In our history classes, we were always told that life behind the famous Iron Curtain was dismal, with food shortages, substandard housing, lacking in human rights, and lots of government control over communications. But what can we find out now about life back then? How bad was it, or were we just brainwashed, like we were in many other conflicts? Many say it looked like the Great Depression, though just three decades removed from the fall of the Soviet Union. Store shelves were bare, and long queue at the grocery stores were normal. Life just beat these people down. Meanwhile, in the west, living conditions improved dramatically. The Communist political system stifled free enterprise and stopped the countries from moving beyond their feudal past. The actual Iron Curtain has disappeared, but a few reconstructions of the ... read more

Ah, the shimmering waters of the blue Danube, like a song we played in grade school music class. The famous Chain Bridge connects a rather flat Pest, with its more hilly, sister, Buda. And like many hilly cities in the world, a funicular (tram for Americans) traverses up Castle Hill to Old Town on the Buda side. Budapest is the capital and largest city of Hungary, with about 1.8 million people. It became a single city back in 1873. Many friends say it is the most beautiful city in Europe. We can blame the Celts for settling here, but you can read the rest on your favorite history website. Just about everyone settled here and conquered at one time or another. And it was once hidden by the infamous Iron Curtain! So, what comes to mind ... read more

I have never been a serious vodka drinker, other than a few drunken episodes in college, or later in adulthood, drowning my sorrows on Stanyan Street. But it is such a versatile spirit, since its taste can be hidden by almost any beverage. And I have not fallen for the many craft and boutique vodkas running across the liquor landscape. But I am somewhat curious about vodka in one of the real "homes" of vodka, Poland. Per D. Sierkow: "In Poland, vodka (from voda, water) has been produced since the eighth century although the first mention of the word stems from 1405 in the minutes of the Court Registry of Sandomierz. In 1534 there was the first treatise on the distilling of vodka by Stefan Falimirz who writes on the distilling of vodka which, as he ... read more

It is not often I read a book and get inspired, or brought to tears, or both. But the little paperback I bought at the Friends of the Library, titled Madame Curie by Eve Curie was a hidden gem in my $5 bag of bargain books. For those of you in suspense, Madame Curie's real name at birth was Maria Sklodovska. She was born to a poor family in Poland, and reached the heights of the scientific world in many ways throughout her lifetime. Her mother died of tuberculosis when Marie was only ten. Born to relatively poor Polish parents in the middle of the Russian occupation, she was able to persevere through many arduous and painful times. She became the FIRST woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win two Nobel ... read more

Most of us know that Warsaw is the capital of Poland. But, we probably do not know much else about it. Warsaw is located in the east central part of the country, not far from the border of the Czech Republic from where we arrived. Sparing you some of its storied past, Warsaw is located on the Vistula River, 240 miles SE of the Baltic coast city of Gdansk. The Old Town was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1980. The heart of Polish French composer Frederic Chopin resides in the Church of the Holy Cross. Remnants of tsarist era remain in various forms. In the early 20th century, the Jewish community accounted for nearly 50% of the population of Warsaw. After the annihilation of the Jews, Warsaw had to be repopulated after ... read more