eastern european extravaganza: prague and budapest

So I had a fairly busy end of March with lots of networking and traveling! From March 18 to 22, I was in Berlin for the Fulbright Seminar. After, Mary and I embarked on our Eastern European adventure (after Venice, I continued on my own through Italy ... next blog post):

March 22, Prague
March 23-24, Vienna (Wien)
March 25-26, Budapest
March 27, Venice (Venedig)
March 28-30, Rome (Rom)
March 31, Florence (Florenz)
April 1, Cinque Terre (Pisa and wandering around train stations because of a train strike)
April 2, Milan (Mailand)
April 3, 10-hour train from Milan to Bonn!

Prague

So our journey began with a 4ish hour train ride from Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central station) to Praha hlavní nádraží (which is Czech for central train station). The trains in the east are unbelievably slower than those in western Germany. I think the train tracks have not been upgraded to handle faster trains ... still ... it was only 29 EUR to get there!

Despite our short stay here, we saw a lot of the main sites: Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, the famous Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square, and the Dancing House. We knew we had to visit the Charles Bridge, especially since it was listed in our guidebooks as a tourist must. Thankfully the bridge wasn't incredibly pack when we visited. Filled with artists, Asian tourists making peace signs, Baroque statues, the bridge was quite a spectacular place for panoramic shots of Prague and the castle on the other side of the bridge on top of the hill.

In addition to the main sites, I had goulash for the first time. I think an American equivalent would be something like beef stew minus the vegetables. Mary and I met up with other Fulbrighters, Torsten and Ellie (TandE), our first night and made it a quest to find a nice restaurant for Czech food. On the west side of the river, "Lesser Town" (also where the castle is located) we found a place. Our waiter first asked us where we were from. This question is always a complicated one because we are from America but currently living in Germany for a year. And most of us can speak enough German to get by or even hold a very intelligent conversation auf Deuts

Budapest

After Prague we headed to Vienna (Wien) for a few days. I don't think I'll discuss Wien here, so I'll move on to Budapest, which I really fell in love with.

The Chain Bridge is fairly famous because of its symbolic connection bridging the East and West (i.e. Buda and Pest), engineering design at the time it was built, and importance economically, culturally, and socially to the Hungarians (according to Wikipedia). It was the first bridge to permanently cross the Danube in Budapest and is made out of cast iron. The bridge opened in 1849 and had one of the longest spans (202 m, 663 ft) in the world in former times. Luckily the bridge wasn't overrun with tourists when we visited so we were able to get some good shots of the bridge in the background along with the famous lions at the entrances. Interestingly, the bridge (and also Buda Castle) was in Katy Perry's music video of "Firework"!

We also visited Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe, St. Stephen's Basilica, and Buda Castle. There were some spectacular views of Pest and the Danube River from the latter place.

Before we left Budapest, we visited the Great Market Hall, which was quite close to the Danube and just a 5-10 minute walk from the synagogue. WOW! The market hall was quite impressive. Imagine a farmer's market inside a building the size of very large grocery store, with a basement of more food and a 2nd floor of warm/cooked food and tons of gizmos and gadgets (mostly for tourists). I really loved the way the veggies and fruits were displayed; the juxtaposition of such vibrant colors was just superb.



Even though we were only here for a day and a half, I felt Budapest was the city I would most want to return to out of the cities I visited during this E. Europe tour. Not only was Budapest very cheap (they use the Hungarian Forints), but the atmosphere of the city was just right. Furthermore, there not many tourists, since it is fairly east. Budapest is a place I would recommend to anyone wanting to venture outside the typical Western Europe culture and also avoid crowds of tourists (i.e. Prague).