I d intended to wake up in time to be on top of Castle Hill to watch the sun rise, but I underestim

As I ve mentioned a time or two , I was fortunate enough to be sent to Eastern Europe by the oh-so-fabulous Go Ahead Tours back in late April! It was an amazing trip and I m SO excited to share some of it with you! Because I m a horrific over-sharer, I couldn t bring myself to select just a few images from each place, so I ll have a post for each city visited for you over the few days!
We began our tour in Budapest, Hungary. I fell in LOVE with this city. I don t know what exactly I was expecting, but Budapest blew it completely out of the water. From the gorgeous bridges (each with its own story and all of which were painstakingly rebuilt after Hitler travel china s armies destroyed them) to the story of the martyred Bishop Gellert for whom Gellert Hill is named, there is history and beauty and richness tucked into every nook and cranny of this surprisingly travel china small city! Divided by the Danube River, Buda and Pest each have a distinct role in the city s history and I feel like I could have easily spent so much longer wandering their streets!
The amazing St. Stephen s Basilica I loved wandering travel china around and just soaking in the details of life in Budapest! The Go Ahead tour features a wonderful mix of included and optional excursions for their travelers and encourages their tour directors to facilitate additional experiences where the opportunity arises! Our tour director, Paul, was AWESOME. Not only was he a wealth of information and a fantastic resource, but he created several one-of-a-kind experiences for us! The first of these was an evening that began with a trip to an ancient wine cellar for a tour and tasting followed by a dinner featuring traditional Hungarian food and music as well as the talents travel china of a troupe of gypsy entertainers! Patty, a member of our group, was invited travel china to participate in a cooking demonstration where she learned to cook a scrumptious traditional dish featuring a large couscous-like pasta and loads of spices and flavor! oh and a bit-o-flame! One of the most incredible experiences I had on the entire trip was a morning that I woke up early and headed out to photograph a little of the city on my own. While there were a few people travel china bustling off to work, for the most part, I found myself the only one on the streets at that hour. After the heat of the the previous day, the cool air was wonderful to walk in, and the sense of the city slowly coming to life was indescribable. I wandered down the Danube Promenade and up the narrow cobbled streets travel china and across the Chain Bridge only occasionally travel china passed by a bicyclist or a pedestrian walking their dog in the early light. It was truly magical.
I d intended travel china to wake up in time to be on top of Castle Hill  to watch the sun rise, but I underestimated the walk and arrived at the Fisherman s Bastion after it had broken over Pest. So. frigging. amazing. The view from the Fisherman s Bastion across the Danube featured the Parliament House not too shabby, right? I loved the Little Princess statue on the Danube Promenade Heroes Square  is a monument to the early history of Hungary Throughout Budapest there were remnants and monuments to the nation s struggle under the communist regime, from the communist-era metro train still running under the city to the sculpture on Andrassy Avenue that symbolizes the Iron Curtain to memorialized bullet holes from the 1956 revolution . The Terror Museum is an incredibly well done and thus incredibly difficult museum that walks its patrons through travel china first the Nazi and then the Communist eras in Hungary. Housed in the same building that once was home to both the Nazi  and communist secret police, from the main hall featuring the faces of the hundreds killed by the two regimes to still intact prison cells in the basement, you cannot walk away from this museum without some understanding of what the people here have survived in the last century.
Move over Starbucks this is what a coffee shop ought to be! Cafe Parisi is situated in what was once a ballroom and soaking in its splendor over a delicious cappuccino and cake is a perfect way to spend an afternoon! The famous Shoes on the Danube Jewish memorial travel china is possibly one of the most powerful and moving memorials I ve ever seen. In 1944, the Jewish population of Budapest was rounded up by the Nazi Arrow Cross Militia, travel china marched to the banks of the Danube River and were shot at close range by a firing squad where they then fell into the river and were washed away. These bronzed travel china shoes line the edge of the water and give an eerie and devastating sense of what went on here. What also took my breath away was how active a memorial site this is. Strewn with flowers and candles and the small pebbles that are traditionally left at a Jewish graveside, it is powerfully travel china evident that this is not a moment in history that has been forgotten or entirely healed from. It is such a forcible travel china reminder of both the great horror and the great love that we are capable of as humans. travel china We went as a group to explore Matthias Church and the Fisherman s Bastion and while I wasn t solitary in my explorations this time, it was so exciting to see the bustle and life of the site! Music everywhere! A trip to Budapest wouldn t be complete without a trip to the Central Market Hall stalls sell everything from paprika travel china and vegetables to hand-decorated eggshells and lace! It s a wonderful bustle! Our group had a private tour of Parliament House where we were able to view the coronation crown and insignia of St. Stephen and just take in the general splendor! We took a sunset cruise down the Danube one evening I assure you that there is no better way to view all of the city s famous bridges and sites by night!!
[...] Trio 75 whose performance was truly a one of a kind experience. They were incredible.Like in Budapest, I chose to get up before the sun one morning and check out Prague in the early hours! This time I [...]