I had been to 48 states, and, obviously, had two left to conquer. Even though North Dakota is only an eight-hour drive from my home, it’s not on the way to anywhere (sorry, North Dakotans) nor have I had a particular reason to go. Despite the endless list of COVID bummers, this was an opportunity to add number forty nine. Fargo, here we come!
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The Ohio River tumbles southwest from Pittsburgh a few hundred miles, along the borders of several states, before merging with the Mississippi to form the southern tip of Illinois. Somewhere beyond halfway, it bubbles below the Big Four Bridge, a majestic pedestrian and bike trail that connects Louisville, Kentucky with Jeffersonville, Indiana. On a stunningly beautiful Sunday, sauntering across the bridge, I found myself in one of those moments of wonder that I appreciate more with each passing year.
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A round trip ticket from Chicago to Vienna put me in a great location to see six awesome cities in just a couple of weeks. Six countries, six languages, four currencies, in an area about the size of Montana. Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia are neighbors, more or less, and share similar histories but also have their own unique cultures.
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Vienna is the first stop of a two-week, six-city blitz around southeastern Europe. I arrived midday after a 14 hour journey from Chicago with a layover in Dublin.
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I was amazed at the blending of apparent contradictions in Budapest – a centuries-old community with a modern feel; a huge confusing city that’s easy to get around; a dignified history infused with a contemporary culture. Even public transportation, the Szent Gellert Square metro station below, exemplifies the past and present fused together. Budapest was the fourth stop on my trip around Eastern Europe.
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Behind this Prague wall is a private club and across the street is the French Embassy. These two symbols of freedom sparked young people to cover the wall with anticommunist graffiti while the uptight communists kept repainting it white. When John Lennon died in 1980, the wall became a symbol of peace and humanity, and ever since, including the subsequent nine years before the iron curtain melted, the Lennon Wall has thrived.
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My only regret in Bratislava is that I left after one night. The capital city of Slovakia, the eastern half of the former Czechoslovakia, has a beautiful, walkable old town center that I enjoyed very much even though drizzle fell through the 40 degree air during my entire 24 hours in town. Bratislava was the third of six places I visited in Eastern Europe.
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The mailboxes in Ljubljana are all begging for something more fulfilling. It looks like #spaceutopian has been here, and it made me smile when I put my postcards in! This is the sixth stop of my six-city trip.
So I have developed this habit of going places with virtually no idea what these places are like or what there is to do, and Ljubljana is no exception. Short of confirming that I could take a bus from Zagreb to Ljubljana and booking an Airbnb the day before, I was completely uninformed. This led to me feeling especially blessed when I saw what an amazing city I had stumbled upon.
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The alley behind the Denver Central Market has one of many colorful murals splattered beautifully around the city.
It seems like a mistake; like you’ve landed in the wrong place, even though the signs all say Denver International Airport. Where are the mountains? Why is everything so flat? I arrived here a couple days before a work conference to check out a city I’d never visited. As I rode the A Line into the city, though, the mountains came into view. Little did I know that in a couple days I’d be visiting the treasure of Red Rocks that was tucked into those mountains. Continue reading
