Since moving to Europe, my one wish was to see a bit of Central Europe to try and see a few of the differences between Western Europe and the ex-Soviet Bloc. We had gone to Tallinn, but I wanted more. My company decided to move me back to the US a bit early, and my last day working in Europe was April 2, 2003. While our household goods were in transit after packing on the 2nd, we decided to have one last hoorah in Europe. Therefore, we headed to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest with two nights in each city. We flew from London to Prague and back to London from Budapest with train rides in the middle.
We both enjoyed Prague the most. It might have been because it was the first city we visited on the trip, but it seemed much more interesting and fun. All three cities were built out at much the same time during the Hapsburg Dynasty. From a similar start they couldn't have ended up any more different.
We took too many pictures in each city for one page. Please, click on the highlighted city name to view the pictures.
Prague has benefitted from its proximity to Germany. A lot of German manufacturing is outsourced to the Czech Republic, which has improved the statndard of living in the country tremendously. Prague just seemed to us to be the "perfect" European city. Everything was very old and not too many modern buildings due to Soviet underinvestment. But modern conveniences could be found if you looked. Also, almost every building we saw had been renovated or were in process. I definitely recommend a trip if you get a chance.
Vienna, unlike Prague, has been part of Western Europe since WWII and is a vibrant modern city with all of the annoying things that go with that. The wealth of the city and architecture is not in doubt, but we didn't get a sense of the culture in the short time we were there. Everything is clean and efficient, while the government buildings were impressive. The other cities benefitted from the Hapsburgs, but as the seat of power, Vienna was over the top.
Budapest seemed to be a bit of an enigma. Hungary is also located in a prime location to benefit from European outsourcing, but the wealth and rebuilding was not evident at all. The city was various states of disrepair except for the extremely major infrastructure. Where Prague seeemed to embrace the western methods, Budapest seemed happy to be stuck in the past. They still had people taking tickets in the subway in places where modern cities have used machines. There is nothing like guaranteed lifetime government employment to make you smile. Actually, we never saw a single person smile in two days. Very strange. I guess the do, in fact, miss the Soviets.
© 2003 Doug Rathburn