I was lucky enough to spend much of July traveling within Central Europe, visiting Budapest (Hungary) as part of my graduate work, and then was joined by my wife for about 2 days each in Budapest, Vienna (Austria) and Prague (Czech Republic). I'm not a good photographer and I didn't use a fancy camera, but I took lots of photos – everything that follows was taken with my iPhone 5.
This will be an unusual blog post for me in that it will be 90% photos and just a few words. Please let me know whether this was interesting for you!
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We started in Budapest since that's where I had been studying for the past two weeks. I already had the lay of the land and a few sites for us to visit. Budapest is a great walking city, and out location, right near the Chain Bridge, meant that we could enjoy both Buda and Pest very easily.
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| The "castle" is now a museum |
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| A group of grad students (including me) on the first night. I'm on the right side in the black shirt |
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| Istvan, the first king of Hungary |
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| The "Baths" |
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| The Chain Bridge |
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| The palace, lit up at night. This was the view from my hotel |
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| Hungary loves Ronald Reagan for his role in ending the cold war and bringing down the wall |
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| St. Istvan's Basilica |
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| In a wine cellar. We sampled 7 local wines and then had a great dinner. |
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| Castle, lit up at night |
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| Hungary's largest Basilica, at the Danube Bend |
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| At Hero's Square |
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| At Hero's Square |
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| At the market |
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| At the market |
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| Ready to eat a Langos |
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| Have a Langos with cheese and sour cream (like I do) |
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| 6 ft tall Michael Jackson made of Marzipan. I'm not kidding. |
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| Tacey shows poise |
We took a 3 hour train ride to Vienna where we enjoyed museums, concerts, palace tours, and just seeing the architecture and stopping at cafes.
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| St. Stephen's |
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| St. Stephen's |
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| St. Stephen's |
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| St. Stephen's |
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| St. Stephen's |
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| Photo of my thumb. But look carefully and in the lower right there is an interesting building. |
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| Albertina Museum |
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| Albertina Museum |
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| Albertina Museum |
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| Wiener Schnitzel |
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| Mozart Conert |
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| Mozart Concert - they wore period costumes |
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| Mozart Concert - Tenor and Soprano also wore period costumes |
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| A palace |
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| A palace |
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| Excellent sidewalk cafe, across from the Albertina Museum |
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| Sausage at the Mozart Cafe |
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| Cheese at the Mozart Cafe |
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| Coffee and sweets at the Mozart Cafe |
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| Interesting metro station |
On to Prague, 5 hours by train from Vienna. Prague was amazing. Not so refined as Vienna, but with a fabulous mix of museums, palaces, old world and new world eateries and great beer! Some call it the "Paris of Eastern Europe" and for good reason. Sophisticated, high-end stores and great streets to stroll.
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| Old Town Square |
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| Old Town Square |
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| Pilsner at Wenceslas Square |
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| Pilsner at Wenceslas Square |
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| "Selfie" at the Charles Bridge |
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| The Astronomical Clock |
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| After a 3 hour walking tour, I asked for the "largest beer you have" and the gave me this! |
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| Vivaldi's Four Seasons as performed by 2 violins, a viola, a cello, and an organist |
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| Slow Roasting Pig |
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| Some for me (I tried but couldn't finish it!) |
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| Karlsberg Castle |
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| Karlsberg Castle |
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| Horses shuttling people to Karlsberg Castle |
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| Karlsberg Castle |
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| Karlsberg Castle |
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| Karlsberg Castle |
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| A sausage lunch after Karlsberg Castle |
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| Market near our hotel |
We had a wonderful time in Budapest, Vienna and Prague. We made the most of our short times visiting, and will remember the trip for the rest of our lives!
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