Churches. I saw a LOT of Churches.
This past summer, my friends and I decided to take a trip to the eastern half of Europe. We scraped together the last few pennies of our SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship!) stipends and spent two weeks frolicking around Budapest, Vienna, Český Krumlov, Prague, and Istanbul. We’d never been to any of the countries we visited, so it was all very exciting.
My journey began in Miami. I took a flight from my home airport (Orlando) to Miami, and waited for my Turkish Airlines flight. Aboard the plane, I got great views of Miami Beach and promptly fell asleep until it was time to eat. Thirteen hours and a connecting flight later, I met up with my friends who’d flown in from Houston and LA to tackle the first city: Budapest.
In classic European fashion, we had a baguette, meats, and cheese for breakfast most days. In Budapest, we saw St. Stephen’s Basilica, the Opera House, and Buda Castle. The city was so lively and definitely exceeded any expectations I’d had for the trip already. My only gripe, however, was the recommendation to get langos. A Hungarian deep-fried flatbread with weird taste palettes, langos was an assortment of incompatible flavors and textures. As an acclaimed food critic, this was the worst meal of the trip by far, and I would never tell anyone to get this dish. Next up was Vienna!
Here we went to some amalgamation of churches, biked a few kilometers around an island park, and visited the Hofburg’s summer palace. The history behind the region was fascinating to learn and was accentuated by the number of landmarks there were to visit. We went to churches, palaces, and the state opera, all within a few kilometers of the inner city. Vienna was my personal favorite of the trip, closely followed by Český Krumlov.
Český Krumlov wasn’t originally on our list, but my friend Philippe watched one reel about it and said it looked cool, so we altered our plans a bit to spend a night in the town instead of Prague. His online searches didn’t lie, as we were all amazed by the Czech countryside. The layout of the town was gorgeous, and you could walk end to end in about ten minutes. We took a tour of the famous castle present there, then spent the rest of our time exploring and stopping by craftsmen shops.
When we got to Prague, we weren’t sure how much better the trip could get, but boy were we pleasantly surprised. Prague was also a major hit. We saw the Cathedral of St. Vitus, Prague Castle, the clock tower, and more. I got my pocket watch here, that members of my house have come to accost me over, calling it “performative” or something. With this, we were ready to make our final push to the last destination: Istanbul.
Istanbul was a calmer change of pace from the other European cities and held equally interesting historical sites to visit. We went into Hagia Sophia, visited palaces on the Asian and European sides, and took a sunset cruise along the strait between the two continents. I was especially happy to have seen Hagia Sophia, as I had known about its history since I was young and to see it in person was awesome. All in all, we had a great trip in Europe, but I’ve definitely had my fill of churches for the next few months.
