Perceptive Travel, 10/11/2016
http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2016/10/11/a-chimichanga-in-budapest/
The insides looked like the insides of tattoo parlors and old garages, a mishmash of thrift store items, antique and
outdated furniture, disused cars, and overgrown indoor gardens. Next to the discarded Trabant, there was a skinny
tree with hundreds of rolled-up pieces of paper stuck on its limbs and tied to its branches. “It’s a wishing tree,” the
bartender told us.

Hungary: Hilton Budapest: in the Midst of Hungary’s History

Hotel Scoop, 9/14/2016
http://www.hotel-scoop.com/hilton-budapest-in-the-midst-of-history/
The night before we docked in Budapest, someone at our dinner table told us that although he had loved the rest of
the countries we visited on our trip, he had decided to book Passage to Eastern Europe for one very specific reason: to
watch the city of Budapest emerge from the fog in the early morning on our last day. “It is,” he said, clearing his throat,
“without a doubt, the gem of the Danube.”
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When I got to Hungary, I knew I’d be eating a lot of them; after all, traditional Hungarian cuisine basically relies on
sausage for everything. Sausages are in soups, stews, pastries, even salads, and are, more often than not, the main
event — the epicenter around which everything else is prepared and flavored. I knew, too, that there’d be no better
way to experience Hungary’s sausage culture than to spend an afternoon wandering around Budapest’s three-story
indoor market, Central Market Hall, where there were rumored to be stalls upon stalls of butcher shops, sausage
shops, street food kiosks and bakeries.

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Today, the Molnár’s farm focuses nearly all of its attention on one thing: processing raw paprika. Though the family
does own a few small hectares of land—they grow two or three local sweet varieties and one hot one (the sweet
strands being Szegedi-80, Bolero, and Mihálytelki, and the hot one being Szegedi 178). These numbers mean little to
most people, but to Molnár, they are everything.
Hungary: Walking Budapest
Panorama, Forthcoming
http://www.panoramajournal.org/open-walking-budapest/
When I think back to my trip to Budapest, I think, first, of her street signs. Hungarian street signs look like puzzles of
Latin letters spilled out of a bag and rearranged into mouthfuls of consonants, vowels, and lots of extra dots. Signs
with words and phrases like artand hataratkelohely, magyarorszag, eloszallas, and vigyazz gepjarrmu-forgalom
narrate the city streets on corners, in roundabouts, at crossroads, and on highways.