Czech Us

After our last post, we got to work on the transport for our next leg, from Greece to Croatia. Although this looks straight forward on a map, we found it exceedingly difficult, requiring some combination of trains and overnight busses that *might* get us where we wanted to go. Any notion that travelling is all romace can easily be squelched by researching this leg while paying for internet by the minute. In the end, we called an audible and leapfrogged Croatia for the time being, throwing caution to the wind and braving a flight to Prague on a discount carrier. Despite the confidence-leeching name of Wizz Air, the biggest issue on the flight was losing our Nutella spread to airport security (but not before pouring ourselves a sandwich in the pat-down area).

Prague delivered on our high expectations. The city is everything we hoped for, with pedestrian-friendly cobblestone streets, amazing architecture, and a river slicing through the center. It is certainly a touristy place, but since we avoided the summer high season we didn't find it to be too contrived or packed with tour groups. With the most reasonable prices we have found thus far, a skyline bristling with interesting towers and spires, and thousands of years of history, we would definitely recommend adding Prague to your list. Our highlight was the magnificent St. Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle, which was built over the course of 600 years and outfitted with flying buttresses and stunning stained glass.

Working our way south, our next destination was the quaint Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. A postcard-perfect Bohemian village of red-tiled roofs, rolling hills, a lazily meandering river, and the requisite castle, it proved the perfect place to relax between big cities. We wandered the maze of streets aimlessly, sampling a local speciality that the Czechs call "beer" and savoring a few days at a snail's pace.

One challenge of being a foreigner (especially one on a budget) is that you rarely know enough about how things work in a given place to get a good deal. We have overpaid on everything from food to transport to lodging, only to figure out the smart way to do things a short time later. This is frustrating for Ben, who always tries to get the best deal on everything, but is just the way of things when you're always new to a place. In short, our advice when planning a trip to Europe would be to avoid the Euro currency, if budget is a concern.  One notable victory on this front came on our next leg. On our train to Vienna we teamed up with two Chinese and an Aussie to form an unconventional "family" and score a heavily discounted family ticket that allowed us to make the multihour trip for less than $10 each. One point for the good team!

We enjoyed Vienna, though it certainly felt like the big city that it is. The other issue that we ran into was one of our risk factors for the trip - cloudy skies and rain. Not very many people like rain on their parades, but we have identified ourselves as "solar powered" since before Obama made it cool. We have found, individually and together, that our moods sour in a hurry without sunshine. On the plus side, one great thing about Austria was being in a place where we had some small shred of language capability. Both of us studied German in high school and have retained a few scraps. It felt great, after weeks of non-comprehension, to recognize some words and to be able to say useful things like "hello," "thanks," and "Can I please sharpen my pencil?"

We spent our time wandering past many of Vienna's stately buildings and parks. We toured Schonbrunn, the immense summer palace and gardens of the Hapsburg Empire and marvelled at its gluttonous scope and splendor. Under the guise of being civilized folk, we also took in the opera at Vienna's ornate opera house. With Ben dressed to impress in his finest convertible pants, we gutted out about 45 minutes in the standing room area before conceding. This was long enough to confirm our preconceived notions - opera really is just overweight ladies screeching unintelligably.



Now it's off to Hungary, with Croatia next in line. If you have recommendations for either place, drop us a note!