First let me descirbe to you the method of getting from Budapest to Sarajevo. We took a 12-hour train ride. That might not seem like much to those of you who think 4-hour train rides are pleasant, or those of you who have never been on a train in Eastern Europe. We were lucky; we had a whole compartment to ourselves, and we brought lots of snacks. But in 100 degrees Farenheit no one is really lucky. We sweated through our clothes during the first hour. At t...

Budapest is a hard city to pin down. There are so many aspects to the city that I never felt like I had the full picture. Strolling along the Danube, I saw that Buda is hilly and old, and Pest is flat and contemporary. Along the city streets, I saw ancient Medieval buildings, Art Noveau, and modern apartments. Each neighborhood has its own unique feel that can only really be captured by living there for a while.Perhaps it is that same diversity and intangibility ...

Bratislava is a very pretty city, don't get me wrong. I am fully aware that it's my own fault I didn't have a good time there. But anyway, here's what happened:Scott and I were only in Bratislava for three nights; two full days. We arrived from the High Tatras with a huge load of dirty clothes, and our heads full of the blogs we should have been writing the last few weeks. So when we discovered that our hostel had free laundry and internet I got m...

We just keep getting further and further from the big cities. While Scott and I were in Olomouc I realized that I'd gradually been getting all I lacked in during the previous month in all those big cities. In Germany we slowed down and finally didn't have to follow a to-do list. In Prague we got a social life, and in Olomouc we escaped the crowds. In that little town I realized that the only thing I'd lacked for a while was a breath of fresh air, so w...

What a find! Scott and I were sitting in our hostel in Prague wondering what to do next, thumbing through some brochures of nearby lands when we discovered sweet little Olomouc [pronounced Ah-la-moats] (don't ask me, ask the Czechs). After our grand tour through Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague, I had had enough of big cities. Sure, we took a couple breaks in between, but none of them were long enough. Olomouc is the kind of place where you res...