BUDAPEST & PRAGUE
I end up taking a train to Budapest and relishing the spontaneity traveling solo offers!
BUDAPEST
My friend Linda B. is in Budapest, Hungary for a short time and I don’t want to miss her, so… I hop on a train. I spend a long weekend in the city where Linda and I go to Budapest’s famous Gellert thermal bath, she introduces me to some very good local restaurants, and I go exploring.
After Budapest, I book a week in Vienna and ride to Bratislava as a day ride: easy peezy without my gear and it’s a lovely flat route alongside the Danube all day.
BRATISLAVA
In Bratislava, Slovakia, it’s dark by the time I find the train station. I load up my bike and on the ride back to Vienna I reflect on what a wonderful journey this has been.
I end up riding 634 miles along this mighty river.
I have connected with my relatives and connected with the culture I was raised with. Connecting with this slice of time, outside of time, in an amazing landscape has anchored my deep connection with Europe.
VIENNA AGAIN!
Back in Vienna, I meet up with Abi for our hike in the Wiener Wald. It is a colorful Fall day with such an abundance of stately trees to walk through.
I spend the week tooling around town as there is so much to see: the Albertina Museum with modern art including this great Don Quixote sculpture; some films whose titles I don’t remember; I even find a huge playfully designed building and find out it’s the very well disguised municipal dump .
One evening as I’m walking by the Vienna State Opera I notice a line. I ask someone what the line is for. The woman tells me they open 90 minutes before the performance and sell free tickets (with a 10 EU service fee) so I get in line. I learn tonight’s performance is a French interpretation of the opera: Faust. I’m so lucky as they end the line right after me. I find out later, my seat normally costs 140 Euro. The performance was unusual in that during the performance they show photos on the screen above that didn’t seem to relate to the performance. I think it’s to keep people’s attention on the stage and not their phones.
One day is entirely spent bicycling around photographing wall art.
PRAGUE
I’m sad to leave Vienna but also super excited for the next leg of my journey: a 4 hour train ride to Prague, Czech Republic - one of my favorite European cities. This will be my third visit and I stay a week at the fantastic Salvator Boutique Hotel. They have an adjoining vegan restaurant which is so good I want to eat all my meals there! They have the best vegan cakes ever and a changing roster every day.
Prague is a city where you walk everywhere with something interesting around each corner!
SIGHTS & SOUNDS
While in Prague, I see a performance of the ballet Swan Lake, visit museums and attend a great photography show by Martin Stranka. His work is fascinating! The exhibit includes a video on all the staging that leads up to his photo shoots.
Martin Stranka happens to be at the exhibit and I enjoy a conversation with him! I am so enthused, I buy a signed print.
Walking back to the hotel, I realize I don’t know how I’m going to take this oversize photograph on my bike. I spend the next day scouring stores to find the correct size tube that will fit in my backpack.
THE ESCAPIST by Martin Stranka