After many months of being very busy practicing veterinary medicine, in which it seemed that every cat in the city was sick and they all wanted to come to my hospital, I finally got to take a much needed vacation. The destination: Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, the city that straddles two continents, the city where east meets west. Insert…
Holland. The name conjures up windmills, tulips, and wooden shoes. With laid-back friendly people, scores of museums, a multitude of restaurants serving top-notch international cuisine, “coffee shops” that feature marijuana on the menu, gay marriage, and legalized prostitution, Amsterdam is undoubtedly Europe’s most progressive, hippest city. Its beautiful canals have earned it the moniker “The Venice of the North”. For…
Once again, I’m sitting on a train, heading to a new country. This time, the Czech Republic. This train is very fancy. I’m in a private, six car booth. We have all six seats to ourselves. The door is closed, and its as quiet as a tomb. There are many stops between here and Czech Republic, so I suspect the…
Our first stop was the famous Opera house. The metro system (called the U-Bahn) was a breeze to figure out, and in five minutes, we were standing in front of this amazing building. We hopped on the number 2 tram outside the Opera house, and took a 30 minute ride around the circular Ringstrasse, viewing many of the major sights…
As it turns out, arriving late was not a disaster, because the weather in Budapest was horrible. Despite the steady downpour, we decided to make the best of it, and grabbing our umbrellas, we left our perfectly-located hotel and strolled over the modern Elisabeth bridge to Gellert Hill. The climb up Gellert Hill was exhausting, but we were rewarded with…