December 2009
24 tags
As Cold as Praha
The bus to Prague (Eurolines) was not bad. Not too long and not too expensive.
Arriving in Prague was like entering the Arctic. The temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and the snow fell harder. For the ten brief minutes I was outside, I felt like I was on Mt. Everest. It was horribly cold.
My hostel, Emma Hostel, was not exactly the Ritz Carlton. For the price though, eight dollars a night,...
10 tags
24 tags
Vienna Wien Vienne
The day before my train to Vienna I looked online for ticket prices. The Slovenian national rail service had a good website with a nice English translation. When I searched for the train from Maribor to Vienna I found a promotion page for all trains to Austria. They were having a sale and it started the day I left. Great! 19€ for a one way ticket from Maribor to Vienna.
When I got the train...
9 tags
19 tags
Tracing Family Roots
My last name comes from the town of Maribor, Slovenia. I’m not Slovenian though. From the 13th to the 15th centuries Maribor, or Marburg, was under Austrian, German, and Italian control. It also had a thriving Jewish community. That is where my family roots started. In the 1500’s the Jews were expelled from the area and moved to present day Italy, where many of them are still today.
...
9 tags
19 tags
Ljubljana (Lub-ee-ana)
From Zagreb I took the train to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
It wasn’t a very long train ride, or a very entertaining one. After a couple of hours the train stopped at the Croatian-Slovenian border and I went through an other passport check. This one was much more controlled and subdued then the previous one. They guards came on and just check the passports, no questions, no hassle.
...
16 tags
Zagreb. Zagreb? Yes, Zagreb. You mean Zagreb? Yes,...
Getting my ticket from Budapest to Zagreb was pretty interesting. When I got to ticket window I said “Zagreb.” The woman looked at me and said “Zagreb?” I said “Yes, Zagreb.” Then she responded in perfect English “You mean Zagreb?” There was absolutely no difference in the way we each had said the word. Apparently though, there was. After that I got...
11 tags
23 tags
Buda VS. Pest
From the second I stepped off the bus in Budapest, I knew it was going to be one of the most beautiful cities I had ever been in. Every aspect of the city shows off it’s importance under the Hapsburg rule as an integral part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
After a long and cold walk in a windy rain I arrived at my hostel, Buda Base. It was unlike any of my other hostels. It was more like...
8 tags
14 tags
Do Widzenia
Let me pick up where I last let off.
After spending two great days in Krakow, I started looking into Bratislava, Slovakia.
I found out the cheapest, easiest, and fastest way to get there was to take a night train from Krakow to Bratislava. It took seven hours and I got there at 5:30 AM.
The train ride was okay, nothing exciting. It was dark so you couldn’t see anything outside, and the...
6 tags
20 tags
Dzien Dobry
These past two weeks have been so crazy, busy, eventful, and tiresome that there has been no time to write them.
My first week in London went splendidly. My Aunt and Uncle bought a new puppy right before I came, so we all got to bond with the new guy. Bix, the cutest little golden retriever, looks exactly like the dog from the toilet paper adverts.
My Aunt, well she’s not technically my...