<p>Agreed with member2008</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes it did.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sorry… what does Czech being a Slavic language have to do with anything? Slavic languages are not a definition of Eastern Europe.</p>
<p>Why don’t you all just answer the stupid question. </p>
<p>My vote is for Prague, mainly because i’ve heard Parisians are d-bags towards Americans.</p>
<p>Sorry for stealing your post man.</p>
<p>Personally, I dont know much about Prague, but I really like Central and Eastern Europe (being from there). I have been to Paris and it is amazing, I have always dreamed of studying there. You probably shouldn’t worry about them hating Americans as long as you can speak at least a little bit of French and make every effort to do so in conversation.</p>
<p>I don’t know how many Prague inhabitants speak German. I would ignorantly venture to assume that only a certain class of Prague society speaks both Czech and German, but honestly I don’t know. I do know that in Paris you’ll get the full metropolitan experience plus the “purest” French out there.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, clearly then Alabama became a part of the North after the Union won the Civil War. </p>
<p>Out of curiosity, have you ever <em>been</em> to the Czech Republic? Hungary? Poland? </p>
<p>And are you particularly immersed in European history? (And, yes, the notion of Slavic languages as a cultural marker is relevant.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have no idea if they did or didn’t, Alabama isn’t Europe.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. And no it is not relevant at all, Germanic languages do not unilaterally represent Western Europe, the same is true for Slavic languages and the East.</p>
<p>We just returned from a trip to Europe that included Prague and parts of France (not Paris). We looked at several universities while we were there since my daughter is so undecided about where to do her study abroad.</p>
<p>We briefly looked at several parts of the campuses in Prague and it seems to be fairly well-located in safe areas. Prague itself is absolutely beautiful and we found the people there to be very warm and welcoming. It’s also hard to beat the location for having easy access to explore other parts of Europe. My D speaks German as it seems do many residents of Prague, but I really didn’t encounter that many who didn’t speak at least enough English to communicate effectively. After our visit there, Prague is definitely on her short list of places to go for study abroad.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you anything about Paris, sorry.</p>
<p>I’ve actually been to Prague for a few days while I was studying in Budapest, so while I don’t “know” the city by any stretch of the imagination, I can say that it’s probably not nearly as much of a “drastic change” from Western Europe as you might imagine. Prague is a BEAUTIFUL city and I especially recommend spending some time in the Jewish Quarter. The Pinkas Synagogue Holocaust Memorial changed my life. Honestly. </p>
<p>A friend of mine is studying Czech and, by the looks of it, it’s not an easy language. But you’ll probably have occasion to practice your German there anyway. It just seems to me like Prague would be a more unique choice of destinations. Paris is so cliche nowadays anyway… go to Prague! Have an adventure! You’ll be more centrally located in Europe to visit other unique countries. Live a little! Go visit Hungary or Poland! The food isn’t even that bad either. If you like fresh game meat and dark beer, you won’t have any trouble at all.</p>
<p>GO TO PRAGUE!!!</p>
<p>
The point is that the outcome of a conflict didn’t change the culture or the geography. The short distance between Prague and Vienna is light years culturally. Vienna is like a German-speaking Manhattan, very energetic, very capitalist & free market, totally a part of the West. Prague attitudinally is very much still of the East.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Herodotus, by any chance were you part of the BSM program in Budapest?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Your first point - yes exactly, the cold war did NOT rob the Czech Republic of its cultural and historical Central European identity.</p>
<p>Your second point - absolute rubbish.</p>
<p>Actually, I spent a semester in Budapest through Bard College. They run a study abroad program at CEU (Central European University). I knew some people there doing BSM, including my roommate’s girlfriend. I spent most of my time on history and medieval studies.</p>
<p>Ah, Samual. If you can’t tell the difference between Vienna and Prague, you need more assistance than I can provide.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Herodotus, neat…I imagine Budapest is a great city for History and Medieval Studies. The Hungarians seem to bear their history proudly but wearily having been diddled in turn by the Turks, the Germans, the Russians, punctuated by their own leaders at various times. They’ve certainly had lots of experience rebuilding Budapest time after time.</p>
<p>The statue of Eugenie of Savoy, facing east on Buda hill in the Castle district, seems to say much.</p>
<p>This is true. I had occasion to visit the Hungarian National Gallery, where most of the portraits chronicling Hungarian history recount fantastic defeats (e.g. Battle of Mohacs) at the hands of various invaders- usually, Turks.</p>
<p>Sounds like you know Budapest. Do you travel there frequently?</p>
<p>H, alas, I’ve only been to Budapest once but I tend to do things “total immersion.” (Our D was in the BSM program and the end of term coincided, more or less, with our 25th anniversary, so we went.) One of the techs at our vet is Hungarian and she gave me an eight-week cram course in Hungarian…I still have my crib sheets neatly stapled together for when we go to a Hungarian restaurant. Phrases like “I don’t know” and “I don’t understand” and “Unfortunately” still come to my lips without effort. An interesting language in that the length of time you hold a vowel changes a word’s meaning, and the difference between “this is my wife” and “this is my butt” is <em>extremely</em> narrow. (And the difference between “red wine” and “****ty wine” is also fairly close…you should have seen the look on my tutor’s face when I mispronounced it during a practice session.) I’m also a lightly published SF writer and love alternate history, so I’m a sponge for the historical stuff. Did you perchance see the statue of “Anonymous” down at the National Park or whatever it’s called? D said it looked like a Dementor from Harry Potter. And I never could figure what was up with what were supposed to be—and looked like—Native Americans in costume doing dances there.</p>
<p>From Budapest, D got to Vienna, Florence, and Stockholm while studying there. Classmates made it to Malta, Constantinople, and Athens, among other places. </p>
<p>D had the benefit of having been there for a whole semester and in a case of turnabout dragged <em>us</em> everywhere. We stayed at the Hilton right on Castle Hill and next to Szent. Matiyas cathedral…I regret that I didn’t get to the Hungarian Military museum, which was only a couple of hundred yards away but was closed on the morning when I went to visit. </p>
<p>I’ve been to Vienna twice and Prague twice, loved both, though Vienna is very expensive. Drove from Vienna to Prague and got a sense of the country side, did a slight detour to take in Kutna Hora and found my B-movie German was good enough to ask directions. Previous trip went to a classical concert in this very small Czech town, so got a flavor of the small town life there as well…tourists were pretty rare there, judging from the locals.</p>
<p>I’d like to get back there but the travel budget is limited and I think the next trip will be to the U.K., where I’ve never been. Alas, my proposed itinerary for a “quick” trip amounted to six weeks. I’d been hoping that D would pursue a Masters at LSE but it seems more likely that she’ll enter a Ph.D. program here at home directly. Pity. It would have been a great excuse to visit.</p>
<p>May have to figure out a way to live in Europe for a year when we retire.</p>
<p>I’m impressed. I had the option of taking a Hungarian class there, but I was put off by it’s reputation for difficulty. I bought a Lonely Planet phrase book, and even then never got much past “thank you” and “I don’t speak Hungarian.” The American students I knew who ended up taking it said it almost wasn’t worth the trouble for the amount of time they would be in the country. I knew an American professor at my univ. in Budapest who said it took him five years to get to a very poor level of conversational ability! And this was a Harvard grad fluent in German and Russian!</p>
<p>I was enrolled in a medieval studies MA program at my university, so I had my hands full with Latin, history, and philosophy classes every day. Hungarian language classes would have been quite the luxury for me. It sounds like your hotel was really close to my apartment. I think I may have even wandered past it on one of my sojourns. I lived on Donyati utca right next to the Mattias Church- I actually stumbled up there by accident one night when I was wandering around my neighborhood after dark (which I do not recommend, btw). There was SO much I didn’t get to do in Budapest because I was in class all the time, I’ll just need to go back again someday.</p>
<p>I didn’t manage to visit Vienna, unfortunately. It was only a 2 hr train ride away but I somehow never found the time. I managed to get to Bratislava, Zagreb, Prague, and Berlin, though, but I didn’t travel nearly as much as some of the kids in my program. That was the first time I had ever been outside the US, and now I’m afraid I’ve caught the travel bug…</p>
<p>As for “Anonymous”, I don’t know about Budapest, but I saw something matching your description outside the opera house in Prague commemorating the debut of Don Giovanni… it gave me the chills, but more because I’m into classical music stuff and have seen ‘Amadeus’ multiple times.</p>
<p>Well, I’ll be dipped. D and her roommate lived with a host mother on Hunyadi Janos utca, which Donati utca runs into after the curve at the east end. If you use GoogleMaps, it’s the white building on the southwest corner of the intersection.</p>
<p>As to opera, on my first trip to Prague, I went to “La Traviata” at the Prague opera house. Sung in Italian but with Czech subtitles on a screen above the stage, thus giving me a choice of two languages I didn’t understand.</p>
<p>The second time, on the trip where we picked up D in Budapest, we saw “Otello” at the Vienna State Opera House and then “Rigoletto” in Prague. I can’t tell you how magnificent the Vienna Staatsoper is, though the Budapest Opera House, which we merely took a tour for, was in some ways even grander, one-upping the Vienna facility to the annoyance of the Emperor, or so we were told. But I digress. We got same-day tickets that had just been turned in for a box on the second level, almost half-way back from the stage. Ah, what an experience…felt like minor nobility. I don’t think any one item for entertainment cost more for the three of us on the trip but it was worth it.</p>
<p>
There are quite worse bugs you can catch. Indulge while you can. It can get harder when you’re married and with a family.</p>
<p>I know the statue you mean commemorating Don Giovanni. Not the same sinister feel of “Anonymous.”</p>
<p>To the question “Do you speak Hungarian?” I can still answer, “Nadyon kichit, nadyon lasshan, nadyon rossuel.” (badly transliterated: very little, very slowly, very badly.) I said something to a Hungarian-born arbitrator back here in the States and when I said the above to him, he turned to everyone and translated and then added, “And as a judge, I tell you he speaks the truth.”</p>
<p>Here’s a link to a photo of the statue: [Picture</a> of The statue “Anonymous.” Budapest, Hungary](<a href=“http://www.traveljournals.net/pictures/19523.html]Picture”>http://www.traveljournals.net/pictures/19523.html)</p>
<p>TheDad sorry to be so blunt but you are not European. You dont live here and as such i dont believe you qualified to judge where Central Europe ends and the East begins. I am European and lived on continent for a number of years, and whilst i recognize that there are differences between the two cities they are both sill very much Central European.</p>
<p>P.S. why did you call Istanbul Constantinople? :s</p>
<p>Herodotus, just realized that I needn’t have transliterated. Duh. Spelling in a foreign language is one of the first things to go when tired. “Nagyon kicsit, nagyon lasan, nagyon rosszul” for “very little, very slowly, very badly.” And a brain cramp about Donati utca…the Google map was rotated, which I knew…it runs into Hunyadi Janos utca at the <em>south</em> end where it curls west.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Samual: Stanley Baldwin was as European as you are and was equally in error about many things European. Ignorance knows no borders. At the very least you’re tone deaf to cultural metrics.</p>
<p>Ignorance knows no borders, very true. However you are still very wrong on this matter. You’ve shown no evidence to support your claim at all, and you didn’t answer my question, why did you call Istanbul Constantinople?</p>
<p>
I have, you just choose to ignore it. </p>
<p>
Nor am I compelled to. I can get more enlightening exchanges talking to my teacup.</p>
<p>
Because it suited me to do so and any intelligent person would know what I meant.</p>