To reflect the way I rushed through these cities, I’m squeezing them all into a single post (secondary motive: to finish writing about my prior travels a bit faster; there are still a number of countries to get through).
Prague, Czech Republic
A friend from law school, let’s call him Mr. Sarcastic, let me stay at his family’s place in a quiet part of the city. He picked me up at the train station and we took some sort of public transit to their family’s apartment where we kicked his younger sister out of her bedroom. I took my Mr. Sarcastic’s crappy bed, he took his sister’s considerably fluffier bed, and she was banished to the couch in the living room. Not my idea.

Prague Station’s escalator is probably the longest I’ve ever seen.
After leaving my bags at the apartment and before going out for the night, I ate some random food Mr. Sarcastic’s mom set out for me (ham cold cuts, I think). My friend’s mom, through my friend as a translator, gave me advice not to drink any liquor due to recent incidents of counterfeit stuff in the region causing people to go blind.
So, Mr. Sarcastic gave me on a night tour of some areas of the city. It was getting close to Christmas so there wasn’t much partying going on; but there were holiday decorations and a Christmas market. We finished the night by drinking a bit at some club called Karlovy Lazne.
The next morning, Mr. Sarcastic brought me to see Prague Castle and its hodgepodge of architectural forms. If I recall correctly, the variations are due to the fact that Prague was a major seat of power for a long period of time, which brought a broad range of intellectuals there, including architects.

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral’s interior.
While I did some touristy stuff at St. Vitus Cathedral, Mr. Sarcastic ran off to the post office (I think). It began snowing while I waited for the dingus to comeback (actually, it was nice).

Some murderous statues on the castle grounds.

Somewhere on the castle grounds.
We ate at the Staropramen Brewery Restaurant (I had the beef goulash for no good reason) and stopped by the book tower in the Prague Municipal Library. Then, I had some fried dough covered in sugar at the Christmas market and more Staropramen lager at the train station before Mr. Sarcastic abandoned me.

The book tower/well is made to look endless with mirrors. I think.
Vienna, Austria
First thing I did after checking into my hotel was find a bar where I stayed for most of the night. I don’t remember which bar, but it was crowded. Being immature, I took a photo of the front of Hotel Lamee because it looked like Hotel Lame.

Haha. Lame.
The next day, I walked around and took in the snow and architecture. Overall, Vienna was just okay. Of all European cities I’ve seen to date, it’s my least favorite; I’ll have to go back and stay a bit longer to reassess the place.
My favorite experience in the city was walking through a little snow-covered park with no one else around.

Evidently, I enjoy secluded walks in snow-covered parks.
Budapest, Hungary
Sadly, I didn’t drink much in the party capital of Europe. I jumped off the train, took some photos, ate and had only a drink or two, and then booked it on an overnight train to Romania.
Bucharest, Romania
Highlight of my time in Bucharest: seeing a pack of stray (and tagged) dogs. Bucharest has a big pest problem with their canines. Like Budapest, I had only a bit to eat and drink in Bucharest, spending my time there taking photos with my phone and people-watching (in a non-creepy way, of course). I also made a pit stop at a McDonald’s to ward off my homesickness.

I assume this is a statue of Romulus and Remus; I’m just not sure why it’s in Bucharest.
Second coolest thing in Bucharest: a vending machine on the street which sold actual books.

Pretty sure those are books. My memory and this photo are both rather blurry.
Train from Hell on Christmas Eve
I took another overnight train from Bucharest to Sofia and it was easily the worst train ride of my life. First of all, it was Christmas Eve, cold enough for snow outside, and the train car had no heater; it was literally freezing in there for the whole ride. The toilet had no septic tank, just a big open hole at the bottom of the toilet through which we could see the tracks fly by beneath us.
In my train car there was only one other passenger: a Japanese man in his late forties. He came to Europe primarily to visit his son who was studying in Bucharest (or was it Budapest?), and decided he’d do some midlife backpacking. With the whole car to ourselves, rather than freezing our asses off in separate compartments, we sat across from each other in hopes that our proximity would make us slightly warmer. It probably didn’t.
Eventually, I decided we should try to move to the next car to see if it had heat. That was wishful thinking. There was no heat, but at least that car was built after World War II and had lights (oh, right, my first car had no lights). In addition to the lights were two other passengers: two guys who looked to be somewhat local (Mediterranean/Eastern European).
With our theory that being in a car with more people would be better for heat, the Japanese guy and I stayed there. The other men said nothing, glancing at us for a second before trying to get some sleep. So, we were four men, each taking up four seats to ourselves and trying not to freeze our asses off on Christmas Eve.
I actually fell asleep for a bit before the train suddenly stopped. Looking out the window, on one side of the train car there was only darkness. On the other side, there was a dimly lit train station:

Hell’s train station.
After a few minutes of wondering what the hell was going on, a police officer-looking guy came into the train car, collected our passports and disappeared. I assumed it was normal protocol, but I still entertained the possibility that I was screwed. After what felt like a really long time, the police-looking guy came back with our passports and the train started moving again.
Sofia, Bulgaria
I only stopped in Sofia so I could take a bus into Greece; I stayed at the bus station the entire time, probably for an hour or two. Hungry, I exchanged five British pounds for the local currency which bought me a lot more than expected: two sandwiches, two drinks (bottled soda), and a considerably large assortment of snacks.

Transport station in Sofia.

I thought this was adorable, so I took a picture.
My assumption as to why I had to take a bus into Greece was that, in the wake of the economic crash, Greece’s train system wasn’t running (having had an experience with Italy’s transportation strikes, I wasn’t phased by it). As the bus wound through the hills, my first white Christmas gradually became rather green (that’s right, I’ve never spent Christmas in a place with snow).
Oh, and I saw some more dogs.

This dog thinks he’s a car.
I absolutely loved Prague. Went on a 40th birthday treated by my younger sister who then asked me to pay as she’d run out of money … Stayed with student friends so paid home rates not tourist rates and ate at unknown places inc a Mexican one! Cobbles kill feet or tyres. Lager fantastic. Visited just after terrible floods. Loved it.
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Being from California, I’m not sure I’d bother with Mexican food while in Europe, but the food and beer in Prague is definitely pretty awesome (at very reasonable prices).
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Your dry sense of humor had me in stitches. Remind me never to go to Eastern Europe in the winter. Great pics, great post.
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Thanks!
The only problem I had was that one train. My friend/classmate’s wife is Polish (he met her while we were studying abroad in London; pretty awesome) told us that the trains in Poland are pretty much the same. I suppose spring and fall would be safer.
Generally speaking, I loved the winter snow.
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Having some police guy taking your passport is kind of scary. That could have ended up like one of the “Hostel” movies. Those pictures are really great.
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It was kind of scary, and I would’ve been too tired and cold to fight back. Haha.
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What an adventure! Have never yet traveled out of the United States,so these pictures were very interesting to look over! Thank you for sharing,it was like seeing a movie and being able to “travel” somewhere different!
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I’ve rushed through a bunch of countries but I still need to do a lot more domestic traveling in the United States. I would’ve done a cross country road trip by now if I trusted my car not to break down on me.
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In your blog you mentioned traveling back to Vienna and giving it a second chance. We have done this & still did not care for some places until we took our 18 yr. old son with us. He’s a natural leader,he made everything different,educational,enjoyable,and relaxing. I hope you are able to travel to every single place you want! Enjoy each and every moment!
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Oh, please plan another trip to Bulgaria, at least to Sofia, to see more than the central train station. Bulgaria really deserves to be its own destination, not just a transit stop en route to Greece.
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