November 29th -
We had the morning to ourselves and prepared for Thanksgiving dinner at Devin’s buddy Tim’s house. Tim put out appetizers, salads, and of course, turkey. We ate to our hearts content and laughed a bunch as TIm’s two-year-old son ran roughshod over him, his wife, and their “rules” for the house. David speaks a hybrid Russian-English and is the cutest little kid when he is disobeying his parents.
After diner we were given a bag of M&Ms and we made our way for the bus and for Poland. The rest of the night passed uneventfully as we rolled through the night.
November 30th -
We then made our way to the old part of Warsaw. It was blown to bits by the Nazis and the Russians, but after the war almost the entire area was rebuilt by the Polish according to the original plans. The main square is indeed nice, and that part of town is really well done. It still feels new, which isn’t really a complaint. It just feels like something that a retirement community in Florida would try to build, admittedly much less successfully.
December 1st -
We caught the morning bus to Krakow, which everyone tells us is the best city in Poland. I would say something about the Polish countryside except I slept for most of the ride. When we arrived it was almost dark, 3:30. The sunlight is our biggest enemy on this trip, and it’s becoming more scarce. By the time we got out into the main part of the city it was already dark, but it was possible to see why everyone who comes to Krakau seems to like it. There are a couple of really beautiful churches with great ceilings. It is here that we have had our first Christmas Market, and the booths here with food have huge Polish sausages, something that we felt was lacking in Warsaw.
At night we saw a performance of Vivaldi’s four seasons, a piece that neither of us was real familiar with. It was played by a sextet in one of the churches off the square, and even though the church was freezing, it was still an enjoyable performance.
December 2nd -
We got up early this morning and got on the train to Aushwitz-Birkinau. Once we got there we wandered around town until we found a sign to point us in the right direction. Once we got to the camp we were able to watch a video and then set out around the exhibits. Auschwitz is actually a series of 4 camps that were strung together because the first camp proved much too small for its purposes. We visited the first two, the second of which, Birkinau, was the biggest and killed almost 1.5 million.
December 3rd -
We finally saw Krakau in the daylight, and it’s about what we expected. We went over to the castle and walked around the archaeological museum a little bit. Both were good, but we were ready to move on to our next destination. I had a final sausage at the Christmas market before we left on a bus to Budapest.
When we got to Budapest at 10:30 the real adventure started. Noah said that the hostel was about a 4km walk from the bus station, and that was assuming we knew which way we were going. Because we are cheap, we decided not to take a cab into the city, and we proceeded to walk in the Hungarian night for 2 hours before we finally happened upon our quarters.
December 4th -
After sleeping off the last night’s walking, we awoke to a gray day in Budapest. We were nevertheless determined to see as much as we could of the city, and proceeded to walk around for the next 6 hours without rest. We saw much of the Danube, and visited a lot of the Buda side, where the castle and old churches from the 11th-13th centuries were built.
After dinner we walked up to the baths, built by the Turks during the Ottoman rule of the city (1541 - 1686). This turned out to be the treat of Budapest so far. The baths are actually outside, and the steam rising off them from the reaction with the cold air made for a really nice evening. We stayed in the huge hot tub for nearly two hours, and finished our night with a beer. We will have another full day in Budapest tomorrow before catching a night train to Serbia.
December 5th -
We went to the citadel, the top point of which looks out over the entire city, and it was at this point that the weather cleared enough for us to get some good photos of the city. We also saw our share of churches and parks. As we were searching for lunch, we happened upon a Chinese restaurant serving real American Chinese food. What luck! The both of us ate our fill and then we continued on to the train station just to make sure our train was coming, and finally to the opera to secure our tickets to the evening’s performance of Madame Butterfly.
At the opera house we were immediately escorted to the side entrance, which was just as well because we also did not want to be seen. Our seats ended up being obstructed, which didn’t matter as much because we couldn’t understand the opera or the translation on the screen. The music was great as far as our ears were concerned, and we got to see enough of the stage to know that the Madame kills herself at the end, which is the most important part.
After the opera we booked it back to the hotel and on to the train station for our connection to Belgrade, which we made without sweat.
December 6th -
Belgrade means “White City”, although it’s unclear why it’s called so. There might have been something white about it before the bombings of WWI, WWII, and 1999. There’s little destruction lying about, but it is clear from some of the hasty construction that much is being rebuilt quickly. The old castle guarding the intersection of the Danube and Sava rivers is nice to walk around, and there are some excellent Orthodox churches around the city. There were special services held today also as the Russian Patriarch died yesterday.
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