On The Road

Gabe, Becky, and I rent a car in Sicily because the island is not too large and becomes very accessible with wheels. Before leaving Palermo on day one, we visit the Catacombs of The Capuchins and the Duomo di Monreale. Both are incredible experiences and both are very different. The Catacombs are full with well preserved human bodies still dressed in their finest clothes from several hundred years back. There are men, women, and children, all either lined up against the walls or stacked on top of each other. There are babies in carriages and families still together. Some still have skin, some still have hair, and some still frightening show an expression as we pass. The Catacombs are a chilling experience where the dead people seem too real. The next stop before leaving Palermo is Duomo di Monreale, a beautiful cathedral at the top of a hill overlooking all of Palermo. Becky, who has studied much about ancient architecture, reveals many of the intricacies of the church as we walk through it.

Palermo from above

On our way to Sciacca, where we will be spending our first two nights, we stop at Corleone, the home of many Mafia bosses from the Godfather’s Vito Corleone to real bosses such as Jack Dragna, Giuseppe Morello, Michele Navarra and others. We take a couple photos, grab a snack, I unsuccessfully try to find some suspenders because I seem to recall those from the movies, and we continue on our way.

Corleone

Our final stop of the day is Sciacca, pronounced like Chaka of Chaka Khan, the 10 time Grammy Award winning artist with hits such as “Tell Me Something Good” and “Sweet Thing”. But enough about Chaka. We find a nice bed and breakfast to stay at just outside the heart of the city. The owners are very friendly and full advice, and there is ample space for the three of us including a kitchen and a living room. For dinner, we make our way to a hidden pizza place not far from the bed and breakfast and we end our day enjoying three large pizza with fresh local ingredients.

The journey in the car between each stop shows off some of the expansive and empty landscapes still present within Sicily. There are mountains, valleys, greens, and browns in every direction. The island is beautiful, very warm, and still not overrun by tourists. Looking out the windows as we drive through the countryside is as enjoyable as any destination.

On the road in Sicily

Sicilia: Good Food, Good Times

We will number three for the Sicily portion of our adventure. For the next many days, Becky, a friend of Gabe’s from Rome, will be joining us. The home of the mafia immediately begins with great food. We land in Palermo near the Northwest of the island, rent a car, and head off to the center of the city to find a restaurant Gabe remembers from visits past. At the Antica Focacceria S. Francesco in Palermo, we begin our culinary tour of Sicily. From panele to spleen sandwiches to deliciously fried arrancini to camponata to cannoli made with fresh ricotta, we commence our time on Italy’s oblong soccer ball with a feast.

Food in Sicily

Back to Italy ’til The End

We get back to Rome, again. Our plane arrives late enough so that we miss the bus back to the center of town. Cheaper than taking the train is sharing a cab among four people, which means that I try to find another lucky two to join Gabe and me in a taxi. The first two I find probably assume that I’m trying to hit on them although I’m not, and in retrospect, I can see how that might happen. However, I feel like “would you like to share a cab with us into Rome’s center” is a weak pick up line. That said, by starting with this awkward question, we eventually get to talking while waiting a very long time for our luggage, and once the bags finally come, we split ways and I gear up to try again. Gabe and I walk outside and I find a couple sitting with their stuff and enjoying a cigarette. I approach them, and in my broken Italian, I ask if they want to share a taxi. We have success, and are on our way into Rome.

Rome at night

The taxi drops us all off somewhere between our two apartments and because of the nice heat and humidity of Rome, Gabe and I work up a shvitz on our way back to Sam’s apartment. We are greeted by some delicious dishes that Sam has been working on for his culinary school final. Dinner is served with some of Sam’s “house wine”, which may or may not come in a bag, but nonetheless is perfect for the occasion (and much better than bags o’ wine I might find stateside). Post dinner, we head out for some gelato (of course!), and to a mojito bar that Gabe and Sam frequent regularly. With strong mojitos in hand, we venture down to the Tiber River.

Now in its tenth year, the commotion near the river known as Lungo Il Tevere Roma offers bars, clubs, snack stations, and of course souvenir shops. There is live music everywhere and access is easy and free. In short, we end up spending a bit too much time here and enjoy a fun welcome back into Italy.

A Miscalculation

A perfect storm of small miscalculations leads to a wonderful twenty-four hours in Geneva. Our layover, if you can call it that, is just long enough to be awkward, the weather is to include thunderstorms and heavy rain, and Geneva may be one of the most expensive cities in all of Europe. However, having said all that, luck is on our side. A friend of Gabe’s friend lives in Geneva and is willing to host us for the evening. She and her family live in a beautifully refurbished farm house just outside the city center. As Gabe and I are nearing the house, we are not clear as to where we are heading and especially when we leave what looks like the main residential areas of Geneva, but eventually we get to the driveway of a farm and just hope that we are in the right place. The exterior of the house, although clearly well kept still resembles the humble farm house from times past, but the interior of the house is fabulously modern, thoughtfully decorated, and very comfortable.

Near the farm house in Geneva

Immediately after arriving, we enjoy a nice dinner outside in the backyard. (Maybe the heavy rain forecast was incorrect.) We get to know the family better, taste some delicious swiss chocolate, and eventually hear what seems like a very powerful storm from the comforts of our beds. The next morning, we wake up to clear skies, an espresso, orange juice, and cereal. Gabe and I make sure to wake early in order to say goodbye and thank you one more time before our host leaves for work. After breakfast, we spend the rest of the morning walking around the farm and the nearby area. We find sports fields to complement the wheat fields, and fancy cars to complement the sheep. Thanks to Fiona, our wonderful host, our stay in Geneva will now be another highlight of our adventure around Europe.

Chess in the park

We leave the house a little before noon and walk into Geneva’s old town. Upon strolling through a park on the south side of the old town, we find almost life size chess boards and distract ourselves playing games for several hours. As it is Friday afternoon, we find many others, including business men in suits and mothers and fathers with their children enjoying an afternoon playing chess in the park. We eventually continue on through the old town and find Geneva’s symbolic and beautiful lake. Because we are not yet interested in purchasing a swiss watch or opening a new bank account, after finding the lake, we make our way back to the train station and then to the airport. Although short, Geneva is very memorable.

Geneva Lake

Magyar Bor

French wines I knew a little about and Italian wines I knew a little about, but of Hungarian wines I knew nothing before arriving. This may be because their wine export levels are very low, but whatever the reason, Hungarian wines are very historied dating back as far as Roman times from when there are extensive records of vineyards. Today, the best known wine is Tokaji, the dessert wine. While touring the Budapest castle, Gabe and I spot a wine museum/tasting, and figure that it doesn’t hurt to explore further. We enter the museum, and maybe because the temperature was so nice in the cellar, maybe because they offered student prices, or maybe because we hadn’t enjoyed a degustation recently, we decided to tour the museum and try the wines. We sign up for the cheapest wine tasting including only three wines, but after making friends with our pourer, we received tastes of four great wines. And by tastes, we actually tried four full glasses of wine. As a result, we were more than ready for lunch upon leaving.

Budapest wine cellar

The whole event increased both our awareness and appreciation for Hungarian wines. I will attempt to provide at least a sense of the diversity and magnitude of these wines here. Within the country there are twenty two wine regions with Eger and Tokaj-Hegyalja probably being the most famous. Located in the northern part of the country, Eger produces the well known Egri Bikaver, or bulls blood of Eger along with some good whites (like the rest of the country). That said, Hungry’s most famous wine region is hands down that of Tokaj-Hegyalia located in the foothills of the Zemplen Mountains in the far north. The region provides the perfect conditions for noble rot to take place. Noble rot is caused by the friendly grey fungus called Botrytis cinerea. Under certain conditions, this “rot” can be quite harmful, but at other times, if picked correctly, grapes covered by this fungus can produce concentrated sweet wine. These botrytized, late-harvest grapes make the sweet wine that is so famous in this region. Know as Tokaji aszú, this wine was famously christened by Louis XIV of France.

Szechenyi Baths

After walking around and site-seeing the day before, Gabe and I decide to spend our second day in Budapest at a famous bath house. We arrive relatively early around 10:30am to Szechenyi Baths, which is located in the middle of a beautiful city park. We get our locker and explore the many different bath options that surround us. The bath house has about ten to fifteen different baths, steam rooms, and saunas all at different temperatures. Some are indoors and some are outdoors. Some have forced water currents running through them and some have jacuzzi jets in them. Some have chess matches being played on their edges and some have fountains for people to stand under. As we walk around, we see only old Hungarian men enjoying the baths; however, after a couple hours, the average age goes down substantially and we fit in slightly better. We learn that we may have arrived a little too early.

Budapest bath house

In all, we probably spend between eight and nine hours at the bath house. This includes a couple hours out of the baths when we eat a little lunch and play cards. The day is wonderfully relaxing, and once we reach an advanced level of pruniness from being in water for so long, we are ready to return to our apartment.

Inside the bath house

Blue Skies and Castles

Statue at Budapest Castle

Budapest starts with blue skies and just enough clouds to make for surreal photographs. Gabe and I arrive on the overnight train from drizzly Prague and are excited about our potential vitamin D production over the next couple days. After settling into the apartment, we pack a day bag, grab a couple delicious pastries from a nearby bakery, and set off to the famous castle across the river. This historical castle and palace of the Hungarian Kings of Budapest was originally built in the 14th century only to be destroyed and rebuilt many more times. We climb the hill to the castle, and enjoy the expansive views of the city to one side and the large castle on the other. The castle district, Várnegyed, however, offers much more than just a castle. There are many historic attractions, museums, charming crooked streets, cafes, restaurants and more. Walking around with camera in hand and the sun above makes for a very pleasant afternoon.

The Parliament Building in Budapest

From the Castle Distric

Our Budapest Apartment

Our Budapest apartment, which again is found using airbnb.com (this time from someone named Barnabi), cannot be more centrally located, and that does not even give the apartment credit for its own charm. There is a small loft where the bed is located. The kitchen is small but complete and has a little bar separating it from the main room. There are wood floors and artsy paintings. There is a full bookshelf and and an iMac on an old desk. Just outside is a delicious bakery, a few steps farther is a market, and right around the corner is a public park, which apparently is the best place to spend evenings for locals who are between 20 and 30 years old. The youth of Budapest purchase a couple beers and make their way to this park to enjoy the cool evening air and each other’s company. Gabe and I befriend a couple of them one evening as we try to fit in to this fun local culture. In addition, only about a five minute walk from the apartment, we find a delicious dinner at a spot called Cafe Kor. For a very reasonable price, this apartment is the perfect location from which to start exploring Budapest.

Budapest apt

Days of Many Steps

All over Europe, but in particular Prague, Gabe and I walk, walk, and walk some more. We also take our share of metros, trams, and buses, but walking is a great way to see any city. In Prague, we are staying about a three to four kilometer walk out of the Old Town, Stare Mesto, and from there, it is probably another kilometer to the famous Charles Bridge, which is a couple kilometers from the Prague Castle, Prazsky hrad. Although no single stage of our journey seems like a large commitment after walking to and from the castle, our feet are a little sore. And this does not include the walk to the USA Embassy to show our support on the 4th of July, the walk to the club and back the night before, the meander around the Jewish quarter, the stroll around town during the walking tour, and the train station adventure.

Near the Charles Bridge at night

We need to find the train station in order to purchase tickets for our overnight train to Budapest the following day. And to find the station, Gabe and I think that we are being smart by looking at a map, finding the largest collection of tracks, and heading in that direction. We find many railroad tracks just northeast of the city, and although the weather is drizzly, we put on our raincoats and start walking. We get near the tracks, start looking for signs or large train-station-looking buildings. We find nothing. Eventually, we again pull out the map, and find another slightly smaller although still large collection of railroad tracks. Luckily, we are able to see the comedy in the situation and laugh even as we continue to have to walk through the rain. When we near the second grouping of tracks, we again do not see many signs, but at least we see a building that could pass as a train station. We walk in and it is darker and gloomier than we had expected. We maze through the station until finding a ticket counter. There is one window open that reads “International Tickets” above it and we reserve two seats on a train. After about 20 minutes of fiddling with my credit card, the man behind the counter finally gets it to work, we get our tickets, and we ask from where the train will be leaving. He lets us know that the train will be leaving from a station about 100m down the road. We are a little confused and decide it is best to explore this other train station now rather than tomorrow night. We get to this other station, which again is not very well marked, we enter, and we are presented with something more like we had expected. There are convenient stores, more ticket counters, escalators, and a level of cleanliness much greater than that from our first station.

In other words, between walking all over town, walking to Prague nightlife, and walking to the wrong train station, we calculate that we probably covered about the distance of a marathon in 48 hours in Prague.

Prague's famous clock

From inside Prague Castle

Famous Defenestrations

I am unsure how many famous defenestrations there have been in history, but I did learn about two that took place in Prague. As I remember from back in the days of SAT vocabulary, to defenestrate is to throw one out of a window. However, why a word exists that is so specific is unclear and makes me wonder if there is other similar vocabulary such as to debalconizate, to deroofate, or to destairate.  During our New Europe Free Tour of Prague, Gabe and I learn more about these defenestrations.

Defenestration Window
The site of the second defenestration.

Quick history lesson: The two defenestrations of Prague occurred in 1419 and 1618. The first involved an angry mob being frustrated that the town council members would not release their Hussite prisoners. As a result, the mob flooded the town hall and proceeded to throw the judge, the mayor, and 13 others out of the window and onto the street. This event sparked the Hussite wars, which lasted until 1436. The second defenestration is now marked as the starting point for the Thirty Years War between 1618 and 1648. This one began when Roman Catholic officials ordered that Protestant chapels stop being built on land which they thought belonged to them. A meeting occurred in the Prague Castle, where two imperial governors were tried for violating the Right of Freedom of Religion. They were found guilty, and afterwards, they were defenestrated from a 16-meter high window. Not even their secretary’s life was spared. Legend says that the governors landed on a large pile of manure and survived unharmed. They then left for Vienna to explain to the Emperor what had happened thus exciting only more conflict.

The moral of the story is when in Prague, don’t find yourself near a window during times of conflict.