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The Saga Farmann, the first Viking ship to sail West to East across Europe, stopped in Budapest on the Danube this weekend.
Coming from Norway, the ship recently passed Vienna and Bratislava and arrived for a weekend stop in Budapest. It will continue to Belgrade and then to the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania, and will reach its final destination in Istanbul, Turkey after 2,403 kilometers.
In 1970, a Viking-era merchant ship was recovered from the sea, believed to have sunk near Larvik, Norway, around the year 1000 AD. The Viking ship, which is more than 1,000 years old, can be admired at the museum in Tønsberg, Norway. A modernized replica of this ship is the Saga Farmann, but it now has, for example, an engine, so that it can easily travel upstream.
The modernization was necessary mainly because the crew is sailing in a different route to Istanbul than their ancestors. The Vikings once reached the Black Sea via the Volga, Don, and Dnieper rivers, however, due to the war, they cannot cross Russia and Ukraine today. Instead, they reached the Danube via Lübeck, Mainz, and Regensburg, using the German canal system, and can now sail safely to the Black Sea and Turkey. There they plan to spend the winter and head for the Mediterranean next year.
Via welovebudapest.com, Featured image via Facebook/Vikingskipet Saga Farmann