(no subject)
Well, we have returned from what we determined was the Hapsburg tour (the Hapsburgs were kings of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia (Czech Republic) from the 1100's to 1918) and saw castles, churches, palaces, synagogues, rapidly growing capitalism, and my friends from Hungary from when I was a kid.
The easiest place to get around was the Czech Republic, the hardest, Austria. That was not what I was expecting, but in Austria everything is in German, all of the restaurant menus and everything. We ate a lot of italian because we can recognize italian dishes even on menus written in German. In the Czech Republic, they know you don't speak Czech so they just speak English to you. Every restaurant we went into had English menus, most of the signs were also in English, and just about everybody spoke English. We watched tourists from places like Spain or Italy trying to communicate with Czech people in broken English.
The Czech Republic and Hungary are both making good use of their EU money by restoring all of the churches the Communists locked up. As a result, a great deal of what we saw was being restored or had been restored recently. In addition, Prague had a big flood in 2002 and they were still fixing stuff from that, too. The people in Prague and Budapest have clearly grabbed onto this capitalism thing with both hands. The stores appeared to be doing well, and there were lots of foreign (read here American) brands. There was lots and lots and lots of graffiti, but what I would consider to be western levels of homelessness. We were also informed that a lot of the beggars were gypsies. Hungary especially has a very large gypsy population.
We had a few experiences.....such as on the 8 hour train ride between Prague and Budapest we were in a train car with two Americans and a young guy who probably didn't speak english. By the end of the first hour, I thought that the young guy had the greatest blessing, since the American woman we were in the train with talked the whole time. She talked although I was trying to dose with my eyes closed, she talked although Ryan had his magazine up in front of his face, she talked although her husband got up to "get some fresh air" which was clearly a survival trait. She told us about her husband's health conditions, her daughter's trip to Spain, her travel arrangements. Ryan and I eventually went to the dining car with our books. There, was, however, a brief moment of hope. The conducter looked at them and said "problem". It turns out their EuroRail pass did not let them go through Slovakia, and we went through slovakia. We hoped that they would be taken off the train, but no, the conducter accepted a 40 euro bribe. Back to the dining car.
In Budapest, we found better americans in an all you can drink wine tasting....well, at least we liked them better. They are old enough to be our parents, and have e-mailed us. It was definitely a night on the town, especially when you add in the two really fun people from Singapore, and their Chinese friend.
We also went to an underground lake, an ossuary with impressive bone sculptures, a catacombs, Franz Kafka's house (did you know he was Czech?, me either) and many, many, churches, palaces, and castles.
The easiest place to get around was the Czech Republic, the hardest, Austria. That was not what I was expecting, but in Austria everything is in German, all of the restaurant menus and everything. We ate a lot of italian because we can recognize italian dishes even on menus written in German. In the Czech Republic, they know you don't speak Czech so they just speak English to you. Every restaurant we went into had English menus, most of the signs were also in English, and just about everybody spoke English. We watched tourists from places like Spain or Italy trying to communicate with Czech people in broken English.
The Czech Republic and Hungary are both making good use of their EU money by restoring all of the churches the Communists locked up. As a result, a great deal of what we saw was being restored or had been restored recently. In addition, Prague had a big flood in 2002 and they were still fixing stuff from that, too. The people in Prague and Budapest have clearly grabbed onto this capitalism thing with both hands. The stores appeared to be doing well, and there were lots of foreign (read here American) brands. There was lots and lots and lots of graffiti, but what I would consider to be western levels of homelessness. We were also informed that a lot of the beggars were gypsies. Hungary especially has a very large gypsy population.
We had a few experiences.....such as on the 8 hour train ride between Prague and Budapest we were in a train car with two Americans and a young guy who probably didn't speak english. By the end of the first hour, I thought that the young guy had the greatest blessing, since the American woman we were in the train with talked the whole time. She talked although I was trying to dose with my eyes closed, she talked although Ryan had his magazine up in front of his face, she talked although her husband got up to "get some fresh air" which was clearly a survival trait. She told us about her husband's health conditions, her daughter's trip to Spain, her travel arrangements. Ryan and I eventually went to the dining car with our books. There, was, however, a brief moment of hope. The conducter looked at them and said "problem". It turns out their EuroRail pass did not let them go through Slovakia, and we went through slovakia. We hoped that they would be taken off the train, but no, the conducter accepted a 40 euro bribe. Back to the dining car.
In Budapest, we found better americans in an all you can drink wine tasting....well, at least we liked them better. They are old enough to be our parents, and have e-mailed us. It was definitely a night on the town, especially when you add in the two really fun people from Singapore, and their Chinese friend.
We also went to an underground lake, an ossuary with impressive bone sculptures, a catacombs, Franz Kafka's house (did you know he was Czech?, me either) and many, many, churches, palaces, and castles.