Vienna

Sorry to leave Prague behind but on to our final stop, Vienna. I liked it much more than I expected to. Contrasting Vienna to its neighbors, Prague and Budapest, you can see how it benefited from being free of Soviet occupation and how the others suffered. Vienna is perfectly modern and First World. It also feels rich in comparison to the others. The other cities have catching up to do - and they are working at it!

St. Stephen's cathedral, which dominates the square in the city center:

Vienna is another city on the beautiful Danube, though it isn't right on the Danube and they built a canal to connect to it. It's still lovely:

Scene of Vienna:

The legendary Hotel Sacher:

And Sacher's great gift to the world:

There is a great coffee culture throughout these cities, and many variations on tortes and cakes. 

The Schonbrunn Palace, a mini Versailles. That was my first reaction when I saw it, and it turns out it was modeled on Versailles. 

And the famous Lipinzzaner horses in their palatial stables:

Jewish Prague

The Jewish community in Prague is very old, with successive synagogues and cemeteries built on top of each other:

The oldest synagogue, called the New Old synagogue because it is built on the site of an older one, dates from 1270 and is one of the oldest in the world. It is still in use.

 Other synagogues in the very compact Jewish quarter:

And the magnificent Spanish Synagogue:

A Polish artist has created an open project to document where Europe's Jews lived before the Holocaust. When an individual's home address is located, and verified, the project places a metal plaque at that address. Here are two in Prague's city center:

Praha

Nestled in a bend in the river, Prague has been settled for at least 1500 years. Atop Castle Hill, Prague Castle has a commanding view of the river and the town. The Czechs call it the Vltava River but many of us know it by its German name, the Moldau, made so memorable by the great Czech composer, Smetana. This so beautifully evokes the wide and rolling river: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4NKzmfC-Q.

Scenes from the river:

Looking up at the St. Vitus cathedral at Prague Castle:

The changing of the guard:

And looking out through the gates of the castle:

Crossing the Vltava on the Charles Bridge:

A scene in Prague:

What a beautiful and captivating city!

On the road

After our sobering day at Auschwitz, we boarded our motor coach and headed for Prague. Throughout the trip, the roads were astonishingly good. The point of the EU is to foster trade and roads are a critical part of the infrastructure for commerce. Most roads were newly paved, with clear signage and passing lanes in steep terrain. There were road crews in many places, probably scrambling to finish projects before the first snow. Since we were headed mostly between major cities, the roads were probably equivalent to the interstate. But we also took some lesser roads and they were also good. This was not like driving in Mexico or Costa Rica. Quite impressive.

Oświęcim

The Polish town is Oświęcim, about an hour west of Krakow. The German name is Auschwitz. A former army barracks, it was transformed, along with nearby Birkenau, into a factory of death. 

We have seen these images so many times in books and films. Strangely, it looks exactly the way I expected. 

I knew it would be difficult to go here but feel strongly that we must honor the memory of those who died. We must also ensure that the fact of this place is not forgotten and we must educate each generation that these horrors occurred. Hannah Arendt described the Holocaust's perpetrators as the banality of evil. Auschwitz has a utilitarian banality. 

Through this portal, boxcars arrived with human cargo:

Growing up in a post-WWII, secular Jewish world, the Holocaust was a frequent topic, a reference point. My family lost relatives in the Holocaust. But for younger people, and for non-Jews, this is not familiar territory. I was surprised and heartened by how my tour mates absorbed the experience. Many had questions. Many bought books in the book store and started reading them on the bus to our next stop.  

There are countless searing images but, for me, this was the most heartbreaking:

These are tallit, prayer shawls confiscated from Jews when they arrived. Why these survived is a mystery. But the deeper mystery is why any of this occurred. What magic would happen when all the Jews were gone? It is such an unfathomable question. 

From hunger

So much of the food of Eastern Europe evokes the familiar cuisine of my Ashkenazi roots. Sour flavors from vinegar, brined vegetables, fermented yogurts, sour cream, and other cheeses. Dark breads with caraway. Plump and chewy rolls that might as well be bagels. Potato pancakes served with sour cream and apple mash. And chicken soup.

This is the food of people who were often starving. Potatoes, which are cheap and can last a long winter. The expression, from hunger, characterizes the desperation of people who had to make do with limited choices. Pickled and fermented foods last a long time. It's not the cuisine of people with many food options. But now, for me, these are foods that remind me of my childhood. We didn't eat this way out of hunger and we only ate this way for certain occasions. My father, a superb cook, would often slice a banana into a bowl of sour cream, which was a favorite treat.

The emphasis in this part of the world is on meat and potatoes. There are traces of vegetables but hardly the fresh, green, crisp foods we take for granted. And fruit is limited to pale gray grapes, bananas, and lots of apples. But not great apples.

They have the money to eat meat and it takes center stage, which does not leave a lot of options for vegetarians, though every establishment does its best to accommodate. Many of my travel mates relished hard core goulashes, sausages, and local favorites like venison medallions wrapped in bacon. All served on giant platters and intended as individual servings. Who says American portions are out-of-whack?

Breakfast was a generous buffet at most hotels, with a spread of pastries, breads, cheeses, sliced meats, pickled vegetables, and eggs. Every buffet featured a Nespresso-style coffee maker and the lattes and cappuccinos were delicious.

Krakow

Once we crossed the border between Slovakia and Poland, it was a short distance to the city of Krakow on the Visla River. It's one of the largest cities in Poland, though its population is about 700,000, and it is also one of the oldest. It has been a center for education for centuries, its Jagellonská university's graduates include Copernicus and Pope John Paul II.

There's an enormous square in the old city of Krakow, with an imposing church in the middle of it. Somehow, none of it made a big impression on me, perhaps because it was cold, drizzly, and dark. Adjacent to the Jewish quarter (ghetto), is Oskar Schindler's factory. I skipped that tour only because I found it so difficult to manage on slippery cobblestones. I also skipped a tour of a church built into a salt mine.

Slovakia

After three busy days in Budapest, we loaded up our comfy Mercedes motor coach and headed for Krakow, Poland. The route took us through Slovakia and up and over the Tatra range of the Carpathian mountains. These are mini-Alps and a popular ski and winter sports area. Since our route was mostly shrouded in mist, I didn't get much of a picture, but there are snow-capped peaks and thick forests.

We stopped here for lunch in a small ski area that is typical in the area. It was ringed by small hotels and buildings all designed to look like Swiss chalets. On the other hand, the Tatras are a continuation of the geological formations that pushed the Alps to their heights, so they have every right to look Alpine. The area is not going to be confused with St. Mortiz, but it is charming and the mountains are beautiful.

Kol Nidre

I arranged to attend Yom Kippur services at Congregation Szim Shalom in Budapest, a small Progressive congregation that meets in the Jewish Community Center. They could not have been warmer and more welcoming. The rabbi, a woman, even printed out a copy of her D'Var Torah (sermon) in English so that I could follow along. The cantorial soloist was a young man with a terrific voice and remarkable presence. A different man sang the Kol Nidre, and he was mesmerizing, which is the transcendent spiritual experience I look forward to all year.

Later during the service he sat next to me and offered me a prayer book, which I saw was in Hebrew and English. It was from the British Progressive Judaism movement, which is mostly equivalent to the Reform movement in the US. I thanked him for his offer but I actually was enjoying the congregation's prayerbook in Hebrew and Hungarian! As I read and heard the Hebrew, I made out the words in Hungarian. Some words are fairly transparent, such as Jeruzsálem. Others more obscure. It was an interesting challenge and had the effect of making the text fresher and more engaging.

When the prayerbook congregant offered me the book, I detected an unmistakable American accent. He said he was from Cincinnati and Kentucky. He came to Budapest for his wife. Turns out, she is the rabbi!

I had a chance to talk to the cantorial soloist as we got ready to head out into a chilly night. He is studying to be a cantor in Berlin and is in the first year of a four-year program. Let that wash over you for a minute - there is a cantor training program in Berlin!

One woman I spoke with explained that she had learned about her Jewish roots about eight years earlier and sought to explore, and then affirm, her Judaism. She formally converted and then had a Bat Mitzvah. I get the sense that there are a number of Eastern Europeans who are exploring and choosing Judaism. Meanwhile, her mother, who acknowledges the family's Jewish roots, won't have anything to do with it and won't attend services with her.

There were about 600,000 Jews in Hungary before WWII. They lived relatively unmolested lives until about 1944, when Hungarian Nazis cracked down. Those in Budapest were forced into a ghetto, the traditionally Jewish neighborhood surrounding the Dohány Street Synagogue. About 300,000 were sent to camps, many to Auschwitz in Poland.

There are about 100,000 Jews in Hungary today. That is a remarkable number.

Catching up

Spotty internet service and a packed schedule made it impossible to keep up this travel record in a timely manner. Poor service is okay if you are uploading a single image to Facebook - not so helpful when you have many large files. I could blame the infrastructure in former Soviet countries but there are plenty of weak connections in unmistakably First World locales, as well.

Onward...

The glittering Danube at night

From a boat cruise on Danube at night - impossibly cold and windy so I stayed inside the cabin.

This is the Parliament building, which is a strange mangling of architecture, somewhere between a seat of government and a church, and not quite either.

Hungarian Names

When I see the names of heroes and saints, street names, and churches, there are many names that are recognizable in English as Hungarian: László, Tibor, Béla, Károly, János. Hungary's success beyond its borders is quite an achievement for such a small country. André Kertész, the sublime photographer; László Moholy-Nagy, a founder of Bauhaus; the artist, Victor Vasarely; the graphic artist Tibor Kalman. Musicians Béla Bartók, Franz Liszt, Georg Solti. Everyone's favorite psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Of course, that's just a tiny sample. 

Dohány Street Synagogue

Still standing after more than 150 years and one of the largest synagogues in Europe, the Dohány Street Synagogue has been lovingly restored, though I think the work is never done.

Theodor Herzl was born adjacent to this site. It is in the Jewish district of Pest, which in WWII was turned into a ghetto and, sadly, site of atrocities.

The architect of the synagogue was brought in from Vienna and it has a Middle Eastern quality in the brickwork and the minarets. The interior didn't captivate me the way the exterior does - it seems more like a church than a synagogue. This is dark since it was a gloomy-ish day and I couldn't use a flash in the sanctuary.

Some detail:

St. Matthias Church

The steep bluffs that rise from a curve on the Danube on the Buda side of the city were the logical site for a fortress. It gives a breathtaking view in all directions. And since Budapest is still a mostly low-rise city, it's still a great vantage point. One of the heroes of the early era was Stephen, later St. Stephen or Szent István in Hungarian. He consolidated power, imposed Christianity, and defended Hungary against foreign invaders, establishing an era of peace during his lifetime. Once he died, however, the peace evaporated.

The first church on the Castle Hill site was built by Stephen. It was named after a 9th Century king.

The ornamentation of the tile on the roof is Oriental, as in Alhambra or Turkey. The interior is painted in highly decorative patterns.

Budapest street life

The ubiquitous tourist attraction:

Does it look gloomy and cold? It is.

Paris-ish

The Danube is mesmerizing and it's easy to see how it has inspired such great works of art. But here in Budapest, it's a big, wide river, not like the gently rolling Seine, which is delicate in comparison. The Seine is about 500 miles long, the Danube is more than 2,000. It drains Central Europe, so it's more of a mini-Mississippi, but I didn't much evidence of commercial ships, which might be more of a reflection on Budapest and Hungary than on the river itself.

A less bucolic, more typical urban scene:

This is the Pest side of the river, looking up at Castle Hill and at the Chain Bridge.

Scenes from Budapest: Hungary's Heroes

Lots of triumphal architecture celebrating great military victories and devastating losses. This gigantic square does both in recognizing 12 heroes in Hungarian history.

The Magyar tribes (Hungarians) arrived in the Carpathian Basin from the east, perhaps east of the Ural Mountains or through areas of Turkey, sometime around 830 AD. Their language is related to Finnish and Estonian, but none would recognize any cognates in the other language. There are 13 million Hungarian speakers, with 10 million in Hungary and the rest in neighboring countries. It's a landlocked country, ringed by mountains, so they have been limited in their reach. But by other measures, they have also been astonishing in their reach.

Budapest

The Chain Bridge, one of several prominent bridges that span the Danube. We are in Buda, with its steep bluffs making it an obvious fortification site, and atop Castle Hill, looking down at Pest (pronounced pesht), which is flat and the seat of commerce. The division reminds me of how I-35 traces the Balcones Fault, with flat, rich farmland to the east and rolling hills to the west.