Alex and I spent the last two and a half weeks exploring Central and Eastern Europe. The weather was a bit colder than we've been used to, but the cities we saw were amazing. Here are our top takeaways.

1. The Holocaust, World War II and post-war Communism have really impacted these countries in a meaningful way. From the killing of innocent civilians to economic hardship, we definitely felt the lingering effects as we explored. We made a point to see many of the museums / monuments dedicated to these horrible times in our history along our trip and they left a lasting impression on us.

2. That said, we found it a bit jarring that in each place we went there seemed to be a competition of sorts about who was worse off during and after the war. Obviously each country wants to tell its story, and there were absolutely atrocities that occurred in each place we went, but we would've preferred to hear the history without the "Oh, you think Poland had it bad, let me tell you about Hungary!" attitude - it felt like some tour guides were unintentionally minimalizing the experience in other countries to highlight their own.

3. On a lighter note...wine is really cheap and the "house" varieties are quite good! Most people probably think more of beer in this area - which is definitely popular - but we continued to find that the local wines were great (and about $2 per glass!).

4. Meals are hearty and perfect for cold, dreary days - comfort food perfected! We loved the meat and carb-heavy dishes after a long day of walking around outside. And it went well with the cooler weather we had in each city!

5. Architecture is stunning and charming - the castles are straight out of Disney movies and fairy tales. Even walking down a quiet street we were in love with the old buildings (Mama Foster would be proud!).

6. While not as obvious as in India, there are definitely people aiming to take advantage of tourists. Taxis were our biggest problem but after our first unfortunate incident we were always on the lookout.

7. Waking up early for the sunrise has many benefits - not only did we get to enjoy beautiful scenery, but virtually no other tourists were in sight. We were then able to walk through the most touristy locations alone - very different than during the day!

8. All the cities we visited were very pedestrian friendly. Not only were the urban areas condensed enough that walking around wasn't a problem, but we found that motorists almost ALWAYS stopped to let pedestrians cross at crosswalks. A similar courtesy would not be extended in New York City!

9. Train travel in Europe puts everywhere else (except Japan) to shame. Our trains were very clean, ran on time and had top-notch amenities. Our sleeper car from Prague to Krakow seemed like the Four Seasons compared to our overnight trains in Thailand and Vietnam (though that's not really a fair comparison...).

10. English is everywhere. We thought that when we got to Europe we'd have to fend for ourselves with the local language more often, but so far everyone we've encountered has spoken at least some English. Makes it incredibly easy to get by!

Peak: Budapest. A completely unexpected gem and our favorite city in Central / Eastern Europe. HIGHLY recommend to anyone looking to take a trip to Europe!

Pit: Cab scams - be prepared for a hassle in each of these cities (though to a much greater degree in Budapest and Prague).

Next Stop: Amsterdam

We were a little more relaxed about our train ride to Prague because we learned from our last RailJet experience and booked seats in advance. Unfortunately for us, the seats we booked happened to be right in the middle of a block of seats reserved for some high school / teen-tour trip. These kids were ridiculously loud – screaming at each other from opposite ends of the car, playing loud music, etc. – and their chaperones did nothing about it. Fortunately they didn’t ride all the way to Prague and we had a quieter second half of the ride. I seriously hope we weren’t obnoxious like that when we were 16 or 17…

We got to Prague in the early evening and set out to get a cab to our hotel. We’d read about the atrocious taxi situation in Prague and were well-prepared to deal with drivers trying to rip us off. The first guy we talked to (at an official taxi stand!) said it would cost 25 euros for the 2-mile journey. After quite impolitely telling him no, we were able to find another taxi stand with some cops nearby. Here we got an honest driver and our fare was less than 8 euros…even with a generous thanks-for-not-ripping-us-off tip!

We settled into our hotel and found a great spot for dinner right around the corner: Vidlicky a Noze. This place was incredible - great food at very reasonable prices, smooth house wine and excellent service. It’s not super close to the main tourist center of Prague (neither is our hotel) but we’d highly recommend it to anyone who visits – probably our favorite meal here!

Our day on Thursday revolved mostly around a walking tour we booked through New Europe Free Tours. We grabbed a quick bite at our hotel, then walked over to Prague’s Old Town for our tour at 10am. Tijo, our guide for the next couple hours, showed us many of the city’s tourist attractions and gave us some history about each site. The tour stopped for lunch after a couple hours – something we didn’t think was going to happen – so we split off on our own at that point so we could try one of the restaurants Sarah had already scouted out on TripAdvisor.

Old Town Square is lined by beautiful houses, which now contain mostly shops. There was someone making big bubbles in the square too…which was nice to photograph, but a bit of a hazard in person (no one wants a giant splash of soapy water on their f… — Old Town Square is lined by beautiful houses, which now contain mostly shops. There was someone making big bubbles in the square too…which was nice to photograph, but a bit of a hazard in person (no one wants a giant splash of soapy water on their face!).

Prague's famous astronomical clock. It's the oldest one that still works!

Another of the beautiful buildings surrounding old town square.

After leaving the tour, Sarah and I headed to Rainer Maria Rilke for lunch. The food was very good – though not quite as good as Wednesday night! – and we both enjoyed taking a break from walking around while we ate a hearty Czech meal.

An hour or so later, we set out to see more of the city since it was such a nice day. We didn’t spend too much time at each site because we have four full days to see the city – so we took notes on what we liked best and where we’ll want to come back.

Walking across the Charles Bridge, Prague’s most famous bridge, we were amazed by the quantity of statues around the area. And how well maintained they all are!

One of the most interesting statues we saw: The Crucifix and the Calvary.

Looking across the river at the Prague Castle. This could practically be a postcard!

After we walked around the Prague Castle area for a bit, we headed back to Old Town across the Manesuv Most Bridge. From here we got a good view of the Charles Bridge…and the throngs of tourists still meandering across it! — After we walked around the Prague Castle area for a bit, we headed back to Old Town across the Manesuv Most Bridge. From here we got a good view of the Charles Bridge…and the throngs of tourists still meandering across it!

We were both ready to sit down for a while at this point. So, on the recommendation of our tour guide from earlier, we headed to the Prague Beer Museum to sample some local brews. Prague is definitely known for its beer and has some of the highest beer consumption per capita in the world (about 1.5 liters PER DAY, PER ADULT). The beers we tasted were very different than what we’ve had recently, but it was a nice break. And we both discovered a blueberry beer that turned out to be our favorite! We strolled back to our hotel, but paused a few times to snap some photos along the river as the sun began to set.

Probably our favorite photo from the day – the colorful houses and their reflection in the water was just awesome.

After two heavy Czech meals in a row, we were both eager to try something a little different. We were happy to see that a Spanish tapas restaurant was right around the corner from our hotel (lots of good eats around here!). We enjoyed a bunch of small plates, then rolled ourselves home to get some rest.

Friday we had a slower morning because we were both still a little worn out from the 7-ish miles we covered on Thursday. After sleeping in and working on the computer for a bit, we headed to Prostor for a healthier, lighter lunch. Sarah got the grilled salmon, I got the grilled chicken. We shared 50/50 (she was especially happy about that part). Next we walked around the neighborhood near our hotel en route to the Prague Castle for a closer look at some of the sights we saw from a distance on Thursday.

You don’t get architecture - or color! - like this on a random street in NYC!

Looking across the river at some of the houses we photographed yesterday evening.

Wonder if these swans realize how good their view is?

There’s a smaller bridge near the Charles Bridge that the locals have tried to turn into their version of Paris’ Love Locks. They still have a ways to go, but it was certainly a charming little corner of the city.

The Holy Trinity Column, outside St. Nicholas Church.

We began the walk up the hill to the Prague Castle. Fortunately most of the uphill part was on this street with a very gradual incline.

St. Vitus Cathedral, one of Prague Castle's most prominent features.

Another shot from the side – it’s so tall it’s very hard to photograph well!

Sarah was so inspired by the number of selfies being taken around us that she insisted on this one. Also she wanted to make sure I didn’t have any food in my beard ha!

We meandered our way down the hill and back across the river to T Anker, a rooftop bar that has good views of the city. Sarah’s research on T Anker proved very accurate – we had great views of the sunset from up there! Once the sun was behind the mountains, we walked over to Hanabi Sushi for another meal of non-heavy-Czech food. We had to wait a bit for a spot at the sushi bar to open up – apparently this is quite popular among the locals – but the delicious sushi was definitely worth the wait!

Most of the roofs in Prague are an orangy-red; this one we saw from T Anker stood out as defiantly bright red.

Saturday began with something we’d been planning since we arrived: sunrise on Charles Bridge. The bridge is usually mobbed with tourists and locals trying to sell souvenirs so we were happy to see that at 5:30am on Saturday morning there were only a couple other people up to take photographs and a handful of gap-year drunks wandering around singing. The views were stunning and we were glad we got up so early for it…though we went back to the hotel and took a nap for a few hours afterward!

Much better view at this hour than mid-day.

The sun is just about to peek over the roofs of Prague.

The streets at the base of Prague Castle - usually completely mobbed - were also deserted.

St. Nicholas Church with a Czech flag in the foreground.

Around the corner from the main tourist area here is a wall called the “John Lennon Wall.” During the day, there are about 200 tourists posing here at any given time. When we were there, though, we had it all to ourselves.

Getting up for the sunrise definitely has its benefits.

We set an alarm for 10:45, 15 minutes before the breakfast at our hotel ended. We hurried downstairs and had a big brunch, then showered and headed out to see more of the city. Our plan was to see the Jewish Museum today, but (foolishly) we didn’t think about Shabbat and found that everything was closed. Undeterred we decided to save that for our final day in Prague on Sunday and went back to the Prague Castle to see some of the areas we missed on Friday.

There were a bunch of locals around the Prague Castle on Saturday, more so than when we were there on Friday. We stumbled upon a picnic of sorts, and, since they were selling local food and beer, decided to join them for a bit to watch the people stroll through the area. We walked around the rest of the Castle for an hour or so, then made our way back down the hill toward Agave, a Mexican restaurant Sarah found for dinner. We’ve definitely been taking advantage of the non-traditional food while in Prague, but it's been necessary since Czech, Austrian and Hungarian food are all basically the same...

A nearly deserted alley we passed on our way to dinner.

We spent the day today exploring the Jewish Museum. It’s not one specific museum, but rather a collection of extraordinarily well preserved Jewish buildings in Prague. Hitler decided to maintain this area of Prague in order to keep a record of the “culture of the former Jewish race.” Though that’s a deplorable thought, we’re fortunate that some buildings like these survived World War II so we can visit and learn from them today.

The old Jewish Town Hall. It’s famous for its two clocks: one with Roman numerals, one with Hebrew numerals.

The old Jewish cemetery. The graves were literally stacked on top of each other because there was not enough space to bury the dead.

Looking up at the ceiling of the Spanish Synagogue.

We headed back to our hotel early today to grab a bite to eat at Vidlicky a Noze again, then took a cab to the train station. I’m writing this from our overnight train to Krakow, Poland, where we’ll spend the next three days. Compared to our overnight trains in Thailand and Vietnam, this train is awesome!!

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