After two years, we’re back in Europe. And I must say, it’s great to be back. A very long transit time (with an 8-hour Singapore stopover) saw us arrive in Frankfurt early morning.  A few hours to kill before the next leg of our journey gave us time for some vital sustenance – coffee, and lots of it. We had pre-booked our train tickets and I’m so glad we did. DB (Deutsche Bahn) allows you to pre-book tickets up to 3 months in advance of the travel date. By doing so, we managed to get our tickets for only about 1/3 of the normal buy-as-you-travel ticket.  Our train journey took us from Frankfurt airport (there’s a train station at the airport) directly to Munich main train station, on an ICE train (Inter-City Express) – very nice to travel on, and thanks to the little screens at the end of each carriage, we got to watch the train’s speed top out at 300km/hr between Nuernberg and Munich. A short wait in Munich, then on to Prien am Chiemsee on a slightly slower train (and IC), where we’ve spent the past week.

Prien is a really lovely spot, and (in my opinion) a great base for exploring the south of Bavaria. Of course, I’m a little bias, having previously spent a bit of time there, but each time I go back I reinforce my opinion I’ll post more here about what we’ve been up to, as I get some time…

One of the questions I was asked a while ago (and apologies for not replying!) was whether I had more info about the Underground Military Hospital in Budapest which is on my Top 10 List of Things to do in Budapest – also known as “Szikla Kórház” (Hospital in the Rock). Any info I have is purely anecdotal, but if it’s of help to someone, great!

We found out about it totally by accident: after visiting Matthias Church (Castle Hill), we happened to notice an A4 piece of paper stuck to the window of a glass-paned stall near the church. There wasn’t a lot of info there – I think it was just something like “Underground Military Hospital Tours” and the times they ran. We took a punt and hoped a tour guide might arrive (which she did). Our tour guide was very helpful. At that time (back in September 2007), the tours had only been running a short time (a few weeks I think). Our tour guide offered the tour in Hungarian, German or English. Our preference was English, but German would have suited – however, our tour guide wanted to practice her English, so English it was.

I have since found a site for the hospital, and whereas it was only in Hungarian until recently, they’ve now got an English site (thankyou!!!!). From this site, it also seems that the Nuclear Bunker next door (same cave system, just next to the hospital, hmm) is also open now – that will definitely be on our list. Last time we visited the Nuclear Bunker was only open on Thursdays for tours when there was an appropriate person available (not entirely sure who that was).

Thankfully, from their site, it seems that the entry fees haven’t gone up since we visited (they were about 10EUR each), but that 10EUR now includes the Nuclear Bunker. One of the things I enjoyed the most last time was getting to go into the actual bare caves “behind” the hospital, after the tour. Finding out about the history of the original caves was really interesting too. They’ve been used for a very very very long time it seems, for all sorts of purposes: storage (of food and people), crypts (?), etc.

Finding this tour was one of the highlights of our whole trip – as much because it was so totally random, as the actual historical interest (which was very cool too). I also liked that people 50-odd years ago had seen the hospital as being of so much significance that they preserved it, and that it eventually was opened to the public as a museum for tours. I’m so pleased to see now that the Hospital in the Rock seems to have become a popular Budapest tourist attraction compared to two years ago (from how often I see it mentioned in Budapestian tourist literature!). Hungary has a fascinating history and this is a great way to see a slice of that history.

It’s been almost two years now, so it’s about time we headed back over to Europe! This time it will be for longer, and with no work component (hoorah). So, the planning begins: where to go, what to see.  We have the airfares booked already, and will be making the trip about 4 1/2 weeks long. We enjoyed the sampling we did last time so much that we’re thinking to do a similar trail again. I know, I hear some of you wondering why we don’t choose a completely different track. To be honest, while we would one day like to visit the more mainstream areas of Europe, we really enjoyed the time we had last time, visiting some of more central European countries. This time we will also have a bit more time on our hands, so will be able to actually visit more. And, because I won’t be having to attend to work while over there, I’ll be able to catch up on a lot of what I missed last time.

Very excited, can’t wait to get back over there. Hmm – things that I’m particularly looking forward to: european pastry shops, the Budapest metro system (is that 4th line ever going to be finished?), getting to see Prague castle and not arriving 10 minutes before closing time (sigh), good strong coffee, the challenge of making myself understood, and best of all – getting to catch up with some family!

We found after our last trip that we came home and researched some things that we had seen, but which the translations of had just passed us by a bit. We ended up finding a lot more than we thought, and are really determined to get back and see and appreciate these things properly. Of course there’s so much to see and do that we won’t be able to fit it all in, but hey we can try The plan will be to use our longer stops as a base, rather than having to pack up everything and move to somewhere different every couple of days. I have found in the past that having to pick up and move every couple of days gets very wearing very fast. And, it wastes a lot of time – having to pack up, get to a train station, get to the new place, find the accommodation, dump luggage off, then go out and hit the town. Being able to base ourselves in places and then do day trips allows us to avoid that, and also gives us the opportunity to really get to know somewhere a bit, before we have to move on.

My next series of posts leading up to our trip will mostly be about things we saw last time, and things that we’re interested to either re-visit, or visit for the first time based on research we’re doing. Any suggestions / comments welcome

Out of all the castles we visited during our trip, Devin Castle (Hrad Devin) would have to come very close to being my favourite. Perhaps this is because rather than a huge palace full of period furniture, costumes, tour guides and claustrophobic tour groups, Devin Castle is a ruin. A short bus trip from Bratislava (catch the bus at the big interchange under the highway between the Old Town and Bratislava Castle) gets you out to Devin, a small village about 10kms from Bratislava.

Before entering the castle grounds we walked around the perimeter of the grounds. The ruins overlook the meeting place of the Danube and Morava rivers, and has historical significance from a more recent age. We were informed that the building below the castle (on the river side) was used as a look-out for guards watching for people trying to escape the communist east, across the river into Austria. This area of Slovakia has had a turbulent past, and beyond the perimeter of the castle is a monument to those who tried to escape during the Cold War. The pock-marked symbolic gate with its twisted metal iron gate stands out against the backdrop of the rivers, remembering those who went there hoping to make it across the river.

Entering the castle grounds (after paying the entry fee), on the hillside beside the path, there is a large timber shelter which houses some roman ruins which were excavated recently. The site of the castle is one of the most archeologically significant sites in Slovakia. There are other areas of the castle grounds where ruins from other eras are visible, alongside signs explaining the era and what the ruins are. Napoleon’s troops blew up the castle in 1809, so we have him to thank for having such cool ruins to walk around..

Now unlike a lot of other castles, at Devin you’re allowed to actually wander the ruins quite freely (what WHS?). Being a bit of a history buff, I loved the chance to walk around such an old structure. Parts of the castle have been reconstructed, and there are two exhibitions within the actual castle, describing some of the history. From the top of the castle there is a wonderful view back over Devin, and east into Austria. We spent the whole afternoon here, taking lots of photos of these very cool ruins.

Our last major stop was Bratislava. We’d never heard anything much about Bratislava, but from research done prior to arriving, it seemed that it was going to be considerably smaller than the other capitals we had visited, but was supposedly very popular with the English bucks-party scene… hmmm.

Again, we’d rented an apartment (and again – much better value than an hotel). This time, our apartment was right in the centre of the city. Next door to the American embassy in fact – so at all hours of the day we had Slovakian police and American security walking around. Literally ALL hours of the day.

Bratislava is indeed much smaller than cities such as Prague and Vienna. I wouldn’t recommend a week there – a day or two would be plenty as a stopover enroute to destinations further east or south. Finding accommodation in the centre of the city wasn’t difficult either. We were able to walk across to the Old Town, where there are various restaurants and of course the old streets. A quirky but enjoyable part of wandering the Old Town streets is locating all the bronze statues. Lifestyle statues of people in various attitudes decorate the pavements. The most famous of these seems to be The Watcher – a man leaning out of a pothole. Judging by the number of people taking photos of him (and the number of souvenir T-shirts with him on them), he’s arguably the most popular of the statues.

The Old Town itself is quite a nice afternoon’s exploring. Part of its charm is that it is so small, compared to places like Prague where you can get lost. Bratislava Old Town takes only a few hours to full explore, but it’s quite nice nevertheless. There are a number of run-down buildings which I hope on my next visit may be in the process of being restored… It would be a shame to lose such lovely architectural examples.

Bratislava Castle sits over the highway from the Old Town, but is still a relatively short walk – just look for the hill looming over the town. While it’s fairly impressive to look at, the castle itself wasn’t heart-stopping, but the grounds were nice enough to walk around, and the museum in the castle houses the Venus of Moravany (a prehistoric statue). We weren’t really in the mood for a museum, so we gave it a miss. While wandering around the courtyard though, we did find some stairs leading down to who-knows-where. My husband, being the curious type, took the stairs and we found ourselves in a tunnel under the courtyard, which leads to a large well, constructed in the 15th Century. A plaque on the wall explains the history of the well. No one seemed to be manning the entrance to the tunnel, but it’s a nice little 10 minute distraction.

While up at the castle, it’s also worth looking out over to the other side of the river, where you see rows upon rows of apartment blocks. They all look very similar, and I have no idea how you’d tell them apart from each other.

One thing we learnt very quickly in Bratislava – more so than in other cities – was to really check the prices on menus outside restaurants. By the time we came to Bratislava, we had gone from the Euro, to the Forint, back to the Euro, to the Czech Koruny, to the Slovak Koruny, so we were lagging a bit with our conversions. Particularly in the Old Town, cafes and restaurants will easily charge AUD$20 for a salad. We learnt our lesson well!

We arrived in Prague late evening – much later than anticipated. We had called ahead to let our lift know that we’d be late, and had been told that was no problem – they’d meet us at the station and drive us to our accommodation (we had rented an appartment which works out a lot better value than a hotel). So upon arriving in the main train station in Prague we had hoped to see our lift waiting… but it was not to be. Now, we’d been told already that the main train station is not somewhere to hang out at night time if you have a choice. Hmm.. We wandered around the station, looking for someone with a sign. Walking walking walking… Eventually, a guy came running in from a side door, out of breath and full of apologies. Whew.

Our appartment was over in Mala Strana – an area of Prague west of the river, and out of the most touristy areas. There are also lot of embassies in this area. We had been warned that the prices in the tourist areas were fairly exorbitant, but Mala Strana proved to be a happy medium – still very close to the sights of the centre of Prague and definitely still possessing the “Prague atmosphere”, but without the high prices in restaurants and cafes. A tram came close by our appartment so if we were feeling lazy we could just hop on (although it was such a short distance we only did that once).

Well – what to say about Prague – we loved it! It’s a very distinctive city, both in architecture and attitude. Full of tourists, you do need to watch your belongings (made easier for us because we were two) – a couple of times we did see people being approached by less desireable types and possibly relieved of their belongings. It’s a vibrant city which constantly draws you in with its unique buildings, winding Old Town streets, and smiling souvenir vendors.

Out of three days we had in Prague, it was pretty rainy and drizzly for two days. Still, we tried to get out and about as much as we could. We walked the streets of the Old Town (how confusing are they!!), visited the Powder Tower, Charles Bridge, and the castle. Unfortunately the castle was about to close as we arrived, so we’ve put that on our list for next time we visit Prague. We also spent a lot of time checking out the local fare – bakeries, cafes, restaurants. A beautiful city, and I’m really looking forward to visiting next time (hopefully with some snow!!).

We left Prien and headed for Prague. Our good intentions of getting to Prague before the end of the day were thwarted though, when we found we’d missed the only close connection for the day. Oh well. We caught the train to Salzburg and spent a few hours there, waiting for the connecting train to Prague.

Salzburg is a great place to while away a lazy afternoon. After dumping our backpacks in lockers at the train station, we made our way through the Mirabell Gardens, then across the river (making a detour past the Hotel Sacher shop in Salzburg, just to pick up a piece of the wonderful Sacher Torte, brought in from Vienna especially).

The area around the cathedral was full of markets – mainly stalls of various trades and craftsmen – blacksmiths, silversmiths, musical instrument makers, timber-workers, and the list went on. And of course lots of people wandering around enjoying the late September sunshine. When I lived in Germany I had spent a lot of time in Salzburg (at Christmas time it’s just beautiful), so I wanted to visit a couple of my old haunts.

One of these was St Peter Stiftskeller – a fantastic restaurant, part of which is carved into the cliff-face. As much as I would have loved to stop for some of the delicious Goulaschsuppe, we only had time for a cappuccino (and photos of course). This restaurant would have to top my list of best restuarants in Europe – the atmosphere, the food, the service. It certainly must have something going for it – it’s the oldest restaurant in Central Europe, open since 803AD.

Alas, after our coffee it was time to make our way back to the train station. We did however stop to listen to, and buy a CD from a street artist – spanish guitar (and very good spanish guitar). Even if you are only ever passing through Salzburg, I would highly recommend taking a few hours to wander around – there is a lot to see, even if you’re short on time.

After ECDL2007 had finished, my husband and I took a week and a bit to have a break and travel around, before heading back to Australia. First stop after Budapest was Prien am Chiemsee, in southern Germany. I lived in Prien for a few months, back in late ‘99. I hadn’t been back since, but as it’s quite a beautiful little place I really wanted to go back.

Nothing had changed (apart from there being no snow at that time of year (Sept), whereas it was covered in snow when I was there last). We managed to get to Prien on the last weekend of their big summer season – so everyone was still out and about, and all the “touristy” things were still in full swing.

We took a boat out onto the lake (Chiemsee) and we caught the ferry across to the islands – for those of you looking for somewhere nice to visit, Prien is lovely. The largest island on the lake has a castle built by Ludwig II of Bayern (slightly crazy guy) who built lots of castles throughout southern Bavaria. The smaller island houses a convent. We stopped for afternoon tea at a beer garden type place on the Fraueninsel (island with the convent). My gastronomically-adventurous husband decided that the un-refrigerated smoked herring in the cabinet looked like a good bet (the smell was enough to turn me away!) – it was served with pickled horseradish and a slice of good solid brown bread. Hubby hadnt tried pickled horseradish before (it’s hot hot hot) so got a bit of a shock when he took a large mouthful. The smell of the herring lingered with us for the rest of the afternoon…

The highlight for me though, of our day and a half in Prien was Sunday night. We had seen posters around the town advertising a target shooting competition and my husband was keen to find out more – alas, we couldn’t find where this competition actually WAS. Late Sunday afternoon, we inadvertently stumbled upon the location of the competition (in a guest house / pub / gun club sort of behind the town). We decided to have a go, and I who have never held a gun before managed to take out the Women’s Competition, and actually came second overall. After some confusion and much bayerisch conversation, we established that as we would not be in town by the time the award ceremony was on, I would receive my prize there and then (a lovely watch!). I was absolutely chuffed, and can’t wait to go back to visit FSG.

This workshop took place on the last day of the ECDL2007 Conference in Budapest, Hungary. The participants were from all over Europe, and each had slightly different purposes in attending the workshop. One of the things that struck me during the day was that although everyone comes from different backgrounds and circumstances, they were still keen to talk to each other and find out how other people were approaching the concept of repositories within their own institutions, and what difficulties people were finding.

Several presentations were given on an actual “Repository Ecology”, and people’s interpretation of what that meant. There was quite a range of interpretations, and of course, many of which varied from what MY interpretation had been – it was clear that we had all thought of Repository Ecology based on our own backgrounds and experiences. All the presentations given though, were extremely valid and also showed that the concept of what a Repository Ecology actually is, is perhaps too broad to be functional.

We had a couple of quite technical, indepth presentations of how an ecology such as this would exist. Based on my experiences at the time (being part of the RUBRIC project which was such a large collaborative effort), my primary thought process when looking at the concept of a Repository Ecology was how it would work on a ‘people-scale’ – ie how people would communicate effectively, what tools they would / could use to facilitate this, who would be a central point of contact / driver, what infrastructure has to be in place to support this. So this was what I based my presentation around. I guess it’s a different level of looking at the repository ecology concept.

What I really enjoyed about this day, was that no one was trying to be prescriptive and say that Solution X was the only way to go. Instead, everyone was giving their input into all the different levels of the Ecology and how they would operate. I found it a very worthwhile day, and really enjoyed seeing people from such a variety of repository backgrounds get their heads together to come up with suggestions about how to establish a Repository Ecology throughout Europe. I’ll be keeping tabs on what happens from here, to see how it all develops.

Spending a week in Budapest gave us ample opportunity to discover all sorts of interesting aspects of the city. I was going to make this a top 5 list of things to do, but couldn’t limit it to just 5, so have doubled it. We didnt’ get around to everything, but out of all the things we did see and do, here are my top 10 cool (read interesting) things to do…

10. Budapest Metro. The Budapest metro system is worth a mention of its own. The trains hurtle along at speeds that seem unlikely for trains of such age. The interior condition of the trains is fantastic – the old-style green interior walls with chrome trim take you back to times long before I was born. The steep escalators to get to the underground stations are some of the steepest and deepest I’ve ever come across, complete with bakelite grip on the escalator stairs. The underground is fast, efficient and has an air of past eras. Just make sure you have a validated ticket at all times, as the ticket-checkers mentioned on travel sites do exist – they wait at the exits to the stations and can slap you with a fine if you ticket is invalid.

9. Chain Bridge. Being the daughter of an engineer, I had to spend some time admiring the Chain Bridge. It gives the impression of withstanding the ages – it’s large, solid and very well-built. Looking at the smaller details of the bridge such as its end points and mid-towers makes a walk across this bridge quite educational.

8. Parliament Building. This one is kinda hard to miss if you’re anywhere on the river. It’s large, ornate facade dominates the river frontage in the centre of the city. It’s spectacular in its own right, and well worth the walk around. When we were there, we weren’t able to get near the actual building, but it was good to walk around and look at the outside nonetheless.

7. Gellert Hill. On the Buda side, south of Castle Hill, you may notice a statue on a hill of a lady holding something aloft. Follow her, and make the trek up that hill and you’ll find Gellert Hill. The lady is in fact the Liberty Statue, and is holding a palm branch aloft, commemorating the Soviet liberation of Hungary from Nazi forces during WWII. It now stands as a monument to those who sacrificed their lives during the war. The hill itself provides good views over the city, and down the river.

6. Museum of Military History. Situated up on Castle Hill, if you’re into military history this is the place to spend a few hours. It is jam-packed with seemingly hundreds of examples from Hungarian military history through the centuries. Although I’m not hugely into military history I found it very interesting and a good way to spend a couple of hours.

5. Monument Park. I didn’t actually get out to this park, but my husband spent an afternoon there and his photos said enough. To get out there, you have to take a train, then a bus, then another bus, but it seems like it’s worth it. Budapest is one of the few cities which, after the fall of Communism, didn’t tear down and melt the Communist-era statues adorning the city. Instead, they were moved to a park outside the city centre where people can now wander amongst these relics of a past age. The sheer size of some of these statues is impressive, as are the attitudes of many of them – workers, soldiers – their bronze faces all very earnest.

4. Pizza Marzano. After some dismal attempts to find a nice restaurant, towards the end of our stay (second last night) we stumbled across this restuarant. The staff were fantastically friendly, spoke good English (our Hungarian is appalling), and the food was fantastic with heaps of choices (including vego!). This restaurant made such a good impression on us that we booked for the following night as well and are happy to recommend it to anyone travelling to Budapest. There are three of them around Budapest – we went to the one on Batthyány Ter.

3. Elizabeth Tower and chairlift (Libegö). This was quite an unexpected find, and doesn’t seem to feature in many of the guidebooks. Out on the far western side of Buda, where the mountains start, there is a hill with a tower on top – János Hill. We had seen the tower, but were not sure how to get up the hill to the tower (or if in fact it was anything worth seeing!). After considerable investigation, my husband discovered that there is a chairlift which runs up the hill. We took the chairlift up, and walked the extra bit to the top of the hill to the tower. The tower was named after Elizabeth, an Austro-Hungarian queen who was, it seems, much loved by her people. The tower provides an amazing view – almost the entire city can be viewed from the top, along with a 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. The ride up and back down the chairlift also gives great views – jump on at the bottom, and you pay at the top. You can also access the tower by the Children’s Railway – we didn’t get there, but it’s on our list for next time.

2. Matthius Church. This church is pretty hard to miss if you’re up on Castle Hill. There is a small entrance fee, but it’s worth it for the inside. The inside walls of the church are painted – every square inch. Intricate patterns and motifs adorn every spare bit of space inside the building. The church also contains the oldest piece of stone carving still in its original place – carved in 1260 it is on a stone pillar and represents a monk (scholar) showing a younger man a book.

The church also houses the Crown of the Crooked Cross. We had heard of this crown, and were keen to see if the cross on it really is crooked (it is!). The room housing the crown also has lots of information about the crown and its history which provides a lot of insight into the Hungarian people and their history.

We were a little surprised to find a room full of relics as well, in Matthias Church – including part of a skull and a complete foot (not sure who the owners were…).

1. Underground Military Hospital. We stumbled upon this quite by accident. After visiting Matthias Church on Castle Hill (it’s more a cathedral than a church), we walked past a glass booth with signs mentioning tours through an underground military hospital. Thinking it sounded interesting, we waited for a tour guide to arrive. When she arrived, we were informed that the normal front entrance to the tour was closed and that we would have to enter through the exit. We followed our guide through the streets of the Castle District until we arrived at a huge iron gate across the entrance to what appeared to be an underground bunker of sorts. With a degree of trepidation, we followed our guide in (who locked the iron gate behind us…), and found ourselves in the underground network of tunnels, which is underneath Castle Hill. There are something like 10km of tunnels underneath the Hill, and amongst them a military hospital and a nuclear bunker (we didn’t get to see the bunker). The military hospital was built for use in WWII and was also used during the 1956 Revolution. It’s well worth the visit – the hospital has been preserved for the last 50 years and makes you feel like you’re walking back in time – the kitchen is even still authentic. The hospital is also full of wax dummies (of patients) to make it very realistic.

Deeper into the mountain are bare tunnels, which we got a glimpse of, along with indications of how the tunnels have been used through the ages – storage of food and people (living and dead), and a good hiding place.