Travel Tips

lest we forget, or delete the thousands of digital pictures I took, this was my itinerary

This elegant glass and steel train station fascinates on a number of levels. Designed by Gustave "The Tower" The extremely light structure is home to a dysfunctional tourist office, a smattering of szendvic vendors, and quite possibly the finest McDonald's Hamburger Restaurants in the known universe, serving awesome hungarian cappucinos at premium prices in a Habsburg style grand cafe.

Next door is a megamall which looks like it was dropped in from California, below is an underground concourse with dodgy gyro grills and watch repairs. Outside are trams to points all over the Magyar capital.

But I like the great railway station best as a point of departure for Transylvania, and a gateway back therefrom. McDonald's coffee never looked better.

Oh what a lovely neo-Gothic masterpiece. Type "Budapest Parliament" into your search engine

Szentendre is an atmospheric, historic town just about 20 kilometers north of Budapest. When Belgrade fell to the Turks in the 14th century (Never Forget), thousands of Serbian refugees settled here. The town is centered on a svelte baroque church (right), but is 100% orthodox on the interior, complete with incense, the Greek-style screen, burning incense, and a clone of actor Rade Serbedzija selling tickets and postcards.

At left is the catholic church, located on a plateau about 15 meters above the Serbian church. The streets in the lofty Szentendre upper town reminded me of Sarajevo, low-slung ramshackle tile roof affairs, dug into the hillside. Find the Szentendre page for some pictures of little Sarajevo.

I found myself in the capital of Transylvania at dusk on a Thursday evening without a clue. I left the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet behind, so it was an accidental adventure finding a place to stay. The first hotel I tried was simply booked solid forever according to the burly besuited former party members guarding the reception desk. Inauspicious. But weirdly, the next place was vacant til the end of time, and for $30/a night, I would gladly have stayed there til the end of time. If I had that long.

Bistrita was one of the seven boroughs founded by the Germans- the so-called Saxons, (memo to amateur Serbian ethnographers: they were really from the Rhineland so they should be called Rhenish)and the place looks exactly like Ceske Budejovice with Dracula brand beer instead of Budweiser.

Upper left house is birthplace of Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula; "Son of the Devil". In old German woodcuts Mr. Dracula is shown taking dinner outdoors while columns of writhing wailing victims die an agonizing death. "Hello? Amnesty International? I'd like to report a crime against humanity!""

One of the scores of Saxon fortified churches of Transylvania. The fortified church is unique to southern Siebenburgen (German for Transylvania); and is a perfect synthesis of form and function. The Turkish invader usually made a lightning fast horseback attack on the innocent town. The townsfolk rushed for the church, the only building large enough to shelter them all. The church would be secured by two or three high walls with sentry towers, arrow slits in the church tower, and sometimes a moat. Inside this defensive ring the town deposited food and ammunition to withstand just such a siege. The lightning fast Turks usually did not have the provisions or ordinance to overcome the Saxons and eventually went away. Inshallah!