Meshing Past and Present

[jonb]

and building up a cultural diversity no one would have thought a eastern european country would ever achieve.

I went to Leningrad in the early 70's, and spent two weeks of joy drinking and going to illegal art shows. East Europeans are great it is only their governments that hold them back, and even then as a teenager I could see the cracks all over the place.

[Annik]

Frankly, this is not a new idea and I've seen better executions of it.

[thesummerqueen]

You're welcome to share. I know it's not new, but I felt like sharing the concept.

[Annik]

Unfortunately, I don't take good notes in class and I see a lot of this on Reddit. I would share if I could, because I've seen ones that are very stirring. Including one featuring the famous photo from the Great Depression with the worried looking mother and children. I agree that it's an interesting concept, I've just seen it done better.

[Something completely different]

I left out Vienna... which we visited between Berlin and Prague.
I went in 2002, so Berlin was unified. The guy at the hotel we stayed at schooled me one morning over breakfast. They had a kind of corny thing of putting your national flag on your table during breakfast, as this was during the build up to the US's invasion of Iraq, I swapped our flag for a left over Canadian one. The guy kind of went off on me about having national pride, I tried to explain that it wasn't lack of national pride, rather it was embarrassment about what our country was doing. He shrugged it off, and made the point that even if what the leaders are doing was embarrassing, one should still have a sense of national pride. I can respect that.

I realy dont like vienna, and what you wrote down here realy sounds typicaly like vienna. the most arrogant people on this planet! Vienna sees itself as a great cultural capital of the german speaking world. when in fact almoust every importent writer and scientist from austria died in poverty or political exil.

Prague... we didn't really leave the city center and people were rude. We got a lot of the, "Fucking tourists" vibe. But it was gorgeous. Best thing about Prague was we visited before they went on the Euro, so a liter of beer was about $0.75. Lots of drinking ensued.

rude? wow, i never met a rude tschek in all of my life, my expirences were more fascinating. especialy the cafe slave, i went there because of it`s reputation and thought it would be filled with tourists and was suprised and fascinated to find people writing peotry and the general flair was just amazing.
the best beer in the world is from tschek republik, but the prices have gone up together with it`s economy, the tschek republic isn`t that sterotypical former eastblock nation anymore, the old stalinist buildings have disapeared and the country prospers.

The train was the way to go. We did an overnight sleeper car between Prague and Zurich which was interesting. We don't really have a lot of rail travel here in the states.

did you privatise it. I cant think of a better way of transportation. It`s kind of a thing wich is used by a lot of people and isn`t realy expensive here.

I can't wait for our boys to get a wee bit older... There's too many places I want to visit and I worry there won't be enough time/money!

i cant wait to spend as much time as possible abroad before i become a father
I was planning to go on a trip to India within the next 2 years.

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I went to Leningrad in the early 70's, and spent two weeks of joy drinking and going to illegal art shows. East Europeans are great it is only their governments that hold them back, and even then as a teenager I could see the cracks all over the place.

russia has pritty bad reputation currently here so a trip to that place is very unlikely within the next few years.
you kind of sound like my dad when talking about the soviet union, but then your almoust as old as my dad

[jonb]

Bloody hell, he must be ancient!

[festive1]

I realy dont like vienna, and what you wrote down here realy sounds typicaly like vienna. the most arrogant people on this planet! Vienna sees itself as a great cultural capital of the german speaking world. when in fact almoust every importent writer and scientist from austria died in poverty or political exil.

Vienna was "meh" but Shonbrun, was beautiful! I loved the palaces we toured. And I play piano, so being in the palace where Mozart played... well, it tugs my heart-strings.

rude? wow, i never met a rude tschek in all of my life, my expirences were more fascinating. especialy the cafe slave, i went there because of it`s reputation and thought it would be filled with tourists and was suprised and fascinated to find people writing peotry and the general flair was just amazing.
the best beer in the world is from tschek republik, but the prices have gone up together with it`s economy, the tschek republic isn`t that sterotypical former eastblock nation anymore, the old stalinist buildings have disapeared and the country prospers.

I'll just point out that you are a German, and I am an American who doesn't speak any foreign languages... that may be the issue we had there, my husband only speaks French and some Arabic.

did you privatise it. I cant think of a better way of transportation. It`s kind of a thing wich is used by a lot of people and isn`t realy expensive here.

Amtrak is the train service here. I believe it is subsidized by the government, but most people either take a bus, plane, or drive. Mass transport? Not in America, my friend.

i cant wait to spend as much time as possible abroad before i become a father
I was planning to go on a trip to India within the next 2 years.

Now that I have kids, I can't wait to show them the world! My husband travels to Africa several times a year for his work. In fact when we got engaged he told me I had to go for a visit, and very seriously he said, "If you don't enjoy Africa, I don't think we can get married." Twist my arm :-P That was another amazing trip. But I really want my kids to experience it. If you haven't been, go. We only went to Kenya (which my husband refers to as "the Disneyland of Africa"), but it was just awesome. The landscape, the animals, but mostly the people we met, just a really great trip.
Asia is what we are planning for our next major trip. We both want to see India and just puddle jump from there all the way to Japan (I really want to see the cherry blossoms in Japan, we have them in DC, and I want the total package deal). It'll probably be awhile before we can do it, but it will be done, it's on both of our lists of things to do before we die.