Author: Tiara
St. Stephen’s Day
In Hungary, August 20th is St. Stephen’s Day (also known as Hungary’s birthday), and we were in Budapest to see all the festivities. St. Stephen became Hungary’s first king in 1000 AD when he was appointed by the pope. His great accomplishment was converting the nation to Roman Catholicism. We learned that celebrating St. Stephen’s Day was prohibited from 1945-1990 while Hungary was under communism. So, now it’s back in full force and Catholics abound and everyone loves a party.
This is St. Stephen’s Basilica. It’s nice!
Bratislava
Me too, anonymous graffiti artist. Me too.
We didn’t plan to go to Bratislava. When I was researching this trip from home it seemed like the consensus was that Bratislava didn’t have a lot to offer. I hope that public opinion stays that way so the city can remain as quiet and cute as we found it. We had intended to take an overnight train from Krakow to Budapest but it booked up far in advance and the best option we found was to take a bus to Bratislava, spend a day or two there, and then take a short train ride the rest of the way to Budapest. We decided to “splurge” on a 4-star hotel with a fitness center and a fancy breakfast buffet (and air conditioning!) and it was super amazing and a great deal.
Krakow and Oswiecem
After visiting our friends in the country we headed to Krakow for a few days. We (correctly) predicted that the heat wave would not let up any time soon and booked an Airbnb with air conditioning, which seems to be a really rare amenity in Europe. This turned out to be a great decision. I think Ian’s favorite part about our apartment, though, was that it came fully equipped:
Bison grass vodka not included.
What I’m Reading
Traveling has been a great opportunity to start reading again. I always think of myself as someone who loves reading but I find I rarely read for pleasure anymore. I’ve been trying to do more of that this past year, and all the plane, train, and bus rides over the past two months have really helped me out. Here’s what I’ve read so far on this trip, and I would love to hear your recommendations of what I should pick up next.
A Visit To The Country
We were lucky to have our schedule line up with our friend John’s so that we got to see him in both Berlin and Poland. We visited him and his wife Agnieszka at her family’s home in the Polish countryside near Czestochowa.
John and Agnieszka met us at the train station and we stopped at a giant supermarket on the way home to stock up on food and drinks. Naturally, when we arrived at the house we were fed instantly:
Meat (Beef? I’m not actually sure) in a delightful creamy sauce, Greek salad, a homemade cherry juice, and of course, dumplings.
In Which I Eat All The Soup
To make up for all the dumplings and waffles, I have found myself gravitating toward soups lately. I started strong in Warsaw with a two-course soup dinner, in which Ian and I ordered a chanterelle soup for a starter and I had tomato soup for my main. This thoroughly confused our waitress, who informed me, “you know, that is also soup,” when I ordered.
Chanterelles are in season in Poland right now and they are so cheap and delicious.
The Coolest Thing We Saw In Warsaw
Warsaw is Great
We heard some skepticism when we mentioned we were going to Warsaw. It’s not nearly as popular with tourists as Krakow and we heard we might not enjoy the city very much. Either we are very lucky, they are misinformed, or we possess all the secrets of Polish travel, because we thought Warsaw was awesome. Here are some reasons Warsaw is great:
1. Parks. Warsaw has TONS of beautiful parks. The most beautiful and spectacular is Łazienki Park, which might just be the best park ever. Observe:
Design Panoptikum
While in Berlin we visited the must-see museums (Pergamon, Neues Museum, and the surprisingly unpopular Gemäldegalerie), but one of the strangest and most interesting museums we visited was the Design Panoptikum. The Panoptikum is a private museum operated and curated by the surrealist artist Vlad Korneev. Vlad is a primarily a photographer, and one part of the museum displayed some of his works:
