, 4 = 
, 7 = 
.Pronouncing Eastern European Place Names
In all of the countries in this book, dial 112 for medical or other emergencies. For police, dial 112 in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, or Austria; dial 158 in the Czech Republic; and dial 113 in Slovenia.
Austria: Boltzmanngasse 16, tel. 01/313-390; consular services at Parkring 12a, Vienna, passport services available Mon-Fri 8:00-11:30, tel. 01/313-397-535, http://at.usembassy.gov.
Czech Republic: Tržiště 15, Prague, emergency passport services available Mon-Fri 8:00-11:30, tel. 257-022-000, http://cz.usembassy.gov.
Hungary: Szabadság tér 12, Budapest, passport services available Mon-Fri 8:00-17:00, tel. 1/475-4400, after-hours emergency tel. 1/475-4703 or 1/475-4924, http://hungary.usembassy.gov.
Poland: Ulica Piękna 12, Warsaw, appointments required for routine services, tel. 022-504-2784, after-hours emergency tel. 022-504-2000, http://pl.usembassy.gov; also a US Consulate in Kraków at ulica Stolarska 9, appointments required for routine services, tel. 012-424-5100, https://pl.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulate/krakow.
Slovakia: Hviezdoslavovo námestie 4, Bratislava, passport services available Mon-Fri 8:00-11:45 & 14:00-15:15, tel. 02/5443-0861, http://slovakia.usembassy.gov.
Slovenia: Prešernova 31, Ljubljana, passport services available Mon-Fri 9:00-11:30 & 13:00-15:00, tel. 01/200-5595, after business hours tel. 01/200-5500, http://slovenia.usembassy.gov.
For after-hours emergencies, Canadian citizens can call collect to the Foreign Services Office in Ottawa at 613/996-8885.
Austria: Laurenzerberg 2, Vienna, passport services available Mon-Fri 8:30-12:30 & 13:30-15:30, tel. 01/531-383-000, www.austria.gc.ca.
Czech Republic: Ve Struhách 95/2, Prague, passport services Mon-Thu 9:00-12:00, Fri and afternoons by appointment, tel. 272-101-800, www.czechrepublic.gc.ca; also provides services for Slovakia.
Hungary: Ganz utca 12-14, Budapest, passport services available Mon-Thu 8:30-12:30 & 13:00-16:30, Fri 8:00-13:30, tel. 1/392-3360, www.hungary.gc.ca; also provides services for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia.
Poland: Ulica Jana Matejki 1-5, Warsaw, passport services available Mon-Fri 8:30-16:30, tel. 022-584-3100, www.poland.gc.ca.
Slovakia: Mostová 2, Bratislava, passport services available Mon-Fri 8:30-12:30 & 13:30-16:30, tel. 02/5920-4031; some services provided through Canadian Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic (listed above).
Slovenia (consulate office): Linhartova cesta 49a, Ljubljana; passport services available Mon, Wed, and Fri 8:00-12:00; tel. 01/252-4444, some services provided through Canadian Embassy in Budapest, Hungary (listed above).
Dial 1188 in the Czech Republic, 913 in Poland, 198 in Hungary, 988 in Slovenia, 1181 in Slovakia, and 118 in Austria.
This list includes selected festivals in this region, plus national holidays observed throughout Eastern Europe. Many sights and banks close on national holidays—keep this in mind when planning your itinerary. Catholic holidays are celebrated in Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia (and to a lesser extent in Hungary and the Czech Republic). Before planning a trip around a festival, verify its dates by checking the festival’s website or TI sites.
| Jan 1 | New Year’s Day |
| Jan 6 | Epiphany, Catholic countries |
| Jan 19 | Anniversary of Jan Palach’s Death, Prague (flowers in Wenceslas Square) |
| Feb 8 | National Day of Culture, Slovenia (celebrates Slovenian culture and national poet France Prešeren) |
| Early March | One World International Human Rights Film Festival, Prague (www.oneworld.cz) |
| March 15 | National Day, Hungary (celebrates 1848 Revolution) |
| Late March | Ski Jumping World Cup Finals, Planica, Slovenia (www.planica.info) |
| March/April | Easter weekend (Good Friday-Easter Monday): April 14-17, 2017; March 30-April 2, 2018 |
| April | Budapest Spring Festival (2 weeks; opera, ballet, classical music; www.btf.hu) |
| April 27 | National Resistance Day, Slovenia |
| April 30 | Witches’ Night, Czech Republic (similar to Halloween, with bonfires) |
| May | Ascension: May 25, 2017; May 10, 2018 (Catholic countries) |
| May 1 | Labor Day |
| May 3 | Constitution Day, Poland (celebrates Europe’s first constitution) |
| May 8 | Liberation Day, Czech Republic and Slovakia |
| May/June | Pentecost and Whitmonday: June 4-5, 2017; May 20-21, 2018 (Catholic countries) |
| May-June | Ramadan: May 26-June 25, 2017; May 15-June 14, 2018 (Muslim holy month) |
| May-June | Vienna Festival of Arts and Music (www.festwochen.at) |
| Early to mid-May | Prague International Marathon (www.pim.cz) |
| Mid- to late May | “Prague Spring” Music Festival (www.festival.cz) |
| Late May/early June | Corpus Christi: June 15, 2017; May 31, 2018 (Catholic countries) |
| June-July | Prague Proms, Prague (music festival, www.pragueproms.cz) |
| Mid-June | Celebration of the Rose, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic (medieval festival, music, theater, dance, knights’ tournament) |
| June 25 | National Day, Slovenia |
| Late June | Wianki Midsummer Festival, Kraków, Poland (wreaths on rafts in Vistula River, fireworks, music) |
| Late June | Jewish Culture Festival, Kraków, Poland (www.jewishfestival.pl) |
| Late June | Midsummer Eve celebrations, Austria |
| July 5 | Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day, Czech Republic and Slovakia |
| July 6 | Jan Hus Day, Czech Republic |
| July-mid-Sept | Ljubljana Summer Festival, Slovenia (www.ljubljanafestival.si) |
| Mid-July-mid-Aug | International Music Festival, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic (www.festivalkrumlov.cz) |
| Late July | Formula 1 races, Budapest (www.hungaroinfo.com/formel1) |
| Late July-mid-Aug | St. Dominic’s Fair, Gdańsk, Poland (3 weeks of market stalls, music, and general revelry) |
| Early Aug | Sziget Festival, Budapest (rock and pop music, www.sziget.hu) |
| Aug 15 | Assumption of Mary, Catholic countries |
| Aug 20 | Constitution Day and St. Stephen’s Day, Hungary (fireworks, celebrations) |
| Aug 29 | National Uprising Day, Slovakia (commemorates uprising against Nazis) |
| Late Aug-early Sept | Jewish Summer Festival, Budapest (www.zsidonyarifesztival.hu) |
| Sept | Dvořák’s Prague Music Festival, Prague (www.dvorakovapraha.cz) |
| Sept | Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah: Sept 20-22, 2017, Sept 9-11, 2018; Yom Kippur: Sept 29-30, 2017, Sept 18-19, 2018; Jewish sites may close) |
| Sept 1 | Constitution Day, Slovakia |
| Sept 28 | St. Wenceslas Day, Czech Republic (celebrates national patron saint and Czech statehood) |
| Oct | International Jazz Festival, Prague (www.agharta.cz) |
| Mid-Oct | Café Budapest Festival (contemporary arts, www.cafebudapestfest.hu) |
| Oct 23 | Republic Day, Hungary (remembrances of 1956 Uprising) |
| Oct 26 | National Day, Austria |
| Oct 28 | Independence Day, Czech Republic |
| Oct 31 | Reformation Day, Slovenia |
| Nov 1 | All Saints’ Day/Remembrance Day, Catholic countries (religious festival, some closures) |
| Nov 11 | Independence Day, Poland; St. Martin’s Day (official first day of wine season), Slovenia |
| Nov 17 | Velvet Revolution Anniversary, Czech Republic and Slovakia |
| Dec 5 | St. Nicholas Eve, Prague (St. Nick gives gifts to children in town square) |
| Dec 24-25 | Christmas Eve and Christmas Day |
| Dec 26 | Boxing Day/St. Stephen’s Day; Independence and Unity Day, Slovenia |
| Dec 31 | St. Sylvester’s Day, Prague and Vienna (fireworks) |
To learn about Eastern Europe past and present, check out a few of these books and films.
Lonnie Johnson’s Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends is the best historical overview of the countries in this book. Timothy Garton Ash has written several good “eyewitness account” books analyzing the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, including History of the Present and The Magic Lantern. Michael Meyer’s The Year that Changed the World intimately chronicles the exciting events of 1989, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Anne Applebaum’s Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 is a readable account of how the Soviets exerted their influence on the nations they had just liberated from the Nazis; her Gulag: A History delves into one particularly odious mechanism they used to intimidate their subjects. Tina Rosenberg’s dense but thought-provoking The Haunted Land asks how those who actively supported communism in Eastern Europe should be treated in the postcommunist age. And Benjamin Curtis’ The Habsburgs: The History of a Dynasty is an illuminating portrait of the Austrian imperial family that shaped so much of Eastern European history.
Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Between the Woods and the Water is the vivid memoir of a young man who traveled by foot and on horseback across the Balkan Peninsula (including Hungary) in 1933. Rebecca West’s classic, bricklike Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is the definitive travelogue of the Yugoslav lands (written during a journey between the two World Wars). For a more recent take, Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulić has written a quartet of insightful essay collections from a woman’s perspective: Café Europa: Life After Communism; The Balkan Express; How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed; and A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism.
Drakulić’s They Would Never Hurt a Fly profiles Yugoslav war criminals. Dominika Dery’s memoir, The Twelve Little Cakes, traces her experience growing up in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. For a thorough explanation of how and why Yugoslavia broke apart, read Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation (by Laura Silber and Allan Little).
For information on Eastern European Roma (Gypsies), consider the textbook-style We Are the Romani People by Ian Hancock, and the more literary Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca.
The most prominent works of Eastern European fiction have come from the Czechs. These include I Served the King of England (Bohumil Hrabal), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), and The Good Soldier Švejk (Jaroslav Hašek). Czech existentialist writer Franz Kafka wrote many well-known novels, including The Trial and The Metamorphosis. Bruce Chatwin’s Utz is set in communist Prague.
James Michener’s Poland is a hefty look into the history of the Poles. Zlateh the Goat (Isaac Bashevis Singer) includes seven folktales of Jewish Eastern Europe. Joseph Roth’s The Radetzky March details the decline of an aristocratic Slovenian family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Imre Kertész, a Hungarian-Jewish Auschwitz survivor who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002, is best known for his semiautobiographical novel Fatelessness (Sorstalanság), which chronicles the experience of a young concentration-camp prisoner. Márai Sándor’s reflective Embers paints a rich picture of cobblestoned, gaslit Vienna just before the empire’s glory began to fade.
Arthur Phillips’ confusingly-titled 2002 novel Prague tells the story of American expats negotiating young-adult life in post-communist Budapest, where they often feel one-upped by their compatriots doing the same in the Czech capital (hence the title).
Each of these countries has produced fine films. Below are a few highlights.
The Czech film industry is one of the strongest in Eastern Europe; even under communism its films were seen and honored worldwide. Before he directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus, Miloš Forman directed Loves of a Blonde (1965), about the relationship between a rural Czech woman and a jazz pianist from Prague; and The Firemen’s Ball (1967), a satirical look at small-town Czechoslovakia under communism. Another Czech New Wave film, Intimate Lighting (1965), finds two musicians reuniting in the 1960s.
In Alice (1988), Czech artist Jan Švankmajer adapts Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in stop-motion animation combined with live action. The comedy Czech Dream (2004) features two film students who document the opening of a fake hypermarket in a hilarious, disturbing commentary on consumerism.
Two films directed by Jirí Menzel cover everyday life during World War II. The Oscar-winning Closely Watched Trains (1966) follows a young Czech man working at a German-occupied train station. I Served the King of England (2006), an adaptation of Bohumil Hrabal’s novel, finds a man reminiscing about his past as an ambitious waiter who suffers the consequences of World War II.
Other great Czech films about World War II include Divided We Fall (2000), where a Czech couple hides a Jewish friend during Nazi occupation; Protektor (2009), whose main character must reconcile his job at a Nazi-propaganda radio station and his relationship with his Jewish wife; and All My Loved Ones (1999), the story of a Jewish family whose son is sent to England in the “Kindertransports” organized by Nicholas Winton (the British humanitarian who saved almost 700 Czech Jewish children).
Recent Czech films also cover life under communism and the Velvet Revolution. The Elementary School (1991), set in the late 1940s, looks at a rowdy classroom in suburban Prague that faces reform under the strict guidance of a war-hero teacher. The mystery In the Shadow (2012) tracks a burglary in 1950s Czechoslovakia that sets off a political investigation of Jewish immigrants. Larks on a String (1990) covers bourgeois Czechs who are forced into communist labor camps and struggle to maintain their humanity. The TV miniseries Burning Bush (2013) details the communist occupation of Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring, focusing on Jan Palach, the Czech student who set himself on fire and died in protest against the Soviet occupation. In the Oscar-winning Kolya (1996), a concert-cellist in Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia must care for an abandoned Russian boy just before the Velvet Revolution breaks out.
The Czechs also have a wonderful animation tradition that successfully competes with Walt Disney in Eastern Europe and China. The most popular character is Krtek (or Krteček, “Little Mole”), who gets in and out of trouble. You’ll see plush black-and-white Krtek figures everywhere. Křemílek and Vochomůrka are brothers who live in the woods, Maxipes Fík is a clever dog, and the duo Pat and Mat are builders who can’t seem to get anything right.
Several Polish films have won Oscars and major awards at Cannes. In Katyń (2007), acclaimed, Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda re-creates the Soviet Army’s massacre of around 22,000 Polish officers, enlisted men, and civilians during World War II. Some of Wajda’s earlier works include Ashes and Diamonds (1958), The Promised Land (1979), and the two-part series Man of Marble (1977) and Man of Iron (1981).
Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski made several masterpieces, including The Decalogue (1989), consisting of 10 short films inspired by the Ten Commandments. Kieslowski also filmed the multilingual Three Colors Trilogy: Red (1994), White (1994), and Blue (1993).
Among other recent films, one Polish favorite is Karol: A Man Who Became Pope (2005), a Polish-Italian biopic made in English about the humble beginnings of St. John Paul II. Another fascinating religious tale is Ida (2014), the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland, who—just before taking her vows—discovers a terrible family secret.
The surreal dark comedy Kontroll (2003) is about ticket inspectors on the Budapest Metró whose lives are turned upside down by a serial killer lurking in the shadows. Fateless, the 2005 adaptation of Imre Kertész’s Nobel Prize-winning novel about a young man in a concentration camp, was scripted by Kertész himself. The Witness (a.k.a. Without a Trace, 1969), a cult classic about a simple man who mysteriously wins the favor of communist bigwigs, is a biting satire of the darkest days of Soviet rule. Time Stands Still (1981), a hit at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of young Hungarians in the 1960s. Children of Glory (2006) dramatizes the true story of the Hungarian water polo team that defiantly trounced the Soviets at the Olympics just after the 1956 Uprising.
To grasp the wars that shook this region in the early 1990s, there’s no better film than the Slovene-produced No Man’s Land, which won the 2002 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Angelina Jolie wrote and directed (but did not appear in) 2011’s wrenching, difficult-to-watch In the Land of Blood and Honey, a love story set against the grotesque backdrop of the war in Bosnia.
On a lighter note, a classic from Tito-era Yugoslavia, The Battle of Neretva (1969), imported Hollywood talent in the form of Yul Brynner and Orson Welles to tell the story of a pivotal and inspiring battle in the fight against the Nazis. More recent Croatian films worth watching include Border Post (2006), about various Yugoslav soldiers working together just before the war broke out; and When Father Was Away on Business (1985), about a prisoner on the Tito-era gulag island of Goli Otok, near Rab. Other local movies include Armin (2007), How the War Started on My Island (1996), Underground (1995), and Tito and Me (1992).
Documentaries about this region are also worth looking for. The BBC produced a remarkable six-hour documentary series called The Death of Yugoslavia, featuring interviews with all of the key players (it’s difficult to find on DVD, but try searching for “Death of Yugoslavia” on YouTube; the book Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation, noted earlier, was a companion piece to this film). The BBC also produced a harrowing documentary about the infamous Bosnian massacre, Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave (also available on YouTube). The 1998 Oscar-winning documentary The Last Days recounts the fate of Jews when the Nazis took over Hungary in 1944.
Several award-winning films have covered key moments in Eastern European history. Schindler’s List (1993), Steven Spielberg’s Best Picture-winner, tells the story of a compassionate German businessman in Kraków who saved his Jewish workers during the Holocaust. Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002) is a biopic about the struggle for survival of Władysław Szpilman (played by Adrien Brody, in an Oscar-winning role), a Jewish concert pianist in Holocaust-era Warsaw. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), starring a young Daniel Day-Lewis, adapts the Milan Kundera novel about a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Prague Spring uprising. And Sunshine (1999, starring Ralph Fiennes, directed by István Szabó) somewhat melodramatically traces three generations of an aristocratic Jewish family in Budapest, from the Golden Age, through the Holocaust, to the Cold War.
Two acclaimed German movies offer excellent insight into the surreal and paranoid days of the Soviet Bloc. The Oscar-winning Lives of Others (2006) chronicles the constant surveillance that the communist regime employed to keep potential dissidents in line. For a funny and nostalgic look at postcommunist Europe’s fitful transition to capitalism, Good Bye Lenin! (2003) can’t be beat.
Eastern European filmmakers have always been very active in Hollywood. “Crossover” directors—who started out making films in their own countries and then turned out English-language Oscar winners—include Michael Curtiz (from Hungary; Casablanca, White Christmas), Miloš Forman (from Czechoslovakia; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus) and Roman Polanski (from Poland; Chinatown, The Pianist).
You may recognize Eastern Europe backdrops in many blockbuster Hollywood movies—particularly Prague, whose low costs and well-trained filmmaking workforce appeal to studios. In many cases, Prague stands in for another European city. Films shot at least partly in Prague include everything from Amadeus to Mission: Impossible; from The Chronicles of Narnia to Wanted; from The Bourne Identity to the Hostel films; and from Hannibal to Shanghai Knights. Elsewhere in the Czech Republic, they’ve filmed the James Bond reboot Casino Royale and The Illusionist. Many American studios have taken advantage of Hungary’s low prices to film would-be blockbusters in Budapest, including Spy, A Good Day to Die Hard, and Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol. More often, Budapest stands in for other cities—for example, as Buenos Aires in the 1996 film Evita, and as various European locales in Stephen Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich.
• Europeans write a few of their numbers differently than we do. 1 = , 4 = , 7 = .
• In Europe, dates appear as day/month/year, so Christmas is 25/12/18. In Hungary, dates are written as year/month/day, so Christmas 2018 is 2018/12/25 (or dots can be used instead: 2018.12.25).
• Commas are decimal points and decimals are commas. A dollar and a half is $1,50, one thousand is 1.000, and there are 5.280 feet in a mile.
• Hungarians usually list their surname first (for example, Bartók Béla instead of Béla Bartók).
• When counting with fingers, start with your thumb. If you hold up your first finger to request one item, you’ll probably get two.
• What Americans call the second floor of a building is the first floor in Europe.
• On escalators and moving sidewalks, Europeans keep the left “lane” open for passing. Keep to the right.
A kilogram is 2.2 pounds, and l liter is about a quart, or almost four to a gallon. A kilometer is six-tenths of a mile. I figure kilometers to miles by cutting them in half and adding back 10 percent of the original (120 km: 60 + 12=72 miles, 300 km: 150 + 30=180 miles).
| 1 foot = 0.3 meter | 1 square yard = 0.8 square meter |
| 1 yard = 0.9 meter | 1 square mile = 2.6 square kilometers |
| 1 mile = 1.6 kilometers | 1 ounce = 28 grams |
| 1 centimeter = 0.4 inch | 1 quart = 0.95 liter |
| 1 meter = 39.4 inches | |
| 1 kilometer = 0.62 mile | 32°F = 0°C |
When shopping for clothing, use these US-to-European comparisons as general guidelines (but note that no conversion is perfect).
Women: For clothing or shoe sizes, add 30 (US shirt size 10 = European size 40; US shoe size 8 = European size 38-39).
Men: For shirts, multiply by 2 and add about 8 (US size 15 = European size 38). For jackets and suits, add 10. For shoes, add 32-34.
Children: For clothing, subtract 1-2 sizes for small children and subtract 4 for juniors. For shoes up to size 13, add 16-18, and for sizes 1 and up, add 30-32.
First line is the average daily high; second line, average daily low; third line, average number of rainy days. For more detailed weather statistics for destinations in this book (as well as the rest of the world), check www.wunderground.com.
Europe takes its temperature using the Celsius scale, while we opt for Fahrenheit. For a rough conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit, double the number and add 30. For weather, remember that 28°C is 82°F—perfect. For health, 37°C is just right. At a launderette, 30°C is cold, 40°C is warm (usually the default setting), 60°C is hot, and 95°C is boiling. Your air-conditioner should be set at about 20°C.
Whether you’re traveling for five days or five weeks, you won’t need more than this. Pack light to enjoy the sweet freedom of true mobility.
5 shirts: long- & short-sleeve
2 pairs pants (or skirts/capris)
1 pair shorts
5 pairs underwear & socks
1 pair walking shoes
Sweater or warm layer
Rainproof jacket with hood
Tie, scarf, belt, and/or hat
Swimsuit
Sleepwear/loungewear
Debit card(s)
Credit card(s)
Hard cash ($100-200 in US dollars)
Money belt
Passport
Tickets & confirmations: flights, hotels, trains, rail pass, car rental, sight entries
Driver’s license
Student ID, hostel card, etc.
Photocopies of important documents
Insurance details
Guidebooks & maps
Notepad & pen
Journal
Basics: soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, deodorant, sunscreen, brush/comb, etc.
Medicines & vitamins
First-aid kit
Glasses/contacts/sunglasses
Sewing kit
Packet of tissues (for WC)
Earplugs
Mobile phone
Camera & related gear
Tablet/ebook reader/media player
Laptop & flash drive
Headphones
Chargers & batteries
Smartphone car charger & mount (or GPS device)
Plug adapters
Daypack
Sealable plastic baggies
Laundry supplies: soap, laundry bag, clothesline, spot remover
Small umbrella
Travel alarm/watch
Second pair of shoes (flip-flops, sandals, tennis shoes, boots)
Travel hairdryer
Picnic supplies
Water bottle
Fold-up tote bag
Small flashlight
Mini binoculars
Small towel or washcloth
Inflatable pillow/neck rest
Tiny lock
Address list (to mail postcards)
Extra passport photos
Remember that in all of these languages, j is pronounced as “y,” and c is pronounced “ts.” Diacritical markings over most consonants (such as č, š, ś, or ž) have the same effect as putting an h after it in English; for example, č is “ch,” š or ś is “sh,” ž is “zh.”
