Prague

I know, it's really cliche. It's really cool to visit Prague right now, and it's really cool to think Prague is really cool. Well, Prague is really cool. I really enjoyed our two days there.

First of all, getting to Prague was not our finest travel experience. When you're in California planning a trip, you most likely think, "Oh, Prague, Budapest--those are those two eastern European cities people go to now. They are probably just over the hill from one another." Wrong. . . . False. The train from Budapest to Prague is seven long hours. Also, even though RailEurope.com lets you book a rail pass reservation from Budapest to Prague, part of the journey is not covered by your rail pass. So when you enter Slovakia, the Slovakian conductor will dutifully inform you that your rail pass is worthless here, and you'd better pay up if you want to stay on the train and cross his country. Awesome! Thanks so much for the head's up, RailEurope.com.

Now once we actually entered the Czech Republic, it was pretty neat. One of my mentors at Orrick, Spencer Jackson, spent the better part of a 3-hour dinner telling me an awesome story from the mid-1980s about when he and his friends, all newly minted Berkeley graduates on a Eurotrip, decided it would be cool to drive a BMW into Soviet Czechoslovakia. Let's just say it involved Soviet soldiers, threats, suspicion they were CIA operatives, desperate poverty, $0.05 beer, and fleeing back across the Iron Curtain quickly in lieu of being detained over a minor car accident. Well, things have definitely changed in the Czech Republic today. It was cool to see the CR after hearing Spencer's story and seeing modern Hungary, because everything about the country today seemed to embody stepping forward with pride and confidence. Everything seems nice, well-maintained, and forward-looking. (But there were one or two cool reminders of the Soviet era, such as the Soviet military graveyard our train passed in the CR which held junked Migs and Cold War-era tanks.)

Upon arriving in Prague, we met up with Jen Raab, a Berkeley Law alum who finished a year before us, and her German boyfriend, who she met on her now ridiculously long post-bar trip. We sat down for some traditional Czech food, and I ordered the "Village Mayor's Feast," which consisted of duck, ham, roasted pork, sausage, heavy bread dumplings, and everyone's favorite regional delight--pickled cabbage. Lunch was great, and after saying goodbye to Jen, Nathan and I went on to our hostel, St. Christopher's Mosaic House, which has to be one of the nicest hostels in Europe. I've stayed at many hotels that don't hold a candle to the place.

In the evening, we walked around a bit to see Prague at night, which is simply stunning, and we ate dinner on the main square.

The next day, I ate breakfast at the hostel, and then I rushed over the river and up to the castle to see the Czech changing of the guard at noon. This was a really cool changing of the guard ceremony, and if you like that sort of thing, be sure to check it out when you're in Prague. The ceremony took place in a light rain, which added to it a bit for me. The royal grounds are open to the public, and they are fun to explore. The hilltop also contains a large cathedral, gardens, and various craftsmen such as glass etchers. In addition, there are beautiful views of the city below.

On our way down the hill, it was definitely time for some lunch (5 pm!!), so I stopped into a restaurant and ordered one of their featured menus (common in Europe)--vegetable soup and a Czech sausage. Nathan did not order because he had already eaten something, and our hostess berated him for this because "this is not what we do in the Czech Republic." So if you sit with a friend at a meal in the CR, you'd best order something.

Between the Jewish Quarter and the main square, I bought a trdelník, which is a Czech pastry that is wrapped around a wheel and then baked by spinning the wheel next to a heat source (like gyro meat). When it's ready, they take the wheel and slide the pastry off the end. This was one of the best pastries I've had in Europe--definitely seek one out if you visit Prague.

On our second night, we decided to stay in and eat at our hostel. We hung out with a really fun Aussie couple and sampled some of the world-famous Czech beer. And since our waiter forgot about us and our order entirely and our food took two hours to come (I didn't really notice because we were having fun with the Aussies), we were only charged about half of what our total should have been. Score!

In sum, Prague is a great city to visit. I know it's so trendy, but in this case I think its popularity is well-founded. I would have loved to visit with Jen, as it is a very beautiful city, and I really liked the eastern European flair to the architecture. It was very fun to shoot and explore. Also, the food is quite good and the local brews are amazing (and very cheap--generally about €1-2). Check out my album to see some of Prague's beauty, and if you're in the 18-30 demographic, stay at Mosaic House, even if you're not a fan of the "hostel" label. It's essentially a nice hotel catering to a young demographic. I'd love to return to this charming city with Jen down the road, and it would also be fun to visit some other Czech towns, such as Český Krumlov.

- R

Budapest

Our train ride from Vienna to Budapest was five hours and generally followed the Danube River, which touches both cities, but the five-hour ride fit right in with this marathon stretch of our trip--overnight train, five-hour train, seven-hour train, five-hour train, six-hour train, four-and-a-half hour train . . . all in about a week. Until this week, we had taken our time (by my definition) and built in a lot of Mediterranean beach towns, but this stretch was a bit too ambitious. It left me pretty exhausted and nursing a rough cold.

What struck me the most about Budapest was that to this day, it still seems to show some of its Soviet-era past--much more so than our next destination, Prague. I do not mean this in terms of Soviet stars and hammer-and-sickle emblems everywhere. Rather, this showed in the "concrete block" architecture of many of the buildings and in the economic status of many residents that, while not desperately poor, did not seem quite as well off as many of their European counterparts. The entire day was characterized by a dull gray sky, but something about that felt appropriate for the place.

Also, the currency, the Hungarian forint, made things a little more fun here. We felt like kings because we dropped thousands of forints all over the place. To know the price of something in euro, just divide by 280. So my 4200-forint dinner was about €15. I changed €10 with our apartment's owner so that I could get 2500 forints to pay our cab driver the next morning. We made it rain.

Another big difference was getting further away from familiar languages on the linguistic continuum of Europe. In Spain, I could understand a lot and read almost anything. In Portugal, southern France, and Italy, I could read quite a bit and pick up the gist of things. In Austria, I knew some important German words. But when it comes to Hungarian or Czech, the languages of these two stops, neither of us could read or understand a word, which can make thing a bit interesting at times.

We stayed in an apartment north of the Chain Bridge, so we started out by working our way south down the river. First, we passed Parliament, an impressive structure that is the largest parliamentary building in continental Europe. It was built in anticipation of accommodating the representatives from the (as envisioned) vast Hungarian Empire. At the time, Hungary consisted of three times the area it occupies today. The whole Hungarian Empire thing didn't work out so well (so much of the space lies unused today), but hey, the building's nice.

Next, it was on to the Chain Bridge and Buda Castle. Originally, Budapest was two cities, Buda on the west bank, Pest on the east. But over time, their identities merged into Budapest. This area was neat, and I really wanted to return to shoot the bridge and castle at night, but I found myself too exhausted to make the trip.

From Buda Castle, we stayed on top of the hill on the west bank and walked over to the cathedral and the rest of the Castle District. Then we crossed to the Pest side to visit Budapest's synagogue, which is one of the largest in Europe and contains a very well done memorial garden dedicated to Hungary's Holocaust victims. During WWII, the Hungarian government resisted Nazi pressure to turn on its sizable Jewish population, but after Hungary fell, that protection was gone. The garden features a silver weeping willow tree, the leaves of which are engraved with the names of victims.

We ended our tour with a walk to the cathedral and a quick trip out to the Heroes' Square and Vajdahunyad Castle. Then we had dinner in our neighborhood and tried two Hungarian specialties: goulash (beef soup) and paprika chicken. After that, we called in a night early because we had a 5:30 am, 7-hour train to Prague the next morning.

Budapest was very interesting (album here), and it was neat to see a real Eastern European city, but I do not think I would plan to return because there is another eastern city called Prague, and Prague is awesome. (See next.)

Vienna

Our overnight train from Florence arrived in Vienna at about 9 am on Sunday. We dropped our bags at our hostel and then went to meet up with my friend Becci. Becci grew up in Germany, and we became friends when she spent one year at my high school (we also went to Sadie Hawkins together back in the day). Today, she works for IBM in Vienna, and she was kind enough to plan a great day for us in Vienna and spend her Sunday showing us around the city.

We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Schiffstation, a new restaurant situated right across the canal from Becci's IBM office. I had some delicious buckwheat pancakes with berries and banana slices. It was a great spot, and we enjoyed watching the locals relaxing over Sunday brunch.

Next, we jumped on a special tram that goes around the city center and describes (in eight languages) the major buildings and monuments along the way. Then we walked through the city center and came upon a food and music festival that was taking place in one of the city parks. There we sampled some Viennese sausages, and one of Becci's coworkers was staffing a gourmet Austrian cheese stand, so she gave us a few samples of the region's cheeses.

After our lunch at the festival, we went to see the Palace of Belvedere, and then Becci drove us out to the edge of the city to walk along the river. Here, we could see some of the vineyards that surround the city--we did not have time to go, but if you visit Vienna, one fun thing to add to your itinerary is a stop at a "wine garden," which is Vienna's answer to Munich's beer gardens. They are essentially outdoor cafes among the vineyards where you can pair regional foods with the area's young white wines.

When we returned to the city, Nathan went to see some more sites, and I joined Becci to see an evening service at her church in Vienna. This was really cool, since it was an international church. Some songs were in English, but about half were in German (though I knew them from American churches), and the sermon was given by the pastor (from NJ, USA) in English, but each sentence was repeated in German before he would continue. It was neat to see a church like this in the middle of a major European city, and I also enjoyed the experience because my friend JP had attended an international church when he studied in Germany, and this gave me a little more understanding of what that may have been like.

After the service, we met up with Nathan again to eat Vienna's signature dish: wienerschnitzel. Essentially, this is a piece of veal that has been pounded thin and then fried with a breadcrumb coating. Tasty, but really filling! I was glad that Becci told us to order 1/2 orders (which they called "kinder"--i.e. children's plate), because that was definitely enough.

Nathan and I had an early train to Budapest, and Becci had work the next morning, so we called it a night after dinner, but we had a really nice day in Vienna. It is a clean, beautiful city full of pleasing architecture and Austrian pride. It was also really nice to see Becci after 8 years and catch up on her life, educational, and professional experiences. You can view the album here. Thanks for reading!

- R