The Recap - Eastern Europe (and around)

Eastern Europe.  The region where at times you feel as though a Western European city has been gifted to a South East Asian government, which as you can imagine can sometimes be very trying but at the same time very interesting and very different to what we're used to.

Over our month and a bit in the region we met some beautiful and very generous people, ate some great food, drank copious quantities of spirits distilled from everything you can think of and have left wanting more and cannot wait to get back to the region in summer to delve deeper.

The Ticks

• Beer snacks and food in general in Czech.  We had no idea how much we were going to grow to love this nation's food.  Just brilliant. 
• Dogs EVERYWHERE in Romania, every train station that you stop at has its own welcoming and farewelling dog pack. 
• Zdiar actually gave us snow! 
• Christmas markets. 
• The Octogon in Budapest for NYE is mental. 
• Viennese coffeehouses.  So fancy, so traditional, so cool, so good. 
• The salamanders at Home Made Hostel. 
• Rail and bus services in Czech actually do work like clockwork.  They were even more reliable than Germany's.  Gasp. 
• The Budapest coffee scene.  Something that again took us by surprise and gave us a much needed taste of home. 
• Romanian "boobies" 

The Crosses

• The speed of trains in Serbia and Romania.  Whilst they actually allow you to enjoy the countryside as it slowly drifts by, sometimes you just want to get there and not take an hour to do 20 kilometres. 
• The hype behind Bratislava.  Sorry but it was lost on us. 
• Water that gives you the shits in Serbia and Romania.
• Not being able to find traditional Hungarian food in Budapest. 
• ATMs that eat your card in Bratislava. 
• Unfortunately every place that we visited we found ourselves saying, "wouldn't this place be great in summer". 
• Where is the snow? 

The Food 

Christmas Markets - the "tradelink" in Brno, hands down.  We've tried about five or six others throughout the region now and none of them have come close.

The Rest - Czech garlic soup and pickled trout from U Černého Vola .  This was a tough one and there are about five other things that we ate in Czech that could've taken this.  Czech food wins, that's the moral of the story.

The Booze

Christmas Markets - the wine punč at Český Budějovice that was packed full of sultanas and macerated strawberries.  So good when the temperature is hovering around zero and your fingers feel like icey poles.

The Rest - rakia/palinca/fire water/slivovitz/slivovica/brandy.  Call it what you will, this drink is now synonymous with Eastern Europe for us and it will feel like we're catching up with an old friend anytime that we have it again throughout our lives.  This drink is quite possibly the most memorable thing about our time in Eastern Europe.

We would've already been in Morocco for a week once you read this so look forward to sheep's heads, goat's testicles and year old preserved camel meat.  The regularity of those posts will depend on us getting decent internet connections. 

There's one more post on its way before the Morocco ones begin to (hopefully) roll though, it's a goodie.  At least I think it is anyway... 

A White(ish) Christmas in Slovakia

After just a few minutes in Bratislava disaster struck but Nix will elaborate more on that soon.

Sloavkia's capital was a bit of a disappointment for us.  After people in previous hostels had referred to it as "Eastern Europe's hidden gem", we found that sentiment to be a bit misplaced.  One should always proceed with caution when you hear or read those words, "hidden gem".

Whilst in Brat we made sure to get our fix of sheep cheese, dumplings and combinations of the two.

And we also climbed Machnac Hill to get supposed panoramic views of the city.  Unfortunately it was like pea soup up there and we couldn't see a thing however the war memorial did look particularly eerie in the dense fog.

After a couple of nights in Brat we headed off into the Slovakian mountains for our supposed white Christmas.  There was snow around but nothing too fresh and nothing imminent.  Oh well, you take the good with the bad.

Our first morning there, whilst still full of enthusiasm, we headed off on the Forest Walk where we had some fun,

took photos of what some may consider arty shit

and got to see some breathtaking scenery and views of the High Tatras.

On Christmas Eve the hostel had a bit of a warm up and then Christmas Day we got stuck into it.  The beer, mulled wine, slivovitz (plum spirit), hruška (pear spirit) and borovička (pine/gin-like spirit) all flowed in copious quantities and led to a very messy, very eventful, very memorable night.  It also led to very memorable hangovers the following day.

After that we headed to Košice, the 2013 European City of Culture (hmm), for a night before getting up at five to catch a train to Budapest.

P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Markets Round 3 - Vienna v Bratislava

The final faceoff.  Vienna and Brat, Europe's two closest capitals geographically speaking.  So you'd expect similar markets right?  Wrong.

The Food 

In Vienna it was a kasekrainer in a bun, pretty much the world's best cheese sausage, a kiachl, that's cooked to order and is like a massive, fresh donut that comes with a big dollop of red currant jam, and krapfen, a big bread roll like thing that got pumped full of plum jam that wasn't really that great but was very more-ish.

Brat gave us kapustnica , an amazingly oily, comforting and warming cabbage soup with bits of sausage and speck in it, potato pancakes, one with smoked meat and cabbage and the other with goose fat, that weren't really to our tastes, cigánska pečienka that confirmed for us that pork in a bun with mustard is just pork in a bun with mustard and some poppy seed and cherry strudel that either wasn't very good or again, wasn't up our alley.  We also had another "tradelink" that didn't live up to Brno's.

Drinks

Nothing to report here apart from a decent punč and medovina in Brat.

The Other Stuff 

Vienna's markets do not hold back.  Just like the city they're big, sprawling, spectacular and no cost is spared.  Everything is over the top but always so tastefully done.

Brat's on the other hand are small, compact and make you feel like you're at home and very, very welcome.

The Verdict

I'd probably call this one a dead heat as they're too hard to split.  Vienna's are massive and never end however aren't too repetitive whereas Brat's are smaller and cosier but what they do offer is of the highest quality.  They were two great markets to finish on and the perfect way to finish a little stint within our trip that Nix had looked forward to for a long, long time.