Lisboa

Lisbon is not my favorite Portuguese city. Certainly there are some cool attractions and interesting history and beautiful viewpoints. But I much preferred Porto and Sintra, and now that I’ve been in Portugal for over 1.5 weeks, I’m mostly seeing the same Portuguese things again like azulejos, pastel de nata, cod, canned fish, port wines, […]

Neanderthals

On Saturday I rented a car and drove up north of Zagreb to explore a bit. First I visited an excellent and thorough museum about a large Neanderthal find (the largest Neanderthal bone collection in the world), then after a drive through some beautiful autumnal countryside scenery in the mountains, I explored an old hilltop […]

Thermal Baths

Budapest is a city worth staying in for more than one week, and I now wish I had sacrificed some Bratislava time for Budapest, but maybe I’ll need to come back one day, hopefully with someone else! What an interesting and different place! I think this is also an indication to me that I need […]

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 […]