I was sitting at work one day when I suddenly realized that I haven't taken any of my vacation yet. Seeing as how I'm almost halfway through my time here in Germany, I figured that now might be a good time, so I booked a week off from the University and started planning. My friend Laura, who's studying/working in Sweden right now, also had some time off from school, so we decided to check out Eastern Europe. Since I only had one week, there was no way we could see everything, but I think we got a good taste of Eastern Europe, and I will definately be back. We booked our bus into Prague from Würzburg and decided to plan the rest as we went, which I think is the best way to travel if you can manage it.

PRAGUE (CZECH REPUBLIC): The night bus into Prague was pretty awful. I couldn't really lie down or recline my seat, so I got maybe an hour or two of sleep while I tried to contort my body into some kind of comfortable position. Unfortunately, it wasn't much use, so I was pretty tired once we got into Prague at 5am! The city was quiet and empty as we walked through it though, which was cool, and we got to see the sunrise. First thing was to change money, and I managed to get ripped off right away! I found an exchange office with pretty good rates, but it turns out you only get those if you change more than 1000 Euro at once. Right... I think they took about a third of the traveller's cheque as 'commission.' Oh well... I guess it's the kind of mistake you only make once. Without too much trouble we found our hostel. The beds were open, so we napped for about 4 hours to make up for the night bus.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around and seeing the city. We saw, among other things, Prague's funicular, a mini Eiffel Tower, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, a concert, and the town square. After all that intense sightseeing (it was a lot of walking!) we were pretty tired, so we found a restaurant and got some food. The food was pretty cheap, although still comparable to Western Europe. Czech beer is also definately as good as German beer. That night we walked over Charles Bridge to see the city at night. Prague is awesome to wander around at night, the streets were packed with people, restaurant chairs, street performers, musicians, and people selling things. There was even some guy who was walking around with a boa constrictor (see photo below) for some reason. I'm glad I came in August.

Next day we did a bike tour of the city. It was good to learn a bit about the city, and of course it was good to be on a bike again - I really miss my bike in Vancouver! We also saw a bit more of the Castle area, and by then it was already getting late. After a quick dinner of asparagus soup and pasta (it looked pretty bad but actually tasted okay) we packed our bags and got onto (another!) night bus.

KRAKÓW (POLAND): There was no night bus to Krakow, so we decided to take one to Lodz instead, and then just take a quick train from Lodz to Krakow. Well, the map we were going on was horribly out of proportion, because when we got to Lodz at 5am we foud out we were about 200km out of the way - we were almost in Warsaw! Well, whatever, fortunately we were in Poland so the train tickets were only about 5 Euro. We walked around Lodz for an hour or so, an it turned out to be a pretty run-down industrial city. I don't think many tourists go there, it wasn't even in my Lonely Planet. We got to Krakow around 10am or so, and quickly found our hostel. I have to say, this is one of the nicest hostels I've ever been to. It was clean, cheap, full of friendly people, had free breakfast, and - best of all - they did your laundry for you. For free. If you're ever in Krakow, go to Nathan's Villa for sure.

After lunch we decided to go see the former concentration camp at Auschwitz. It's about a 1.5 hour train ride outside of Krakow, so we got there pretty late. We hired a private guide, and I'm really glad that we did beacause I wouldn't have known where to start. She did an excellent job of explaining everything, and I think it made it far more interesting than just seeing a bunch of old buildings.

Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration camp. There were a lot of things that were depressing to see, and a lot of things that were hard to hear about. One of the most powerful displays was the collections of former belongings of Jews. One room was just a mountain of old broken shoes, piled to the ceiling. Another was a twisted pile of thousands of pairs of broken glasses frames. I didn't really feel like taking many photos. There are only two below. One is of the railway tracks that led into Birkenau (one of the Auschwitz camps) where railway cars full of prisoners stopped. The other is of a display that showed empty cans of the gases used in the gas chambers.

The guide showed us around for about 4 hours, so it was quite late when we finished. To our surprise, there were absolutely no more trains or buses back to Krakow, no cheap hostels in the town of Oscwieciem, and our bags were sitting in the hostel in Krakow! We fountunately found a taxi driver who spoke German, and he drove us all the way into town (1.5 hour taxi fare!). It was 50 Euro, which is a lot, but MUCH cheaper than a 1.5 hour taxi ride in Western Europe!

Next day was pretty busy. We mostly walked around Krakow's old town, and also saw the Palace. For dinner we decided that we were going to eat in restaurants for the rest of the trip, since a nice meal in a restaurant in Eastern Europe is almost as cheap as cooking your own food in Western Europe. We found a Polish restaurant and I had Perogies and Borscht, which was delicious. Next morning we were up bright and early for our all-day train to Budapest.

BUDAPEST (HUNGARY): The train to Budapest took us through 4 countries (Poland, Czech, Slovakia, and Hungary) so I have a bunch of cool new passport stamps now. We got into Budapest around 5pm, are were a little lost. However, someone from our hostel met us at the train station, and we got a free ride in the hostel van right to the front door! I've never seen service like that in a hostel before... and we were paying so little, too! It was too late to see anything except the sunset, so we went out for dinner in a pretty nice restaurant (the food just kept getting cheaper the further into the trip we got). After that we walked around and saw the city at night, which was pretty amazing. It's a really beautiful city, especially when lit up at night.

Next morning we did a walking tour of Budapest. Again, it was really good because there's so much to see that it's hard to know where to go, especially when you only have 2 days there. We started seeing all the city buildings in Pest, including the second largest Synagogue in Europe, and then crossed the Danube and saw the Palace in Buda. The Hungarian Parliament is a particularly cool-looking building. Hungary is an interesting place, because they've been ruled/occupied by so many other countries (Austrian Hapsburgs, Nazis, Soviets, to name a few). After the tour, we walked through St. Stephen's Basilica, which is actually one of the most ornate churches I've seen.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called 'Fatal' that serves Hungarian Food in ridiculously large sized portions. I ordered a small dish and I couldn't finish - it was absolutely delicious though. One guy next to us ordered a big dish and there was so much food that people were taking photos of his plate. And best of all, the food was super cheap (around 4 or 5 Euro for the whole meal). After that we walked up to the Citadella for unbelievable views of Budapest, and crepes and ice cream.

The next day we went to a Hungarian Bath called Széchenyi. After a week of backpacking, it was so nice to just relax. We were only going to stay for an hour or two but ended up spending over 4. In Hungarian Baths (the water comes from thermal springs) you start in a 38 degree pool, then a slighly cooler one, then an even cooler one, and finally one that was around 20 degrees. Then you get out and start all over again in the hot pool. It sort of like Sauna, but less extreme temperature changes, and really relaxing. Other cool things included circular pools where the water spun you around, so you were basically floating and doing laps of the pool, and some huge outdoor pools with all sorts of fountains and jets to massage your back.

After that there wasn't much time left in the day. We basically went back to the hostel, got our bags, and caught the train to Slovakia.

BRATISLAVA (SLOVAKIA): We were pretty tired when we got into Bratislava, but fortunatelly our hostel was easy to find. For the whole trip we were mostly staying in student dorms. They were a little run down, but you got a double room for usually less than 10 euro per person. We (again) ate in a restaurant because it was so cheap! Next morning was our only full day in Bratislava, so we saw all the sights (Castle, Town Hall Tower, River Cruise on the Danube, Old Town). Bratislava is a really small town, compared to the other places we saw, so it was really nice and easy to walk around, and also just had more of a relaxed feeling to it.

Dinner that night was one of the best parts of my trip. Laura's aunt had given her 20 Euro to get a meal with, so we decided we would try to spend it all in one night, in Bratislava, the cheapest place for food on the entire trip. We had sooo much food (melted cheese appetizer, 2 plates of trout on a skewer and chicken stuffed with cheese, mushroom, and pepper, 3 side dishes, cake, poppy-seed stuffed pastries, walnut-stuffed pastries, and ice cream) and we couldn't spend 20 Euro. There were 10 Hungarian Crown left over. So, to Laura's Aunt: Thank you, that was the highlight of Slovakia!

VIENNA (AUSTRIA): In the morning we took an early train to Vienna. I had to catch a train back to Würzburg at 2:30pm so we didn't have a whole lot of time, but I've already been to Vienna 2 years ago so that was okay. We did go up the church tower for a panorama of the whole city. Laura stayed in Vienna to continue travelling, since she has all of August off, and I caught my EC train back home. And that was the end of my Eastern Europe trip!

So what crazy new adventures are in store for me? Well, I'm going to Cologne next weekend for World Cup Hockey (German vs Russia!), Berchteschgaden (Bavarian Alps) for some hiking in 2 weeks, and then Spain in September. For my last trip, I'm really not sure, maybe Turkey, or Croatia, or Morocco, or Romania, or... ah, I dunno, we'll see. Eastern Europe was cool though, and I will definately be back.