Eastern Europe rocks...

The first part of our ten day break in Eastern Europe

The castle district of Budapest from across the Danube River

STOP!  The past ten-ish days have been extremely eventful.  Before you read any further, I recommend that you find a cushy chair, make yourself a cup of coffee, and get comfortable – it’s a long entry.

Ok – ready? 

A week from last Friday, I left for a ten-day tour of Eastern Europe with 5 classmates from AHA – Mari, Christina, Kim, Kalenga, and Darryn (yes, they’re all women.)  Our first stop on our journeys was Budapest, Hungary.

Budapest:  We flew into Budapest very early in the morning, and had to pay way too much to take a bus from the airport to our hostel.  Once we arrived at the hostel, we found out that our room wouldn't be available for another four hours, so we wandered around the city.  This wouldn’t have been so bad, except that it felt about 35 degrees in Budapest that morning.  The rest of the day involved sleeping and a bit more wandering - nothing too exciting.

The next day, most of us took a guided tour of the city, and were able to see most of the main monuments of the city - the castle district, the Parliament buildings, Chain Bridge, and Heroes's Square Park.  That night, we split up for very different cultural experiences.  Four of the girls decided to go see a concert of traditional baroque music - it sounded interesting, but Kalenga and I decided to see a more exciting form of entertainment.  We attended an international blues festival that had going on nonstop for the entire weekend.  The "Blues Patika Jamboree" was a mix of professional blues artists from all over the EU and the USA, with up to three different bands playing at the same time.  For 10 USD, we were able to see a brass jazz band, a singing blues trio, a couple of acoustic solo artists, and a Ray Charles cover band.  We were both amazed with the quality of the artists, and the fact that we could appreciate bands from so many different countries because we all spoke the common language - music.

Our last day in Budapest, (Sunday) we discovered that the next day (Monday) was Hungary’s celebration of their 1956 revolt against the oppressive Soviet occupation.  The Soviets had been put into power in the aftermath of World War II, and the Hungarians suffered jail, torture, and executions as a result of living under an iron fist.  The revolt of 1956 was not successful, however, and it took many more years before they finally won their independence.  The revolt, however, is commemorated every year with many different events.  On one of the main streets, actors recreated the feel of the 1950’s while tanks and army trucks lined the leaf-covered streets.  At the head of the street was an arrangement of votive candles that spelled out the fateful date.  Behind the candles lied a “dead” actor with a bullet wound in his head, surrounded by flowers and mourners.  We also were allowed to visit the Museum of Terror for free on account of the holiday.  The building stands on the site of a former Soviet headquarters, which was largely destroyed when the occupiers left.  The museum is a faithful reconstruction of the building that once stood on the site.  The upper floors are full of rooms that show the events surrounding the occupation.  The prison cells and torture chambers in the basement were also recreated faithfully, and offered a grim picture of the occupation.  Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience to see the people of Hungary celebrate their fierce national pride.  That night we hopped a train for the next leg of our trip, Prague, Czech Republic.

Final verdict: Budapest is beautiful – go if you can.

Prague:  Once again, we took a night train to our next destination.  And once again, our hostel room wasn’t ready for us.  Thankfully, the weather had warmed up quite a bit, so our morning wanderings were a little more enjoyable.  And since we had no room, we decided to take a guided tour of the city to burn some time and get some bearings on where everything was.  The tour took us to all of the traditional sights – the Jewish Quarter (ghetto-turned-rich shopping district), the National Museum, Charles Bridge, and the palace district.  The rest of that was once again pretty uneventful, so I’ll skip ahead.

Our first full day in Prague was once again full of wanderings, and I decided to take the city solo so I could travel at my own pace (which is very quick.)  During my explorations I took a night hike up to Petřínská rozhledna, a 60 meter observation tower modeled after the Eiffel Tower.  Unfortunately, the tower was closed, but I was still able to get a pretty nice view of the city.  Then I headed back down the hill to meet up with Kim and Christina.  The other girls had decided to attend a marionette show, but the three of us decided that we wanted to experience some of the modern culture and found a jazz bar.  Built underground out of rock, the bar had the look of a cellar or a cave, and offered an incredible environment to listen to a local jazz group and sip our (thankfully) cheap drinks.  That night was also special because it marked two “firsts” for me – it was the first time I drank hot wine, and the first time I listened to a jazz band singing in Czech. 

The next day, our group met up for a semi fancy sit-down Czech meal, something we did in each of the cities we visited.  There, we enjoyed our traditional Czech meals to the music of an accordion player, which made the meal even better.  Afterwards, the group split for the evening.  One half went to a bar that had a live rock band, and Darryn and I went to a black light theater show.  According to all of the pamphlets and fliers I had seen around the city, black light theater is an art form that “has been perfected” in the Czech Republic.  It involves using black lights and fluorescent paints on the actors and props to create a unique theater experience.  Since there were four or five black light theaters in the area, we had a choice of shows to see – we chose to see an adaptation of the Broadway musical, Cats.  Having seen Cats before, I was excited to see the theater’s interpretation of the play….and it was absolutely horrible.  Ignoring the fact that the play didn’t actually have songs from Cats, (as the posters had clearly claimed) the amateur acting and childish music made us feel like we were in a cheap kid’s theater show.  It was too bad – I’m sure there were amazing black light shows, but this definitely wasn’t one of them.  After the show, we joined the rest of the group at the rock bar to make sure the night wasn’t a total loss.  The next afternoon, we hopped on a train for our final destination on the trip – Vienna, Austria.

Final Verdict: Prague is neat, but Budapest is better – go to Budapest.

Vienna: Since we didn’t have to travel overnight to get to Vienna, our hostel room was actually ready for us, and we were all well rested.  We hit the city during its national celebration of its independence from its Socialist government.  During our only full day in the city, I decided to wander off on my own again to find what I could find.  Because of the holiday, the first thing I found was a large military expo.  There were helicopters, jets, and other military implements available for people to go to and take pictures.  There were also high-ranking government officials on hand for some sort of ceremony that involved large amounts of Austrian soldiers marching in formation into the square.  Next to this was a social services expo, where police, fire fighters, Red Cross, ambulance, and other city services had set up booths for the public.  I wish that I could speak German well enough to have had a conversation with some of these people to find out more about the holiday and festivities, but unfortunately I don’t. 

After that piece of wandering, I decided to go see the Austrian Museum of Fine Arts.  The museum itself is as massive as it is beautiful.  I had a hard time fitting the entire thing into a single camera shot, and spent almost three hours browsing through the place.  The most interesting point for me was wandering through the ancient Greek exhibit.  Not only did I recognize the styles and shapes of the culture, but also I was surprised at what I knew about the pieces from numerous Greek museums tours and lectures with AHA.  I could even read some of the Greek script, which was pretty exciting.  So maybe the exhibit wasn’t terribly exciting, (considering that I’d seen so many Greek ruins already) but at least I know I’m learning something in this program.

After the museum, I took a long trek across Vienna to the other side of the Danube River.  The river is actually split into two at this point.  In between the two channels is a small island.  On the far end of this small island is a large park with a 252 meter observation tower/café/restaurant, which was built for the Viennese International Horticultural Show in 1964.  I just wanted to see the tower in person, and wasn’t planning on actually paying to go to the top.  But then I thought about you, the faithful blog reader, and decided to go get some birds eye pictures of Vienna for your viewing pleasure. See the album for those and all of the other vacation pictures.

That night, the whole group met up for our traditional sit-down meal, and decided to eat at a fancy restaurant behind the Parliament building (where the military demonstration had been.)  After an amazing meal, we headed to an Irish pub to celebrate the last night of our Europe trip.  (We ended up going to an Irish pub because there wasn’t a whole lot open bars on account of the holiday.)

The next morning was a whirlwind of action because we had a short day before we had to catch our train in the early afternoon.  First, I went to Demel Chocolates with Kalenga and Darryn.  Demel Chocolates is a restaurant café with a large selection of specialty (aka expensive) chocolates to eat and buy.  And the best part is, all of the chocolate is made on site, and visitors can watch all of it happening in the kitchen during their visit.  I bought a few small pieces of chocolate, then hopped on the metro for Schönbrunn Palace.  The palace and surrounding gardens used to be the residence of the Austrian emperor, but are now open to the public as a popular tourist attraction.  The palace gardens are especially beautiful and very massive.  Among many other things, the gardens have a zoo, a bush labyrinth, a public swimming pool, and miles of paths and hiking trails lined with meticulously trimmed trees to give the image of walking through a tunnel.  It was very unfortunate I didn’t have more time to spend there.  I only had 45 minutes before I had to head back to the hostel to catch our train.  In that time, I was only able to walk through a sixth of the gardens at a very quick pace.  I wish I had more time to spend there and to take pictures for you to see – I could have easily taken a whole day to see everything.

To end our time in Vienna, we had a bit of excitement.  One member of our group (who shall remain unnamed) didn’t have a watch, and returned to the hostel very late.  We actually split up the group, and I was prepared to spend an extra night in Vienna if she didn’t show up in time to catch our train back to Budapest.  Thankfully, she did show up, and we made a literal mad dash to the train station with two minutes to spare before our train left.  Needless to say, she’ll never live that episode down.  But other than that, (and a lost wallet) we made it back to Budapest with very little trouble, where we caught our plane back to Athens.

Final Verdict: Vienna is a great city, but very expensive.  Go to Budapest.

So now that our travels have come to a close, I’m taking this weekend to recuperate.  The rest of the weekend is also devoted to not being with a group of women 24/7…..haha!   

Final Verdict for the trip: Eastern Europe has a lot of fun if you’re willing to seek it out.  If you’re a big spender, go to Vienna to see the Schönbrunn Palace.  Otherwise, go to Budapest – you’ll love it!