So with our return to Japan we finished up another great summer trip. This was our fifth trip to Europe and our first to Eastern Europe. Each time we go over to Europe we have a great time – the relaxed culture, comfortable summer weather, and the beautiful architecture make a winning combination for us.

Although we usually know what to expect when we visit Western Europe, there were more unknowns during this trip. Would refugees fleeing Syria affect our safety or travel schedule? Does public transportation work as smoothly as it does in the west? Would we feel the same carefree feeling that we usually feel during our other trips? As it turned out, none of these potential issues came up, and other than a few train delays everything went smoothly. I love the longer vacations we take, because so much can happen between the start of the trip and the end. We began in Croatia visiting national parks, drinking cocktails at the beach and enjoying the Adriatic Sea, and we ended the trip exploring dramatic Gothic cathedrals in the old city of Prague. There was enough diversity on this trip to make it one of our most memorable.

In Croatia we were able to explore several parts of the country, and we especially liked the friendliness and ease of communication while we were there. In this small country there is a surprisingly diverse land area, and the lack of urban sprawl made it much easier to enjoy the natural beauty. I really enjoyed the slow life feeling of the capital city of Zagreb and the contrast with the beach lifestyle of Zadar. If there was any downside to Croatia, it was that the food culture wasn’t quite developed yet. We ate mainly seafood in the west and meat in the north, but dishes tended towards simple and bold, rather than subtle. There is something to be said for simplicity, but I think there will be an evolution in the near future as chefs start to experiment and push boundaries of what Croatian cuisine really is. We didn’t spend any time on the Istrian peninsula, which is home to the best of Croatian wines, but if there is any kind of culinary revolution in Croatia I’d look for it to start there.

Our time in Slovenia was really just a blink of the eye, and it is nearly impossible to spot any main themes or trends from our time there. Having had a glimpse of the lifestyle there I felt like there was more to see and discover over time. Maybe we’ll pass through again in the future – you never know.

Although a portion of our time in Budapest was spent in the hospital and in recovery at the hotel, we really liked the town and the vibe it gave off. The city was full of young people with an open-minded and artistic culture. Coming from Japan where it is predominantly older people, you could really feel the difference on the streets. The city had some areas that felt dirty or dilapidated, but the beautiful architecture, the tree-lined Andrassy Ut, and the delicious food and wine made this city a highlight of the trip. We got a lot more out of Budapest than head bandages and hospitals.

In contrast, Vienna felt more like a clean and expensive city. During our stay there I felt like we were visiting a place that was well out of our price range. Vienna had history, art, culture and comfortable living. I imagined that the cost of living was quite high here, but what you got for that high cost of living was clean streets, beautiful parks and a safe city to live in. Most of the tourist areas had horse-drawn carriages constantly passing through, which seemed cruel to me, and at the very least left the smell of horse manure permanently associated with Vienna in my mind. While we were there our timing was such that we often saw the city while it was nearly empty – I imagine that a visit in another season would show us a completely different side of Vienna.

Finally, Prague was a great finishing city for our trip. Probably of all the cities we visited this time it had the most tourism, and we were exposed to it almost constantly because our hotel was right in the thick of things. Despite this we really loved the town (especially the older parts) and once we got away from the crowds the city was comfortable and attractive. Like most of the cities on this trip the food culture was focused on meat, and even though we had been eating meat daily for almost two weeks it was a pleasure to tuck into the roasts that were the basis of most meals in Czech. I liked the balance of food, wine, beer, history and architecture in the city – it was perfect wrap up for the trip.

So another trip in the books, and we turn our attention to future travel plans. Kuniko is taking me to Hong Kong for my birthday at the end of September this year. She knows how much I love dim sum, and we also want to finally meet the big Buddha that we missed the last time we were there.

This winter we’ll head to Australia to spend a quick Christmas with Steve and Brenda, and then stop in Laos and Thailand on the way back for some decompression and relaxation. We’ve never been to Laos and we’re eager to compare it with our experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Where we go after that – we’ll just have to think about it for now. Dreaming up new destinations is half the fun!

We slept until about 7 am, had our last hotel breakfast, and then got to work packing up our suitcase for the final time. It looked like we’d be able to make the weight, so no worries. I was a little worried about getting the suitcase all the way across town to catch the bus to the airport, but as it turned out it handled the trip like a champ.

We waited patiently at the bus stop for the airport shuttle, and soon enough we were on our way. The driver handled the streets of Prague like a pro – darting in between trains and cars and generally driving the minibus like a sports car. At one point we went uphill for a while and then started passing tour bus after tour bus with huge crowds of people walking away from the road. There must have been a major sightseeing spot that we missed! I did a quick consultation of my map, and it turned out that everyone was going to see the St. Vitus Cathedral – the same one we saw the previous morning. I couldn’t believe the difference in crowds between the early time we arrived yesterday and the late morning today.

It was just a twenty minute drive to the airport. I was expecting Prague International Airport to be quite large. Every time we travel on the flight board I see flights to Prague, so I expected it to be a major hub, but actually the place was really tiny. We arrived too early to check in, so we killed time shopping and drinking our last Pilsner Urquells at the bar.

Once we got our gate we headed there, and the airport was the kind where the security is done at each gate, instead of out front before all the gates. On our flight to Istanbul was a big group of Indian guys. These guys must have been on the first airplane flight of their lives – they didn’t know any of the rules for going through security. Every mistake was made – their bags were full of liquids, their belts set off the metal detector, they had aerosol cans everywhere – it was like a comedy. The security staff just kept having them go through again and again – eventually we could get through as well.

It was just a two hour flight to Istanbul, and it was a piece of cake. We arrived at around 6 pm local time in Istanbul, and our flight out wasn’t until after 1 am that night, so we had a lot of time to kill. We did it the usual way, at the airport bar, but even I can’t kill six hours in a bar without ending up in a hospital. We also walked around the shops, sat in various locations to people watch (including an interesting group of Turkmenistanis flying back to Turkmenistan – beautiful traditional clothing), ate hamburgers at a strange restaurant called “Burger Lab”, played picture shiritori, and considered buying a bottle of Blood Orange Cointreau (we decided to wait and buy it in Japan).

The big event while we were waiting was to try to get our seats upgraded to business class. The magic number of miles to upgrade was 45,000. Kuniko had 50,000 miles, so she was set. I had 44,860 miles, and having just flown in on a flight from Prague I was sure that I could qualify. However, the Turkish Airlines staff working the lounge showed no mercy. According to their computer right now I was short 140 miles, so I was out of luck. The name of Turkish Airlines’ mileage program is called “Miles and Smiles”, but there were no smiles to be seen on any of the staff that evening. They yelled at customers to go away and check the flight board, the growled at old ladies to call a phone number and leave the desk alone, and they sternly told me that if I wanted to buy miles to make the upgrade I should call a number in Istanbul and make arrangements.

I didn’t want Kuniko to miss the chance to rest up on the way back, so she went ahead and upgraded to business class. I was happy that she’d be able to enjoy a more comfortable flight. I ended up riding in economy in a middle seat, but it didn’t really matter since at 1:35 am I was only thinking about sleeping. I slept through the first meal and barely remember accepting the second one. It was a smooth, uneventful flight back for me. Kuniko showed me the pictures later of her business class experience, and it looked great. I probably wouldn’t have been awake long enough to enjoy it myself, so things worked out perfectly.

We arrived around 6 pm on Saturday evening in Osaka, and from there it was the usual trip back home. We flew through immigration and customs, and then caught a bus just in time to take us back to Sannomiya in Kobe. On the bus we had to sit across the aisle from each other on the ride back, but we were both so happy – even just being apart on the plane I had really missed my wife. We grinned at each other the whole ride to Kobe – it felt like we had undertaken a big challenge to travel Eastern Europe and we had passed with flying colors. Kind of like it was just us against the world – and we had won.

Our home was not a pile of ash and rubble, although our toilet was a little stinky from not being used for two weeks in the summer furnace of Japan. It took some chemicals and a lot of flushing to get things back in order. We unpacked our stuff while sipping sparkling wine – another travel tradition of ours. Kuniko had cleaned our house from top to bottom before we left, so we could go to sleep in our own bed for the first time in a couple of weeks. Thanks to the air conditioner, we could sleep well. What a trip!

We treated ourselves to a sleep-in this morning, and then went downstairs to have the hotel breakfast again. Plenty of Activa yogurt and cheap coffee had us back in our rooms near the toilet for a while before we headed back out to the city.

It was a bit later in the day when we walked over the bridge and straight up the hill to see the St. Vitus Cathedral. This time we took the direct route, and it saved a lot of time climbing up the hill in the old city. On the way we took a picture of the man with the golden penis, and then we arrived at the ticket window to buy tickets to enter the cathedral. Our timing was great – there was just a five minute wait in line to get the tickets. The line to enter the cathedral was much longer, however, thanks to the tour buses that had arrived first thing. Still, after fifteen minutes or so we could get in.

The stained glass inside the cathedral was really impressive. Each one was done in a different style, and most used the tiniest pieces of stained glass – in a fine, detailed pattern that was impressive for its complexity. Kuniko wanted especially to see one of the windows that was done by the local artist Mucha. Famous for the unique art deco paintings of beautiful women, Mucha’s take on stained glass and holy scenes did not disappoint. The interior of the cathedral was totally worth the visit – I’m glad that we made the effort to come back and actually go inside.

Afterwards we walked around the old square in town, looking for gourmet shops or specialty stores to buy souvenirs for our neighbors. They have selective tastes, and so it took awhile to find the perfect gifts to share with them when we got back.

On the square itself we were attracted to the scent of roasting meat – there were some food stands set up with big pieces of pork on rotisseries. You could order a portion with a couple of beers, and stand next to bar tables right out in front and eat. We ordered a big cut of ham and enjoyed the first two beers of the day. It was getting hot out, and we were right in the sun, so it was refreshing. The meat was excellent – they know their meats here in Czech. Unfortunately we only had plastic utensils to cut it up and eat it, so some plastic forks lost their tines during the meal.

We spent some time alongside the river – this time sitting on a bench under the trees and enjoying the view of the other side. We had cold beers from a local convenience store and some chips that we had bought previously, and spent almost an hour just relaxing and chit-chatting about our trip. It was nice to rest our feet, too!

Since we had seen the stained glass by Mucha we thought it might be interesting to go look at the Mucha museum across town. It was a bit of a walk, but we were able to find it easily enough. Kuniko was mildly interested in the artist, but one look at the prices in the shop and we lost our interest pretty quickly. Things were wildly overpriced – even by Japanese standards. Time to go!

In the late afternoon we sipped beers outside of an Italian restaurant to kill a little time and get some rest, and then we finally walked across the bridge to have our last dinner in Prague. The bridge itself was at its tourism peak, with vendors clogging the walkways and people everywhere stopping to take pictures. Eventually we got across, and made a reservation at our restaurant because they didn’t open officially until six.

Kuniko was feeling a little tired, so we sat under a tree in a nearby square. We bought some water from a nearby cafe, and just hydrated and relaxed for a while. There was a park just a few minutes walk away, so we spent some time there walking with the wild peacocks that were apparently residents. Fruit fell continuously from the trees in the park, and sitting in the shade watching the peacocks turned out to be a good way to kill the remaining time before our restaurant opened.

The restaurant, Hergetova Cihelna, was recommended by some website that I found a while back, and the best part of it was the location. We sat on a riverside terrace enjoying a view of the Charles Bridge and the historic quarter. The weather was perfect, the location was perfect, everything was great. I would have proposed marriage if we weren’t already married.

As for the food – it was good, not mind-blowing. Kuniko had duck, and I had vegetarian almond and cheese raviolis. The server recommended some wines for us – we had Czech sparkling wine, and then we had some red and whites by the glass. All the wines were excellent – I couldn’t help thinking that maybe TESCO needs a new wine buyer.

During our dinner the couple behind me (that I couldn’t see) talked in English about their anniversary. The guy seemed a little bit weird and the woman was worried about the status of her pregnancy. I kept Kuniko up to date with their conversation using Japanese, but was a little surprised when Kuniko said that the lady looked like maybe she was Japanese. Later they talked about going to Tokyo, so I’m afraid what I thought was my super sneaky language trick was actually not sneaky at all. Uh-oh!

After dinner we walked back across the bridge taking pictures of the sunset over the western side of Prague, and then we continued on to find a wine bar in the other side of town. I think we just didn’t want to end our trip quite yet. The wine bar was really nice – the kind of place where I would probably be a regular customer if it was close to our house. The staff were wine experts (especially about Czech wines) and we ate a big plate with four kinds of cheese (no butter) and tried several wines recommended by the staff. Everything was delicious, but I thought that the white Czech wines overall had higher quality than the reds. Our waiter said that thanks to climate change more and more parts of the Czech Republic were becoming suitable for wine growing, so it may be a region to watch in the future.

Finally, totally exhausted from a busy day (and busy trip) we made the long walk back to our hotel for our last night in Europe. We pretty much collapsed into bed – it was a slow day, but according to our pedometer we walked over 30,000 steps. Goodnight!

We slept comfortably in our twin beds, and then rolled right out of bed at 6 am and we were out the door at 6:30, ready to check out Prague sans tourists.

The Charles Bridge (locally called Karluv most) was right next to our hotel and a natural starting point. At that time there were no vendors on the bridge and hardly any people. It was a cool morning with clear blue skies, and the sun was rising behind us, lighting up the city on the far side of the Danube quite nicely. The bridge was interesting because every few paces there is another statue ornamenting the walkway, and each one is dramatically gothic. I started to take pictures of everything, but I had to keep in mind that we still had plenty of time to look around.

After crossing the long bridge over the river we walked through the old town on the other side. The streets were empty of people and only the streetcars were moving through town. Shops were closed and we kind of followed our noses up the hill, aiming to reach the castle and cathedral at the top. We climbed the hill following the cobblestone roads, and we were rewarded with better and better views as we went. Finally at the top we reached a gigantic square, and we could see the spires of the cathedral beyond a big building to our right. Unfortunately the building was locked down behind a big gate, and there were several soldiers guarding the area. How do we get to the church?

I used my GPS to find a small pathway the led down the far side of the big building, but when we got there we discovered another gate, this one also guarded by a soldier who just looked at us blankly. There was a map nearby, but after a quick check we couldn’t find any hints. In the end we just approached the guard, who stepped aside and asked that we open our bags for a security check. Once we finished the security check we could proceed easily to the cathedral.

Later I read that the security measures were a recent addition and were heavily criticized by the tourist companies in the area. At the very least the soldier there with the guns and blank looks probably intimidated enough people to turn around and try to find another entrance. Kind of a weird system.

But anyway, we were in, and we walked through several building complexes, passing soldiers on patrol who ignored our presence. At that time of morning the cathedral wasn’t open yet, so we admired and photographed the outside and promised each other we’d be back later to see the interior. Once past the cathedral we could walk down the hill on the other side, which turned out to be another way to get back without the hassle of going through the old town.

While exploring the back area we discovered a bronze statue of a naked man in a square. The square was completely empty and the bronze man was shiny in only one particular area. A biologically important area, actually. We laughed at the sight and went on.

We got back to our hotel fairly quickly, and it turned out that the trip took a lot less time than we expected. We had a chance to enjoy our hotel breakfast buffet, and it was a pretty good one, actually. Eggs, bacon, sausages, cheeses and meats, plenty of fruit (some yellow rind melon that was very sweet) and a big bowl of yogurts (we had a lot of those) as well as bread and cereal. The coffee was free but it tasted like free coffee, but it did the trick for us. The service staff looked uncomfortable taking our drink orders, and I think the strange grimace our waiter gave us was supposed to be a smile. The other hotel guests were a mixed group of different races and countries. We saw a Chinese guy staying with someone I thought was his daughter, but Kuniko said that she was his wife. She looked like she was eleven years old – that was a shocker.

For the rest of the morning we explored other parts of the city to get a feel for the areas that were outside of the tourist zones. Without our suitcase, things went a lot smoother. While walking around the weather really started to improve. We checked out the bus stops for our future ride to the airport, and then went to a recommended traditional beer house called U Fleku. I liked the atmosphere immediately – all black wood and dark rooms. We sat down in the big beer hall, but at that time there were just a few customers besides ourselves. The tables were all long and connected, so in busy times you’d be bumping elbows with strangers as you tipped back your house beers. A guy was playing the accordion as we ordered two beers (they only served one kind) and also we split a plate of goulash (because we were on kind of a goulash survey mission).

While we waited for the food and drinks to arrive, a server walked up with a big smile on his face and a tray filled with tiny glasses filled with liquid. He said, “Would you like a traditional Czech apertif?” and we said yes, of course, because it sounded like he was giving them away. The way he asked and his body language combined with the sheer amount of the drinks on the tray made it seem like this was part of the procedure and tradition of the restaurant.

And as you might have guessed of course they are not free and they show up on your bill at the end of the meal. I was a little peeved that we fell for it, and they were indeed very traditional (and strong!) but they didn’t make me feel anything but slightly cheated. I watched the server do the same thing to subsequent customers and his success rate was quite high.

The beers they served us were delicious, however, and the goulash also was better than average, so we were happy about that. About halfway through our beers another (kind of creepy) waiter came over and tried to push us to order refills, and that was my limit for being treated like tourist cattle. We left soon after.

Hoping for a better beer drinking experience we walked a few blocks to a place called U Pinkasu, which has the distinction of being the first brewpub to serve pilsner beer in Czech. We ordered our beers from a miserable looking waiter who at least wasn’t pushy. We also ordered a big vegetable salad, because we were needing some veggies now and then to break up the focus on meat dishes in Eastern Europe.

On our way back to our hotel we did a little shopping at the local TESCO market. We were able to find some interesting souvenirs, and I bought a bottle of Czech wine to see what it was like. Not having any kind of idea about Czech wines, I ended up choosing by price, and I bought the most expensive Czech wine in TESCO, and it was still only about $10. Most local wines were under $5.

Unfortunately later when we opened up the bottle for a tasting in our room, we discovered why it was so cheap. We ended up pouring it down the drain – full of barnyard and fingernail polish aromas – nasty! Based on this we were ready to write off all Czech wines, but later we had a chance to change our opinions.

In the afternoon we crossed another bridge over the Danube and descended to some islands that functioned as parks in the middle of the Danube river. We sat on the grass on the river bank and enjoyed watching life go slowly by at a river’s pace. There were paddleboats on the water, some row boats, and occasionally a big river barge. It was a different feeling from the Danube in Budapest, but still relaxing and stress-free. These kinds of relaxing breaks in the otherwise sightseeing-heavy schedule were a nice way to remind ourselves that we were here on vacation.

Earlier, while walking through the tourist quarter we noticed a batch of tables with white tablecloths that looked like sort of an upscale hotel cafe. We thought it would be a nice way to spend some time in the afternoon, sipping wine, eating cheese, and watching the huge crowds of tourists walking by. So later that day we made our way to the U Prince Hotel and grabbed a table. The location was great, but the service was sure slow. Also, their menu was exactly the same as the room service menu back at our hotel, with just the name of the hotel changed – so it was probably the same company. We ordered some Prosecco at first, and some white wine later, but I’m not sure that the white was from Czech. The coup de grace was the cheese platter that arrived. It had five kinds of cheeses – one of which looked a little bit like butter. Kuniko took a big chunk and put it in her mouth, and sure enough… it was butter. It was a strange place to put the butter – we had bread, and then the butter was garnished, decorated and sliced just like the cheeses. We couldn’t stop laughing about it the rest of the trip.

While we sat and enjoyed the scenery eating our wine and butter, a small group of Hare Krishnas paraded through chanting, and it reminded me of the ones we saw so long ago in Zagreb. Was that the same trip? We had seen and experienced so much since then. It was kind of cool that we started the trip with them and they were here too at the end of the journey as well. Hare Krishna!

Before dinner we did a little more shopping at TESCO, buying some souvenirs that we missed the first time as well as some water (to stay hydrated) and other goodies. The people in line in front of us were paying with some kind of official coupons. We saw lots of other customers doing the same thing – some kind of social welfare?

Dinner that night was at a local’s place called Olympia. I had researched the place online and it turned out to be just what we were looking for. The place was owned by Pilsner Urquell, and so they were (naturally) serving only their beer. We sat in the corner and ordered some small appetizers to go with the beer, since we were still a little full with cheese and butter. The food that came was in fact quite large. We had pickled sausages (served in a little glass canning jar) with a salad’s worth of veggies and greens as a garnish and several big slices of dark bread. The other dish was the big hit of the night – marinated Camembert cheese. The cheese was saturated with the garlic and paprika flavor from the marinade, and it also came with the onions, lettuce, peppers, and dark bread. We vowed to try to make a similar dish at our place when we came back to Japan. The portion size at Olympia was huge – and these were just the small appetizers. We really liked the place – highly recommended.

On the way back to the hotel we could take in some beautiful night time views of the city. It was a really laid back and pleasant experience today. Tomorrow is our last full day in Prague (and in Europe) so we’ll have to make it count.

We were able to get lots of sleep – almost twelve hours! I think we knew we’d need to charge our batteries going into exploration mode in a new city. We were both tired, but not like exhaustion tired – more like you feel after a satisfying period of exercise.

My doctor-mandated waiting period was up this morning, so I took off the bandage and had Kuniko check things out. She said it looked like it was healing well, and there was no redness or bleeding, so I went into the shower and washed my hair for the first time in five days. Wow – that felt good. I was careful around the wounded area, but over the next few days I was able to wash my hair normally and retire my goofy head bandage.

Once again we ran out the clock on the checkout time of our hotel room, packing up the suitcase which was now significantly heavier thanks to all the souvenirs that we bought yesterday. Kuniko declared that it was still under 23 kg, which is the magic number for international flights. We rolled the big suitcase out the door and we were on our way back to the Vienna train station.

Today was more lively – no more national holidays and there was foot traffic all over town. We caught the subway and then changed to a regular train to get to the main Vienna train station. We had a little time before our train left, so we put our suitcase in a locker and then walked outside the station to check out the Belvedere Palace. I had heard that it was an impressive place to see while waiting for trains, and indeed it was. There were several art exhibits by Ai Weiwei integrated into the palace grounds which made for some interesting pictures. It was totally worth the short walk from the station.

We headed back to the station and stopped at a little bakery to have some juice, a veggie sandwich, and thanks to my non-existent German skills we ended up buying a pretzel that we didn’t plan on buying. As it turned out the pretzel was damn good – later we ate it and it was stuffed with butter and chives. I would never have picked a pretzel stuffed with butter and chives but fate intervened and I doubt I’ll be able to eat a regular pretzel again.

After buying a couple of snacks for the train ride (just in case it was longer than we expected) we went up onto the platform and awaited our ride out of town. There was quite a variety of trains that were already there. One unusual train had regular passenger traincars interspersed with traincars that held actual automobiles. I guess it is possible to transport your car by train, which seemed like a logistical nightmare but probably is not a big deal if they have specialized loading facilities.

We were in first class for this leg of our journey, and our assigned seats were two very comfortable ones facing each other next to the window. We each had an empty seat next to us, and those stayed empty for the first half of the trip. Plenty of room to stretch out and watch the scenery float by. After a little while the train made an emergency stop (oh no!) and since we were sitting in the car right next to the restaurant car we could hear what sounded like every plate and glass in their storage room fall and shatter on the floor. I was glad I wasn’t cleaning that mess up! Luckily it was a very short stop, and we got back underway rather quickly.

After about an hour of riding the train, a big family came through carrying a lot of luggage. One of the family members walked by carrying an electric room fan, and she was speaking in American English so I cracked a quick joke. It turns out they were American, but they also spoke another language and they were with their mother who seemed to be Eastern European. They had first class tickets but they had put all their luggage on the other end of the train, so they had to figure out how to get it all back. They seemed really stressed about everything. I picked up from their English conversation that they were sightseeing around Europe and visiting their roots in the old country. They were really impressed with train travel, and so I guessed it was their first time to Europe. Their mom was nice, and she wiped down everybody’s table (including ours!) for cleanliness. Kuniko and I kept to ourselves mainly, and spoke in Japanese for privacy, and they did the same in whatever language they were speaking.

In the end our train arrived in Prague about 10 minutes later than expected, which wasn’t so bad. We got out and changed our money inside the station, and then considered how we were going to get to our hotel. In the end we decided to go ahead and walk it. It looked like about a 20 minute walk by our map, so we again subjected our suitcase wheels to some punishment.

Right after we left we discovered what Prague locals probably take for granted – the entire city is paved in cobblestones. Even the sidewalks are small tiled stones. Our suitcase wheels were roaring as we walked through town, and sometimes a big cobblestone would jam a wheel causing a short stop while I had to shake the suitcase loose. I think we picked the wrong city to drag a suitcase through.

As we approached our hotel we passed through streets that were narrower and narrower, and they were pretty full of tourists. Kuniko had booked a hotel right next to one of the big tourist draws – the Charles Bridge. The good news was that we’d be able to sightsee much easier, but the bad news was that there were hordes of tourists jamming the narrow streets. Pulling a suitcase through the crowds and over cobblestones was a little stressful.

At last we found our hotel, and upon entering the lobby there was a giant muscular porter who took our suitcase for us. He lifted it effortlessly and I was never so happy to say goodbye to a suitcase. Whew! The check-in went smoothly, with our hostess “Petra” handling the front desk. Her hands were pretty shaky (alcoholic? Disease?) and she told us that our booking service had specified twin beds and that was all that they had available for us. She asked us if that was OK, and I asked her what would happen if we said no. The porter grinned, Petra grinned, and I guess I got my answer. Twin beds will be fine, thanks.

The porter took us to our room (and carried the suitcase, thanks!) and showed us the entry and low-tech security system. There was a separate door for guests that should be locked at all times, then there was a steel gate (that we had to lock and unlock as we came and went) and then another door (that said “do not lock”, but was always locked when we tried to open it) and then finally our room door. So that is four doors between us and our room, and we had three keys (one key opened the last two doors). It was like a gameshow puzzle to get to our room, and if either of us needed a toilet urgently it would be a high stakes game, indeed.

We unpacked a little and got the Wi-Fi going, but they had a really weird system here too. You had to log onto a page full of advertisements each time you wanted to use the internet (and it would log you off automatically after five minutes or so). They were getting lots of money from having their guests hit the advertising pages every five minutes – a little money on the side for somebody.

There were other little quirks with the hotel that we came to know (and love?) over the next few days. The inner hallway was shared with one of the bakeries nearby, so every time we walked to and from our room we were able to smell the rich aroma of cinnamon and sugar. We caught two of the bakers coming to work one morning hauling dough in stainless steel trays – one apparently thought it was too heavy so she was kicking the steel tray full of dough uncovered across the cement towards the bakery. We decided not to buy anything at that place.

Since it was the afternoon we thought we’d go outside and look around a little. The crowds of tourists were still there, and we figured we should wait and see the big sights the next day when we could get up early and miss the hordes. The first thing we decided to do was go get a cold beer at a pub. We walked around the backstreets avoiding most of the crowds and found a little bar with outdoor seating. We ordered up and drank our first beers in the Czech Republic. Mainly this trip we’d been drinking wine, so it was a nice change. We stuck with beer for the most part in Prague, with a few notable exceptions that I’ll get to later.

After some extensive research we found a place to have a somewhat traditional Czech dinner. We settled on Potrefena Husa near our hotel. They had Saproramen beer which was excellent. I ordered the pork knuckle, Kuniko had the roast duck leg, and we got down to business. The knuckle was really, really good. So much meat and cracklin’ skin on the outside – yum. Kuniko’s duck was also excellent – all the meat was roasted to perfection. Even with Kuniko’s help we could barely finish the pork knuckle.

Since we had filled up on dinner we chose to walk around a little and try to burn a couple of the calories. During our walk we stopped in to shop at a tiny convenience store near our hotel. The cashier was an Asian guy that may have been on drugs. He asked us to hand him one of the candy bars and then he promptly opened it up and ate it. Very friendly, though, and I think he was just bored. We also walked through the old town square, a place that we would become very familiar with later on. Around the square we scouted some restaurants that we could possibly visit in the future, and also bought a big container of juice for the hotel room to keep ourselves hydrated. On our way back to the hotel we saw that they converted the lower half of our hotel lobby into a nightclub, and there were actually people lining up to get in. Our hotel was full of surprises.

That was it for our first (half) day in Prague. Our plan for the next day was to get up early before the crowds and have a look for ourselves the next day without so much interference.

Since it was our last full day in Vienna we thought we’d go do something a little more ambitious, so we took a day trip out to see Schonbrunn palace. It is a large palace outside of central Vienna, modeled after the Versailles palace in Paris. It is a big tourist draw, so we got up pretty early. These early rises are the key to sightseeing success, but by then we were having trouble rolling out of bed at 6 am.

We took a short walk to the nearest train station, and then caught a regular train out of town to get to the castle. Buying tickets on the trains in Vienna was a little strange – you bought them from a machine, but there was no ticket gate anywhere, and I never saw anyone checking tickets. How do they keep people honest, I wonder?

Once we arrived at the palace we went to get in line for tickets. The ticket hall was a huge building, with pylons to manage big crowds of people. When we arrived there were only five people in line, so no sweat. Later when we left we saw maybe five hundred people in line. Once we had tickets we walked to the entry gate, which was a turnstile with a barcode scanner. It only turned if the time on your ticket was the same or later than the time above the turnstile. It was a good way to control crowds and meter a lot people into a relatively narrow space, so I was impressed. We had to wait only five minutes or so before our time came up, so during our wait we could watch the system in action. People who had bought tickets after us marched up and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get in. The look of exasperation on the staff manning the entrance told the story – the system wasn’t so obvious to a lot of people and even this early in the day the staff looked pissed off explaining the same thing over and over.

The Palace of Versailles is a very dramatic and luxurious building, and it was one of the highlights of our last trip to Paris. Even though this palace in Vienna was based on the one in Versailles, it couldn’t really compare. It was plenty beautiful, and I really enjoyed walking through and trying to imagine the function of each room, but it didn’t leave me breathless. Kuniko kind of felt the same way, I think. We moved through pretty quickly, and we were aided by the “no photos” rule, so it was easy to step around people and keep our pace.

Much more interesting were the grounds behind the castle. We spent time walking through the pathways between trees, discovering fountains, statues and obelisks in unexpected places. A nice older lady volunteer told us about some sights worth visiting, so we had some insider information to help us out, too. There weren’t so many people around, so it was a nice leisurely stroll.

Standing far behind the palace, on the crest of a rising hill, was a building that looked like sort of a gate. It was built to dramatically show the extent of the gardens to people within the palace, and it housed a restaurant. We were thinking some sparkling wine with a view of the grounds sounded like just the thing, so we started walking uphill. It was a lot steeper (and farther) than it looked, however, and in the sun we really started to get hot. My head bandage was getting a little sweaty, too – that can’t be good.

Fortunately once we arrived and went inside we found it well worth the effort. We found a table on the back terrace, passing a buffet of sweets and live classical music being played. This place was high class all the way. We ordered our Prosecco, added a plate of cheese to the tally and some water (because we were paying careful attention to hydration). The cheese was a real hit – there were some great selections in there, and we had another glass of sparkling to make sure the balance was right.

The crowd here was on the rich side – you could tell they were enjoying being conspicuously spendy. In a somewhat strange contrast, just beyond the tables was a hand water pump, and now and then joggers who had entered the gardens for exercise would stop and pump vigorously and then drink straight out of the pump in a somewhat sloppy manner. We are sipping our sparkling wine and they are guzzling water like thirsty horses – I love it!

We walked back down past the Neptune fountain and were able to find the garden labyrinth. The hedge maze was actually three different mazes of varying height and difficulty. We turned into the first one we saw and figured we’d get through it in just a few minutes. Not so fast – it was more difficult than it looked. We walked through feeling a little like we were in a movie or on Survivor. Lots of wrong turns, and lots of dead ends. The goal was an elevated platform in the middle of the maze, and we could see people climb the steps and beat the maze now and then but it was surprisingly tough for us to figure out. At one point a young girl zoomed past us and I jokingly asked her for help, but she just smirked at me and moved on. Later we finally found the platform at the end, and we could look down on everyone else and feel suitably superior. I saw the young girl still looking, and she looked up and we locked eyes. Ha, ha – we beat you!

The labyrinth was a highlight, but it was warming up and we figured it was time to get going. On our way out buses were unloading hordes of tourists and the line for tickets was outrageous. The train platform was crammed with people coming in, and it felt good to catch a train out of there having missed most of the madness.

Back in central Vienna things were awfully quiet. We walked the streets looking for a grocery store or drug store that was open, but we had absolutely no luck. Finally by chance we found an open minimarket (Spar), but it was so packed with people we decided to move on. In the end we resorted to asking our hotel clerk about places that were open, and she informed us that it was a national holiday and almost everything was closed. I was looking for antiseptic cream for my head wound, so she described a drug store that was “always open” uptown. We set out at once to find it.

It was quite a walk to get there, and when we found the correct drug store the place was dark and the door was locked. There was a guy waiting by the intercom, and I figured he was trying to get into an apartment above the drug store. I was a little disappointed because we walked a long way on tired feet to get some medical goods, and came up empty. Just to double check we went into a completely different hotel nearby, pretended to be their guests, and asked for a drug store. The lady said that she thought the drug store was indeed open, and then she called it right in front of me and confirmed with the staff that they were open. What the hell? We went back out there, and then we realized that the store was closed and locked, but you could tell an employee inside what you wanted through the window and intercom, and he’d sell it to you through a little drawer built into the wall. I presented my Google Translate app to show him I wanted antiseptic cream, and he came right back with two options. I couldn’t understand what he said, so I picked the one on the right and gave him five euros for his troubles. Easy!

Worried that the national holiday might mean that the souvenir shop that we had planned on visiting for our shopping might closed, we took a train to give our feet a rest and found that it was indeed open and doing brisk trade in the touristy part of town. We went nuts buying stuff for all our students and coworkers, and we might have overbought a little because we were very relieved that it was open.

Our last stop for the night was back at the only minimarket that we could find that was open. Inside it felt slightly like a riot – a sense of desperation in the air. Disaster? Food rationing? No, just a national holiday in Vienna. We chose a variety of light foods – some cheese, a few slices of sausage, some veggie salads, and a bottle of Wachau wine and some cold beers. It took a long time to get through the check out line, but we brought back our haul to the hotel, and had a casual dinner in our hotel room while we packed and rested our feet. It was nice to reset our tastebuds after all the heavy foods we’ve eaten during dinners this trip!

We were leaving the next day on a fairly early train to Prague, so we wanted to get some extra sleep and rest before our next travel day. Hopefully the train ride would be less eventful than the last one!

We came in so late the previous night that we figured it would be OK to sleep in a little bit. Our hotel was a bit different from the previous hotels, kind of decorated in an artsy avant garde style. It boasted four stars but based on the size and the layout it seemed like a reach to call it a four-star hotel. However, when we travel we don’t need much, and they had comfortable beds, a toilet that flushed, and we were all set.

By the time we were up and moving around the sun was out and it was a much hotter day. We tried to walk in the shade to avoid most of the heat, but this was as warm as Zadar was back on the sunny Adriatic coast. As we walked through central Vienna the city felt much quieter and conservative than Budapest. It felt more upscale and classy somehow. The architecture in central Vienna was no disappointment – classical structures and church towers were liberally spread throughout the city. You always could see something on the horizon that made you want to explore more. This was going to be a big job.

Our first stop was my request, a visit to the Austrian National Library to see the State room. Our timing happened to be perfect – we arrived just ten minutes before it opened and we could get in before crowds of people made taking pictures more difficult. The books in that particular room were beautifully maintained and surrounded by elegantly painted ceilings, classical statues, and rich warm wood shelving. That room alone was worth the visit to Vienna for me.

Feeling a little hungry we stopped at an outdoor cafe nearby called “The Guest Room” and ordered up an omelet and some eggs Benedict, fruit juices, and some coffees afterward. Sitting outside leisurely eating and drinking – that’s what we are always looking forward to. Our German skills are pretty weak, but the waitress spoke great English and once again I was considering myself lucky to be born an English speaker. The food was good too – I love eggs for breakfast.

After breakfast we did some other sightseeing – the Opera House (one of many, actually), and St. Stephen’s cathedral in the central touristy area. I liked the roofline of the cathedral, again decorated in patterned tiles, and even though one tower was under construction it made for an imposing landmark in the center of town.

Conveniently located near the cathedral was a Maner shop, selling one of the souvenirs that is apparently the big seller in Vienna. The wafers, crème and chocolate looked pretty good, so we decided to do our trip souvenir shopping here later on.

Down the street Kuniko requested that stop at Demel for a slice of chocolate cake. This shop had a branch in the Kansai area in Japan, and I had told Kuniko previously that we shouldn’t go there until we try the home bakery in Vienna. The cake was really, really good. Intense chocolate creaminess on the outside, and rich warm (and almost unsweetened) chocolate cake inside. We each had a glass of champagne with it, and it was a good match.

To burn off chocolate cake calories we spent the afternoon walking around town seeing more landmarks – the Votive cathedral downtown, and the city hall (which they call the “Rathaus”, which is a pretty cool nickname). Near the downtown area they had a street festival going on, as kind of a prelude to a movie screening later on that evening. Big events going on in Vienna in the summer. Other than the festival and the tourists, however, the city was really quiet. Some blocks had almost no people at all – like a ghost town. Lots of natives were probably out of town for their summer holidays, and I’d bet that the city is completely different during the other seasons.

On the way back to our hotel we tried our best to find a supermarket open to sell us bottled water, but everything was closed. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was a holiday weekend, and that day and the next were national holidays. The tourist shops were making a killing by selling water at double the regular price! We did manage to find a cafe to sell us water (and a beer afterwards). Our table was on the outside edge of their outdoor terrace with nobody around us. We enjoyed the smoke-free environment (Europeans sure do like to smoke!) for a while, until two motorbikers sat down next to us and lit up. Check, please!

Back at the hotel we took a little break to rest our feet, and I took a short nap. For some reason Kuniko started to have some kind of allergic reaction – sneezing ten times in a row, and getting a skin rash. We weren’t sure why, but we decided to go sit outside at a park to see if a change of environment would help. There was a nice little park just down the street from our hotel, and we sat on a bench near a food truck grilling burgers and selling beer. What a smell – I wanted a burger badly, but I convinced myself that it would be better to stick with Austrian food for the next couple of days.

Kuniko’s nose was still running, and she was using some tissue to try to keep it under control. As we sat on the park bench surrounded by kids being watched by their mothers and fathers, Kuniko would look around surreptitiously and then stick the white tissue up her nose. I warned her not to look so suspicious doing it – she looked like someone sneaking cocaine in a public park. Luckily nobody called the police.

For our dinner on the first night in Vienna we found a traditional underground wine cellar/restaurant called Esterhazy Keller. It had some historic events in its past, but we were more interested in their wine and food. It was certainly dramatic to enter, walk slightly downstairs, and take turn after turn through an old cellar. It was well lit and sanitary, which was a good sign for the food we were about to eat.

We started with wine – and you could choose from a couple different house whites and a couple house reds. We chose at random and were very pleased with the results. So cheap, too! The food was excellent. Kuniko ordered a “fitness” salad that had big pieces of salty chicken and strips of mango mixed in with the lettuce and vegetables. I think the fitness came from not eating red meat, but that didn’t last long. I ordered some homemade viennese sausages, and we had goulash (crazy about the goulash – this one was one of the best examples). We also had boiled beef with apple/horseradish and tartar sauces to use for dipping the meat. The boiled beef was better than it sounds, and with glass after glass of cheap delicious wine I fear our happy exclamations were ringing through the cellars.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for some lemon and vanilla gelato to go, and then sat down to watch the lighting of the Vienna National Library as the sun set behind us. There were lots of people walking around the square and it was nice to just sit on a bench and have some slow time. Once the lights finally came on they were a little less dramatic than I had expected, but it was still a nice time.

From there we decided to head on back and get some sleep at the hotel. Thanks to all the wine we slept pretty well that night.

Our plan for the last day in Budapest was to get up at 5 am, and walk across the bridge to the other side of the Danube and take pictures of the majestic Buda castle just as the sunrise was lighting it up.

But we were tired.

My alarm went off at 5 am, but I made a quick physical evaluation of my body and decided to sleep in another hour. I was still pretty tired at 6 am, but how often in my life do I wake up in Budapest, really? Up and at ‘em!

Kuniko and I walked across the Chain Bridge, and once we got moving we were feeling really good. There were hardly any tourists at all. In the evening the places we passed were crammed with tourists, so it was nice to walk by unimpeded today. Although we had planned to be here an hour earlier, the sun was still in a great position and our pictures turned out pretty well.

We walked up the long slope to the castle, since it was too early for the funicular to be running. Since nobody was around it was a nice leisurely walk, and we drank bottled water as we went (because I learned my lesson). Up at Buda castle there was a lot of trash laying around – remnants from the huge crowds the night before. Apparently we were there before the cleaning staff showed up. We had a nice view of the sun rising over the Pest side of the city, and we walked around the grounds checking out the fountains and statues that were placed here and there.

After getting our fill of the castle we followed my GPS map down another side of the hill and to the base of the mountain that had the Citadel sitting on top. The Citadel was an old military base, and it had been converted into a monument because of the great position overlooking the city. We walked up and up through the forest on the mountainside, choosing trails that we thought might lead us to the top.

Halfway up we stumbled on a monument that we had seen from afar and had wanted to visit. It was kind of a half circle of Roman columns, arching in a way to draw your eye to a central statue of a priest, holding a cross outstretched (with almost a defiance) towards the rising sun. Because of our timing the priest seemed to be real – facing off against the sun just like every other morning.

The pathways up the mountain were pretty steep, and by the time we reached the top we were sweating and gasping. What a way to wake up! As we approached the Citadel some cleaning staff were working around the area. One guy looked at my head bandage and asked me what kind of trouble I got into last night. I just smiled, pointed to Kuniko and said “She won.”

At the edge of the Citadel was another monument being lit up by the sunrise. There were two warrior statues, flanking a tall pillar of stone with a massive metal sculpture of a woman offering a feather to the sun at the top. It was a bold piece of artwork, and something that reminded me of something you’d find in a video game like Dark Souls. There were just a few people there at that time, so I got some lonely pictures and also we could enjoy some quiet time up there (to catch our breath!).

From there we walked back down the hill, having a much easier time of it. We discovered that under the Roman columns and cross bearing priest monument there was a water spring, and it ran slowly down the hillside on green moss into a cistern at the base of the mountain. It looked pretty refreshing, and reminded me of the water back at Plitvice Lakes, which seemed like so long ago.

It was an easy walk back across the bridge to our hotel, and we settled into our room to milk the comforts of a nice bed, a clean toilet, and a functional air conditioner for as long as we could. Once we checked out of the hotel we’d be on our own until we got to our next hotel in Vienna, and that might take a while.

At check out we were presented with the hotel doctor’s bill in addition to our regular hotel charges, and we added that paperwork to the growing stack of documents that would need to be dealt with when we returned to Japan. We left our suitcase with the bellhop, and then went back into the city for some last sightseeing before we took the train out of town.

Climbing mountains first thing in the morning does wonders for your appetite! We found a little bistro situated right on the square in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica, and so we ordered a couple glasses of local wines (that were very good – Sauvignon Blanc and a Gruner Veltliner). I was burned out on meat so I just had a caesar salad with shrimp, and Kuniko had a really tasty paprika chicken dish with noodles and cream that tasted a lot like macaroni and cheese. Hungarian comfort food!

We still had more time before our train left, so we also decided to take a cruise on the Danube. It was easy to find a ship that did an hour or so loop on the river, and so we bought tickets and that just about killed off the remainder of our Hungarian Forints. Cruises are nice – slow paced, relaxing, and they offered some really nice opportunities for photos of the city. The cruise came with a drink on the house, and so we sipped cheap champagne served by the very young staff. We didn’t really pay attention to the headphone audio description, and instead just let the breeze flow by silently. The cruise was a very nice way to wrap up our time in Budapest.

We gathered our poor squeaky suitcase, and subjected it to a trial by fire – an almost 3 km walk from our hotel to the Budapest train station. The roads and sidewalks conspired to make it a more difficult affair, but strangely our suitcase wheels grew quieter under the stress, and maybe our problem was that we weren’t moving them enough. Once we arrived at the old and quite beautiful train station Kuniko ran across the street to do a little shopping, and I did some suitcase babysitting in front of the station and watched the people coming and going.

While I sat next to the main sidewalk a chubby Middle Eastern guy came up to me and asked me if I spoke Serbian, which is a hell of a conversation start. I told him that I only spoke English, and so he proceeded to grunt through a conversation in keywords while I did my best to keep my end going. He wanted to know where I was from (Canada), how work was in Canada (slow), what happened to my head (baseball accident), and where I was going next (Venice). I was feeding him bad info because for all I knew this was a forward agent for ISIS or something. Unfortunately I couldn’t just say goodbye because Kuniko was shopping and this was the meeting point. He got bored after a while and took off, and just in time since Kuniko showed up shortly thereafter and she didn’t know I was a Canadian going to Venice suffering from a freak baseball mishap.

Inside the train station we were happy to discover that our train was already in position, and after just a few minutes we could pre-board and get our seats. We were the first people in the car, so we could put our suitcase in a rack right across from our seats and it made it easy to keep an eye on it during the trip.

It’s nice to travel by train in Europe. Things slide by at a pleasant pace, and you can sleep or relax and not worry too much about anything but what you’ll eat for dinner when you arrive. At least, that was what our previous experiences had been like.

About an hour into our journey, the train suddenly slid to an emergency stop. We weren’t at a station – we were out in the middle of nowhere next to an unidentified river. We waited patiently for a restart of the train, but there was no movement and no announcement.

After about a half hour of waiting there was an announcement that said that there was some technical trouble, and we could expect to start again in 90 minutes. Two hours later there was another announcement saying they had no idea when we’d be restarting.

With each passing hour people were getting antsy. The expected travel time was only two and a half hours, but we had been on the train for more than four hours and still not even sure when we’d get moving again. People bought lots of alcohol from the restaurant car, and Kuniko and I decided that we’d skip the alcohol for this situation and wait and see. We overheard passengers panicking because they were missing flights at airports, missing hotel reservations, and generally ticked off at the inconvenience. Smokers stuck on the non-smoking train decided to ignore the law and smoke in between the cars, which meant that every time the doors opened we could smell the smoke – yuck.

Faced with the real possibility of spending the night where we were sitting, Kuniko and I broke out the snacks and turned to entertainment, playing a version of shiritori that had us drawing pictures instead of saying words. It was fun, and as always I was impressed with Kuniko’s drawing skills.

A Chinese couple near us were eating so much of their food that I wondered if they thought they should eat it before hungry passengers started shaking them down for their snacks. They were hoping to go to Salzburg that night, but I doubted that they’d make it. Their original arrival time would have been 10 pm but their best case scenario now would be around 3 am.

Suddenly, a train locomotive passed us on one side, and then about an hour later, our train restarted. Some people gave a little cheer, and we were off. No explanations were forthcoming, and the total delay ended up being four hours. We pulled into Vienna station around midnight, and we grabbed the nearest taxi and had him take us to our hotel. Luckily the staff still had our room for us, and we could check in and go right bed. What a trip!

Later I read on the news that on that day in Switzerland a crazy guy with a knife attacked some people on a Swiss train, and since we were on the same line it may have been part of the reason for the delay. People may still be a little jumpy with the terrorist attacks in Europe lately. I don’t know for sure whether that was the reason, but I have no other ideas.

After sleeping most of the previous afternoon and all through the night, I woke up completely refreshed. I was hungry, thirsty, and everything seemed to be back to normal – other than a giant white bandage on my head.

The agreement we made yesterday with the hospital was that the hotel doctor would come back to our hotel today at some point to clean the wound and change the bandage. We called her and arranged a visit at 11 am, so we had some time to kill before that. I had been sleeping all night, sitting in a hospital waiting room all day yesterday, and I wanted to move my legs and look around. I put on the hotel shower cap, took a shower, and then we headed out for a walk around the hotel to test the waters.

It was my first chance to look around at the city. Our hotel was located right on the Danube river, with gorgeous views of the Buda castle and other Buda landmarks directly across from us. Along the river there was a two lane road running, and next to that was a streetcar railway. It made for some dramatic views. We walked slowly around the hotel in the brisk morning weather, and I took lots of pictures as we went. As a test run it went really well, so we decided to walk a little farther. We continued on to see St. Stephen’s Basilica, one of the big landmarks on the Pest side of the river. At that time in the morning it was closed, but the square around it was beautifully designed and we took in the view a little bit and promised to come back and see more later.

Budapest had an interesting vibe. It felt young and a little wild. More artistic and lively than what we had seen so far, but also historic and old. It was also the biggest city we had visited so far on this trip, and that meant homeless people now and then, and sometimes some big city smells (like trash bins and piss in the alleys). Despite being a big city it felt pretty safe, and we never felt like someone might hassle us or beg for money aggressively. A couple of people held out their hands looking for handouts, but they pretty much ignored the people walking by. We felt very comfortable walking around Budapest.

I still felt really good and my legs were itching for more exercise, so we continued even further along the Andrassy Ut, a historic street lined with trees, opera houses, embassies, and other historic buildings. We walked slowly along, and I really appreciated the fresh air. We had to be mindful of our doctor’s appointment back at the hotel, so we kind of hurried, but we had to be careful to not push my body too hard, so we kind of went slowly. It was a weird pace, really.

Along the way we had a chance to walk by the American embassy. The security there was pretty heavy duty. They had built high steel barricades enclosing a whole city block, with a car security area with big metal blocks rising out of the ground. It was by far the heaviest security of any embassy we saw this trip. 

At the end of Andrassy Ut we came to Heroes Square, which was a big open space with some grand monuments that reminded us a lot of St. Mark’s Square in the Vatican. By now the sun was getting high in the sky and the weather was warming up. Just past the square was Vajdahunyad Castle, situated in a nice green park next to a lake. There was plenty to see here, but we limited ourselves to a brief visit, and then walked back to the hotel to see the doctor again.

We made it back to the hotel with an hour to spare, and so I was well rested by the time she showed up. She looked at the wound and liked what she saw, and then showed us how to change the bandage since Kuniko would be responsible for doing it for the next few days. Her English was interesting – she said, “I will remain these bandages for you”. When I heard her say, “I will remain…” I was startled because we didn’t want to have a doctor hanging out in our hotel room, but what she meant to say was, “I will leave these bandages for you.” Anyway, Kuniko and I both chuckled because we had the same thought when she said it. Thankfully the doctor left after the bandage change and we were on our own again.

We decided to go out for lunch, but unfortunately our first choice restaurant was closed for summer holiday (they called it “summer pause”), so we went to the second choice place. This was a little cafe called Frici Papa Kifozdeje. Simple menu, simple traditional food, and very cheap. The staff were all local guys, and they greeted regular customers with handshakes and slaps on the back, and they were patient with us tourists. The food was good – simple, and filling but nothing out of this world. Kuniko had a goulash, and the meat was spiced with something exotic. My first thought was it tasted like bad breath, but in a good way. Hard to describe, but it really tasted like no other dish I’ve had. The noodles that she had as a side were interesting too – not long or slender but more like rough gnocci. Their rough shape made it really easy to absorb the delicious sauces with each bite. I had simple grilled pork with some french fries that were strangely addictive. That combined with a Hungarian lemonade and I was good to go.

After lunch we went to check out the Parliament building which is a dramatic building built right on the bank of the Danube river. Beyond was an island in the river that we briefly considered visiting, but in the end we thought we should still not push ourselves and instead did some shopping at a supermarket called Spar (pronounced, “Shpa”) on the way back to our hotel. We found some delicious-looking foie gras pate and a pomegranate flavored yogurt drink that really hit the spot – it was the best yogurt I’ve ever had.

Our hotel room was still not cleaned when we came back, and with all the bloody towels everywhere it looked like a murder scene. We asked for cleaning service, and then went down to the hotel bar to sit outside and people watch while we waited for the cleaning.

Later in the afternoon we were feeling a little ambitious, so we walked across the famous Chain Bridge and up the hill to see the Matyas Temple and Fisherman’s Bastion. This temple overlooks the northwest Buda side of the river, and from our hotel it looked quite dramatic. Unfortunately when we got up there it was surrounded by hordes of tourists. Right next to the temple (and I mean it – right next to it) was a Starbucks built into the base of a Hilton Hotel. You couldn’t even take a picture of the temple without getting some part of Starbucks or Hilton in there. I was wondering how that arrangement came to be. Still, the view from up there back across to the Pest side of the city was quite nice, and we enjoyed it for a while before heading back to our hotel.

Finally, in the evening we walked back to St. Stephen’s Basilica to take some more pictures and look around inside. There were a lot of people there, but the interior was quiet as there was a service going on at the time. I really liked the interior, even though it was a bit on the gaudy side. Once you see the Vatican every cathedral is kind of on a sliding scale downwards, but this was better than I expected.

We ate dinner just down the street from the Basilica at a place called Arumu Bistro. Our first choice restaurant for dinner was on summer break (again!) but this turned out to be a pretty good alternative. We sat outside on their terrace and had an appetizer of fried goat cheese crusted with almonds on a green salad. Our main courses turned out to be on the heavy side. Kuniko had a monster plate with four big pieces of foie gras on mashed potatoes with pears and a Tokaji wine sauce. I went with grilled duck breast on porcini mushroom risotto. Kuniko really wanted to have foie gras in Hungary and I think the four big pieces were enough and then some. After dinner I had a glass of Oremus Tokaji Azu, which was on my list of wines to try in Hungary. It was an excellent example of dessert wine – Kuniko and I shared the glass and really enjoyed the experience.

We usually don’t eat very much meat, but at most of the restaurants we visited this trip they served mainly meat as a main dish. I think it was slowing us down a little bit, so we tried to make up for it by walking a little bit more than usual. After dinner we walked around the riverside taking pictures of the scenery at night, and it was cool enough that we even stopped at H&M to buy some warmer clothes for the rest of the trip – we were only heading north from here.

Back at the hotel I checked our iPhone pedometer, and it said we walked over 40,000 steps during the day. It was a new record for me, and hard to believe that I had spent the previous day just getting medical care. Tomorrow would be our last day in Budapest, and there was still Buda castle to conquer, so more exercise was ahead of us. Time for bed!

Warning: Gross Stuff Ahead!

I tend to be an optimist. Sometimes I get criticized for it, and I know that I have been overly optimistic in the past which can sometimes lead to disappointment or an unfortunate surprise. However, generally being an optimistic person has helped me far more often than it has hurt me, so I’ll continue this trend while describing our first day in Budapest. There were some serendipitous moments in this story that really made us realize how lucky we are.

So in the middle of the night I woke up a few times to use the restroom. I was feeling a little nauseous, and over the course of a couple of hours I went to toilet three or four times with diarrhea. I kept expecting to throw up, but I never did. I wondered what the reason was – I ate the same things as Kuniko yesterday, and she didn’t have any problems. Anyway, I went back to sleep and woke up with the alarm around 6 am. Kuniko took a shower first, and I lay in bed, still feeling a little nauseous but apparently there was nothing left in my stomach to get rid of. But we were in Budapest, and I didn’t want to sit around the hotel when there was so much sightseeing to do – I wanted to go explore!

After Kuniko got out of the shower I went into the bathroom to get ready, but the steamy room had a weird effect on me and I started to feel a little light-headed. I left the bathroom and went back into the bedroom, but had to lean against the wall next to the bathroom door for support. Kuniko asked me if I was OK, and I think I said something about needing to lie down, and the next thing I knew I was opening my eyes and hearing Kuniko kind of freaking out and saying my name. I didn’t feel any pain but I was laying on the floor, so I pulled myself off the ground and moved to the bed. Kuniko said I had passed out, and that there was blood on my head – and sure enough she was right! I used a hand towel from the bathroom and it came away far bloodier than I expected. What happened?

Kuniko explained to me later that I fainted and fell backwards, with my head rapping against the sharp wooden corner of the doorframe. Apparently I was out for around five seconds, and she said there was a lot of blood on the floor, but I felt like I shouldn’t get up to take a look. I was feeling much better, and the more I breathed the better I felt. Kuniko asked if we should call a doctor, but initially I said that I would be OK and we should just give me some time to drink some water and recover a bit. We ordered some juice and water from room service, and the juice really hit the spot. The room service staff came in to deliver, and asked if I was OK. Kuniko pointed out the blood and apparently there was some damage to the door frame, and he asked if it was OK to bring a cleaning crew up to take care of it. He asked if I was sure a doctor wasn’t needed, and so I figured we should go ahead and at least have the hotel doctor take a look.

While I laid on the bed with the bloody towel pressed to the back of my head, Kuniko handled everything like a champ. She talked to the front desk, answered questions about my health and what happened, and did it all with no outward signs of stress. I was glad she was there to help out since I was concentrating on staying awake – didn’t they say that if you sleep after a head injury you might die? Or was that just in the movies?

About thirty minutes later a lady came to our door and said that she was the doctor. I guess she is kind of on-call with lots of the big hotels in the area. She spoke just a little English and had trouble with a lot of the medical words, but I was glad that a professional was there to give me an honest opinion. At first she asked about what happened, then took my temperature and blood pressure. She spent a lot of time with the preliminaries before she finally asked to see the wound. And the first words out of her mouth when she saw it were, “Jesus Christ!”

As soon as I heard those words I knew that I wasn’t going sightseeing today.

So she explained that she’d like us to go to a hospital, and that there was a nearby hospital with a head trauma unit, and they could sew up the big gash in the back of my head. I didn’t look at it (Kuniko offered to take pictures of it for me but I declined), but apparently it was about the length of my little finger and it was quite a wide cut. That explained the blood, anyway. I still couldn’t feel any pain, though, so there was that.

Kuniko and I went through all the decisions with the doctor – which hospital to go to (the one she had recommended at first wasn’t available), how to get there (ambulance), how much we would be expected to pay (at least a thousand dollars and more if I had to stay for a while in the hospital), and how we would be able to pay (credit card or cash, our choice). As these decisions were made the doctor called various people and had long conversations in Hungarian. I liked the way she spoke in English – she used the word “OK” like a comma in her sentences.. “OK, OK, now I want to look at the wound, OK, and turn your head, OK. OK!”

Kuniko and the doctor went downstairs to take care of the ambulance when it arrived, so I just lay there on the bed afraid to fall asleep. Budapest is a big city, so every time I heard a siren in the distance I thought, “Oh, this must be my ride…” It actually took a long time because it wasn’t exactly a huge emergency – I just needed to be checked and patched up. My life wasn’t in danger. Finally the ambulance arrived and the staff came in the room and asked me some questions. The hotel manager also came in and gave me and the room a stern examination. No smiles on that guy – I imagine he was evaluating whether or not the hotel had some liability risks. Don’t worry dude, I’m not going to sue. This is my own damn fault.

The paramedic asked if he could see the wound, and when he looked at it he said it wasn’t so bad, so I felt a little better. They asked me if I could walk out to the ambulance, and I tried standing up and did OK. We walked down with one paramedic holding my arm just in case, and I did the perp walk through the hotel lobby. I’m in Budapest – I don’t know anyone here, so who cares? I was a little excited to be riding in an ambulance. Kuniko was there to support me and to document the experience with photographs, too.

The ride to the hospital was about 20 minutes, and I sat upright in the back of the ambulance and talked with the paramedic who had much better English than the doctor. We talked about music, and he had recently visited Japan to see some girls (!) and sightsee around Kyoto and Kobe. He was a really nice guy, and I think he wanted to make sure I kept talking and to see if I was fading out or not.

Once we arrived at the hospital we met a very nice lady who worked as the doctor’s assistant. Her job was to get us through the paperwork of the Hungarian medical system, translate between us and the medical staff as necessary, and generally be my local contact to answer any questions. She gave her name when we first met but I’m sorry to say that I completely forgot it. She was invaluable to us – she was always going up to the desk to hassle the staff and speed up things for us, and I noticed that thanks to her we were seen more quickly than other people waiting around the hospital. We were kind of like medical VIPs.

The hospital itself looked a bit old, and a little darker and dimmer than hospitals in Japan. The staff were very professional, however, and very thorough. I had x-rays of my head taken, blood tests, and I saw three different doctors who evaluated my condition. I was completely satisfied with the job that they did.

The lead doctor was a young guy that looked like he just finished medical school. He already had that air of a doctor – and he asked me a huge battery of questions. I realized that he was typing in my answers into a database, and using the database of results to find possible problems and risks. It was interesting for me to see and I was glad they were using the power of technology to help me out.

A surgeon brought me in to a room, had me lean over and then they shaved part of my hair to make some clean stitches in my head. I got four stitches, and thanks to a lidocaine injection I didn’t feel any pain at all. They applied a bandage and a net cap to hold the bandage in place, and said I should wear the bandage for at least five days. That meant no washing my hair – ick! I fell down in the hotel room before I could take a shower that morning, so they gave me tetanus shot too, just in case.

Next they brought in a neurologist who was this young woman in her 30’s who was a total knockout. She did all kinds of tests by touching various parts of my body and testing my responses. I wondered vaguely if this was a reality TV program or something – does the foreign guy realize that his doctor is actually a stripper? After about twenty minutes of examinations and questions she pronounced me good to go.

The lead doctor said we’d have to wait for the x-ray and blood results for an hour or so, and he told me to go have some lunch in the cafeteria. He specifically told me to drink Coca Cola – no juice or yogurt. He said the fizz and the sugar would help my dehydration and energy level. Eastern Europe is a very different place!

I dutifully drank Cherry Coke with Kuniko upstairs in the cafeteria, and ate the bread of a sandwich to test my stomach which was still weak. Everything stayed down OK, which was good news. After lunch we had the final interview with the doctor, and he said that I should get some rest, drink a lot of liquids (like cola), and eat carbohydrates to get my energy back. He thought that the fainting was probably due to exhaustion, dehydration, or some combination of the two. There was no bone damage to my noggin, and my neurological functions were normal. We thanked him for the help, and then went with the hotel doctor’s assistant to the back room where we handled the payment. The hotel doctor’s assistant had her own computer there in an office and a credit card machine ready to go, so this must be a regular kind of thing. It seemed on the up and up, but a little weird that we paid the doctor’s assistant and not the hospital directly. Still, I was tired and happy to be stitched up so I wasn’t going to make a big deal. Kuniko handed over her credit card, and they printed out an invoice (which we would submit to our insurance company for reimbursement later on).

Finally the assistant was nice enough to call a taxi for us, and we got a (dangerously fast) ride back to the hotel. Kuniko took me upstairs to our room and the pile of bloody towels next to the bed was a gross reminder of what I had gone though. It was early afternoon, and I had the shivers a little bit, so I snuggled deep into our bed. Kuniko turned on the heater and I was out just like that. I slept from the early afternoon pretty much until the next morning. Kuniko kept me hydrated with water, soda and bread now and then. My stomach was holding down solid food and my appetite was back. I just slept and slept and slept, turning over now and then to adjust with the big bandage on my head making it hard to get comfortable. Kuniko must have been bored stuck in the hotel taking care of me with a mysterious and interesting city outside, but she did go out to buy snacks for herself and a bottle of red wine (another Kekfrankos) to sip while watching K-pop videos on the hotel internet connection while I was in la-la land.

So I was back on the mend, and we were really lucky because it could have been much worse. A long time back we had actually booked a different hotel in Budapest – a small, artsy kind of hotel that was also actually an apartment. That place kept contacting us by email and trying to find out exactly when we’d arrive (because they needed to check us in) and since we were driving we had no solid idea. It became such a hassle that we canceled the reservation and changed to the Marriott hotel. If this accident had happened at the apartment, we wouldn’t have had a hotel doctor to arrange everything. No assistant to handle to emergency room staff and paperwork, everything would be up to us – finding the hospital, communicating the problems and dealing with the red tape. So we were really lucky we had decided to change hotels. During our two week holiday we stayed in only one upscale hotel – and it happened to be the one where the accident happened. The Marriott staff were so professional and helpful, and the only charge for the bloody hotel room was a $3 (!) cleaning fee.

The other lucky thing was that just before the trip I checked in with Kuniko and asked her about buying travel insurance. We usually buy travel insurance for destinations in Southeast Asia where the medical system might not be so good, and usually for long trips as well. In all our trips we’ve never actually used the insurance, and Kuniko was leaning towards skipping it this time because we were staying in big, famous cities and we’d likely be safe. I thought it was a better idea to go ahead and get the insurance, and in the end we decided to get it. That turned out to be a very good decision in light of the hospital bill we got. Our insurance covered everything from the hotel doctor’s first visit to the taxi ride back to hotel after the hospital, and even my doctor’s bill back in Japan to remove the stitches.

So a bloody accident could have been a far more stressful and financially painful event for us, and it ended up being really just an inconvenience. I don’t know how it is that we’re so lucky in these things, but I’ll have to be more careful in the future to avoid testing the limits of that luck.

We slept pretty well and woke up around 7 am to go next door to the Cacao cafe to have some coffee and cake. When we opened the door to leave the hotel we found that it was actually raining outside. In the cafe we had some coffees and I tried a chocolate orange cake that was pretty good and not too sweet. I made the mistake of ordering coffee with cream, and ended up with a coffee with a big gob of solid cream on the top – wow! I wouldn’t make that mistake again – too rich for me.

While we were there watching the rainy day outside (and hoping the storm would pass) we checked out of our hotel, and also left our suitcase behind for them to watch. After our coffees and cake we headed out to look around a bit more (with our umbrella). As we walked around the storm seemed to be gathering strength rather than fading, and we ended up ducking into a dark old cafe that looked interesting just to get out of the rain. We ended up liking the place enough that we decided to stay for lunch. I had some smoked sausages, Kuniko had some Slovenian goulash (that was really hearty) and we sipped on red wine and enjoyed the atmosphere. It almost felt like an English pub, with lots of old dark wood and antiques around everywhere. We both really liked the place and it was a good way to kill some time out of the weather. It was a good thing we did most of our sightseeing on the previous day!

After a while we moved on, and ended up at a dessert cafe to have some strudel and a Slovenian traditional dessert called prekmurska gibanica. It was kind of a layered cake including fruits and nuts and was really delicious. It was a lot of food, however, and my second piece of cake before noon if you have been paying attention. We finally wrapped things up and moved on, a little more than stuffed.

Mainly our purpose today was to catch a ride with a driver that we hired to take us on to Budapest. We met him near our hotel, and in the middle of the torrential downpour he loaded our suitcase inside his minivan, and we were on the road. For some reason, the connections between Ljubljana and Budapest are not so convenient. I had looked at flights but there was no direct connections – we would have had to layover in Germany. I looked at trains but the travel time was almost 10 hours with no high speed service. That left driving, and eventually we found a service that offered just what we needed – a private transfer door to door. It was not cheap, but in this case our time was worth more than money and we felt like it would be nice to not have to worry about transport for at least one leg. As it turned out with the rainy weather it was one of the best decisions we made on this trip. Also it was good to be dry inside a car during the rainstorm – not dragging our suitcase to and from a train station in the rain.

Our driver Victor was very professional and spoke pretty good English. He was quiet and concentrated on driving, and we were left to relax in the minivan, drink our bottled water, look at the (wet) scenery, and take it easy. It was about a four hour drive to Budapest, so we had lots of time to rest our legs. We drove past lots more corn fields, and at a certain point he also saw lots of hops fields. I’ve heard Slovenian hops are getting more popular for beer makers, so it was cool to see the origin.

Just before leaving Slovenia we stopped for a mid point pit stop at a gas station. Kuniko stayed in the car, and I followed Victor inside to look around. He said he was going to use the toilet, and so I walked around the convenience store looking at the unusual products. After a while I left through the back door, passing an actual bar in the back of the gas station. They have bars inside of gas stations in Slovenia? Seems like a bad idea to me, but I’m not Slovenian so what do I know?

As I went outside I was happy to see the minivan was still there and Kuniko wasn’t TAKEN by any thugs or slavery rings. I didn’t want to be like Liam Neeson running around killing everyone to get her back.

From there we continued into Hungary. At one point I noticed that a lot of cars had one taillight that was brighter than the other one, and I asked our driver about it. He tried to explain it as a “froggy light” but only later did I realize he meant “fog light”. Because visibility was bad with the heavy rain, each car made themselves more visible by using rear fog lights. Good idea!

When we finally arrived inside the city limits of Budapest we ran into some heavy traffic, so the last part of the trip we could see our hotel but we could only creep towards it at a snail’s pace. At last we made it to the hotel, and Victor was paid and tipped and seemed very happy with the arrangement. I wanted to pay off a little bad karma that I had from our Philippines trip, so our driver was the beneficiary and maybe I’m even now.

We checked into our hotel, The Marriott Budapest, and then promptly went out to look for some authentic Hungarian food. Luckily the rain had stopped, and there were just some clouds and cool temperatures. I looked into my recommendations that I had compiled and we found a nearby place called Cafe Gerbeaud located in a touristy area. Although it was in a touristy spot the atmosphere was really nice, and the food turned out to be some of the best we had in Hungary. We had three dishes – chicken paprika, goulash, and palacsinta. We also discovered a new wine varietal for us, called Kekfrankos. We had a couple of glasses of the Hungarian red with our dinner, and then walked slowly back to our hotel and head to bed. We’ll be in Budapest for three nights, so plenty of time to look around tomorrow.

This was a big travel day for us, so we got up super early. I’m used to getting up at 4 am for work, so it wasn’t so bad to do it this time, too. We got packed and left our apartment, went downstairs and waited outside for our pickup that we arranged to go to the airport. We had set a time for 5:00 am, but we were there at 5:00 am and there was no driver in sight. It’s important not to panic in those situations, but we were already thinking about contingency plans if the driver didn’t show. Who could we contact at 5 am? Is it even possible to find a taxi in this sleepy town at this hour? Would we miss our flight at 6:30 am?

Luckily the driver pulled up just a few minutes late and we could breathe a sigh of relief. It was a pretty quick trip to the airport, and we were able to check in soon. Somehow we were assigned business class, and it was my first time to use business class in my life. Unfortunately it was hard to get excited about it since the flight time was only 40 minutes on a propeller driven aircraft. During check in we noticed behind us a weird guy breathing heavily from his mouth, smelling extremely ripe, and slightly deranged. Good news – he didn’t sit near us. Our business class seats meant cherry juice, croissants and fig jam and butter during the flight, which was nice.

I enjoyed looking out the window during the flight, too. From the air you could see the unique islands, mountains and terrain of Croatia. I was surprised to see so much variation in terrain in one country – they really have it good for agriculture and tourism. It is no wonder the wines have been doing well lately.

Back in Zagreb airport we did pretty much the exact same thing that we did when we first arrived in Croatia a few days ago – caught a bus into town. Same route, same bus, different driver. From the bus station we walked to the train station (which we had scouted out previously in Zagreb) and bought two train tickets to Ljubljana (only 9 euros per ticket – cheap!). Our train didn’t leave until 12:30, so we had three hours to kill in town. We put our suitcase into a luggage locker and went into town to walk around and maybe see about lunch. Since we had covered Zagreb pretty well previously it was easy to find some places to shop, and we ended up buying supplies for a picnic in the park that we had seen previously with the gazebo in the middle. Our lunch was red salami, some sharp cheese, some fish cake shrimp in oil, several cold beers and some sweet chilli TUC crackers (which were a big discovery for us – yum!). We spent most of our time lounging and watching people walk by in the beautiful weather on park benches shaded by tall trees.

We caught the train right on time, and then we were on our way out of the country. At first we accidentally sat in first class, and so we had to move but to be honest I couldn’t tell the difference between first and second class. Once we set up in our own compartment there was nothing to do but lean back and enjoy the two hour ride. Our first stop was Dobova, in Slovenia. Here they did a rather strict immigration check. We handed over our passports, the officers looked under the seats for any stowaways, and they asked us a few questions. It felt like the cold war movies traveling between eastern bloc countries. We were happy for more stamps in our passports, so we didn’t mind at all.

From there we traveled alongside a river most of the rest of the way to Ljubljana, and the scenery got better and better. With our window open and the breeze flowing through the car it was nice to kick off our shoes and enjoy the view. Hills became mountains and soon I was leaning out the window to stare up at the cliffs high above. In the next car a group of young college students who were backpacking around Europe kept talking about goofy things and had both of us eye-rolling most of the way.

Soon enough we arrived, pretty well rested, and we lugged the suitcase off the train and started walking towards the center of town where our hotel was. It seemed like a nice town, a little smaller than Zagreb but maybe a little bigger than Zadar, and my first impression was that they had a lot of bicyclists. The town had integrated bike lanes everywhere, and I was cursed by a passing cyclist because my suitcase was overlapping the bike lane as I walked. I don’t know what he said but it wasn’t “Welcome to Slovenia!”

The hotel was called Cacao Rooms, which meant that it was a group of rooms attached to a cafe called Cacao. Later we saw that Cacao had other cafes in other cities, but they specialized in desserts and the hotel thing was just a side business. The location was great, on a terrace overlooking the moat with Ljubljana castle looming overhead. The castle dominated the entire town, so being in a central location was very nice. We were able to check in immediately, and we liked the room – stylish and comfortable (although partially underground).

Since our time was limited in this town we went out for some sightseeing immediately (and this turned out to be a great decision as you’ll see later). We saw the dragon bridge (dragons were a big part of the town’s history and culture) and then rode a funicular up the hill into the castle itself. The interior of the castle had been reworked into a modern style, and it was a pretty interesting way to present history in a new way. Apparently it was a popular spot for weddings – we saw lots of offices and salons catering to couples getting married. There were several cafes in the castle courtyard as well. There was a little trick where they let you climb about 75% up the castle’s tallest tower, but just before you get to the top terrace they have a desk and they sell tickets to continue. Probably a lot of people pay up, but we felt it was a little underhanded so we didn’t continue out of spite. Instead we went back down and found some barricades that were quite high up and afforded a pleasant view of the city.

Besides the castle there were other things to see, including an interesting triple bridge near our hotel that was quite a feat of engineering. There were tourists in town but it wasn’t overrun and it was easy to make our way around and snap photos and take everything in. The moat and terrace was an absolute perfect place to put a bunch of outdoor tables and chairs, and cafes were taking advantage of the ambiance to sell drinks. We took them up on it and tried two Slovenian beers. Of the two we tried I lived “Union” beer the best – the logo featured the aforementioned dragon and the taste was quite nice.

For dinner we went to a place in town called Spajza. It was recommended on one website or another and it looked like it would be a good experience. The restaurant building was well designed and felt a bit historic, and true to our creed we were once again able to eat outside on a garden terrace behind the restaurant.

Our waiter was really active and at first his helpfulness and recommendations were much appreciated. He helped by recommending some Slovenian wines by the glass. I wasn’t too impressed with the whites we had, but the red (a merlot and cab franc blend) was really quite impressive. We selected some dishes from the menu – Kuniko had fried rabbit with stuffed mushrooms and a green pea puree that was really delicious and unusual, and I had deer medallions with a spiced blueberry sauce and tarragon dumplings. Great dinner – just the right amount of unusual for us.

The waiter went from assertive to pushy and then straight on to asshole when it came to paying our bill. Since we were using our credit card he said that he would have to meet us at the front of the restaurant because that was where the machine was. It was odd because everywhere else in Europe they have these little portable credit card terminals that they bring to your table. Once there the guy put a little pressure on Kuniko to enter the tip, and also hurried through the rest of the process choosing local currency (even though we wanted to select Japanese currency). It was kind of a dick move, and it was a good example of a waiter’s behavior interfering with an otherwise great meal.

We didn’t want to end the evening on that note, so we went to another place for a little cheese and wine to wrap up the evening. The cafe was called “Lockal” and was right near the “Lock Bridge” that was covered with little love locks from visitors. The waitress was much more friendly and we were served a big plate of cheese and some wine as well. The only strange thing was the entire cheese plate was drizzled with honey. I like honey on some cheese (for example, blue) but it was strange that they put honey on everything. Maybe it was the Slovenian style of eating cheese, I don’t know.

We finally decided to turn in – I was really, really tired. Once again a busy day with lots of travel, and we had more travel ahead of us the next day.

After the chaos of the busy old town last night, we thought we’d get up a little early and do some exploring (and take some pictures) without all the people around. We got up around 6 am, and took the short walk across the pedestrian bridge into town. Our apartment location was very close – just a five minute walk from the old city center. In the morning people were cleaning the streets here and there, but we mostly had the city to ourselves. With the sun rising it made for some nice pictures, and it was much more interesting to look around without all the hustle/bustle.

Zadar has an interesting attraction, what they call a “sea organ”. The side of the cement wall surrounding the city has openings that fill with waves based on the rhythm of the tide, and the openings connect to another opening at the top making kind of a giant sea harmonica that plays music constantly. The tones are quiet and haunting, and make for a peaceful background noise to watch the sea. From the west side of the city you can see some islands not far away, but mostly just blue clear water. Beautiful.

We stopped for some morning coffee at a cafe in town that was open, and enjoyed lingering for a while spacing out and relaxing. The European style of sitting outside a cafe is one of the habits I enjoyed picking up while traveling in Europe. We always try to eat and/or drink outside, especially with the comfortable weather.

On our way back to our apartment we stopped in at a restaurant to try to make a reservation, but unfortunately the only staff working there were cleaning staff at that time, they said “No English”, but they pantomimed that we should come back later. We did some shopping at a local supermarket, and then finally went back to the apartment to relax the rest of the morning. I sat at the desk with a view of the harbor and worked on this journal for a while, taking frequent pauses to look out the window and admire the ocean view. I sure wish I could do this full time!

Around noon we decided to walk to the nearest beach, and it turned out that it was not so far. We went to Kolavar beach, which was just south of old town. The beach was a bit rocky, but the water temperature was comfortable and it was the same clear blue color that we have come to expect in Croatia. Lots of folks were out at the beach enjoying the great weather, even on Monday at lunchtime. While enjoying the scenery of the beach I suddenly noticed that there were a few topless women swimming, wading in the water, or playing with their kids. We stumbled on a beach in Barcelona with some topless ladies, but they were all over 80 years old. These women were much younger and enjoying the attention, I think. This is definitely not a beach in Japan. There was a bar right on the beach with umbrellas and comfortable chairs, so we thought we should take the opportunity to enjoy some cocktails while taking in the view. Drink cocktails on the beach while watching topless girls playing in the water? OK, fine. Who knew we’d be drinking Pina Coladas and Zombies on the beach during this trip?

Back in town we had lunch at a “traditional” seafood restaurant, and had some really good grilled seafood. Kuniko had grilled scampi (big ones, too) and I had grilled squid, stuffed with cheese and also prosciutto. Coupled with two giant cold beers and it became a perfect summer vacation lunch. It was just a short walk back to our apartment and we had another cold beer on our patio overlooking the sea. I opened up all our windows and blinds on both sides of the apartment and the cool ocean breeze flowed through the place nicely. It was the perfect situation for a nap – and we took advantage of it. I slept for a couple of hours but Kuniko really slept deeply – I didn’t see her awake until almost six pm. We had been walking around quite a bit and it felt good to have a slow paced snooze. I think we deserved it – what are vacations for, anyway?

For dinner we walked back into town, and after enjoying the sunset with others on the western side of the city we went to our restaurant, Pet Banura. We had ended up reserving online, and we got a great table in front of the restaurant outside. It was a really popular restaurant, and from our seat we could see the staff turning away people without reservations all night. We started with an appetizer of local goat cheese sprinkled with truffles, and then for a main course I had Croatian beef with gnocchi (which was really good) and Kuniko had almond crusted turkey stuffed with fig sauce. For wine we had a bottle that I was really hoping to try, Crljenak Kastelanski, which was recently identified by DNA matching to be the genetic predecessor of both Zinfandel in California and Primitivo in Italy. You could really taste the similarities, although the wine wasn’t made in a big, fruity, aggressive style. It went well with the food we ordered, and it turned out that we bought their last bottle.

Our last stop in Zadar was on the northwestern point of the city, right on the water. It is called “Greeting to the Sun” and it is a huge solar panel embedded in the cement wharf that absorbs the sunlight during the day and then lights up multicolored LED lights at night in various patterns at night. People really seemed to be attracted to it, and it made for some beautiful contrasts and colors. Kuniko and I kicked off our flip flops and sat on the side of the harbor with our feet dangling over the black water, and watched the moon over the islands to the west. It was a nice relaxing moment – I was just about as content as I have ever been right there.

On our way back to the apartment we had a little Nutella gelato, and there was a band playing rock music on the pedestrian bridge. At night the temperature was cool but not cold, and it was perfect for walking around in beach wear. Nice place! We went to bed pretty soon after, since we had to get up early for a flight back to Zagreb the next morning.

We got ourselves out of bed very early on Sunday and checked out of our hotel to take the bus to the Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia. We took a free apple from the front desk and then dragged our occasionally noisy suitcase back out to the bus station. Luckily we came in by bus, so it was easy to find again. Once there, we scouted around until we found a worker who told us which bus would take us where we wanted to go. There were a lot of buses in the station, but we had tickets on a particular bus, and so we waited there for a few minutes until it showed up. We snacked on the apple and the cheese leftover from last night’s second restaurant.

Soon, the bus pulled up, we showed the printouts of our tickets that we had bought online, stashed our suitcase underneath, and got on the bus. Simple, easy. As the bus left the station we noticed that they had free wifi on board, which made things easy for us later on. We were traveling without any kind of data plan or SIM cards, so anytime we could get wifi it made the trip easier.

The bus ride lasted more than two hours, so we settled in to watch the scenery, sleep, and listen to our fellow passengers talking. Next to us was a couple of women who had met for the first time. Apparently one of the women was backpacking around Europe from Singapore, and somebody she knew connected her with the other woman, and American who lives in Germany, to guide her around Plitvice Lakes. They spoke in English, and so naturally we overheard everything they talked about for two hours. Unfortunately, the American lady didn’t seem to like silence so kept a constant monologue going for the whole trip. At one point she started preaching the benefits of an Indian doctor who made some kind of special tea to fight cancer, and the poor Singaporean lady (and us as well) had to sit through a sales pitch on this magical tea. Sometimes it is nicer to travel where nobody speaks your language.

Out the windows of the bus the countryside passed quickly. At first on the plains outside Zagreb there was just corn and green fields, but as we got farther away the scenery turned to grass, groves of trees and rivers. I was struck by the similarities to Northern Sonoma County – it seemed like we were heading to Healdsburg or Guerneville. The bus stopped at some seemingly random spots to pick people up. One guy got off the bus at a pit stop and we waited a few extra minutes for him to come back, but apparently he just left. The bus driver shrugged, and then we continued on.

Around 8:30 in the morning we arrived at the first entrance of the Plitvice Lakes National Park. We were able to lock our suitcase in a special cabin they keep for just that purpose, and then we got in a line to enter the park. The wait was only about 20 minutes, and then we got inside.

Plitvice Lakes was Kuniko’s request, and the seed for entire trip plan to Eastern Europe – everything started with this. We were both really excited to be here, and the weather was partly cloudy but mostly blue skies and cool temperatures, which was perfect for hiking around. The park is huge, with the shortest course in the park lasting 2-3 hours. We chose the 3-4 hour course, but you could spend several days in the park easily. We crested the first hill of the entrance, and we were treated to a dramatic view of the tall waterfalls above one of the first lakes.

The waterfalls were beautiful, and the first thing you noticed was the emerald green color of the pools underneath. Once we got closer we realized just how clear the water was. You could easily see the bottom of the pools, and even the deeper lakes were clear enough to see deeply into the water. The park was designed to minimize human contact with the lakes, but also get everyone as close as possible. That meant wooden platforms everywhere that held visitors, but the platforms usually had no handrails, so you had to be careful to watch your step and be sure the people around you knew what they were doing and where they were going. At first I thought it was a little dangerous, but oddly the absence of handrails made everyone more careful and alert and probably minimized accidents. It sounds backwards, but I guess it works.

At the beginning of the trail we looked into the water and saw some fish swimming around. I made a big effort to take some pictures of these fish, but after walking a bit we both realized that there were fish everywhere. These lakes were like fish heaven – no fishermen around, clean water, and the current of the ubiquitous waterfalls was always bringing food by for the fish to eat. The fish schooled and swam against the current, just waiting for the food to come to them. Nice life!

The lakes were kind of terraced, so we started at the lower lakes, and the next lake was just a little higher, giving rise to plenty of waterfalls as each lake naturally spilled over into the next one. We walked along the platforms at our own pace, taking pictures here and there and breathing in the clean air. As the day warmed up a bit I found myself tempted to jump into the clear water. Maybe people would think it was an accident, right? I could flail a bit and pretend that I tripped? However, we behaved, and everyone else did, too.

We were glad to have arrived on the early side, as the park was big enough to absorb a lot of visitors spread out (over more than a hundred square miles). However as the day went on the visitors increased, and the size of the platforms and paths meant there were some natural bottlenecks, especially when there was a dramatic photo spot. Around 11 am we found a mid-point pit stop, and decided to take a break for restrooms and lunch. The pit stop was a boat pier, and visitors could catch the park boats to take you to other points within the park. There was already a pretty good line of people waiting for the boats, but we went over to a picnic area, and set up a little lunch. We got a couple glasses of wine, opened our cheese, and also bought a grilled pork burger from the park cafe. Life is good!

One interesting point to me was that during the trip, the price of wine was often listed by the liter. So, for example some white wine, it would say 40 Kuna per liter. Initially I thought that meant that you had to buy the whole liter – so I ordered one liter of white wine. The staff was surprised and handed over a whole bottle, and then I realized that in fact you could order a standard glass, and they would pour like 150 mL of wine in it, and you would pay that portion of the liter price. What a relief – if we drank the liter of wine we would have never made it to the end of the hike.

After a leisurely lunch we got in line and then took the boat across the biggest lake to another station and continued our waterfall tour. The waterfalls in this area were much wider, and it made for some more dramatic pictures. I couldn’t get over how refreshing the water looked – can you imagine a time when water all over the world looked like that? It was nice to know that at least here the water was untouched by industry and pollution.

We reached the farthest point for our course, so we decided to head back. We were hiking through a beautiful park, but we were still hiking, and we had a long trip ahead of us so we wanted to save some energy for future sightseeing. We looped back towards the entrance that we started with, and faced lots of people coming into the park for the first time. It sometimes became hard to walk. We had come through already and had seen everything (and photographed the sights already), so we could move quickly back towards the exit. At the end of the route we turned back and enjoyed the sights one last time, and then left the park.

The good news was that we had tickets for a bus ride to our next city, but the bad news was that we had almost three hours to kill before the bus came. Kuniko had the very logical idea to ask if we could change our bus tickets to an earlier bus, and after a quick check of the schedule, the staff at the bus stop did that for us. We got our suitcase and left just a few minutes later. Smooth!

Since we had free wifi on the bus we contacted our next hotel to let them know we were coming in earlier than planned. We had arranged a pick up at the bus station, but since we were coming earlier we let them know that it wasn’t necessary and we’d head to the hotel directly. We didn’t hear back from them during the subsequent three hour bus ride, however.

The bus ride from the National Park to Zadar was completely different from the previous ride. Here the terrain went from forests and green to high rocky plateaus. The bus took us over some very high rocky mountains with long views of open desert, then back down along a narrow green river that ran through quaint little towns. Some of the towns were built around bridges, and there were remains of fortresses that once guarded the area against enemies. War in this country is a memory but not a faint memory – you could sometimes see bullet holes in old cement walls as we passed by. The bus driver kept up with his social life by talking on his mobile phone with lots of different people the whole drive, and he played American oldies on the radio for background music.

At last we arrived at the bus station of Zadar. The town of Zadar was my request for this trip. The tourist towns of Dubrovnik and Split were popular destinations in many guidebooks, but I chose Zadar because it is a bit off the main tourist path, but still with lots of interesting things to see and do. It has a long history and the walled city right on the ocean seemed like a good way to experience the Adriatic Coast.

We got a taxi ride from the bus station, and he brought us in close to the hotel, which was actually an apartment that we were renting for a couple of nights. The taxi dropped us off, and I used my GPS to get as close as possible until we found the apartment. It was then that we realized that there was no check-in desk here, and our host was expecting us to come in on a later bus and maybe they didn’t check their email that often. Uh-oh.

Without phone service we were in a little trouble. We figured the best thing to do would be to find a public phone and call from there, but unsurprisingly there weren’t many phone booths around. Instead I went into a little pizza shop nearby and begged the staff to call for me. A very nice waitress offered to help (in English), and she made a series of calls while he boss looked on with a little frown of disapproval. Finally she made contact with the hotel staff, who said they’d send someone over to let us in the apartment. I thanked the waitress (and the boss) and we soon met up with staff. She rode up on a bicycle, and apologized for the mis-communication (she said she got our email but she didn’t say why there was no response). We followed her up four flights of stairs (no elevator, sorry) and got set up in our little apartment for the next two days.

At first we were a little ambivalent about the apartment, but later after opening up all the windows and blinds, and enjoying the ocean view and cool breeze we felt a lot better about it. The outside of the apartment looked a little dingy, but the interior was quite clean and nice.

After dropping off our luggage and a quick refresh we went outside to explore Zadar a little bit. Our first stop was the pizza place where we made our phone calls. We wanted to have a beer there to cool down and patronize the place that helped us out. The same waitress brought us some cold beers and seemed happy to know that we were able to finally get into our apartment OK.

After a short stay there, we crossed the main pedestrian footbridge onto the peninsula that held the old walled city of Zadar. The weather was perfect – cool but hot in the sunlight, the sun was going down over the Adriatic Sea to the west, and we walked around in flip flops and shorts taking in the sights. It was Sunday, and the old town was filled with tourists enjoying themselves with shopping and sightseeing. Apparently Zadar is not yet on the American or Japanese tourist destination lists yet, but certainly it is on the Croatian and Italian ones. We saw lots of locals walking around, and the walled city was pretty packed with people. After the crowds at the exit of Plitvice Lakes we were once again surrounded by people here. It was a little overwhelming, but we still walked around taking pictures for a while, and then stopped for dinner at a restaurant that we chose at random.

We had a little Croatian white wine with our dinner. I had Jack Dory with a creamy truffle sauce (very nice) and Kuniko had some kind of grilled whitefish. Both were good but not exceptional – so far nothing so different of mind-blowing. Still, after the busy day we could sit outside on a busy alleyway and watch the world go by. The atmosphere felt remarkably like Venice, with the old narrow streets and maze-like structure of the city. In actuality we weren’t so far from Venice – it was just a ferry ride away, and I think a lot of the tourists in the city were from that area.

After dinner we walked down the cobblestone streets back towards our apartment, and finally settled in for the night. It was another long day, but it sure felt like we accomplished a lot. Tomorrow we’d have the whole day to look around Zadar and do some relaxation, and we were both looking forward to that.

I wrapped up all my classes on Friday, changed into some traveling clothes in my classroom, and then dashed out the door heading to Sannomiya to meet Kuniko and our suitcase for the bus ride to the airport. As starts of trips go, this went really smoothly. Years ago we left right on Friday night and an earthquake hit, screwing up all the trains and making it a close call at the airport. This time, not a bump at all.

We had time to buy a couple of cold beers and some jagarico at the local convenience store before getting on the bus. It was a pleasurable ride to the airport, and I even got in a little sleep. At check-in, we talked with the counter staff about upgrading to business class, but apparently only Kuniko had enough miles to do it. We decided to wait for the return trip, and hopefully we would have enough miles for both of us to upgrade on the way back (as it turned out we couldn’t both do it, but more on that later). By chance we bumped into the vice principal of Kuniko’s school, and he seemed like a nice guy. Thanks for letting us take a long holiday, VP! We stuck with our ritual of a celebratory cocktail before departure – it is a great feeling to relax at the airport bar and switch your mind from the work mind-set to the vacation mind-set.

The flight to Istanbul left on time. It was an eleven hour flight, and our seats were a little tight. I’m willing to put up with a lot for a two week vacation in Europe, so the tight seats don’t bother me too much. It’s just mind over matter.

In Istanbul we had about three and a half hours to kill, so we explored the airport a bit. We had coffee at a sports bar served by two grouchy Turkish ladies. Maybe they were not happy to be working at a sports bar at 6 am local time. There was a huge group of older people wearing the same or similar outfits – light beige. They were all middle Eastern, all quite rotund, and they broke into a group song (or prayer?) before boarding their flight. While waiting for Kuniko to use the restroom I sat in a massage chair that was awaiting customers, and after about 20 seconds it started making loud noises and a voice in Turkish presumably told me to put some coins in if I’m going to sit in the chair. The other people waiting around the terminal looked over at me as I sprung out of the chair in record time – so the message was effective regardless of language.

I bought a Turkish cheese wrap from a friendly vendor (he winked at me) and then we went over to await our flight. Near our gate an argument broke out between some family members that ended in a lot of screaming and some running. I get it, travel can be stressful. Luckily we’ve never been that stressed in the airport. Not yet, anyway.

So, Istanbul airport can be interesting, even at 6 am, but we were happy to board our two hour flight to Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. For a capital city, the airport was quite small. No problem – I like small airports for arrivals. Our suitcase came out in record time, and we changed some money into Croatian Kuna, and then walked outside and promptly found the bus that takes people into the center of the city. There was only one bus, and it was waiting for passengers – I guess they time the bus with the planes that come in, so it was very convenient (and cheap).

It was about a twenty minute ride to the city center, and we enjoyed the scenery as we approached town. There was a lot of corn growing, and during this whole trip we saw corn growing just about everywhere. As we arrived in the city, we saw a big colorful office building that served as a landmark for the bus station. Once we got off the bus, we walked about twenty more minutes to our hotel, rolling the suitcase along behind us. Unfortunately, after about ten minutes of rolling the suitcase wheels started to squeal. This was going to be a long trip if we had a squealing suitcase behind us everywhere, but the squealing noise came and went and ended up not being a big deal. Phew!

We left the suitcase at our hotel because we were there way before check in time, and decided to walk around and explore town a bit. Zagreb felt like an old European town. Lots of beautiful architecture, very clean, and an overall safe feeling. Maybe because it was a smaller town, but everywhere we went we felt like everything was going to be OK. We both liked it a lot.

We stumbled upon a farmer’s market and I had to buy some blackberries – Kuniko had never tried them and I hadn’t eaten them in a long time. The ones we got were a little sour, but every now and then we’d hit a really sweet berry – yum. Good memories of picking wild blackberries near our old house in Glen Ellen on Railroad avenue.

Nearby we walked into an underground butcher area, and each butcher had their own little shop to sell meats to people directly. It looked like heaven to me – so many aged and cured meats ready for sale. We didn’t know it at the time, but this trip was going to become meat-centric. It is all about salt and meat in the parts of Eastern Europe that we visited. There was a seafood area of the market also, but we didn’t spend much time there since we just arrived from Japan.

Around the corner from the butcher was a room filled with old ladies making and selling cheese. The cheese looked like mainly a soft, fresh cheese, but there were some aged and white rind cheeses also. I wished I could buy some, but you had to buy the whole cheese, and there was no way it was going to fit in our suitcase. There was access to fresh fruit, meat, and cheese, so Zagreb was looking good!

Everybody we met as we walked around Zagreb (and other parts of Croatia) was very friendly, and spoke great English. Maybe they have some kind of government initiative in Croatia to promote friendliness to tourists. Whatever it is – it is working. Sometimes people can be a little cold to tourists, but we never felt that at all in Croatia. Nice work, locals!

There are some sightseeing spots in Zagreb, too. We walked through the old upper town to get to St. Mark’s Cathedral, with a beautiful tiled roof bearing the country and city seals. At the edge of the main square was a very tall cathedral, with one tower under wraps for restoration. The interior was not as colorful as most, but still very striking.

We stopped somewhere for lunch, and had our first Croatian wines. We were very pleased with the wines we tried – both whites and reds were quite good. I especially was impressed with the white Malvasia grape – it made some distinctive and interesting whites. Croatia shares the same latitude as Italy and so there are some prime growing areas in the west of the country. Lunch itself wasn’t as good as the wines, however. We went to a regular cafe so we didn’t have much in the way of traditional Croatian food – just some grilled chicken and salmon, and a pretty standard red bean salad that was pretty much just red beans and red onions.

By now we had been without a shower or sleep for more than 24 hours, so we headed back to the hotel for some R&R. On the way back we stopped at a small market to buy some cheese and crackers for our morning bus ride the next day. The clerk smiled and helped us with everything, and again we could really feel the friendliness.

After a long nap and a shower, we went back into town to look around some more and have some Croatian beer. The beer was not so special to me, but it served its purpose. The weather had improved quite a bit, and we enjoyed the blue skies and cool weather – almost 10 degrees Celsius cooler here than back in Japan. Nice!

While walking around we came across a giant Hare Krishna parade going through town. The Krishnas sang their mantra and danced around, and made a lot of noise. Later I read that they have made a lot of inroads in recruiting in Eastern Europe. It was a big parade – maybe more than a hundred members singing and dancing.

For dinner we went to a more traditional Croatian restaurant, and it was definitely about the meat. Almost all the dishes on the menu were roasts of different cuts of meat – of course pork and beef, but also others like deer and horse were on the menu as well. We started with a very salty beef soup that was delicious and rich with meat broth, and then moved onto our main courses. Big portions, with loads of meat, beans, and potatoes. I had some homemade sausages liberally stuffed with garlic, and everything went well with the wine by the glass we were enjoying.

After dinner we walked to burn off a little of the meal, and found a wine and cheese bar that looked a little upscale. Since we had all the meat, I think we wanted to balance a little so we stopped for a plate of cheese and a glass of wine each. The staff recommended the wine and gave us a huge plate stacked with many different kinds of Croatian cheeses. I really liked the cheese (especially the truffle one – truffles are big in Croatia). Despite our best efforts we couldn’t eat the whole thing, but the staff was happy to give us a box to carry the leftovers home – our bus ride the next day was going to be like a feast with all the goodies we’ve got to eat.

Finally, on the way back to the hotel we walked through a city park. We had passed through the park earlier in the day, and I was struck by how much it reminded me of an American city center. The park had fountains in two corners, and a big gazebo in the middle. The pathways were lined with benches, and people just sat and watched the world go by. When we passed through in the evening there was a concert going on in the gazebo, and it was nice to stroll past and enjoy the music.

For our first city of the trip Zagreb made a great impression on us. Our stay is short – just one night, but what a nice little stop to get back into the European lifestyle.