Day 11: Home, sweet Oregon home!

Thursday, October 06, 2016
Salem, Oregon, United States
Whirlwind 11 days. Three major Eastern Europe cities. Three languages, cuisines, and currencies. Four countries, including Austria that we crossed through during overnight train trips Prague-to-Budapest and Budapest-to-Kraków. Over 13,000 miles traveled.

We loved Prague, loved Budapest even more, and loved Kraków EVEN MORE! Found them all to be nice neat, clean, personable, charming European cities, each with a unique feel, vibe, and culture . Here are a few 'Top' lists:

Top Foods and/or Meals:
1. Pierogi, paczki, and kapusta in Kraków
2. Duck confit and roasted pig knuckle in Prague (Mike's)
3. Vegetarian soul food flatbread and vegetarian curry in the Jewish Quarter in Budapest (Sharon's)
4. Outrageous breakfast buffets at all three of our hotels – who needed lunch?

Top Sights and Experiences:
1. Discovering the best pierogi ever up a small sidestreet in Kraków 
2. Strolling on the Charles Bridge in Prague
3. Being moved to shivers and tears at St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków (we visited many churches during our trip, and each had its own unique architecture, character, and rich deep spirituality, with St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle being especially striking)
4. Soaking in the color, language, and people's poetry of the Lennon Wall in Prague
5. Walking Old Town in Prague
6. Exploring Petrin Hill and Tower in Prague
7. Browsing at the Great Market Hall in Budapest
8 . Navigating all three beautiful cities on foot and by public transportation (underground metro, above ground trolleys and buses)
9. Climbing towers -- church belfry, bridge, and Eiffel-replica lookout
10. All three of our hotels -- the Hotel Kampa Garden in Prague, the Hotel Casati in Budapest, and the Hotel Wielopole in Kraków -- were very good 3-star hotels. The Prague and Krakow hotels, in particular, were charming, comfortable, and well equipped with attentive, friendly, and accommodating staff -- fabulous places!

Top Things Learned:
1. Overnight train travel is very hard and can take a physical toll. After the 11-hour trip from Budapest to Kraków, in particular, it took Mike most of the day to get his non-rail legs back and get over a bad case of the wobbles and train motion sickness.
2. Helpful to learn and use a few expressions in the native language, connecting us with the locals and opening them up to share their culture with us.
3. Unique vibe in all three cities, with Kraków surprisingly the most warm, charming, embracing city of the three . Especially in the Main Market Square, we found a wonderful gathering place and sense of community.
4. European cities and countries continue to impress and amaze us with their great metro/public transportation systems and infrastructure – when will American cities learn?
5. We felt very safe walking anywhere at any time of the day.
6. There's a delicate balance between seeing and visiting enough to make the long trip worthwhile (and considering you may not make it back to these places every again) and too much travel and/or overly ambitious plans and itineraries. While the overnight train trips saved valuable sightseeing time and were much cheaper than hotel room nights, the resulting train fatigue probably drove home the point that our intended destinations may have been too far apart or should have been connected by points along the way. We'll remember this in planning future trips.
7. We used a trip planning service, Go Real Europe, to help in planning an itinerary, book lodging, and arrange a wide variety of transportation logistics . Based in Prague, these folks really know Central/Eastern Europe, and their insider expertise relieved us of some of the stress of planning. They chose great hotels and set us up well to get around each of the cities' public transportation systems with ease.

Hope you enjoy this last album of various scenes from Prague, Budapest, and Kraków. We've enjoyed sharing this experience with you and have appreciated your feedback.

Happy travels! Na zdrowie! - Cheers! (or Bless you!) (lit. For health!) (nah zdroh-vee-eh)

Sharon and Mike / Mom and Dad  

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