Central Europe Part Two

Disclaimer: it has taken me several months to finish writing about my trip, so it is a bit disjointed. Stay tuned for a wrap-up post about my last month in Italy!


My trip has made me reflect a lot on how the modern era has changed traveling. I already mentioned the constant need for Internet in my last post. Another curious element of traveling is the relationships you make. I've met so many fellow travelers (not in the sputnik/communist sense of the term). Facebook of course is so common that it's almost impossible to lose contact with someone. But out of the roughly 40 people I've talked to on this trip, I've only friended five of them. It just happens that way, I guess. You can spend an entire evening with a group and not even exchange names.

From Vienna, I took the bus to Bratislava (I'll save you the 30 second google maps search, it's in Slovakia). I arrived in the evening and left the next evening for Budapest, so I only had one day to explore. It is a small town, presenting the stark architectural contrast between Austro-Hungarian grandeur and drab communist uniformity. I had been planning on taking another free walking tour in the morning, but got sucked into listening to a heated debate about American political issues. One of the guys mentioned he was going for pancakes. I also had read about the pancake place in the free map from the hostel, but was going to skip it for the tour. I decided on pancakes (and new friends) instead. The pancakes were really more like crêpes. I had some sweet ones and one savory, the latter was with a sheep's cheese that is only made in Slovakia. They were so cheap that I didn't say anything when the guy ridiculously overcharged me (they were supposed to be like 20-30 cents each, I paid 50¢…seriously, they needed it more than I did). After the pancakes, we killed some time before the afternoon tour. One of the highlights of the tour was the Blue Church, an Art Nouveau building that somehow survived communism. It looked as if it belonged in Candyland, powder-blue with white frosting. Directly across the street was a hideous, run-down hospital building from the Soviet era. The contrast was quite stunning.

From Bratislava I ventured to Budapest, which was one of my favorite cities on the trip. The numerous bridges and presence of water reminded me so much of San Francisco that I did feel the slight pangs of homesickness. I didn't actually visit any of the main sites, although I saw the main market and rode on the second oldest subway in Europe (from 1896 I believe). I went on two excellent tours (again, free!) - communist Budapest and Jewish Budapest. The tour guides for the Communism tour were in their forties, which means they experienced firsthand the restrictions (and eventual liberties) under Soviet rule. It made for a very personal tour.

After Budapest, I went to Zagreb. The train ride was about six hours. I spent the first hour standing up, face in the wind, because I had the misfortune of sitting in a reserved seat, which I subsequently had to give up. To be fair, it wasn't my fault -- the train guy was about 20 minutes late putting the "reserved" signs up, and by the time he came around, the train was full. I did eventually get a seat, in a compartment full of Aussies (seriously they're everywhere). Zagreb is a pretty neat city. Purely by chance, I was there on the eve of Croatia's acceptance into the EU. There was a concert in the main square and fireworks at midnight, but otherwise it was rather low key.

From Zagreb I went to Ljubljana. I only stayed one night, since at a certain point, after two weeks of traveling, I was ready to go home. The next morning, after missing my train due to its departure from a different platform, I headed to Trieste. Because of the schedule and the relative difficulty getting back to Bologna, I only stayed in Trieste for about an hour. (Basically from Ljubljana, I took a train to Gorizia, a town that is half in Slovenia and half in Italy. From Gorizia I went to Trieste, then Trieste to Venezia, and Venice to Bologna). Needless to say, I was happy to be home when the train finally pulled into Bologna Centrale.

It's now been two months since I made the solo trip through Central Europe. I am actually quite proud of myself, since I've never been that assertive of a person, and traveling alone requires some amount of self-assurance. In total, I've now been to 17 countries, 3 continents (well, 3.5 depending on how you count Eurasia), and have made countless international friendships.