Travelling in Central/Eastern Europe (September 2015) – Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia & Hungary

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Travelling in Central/Eastern Europe (September 2015) – Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia & Hungary



Tuesday, 1 September – Orvieto, Italy to Warsaw, Poland. Today was a long travel day. First we walked down the Corso Cavour, trailing our small suitcases behind us, to the funicolare , which brought us down from the medieval hilltop city to the working modern suburbs below where the train station is located. Our train travelled from Orvieto to Rome Termini station in a little over a hour. After a quick slice of pizza and a beer, we boarded one of the shuttle buses to Rome Ciampino airport. Ciampino airport is too small for the capacity of passengers passing through it. People were sprawled on the floor while waiting to board their flights. We managed to get seats, eventually, and after about two hours we boarded our Ryan Air flight for Warsaw’s Modlin airport. A typical Ryan Air-type airport on the far outskirts of the city, upon arriving we had to take a shuttle bus to the local train station and then the commuter train into Warsaw. We disembarked in the ugly and confusing structure that is Warsaw’s central train station. We attempted to take a shuttle or metro to the apartment where we were spending the next three nights, but everyone we asked sent us in opposite directions. They were all very friendly and seemingly helpful, all Polish with English language skills, but with no sense of direction. Eventually we stopped to look at the map, determined it was less than 2 kilometres, and we walked to the apartment building, where we were greeted on the street in front of it by the Rasta-haired and fast-talking Adam. He too was very friendly and helpful, full of advice and tips on things to do and see. We crashed early and slept fitfully as the trams outside made loud banging noises as they passed. They ceased running at midnight but started up again around 5 or 6 am.

Wednesday, 2 September – Warsaw, Poland. While the trams in Warsaw commence their service early in the morning, the Poles themselves don’t seem to be early risers. We walked into the Stare Miasto (Old Town) shortly after 9am and except for other similar early-rising visitors, it was empty and quiet. We found the tourist office doors open and a very polite young man with impeccable English offered us a couple maps and advice on nearby coffee shops that might be open, options on travel between Warsaw and Krakow, and a jazz club with live music later in the evening. We had to dance around the cleaner with her bucket and determined mop while browsing the many brochures and leaflets. We walked around the Old Town and took some photos of the Dutch-like buildings and the Copenhagen-like mermaid in the town square and finally found a coffee shop on Castle Sqaure opposite the Royal Castle. The coffee was weak but the two pastries were excellent.

Warsaw is Poland’s capital and its largest city. Its sprawl encompasses nearly 2 million people. It was razed to the ground in 63 days of fighting between the Nazis and the Russians during the Second World War and was reconstructed from scratch during the Communist era. It is now a city of contrasts: magnificent wide modern boulevards with sleek modern skyscrapers, dreary and crumbling communist-era apartment blocks, and restored medieval cobblestone lanes and squares. It feels a safe, open, friendly and spacious city. There are many parks and green spaces, and benches to rest and people-watch.

The Old Town was founded in the 13^th century as a prince’s headquarters and a fortified settlement, and is Warsaw’s historic centre. Faithfully restored to its former glory, it is now inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Cultural Heritage. We meandered down the Royal Way, the 6 mile route that the Kings of Poland took from their main castle residence to the summer home to the south of the city. It is now a bustling boulevard with the historic landmarks at its northern end giving way to local and international stores as it proceeds southwards.

It was chillier than we were used to in Orvieto (20 C instead of 30+C) and there were spits of rain in the air; we stopped into TK Maxx to buy a windbreaker.

Lunch was at a the Bambino Milk Bar, which is a combination cafeteria and soup kitchen, a no-frills communist-era canteen that serves Polish staples of soups, pirogies (like raviolis), meats and vegetables. There was a line out the door which we joined. Just inside the door is a woman in a cash booth and behind her on the wall on three six-foot panels is the menu. With more hope than certainty we placed our order by pointing at our selections and paid our ticket (27 Zloty – less than 9 Euro/12 USD). Joan commandeered a window table and I proceeded to the serving hatch where I handed over my ticket. It was quite considerably longer than my predecessors. She asked me something in Polish and when I just smiled and shrugged she shuffled over to the cashier for clarification. An elderly lady behind me, in perfect English, asked me: ‘Do you not speak Polish’ as though that was inconceivable and when I admitted that I did not and that I was a visitor and had only arrived the previous day, she huffed and spoke no more. Through the serving hatch I could watch the half-dozen women cooks/servers tending at least twenty boiling pots, as well as a fry area and countless plastic buckets containing salads and other vegetables. The food was scooped onto plates and pushed through the hatch with a descriptive shout. It was great fun! And the food was wonderful: we had an egg scrambled with a kielbasa sausage, cream of spinach, mashed potatoes with dill, breaded pork cutlet, and pierogi stuffed with a sweet cottage cheese.

After lunch we continued our flaneur, returning to the area around the train station and the still-controversial Palace of Culture and Science. This skyscraper was a ‘gift’ from Stalin for the people of Warsaw and was affectionately known as, among other things, as ‘Stalin’s Penis’. It is purported to be the tallest building between Frankfurt and Moscow. Everything about it is large as it was designed to show off the strong, grand-scale Soviet aesthetic and architectural skill. It contains over 3000 rooms, theatres, museums, a conference hall, multiplex cinema, office space and an observation deck. As the day was heavy with thick grey clouds we decided not to ascend to the observation deck.

We wandered back toward the apartment. We located the jazz club, Pardon To Tu, and peeked inside to see square compact performance space with about 60 folding chairs and a six-foot square stage. After a quick bite to eat and a shower I returned to the club at 7:45 to find that the show had already sold out. I hadn’t thought to ask about pre-purchasing tickets as it didn’t look like that kind of place. My mistake! Another early night to rest the weary feets!

Thursday, 3 September – Warsaw, Poland. There is a lot to see and do in Warsaw and we rose this morning to the realization that we could have easily spent a week here! Regular readers of our travel-blogs will know that we are not regular museum-goers, but Warsaw offered a very unusual museum: the Neon Museum. The museum houses a collection of unique, hand-made electric advertising neon signs from Warsaw’s streets and buildings that went out of fashion after the collapse of Communism. Ilona Karwinska, a Polish photographer, while documenting these fast-disappearing signs, started also to collect and store them. She and her partner opened their private museum in 2012 in a new arts and culture development in the Praga area of Warsaw called the ‘Soho Factory’.

Praga is the area located on the ‘other’, less-fashionable side of the Vistula River. The new-ish National Stadium is there, as is the Zoo. This area was not extensively destroyed during the war and many of the pre-war buildings remain. In addition to the football stadium, there is a stunning Calatrava bridge spanning the river.

After a brief stop at a local coffee shop for a ‘pqczki’ (pronounced PONCH-key), a quintessential Polish donut filled with a rose-flavoured jam, we walked from our apartment and over the bridge, past the stadium and then on into the centre of Praga. Praga is quite run-down and decrepit, with many boarded-up buildings and long, seemingly-endless terraces of dour, colour-less apartment blocks (although there are splashes of colour as Poles love flowers and many decorate their balconies with plants).

As usual, Joan had researched the area for lunch and we searched out the restaurants from her list so she could inspect the dining rooms and study the menus before making a decision. The first restaurant on her list was closed. The second, a Russian restaurant, was tiny, with two tables inside and two on the sidewalk, but wasn’t yet open (it was about 12:30). In perfect English its owner asked did we not speak Russian and explained that she hadn’t yet written up the days’ menu but that it would be soup. The third restaurant, which was cited for excellent ‘pierogis’ was really a bar where the ‘pierogis’ were most likely used to absorb alcohol. Near this restaurant was a cute and funky little corner restaurant with ill matching chairs and tables, all of which had price tags. This place was not on Joan’s list but had a similar name to a restaurant that was. We decided to find the last restaurant on the list. It was in the back of a group of very run-down and mostly shuttered stores and it too was closed. So we trundled back to the off-the-list restaurant on the corner and had a wonderful set lunch menu of cream of vegetable soup starter and creamy, spicy Hungarian goulash made with pork, accompanied with Farro and a pickled cucumber salad with red onion and dill.

After lunch we walked to the Soho Factory, the former industrial premises of a pre-World War II munitions factory and post-war factory of motorcycles. It is being rejuvenated and transmuted into an upmarket living and working complex. There are magazine offices, architecture and graphic design studios, a theatre, a concept store, the Neon Museum, and restaurants. One of the restaurants, Warszawa Wschodnia, is owned and run by one of Poland’s bright young chefs, Mateusz Gessler. When we entered the Soho Factory complex we noticed a presence of bouncer-type men in tight-fitting black suits and the restaurant was fenced closed in preparation for a private function. We also saw a troupe of the private function attendees, mostly men dressed in dark suits, being led past the restaurant entrance and into a large hall. Joan approached one of the bouncer-types to ask to see the restaurant menu and he allowed her entry and signalled to someone passing to assist her. I followed her into the enclosed area. A very pleasant young man explained that that restaurant was closed for a private function but offered to show her the dining room and restaurant. Joan told him she had read about the restaurant and its famous chef and the young man smiled and said ‘That’s me!’ He laughed and explained further that he was not so famous anymore, that he had given up the television appearances, sold his previous businesses and was concentrating all his efforts on this venture. I told him that Joan was a former chef and he took us into the open kitchen area and explained the dishes they were preparing for their imminent seating of 600 guests! He was friendliness and cordiality personified and it was a wonderful brief tour and experience.

We caught a tram back to the old town. A young woman helped us chose the correct tram and told us at which station to alight. She told us to buy the ticket on the tram but the machine only accepted coins and we didn’t have enough; we didn’t get caught. We wandered around the old town a bit more, and then crossed the reconstructed dividing wall into Nove Miasto (New Town) and wandered around there.

We realize that we have only just scratched the surface of Warsaw; there was just too much to see and do in two days. We will return! I will have to do some research and find out when the Warsaw Jazz Festival is held! – as most major European cities have one, there is bound to be one here also! That will be a good excuse for a return visit.

Friday, 4 September – Warsaw, Poland to Krakow, Poland.

We woke to a soft Irish day with drizzly rain in Warsaw which made it a good day to travel to Krakow. We made our way by commuter train to the bus station on the outskirts of town and then boarded the Polski bus to Krakow which departed at noontime and arrived in Krakow at 5:30. The roads were mostly dual carriageways, and where the road narrowed to a single lane there was road-works in process to widen it.

We arrived in the new bus station and trundled down to the Boomerang apartments. We met Lucasz who was born in Krakow but who moved to Australia at the age of eight and later returned and now owns one floor of an old Soviet-era four story apartment block which he has converted to a small business consisting of 6 rooms and two self-contained apartments to rent. The building is ideally located midway between the Old City and the Kazimierz former Jewish district.

Lucasz recommended the Kuchina Doroty and we went there for a late lunch/early dinner. Joan had a starter of beetroot soup followed by goulash with fried potato pancakes; I had pork ribs with a salad. After dinner we walked up into the Old Town, which was very lively. A European football match between Poland and Germany was being played and while the Polish team had beaten recently-crowned World Champion German team in their previous match, this one resulted in a Polish defeat, 3 to 1, which subdued and quieted the noisy, hopeful and expectant local football fans.

While walking around the Old Town Market Square we heard the distinct sound of a tenor saxophone and followed it to Pod Gruszka where a local trio - tenor sax, piano and electric bass - was performing standards from the American jazz standards songbook. We had a drink and listened to a set and a half of music before boomeranging back to our room for the night.

Saturday, 5 September – Krakow, Poland.

We began our morning with very disappointing bagels at Bagelmama. We were directed here by internet research proclaiming it the place for the ‘Best’ bagels in Krakow. The service was distracted: two of our four items were incorrect. One of the staff and an older man who seemed like the owner, a New Yorker with attitude, were not focused on customers at all but on their own conversation.

We visited the former Stara Synagogue, now an historical museum: This temple is the oldest synagogue that has been preserved in Poland. It was built in the beginning of the 15^th century by the Jewish community in the area of Krakow know as Kazimierz. It functions now to chronicle the history of the Jews of Krakow. It contains many items related to everyday life in the district. It was crowded with visitors, mostly students ignoring their teachers lectures and guides herding their groups around the building.

The Kazimeirz district contains small market squares and cobblestone streets lined with small shops and many restaurants. It was the home for more than 500 years of Krakow’s Jewish community. Much of Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was filmed here. We wandered around this area for a few hours, stopping often and briefly, stumbling onto a Honey festival and exhibition on one square, and then a handicraft market on another.

We shared a large sausage and a ‘bigos’ which is sauerkraut with pieces of sausage and ham in a chopped tomato sauce for lunch.

In the afternoon we walked to the former Schindler factory. This building, which was the former office building of the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik now houses an exhibition about Krakow under Nazi Occupation, recounting the story of the city and the fate of its Polish and Jewish residents during World War II. It is a very modern museum with multimedia exhibitions. While the exhibition was very interesting, we expected more specifically about Schindler and his factory workers. There were only a few panels about the man and his story and aspects of it that differed from the film, his desk and a an ‘installation’ of pots similar to those once produced in the factory.

We attended an early evening Trumpet/Organ recital at Philharmonic by Robert Majewski, trumpet and Jan Bokszczanin, organ. Titled ‘Komeda Inspirations’, the recital featured the music of Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda as well as solo organ pieces by Arvo Paert and Pawel Lukaszewski. Komeda is best known internationally for the music for the film Rosemary’s Baby directed by fellow Pole Roman Polanski. Komeda's album Astigmatic (1965) is widely regarded as one of the most important European jazz albums. The philharmonic auditorium was less than half filled, but most of those attending were very well dressed. The recital lasted 75 minutes and the music performed was exceptionally beautiful.

After the concert we walked back up to the Old Town Main Square and had our dinner at Grande Grill: ribs and steak. The kitchen was running slow and our wait was an hour, but our waitress kept us informed and plied with glasses of free wine and we watched people on the square and listened to a smooth-voiced busking singer and watched the horse-drawn carriages pass by and thin-legged girls in very high heels attempting to lure groups of men into the local strip clubs and were pleasantly entertained while waiting for dinner.

Sunday, 6 September – Krakow, Poland.

A cold, rainy Irish morning greeted us and we headed to the shopping mall to purchase a jacket for Joan.

Trip to Salt Mines: The Wieliczaka Salt Mine is the only place in the world where mining has been continuous since the Middle Ages, over 700 years. There are over 300 kilometres (186 miles) of the mine to a depth of 327 metres (1073 feet). The mines were on the first UNESCO World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage. The tour descends to a depth of 135 metres (443 feet) and is about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 miles) long. We took an early afternoon commuter train from Krakow and entered the mine shaft descending stairway about 40 minutes later. The air is a cool and constant 14 degrees Celsius (57 Fahrenheit). Entrance is only with a tour and our English language tour consisted of about 30 people. It was an extraordinary experience; not a bit claustrophobic as one might expect. The tunnels are well-lit and the air fresh to breath. There are numerous sculptures made entirely of salt carved by the miners themselves. There are also chapels as miners were very religious and prayed for safety.

In the evening I went to the Jazz Club Muniaka, which is owned by a local jazz musician, Janusz Muniaka, who apparently opened it in order to have a place to play regularly. A young local jazz quartet led by a tenor saxophonist worked through the classic jazz standards songbook. Muniaka himself did not play.

Krakow is quite a ‘jazzy’ town. There are six small clubs that I located that feature live jazz most nights of the week, and another half-dozen music clubs that also have live jazz a couple nights per week. That is the reason this blog has taken so long to prepare: in the evening instead of sitting in our room writing I am out at a club listening to live jazz!

Monday, 7 September – Krakow, Poland.

Today was our day to explore the Old Town. Our self-conducted tour brought us past the many fine buildings and churches of this quaint and very friendly small city. The Town Hall Tower is an architectural landmark of Krakow, 700 years old. The Barbican, a relic of medieval city defences, was constructed in 1498-9, and is one of the few structures of its kind preserved in Europe. The Planty is a park full of pathways, tree-lined, and with benches every few metres, where the former city walls and moat were and encircles the historical city centre. At one end is a spectacular gate, Floriaska, built at the end of the 13^th century. In the centre of the magnificent Market Square are the Cloth Hall building and St Mary’s church with its pair of asymmetrical towers. At the other end of the historical centre is the Royal Castle Warwel. The buildings surrounding the enormously large square are quite stunning in themselves. We wandered around the historical centre for a couple hours, stopping to peak into a couple of the magnificent churches, slowly walking down the streets we hadn’t traversed, window-shopping and people-watching. We stumbled onto a market and watched people sorting through the shiny and colourful fruit and vegetables. We stopped to watch a large illegally-parked BMW being lifted onto a flatbed truck; it was parked in a wheelchair spot outside a posh-looking hotel. Two police officers stood guard while the man winched the car up onto the truck. We were hoping the owner of the car would arrive while this was taking place so we could view some more genuine Polish street theatre, but alas he didn’t turn up

We had out lunch at another Milk Bar. Joan suggested I write some more about the concept of ‘milk bars’. They are essentially cafeterias which serve hearty local dishes and are incredibly cheap. They serve traditional Polish food such as soups, cabbage-based salads, pierogi, potato, eggs, breads and fruit juices. In the communist era, the government subsidized the food at these establishments which allowed workers a way to enjoy a meal out! The tradition continues and the Polish government still subsidises the food prices. Joan noticed a women taking two bowls of soup back to her table and the women nodded encouragingly when Joan asked her about it and she had to try it. It was a hearty potato soup made with herbs and a boiled egg. I had a scrambled egg with kielbasa sausage. We also shared a plate of pierogis. With a bottle of sparkling water, our bill came to 21 Polish Zloty (about 5 Euro, 7.50 USD). The food was very tasty.

Later, we had coffee at Kurant, a music shop cum cafe located on the Market Square. The coffee was strong and the wifi good, which meant that Joan could surf and research on the internet while I added some Polish jazz cds to my ever-growing collection of music.

The neighbourhood of Kazimierz is the historic heart of Krakow’s once thriving Jewish community. It is named after King Kazimierz the Great who invited and encouraged Jews to come to Poland in the 14^th century. Over the centuries the Jewish community grew and flourished. By 1939, over 65,000 Jews lived in Krakow (most of them in Kazimierz), making up more than a quarter of the town’s population. When the Nazis arrived in 1939 they immediately displaced the Jews, sending them first to the ghetto in Lublin in eastern Poland and then to Auschwitz. Only a few thousand survived the war, and today Krakow has only a few hundred Jewish citizens.

We had dinner at Nova in the Kasimierz district, another of Lucasz’s recommendations. Again I had ribs and Joan had chicken stuffed with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, and a buckwheat salad. After dinner, we returned to the room and I updated the blog a bit (but not enough to post) and Joan researched our next destination, and then I made my way back up the hill to the Jazz Bar Muniacka where another local quartet, this time led by an alto saxophone player, worked their way through more of the classic American jazz songbook standard repertoire. And this evening Mr. Muniack joined them for the second set. He plays tenor saxophone in the manner of Lester Young, and I was happy to have had a chance to hear him on our short visit to Krakow.

Tuesday, 8 September – Krakow to Oswiecim, Poland. Today we took the slow train from Krakow’s sparkling new train station to Oswiecim town (known throughout the world as Auschwitz). While the train stations of Krakow and Warsaw are new modern constructions, built for the recent European Football Championship tournament, the small town train stations between Krakow and Oswiecim and the trains that travel this route are vintage communist era.

On the slow train I finished reading two books: Where the Devil Can’t Go by Anya Lipska, a crime novel set partly in Poland and mostly among the Polish community in Britain. It was a good read, a standard police procedural, with some Polish historical and political references, but nothing special. I also finished Elie Wiesel’s Night, the harrowing memoir of his time in the Auschwitz concentration camp. It recounts Wiesel’s horrific experiences in the Auschwitz death camp and on the forced march into Germany to escape the advancing Russian Army. It is a very disturbing and unsettling read, as well it should be. Tomorrow we will go to Auschwitz and spend the day there.

We arrived in Oswiecim around 2pm and wheeled our suitcases from the old train station to our small hotel just off the main city square. As usual, Joan quizzed the receptionist for restaurant recommendations. The friendly young woman recommended two nearby establishments: a Polish restaurant and an Italian restaurant, stating that she preferred the Italian as she already knew all about Polish food as she ate it at home every day! We decided on the Portobello restaurant and had a nice late lunch/early dinner there of pizza for Greg and sirloin for Joan. We asked the young waitress was there any live music in town in the evening and she informed us that Oswiecim was very boring! She much preferred Krakow.

Oswiecim is a modest provincial town of about 45,000 inhabitants who underline that they live in Oswiecim, not in Auschwitz as it is better known by its former German name. The old town is a pleasant, calm area, with several old churches, the ruins of a castle and a wonderful main square. The town was full of flower arrangements during our visit. Most people who visit this area do not come into the town, and fewer spend the night there; most visitors to the concentration camps are day trippers from Krakow. We decided, however, to visit this small town. Also, a friend in italy recommended a small hotel in the town, Hotel Pierrot, and a visit to the Jewish Centre before going out to the camp. She advised us to introduce ourselves to her friend who was the centre’s director but when we asked for him we were informed that he was away from the centre for the day. The centre consists of three buildings, the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue and the only Jewish house of prayer not completely destroyed by the Nazis, and the adjoining Kornreich house which was a Jewish family home before the war and the Kluger House which belonged to the last Jewish resident of Osweicim after WWII, Szymon Kluger. Before the horrors perpetrated in Auschwitz, Oswiecim was just an ordinary Polish town in which the majority of its citizens were Jewish and the centre documents pre-war Jewish life in the town with photographs, documents and artefacts. There was also an interesting photo array in its basement exhibition space portraying contemporary life in the shadow of the camps of Auschwitz.

We walked around the remainder of the town later in the afternoon, visiting the Jewish cemetery and viewing the castle, defensive tower and walls, town hall and churches, and other unusual buildings, including a building entirely painted with a music-theme mural. The residential area consists primarily of long apartment blocks of about four stories; many of these Soviet-era buildings have received bright and colourful facades and what were previously quite dour and dreary buildings, as evidenced by those that remain unpainted, are vivid and cheerful in countenance.

We returned after our tour of Oswiecim and finished the blog on Krakow and prepared for our visit to the concentration camps of Auschwitz the next day.

Wednesday, 9 September – Oswiecim, Poland. Today we visited the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau which are located a short distance just outside the small town of Oswiecim.

Auschwitz is the ‘most popular’ visitor attraction in Poland, drawing in excess of one million visitors annually. Why, however, does one go to a concentration camp while on vacation? Our Italian friend, a Jewish journalist posed this excellent and thought-provoking question to us for an article she was writing. We didn’t have an immediate response and we thought about it in the few days before our visit and continued to consider it even while we are here and visiting the two camps where over a million people were exterminated. We go to pay our respects to those who have died in such a vicious manner, whatever their religion or nationality. Like the brochures proclaim, we too want to label what happened here as ‘inhuman’, but man’s ferocious and brutal cruelty to his fellow man is, regrettably, one of humanity’s defining characteristics. We go to try to understand what happened here. We go as a duty; something a person ‘must’ do if they are able. We go to bear witness by viewing the over-crowded barracks and living conditions of the people, the ‘death block’, the gas chambers and the crematoria, the monuments and the human ash-strewn fields, by reading the histories of the many families who were entirely annihilated, by viewing the piles of shoes and suitcases and eyeglasses and shorn hair, by looking into the faces and eyes of the murdered men, women and children whose photographs line the barracks corridor walls. Still, so many people died here, it remains inconceivable. Yet, walking around the grounds of these two camps, we feel a sense of quiet and reflection, even a sense of peace, as we contemplate those whose lives were so cruelly taken here. It is a very moving experience, but not as eerie as one might expect, perhaps because of the sheer number of other visitors, most in large guided groups, around which one must navigate through the barracks and displays. Visiting the camps of Auschwitz was a very important and worthwhile experience, one which neither of us will ever forget.

Thursday, 10 September – Osweicim to Krakow to Wroclaw, Poland. Thursday was a travel day. We returned to Krakow on the old slow train, and then transferred to a modern fast train to Wroclaw. The scenery was a combination of tilled fields of agriculture and forests and small town train stations. We arrived at the beautiful old ‘glowny’ in the early evening and trundled our suitcases through the small city to our accommodation, which was a recently-modernised apartment in the run-down area at the northern edge of the city, called Nadadrze. We followed the tram tracks straight from the train station. Many of the buildings are in dire need of renovation. Our building was next to another which made a vivid before-and-after statement when viewed from across the street. Our apartment was large and bright and we spread ourselves into it.

Friday, 11 September – Wroclaw, Poland. In 2016 Wroclaw becomes the European Capital of Culture as well as a World Book Capital City. Next year it will also host the Theatre Olympics (we never knew there was such an event), the World Bridge Games and the European Film Awards. Under communist rule, Wroclaw was a ‘fortress of Solidarity’, a centre of resistance when Poland’s epoch-making trade union was made illegal under martial law in the early 1980s. It is the fourth largest city in Poland, with population of just over 600,000. While it feels a city filled with the vibrancy of the youthful student population gathered here – nearly twenty percent of its population are students - it is also a very old city with a rich and diverse history under constantly shifting rule. At various times it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany. It has also been known under many different names, the most well-known of which is Bresalu when it was a German town. It became an established city of Poland in 1945 as a result of the border changes after World War II.

Like Warsaw, Wroclaw was a smoking ruin, flattened during one of the most savage sieges of the Second World War. It has, phoenix-like, risen from the ashes of sixty years under fascism and communism and emerging as a modern and cosmopolitan centre. A number of rivers meet in Wroclaw and it is dominated by canals, bridges, cobblestone streets and gothic spires. The main Market Square (Rynek), was almost entirely rebuilt in the 1950s, with strict attention given to the original details of the facades of the buildings. The city’s landmark building, however, the 13^th century Town Hall, was a miraculous survivor and retains all its magnificence and splendour and is a masterpiece of medieval architecture.

As is our normal routine, we walked and watched, meandered aimlessly and also with a purpose (usually a cafe or restaurant). We paused to look at the cathedrals and churches. We stopped in cafes to sit and people-watch some more. We took many photographs. We walked and walked until our feets were sore, and then on walking home we took a wrong turn and had to walk some more!

After a quick bite to eat and a quicker shower, I trooped back into the town centre to the Vertigo Jazz Club to hear a quartet of local musicians perform. The club was jam-packed with patrons. They were launching a new dinner menu prepared by a Polish celebrity chef. I was allowed a stool at the bar where I had a great view not only of the stage and the performing musicians but also of the local businessmen and fashionable women who remained after the launch to listen to the music (or at least pretend to listen to the music). The quartet was led by an alto sax player, Piotr Szwec. They played interpretations mostly from the Classic American Jazz Songbook, but also three original songs, one per set. They played three 45-minute sets, with a 15 minute break between each of them, commencing at 9:15 and ending at midnight. The piano player, Lukasc Bzowski, was a very talented and an engaging player. A tall, lanky young man with a sense of casualness, he seemed to dance with the piano as he played his solos, leaning away from it with arms stretched out and then crouching into with elbows wide. Vertigo was the nicest jazz club I have been in outside of New York City (with the possible exception of Ronnie Scott’s in London). The room was wide and spacious and open and oblong with very good sightlines throughout. There was a trendy collection of mis-matching chairs and even a few very comfortable looking lounge chairs very close to the stage. The stage very large, wide and could comfortably accommodate a jazz orchestra of twenty or more musicians. The jazz performed was interesting and enjoyable; while I love hearing versions of the standards, and one could argue that the improvisations on standards are ‘original’ as instant compositions, I also like to hear entirely original music by the performers.

Saturday, 12 September – Wroclaw, Poland. Wroclaw is a ‘gnome’ city. The gnomes are Wroclaw’s most popular and iconic attractions, even more so than its cathedral or other monuments. They are ubiquitous – in doorways, alleyways, steet-corners and climbing light fixtures. Although it sounds like little more than a twee tourist gimmick, gnomes have long held an important place in Polish folklore. Under communism gnomes became the symbol of the Orange Alternative protest movement. This underground movement were interested in exposing absurdity and nonsense in its subversive protests by painting anti-establishment graffiti/public art which was immediately white-washed by the militia giving the protestors a fresh canvas on which to paint the rebellious images of various prankster gnomes. The first modern gnome statuette form was placed on the corner where the Orange Alternative frequently demonstrated. They proved so popular that businesses commissioned artists to produce more of them and there are now at least 250 of these little cute buggers scattered throughout the city. They even have their own location map and dual language website (krasnale.pl). On our wanderings we stumbled upon about a dozen of them and they always caused us to smile!

Joan researched and selected some wonderful eating establishments (also as usual!). One of the best was the Cafe Central. We arrived there shortly after 11am with the intention of having a coffee and sharing a slice of cake, but when we saw the menu all restraint was abandoned and I ordered pancakes with maple syrup and Joan had a chocolate croissant. The pancakes were served in a deep dish swimming in maple syrup. They were the best pancakes I have had outside the USA – light, fluffy, simply wonderful! We spent a very comfortable hour there just hanging out. We walked around for another couple hours, stumbling on weddings (three) and I was allowed 90 minutes in the jazz cd store, Molika, while Joan visited some of the stores around the market square. We met up around 3pm and decided to return to the Cafe Central for a late lunch, where we ordered two warm bagel sandwiches, one with chicken and the other with goats’ cheese and fig. They were very good, well worth returning for. We continued our Wroclaw stroll and eventually returned to the apartment.

In the evening we returned to the Vertigo Jazz Club for more live jazz. This time we had a dinner reservation and sat at a table about 5 feet from the low stage. We had burgers for dinner; Joan ordered what she thought was a beef burger with camembert cheese and what arrived was a camembert cheese patty, slightly melted, with no beef. Polish cider is very easy to drink and an ideal accompaniment. The jazz was a piano trio led by the lad who had impressed me so very much the previous evening, Lukasc Bzowski. He is an even better player as a leader, stretching out in solos, sometimes with eyes closed and sometimes smiling and laughing with his fellow band members. He played three sets, again with only one original song per set. I have an idea that this might be a metaphor for Poland: a willingness to utilize ideas from other sources as a foundation for exploration but a lack of overall originality and creativity...but then there are the gnomes!

We thoroughly enjoyed our too-short tour of Poland. We found the Polish people to be very friendly, courteous and helpful (and much like the Irish!). They all seem to have English and are very approachable and willing to offer assistance, guidance, suggestions and directions (although the directions are wrong as often as right!). When we told a friend we were planning a month long visit to encompass Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, she told us we could easily spend a month in Poland alone and that wouldn’t be enough. And she was right. We didn’t get to either Gdansk or Poznan and we are certain that there are other equally interesting smaller towns which also warrant another visit!

Sunday, 13 September – Wroclaw, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic. Sunday was a travel day. We had breakfast at the hotel buffet and made sandwiches and took apples for the 5-hour bus journey from Wroclaw, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic. The scenery was much the same as that we viewed on our other intercity journeys: small towns, agricultural fields and forests.

Monday, 14 September – Prague, Czech Republic. Happy Birthday to Me – 57 today! Yikes!!

We began our morning by having a coffee (weak) and a shared plum tart (very good) for breakfast at Cafe Jen which we had spotted from the bus on the journey to our apartment. It was also recommended by Ivana, the person who we corresponded with. The server in Cafe Jen was friendly and answered our questions regarding how best and easiest to get into the city centre, and the cost. We are about 5 kilometres, and while it is certainly not too far for us to walk, we decided it would be best to familiarize ourselves with the local transport options for late nights after jazz returning. And we like riding the local trams! Our local tram are the 22, 57 or 59 and they take us right to the edge of the historic old town, the famous Charles Bridge and across the River Vltava to Prague Castle. We purchased a one-way ticket from a local newsagent and boarded the rickety old tram which trundled and rumbled into town in about ten minutes. We disembarked and found a bureau de change to get some more Czech currency (we had changed the rest of our Polish Zloty’s at the bus station for some Czech Crowns, enough to purchase a bus ticket and a few other items at the local shop, and the two tram tickets).

Prague is a major tourist destination, and the cobblestone streets and historic squares were full of visitors, as we discovered during our walkabout.

Disembarking the tram, we changed some Euros in the local currency, Crowns, and around the corner we located the Reduta Jazz Club, currently celebrating its 55^th year of offering live jazz, where we are going on Thursday night to hear Amina Figarova and Bart Platteau, a jazz couple we met in Dublin a few years ago and who are currently on tour promoting the release of their new recording, Blue Whisper. The Reduta Jazz Club is where Bill Clinton played his saxophone while visiting then president Vaclav Havel. The very friendly girl in the box office showed us into the red velvet club and allowed his to choose our seats for the Thursday night gig.

From there we walked across the river to a restaurant Joan had chosen for my birthday lunch, only to find that it didn’t serve lunch on Mondays! (Their hours were not noted on their website, other than that it was closed Sundays!) Joan had a list of alternatives and headed toward the second restaurant on her list. As in the cities we visited in Poland, Prague city has a considerable number of music venues with many of them proclaiming to be ‘jazz clubs’ but which feature ‘jazz’ only occasionally. Visiting ‘jazz clubs’ these are on my list! And one of them, U Maleho Glena, was enroute to restaurant number two. It labels itself as a ‘jazz and blues club’ but is really a bar with a stage at the end. Their musical offerings are split about 50-50 between jazz and blues as far as I can tell by their brochure. (All the music clubs produce listings brochures.) This one looked an interesting place and a pianist called Najponk is playing in a trio format on Wednesday evening, so that is a possibility.

The second restaurant on Joan’s list was a Grill House, back over the river. We sauntered in that general direction. When we crossed the famous Charles Bridge was as busy as Florence’s Ponte Vecchio. In fact, the busy-ness here in Prague reminded us very much of Florence. When we reached restaurant number two, at 2:30, the kitchen was preparing to close and the menu was not appealing and too expensive (even for a birthday lunch). Joan hadn’t realized that it was the restaurant of a posh hotel (and we rarely eat in hotel restaurants). We walked around some more. Restaurant number three would have entailed about 45 minute walk and by this time we were very hungry (having shared only one slice of tart hours earlier). We stopped in the tourist office for suggestions and the very friendly young woman, a vegetarian, informed us that ‘beer was her thing’ and recommended a couple brewpubs that also served food. She showed us their location on a map but they seemed a bit too far; we needed someplace closer to sit and eat and rest. Unfortunately, the place we ended up in, Meet Burger, while in a great people-watching location just off one of the historical squares and opposite Kafka’s house, all the food was over-cooked and tasteless. Our waiter was dumb-founded when he cleared our plates and saw that we had left so much of the food uneaten, and another waitress who brought the bill and the credit card machine apologised sheepishly and scuttled off hurriedly after we had paid the bill.

A drizzly, intermittent rain drove us into shops and churches and more coffee shops, and we found a few more ‘jazz clubs’, one in basement of an underground metro station. After locating half a dozen music club leaflets and studying what was on offer, we decided to go to hear a Czech quartet at the Reduta Jazz Club. Instead of getting the tram back to the apartment for a brief respite, which could easily have resulted in us not going out again, we wandered around some more. The crowds thinned down. We walked along the river. There were many cruise barges offering river cruises; there was even a ‘jazz boat’. The sun set behind the mini-Eiffel Tower and Prague Castle. We turned back toward the centre. We were hungry again and found a small Vietnamese restaurant tucked away in a corner of a small run-down shopping centre. The restaurant, Pho Viet, was authentic, staffed with Vietnamese , the food arrived quickly and reminded us of our visit to Vietnam. Joan’s large bowl of Pho (Vietnamese soup) was genuine: fresh ingredients and tasty, only missing a sprig of mint leaves. I had a duck breast on noodles that was equally tasty. We shared two nem spring rolls. With one beer and one cider, our bill came to less than 10 Euro.

We went across the street to the Cafe Louvre, in the same building and upstairs from the Reduta jazz Club, for a quick coffee and dessert. The Cafe Louvre is a Prague institution (like Bewley’s of Dublin), an elegant 100-year-old cafe with large windows overlooking the street. Among its guests were Karel Capek, Franz Kafka, Max Brod, as well as Albert Einstein during his professorship in Prague. The double shot espressos were strong and the caramel cheesecake we shared was light and full of flavour. The waitress was friendly and service quick, and Joan liked the looks of the menu and the food being presented to diners and has decided to return for dinner on Thursday night!

The night’s jazz was two storming sets led by Czech tenor saxophonist Ondrej Stveacek who is heavily influenced by John Coltrane. Except for two original songs (one per set), he played songs associated with Coltrane. Very Good.

We caught the late tram, the 59, back to the apartment, exhausted and sated by a full birthday-day in Prague!

Tuesday, 15 September – Prague, Czech Republic.

We returned to Atelier Red & Wine, the restaurant Joan had selected for the ‘birthday lunch’ but which was closed on Monday, for a wonderful meal. We shared a Salad with Blue Cheese and Walnuts as a starter, and also shared our main courses: Chicken Steak with Sauteed Courgettes and Gratinated Potatoes and Smoked Duck with Cabbage and Potato Pancakes. This was modern bistro style cuisine and a wonderful ‘birthday lunch’.

The restaurant was located at the foot of Petrin Hill. At the top of Petrin Hill is a 60-metre high lookout tower that was erected as part of the 1891 General Land Centennial Exhibition, and is a smaller copy of the Eiffel Tower. The funicular that had been ferrying passengers up to this tower had been closed the week before; it will be renovated over the next six months. We walked into Petrin Park and up the hill. And then we climbed the tower. Even though it was a bit hazy, the view of the entirety of Prague was excellent. I took a few photos, most of which seem to be a bit blurry, either because of the gentle swaying of the tower itself, which Joan was at pains to repeatedly point out, or the shaking of my own knees!

Safely back on earth, we walked through the large park to the monastery, then onto the grounds of Prague Castle. An historical drama film was being shot within the grounds. We only saw some of the costumed extras and their horse and wagons. And we saw a few brides and grooms with their own camera person (five in total today); and I always photograph the brides!

We walked around the dark and spooky Gothic St Vitus Cathedral, its gargoyles menacing above. Back in the old city we shared a traditional Prague pastry called ‘trdelnik’, which is a twisting flaky puff pastry, rolled onto a stick, covered in crushed nuts and baked over charcoal, hollow in the centre into which is scraped chocolate and cream. It tasted like many more!

As we were walking back to our tram stop for our 5km ride back to our apartment in the residential area, we heard the sound of a saxophone coming from the terrace of a nearby building. We followed the sound to a wonderful of Art Nouveau building and upstairs cafeteria called Kavarna Adria where we had a coffee and listened to the two musicians perform standards – a lovely ending to a perfect ‘day-after-birthday’!

I finished reading The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg. It is a historical novel set during the Second World War and follows the life of one woman. It was a bit predictable and melodramatic, but an enjoyable and interesting read nonetheless.

As we travel and visit various places, we are inspired to learn more about their histories. Here is what we learned about Prague and the Czech Republic: The history of Prague is an epic story. Prague considers itself to be the ‘Heart of Europe’ and has always been a busy crossroad for merchants. Its first inhabitants were the Celts, who settled the Vltava River valley in 500 BC. Later they were driven out or assimilated by the Marcomanni, a Germanic tribe. The first Slavonic tribes arrived in Bohemia around 500 AD. About three hundred years later, after a period of clashes, the Přemyslid dynasty established its position as the ruling family. At the area of today's Prague, the Přemyslids built two fortresses: Vyšehrad and the Prague Castle. In the 10^th century Prague became the seat of the kings of Bohemia, some of whom also reigned as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The city flourished during the 14^th century reign of Charles IV who ordered the building of the New Town, the Charles Bridge, St Vitus Cathedral (the oldest Gothic Cathedral in central Europe) and the Charles University. At that time Prague was the third largest conurbation in Europe. A multi-ethnic city, with Czech, German and Jewish population, it was comprised of four districts: Hradcany, Mala Strana, Stare Mesto and Nove Mesto, which were unified in 1784 to proclaim the city of Prague of today. It underwent further expansion in 1850 with the inclusion of the Hebrew district, Jozefov.

From 1939, when the country was occupied by the Nazis, and during World War II, most Jews either fled the city or were killed in the Holocaust. The German population, which had formed the majority of the city’s inhabitants until the 19^th century, was expelled in the aftermath of the way. Prague was controlled and governed for nearly 50 years by the Russians.

In 1968, amongst growing discontent of economic failure, the Czechoslovakian Communist party appointed Alexander Dubcek as its new chairman. Dubcek promised reform, democratisation and, using Nikita Khrushchev‘s phrase, ‘socialism with a human face’. He eased press censorship, allowed greater artistic and cultural freedom, pardoned victims of political purges, eased travel restrictions, promised to guarantee civil rights and liberties and permitted a degree of democratic reform. Known as the ‘Prague Spring’, this movement for liberalisation of the country and an attempt to reform Soviet socialism was put down when, on the night of 20-21 August 1968, Soviet troops appeared in Czechoslovakia and on the streets of Prague.

Thirty-one years later, in 1989, a protest that started off as a peaceful, officially-sanctioned march in Prague to commemorate Czech student Jan Opletal, who died at the hands of the country’s Nazi occupiers 50 years ago, resulted in the collapse of communist rule and country’s conversion to a parliamentary democracy. The so-called ‘Velvet Revolution’, no deaths occurred, was the six-week time period during which negotiations culminated with the election of the writer Vaclav Havel elected as the President of Czechoslovakia.

Three years later, the federation known as Czechoslovakia was dissolved and split to form two independent countries: Czech Republic and Slovakia. This also happened peacefully and is sometimes referred to as the ‘Velvet Divorce’.

In 2004 the Czech Republic joined the European Union.

Wednesday, 16 September – Prague, Czech Republic. Neighbourhood walkabout. Pulled Pork and Brisket at BadJeff’s Barbeque. Walk into centre. Wenceslas Square and National Museum building (under renovation).

Piano trio at U Maleho Gleana Jazz Club: Najponk, piano; Taras Voloschuk, bass; Marek Urbanek, drums.

Thursday, 17 September – Prague, Czech Republic. Mega Meat Platter at Kolknova Restaurant. Visit Kafka Museum and Josefov (Jewish district). Coffee and cake at Prague Snob Coffee (Tutto Italiano!). Dinner at Cafe Louvre.

Jazz at Reduta Jazz Club: Amina Figarova sextet.

Friday, 18 September – Prague, Czech Republic to Vienna, Austria. Bus journey with Czech Student Agency. Metro to apartment in 18^th district, Kreugasse 42, Apt 7. Beer and chat with colourful locals. Local Pizza dinner.

Saturday, 19 September – Vienna, Austria.

Our first full day in Vienna was spent walking the streets of this imperial city which reminded us of London with its many regal buildings. Originally a Celtic city called Vindobona, it became an important Roman military and commercial centre; Emperor Marcus Aurelius resided here and died here (A.D. 180). To recount its entire history, even briefly, would take many pages: suffice to say that it was repeatedly invaded, conquered, occupied, and besieged over the centuries. Early in the 18th century a circle of fortifications was built around the city, and many magnificent buildings were erected, many of which remain standing today and give the city its elegance and style. In 1805 and 1809, Vienna was occupied by Napoleon. In the early 19th century it was famous for the waltzes of Joseph Lanner and the Strauss family. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Vienna flourished again as a cultural centre. Freud was developing his theory of psychoanalysis. Vienna attracted Brahms, Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples gave it a period of musical greatness. Vienna suffered hardships during World War I. Amidst food shortages and revolution it became, at the end of the war, the capital of the small republic of Austria. On Mar. 15, 1938, Adolf Hitler triumphantly entered Vienna, and Austria was annexed to Germany. During World War II the city suffered considerable damage. The Jewish population (115,000 in 1938), residing mainly in the Leopoldstadt district (designated the official ghetto in the 17th cent.), was reduced through extermination or emigration to 6,000 by the end of the war. The Russian army entered Vienna in April 1945. Vienna and Austria were divided into four occupation zones by the victorious Allies. The occupation lasted until 1955, when, by treaty, the four powers reunited Austria as a neutral state. We spent two full days walking the cobblestone streets of this historical city.

As usual, our first stop of the morning was for breakfast coffee and cake, at Cafe Konditori Aida, first established in the mid-1800s and now with branches scattered throughout the city. We viewed the two main cathedrals: Votiv Kirche (two spires) and St Stephen’s (single spire). We peeked into the very posh Cafe Central and took a few photos. We wandered among the throngs of tourists in St Stephen’s Square, where a Falun Gong protest was taking place.

We found the premier jazz club in Vienna, Porgy & Bess, where our friends Amina Figarova and Bart Platteau had performed a few days previously. Their musical offering for the duration of our visit was uninspiring and disappointing. We decided we would have to try to find some live Austrian jazz elsewhere in the city. There are two other jazz clubs in the city that I know of: Jazzland and Zwe. Later that evening, while walking toward Zwe to hear an Austrian singer and her band, we unexpectedly passed by Jazzland where an Austrian quintet was performing. A slight drizzle, and the fact that Zwe was at least another twenty minute walk, persuaded us into Jazzland. The five Austrians played - Daniel Nosig, trumpet; Herwig Gradisching, tenor saxophone; Rob Bargad, piano; Milon Nikolic,bass; Christian Salfellner, drums – played the music of Joe Henderson and Kenny Dorham. It was a very enjoyable evening; the club was packed. We departed the jazz club just after midnight and the drizzle had increased to a soft steady rain. We caught the last tram back to the apartment.

Earlier in the day we had walked about 7 kilometres for lunch. The first restaurant on Joan’s list she rejected upon inspecting the menu and viewing the premises. The second restaurant on the list, Gaststube Pustner, opposite the Porgy & Bess, looked promising but it was too early to eat. We walked in the direction of the third and fourth restaurants on her list, on Linzerstrasse, Quell (3^rd) and Die Metzgerei (4^th). Although Die Metzgerei was listed fourth, it was the restaurant she was most interested in trying. While walking in the general direction of these two restaurants, we passed along the edge of the Museums quarter and then onto Mariahilferstrasse which is a very long shopping street featuring all the major international chain stores and fast food outlets as well as many cafes. We strolled up this pedestrianized high street, pausing occasionally, window-shopping, people-watching. Tree-lined, there were wooden benches surrounding each tree. Linznerstrasse commenced shortly after Mariahilferstrasse ended. We did not, however, realize how long Linzerstrasse was: it was a very long walk to restaurant Die Metzgerei. We had, however, a wonderful lunch (photos previously posted) which made the walk well worth it. (We took the tram back, even though we had no ticket!)

Our lunch consisted of a Starter of Homemade Bratwurst served on Carmalized Beer Coleslaw Pasta. Main Courses: Saddle of Mangalitza Pork served on Creamy Mashed Potato-Celery with Bacon Jam and 'Die Metzgerei' Cordon Bleu Schnitzel filled with Gissinger Special Bacon and Emmentaller Cheese. The food was all delicious and the service friendly. We washed down the food with two glasses of an Austrian Riesling and a large stein of the local lager. Total cost: 54 Euro.

I finished reading 21:37 by Mariusz Czubaj. This Polish crime novel follows a profiler as he assists in solving two separate series of murders. Just Okay. The blurb: Rudolf Heinz’s life is far from perfect. His son avoids him, he’s a terrible guitar player, and he lives in constant pain. But there is one thing Rudolf Heinz is really good at – he’s the best profiler in Poland when it comes to serial killers. When the police find the dead bodies of two young men, their heads covered in plastic bags marked with the numbers 21 and 37, Heinz faces his most challenging case. Taking on a killer who likes to play games, the investigation is complicated when he discovers the victims are priests, and the local police close ranks against him. As he analyzes each lead, Heinz’s search for the killer pushes him deep into his own past, unaware that he will soon have to save his own life.





Sunday, 20 September – Vienna, Austria. Day Trip to Klosterneuburg.

Joan spent nearly a year in Klosterneuberg, a small town about 15 kilometres from Vienna, as a seventeen-year-old doing ‘au pair’ work for a family there, and was very keen to re-visit this area to see what she could remember of it. We boarded a regular commuter train which ran alongside the Danube River and arrived within about ten minutes of departure. As it turned out, the town of Klosterneuburg has changed, considerably developed in the nearly forty years since Joan’s residency. We walked around looking for the house where she stayed and worked, and while she recognized the street the house had long since made way for a more modern development. It remains, however, a beautiful and charming town, with cobblestone streets and flowers on the main square.

We visited the grounds of the beautiful Klosterneuburg Monastery which has been one of Austria’s most important religious and cultural centres for 900 years. It was formerly the residence of the Babenberg and Habsburg dynasties. It claims the oldest vineyard in Austria. The gardens are rich with flowers.

We had lunch at an ‘heurigen’. Heurigen are wine taverns in which local winemakers serve their most recent year’s vintages for short periods following the harvest. It is usually open only a few weeks in the autumn. It serves only its own wines with a limited selection of food, generally various meats and sausages, salads, cheese boards, and cakes. Heurigen indicate that they are open and guests welcome by displaying a handful of bound conifer or fir twigs hung above the entrance door. The heurigan Joan chose was run by the Schmuckenschlager family. It was scheduled, according to the local tourist office, to being serving Sunday lunch around 3 pm, but when we peeked in at 2:30 lunch was already in full swing and the restaurant half-full with reservation signs on many of the other tables. We shared a plate of selected meats and salads; the server weighs the food and you pay accordingly. After consuming our first plate, we returned for a second helping of the other meats and the other salads. All were full of flavour and quite filling. And the Schumuckenschlager family Riesling white wine was quite fresh and delightful. Highly Recommended.

Monday, 21 September – Vienna, Austria.

Our first destination on Monday morning was the Schloss Schonbrunn. Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence of the Hapsburgs. It is a 1,441-room Baroque palace and one of the most important architectural, cultural and historical monuments in the country. The palace was built in the mid-1700s during the reign of empress Maria Theresa who received the estate as a wedding gift. Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning and last emperor of Austria, was born here, spent a great deal of his life here, and died here at the age of 86, in 1916. Following the downfall of the Hapsburg monarchy in 1918, the palace became the property of the newly founded Austrian Republic and is today preserved as a museum. It is also used for important events: it was here that the meeting between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khruschev occurred in 1961.

The extensive grounds include large beautiful French- and English-style gardens, water fountains, an orangerie and glass palm house, a botanic garden and arboretum, two ‘gloriette’ structures, a Roman ruins, a sundial house, a ‘columbary’ and the Vienna Zoo. We spent a couple hours wandering in these magnificent grounds. The air was cooling and the sun was shining and the bride and groom were smiling and posing for photographs.

We took a tram back to the historical city centre for lunch at the Gaststube Pustner. It was a traditional Viennese meal of wiener schnitzel cordon bleu and a filet of pork in a pepper sauce with potato croquettes and broccoli. The restaurant consisted of many dark-wood rooms whose walls were cluttered with the limbs and heads of long-dead animals. We walked off the dinner in the afternoon.

One could easily spend a week or more just in the Museums Quarter of Vienna there are so many to visit. We chose the Leopold Museum which contains a permanent exhibition of two Austrian masters: Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, both on out ‘top ten’ list of artists. The museum also shows paintings by some of their contemporaries and we spent an enjoyable and interesting ninety minutes walking through its high-ceilinged galleries.

In the fading evening light we had a long slow stroll back to the apartment, stopping occasionally to photograph some of the other famous and fabulous buildings of Vienna.

While we enjoyed the Imperial beauty of Vienna, we felt it somehow lacked the ‘magic’ of Paris. We didn’t find the people particularly friendly (although when we were stopped to consult our map we were offered assistance). In fact, one of our maps advised us to ‘act like a Viennese: Be Grumpy!’ It further explained the nature of the Viennese character: ‘Although we are living in a city where everything works perfectly, we like to paint everything black and complain. A lot! An an original Viennese, it is mandatory to be grumpy because the bus is one minute late or because it is unbearably hot/cold/rainy/sunny. Don’t take our bad mood personally – it is part of our mentality that dates back to the monarchy, when half the population were civil servants.’

Tuesday, 22 September – Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia.

A little over an hour by bus, we journeyed from Vienna along the highway, through rich agricultural lands and many hundreds of wind turbines, to arrive not at the main bus station in Bratislava but at a drop-off beneath a bridge at the foot of the hill atop which sits Bratislava Castle. Our apartment was located near the castle, so we pulled our suitcases all the way up the hill to discover that Palisady is a quite a long street which ends at the castle and our flat for the two nights was nearer its beginning at the bottom of the hill. But, from the bus drop-off, it was a ‘you-can’t-there-from-here’ moment ! We arrived outside the building, number 42, and phoned Sylvia who admitted us to her newly white-painted and very spacious apartment. She is a PhD student in Valencia, Spain and seldom home in Bratislava. She showed us around and offered a few hints and tips and also information about a local jazz band playing the next evening just up the street at number 27.

After a brief pause, we walked into the town centre. Bratislava is a small city of just under half a million people and the capital of the Slovakia. Our initial impression was that while it offered a similar Central European charm that we had found in Poland and Prague - rich history, unusual local flavours, remarkable architecture and vibrant cafes, restaurants and night life – it was not as polished or pristine as the other cities we have visited on this journey. It seemed a bit shabby, a bit run-down; walls were scarred with graffiti, the shops were more ‘down-market’. Joan commented that the people were not as fashionable and a ‘bit grey in the face’. Bratislava is perhaps what we were expecting to find in the cities in Poland and Prague as an example of a former Communist city struggling to ‘catch-up’ to the standards of modern western European cities.

We found a wonderful bookstore/cafe, called Foxfords, two large floors stocked full of books and a coffee area on both floors overlooking the street. On this Tuesday mid-afternoon, the bookstore was filled with book-browsers and book-buyers. It was one of the nicest bookstores we have visited since our visit to Buenos Aires. That is something we have noticed but not yet commented on during our journey in Eastern Europe: bookstores are plentiful and appear to be thriving! Amazon has not yet killed them all off! It is certainly a pleasure to wander through a well-stocked bookstore (even if we can’t read most of the books stocked)!

Wednesday, 23 September – Bratislava, Slovakia.

On Wednesday morning we found another wonderful bookstore/cafe, called Panta Rhei/Cafe Dias, in which to have our morning coffee. (We had toast at the apartment so weren’t allowed a breakfast cake.) Panta Rhei was as large and well stocked as Foxfords and busy on a Wednesday morning. The coffee was a strong wake up. We browsed a bit. Joan found a current issue of Hello magazine and I found a small selection of local music (but alas no jazz).

Bratislava is the youngest capital city of Europe. Of its 450,000 citizens, fully 60,000 of them are students! That makes for an energetic and vibrant culture of not only excellent bookstores, but also cafes, bars and clubs, all of them quite modern and chic. The young people speak a heavily-accented English – there are at least two English language learning schools here that we sighted – and are polite and friendly if a little shy. Also, during our wanderings, we noticed fewer elderly people seated on park benches or pushing their shopping trolleys than we had in other cities.

Bratislava is a city still in transition, from the stagnant second world status of Soviet domination to first world status of a modern European nation. The trams are a little rickety. The roads need patching. Some of the buildings are covered with graffiti, not street art, while others are crumbling. The stores are quaint and old-fashioned. There is a store selling Kodak 35mm film and offering a film developing service. Old UK/US pop songs play on the store sound systems: Beach Boys, Beatles, Tom Jones, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin.

Like all the cities we have visited on this trip, Bratislava has a rich, long and varied history commencing with the barbarian Celts, then the Romans, German colonists in the 13th century, occupied by the Turks from the 16^th to the 18^th century, as part of the Kingdom of Hungary and then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, devastation during the two world wars, and Soviet domination. More of Bratislava was destroyed during the Soviet era than during WWII. In what could be called an act of cultural terrorism, two-thirds of the Old Town, including most of the old Jewish quarter, was levelled to make space for the ultra-modern New Bridge; the Nazis had blown up the original bridge. A four-lane highway leading to the bridge was built just yards away from St. Martin’s Cathedral by the atheist Communist regime, as a deliberate insult to religious tradition. The highway isolates the Castle from the rest of the Old Town. With the fall of Communism began the slow and careful restoration of long-neglected structures. Bratislava is now the capital city of Slovakia, a free emerging European nation, and already uses the Euro as its currency.

We walked down to the Danube River and then strolled along the promenade where a number of river cruise barges were docked. They accounted for the majority of the day-trippers. We heard mostly German accents, but also some English and a few Americans. The sun was shining on the brown water. We looked back toward the castle around which we had hauled our suitcases the previous day, and to the Soviet-built New Bridge which has a round pod sticking up in the middle of it that looks like something out of the Jetsons and is called the UFO bar.

We turned back onto the cobblestone streets and alleys of the mostly-pedestrianized old town and wandered aimlessly. We found Hammond’s music store that had an offering of local jazz recordings. We found many stores selling shoes and handbags and jeans. Joan determined that the fashion here was behind the times and slightly ‘hickey’.

Lunch was a very good meal at Prasna Basta: wiener schnitzel and duck (no starters). Eastern European food, we are discovering, is heavy and meat-centric. The duck was served with what they called ‘dumplings’. Joan asked the waiter/owner(?) of the restaurant how they were made and he hunkered down and explained his grandmother’s recipe to her. He asked where we were from and when Joan said ‘Ireland’ he welcomed us in the Irish language: ‘Conas ta tu!’ Typical of restaurants in Eastern Europe, the internal dining room was dark wood. A few old musical instruments, trumpets and trombones and a French horn, were mounted on thick beams. Charlie Parker was playing in the background. The beer was frothy; the wine was smooth; the food was hearty – we departed fulfilled.

We walked around the city centre some more. We found another bookstore/cafe, Urban Space. This one was more eclectic and funky that the other two. It had a good range of English language books, including cookbooks by Rick Stein and Ottolenghi.

Still later, we stopped at MonDieu, a French-style cafe, for another strong coffee and shared a caramel cheesecake, which was smooth and delicious. The wifi there was strong and steady and we hung out for an hour.

We headed back to the apartment about 6pm and headed out again at 7:45pm. Silvia, the Ph.D. student whose apartment we are living in, recommended the local bar/cafe, Sherz Kafe, for live music. In fact, there was a local jazz singer scheduled for the evening. The singer’s name was Anita Soul and she had a very good voice and sang mostly songs associated with Billie Holiday (Don’t Explain, God Bless the Child, Good Morning Heartache and Autumn Leaves). Her delivery was more Aretha Franklin than Billie Holiday, but enjoyable nonetheless! The bar held about 75 persons seated and was mostly full. The band consisted of Eugen Vizvary on electric piano, Richard Csino on electric bass, and Stefan Bogale on drums. The drummer was late arriving. The pianist and bassist were playing the intro to the first song when he hurried onto the stage, removed his jacket and struck his cymbal. It was an enjoyable ending to an enjoyable day and a half in Bratislava.

Thursday, 24 September – Bratislava, Slovakia to Budapest, Hungary. Bus journey from Bratislava to Budapest, about 3 hours. Arrived and metro to apartment. Much larger than anticipated. Evening walk up to Budapest castle area for a pizza dinner. Drizzly rain.

Friday, 25 September – Budapest, Hungary.

On Friday morning we woke to a heavy rain, steady and miserable. Lucky for us there is a large shopping mall directly across the street from our apartment. During a lull in the rain we trooped across the street and spent the morning wandering around the mall and doing a bit of shopping. At noontime we went to the new Woody Allen film, Irrational Man, starring Joachim Phoenix as a philosopher professor discovers a reason to live in planning the murder of a bad judge. Typical Woody Allen film filled with wit and witticisms and more than a little truth! Very good.

In the evening I braved the rain and took the tram across the river to Pest (we are in Buda) to the IF Jazz Club to hear Karoly Gaspar’s trio (Gaspar, piano; Viktor Hars, bass; Akos Benko, drums) with special guest Michaly Dresch on tenor saxophone. Dresch is perhaps Hungary’s most internationally well-known jazz musician. He has a steady and rich tone. The pianist was very good. The trio played most of the first set on their own. Dresch joined on the last song of the first set and then played the entire second set. The small bar was noisy; with the doorway open there was noise from outside as well. It was a small, intimate space to hear music. I sat on a stool at the bar for the first set and found the busy-ness of the wait staff and the noise quite distracting. On the break I was allowed to move to a table close to the performers and enjoyed the music much more. They played three Thelonious Monk covers so I was very happy.

Saturday, 26 September – Budapest, Hungary.

We woke to rain, not quite as heavy as the previous day. We rode the number 6 tram for its entire journey, from Buda across the river into Pest and around the old historic city centre and Jewish district and across the river back to Buda, a 270 degree route around the edge of Budapest commercial centre to observe the buildings and get some perspective on how the city is organized and where the famous buildings and sites are positioned. At its terminus, we boarded another tram, the 49, and disembarked back in Pest outside the Grand Central Market Hall. This is Budapest’s largest market. It in a beautiful building built in 1896, there are tunnels which connect it directly to the Danube River where goods could be unloaded and easily transported into the hall. It has innumerable fruit, vegetable, fish, meat and cheese, wine, spirits and pastry stalls on its ground floor and upper-level stalls selling crafts and gift items and with places to eat. It was heaving with people, many locals and many visitors who had the same idea as us: to visit it while it rained. We had our lunch there in a very buzzy cafeteria-style restaurant, called Fakanal, which was very over-priced. It was, however, the busiest spot in the market. I had a homemade sausage and a plate of grilled vegetables while Joan had a potato dish with spicy sausage and tomato. Joan went up to the service counter to get me a packet of mustard and the house matron stalked her back to our table and advised her that these small packets were not free! With one small beer, the total came to 18 Euro.

The rain had softened to a drizzle by the time we finished and we walked into the city centre, walking first along the Raday and then onto Vaci Utca, which is Budapest’s main commercial and social thoroughfare. All the big name brand stores are located here. We walked slowly as is our usual method, stopping often for photo opportunities or just to watch little local dramas. One street was closed off for a film shoot. There were many other visitors walking around downtown Budapest, including an American man who was fed up with the rain and wanted to go to Arizona where the weather was better! The buildings are dark and brooding but magnificent; and they seem to be everywhere. Some feature coloured tile roofs, while others have sculptured fronts. We located another beautiful bookshop that was in a building originally designed for a large turn-of-the century department store. A large cafe featured a magnificent painted ceiling and there was a long line of visitors waiting to enter it.

We stopped for a beer (and watched the first half of the Arsenal match with Leicester) before we met up with our friend Ruth from Aqualoreto who has an apartment in Budapest and who happened to be in residence at the same time as we were visiting. We chatted for awhile before she showed us around her neighbourhood, including a passageway though a series of courtyards which had been converted into a neighbourhood of restaurants and bars. We stopped at a wine bar, Doblo, which boasts more than 200 varieties of wine from Hungary’s 22 wine-growing regions, before returning to a small restaurant opposite her apartment for dinner. The restaurant, M Restaurant, was tiny. It presented itself as a ‘French-Hungarian Bistro’. It has space for about twelve covers downstairs and another twenty or so upstairs. It walls were covered with a variety of drawings, most on culinary themes, on brown paper. The tables were also covered with the same brown paper and jars of crayons were provided upon request. The food was excellent. We shared a goose liver pate. Joan had a Hungarian Chicken Goulash; Ruth had Moroccan Goat and Couscous and I had a Duck Steak with Risotto. All very good.

Sunday, 27 September – Budapest, Hungary.

Sunday morning was heavy and grey with clouds, but we could see from our third floor window that the streets were dry and the rain had ceased. We climbed the hill to the Castle District, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The medieval town of Buda was centred on a castle built by King Bela IV in the 13^th century. It was erected on a hill that rises 170 metres (560 feet) above the Danube River, to protect it from invasion. The Turks, however, ravaged it in the 16^th century, and the Hapsburg’s restored and embellished the town in the 19^th century in their typically glorious, Imperial style. Today the castle buildings contain the Budapest History Museum and the Hungarian National Gallery, one of the world’s great galleries. Also in the Castle District is the Matyas Church with its beautiful tiled roofs and towering steeple. There is a magnificent panoramic view of Budapest from behind this church and also from the Palace courtyard. More than a few photographs were taken!

We watched a changing of the guard outside one of the palace entrances and then we walked down to the Danube through flower-rich gardens, paused briefly to watch a photo shoot, and they continued over the river via the Elizabeth Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1903. It had to be completely rebuilt after WWII.

After visiting a money change bureau, we walked along the Embankment Walk alongside the Danube River. It is a very wide, tree-lined walkway. There are many statues along its route, some whimsical and some monumental. Several moored barges are converted into restaurants and night clubs, including, you guessed it! The Columbas Jazz Boat!

We walked to the Parliament Building. It is one of Hungary’s defining symbols and landmark images. After decades of construction were completed in 1902, it was and remains one of Europe’s finest Neo-Gothic buildings. It dome and spires dominate the Pest skyline. More photographs were taken.

Lunch was at Csanok Vendeglo, an old-time Hungarian restaurant. Most of the diners were locals. It was next door to the restaurant Joan had chosen, Kispiac Bistro, which was closed Sundays! The menu offered many varieties of Hungarian goulash. Joan chose a veal goulash with noodles, which had a tomato-based sauce with sweet paprika, a spice much used in Hungarian dishes. I was not as adventurous and chose steak-and-chips, which also came with rice. Three glasses of wine and a large stein of beer, our bill came to 5500 Hungarian Florints (less than 20 Euro / 30 USD).

We stopped at an award-winning coffee shop, Embassy Expresso, for coffee and carrot cake. The carrot cake was delicious, light and creamy, with slices of orange. The coffee, however, was disappointing; it had a strange after-taste that neither of us liked.

We walked back across the River Danube, this time on the Margaret Bridge. The Margaret Bridge was constructed between 1872 and 1876 by a Frenchman and is shaped like a boomerang. We had intended to spend the afternoon on Margaret Island, named after Princess Margit, daughter of King Bela IV, who spent most of her life there in the island’s former convent in the 13^th century. The rain, however, had returned. It was that kind of fine rain that makes one feel damp and miserable. As we were heading in the direction of our apartment, we decided to postpone our visit to the island. We scurried along beneath building overhangs. When we came to the large shopping mall opposite, we decided to see if the cinema had any other English language films showing. Within five minutes we were seated and watching Meryl Streep in Ricki and the Flash. It was a very enjoyable way to spend another rainy afternoon!

Monday, 28 September – Budapest, Hungary.

We began Monday with by taking the number 4 tram to Octagon and then walked in a circuitous route to Varosliget (City Park). Over 300 acres, City Park was the main venue of the 1896 millennium celebrations of Hungary. The park contains many magnificent buildings. The Museum of Fine Arts houses Hungary’s largest collection of international art, including the largest collection of El Greco outside Spain. Vajdahunyad Castle is an incredible building, a mixture of Renaissance, Gothic, Baroque and Romanesque styles. Its architects’ idea was to illustrate the evolution of Hungarian architecture in one building. The Szechenyi Baths were opened in 1913 and is a vast complex of indoor and outdoor pools, including Hungary’s deepest and hottest thermal bath. The park contains the Budapest Zoo, established in 1866 and considered one of the best in Europe.

A wide, French-like boulevard, tree-lined and boarded on both sides by large mansions, many of which are now embassies, as well as various restaurants and theatres, leads from the city centre to City Park. One of the buildings is the State Opera, another a museum dedicated to Hungary’s greatest composer, Franz Listz, and still another the former headquarters of the AVO, the Hungarian secret police, who used the building from 1945 to 1956. Today it is a Terror Museum depicting the horrors of both the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

At the entrance to the park is a vast, open space known as Heroes Square. Its centre is the Millennium Monument, erected to commemorate the 1000-year anniversary of the conquest by the Magyars. The monument features seven fierce-looking mounted chieftains, representing the seven tribes who settled in Hungary. It is flanked on one side by the Museum of Fine Arts and on the opposite side by the equally magnificent Palace of Arts.

After a large heavy Hungarian lunch, we walked the length of the boulevard, known as Andrassy Street, back to the Jewish District. We have come to call this area ‘Budapest-Brooklyn’ because of the numerous restaurants, bars, cafes and stores that remind of (favourably) of our time spent in Brooklyn. We stopped for coffee and cake, and wandered some more. The sun, what little there was of it, sank away and the bright lights sparkled and the young people started their evening, filling the eating places and just generally hanging out.

We took a tram back to the apartment and later I took another tram to hear some more live Hungarian jazz at the Budapest Jazz Club, a trio led by Krisztian Olah on piano. He is a talented music student at the local music college. I was so tired, however, from another long day walking, that even though they were scheduled to play two sets, and even though I enjoyed the first set very much, I left at the set break and took the tram back home!

Tuesday, 29 September – Budapest, Hungary.

Tuesday was another day spent walking. Margaret Island, inhabited since Roman times, is an island park in the middle of the Danube River. It is named after Princess Margit (Margaret), daughter of King Bela IV. She spent most of her life in the island’s convent in the 13^th century. Now the island features a dancing musical water fountain, with songs ranging from Bach to Michel Buble. There is a Japanese Garden, and the ruins of a Franciscan Church, that looked remarkably like an Irish ruins. A Water Tower, built in 1911, is a UNESCO protected site. There is a modernist Centenary Monument, constructed in 1973 to commemorate the unification of the three areas of Buda, Oduda and Pest to form Budapest in 1873. We spent over an hour walking the length of the island, again to walk off our lunch. Hungarian lunches are heavy and hearty! While searching for one restaurant, we stumbled upon another that Joan liked the look and feel of very much. It was called Foldes Jozsi Vendegloje. It was similar to the ‘Milk Bars’ we had eaten in in Poland. We had the set menu: soup starters; our main courses were Hungarian style dishes: Roast chicken and rice and Veal with risotto. With two glasses of Rose wine and a large stein of beer, the total cost was 3680 HUF (about 12 Euro / 16 USD).

We walked back to the apartment on Pest side of the Danube River, through and area of office block towers and many very large high-rise apartment buildings. As is our common practice, we stopped for coffee and we shared an exceptional Jewish cake consisting of layers of apple, cinnamon, plum, and sponge.

Wednesday, 30 September – Budapest, Hungary to Rome, Italy. A long day travelling – metro to bus terminus, bus to airport (Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer), flight from Budapest to Rome, bus from airport to Termini train station. We had a few pizza slices as we waited for Joan’s train to Orvieto. I stayed overnight in a small Chinese-run hotel in order to collect my mom the next morning.

I finished reading Polychrome by Joanna Jodelka. This Polish crime novel was ‘just okay’. It was not very original and seemed to be written by someone who had read a lot of American crime novels and was trying very hard to emulate them. The main character is a very-flawed detective with a pregnant one-night-stand girlfriend, an over-bearing mother, clichéd colleagues. The ‘Polish’ aspects of the novel made it a worthwhile read.

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