I just want to kind of fill-in a lot of the blanks and summarize what I did on my trip as I stated I would earlier. So, here I go.
I started in Budapest and this city really impressed me. And while I had to keep in mind that this is my first stop in Europe, I had the feeling that this city had as much to offer as Prague and Vienna. I ended up spending four days there and if I didn't have to come back and fly out of there, the time I spent there was sufficient. When I was to leave for Romania, I experienced my first bout of confusion as the bus to Romania was cancelled (or so I gathered without being able to communicate and the information office already closed). It ended up being a small inconvenience as I caught the train in the morning. Riding through Romania was a cool experience. When I got to Sighisoara, I saw a town with a castle and it seemed that I was the only tourist there (I wasn't). I wish I still had those pictures. I went to Sibiu and had a cultural experience when I was invited by a hostel worker to go to a party where a bunch of theatre actors were going to after they performed in their theatre festival. As far as the town goes, it was under construction and not up to par with being scenic but I was told that they are preparing for next year. Whatever. I went to Brasov the next day and stayed at a really good hostel. I hung out with a couple of cats from LA and we went to the castles outside of Brasov. It was there that I decided to go to Bucharest as I had to see what a dump this place and I had to see the Parliament as well. So I went and saw both. It was a good transportation hub but the atmosphere was grimy enough that I just wanted to get out of there. I had considered going through Moldova to get to Ukraine but after seeing that place I decided that I would go to Kosice, SK to get to Ukraine. I should have just gone to Krakow because that is what I ended up doing and the town that I was planning on going in Ukraine would have been less than ideal for a first stop. Kosice was my only Slovakian experience and it is too bad because I would have liked to see more but the place wasn't set up for tourism and I had planned on returning but as you will find out, I just decided to go to more places and I ran out of time. I had to decide at 2:30 in the morning in Kosice on whether I stay in a hotel or camp out in a park but it looked like it would rain so I sprung for a hotel. The next day I got everything together and decided I would go to Krakow. I was apprehensive about going to Poland because I had planned on going there later and I didn't feel up to seeing Auschwitz. It was a weird psychological setup that I had going, wanting to stick to my plan but it went away when I was basically locked out in Kosice. I went to Krakow and I spent a few days there. Auschwitz was an experience that I had to do and it was good that I did. They did a good job of portraying what went on there and who was affected. Krakow was an excellent city to visit. It has a lot of history and plenty of activities in and around it. From there I decided that it would be best to go to Lviv because transport in Ukraine is exceptionally cheap and Lviv is close to the Polish border. I took my first overnight bus. We waited for a couple of hours while the border officials did their commounist impressions and we got there in the rainy morining. All of my interest in Russian language and culture and my small amount of studying of the language I had done since I was a sophomore in high school became real. It took me a few minutes to gather myself and when I did, I got around and made my way through Lviv. Lviv was supposed to be the western city of Ukraine but I found it dingy. I got to my hostel after taking the long way. I talked to an old American man who disliked Lviv way more than I did and was headed back to Poland. I could have been sucked into his pessimism but I decided that I would enjoy this place the most that I can. There were nice spots in Lviv. Especially if you like churches and cathedrals, which I particularly don't but they are nice to look in and around. In my opinion, that is the only real reason to go there. I had a memorable experience there. As I am in America, Ukraine is what vexxes me the most because I feel there was a lot to it that I didn't see. I read the parts of Colin Thubron's "Among the Russians" and I was relieved to read that the two cities I visited in Ukraine were just a blurb in his book (mostly because he was being heavily shadowed and searched by the KGB) and he reported getting lost in both cities. So I stayed there for two nights and took a night train to Kyiv, third-class and I wasn't given sheets. I got to Kyiv and got to my hostel. I was fed up with my travel guide which, at this point was wrong about so many things that I felt like leaving as soon as I got to the train station but I decided that I wanted to see somethings and I stayed their two nights. I went to the Cave Monastery which is Kiev's holy place and is filled with cathedrals and underground burial spots for monks. I decided not to go underground as I didn't think I could go through without committing many faux pas. So I just walked around and enjoyed the sights. I went to the Chernobyl museum that day as well, which was a good experience as it isn't clearly safe to go to Chernobyl yet and with the site being so close, it was good to see their representation of what happened. I decided that I wanted to try to get to the Baltics as I was going to spend less time in the Ukraine than I anticipated. That meant that I was to go to Warsaw. When I got to the train station, it was a series of circumstances that made my catching the train a dramatic experience. But I made it and was on my way. When we got to the border, they had to change the cars so the train cars could travel into Poland as Stalin decided to go with a different track size because, well, he did things like that. So, I got to Warsaw.
I will stop here and continue soon. I am trying to post as many pictures as I can but I got some more up so check it out.
Josh
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