Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Istanbul

Here is a much overdo post on my Easter Vacation (that's what the brits call spring break) travels. I teamed up with a fellow K student at LSE and two other LSE General Coursers to take a trip around central Europe. Riley came over from Germany to join us through the middle part of our journey. In chronological order:

Dresden

We fly into Dresden from London early in the morning and stayed from one night, drawn mostly by the promise of German beer and sausage. There was indeed beer and sausage, but I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that Dresden is home to the Old Master's Gallery (except in German). The collection was basically the highlights of my late Renaissance art history class all in one ornately beautiful building. Highlights include Raphael's Sistine Madonna and Giorgionne's / Titian's Sleeping Venus. Dresden was also notable for the currywurst we enjoyed there.

We ate delicious currywurst 

Prague

Overlooking Prague

A view of Prague's castle in the distance

I think Prague wins my favorite city of the trip award. The main town was nestled down in a valley overlooked by a castle. We did the usual walking around the town and checking out the chapel and old cemetery, but the climb up to the castle offered the best views. Besides reaching the awesome castle and a vantage point over the entire city, you have to climb Prague's hill to reach a first rate (formerly?) monastic brewery. Although there were only four beers to choose from, every one was excellent and unique. The food was also generously portioned and my goulash was full of fresh meat and flavor. We found a number of great beers during our time in Prague and I gained a new appreciation of the simple and refreshing Bohemian pilsners and lagers.

Goulash at the monastery 

The Lobkowicz Palace collection was a fascinating cultural experience. The Lobkowicz's were a super influential Czech family who had all of their land appropriated and were forced to flee during the Czech communist period. When the iron curtain fell, the family returned and preserved their estates as a piece of history. The palace is fascinating as a place full of super cool old stuff (weapons, original Beethoven manuscripts, instruments, ect) and for a great audio commentary that guides you through the region's history from the perspective of the major events surrounding the Lobkowicz family. After visiting the palace, I started to notice Lobkowicz stuff everywhere.

Some of the great beers in Prague

Vienna

Our first stop: schnitzel the size of your face

Vienna was the most beautiful city of my trip. The city reminds me of a combination of Italy and Germany. German was the main language, and the first evening we had schnitzel the size of our heads. But wine was more popular than beer, gelato was the dessert of choice, and the architecture was somewhat mediterranean. The next time I return to Vienna, I plan on making a day trip to the Alps that surround the city.

Schonbrunn Palace

The trip to Schonbrun Palace and its gardens was fun, as was learning about the famous Empress Sisi and the rise and fall of her family's empire. My favorite cultural experience was the Kunsthistoriches Museum. In addition to having an impressive collection, the museum itself is an incredible structure filled with marble and gold. It was built at the height of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and so no expense was spared.

A fairground in Vienna had a respectable collection of pinball machines, including Medieval Madness

Budapest

Delicious food!

Budapest was an exhausting city but full of new places to explore. We started our time there with a three hour walking tour from an incredible hostess who also pointed us to a great local restaurant where I enjoyed more delectable goulash. Budapest is actually divided into two sides - the hip Pest and the more posh Buda. We went to some fun bars built in old ruins over in Buda and then spent the next day soaking at the Szechenyi Turkish baths. The baths were a series of indoor and outdoor pools marketed for their mineral composition and alleged health benefits. The elderly population can have their season passes paid for by the national health system, and indeed on our Wednesday visit the place was filled with older men and women soaking in saunas or hunching over jets.

Church along our walking tour

Buda is home to some nice restaurants (still cheap by US, and especially London, standards) and a giant hill that gives you a fair view across the city. Still, for young travelers, most of the action was in Pest.

Rub the statue's belly for good luck!

Istanbul

View across the channel 

After spending about three days in each of these cities, we ended our trip with six full days in Istanbul. We were all excited to be in a part of the world so different from anywhere we'd been before. In Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and to a somewhat lesser extent Budapest, english was common and the cities were definitely Western in their socialization. We were hoping for something different in Istanbul. Minarets broadcasting calls to prayer were a welcome change of pace from the bells of cathedrals that had dominated most of my travels, and the views out into the Black Sea were beautiful. Given that I was visiting an Islamic state, I was surprised at the level of secularization. While there were plenty of burqas, there were also plenty of skinny jeans and fashionable head scarves. The highly imperfect analogy that I use is that Istanbul was as Islamic as a rural southern part of the US is Christian. I imagine that the rest of Turkey is much less cosmopolitan.

The Hagia Sophia

During our week in Istanbul, we stayed at a hostel in the Beyoglu, which is right across the river from Fatih where all the big sites like the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are. Using another imperfect analogy, I would call Beyoglu the Brooklyn of Istanbul, just in the sense that it seems to be a place where more people, and often younger people, live. Beyoglu is probably most famous as the home of Taskim Square, the site of many protests over the past year and a half. I enjoyed staying in Beyoglu because I thought the food was better and cheaper and it was nice to get a sense of Istanbul residents living outside of the main tourist area. I was struck by how the roads around the major sites were all perfect, and there was an excellent tram system running from Beyoglu through the main areas of Fatih. However, outside of these major and tourist-filled corridors, the roads were uneven and public transit sparse.

View from river cruise

The big mosques and sites in Istanbul were amazing, but I was underwhelmed by the food (which was good), but I had been led to believe that Istanbul was one of the best places for street food. I would like to return someday and explore more of the city, which is huge and home to over 14 million people.

I was happy to be able to explore so much of the world I had never been to before! Hopefully I will be back to see more.