 |
||
|
 |
|
 |
One of the wonderful things about Europe is its ability to evoke memories of ages past. And now, in the post-Cold War world, there are even more opportunities to see a Europe of old – by visiting Eastern Europe. A trip through Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic (as my husband and I did in fall 2003) offers a relatively inexpensive history lesson and a chance to see things the way they used to be.
Our next stop was Prague (a 4.5 hour train ride from Bratislava). Prague is beautiful, interesting, crowded, and quite westernized these days – it is no longer possible to find inexpensive lodging, although food prices are still quite reasonable. As this was our second visit to Prague, we skipped the city tours and instead concentrated on specific areas of town, namely the Jewish Quarter and the Prague Castle area. Both were fascinating and ripe for photo-taking! We also enjoyed a chamber music concert in the St. George Basilica at the castle. Once again, the public transportation was difficult to figure out, but since we had lodging in the city (a nice, relatively reasonably-priced place called Pension 2000), we could walk to most places. Our final stops were in Dresden (a three hour train from Prague) and Leipzig. While Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic were fun and interesting, it was actually nice to get back to speaking German and using euros again! Dresden especially was very interesting; much like Berlin, it seems like the entire city is under construction, but it’s quite easy to get around and the history is fascinating. The skyline at night is especially breathtaking. Overall, our trip was quite fun with many varied experiences, plus we learned a lot. We would definitely recommend visiting the east, and do it soon before it gets any more westernized! To see more photos of our trip, click here; and for more information on the cities we visited, see the websites listed below. Happy exploring! For more information
on things mentioned in this article, see the following websites: This article
was originally written by Kirsten for the February/March 2004 issue
of Currents. |
We
started our trip by flying from Hamburg to Vienna (a cheap one-way
flight on Air Berlin) to take in the sights and sounds of the old
world. After spending a day and a half sightseeing, sampling an
original Sacher torte from the Hotel Sacher, and taking in a concert
of Mozart classics, we headed to Budapest (less than a three hour
train trip). Although Budapest was more westernized than we had
expected, it still had plenty of uniqueness. On our “Budapest
Absolute Walking Tour”, we learned the amazing history of
Hungary and saw breathtaking sights. We stopped in handicraft markets
and bought some lovely gifts. We also ate very well in Budapest
– the meals were hearty, delicious, and inexpensive! Luckily,
the language barrier wasn’t too much of a problem, but the
public transportation system was difficult to figure out (we would
highly recommend buying a Budapest Card, which includes free public
transportation, at one of the tourist information offices).
From
Budapest we took a 2.5 hour train ride to Bratislava, the often-overlooked
(tourism-wise) capital of Slovakia. Bratislava was the most challenging
place to navigate, but also the most interesting of the cities we
visited. The influx of western money has not quite reached Bratislava
yet, which gave it the aura of a flower about to bloom. We found
the stark contrasts of East and West fascinating – beautiful,
centuries-old monuments right next to boxy Communist-era statues;
a view from Bratislava castle that includes lovely old museums on
one side of the Danube and ugly concrete tenement houses built in
the 60s on the other; and charming markets with handicrafts in the
old town versus the three year old Polis City Center Mall in the
newer town. Overall, the city was fascinating and well-worth visiting
(but be sure to read the public transportation tickets carefully
– we went three minutes over our timed ticket and were stopped
and fined EUR 35 apiece).