Prague

Well what can I say about Prague - I do absolutely love it here which may explain why I have been here a week already (or that could have something to do with old friends and bizarre european rules on buying certain coach tickets!) This is the home of Good King Wencelaslas and currently home of thousand of souvenir shops selling russian dolls? Alas Prague is not as cheap as it once was or even as cheap as it was last year due to a sudden influx of Americans (Thanks alot Brad and Angelina) Beer though is still dangerously cheap, equivalent to about 75p for a large 1/2 litre glass - about half the price of soft drinks. Go to the right prices and you can get wine at the same price - wonderful. After complaining about the tourists I find myself on Charles Bridge - famous local landmark and I am overcome with sheer numbers of people. This place is a tourist mecca and I very quickly find myself short tempered and unable to see anything but bloody tourists. Most of them going around in large packs. There are many statues on the bridge and rubbing one of them is supposed to bring good look. There was a huge crowd gathered here. Only the statue is of a man and his dog - the dog went mad and mauled the much loved wife to death. Have no idea why rubbing that dog would bring you luck??? Silly silly tourists. Prague also has a huge castle and many many churches and old fortifications. Prague was extremely fortunate during the second world war not to suffer from any damage (apart from the old town hall which the retreating Nazi's burnt down as they left) and becaue of this the old town square is incredible from a stunning architectural angle. Another famous part of Prague is its astronomical clock. It was made around the 1400's and as well as telling the time, it tells you the position of the sun, moon and other planets. Even shows you which astrological period we are in (if you know how to read it). The grateful townsfolk liked it so much they cut the eyes out of the clockmaker to stop him from making another even better one for another town! When it came to the local politians and noblemen they didn't like - they simply threw them out of a window from the top of a tall building. Don't mess with them Prague folk. Whilst here I caught up with Veronica, whom I travelled Mexico to Panama with. It was great to catch up and here latest travel exploits - you also don't feel as bad drinking all that wine when there is two of you. I've seen loads and loads here, not to mention got a tan into the process as it is bloody hot, but one of my favourite things has to be in Petrin Park. They have a mini Eiffel tower which I climbed to the top off, a planeterium in which I viewed Venus and the Sun through giant telescopes but the best as to be the mirror maze. Yes you have guessed it - its a maze made out of mirrors but it is such good fun. There was even a hall of mirrors at the end when I appeared extremely tall and short at the same time. Must have appealed to my inner child cos I laughed for hours. Off back outside now, to brave the heat, the awful tourists but even worse than as, as the weekend as started again there are hoards and hoards of English stag parties. All of them wearing england football strips and exposing far too much white flabby gut. Now they should be thrown out of a high window...

Interesting? snipits on Europe

1. Bulgaria is full of casino¨s and sex shops.


2. Romania is full of services offering erotic massages.


3. Romanians are the friendliest Europeans.


4. Hungarian is impossible to say.


5. The first country on my travels to offer a veggie burger was Austria. (Burger King not McDonalds).


6. In all countries were the little green man says it is safe to cross the street - beware - traffic coming from slip roads still have right of way to run you over.


7. Never ever drink more than one shot of palinka in any 24 hour period.


8. C + A are alive and kicking in Europe.


9. Hostels in Austria (and apparently other Western European countries) do not give you bedding. You have to rent sheets for extra.


10. The national of Hungary is Unicum. I kid you not. Its bloody digusting too.


11. In Prague there is a park and ride. There is also the Kiss and ride? No idea what that involves.


12. Romanians love flowers. Almost every other person is carrying some.


13. Communist staues are huge.


14. Austria doesn´t have Communist stautes, so they have 20 million statues of horses instead.


15. European horse statues are always anatomically correct.


16. Despite skieving off school, hanging around the local park in large gangs whilst engaging in underage drinking, Bulgarian teenagers are ridiculously polite and respectful to their elders.


17. European beer is often sold in half litre bottles - not the 330 ml bolltes
    you get in the uk.


18. Every computer keyboard is layed out differently. Turkey has 2 letter i ś. You must use the right one or it blows up. This keyboard has the y and z reversed.


19. In Prague beer is far cheaper than soft drinks - what are you going to drink if you are on a tight budget?


20. My favourite European toilet so far is not the Viennese Opera toilet but the toilet here at my internet bar in Prague. It has a phallic shaped knob you have to pull. Some people could misconstrue crewd thoughts.

Vienna

So currently I am in the city of Vienna (or as one guide book lovingly calls it - the big merengue). Its easy to see why - you are surrounded on all sides by old impressive palace like buildings.The place is also chock full of tourists - its an absolute nightmare. After going so long practically having places to myself, it has come as rather an annoyance to find I have to wait for the multitude of tour groups to go past before I can get a good nosey at whichever place of interest is in front of me. I have enjoyed being presented with a number of free food samples since being here - I have had two giant yoghurt pots (one passion fruit, one strawberry), 2 packs of gummy bears and a huge block of milka chocolate. Still hoping there will be free drink next! As well as going to the home of the Vienena Boy's Choir, the Spanish Riding school (I saw horses - well you would have been shocked if I had seen elephants) various points of interest to do with the life of Mozart - maybe I am biased but they were not in the least bit interesting, I also went to the outskirts of town to visit Schronbrunn Palace. As i arrived here on the 17th May, that well known public holiday to do with the ascension!, the guided tours had finished early.I was able to take a stroll around the grounds though, which where stunnung and had amongst other things, several follies but more excitingly a maze. Its impossible not to have a great time in a maze, even when it starts to drizzle!. But the wierdest thing I have seen since being here has to be the Opera toilet. This toilet (which costs 0.6 Euro to use) plays the Blue Danube for you and is decorated in the style of a great opera house.Well the ladies is in that style, complete with costumes, art work, royal boxes (cunningly disguised cubicles) but the gents side is even more bizarre. Those lips you can see next to the real piano are in fact the male urinals. Its not every day you see this! There is no doubting that Vienna is beautiful and jam packed full of culture, but maybe its the crowds, or the expense or the fact the everyone just looks so smart but its not the destination for me. I have an inkling that I will enjoy my next destination alot more ... Prague.

Budapest

Without a doubt this has to be my favourite city I have visited so far. Its got tree lined avenues, wonderful monuments, many street cafes, a river ( a famous one at that) not to mention castles, palaces, thermal baths and good wine. This is the parliament building overlooking the Danube. The river Danube links the two towns of Buda on one side and Pest on the other - hence the name. On the Buda side there is Castle Hill complete with an old citadel, the ex royal palace which is now the national art gallery and the Fishermans Bastion to name a couple of things. What is the Fishermans Bastion you ask - its the merengue looking building on the right. At no point was this ever part of the city walls it was simply built as a folly. A rich mans folly at that. Some people simply do not know what to spend their money on. I could have spent my time lazing in one of the cities many many thermal pools - most of them housed in ornate art deco style buildings - and the next time I visit I will do just that. There is definately going to be a next time. With only 2 1/2 days here though I had to be more frugal with my time. After visiting the Castle Hill district, I moved to the far end of Pest to visit Heroes Square and take a peek at the art deco style zoo. This was a lovely walk helped along by the temperature - we got an unseasonal 30 degrees here yesterday. But one of the highlights for me has been my visit to the House of Terror Museum. This is a normal building on one of the nicest streets in the city - only in the mid 40's it was home to the Nazi's, then it was home to the Arrowcross Party and eventually the Hungarian / Soviet Secret Police organization. Basically since 1944 it was home to whichever group of the day was responsible for torture and confessions and informing on your neighbour. Hungary was the battleground between Germany and Russia during the second world war. After the war, the Soviets took control (although Hungarians never voted in the communists). The Hungarians had a revolution in 1956 and ousted the Soviets and put their own prime minister in charge. Despite officially agreeing to this, just a few days later the Soviets brought the tanks in, killed the prime minister and the government and siezed power - which lasted till the 1990's. The museum inparted alot of information, most of which I was totally ignorant of before. It was fascinating and chilling at the same time. What really makes this place creepy is that you visit the cellars - a labyrinth of cells that ran the whole length of the street - and see the cells in which the 'confessions' were gained and the executions carried out. If you are ever in Budapest, this place is a must. After the intensity of the House of Terror it was great to be able to sit back on the shores of the river Danube drinking a glass of wine, watching the world go by. The only thing I have to worry about at the moment is the ever increasing weight of my packpack...

Heart of Translyvannia

This is the medieval town of Sighisoara in the heart of Translyvannia. Its a tiny place enclosed in a citadel on the top of a hill. It does have a new town attached to it at the bottom of the hill but that is neither quaint nor historical. The whole village in on the Unesco world heritage list - its that good. Tiny is not a good enough adjective to describe it - minute would be better. It takes all of a good 10 minutes to circle the place but somehow once you enter the city walls it seems to be hours before you re-emerge. That is certainly what happened to me. I ran into so many friends I had made in previous Romanian towns that the day soon passed in a haze of laughter and very good cheap wine. It meant I could spend another day here taking in the many sights! Apart from the clock tower the main reason people flock to Sighisoara is to see the house on the right. It is the birthplace of Vlad Tepes - son of Vlad Dracul - who later was known as Vlad the Impaler and Dracula (which literally means son of Dracul). Vlad Senior was made a member of the order of the Dragon by other members of Eastern European royalty. It was a society whose members fought together to try and stop the Turks from conquering their lands. Vlad Senior minted all his coins and his own seal with the symbol of the Dragon and hence became known as Vlad Dracul (meaning of the Dragon - notof the Devil as some people mistakenly think) Not alot of people know that! Sighisoara is a very rural place and I saw more horse and carts going past than I did cars. Stunnigly picturesque but still very small so it was time to move onto my final stopover in Romania. Cluj-Napoica.
Cluj is very different to the last few places I have visited. It is a university town and has a big city feel to it with its many bars, clubs and restaurant. I have certaintly moved away from the rural Romania. I have been spending the day here chilling out - I should really baking in the heat. Here it is hot. No idea if the heat wave is still in England but its definately in full swing here. Tomorrow morning at an ungodly time (5.15 am) I will be bording a train bound for the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Tomorrow is going to be fun!

Brasov

The train dropped me off at the beautiful medieval walled city of Brasov - in the heart of Transylvania. This really is a picture postcard perfect little town and I fell in love with it straight away - so much so that I stayed an extra night. The town square is dominated by the Black Church- home of the largest organ in Europe - oohh. I voluntarily climbed the mini mountain behind the town and enjoyed the hike. The town has lots of hills in which to go hiking plus you stumble across old watch towers and sentry posts.
From Brasov I took a couple of trips into the nearby countryside. I visited Bran Castle, built on the hilltops as a line of defensive against marauding Turks. It was a Royal getaway in the 1920's so the interior is crammed full with ornate furniture - not really matching with the exterior. Alot of tours visit this place as Bran Dracula's Castle - it has nothing at all to do with Vlad Tepes but it does mean that there is a wonderfully tacky Dracula themed tourist market outside. Get your Dracula T-shirts here! It took all my will power but I did manage to resist!.
From Bran, I visited the medieval fortress town of Rasnov, only a short distance away. Rasnov was a citadel city atop a hill and the citadel still exists. It is the best preserved example of its kind in Europe. The film Cold Mountain was filmed here - it was mountainous but nowhere near cold. Romania's weather goes from downpour one minute to absolute scorcher the next. The great thing about the citadel is that it still has its original torture implements intact. Apart from the usual and common to find stocks and yokes, this place has an iron cage suspended from one of the high points in which to lock people into until they die. It also had a hanging frame in which you could be tied and hung by the wrists. Great fun was had by everyone hanging themselves up! After viewing even more torture implements I had to come back to town and immerse myself in the great outdoors.
I really am amazed by the outstanding beauty of this place but I am told that my next destination is even more stunning... can it be possible.

Romania - Land of the helpful

I crossed the border into Romania by means of a sleeper train. What a wonderful experience, I could have so easily been back in the 1920's (I think the train was), watching the countryside roll by, whilst I had the luxury of an entire compartment that sleeps six to myself. A group of Australians next door where squashed in, 5 in their compartment (he he). For the first time in its entire history, the train managed to pull up almost 2 hours early into Bucharest. It meant I arrived at the station at 6am! Not surprisingly, there were not many people around I could asked for directions to my bus stop. I spied an out of service bus (complete with driver) and thought I would ask him. He was a good 5 mins away in the wrong direction, which when your carrying my luggage is a huge gamble! But he was the nicest man on the planet (well one of them anyway. He gave me loads of info about Romania then drove me a couple of blocks to the stop I needed. He even apologized for not being able to take me all the way to my hostel, but his bus was due to start running in the next 10 minutes. What a love. When I turned up at my hostel at half 6 - the owner let me have a bed straight away, gave me a free breakfast and then did all my washing for me (free). Later than evening I got given alot of free beer, toasted cheese sandwiches and apple pie!

Did I actually do anything in Bucharest I hear you wonder (apart from eat and drink). I had to visit the Palace of the People, the extremely ugly building you see above. Nicolae Ceausescu destroyed most of the historic city of Bucharest to build this - it turned out to be the second largest building in the world (the pentagon is bigger) It 10% percent larger in volume than the great pyramid. Ceausescu even had the road in front of it widen so it would be bigger than the Champs Elyse. These days it is known as the Palace of Parliament as guess what - it houses parliament. I took a tour inside some of the rooms and my goodness it is grand on a gigantic scale. The floors are marble, as are the columns, it is literally dripping in crystal chandeliers. One room has 50 of them. Works of art, paintings, sculptures, busts - all line the corridors. After a while I was stunned by the glare coming of all the crystal and marble!

I spent the reminder of my time in Bucharest, walking around the area of Lipscani. This is the last of the historical district - the part that escaped Ceausescu's large sledge hammer. The architecture is magnificent. Every building has a different style, though they are all ornately and intricately finished off. That afternoon I turned into architecture student - I just couldn't stop taking photo's off the different buildings. This area was also known as Little Paris because of the cafes and boutiques that lined the streets. There are still pockets of these cafes in existence, and sitting there, enjoying the most wonderful cakes, in a 1870's cafe complete with original wrought iron fixtures and fittings was a very pleasant way to wile away the time. After saying that a couple of days in Bucharest was plenty for me, I was longing to go someway alot smaller with alot less traffic. I boarded a train to take me to the town of Brasov. As I was entering my carriage, I was finding it very difficult to haul my backpack onto the overhead racks. An elderly gentleman appeared from the next carriage and despite my protests, picked up my pack and threw it into storage. He was shorter than me but refused to let me keep trying. Romanians are by far the friendliest and most helpful people I have come across so far. I am determined to be able to say more than Moultzoomesc by the time I leave!

Bulgaria

Well after many months of group travel I have finally ventured out on my own and I have made it all the way to Bulgaria - to the capital Sofia to be precise. Sofia is a small city for a capital in fact it is roughly the same size of York - which makes it great to walk around. Must admit it is not quite as pretty as York though. Although Bulgaria is now a republic there are so many left over reminders of Russia. Bulgarians use to love Russians because they defeated the Turks on their behalf, then after WW2 when Russia moved in - communism and the associated problems with the regime were unsurprisingly not as popular. So Sofia is a curious mixture of love / hate towards the Russians. This is the Nicolai Alexander Memorial Church - Bulgarians most popular sight whilst the 1300 year monument is in such a bad state of repair there are large chunks of it falling off. The Communist Monument has all been abandoned and a skate park has been built up around it.

Facts about Bulgaria you probably did not know:
1. The country's president used to be its former King Simeon 2nd. He was disposed just before the war at the tender kingly age of 6. His full name is Simeon Saxe - Coburg
2. Spartacus came from these parts!
So after a day or two of chilling out, enjoying the best nights sleep I have had in months I took myself off, 200km south of Sofia to the little town of Rila in the mountains. Here is situated a beautiful hidden monastery. The architecture is quite stunning and its central church is covered every inch from brightly painted murals showing biblical images. It is still a working monastery and monks dressed in outfits similar to the Greek Orthodox church wander about freely. You feel like you have stepped back in time a couple of centuries. Next to the monastery locals are tending crops by hand and getting around on mule driven carts. Its not all 18th century though - look closely and you can stop monks whipping out their mobile phones to check their text messages!. So apart from chilling, have I done anything else whilst in Bulgaria. Sofia is famed for its dance clubs but I have not been boogieing. Instead after a glass or two of rather nice Bulgarian wine, I took myself off for a night at the opera. I realized it has been a while since I did anything remotely cultural so I went to the royal opera house and watched a production of Carmen. The voices were amazing but the women were all extremely scary looking. Couldn't imagine this Carmen teasing anyone. (She looked like an aged Mrs Kemp - yes that bad). I'm afraid Easter Europe does conform to all the stereotypes where looks and dress sense are involved. The tight fitting stonewashed jeans coupled with shirt made out of shell suit material is still very fashionable as are the mullets. The people though are very friendly and find my attempts at Bulgarian extremely amusing!