In case you didn't guess...
... I'm now back in London.
Arrived back last Thursday from my 3 week backpacking jaunt round Eastern Europe. Ended up visiting:
- Berlin, Germany
- Krakow, Poland
- Praha (Prague), Czech Republic
- Kutná Hora, Czech Republic
- CeskýKrumlov, Czech Republic
- Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Budapest, Hungary
- Split, Croatia
Seems like we did more than that, but I suppose we did visit Prague 3 times (don't ask!). Also got to go to Hungary, which wasn't planned, but our bus fromCeský Krumlov to Praha broke down, which meant we missed our flight to Croatia... We ended up at the main train station in Prague at 7pm, and went “which night train looks like fun?”. Was a good way of doing it, but I think we would've all preferred to go to Croatia instead. Also meant that I only got two days in Split, rather than 5 or 6 days... I could've visited the islands and Dubrovnik, which is apparently amazing. Oh well...
Was very interesting to go to Berlin - got to hear a lot about the cold war, and communism and the like. We even went on a walking tour done by an ex-army major, Nigel, who lived and breathed the cold war - was amazing. Also learnt a lot just travelling through former communist countries - really opened my eyes up about it all.
A lot of the cities were amazing - so old, and beautiful. Granted, Budapest wasn't so crash hot - it was a little grotty, but it was in the process of getting cleaned up.
Split, even though it was completely bagged by the Lonely Planet, was quite nice. Not a lot there, but by that point, we didn't care. A nice city to kick back and relax in. Had a very Venetian feel to it, combined with a bit of Greece. Nice place. Apparently Dubrovnik is much nicer, so I would've loved to have gone there.
Kutná Hora was a bit freaky - there's an ossuary there, which has the bones of 40,000 people arranged as a chandelier, a huge coat of arms, and various other ornaments - very freaky.
All in all, planning on going back to Prague - didn't get a chance to do any cultural type things there, and also Ceský Krumlov - extremely beautiful town. Both a bit touristy, but you can overlook that. Also want to go back to Croatia - a week or so sailing round the islands off Croatia, sounds good to me <IMG alt=":)" class="emoticon" src="/images/emotions/emotion-1.gif" border=0>.
Photos to come soon!