After Belgrade, we took a bus to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was stop two in the Balkans and in the former Yugoslavia. It was also the one we were most excited about. Of our stops on this trip, Sarajevo is perhaps the most affected by war ‘in our lifetimes.’ I can remember the wars in Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995 and I can remember the Olympics in...
We left Budapest on September 9th by train headed to Serbia. We planned a first stop in Subotica, Serbia which is just across the border from Hungary. Literally, it is right across the border. The train stops inside the Hungarian border for border control. Several border control agents board the train with portable devices to check and stamp our passports. Then the...
Let’s get this started properly. How do you pronounce Budapest? It is “Buda” and “Pesht.” It was once two separate cities, Buda and Pest, which were combined into one. The Danube essentially runs north-south through the city although it does zig-zag a bit. On the west side, Buda is a more hilly area. On the east side, Pest is quite flat. When the two cities were...
After an exciting 19 days in Jordan, we spent a slower 9 days in Malta. Malta is a small island that lies about 80 km south of Sicily, Italy. It is east of Tunisia and north of Libya. It is the tenth smallest country in the world but fifth most densely populated. Its population is about 500,000 people. It is about 27 km long and 14.5 km wide. The country is actually...
We spent a week in Warsaw, Poland after taking a bus from Vilnius, Lithuania. The theme for the week was not just free walking tours, but was also free museums. An online search taught us that most museums had one day each week that was free. We are not big museum people but when it is free we are a little more willing to spend a bit of time in a museum. Polish beer...
We had four nights in Riga, Latvia. I probably should have written this post while I was still in Riga. Please do not tell Estonians, Latvians, or Lithuanians I said this, but there stories are similar. They have a healthy/friendly rivalry and regularly tease each other about it. While they are all Baltic countries and they have a lot of similarities, there are still...