Sitting in the Tbilisi
airport again, writing another blog post.
As much as this should be a time for reflection on Georgia, I’m writing about Prague and Budapest or else I’ll never do it.
We hopped on a plane from Rome
to Prague, enjoying Smart Wings, one of the budget
airlines that abound in Europe. It was a direct flight and then we were
picked up by a guy holding a sign with my dad’s name. Not sure I’ve ever gotten such deluxe
treatment before, even if I did request and pay for it. He spoke great English and spoke to us about
Euro 2012, since the Czech team was playing Spain
(or was it Portugal?)
that night and he was hoping they didn’t lose but realistic about it. It made me realize that being in Georgia had
opened my eyes to non-Georgian things Americans don’t care about, as I could
follow his talk about players and the championship in general.
Our hotel was on a lovely Art Nouveau-lined street, as are
many of the streets in Prague. Basically you walk from adorable street to
adorable street, which is exactly what we did the next morning on a 4-hour
walking tour. We did get a break in the
middle for lunch, which we turned into a stop for Coke Light, a Czech pastry,
and a beer that had elderberry and lime.
I mean, I’m not a fan of beer and don’t deign to drink girly beers if
I’m going to drink it, but how could I pass up the chance to have a drink with
elderberry? The tour was great, covering
most of the historic parts of the city as well as throwing history and culture
at us for 4 hours. We ended the tour and
tried to soak in a bit of it all in a vineyard overlooking the city. Then we went to find tickets for a classical
concert. They abound in the city, mostly
appreciating the excellent acoustics of all the beautiful churches, so we had
to choose between several. My dad, who
loves rock music more than almost anything, also is a fan of classical music,
so this was one of the rare things he got excited about. The concert was pretty amazing, as was the
church we sat in, right off the Charles
Bridge.
The next day we headed back to Prague Castle
to actually enter the buildings. Several
of them were cool, but what I remember most was getting to see the window where
one of my favorite events in European History happened. There were actually 2 Defenestrations of
Prague, but the one in 1648 started the 30 Years War. Defenestration is throwing someone out of a
window, so in 1648, the Protestants ruling the city at the time chucked 3
Catholics out the window. They all
survived, but the bloodshed began anyway.
We then walked across the Charles Bridge
again, since it was so cool, and finally started spending my dad’s hard-earned
money on important things like earrings.
We headed back to Old Town
Square to snap a few more pictures, but Hyundai, a
major sponsor of Euro 2012, had set up a stage where people could watch the
soccer games. Theoretically, before the
game a band played songs from the two competing countries, but we heard Queen
and some other bands that were clearly not from Italy
or Germany. Still, the experience was pretty cool. We then grabbed some food and headed to the
train station a bit early.
If you walk into the top floor of the train station, it
looks like a ghost of another era. It is
a crumbling showcase of a golden era for Prague. The beautifully-decorated interior is
poorly-lit, deteriorating, and empty.
Then you take the stairs down to a sleek, modern train station. We hung out for a few hours with some other
travelers, mostly Americans, and I stole wifi from the closed Burger King before
our midnight train.
My parents are troopers. I had planned on us taking an
overnight train because I love trains and it was the only sensible way to get
from Prague to Budapest.
We did not get the sleeper car because it was full but got what was the
equivalent of 2nd class in Russia. The whole arrangement was a bit different
than I was used to, but we had a lovely Korean in our compartment who also had
never taken a night train in Europe
before. While most of us got too little
sleep and all suffered from the incredible noise of the train, we
survived. Our new friend did not hate us
after a night of listening to snoring and even gave us some chopsticks as a
gift upon parting.
We survived but were not raring to go when we got picked up
for our tour of Budapest. Oh, did I mention my dad caught a cold in Rome and I woke up with it in Prague?
It added a fun spin to the whole adventure. That, plus the night of little sleep, meant I
could barely keep my eyes open as we toured Budapest.
Thankfully, this tour was mostly on a bus and required minimal
walking. Sadly, after a week of stellar
guides, we had an old man whose English left much to be desired. He spoke much better Spanish and had to
conduct the tour in both languages. While
that was impressive, I was more than a bit disappointed, since several aspects
of Hungarian history still seemed a bit fuzzy.
Exhausted, we ended the tour and went to crash in our
luxurious rooms. Since Budapest is not yet a tourist hot spot (it’s
on the verge) and prices are still well below Western European prices, we got a
lovely suite, and I got my own. (Thanks
again, Dad!) I appreciated the wonderful
bed and delightful shower. We then
grabbed some food on Vaci Utca, the main tourist drag, before heading to the
water for our cruise. We were in a sea of Russian
tourists as we enjoyed a delightful one-hour cruise along the Blue Danube. It more than made up for the tour earlier
that day, as it included a free drink, gave us history about the buildings
along the Danube, and showcased the beautiful sights of the river. As I had hoped, we were able to see the
riverbanks as the sun set and the city started to light up at night. It was absolutely fabulous.
Less fabulous was the eye problem that had started earlier
that day and the next morning was an unavoidable case of pink eye. Thankfully my mom and I were able to
communicate to the pharmacist my problem.
It made me realize how much traveling has opened me up to trying new
things as I was not positive the Hungarian medicine was what I needed when I
started smearing it into my eye. Google
later confirmed it was. We were supposed
to take an Art Nouveau tour that morning but the guide never came, which was
fine because none of us were particularly excited about another tour. We wanted to visit the House of Terror but it
was closed, as it was Monday. My parents
easily gave into my love of Soviet statues and we took a taxi to Memento Park,
which houses grandiose communist statues from around Hungary. Hungarians decided not to smash them all, but
put them on display away from the city, which was a great idea as some are
impressive works of art. There were
several statues of Lenin but none of Stalin because in the 1956 uprising, the
sole statue of Stalin in the country was destroyed.
The weather decided to cement the day as not what we had
hoped and as we were walking along Vaci utca, it started to rain. We ducked into a restaurant with a covered
garden area. They also provided blankets
so we were able to sit, drink Hungarian wine, eat delicious food, and watch the
rain pour around us as we smugly enjoyed our warmth and dryness. All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to
my wonderful parents.
After they left, I was feeling less than stellar and decided
to hole up in the nicest accommodations I had had since leaving home. Flipping between CNBC and BBC, I sat in bed
and enjoyed first world luxuries as I sipped my tea and steeled myself for a
return to Georgia. I explored more on foot the following day,
giving me a greater appreciation for how beautiful Budapest
really is, and then headed to the airport for the long journey back to Georgia and the even longer journey to Svaneti,
the jewel of Georgia.
