It should come as no surprise that the city of Prague is an incredible destination for beer, being that the country of Czechia leads the world in per capita beer consumption. A year before I visited Czechia, I had done a trip to Belgium, and thought that nothing could top how much I was in... Continue Reading →
The Erste Bank Vienna Open is Austria's largest tennis event, an indoor hard court ATP 500 tournament that takes place every year in late October and draws some of the ATP's top players. Since its founding in 1974, it's been held in Wiener Stadhalle in the 15th district of Vienna, just west of the Innere Stadt.
As the one-time heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the cuisine of Vienna has been greatly influenced by the surrounding Central European nations. Dishes heavy on meat are popular in Viennese cuisine, such as Wiener Schnitzel and Tafelspitz, and the Viennese certainly value their sweets and coffee, with coffee shops and cafes being popular spots to... Continue Reading →
Hungarian cuisine is known to be some of the spiciest food in Europe, in large part due to the extensive use of spices, especially paprika, throughout many dishes. The paprika spice, made from crushed peppers, was first introduced to Hungarian cooking in the early 19th century and has since become a staple in the cuisine,... Continue Reading →
Food is the gateway into a country's culture. It's through eating traditional cuisines that we learn about the ingredients native to the part of the world we are visiting and the history that influenced the foods popular there today. Upon seeing poppy seeds on the menu everywhere in Slovakia I learned that the countries of... Continue Reading →
Czechia is the country with the highest per capita beer consumption in the world, known for its pilsners, and any country that holds that record has to have the cuisine to balance out all that beer drinking! Czech cuisine is full of hearty dishes rich in meats, breads, potatoes, and soups, with many dishes being... Continue Reading →
Vienna (Wien) is the capital of Austria and one time capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which left it full of intricate palaces and Baroque and Romanesque architecture. It's a culturally significant city, having once been home to classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart, and renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna today is elegant and refined, with its central arteries lined with restaurants and high end shopping.
Budapest, Hungary is a city of many personalities, as a result of the unification of the towns of Buda, Óbuda and Pest in 1873, with Buda and Óbuda on the west side of the Danube River linked to Pest on the east side by several bridges including the famed Chain Bridge. The Buda side is quieter, with the Buda... Continue Reading →
Bratislava is the one city that when I was telling people about my trip, was often met with "Where the heck is that?" The small capital of Slovakia is often overshadowed by the popularity of nearby Vienna, Prague, and Budapest. Bratislava became the capital of the Slovak Republic in 1993 following the Velvet Divorce that... Continue Reading →
If you're a fan of the macabre, there is a church in Czechia that is decorated in human bones known as the Sedlec Ossuary. It had been on my bucket list ever since I got into all things paranormal and morbid as a teenager, and with my recent trip to Prague I finally had a... Continue Reading →
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