Christmas and New Years in Eastern Europe!!

At the local bar "Little Soba" in Saint Etienne the night before our journey!

I just thought that I would warn you, this might be a long post. :) I had a 16 day vacation for the Christmas holidays and my sister Meredith came over on the 19th of December to help celebrate! I showed her around Lyon for the afternoon on the 20th we went out in Saint Etienne with a few of my friends here. Friday the 21st we headed out bright and early to Geneva where we caught a train to Zurich and then to Innsbruck, Austria.

It was quite a long journey through the Suisse Alpes (and unfortunately pretty cloudy) but once we arrived in Austria it was a clear night and we could see the alps, the moon, and the stars from the train.

We arrived in Innsbruck and stayed with our friend Max through couch surfing. He had a beautiful apartment in the city centre. Saturday we woke up and walked around the city centre and took a cable car up to the mountains. We had an absolutely beautiful view of the city and we were lucky to have sun and blue skies. We drank some gluwein (vin chaud, mulled wine) and some Austrian pastries for a snack and had some interesting conversations with Austrians who couldn't speak English. :) That night Mer cooked dinner for Max and then we went out to some local bars.

Innsbruck! (beautiful right?)

View of Innsbruck from the top of the cable car!

Sunday we woke up and walked around the city again and had some wonderful Austrian cuisine (sauerkraut on fried dough?!?! and cranberries and powdered suger on fried dough). It sounds a bit weird but man was that delicious. I never thought I would enjoy sauerkraut so much. That afternoon we headed to Salzburg to stay with another person on couch surfing, Miriam. Western and southern Austria is dominated by the Alps and the landscapes of both of these two cities is remarkable. Miriam was a great host in Salzburg and she invited us to stay for Christmas as well. We were very fortunate as we had no actual plans for Christmas. In Austria, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December. This includes a Christmas tree with actual candles (not electric lights), singing carols in front of the tree after it is lit, and presents of course! Miriam read a book to us that gave the history of "Silent Night--Stille Nacht". It originated in a small Austrian town where Miriam was born. Then we sung the song in German. It was pretty cool. Nothing like an snowy Austrian Christmas. We also saw the famed Salzburg xmas markets, the castle, and a few Sound of Music sites, as well as wonderful Austrian chocolates, pastries, and a few really cool cafes.

Christmas Eve (those are beeswax candles on the tree!)

After our 2 day stay in Salzburg, we hopped on a train and headed for Budapest, Hungary. Man was that eye-opening. We arrived in the late afternoon to a very communistic, WWII era city. We took a metro and then a bus to the outskirts of the city where we stayed with another couch surfer. We were on a run down looking bus and felt like it was 1946. Everyone was wearing those big fur coats and hats that are so stereotypically Eastern European/Russian. The atmosphere was so different here compared to Western countries and you could feel the economic insecurity and communist influence. People had cold, blank expressions on their faces and walking down the street gave you a depressing feel to the city. Needless to say, the city was absolutely beautiful, with a the huge Danube river separating Buda and Pest (once separate cities) and a large castle on the hill. We ended up staying in a hostel in the city center for the 2nd night because of proximity to the local sights. We met two Polish students who came around with us on the second day. We had a really great time with them at the Turkish Baths and checking out the local bar scene. I should also mention that we ate at this local Hungarian restaurant before parting with Budapest and the food was amazing. I had some porkmedallians with cheese and garlic... I am planning on going back just to go to that restaurant again. SOOOOO good.

The Chain Bridge in Budapest!

The Turkish baths

After parting ways with Budapest, we met up with Miriam and one of her friends who lives in Vienna. We went out to dinner and then after Michael gave us a huge tour of all of the monuments in Vienna. The city was absolutely stunning at night and there were some really beautiful buildlings (I especially preferred the city hall...) We also saw the place where Hitler made his famous speech in 1937(?) in front of like 200,000 people. That was pretty moving.

City Hall, Vienna (one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen...)

Hitler had his famous speech here...a Palace I think (equivalent to the White House)

The next day we set sail for our final destination: Prague and the Czech Republic. I think in general, Prague was both Meredith's and my favorite stop for the whole trip. I also think that we were extremely biased because we stayed with one of my friends, Zufan, who I grew up with and we had a wonderful tour guide (the owner of Dobra Tea, a tea house in Burlington as well as throughout eastern Europe, originating in Prague). Jirka is one of the founders of Dobra as well as a Prague resident. He took us around the city for a full tour and it was everything I could have asked for. We had beautiful weather and absolutely no complaints. He took us up to the monastery on the hill (past the beautiful Prague Castle) where they have been brewing beer since the 1400s. I should probably mention that not only did we have wonderful hosts, but wonderful beer as well (and food of course!!!) Another thing I really love about the Czech Republic is that ice hockey is the #2 sport and it is rrrright behind soccer in popularity. Now that is my type of country. (the women were beautiful, too. what are the chances??)

Views from the monastery

My favorite building in Prague (and maybe Europe...)

So here is one of the "typical" Czech meals we had. Roasted pork, fried pork, duck, red cabbage, white cabbage, dumplings #1, dumplings #2, and dumplings #3, 3 pints of Pilsner Urquell. Sorry I didn't really have room for dessert. Up at the monastery we had escargot, some type of mushroom quiche, and chocolate beer cake (that isn't a typo)...which was amazing. Actually all 3 were pretty amazing. I think I would consider flying back to Prague just for that monastery. Jirka actually knew the owner (and the owner's son who was the manager/brewmaster) so we got a tour of the brewery.

Massive meal that Zufan is attacking quite skillfully.

So New Year's Eve rolled around and we went out with Jirka for a little bit, went to Dobra, had some tea. We stayed in a bar for a while and then around midnight we headed to the river to see the fireworks. Once we got there, everybody was cheering and there was a huge countdown. People were lighting off fireworks left and right it was awesome. Crazy part of this story is that I was on the bridge and started talking to these 2 Americans, and it turns out that one of them went to the University of Delaware and was roommates with one of my best friends at UD!! It was sooo crazy, we just looked at each other and I was like..."Aaron? what the heck are you doing here!" Crazy. It's a small world after all.

Happy New Year! (this is in the bar before headed out to see the fireworks by the river...)

The next day we hopped on a train and traveled straight back to St Etienne with a few stopovers in some random cities. About a 25 hour journey. I felt bad for Meredith because she was catching a cold and still had to make another 25 hour journey back to Vermont! What a champ.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and keep in touch!!!