Memento Park

I’m over halfway done with this trip! Wow, some periods have felt slow, while other times have passed quickly. Budapest has been exciting but tiring, given all the many interesting things to see. I’m also frankly having a tough time with the whole workation thing. Work doesn’t seem as desirable when you’re sitting in the […]

House of Terror

On Friday afternoon I visited the House of Terror Museum – it might sound like a haunted mansion, and maybe it is, because many people died there. But it’s primarily now a museum in the same building that Hungarian representatives of the Nazis and then the Soviets used for coordinating interrogation, torture, and murder. The […]

Illiberal Democracy

Hungary has had a controversial prime minister, Viktor Orbán, since 2010. His party is the far right Fidesz. From Wikipedia: “His tenure has seen Hungary government shift towards what he has called “illiberal democracy” — citing countries such as China, Russia, India, Singapore, and Turkey as models of governance — while simultaneously promoting Euroscepticism and […]

Magyars

This excerpt from Rick Steves sums up well the feeling one gets in Budapest. It just doesn’t feel like any of the four Slavic places I’ve visited on this trip. But I will say that it is also the most touristy, I think even more than Prague! And I hear English and Spanish (why Spanish?) […]

Schindler’s List

On Sunday I visited the factory where Oskar Schindler helped keep many Krakow Jews alive, and he is credited with saving 1200 total. The museum is very well put together, and it’s super-informative, with lots of interactive exhibits and touchscreens where you can dive deeper. You could easily spend a few days there just absorbing […]

McDonald’s Going Green

In a follow-up to an earlier post photo regarding a McDonald’s sign being black (instead of red), it turns out that all European McDonald’s use different colors than those traditionally used in the US. There’s no red at all anywhere on outside signage or buildings that I’ve seen. And actually, it’s not black, but deep […]

Polski Stuff

Under license from Fiat, Polish versions of this car brand were manufactured or assembled in Poland, called Polski Fiat. These cars were popular during Communist times due to their simplicity and relative affordability. Here’s a legacy one I found in town: Polish restrooms are often marked with symbols to indicate the intended sex. It’s not […]

Neighborhood Art

There’s an old neighborhood in the northern part of Wrocław where residents have taken to creating various art projects at the base of multiple buildings. This enhances the aesthetic appeal of what are otherwise quite drab old buildings. The facades (without art) of some these buildings are shown in the Steven Spielberg film Bridge of […]

Konspira

There’s a fantastic Polish restaurant in old town Wrocław that strongly represents its freedom and peace movement connection with a thick menu highlighting historic information and backgrounds of the various traditional Polish dishes on offer. They’ve also added some recent signage protesting Putin’s war in Ukraine. Bonus side note: So far I have managed to […]