Prague, Czech Republic — Malá Strana | Hradčany | Staré Město | Nové Město The three other chapters in this series focused on Prague’s main tourist attractions at or near the Vltava River — the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, etc. Those with only a day or so…
Prague, Czech Republic — Malá Strana | Hradčany | Staré Město | Nové Město In a city densely packed with eye candy over a wide area, it was hard to pick favorite spots. I chose the Hradcany (Castle District) as my fave, but the Old City — the Staré Město…
Prague, Czech Republic — Malá Strana | Hradčany | Staré Město | Nové Město Without question, the Prague Castle district was always the first thing whenever I reached downtown Prague and looked over the Vltava river. The first photograph shows this scene from approximately the Prague Opera…
Prague, Czech Republic — Malá Strana | Hradčany | Staré Město | Nové Město This chapter of the Prague travelogue series covers the so-called Lesser Quarter, the west bank of the Vltava River south of the Hradčany Castle District, from the Charles Bridge to the old city…
Karlovy Vary had to be one of the prettiest cities I had ever seen — for three reasons. The first was the almost complete makeover the city has been given since 1989. The paint almost smelled as fresh as the…
OR, The “Rest of the Story” Behind My Attendance at the Slovenia-Romania World Cup soccer game, November 2001 International sport is a passion of mine, and has been since the time I witnessed the Brazil-Cameroon match at Stanford Stadium…
At a time when several former Soviet republics turned violent (such as Yugoslavia), the former Czechoslovakia also divided, but completely peacefully. Born were the Czech Republic (or “Czechia”) and the Slovak Republic or Slovakia, created with only one point of contention…
As western tourists have steadily flocked eastward to the former Warsaw Pact nations, the likes of Budapest and Prague — two capital cities — are the most common destinations. But sandwiched in between is another capital with an equally rich…
My visit to Trnava was on the train ride back to Bratislava after visiting Trenčín. Located just thirty minutes away from Bratislava, Trnava (ter-NAH-va) was touted by the Slovakian tourism center as a nice excursion from the capital and not too…
Trenčín (TRENCH-een) was one of the neatest little discoveries I ever made in my travels (this was true when I originally wrote this blog post in 2001 and remains true as of the 2017 update). This pristine little Slovakian town…