In less than 2 weeks (Yay! ) I am starting my vacation to Eastern Europe, I will be travelling to:
Prague, Czech Republic
Krakow, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Bucharest, Romania
Sofia, Bulgaria
I have not yet been to Krakow, Bucharest, or Sofia. Does anyone with experience have any “must-see” places/activities for those cities? I will be in each of these cities for about 3 days, with the exception of Prague, where I will be for about 2 weeks.
I’ll post a link to my vacation photos when I return.
The two, ok three major tourist attractions of Krakow are 1)Krakow castle and the covered market 2)the salt mines where these crazy guys sculpted all sorts of stuff in the salt in their space time (including an entire ballroom). 3)Auschwitz, well, you know what happened there.
Just south of Sofia, there’s a very interesting Orthodox monastary called the Rila Monastary, which has some very amazing paintings and such. I think you can even stay there overnight, though I understand they don’t have hot water.
The Balkan mountains are supposed to have some excellent skiing, you should check that out.
The salt mine near Krakow is called Wieliczka. The central market area is the Glowny Rynek, and not too far from there is Castle Wawel. It’s worth checking out if you’re into castles and that sort of stuff.
Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) is also a little bit outside of Krakow, and definitely a place that every person should visit at least once in their lifetime. Maybe with the holidays and all coming up you might not want to do it this go round, but do visit it one day.
I could better give you Budapest recommendations (I just came back on Thursday from there, and I lived there for over 5 years), but it seems you have that covered.
Yes, I’ve been around Budapest. Ill only be there for 1 day this time (train stopover), but I will be able to see the thing I didn’t get to the last time I was there - the old Cimmunist Statue Park.
Unless you really want to go there, I would skip Bucharest and stop in Brasov (Hermannstadt). The city is nicer albeit much smaller. If you’re into skiing there is a ski resort with decent hotels nearby (Poiana Brasov); you can either drive there or take a bus. A little further south there are Sinaia and Predeal - also not bad. Bucharest in winter is pretty sordid. Even its citizens try to spend as much time as they can in the places I mentioned.
If you travel by train you might want to stop in Sighisoara - a city renowned for its medieval architecture. Can’t give you details about it though - never been there. I heard it’s very nice, but then again, after Prague… I don’t know.
Well, I’ve already got my train tickets and my reservation at the Funky Chicken Hostel (no joke), so I’m pretty committed to Bucharest for this trip. Of course, I still have about 55 years left until I die (hopefully - and yes, I think about it this way), so I will get the ski resort in the itinerary one of these trips .
Also, I tend to have an affinity for gloomy places, so Eastern Europe in the winter suits me well.
Or did you mean something else by “sordid”? Actually, I believe you did, but for somereason I took it to mean gloomy.
Drop me an email if you want to get together for a beer in Prague. I’ll be in the US Dec. 14 - 20th-ish, but will be in and around after that.
When in town get a copy of The Prague Post at most newsstands. Great listing of everything going on daily. Also check out expats.cz and prague.tv message boards.
) I am starting my vacation to Eastern Europe, I will be travelling to: