The Wooden Churches, Maramures, Romania
The history of the wooden churches of Maramures, which dot the villages of north western Romania is an interesting one. The Maramures region is primarily an Orthodox, or Greek, Christian…
The Other Side of Croatia
Instead of visiting the popular Croatian coast area as we’d planned (or, more precisely, casually envisioned), we spent a day on the opposite side of the country. The east of…
The (Second) Biggest Office Building in the World
As most American school kids can tell you, the biggest office building in the world is the Pentagon. As any Romanian–school kid or not–can tell you, the second biggest office…
Hungarian Horsemanship
Horses are a pretty big deal in Hungary, especially out on the great fertile plains (puszta) of southern Hungary. On a side trip from our float down the Danube with…
Night View of the Danube, Budapest, Hungary
As you walk around Budapest, you're confronted constantly with lovely Danube vistas, day and night. In fact, the buildings that line the river make up collectively a view that's been…
The Fantastic Painting of Matthias Church, Budapest
The Matthias Church at the top of the Buda castle hill has been through many iterations since the first church was built on the site in 1015. The first building…
The Circus, Budapest, Hungary
We sure do spend a lot of time in museums and churches and the like. So we thought we'd break up the week in Budapest with an old style–read Eastern…
Walking and Talking Budapest History
If a place is located between two powerful empires, situated on a major river, and at the crossroads of east-west and north-south trade, things are going to get complicated. It’s…
Danube and Parliament, Budapest, Hungary
Kris and I have been in Budapest for a week now, and we've spent much of that time walking along both sides of the Danube, crossing the bridges and strolling…