Weiner Schnitzel...apple streudel and a whole lotta rain!

How I love Austria when it rains...well, actually there is no love in my heart for the INCESSANT (sp?) rain we have had since we have been here. I guess it is meant so we will have an easier transition to home! We arrived in Vienna on Friday afternoon after taking a very nice train trip out of Hungary...there is quite a difference between an inter-city train and an international train! All in a word...graffiti! We arrived in Vienna to...surprise...rain! What an amazing view we had though...as we stepped out of the U-Bahn station. We were right in front of Stephensplatz, which is the large and in charge church right in the middle of Vienna. Beautiful! We found our hotel and settled in, then went for a wander round the neighbourhood. You have got to love pedestrainized streets. I would much rather be swiped at (and nearly impaled by) an umbrella than munched by a speeding auto! We managed to check out a great coffee house (Vienna is famous for them) and sat drinking cappucinos and munching apple streudel (Lynnette: it was probably on par with the Terezin Apple streudel...remember when?!) and watching the Viennese (and the countless tourists) go about their business.
On Saturday morning we made our way out to the Schonnbrun Palace (which was vast) apparently second only to Versailles. We had a tour (by phone) and spent some time hopping over puddles and trying to explore the huge gardens. There was also a little Easter market set up in the front of the palace (yeah!) so we had a wander round there and some lunch. We went back into the centre of Vienna....window shopped....went inside Stephensplatz and had a coffee here and there. We ended off the day with a tasty dinner of Wiener Schnitzel....when in Rome! And one last visit to a coffeehouse...so delicious.
Our wonderful trip is almost over! We have had such a wonderful time and seen so much. We both agree that it feels like we have been gone for much longer than 2 weeks!!! We want to thank Lynnette and Kyle for their awesome hospitality...we had such a great time with them! Until next time! Ciao! R&A P.S. more photos to come soon!!!

Cultural Learnings in Hungary!!!

We have had a great week here in Hungary, a mix of sightseeing and hanging out with Kyle and Lynnette...the holiday seems to be lasting a long time which is how I like it!!! On Wednesday we went into Budapest to complete our sightseeing and meet K&L and a bath house later in the afternoon. We started our day at the Jewish Synagogue, the second largest in the world. I don't think I have ever been in a synagogue before so it was an entirely new experience! We had a very nice guide who tols us all about the Jewish people before World War II and how the community functions today. We also visited a memorial garden which pays tribute to the Jewish and Gentile people who risked their lives to save others during the Holocaust.
We then went back to our favourite square where the Spring Festival is taking place, we had coffee and lunch, accompanied with some people watching, of course! We made our way down Andrassy Ut which is a lovely boulevard lined with trees, regal houses, and the occasional doggie turd! We walked to the House of Terror which is a museum focused on the the torture by the Nazis and the Secret Police during and after WWII, housed in their former headquarters. It was an extremely well done exhibition...interactive and very moving. Particularly chilling was the elevator (very slow moving) ride down to the basement complete with a man describing an execution by hanging...my skin was crawling by the end.
Kyle and Lynnette met us at Heroes Square and we made our way to the Szechenyi Bathhouse. Don't fret....suits were definitely required! A sigh of relief! Now not all the suits were required to fit so there were a few unpleasant surprises! Budapest is built on top of thermal springs so the baths (pools) are all naturally heated. At Szechenyi there are inside and outside baths, ranging in temperatures and sulphur smells! We spent close to 3 hours going from pool to pool...whipping around in a whirlpool...we didn't think we would be able to spend that long there but we did! We emerged prune-like and relaxed! These baths are said to be 'healing' so we will have to see if they work!
We went for dinner at a Hungarian restaurant close to Kyle and Lynnette's house. I had chicken kiev with croquettes (which I have been taking a liking to)....my dinner arrived looking like one giant turd surrounded by little baby turds...this led to great dinner conversation and a lot of laughter!

Yesterday and today we are halping K&L out with some of their work. We went with them to Ofalu, where the OM (Operation Mobilization- the missionary organization they serve with) has a 'club-house'. Ofalu is a predominately gypsy community and K&L teach English, hold clothing bazaars, coach baseball....and so much more. We were helping with the clothing bazaar, setting it up and taking it down. OM received a semitruck FULL of clothes from some Swedish missionaries. We sorted boxes into one room and then had some lunch. The sale started about 2:30 and it was pandemonium! People rummaging up a storm and getting some great finds! One lady was having a great time...running around in a toque and a wraparound skirt and randonly calling out 'Sexy Mama!' and 'Opa!'

Came home and had a tasty dinner and then went for gelato even though it was minus minus outside!

Today I think we are helping with some painting at the OM Centre and then going to baseball this afternoon. Lynnette and I are just about to leave for the post office. Tomorrow morning we head to Vienna!!!

Budapest...so much to see!!!

Where do I begin!!?? When I last wrote we were settling in with Kyle and Lynnette and getting ready for our first taste of Budapest! On Sunday we took several forms of transit (train, tram, funicular!) to get ourselves to Castle Hill which is on the Buda side of Budapest (for those of you who don't know it is split into two sides Buda and Pest by the Danube River). We had some pretty spectacular views over the river to Pest! After that we made our way over the Chain Bridge to the Pest side to a very excellent Spring Market...our trip coincides with the annual Spring festival! SO we were lucky enough to take in some great (and very odd) music...excellent pottery, crafts...and some tasty food. Our favourite new treat is called Kurtaskolach (don't know the spelling) which is a sweet dough rolled onto a cylindrical piece of wood and cooked over a fire....then it is sprinkled with your choice of cinnamon....walnuts....or vanilla sugar...so yummy! We then walked around the immediate area...down Vaci Utca, which is the main shopping touristy stretch in search of a good cafe! Eventually we met up with Kyle, grabbed some dinner and walked down by the river to catch a glimpse of Budapest at night....well worth it! After a stroll back to the car, we drove up to the citadel above the city for some beautiful night views.

On Monday, Rav and I decided to test our knowledge of the Budapest transit system. We went out to a town about 40 mins. northish of Budapest called Szentendre (which is on the Danube Bend). I had images of us floating serenely down the river, gazing at all the 'Bend-like' scenery I was expecting to see! Nothing like a little rain and it being March to burst my bubble! We took the train/subway to get out there....and back as well when we found out that....no, sorry...no boats at this time of year. Maybe next time! Szentendre was a really lovely little town with a Mediterranean vibe. Being one of three tourists there that day made it pretty easy to get around! We really made the food our focus as we dodged the raindrops to get prime seats in the Marzipan Cafe! We made our way back to Budapest and checked out the Grand Market Hall which is full of everything Hungarian, from ritzy tableclothes...to lots of sausages! After delicately handling the transit system once again, we made it home to a delicious dinner of lesco (a mixture of Hungarian sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes, and sausages) made by Lynnette. Then we watched a movie about the 1956 Hungarian uprising...so interesting...and a great precursor to some of the history we hope to look into on Tuesday...until then :)

Making our way to Budapest!

Since our last post I did not have any roast knee....for those of you who were waiting with baited breath to see if I would go through with it or not! Kyle did take the plunge...so I was able to get a good look at it. It did indeed look knee-like and it was roasted! For our last night in Cesky Krumlov we went out to a gyspy restaurant for dinner...complete with a band with a 5 year old accordian player...too cute! Then we went to the restaurant across from our apartment for some mead (honey wine) and dessert...very tasty!
On Saturday we began our travel day, making our way out of the Czech Republic, through Austria, to Hungary. We found a van that drove us to Linz in Austria, where were able to catch a direct train to Budapest. After hearing all the stories of how this trip was going to take us 11 hours and how we were going to have to go via Bratislava in the Sloval Republic or back through Prague...it was relatively easy and only took about 8 hours from start to finish.
We are now staying at Kyle and Lynnette's place in Erd, which is about 30 mins. out of Budapest on the train. We even made a stop at Tesco for groceries...which was exciting for me because I could scout the aisles for English goodies!
Sunday we are going to explore Budapest with our A-1 guide Lynnette! Kyle will be busy running a baseball camp and will meet up with us in the afternoon.

Cesky Krumlov...do I have to leave??!!

Ok....this place is amazing....much smaller than Prague....winding streets....cafes....a river.....sigh. This is our second day here in Cesky Krumlov and I will be very sad to leave tomorrow! We arrived here by bus from Prague...it took about 3 hours. We walked to our apartment from the bus station. We are staying right off of the town square in a great place recommended by Rick Steves....gotta love Rick! We have just been wandering around for the past two days...drinking cappucinos, window shopping (Lynnette and myself!) and hacking (Rav and Kyle!) Today we walked up to the castle (which is not open on the inside) but provided us with some amazing views over the town. There was also a bear pit complete with a family of European brown bears (poor things). The town has one remaining brewery (there used to be 5!), which we toured this morning. We were all amazed at the condition of the place (think communist era) and that we were allowed to go right up to all of the equipment and peer in...food safe...not so much! I think back to my tour of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin which would be at the polar opposite of this place! We then tasted some of the beer...of course! In my opinion.....yick.....but Rav thought it was great! Lynnette and I have just finished a little more window shopping and a latte at a quiet little cafe near the river. Tonight we are going for dinner at a tavern across from our apartment....I think I might have to finally try the roast knee....I will keep you posted if I do! Hope all is well with everyone! Love A and R

Terezin...a time to reflect...

Today we went to a concentration that is about 45 mins. outside of Prague. We had a guide who was staying at the same hostel and has done much of his acandemic research about this place. We had glanced at it in the guide book and thought it might be worth a day trip...so that is where we all decided to go. It was quite a place...composed of a small fortress and a larger one....which was actually the town itself...both being part of the concentration camp. All the townspeople were shipped away and the Jewish people were brought in...political prisoners kept in the smaller (and much less humane) fortress and just regular everyday men, women and children in the 'town'. At the height of the camp each person had 1.65 square metres of living space. The conditions in which they lived in were unimaginable...and naturally many people died from disease. This was not a 'death' camp but one used for transit. So many of the prisoners that were held here made their way to Aucshwitz or other such camps. When Chris and I were in Europe we toured Dachau (which was predominately a work camp) so it was interesting to compare the two. Definitely not my idea of a great time....but so interesting to learn about the history of this time and the propaganda that the Germans were showing to the rest of the world that they were just lapping up...shocking.
I could write pages more about this...but I will stop myself there!
After our tour of Terezin we headed back to Prague and went in search of dinner (interesting how so much of our day revolves around food!!!) We bought some bread, cheese and wine and settled down to people watch on the Charles Bridge as we ate! As Rav works his way through a selection of Czech beer...I sample European chocolate!!! It seems even! Tomorrow we are leaving Prague for Cesky Krumlov in south Bohemia....can't wait!

Adventures in Prague!

We had a fantastic time in Prague...what a beautiful city. Kyle and Lynnette arrived around midnight on Monday and we hugged and then went to sleep! The next morning we had breakfast in the hostel's lounge/pub and took off to explore. We found the right tram down to the centre of town and hoofed our way up to Prague Castle. At the top of the hill there is the castle complex and an ENORMOUS church...you only have to look at a picture of Prague to see how this structure dominates the skyline! We had a pretty amazing view from up there looking over to the old town and around at all the spires of various churches and other buildings. We then walked over to the old town square and watched all the tourists as they watched the town hall clock strike the hour....nothing like a good clock striking to bring the tourists out! (ourselves included!) Off the the Jewish Quarter we went to look at a few synagogues and see what used to be one of the biggest Jewish ghettos in Europe. We had lunch there, heavy on the meat...and of course beer...Rav is slowly taste testing every Czech beer in the country!!! After lunch we wandered around a bit more and went to check (hee hee) out the Prague market...nothing special there...but didn't want to leave that stone unturned! For dinner we took Kyle and Lynnette to the place we had been to the night before....which has 3 bowling lanes....I think I forgot to mention those! We spent some time talking witha few characters at the hostel. There are a few professors living at the hostel and doing research about different aspects of Czech history...one of them took us on a tour of a concentration camp on Wednesday...read on to hear about that!!!

Trying Trams and Roasted Knee!

Hello all! We have arrived in Prague safe and well. Our flight seemed to go by very fast...we had a stop over in Frankfurt which was fine. (I even managed to play some Tetris on the plane TV...too cool!) I have already seem lots of tasty Milka bars lining the shelves beckoning me!!! We got into Prague this afternoon and the weather is absolutely beautiful. Sunny and quite mild :) Our adventure really began while attempting to use the tram system. We had been given directions to our hostel which said we should get off at the second stop. So even though we heard the name of the stop come up on the first stop we thought, no...couldn't be....must be the second stop. Surprise...it was actually the first stop! SO you think it would be easy enough to get on a tram going in the opposite direction and get back to the original stop we should have disembarked at. To cut a long story short....50 minutes later, approximately three different tram rides and a very unique look at the outskirts of Prague, we found the right stop! Nothing like a mixture of jet lag and hunger to really get things fired up!!!
After we checked in at our hostel, we caught a few zzzz's (about 1/2 hour) and then headed into the old town of Prague. This time we asked for directions and we followed them down to a T! The old town is immense! My description might be a bit bleak as my brain is somewhere between Nova Scotia and Ireland! There are quite a few large shopping streets (imagine my excitement!) I even spotted a Next...I will have to go and investigate. We also saw the Old Town Square which was chock full of tourists all taking pictures of the beautiful buildings. There are all mostly Art Nouveau and a range of pastel colours. There was a choir singing outside one of the churches in the square which was amazing. We walked around for a while towards the river. Then we returned to our hostel and found a restaurant nearby. We wanted to go authentic Czech...so we had 'chicken sticks' (chicken legs) and fried cheese. Also on the menu was 'roasted knee'...might have to try that next time! Beer here is SO cheap. We paid about $1.25 for 1/2 L...my water was more expensive!!!

So lessons learned for today....1)ask directions before taking a tram. 2)drink beer, not water!

We are off to bed now. Kyle and Lynnette are coming in around midnight and then we will be out exploring Prague for the next few days and then off to Cesky Krumlov!

Almost time!!!

We're back! Rav and I are off to eastern Europe for Spring Break! (I knew there was a good reason to be a teacher!) We are really excited to meet up with friends of ours who are missionaries in Hungary. Rav and Kyle met at Capenwray in Spain in 2002ish. Kyle and Lynnette were married and living in Richmond and then they moved to Hungary last year. We are meeting up with them in Prague and then travelling through a bit of the Czech Republic. Then we are heading down to Budapest (they live near there) where we will stay for a few more days and then we spend our last few nights in Vienna.

I am not sure if this trip with be as 'different' as India was but I think we are going to see some amazing sights....eat some tasty pastries...drink some fine wine (Hungary is known for it's wine!)....and catch up with friends....good times!