From the Hans Christian Andersen biography "The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. Day By Day", written by DPhil Johan de Mylius:

1841

Constantinople

6 April

Witnesses the celebration of independence and spends Easter (9th - 11th April) in Athens.

12 April

Dinner with the Austrian Ambassador and writer, Anton Prokesch von Osten, who reads aloud Chamisso's translation of 5 poems by HCA for the guests.

14 April

Evening party held by King Otto of Greece.

18 April

Dines once more with Prokesch von Osten, who reads some of his poems from Asia and Africa aloud. HCA tells fairy-tales, e.g. "The Little Mermaid", which greatly pleases the young Austrian attaché and lyrical poet Hippolit Sonnleithner.

1841: Constantinople


20 April

From Athen to Pireus. From here HCA sails on 21at April with the steamship Eorotas, bound for Syra.

22 April

Aboard the steamship Rhamses from Syra to Smyrna. During the trip a storm rages so fiercely that HCA fears his final hour has arrived:

"The women shrieked, the ship creaked and I thought about my Danish friends, those I expected never to see again"
(letter written in Vienna, 21st June, to Henriette Wulff).

Continues through the Dardanelles, past Gallipoli to Constantinople.

25 April

Arrival in Constantinople.

5 May

Departure from Constantinople aboard the ship Ferdinand I. Sails through the Bosporus to The Black Sea and to Küstendje (Constanta). On 7th May, via Tartariet in Bulgaria, aboard the Danube Ship named Argo. Passes by Rustchuk (8th May) and other Bulgarian towns, through the Iron Gate (Romania, 11-12th May) to Orsova. Departs Orsova 24th May by carriage, headed for Drenkova. On from here aboard the steamship Galathea (via Moldavia, Belgrade, with a stay in Semlin) to Budapest (Pesth).

31st May - 2nd June

In Budapest.

2 June

Leaves Budapest aboard the steamship Maria Anna, via Pressburg (3rd June) bound for Vienna.

4 June

Arrival in Vienna. Spends time with Melchior Grevenkop-Castenskjold, Danish secretary of legation, who takes HCA under his wing. Also associates with the violinist August Pott and the piano virtuoso Sigismund Thalberg. Hears Johan Strauss senior in Volksgarten (11th June) and visits the poet Grillparzer (11th & 22nd June), who is very happy to see HCA again and feels that HCA is the only natural poet at the present time. Visits the German actress and writer Johanna von Weisserthurn.

23 June

Departure from Vienna.

25 June 1841

Arrival in Prague, where he sees Nestroy acting in one of his own folk comedies.

28 June

Sails from Prague along the river Elbe, aboard a steamship named Boehmia, bound for Dresden (arrival 29th June). Here he visits the painter J.C. Dahl, as well as the writer and theatre director Theodor Hell.

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