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... 

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.

I am Viennese if you please

So between Czech and Slovakia we had a short stopover in Vienna that was all about Viennese coffeehouses and shaking off our smelly everyday get up to attend an 'Operatic Gala'.

The Coffeehouses

The three key attributes of a good Austrian coffeehouse are serving good coffee, obviously, holding a selection of the "finest" Austrian and international newspapers and offering cakes and strudel.

Prückel was the first coffeehouse we went to and geez things are fancy there.  Waiters in three piece suits and bow ties, expensive designer bags everywhere you looked (no Bali knock offs here) and coat racks filled with thousands of dollars worth of coats.  You walk in through three different doors (in an attempt to keep the cold out) and it opens up into a massive room with tables expertly placed around the room to offer everyone equal levels levels of comfort. Prückel is true to its name, this is a coffeehouse.  It's huge.

We shared a piece of sticky, dense, sweet apple strudel and each had the Prückel classic espresso with cream.  Both were decent but it's more about the experience.

The generally held belief is that Viennese coffeehouse waiters are a grumpy lot but our first experience was pretty good.

Our second experience, at Cafe Hawelka, turned the first one on its head a bit.  This coffeehouse is as old as Vienna itself and whilst still very fancy felt a lot more homely.  Prückel is bright and open whereas Hawelka is dark and almost cavernous with tables poked in everywhere physically possible.  And there are no menus here, you just ask the waiter what's on offer and go with it.

We went for a couple of espressos again and a piece of "nut cake", on the waiters recommendation.  The coffee was average again but the cake v good.  Thank you bow tied waiter man.  And once again the waiter's attitude towards us stupid English speakers was great.

The Operatic Gala

So with our €5 standing room only tickets in tow we headed out for a fancy night at the opera.  Who said I was uncultured?

Our view wasn't the greatest and standing still the entire time wasn't much fun but the opportunity to do it in Vienna was unmissable.  And after I pulled on a collared shirt we weren't the most underdressed either.

The City 

Whilst walking around the city we were astounded by how grand and spectacular Vienna truly is.  In every direction there's a building that would be the tourist highlight of most cities but in Vienna it's just one of many.  The self guided walking tour we went on didn't even provide detail on particular buildings, cathedrals etc. that most cities would sell themselves on.

Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - delusions of grandeur

Pug Sightings - 17