Written By Chris Titus

This past weekend, Nessa and I traveled to Berlin, Germany. The five hour train ride from Prague went smoothly.

The first half was passed in pleasant conversation with a retired couple from Buffalo, NY. Both were former teachers. Their son has been living in Germany where he participates in the US Olympic Bobsled program. There wasn’t much to see from the train. Along the way, we sped past a nice castle pictured below.

After Dresden, our new friends left and were replaced by a couple of Germans who kept to themselves.

We arrived at 3PM and made our way to the beautiful Hotel Arta. I give this place a one thumb down. For such a modern city, I was surprised to find such old and cold feeling accommodations. The linens were clean, but if you pulled them back, the pillows looked like they belonged in a WWII museum. The bed was an U-bed, not like the ‘U’ in U-Bahn or U-Boat, for which the ‘U’ is short for unter, meaning under (ground or water). An U bed is shaped like an U, meaning you ass is a meter unter your head, leaving your back in knots the next morning. Breakfast was the typical Euro buffet style - hard boiled eggs, a platter of cold cuts, breads, cereals, juice, tea, coffee, etc.

Since we were both a little sick, we didn’t do much on Friday night - walked the city and turned in early.

On Saturday, we hopped on the Berliner Stadt-Rundfahrt (Berlin City-Circle Tour). It is a great way to start your day. The tour makes 16 stops around the city. You can hop on and off as often as you like. And, there is a bus at each stop every 15 minutes. See map below:

Each bus offers a guided tour (headphones in multiple langauges) and moves slowly enough that you can capture some nice pictures.

We disembarked at stop #6 - The Jewish Museum. This was a continuation of an idea conceived in 1933 before Hitler’s rise to power. In 1938, the Gestapo closed the museum and confiscated all of its assets. The new museum was designed by Daniel Libeskind, a Jewish-American architect. He successfully beat out 165 competing designs and boasts an impressive portfolio, including winning the competition for the masterplan to rebuild the World Trade Center site in NYC.

The museum and the Garden of Exile are pictured below. The garden is seven rows of seven columns, slightly slanted to create a feeling of imbalance to replicate the feelings encountered by people thrust from their normal lives to a constant state of fear and uncertainty in the ghettos. Many of the museums architectural attributes were subtle, yet had a profound impact on you when entering a room, garden, etc.

A not-so-subtle example was the Fallen Leaves exhibit located in the Memory Void, one of the empty spaces of the Libeskind Building. This installation features “over 10,000 open-mouthed faces coarsely cut from heavy, circular iron plates cover the floor.” It was possible to walk on the exhibit.

In other rooms, there were artifacts, photos, and video clips that gave some insights into the persecution, propaganda, and atrocities committed.

Nazi Propaganda Movie

After the Jewish museum, it was great to get outside into the sunshine. We realized we made a mistake by spending the nicest part of the day in a museum.

While we waited for the bus, I watched some guys kicking the ball around. It made me want to suit up and get out on the field too.

The bus passed some interesting architecture as it made its way through the city.

Here are a few embassies bordering the Tiergarten (Animal Garden - a park without animals

Below are a few sculptures we passed:

We decided to exit the tour bus again at stop #10 - Sea-Life (the aquarium) - along the river Spree. This is a section of the city that was rebuilt in the old style of Berlin. During WWII, the majority of Berlin was destroyed. In fact, all citizens were required to remove debris in the days following the war in order to earn their rations.

And, it seems as if the reconstruction of the city never let up. You can see cranes in every direction.

From here, we went for lunch at an American restaurant and celebrate quitting our teaching jobs to head back to America. They did a very good job of imitating American quality hamburgers and fries.

We then hopped back on the bus and headed to the KaDeWe, the largest department store in Germany.  The sixth floor is a gigantic, upscale food court that offers thousands of different types of sausages, cheeses, and pastries.  We bought a few and sat at a cafe in there to indulge before heading to Check Point Charlie.

Written By Chris Titus

On Friday, I went to Budapest with a fellow teacher, Nessa (pictured below). She is from Oklahoma and also teaches business English with me at Caledonian.

At 7:30 AM, we were barely awake enough to climb the stairs to the number 5 car. The train departed from Nadrazi Holesovice station, one of two train depots in Prague. Barricading ourselves into the first empty cabin we found, our belongings strewn everywhere, ensured us an uninterrupted journey with three chairs apiece to take naps. The seven hour journey passed quickly - a few naps, plenty of eating, pictures of sites out the windows (castle from moving train below), and reading books and articles about Budapest. If you ask Nessa, she’ll confirm that I didn’t stop eating the entire weekend.

We arrived at Budapest’s Keleti pályaudvar station, the city’s main train station, at 2:40. The locals were noticeably friendly as they helped us make our way to the hotel, CasaSol Hotel, located on Baross Street. We were able to see some beautiful architecture en route to the hotel. While there is a lot of construction going on, the buildings in Budapest have a more rustic feeling than in Prague.

After resting for a while, we headed for the bus. Bus tickets cost 230 or 270 Forint, depending upon where you purchase them. One US dollar is equal to 180 Hungarian Forint. We rode the # 86 to Deak Square (below). From here you can stroll the Fashion District, view the Synagogue, and tour St Stephen’s Basilica.

We went to the Basilica Restaurant, to the right of the basilica. I’ve not found it located in any guide books, however we had a nice experience. Basically, it was a reasonably priced tourist trap. We passed up on the Hungarian goulash for an order of paprika chicken (local specialty), Gypsy-style pork, and a Greek salad. We cracked a bottle of champagne over dinner and then spent an hour searching for a nice place to have dessert. We finally found a place back near the Synagogue.

The hotel, Casa Sol Hotel, was quite nice and affordable. I would recommend it to anyone. Upon returning from dinner, we found a bottle of champagne in the room with a card. It was a nice touch. Despite being on a main street, we didn’t hear any noise. When we mentioned that the shower had a problem, it was fixed immediately.

Breakfast the next morning consisted of platters of cold cuts, pastries, cereals, coffee, tea, etc. There was plenty of good quality items to choose from.

We purchased tickets for the City Circle Tour. The tour company has multiple red double-decker buses making loops through the city. Along the way, the buses stop and you can get on and off as often as you like. On our way to the closest stop (Parliament/Museum), we were able to snap many nice photos.

It was a very nice day out - very sunny, but cold and windy. Here are a few photos as we walked to Parliament.

After arriving at Parliament, we discovered that the tour we purchased ran on a limited basis due to the season. We found a nice little restaurant nearby and sat having tea and soup. I had cream of pumpkin soup (delicious). Nessa had a salmon soup. I guess you could say I didn’t get much sleep the night before (pictures below). The restaurant was just past the pub (sign below) and worth visiting if you go to Parliament.

Look at the contrast - who do you think slept better?

Museum

Parliament (unfortunately, most of the photos were deleted by accident)

The tour started at 2:00. We passed through Heroes’ Square, past the Museum of Fine Art, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Szechenyi Thermal Bath, and on up to the Royal Castle. We disembarked at the castle and toured Fishermen’s Bastion. From here it was possible to take many amazing photos. You can see the view of Parliament from the castle above.

Fisherman’s Bastion

Castle Entrance & Various Architectural Aspects

Church @ the Castle

Views from the Castle

As night fell, we descended from the castle in search of a thermal bath. Budapest is known for its hot mineral springs. Legend has it that all you have to do is poke a hole in the ground and you’ll find hot water. We searched and searched and searched. We first went to a spa recommended by our hotel. Apparently there are three different types of nights - mixed gender night, gay night, and lesbian night. This happened to be gay night. They recommended a spa in a nearby hotel. We walked for half an hour to get there. When we finally arrived, it was closed for a private function. They in turn recommended a third place along the river. Upon arrival, the janitor was mopping the floor. It closes for a period of two hours every night for cleaning.

With no luck in finding a spa, we decided to go for dinner at a nearby restaurant. It looked like a tourist trap, but we were the only tourists in the place. This was my best meal of the trip. It was called “Toureg” venison, cooked in a red-wine sauce - delicious. Nessa had a spicy chicken dish. I think she was jealous of my meal

After dinner, we went back to the last spa to see if they were open. And, keeping in line with our luck, it never re-opened! That’s when we decided to give up and head back. En route we snapped some nice nighttime pictures of the lighted bridge.

Lighted Bridge

Lions & Tunnel (standing in a rotary - on opposite sides)

Budapest @ Night

After breakfast the next morning, we spent an hour in McDonalds waiting for our train. The McDonalds was quite impressive. It had a separate cafe/dessert bar that looked too sophisticated to be in a McDonalds. There was a separate section that served as an Internet cafe. One thing we noticed about Budapest was the sheer number of fast food restaurants - McDs, BK, and KFC were everywhere. Overall, it was a great trip that I recommend.

Til next time
- Tito

Written By: Chris Titus

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Instruction: Fill in the gaps using articles (a, an, & the). Answers will be posted in a week.

I went with Nessa, another teacher, to see St Nicholas church in Lesser Town. Today was a cold day. And, it was even colder inside the church.. My hands were shaking as I was holding ___ camera. As ___ result, many of ___ pictures were blurred and unable to be used here.

Below is a post card you receive upon admission to ___ church.

On ___ inside of ___ church, you are greeted by ___ magnificent altar.

At every turn, you see sculptures that were made with painstaking detail.

___ sheer magnitude of ___ church was ___ little overwhelming. We were able to climb ___ stairs and reach ___ second floor, which provided ___ nice perspective of ___ church.

I would definitely recommend visiting Saint Nicholas church (in ___ summertime!)

Here are some additional pictures Nessa snapped:

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Written By Chris Titus

Every year the city re-enacts the Three Wise Men’s journey, beginning at the castle. Unfortunately, I happened to miss it. Luckily, Hana brought me to a concert at Panny Marie Snezne (Church of Our Lady, or PMS for short). The concert featured two boys choirs and Cardinal Wolf made an appearance (if you’ve never heard of him, you are not alone). Most of the boys in the back row were cracking up laughing and one kid fainted (probably laughing too hard). All in all, they did a fantastic job.

The second photo (at night) was taken from the web. The light is reflecting nicely against the fresco.

Today was the first ‘real’ snowfall of the year in Prague. So, I thought it would be a good day to see some of the sites. I jumped on Tram 11 which passes nearby my flat. I picked up the tram at Bruselska (schedule and map), a stop roughly 200 meters away. The tram winds its way past IP Pavlova, the main square in this part of town - home to KFC. Interestingly, KFC is across the street from a rotisserie that has the best chicken I’ve ever tasted.

The tram continues parallel to the river (500 meters away - cannot be seen), snakes around the ‘Muzeum’, and up through a section where I initially lived upon my arrival (Vinohradska). One more stop and we are at the official Church of Time, actually named Kostel Nejsvetejsího Srdce Páne (good luck pronouncing that one). It was designed in 1927 by a Slovenian architect, Josip Plecnik. He is also the same architect commissioned to update the Prague Castle.

According to Fodors, “The effect was conscious: during the 1920s and 1930s, the avant-garde imitated mammoth objects of modern technology. Plecnik used many modern elements on the inside. You may be able to find someone at the back entrance of the church who will let you walk up the long ramp into the fascinating glass clock tower.” I will have to return!

In this part of town, things are very pronounced…

Take a stroll around the square and you’ll see some nice pastel colored homes. Most buildings also have ornate statues.

Written By Chris Titus

In most western cities, you can find fast food on every street corner. Still straddling east and west, Prague has both eastern- (low-tech) and western-style (high-tech) fast food. I’ve included a few pictures below of some of my favorite, low-tech fast foods and desserts.

I always like starting with dessert. The danishes (below) have a mixture of cheese, poppy seeds and jams. They are amazing! I have not yet tried the second dessert, but I can guarantee that it won’t be long before I do