• Romania appears less developed than the other countries we’ve been to in the European Union, including other former Communist countries Poland and Slovakia. • It is common to see people driving horse drawn wagons in the countryside and smaller towns. For many, this appears to be their primary form of transport.…
Travel
Romania — We’re not in Kansas any more…
We approached the Romanian frontier at a small crossing in the east of Hungary. Ours was the only car visible as we approached the remote border post in the dusk of late afternoon. A man in a green uniform was smoking and put his cigarette down on the curb as…
Drinking Bull’s Blood in the Valley of the Beautiful Women
This is not a joke. We really did drink it. Read on… On the outskirts of the baroque town of Eger in North-Eastern Hungary lies The Valley of the Beautiful Women (Szépasszony-völgy in Hungarian). Skirting both sides of this valley are the cellars of many small Hungarian wine producers. The…
Flying à la carte with Wizz Air
We flew from Budapest to Barcelona return on Hungary’s discount airline Wizz Air. I think the name was meant to conjure images of speed but I can’t help thinking of urination when I hear it. With the bankruptcy of Malev Hungarian Airlines in February 2012 (after 66 years of continuous…
Climbing in Montserrat
We took a short break from our travels to meet up with our friend Lee who was in Barcelona, Spain on business. We left the S&M Motel safe and secure in a campground in Budapest, Hungary and arranged for a taxi to pick us up there at 3 AM in…
Impressions of Hungary
The Hungarian language is very different from those of its neighbouring countries which speak Slavic languages. Hungarian is more closely related to Estonian and Finnish which share a common history from when the Huns invaded the region in around 500 CE. The Kingdom of Hungary existed for 950 years before…
Impressions of Slovakia
We passed though Slovakia for our 2nd time. We were here last October briefly, visiting Bratislava for 1 day only. Thankfully we had more time and better weather this visit. Here are some of the things I found interesting… Slovakia is a narrow, landlocked country in Central Europe. It is…
Vignette Regret
Today, you get a $60 blog posting. Others may give you a $20 posting, or perhaps even a $30 posting, but I give you a full $60 posting. I’m willing to suffer for my art. How can I be sure what it’s worth? Read on. We were camped at the…
Down to our Last Złoty
Many countries in Europe are part of the Eurozone, a monetary union of 17 European Union (EU) member states (a subset of the total number of 27) that have adopted the Euro as their sole legal currency. Some members of the EU are not members of the Eurozone, including several…
Auschwitz III
This is the last of 3 related postings regarding Auschwitz. The first post is available here and the second here. The last selection took place on October 30, 1944. In September Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS, ordered the crematoria destroyed before the advancing Soviet Army reached the camp. The gas…