So my initial plan was to update my blog every few days, when I went to a new city. Well, it turns out that when you finally get a break while traveling for 29days straight, you don't want to spend a break on the computer. So needless to say, I will condense the rest of my trip.
After Berlin I went to Poland. Warsaw was very interesting. It is still a city recovering from Communism; the city was destroyed during the war and they are attempting to rebuild and restore what is important to the city's history. There was a great museum all about Warsaw's role in during the war and beautiful buildings within and around the city. The palace of art and science was very beautiful and had GREAT Christmas lights. From Warsaw, I continued south to Krakow where I felt like I was living a flash back.
Krakow has the commonly visited Wawel Hill, an area with a huge castle and chapel, that has been growing for hundreds of years with each new ruler. I stayed in a great hostel where I made friends with one of the young women working there; we headed out for drinks and some awesome bars...I felt like I was in a time warp to the 1970's! My trip on Krakow also included the revolting tour of Auschwitz-Brikinau. As disturbing as the sight was, I have a huge appreciation for life, diversity, and government!
With trains on strike in Hungary, I had an interesting journey getting to Budapest, but when I arrived, it was AMAZING! The city (which used to be 2 cities on opposite sides of the river, Buda and Pest) was so full of culture and life. I spent the first day with a woman I met on Couch Surfing and we had Hungarian fish soup for lunch and went to a really interesting museum. I Couch Surfed with a really nice woman and she took me to some of the funkiest bars...in caves, live jazz, Janis Joplin cover band. I explored the Buda Castle, underground caves, local markets, but the best part was the thermal pools. There were tons of pools, large and small, some with jets, some with currents, as hot at 105 and as cold as 52. Lots of saunas and a fun place to meet people. I could have spent the entire week there!
From Budapest I went to Vienna, where I spent Christmas. I Couch Surfed there with a really cool young woman and she had 2 other surfers at her place from Italy and Brazil; we had a great time wandering the city, cooking, and drinking together! I also joined her family for Christmas dinner...cheese, bread, veggies, fruit, wine. AMAZING! While I was in Vienna, I spent a day in Bratislava, Slovakia...what a dud of a trip. The city was closed for Christmas (they celebrate the day before Vienna so we didn't know it would be a ghost town!). I met some other travelers who were also greatly disappointed, we found the only open restaurant and tried all the different types of Absinthe...I guess it was still a good Eastern Europe experience!
From Vienna I took the night train to Rome to pick up my brother Dillon and continue on exploring Italy...
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