Urban vs. Rural

Way back in the May posts I may have mentioned the urban vs. rural question a bit, but I would like to elaborate a little here. Many people, with limited time, only visit where the concentration of sights is the greatest, and that's in the major cities. So many 10-14 day trips are entirely urban. That's too bad, I think, because no country is defined by its biggest cities. In order to get some semblance of balance you need to step out into the countryside at least a little.

But that ideal was a challenge to keep during these last two weeks of our trip. We are doing a relatively quick tour through the cities of the formerly "Eastern", and now more accurately called Central Europe. We don't have a great deal of time to spend away from the cities, but more importantly, there are a limited number of reachable rural sights that are of any tourist interest. Some (but certainly not all) rural areas are still far removed from the progress made since Moscow ruled.

While visiting Budapest, we did a short side trip to the village of Szentendre yesterday. Today we did a longer, more distant day trip to the college town of Eger. It was a long day with 2 1/2 hour train trips each way. This made our actual time there frustratingly short, but still worthwhile.

Our first stop after we arrived was the cathedral (top photo) which was unusually large and ornate for a town this size because it was the seat of the Bishop. In the 1780's the Bishop wanted to establish a great university in Eger (he was a progressive who valued knowledge). Emperor Joseph II in Vienna said no, and the frustrated Bishop decided to build the finest teacher's college around instead, with a first class library (middle photo), science labs, and astronomical equipment.

Next we did a quick stroll through the market square where we saw some treats (bottom photo) and had some ice cream. It was a hot day.

Tomorrow we have another full day in Budapest, but then we leave in the evening on a night train to Krakow. It is likely that the next blog entry will be delayed for a little while. I'll do my best. Wish us luck on the night train. Sometimes those are good experiences and sometimes they are very bad. Let's just hope that we can get a reasonable amount of sleep.

Tonight, as I sit here, Annie is watching her favorite team, the Netherlands endure and endlessly scoreless finals match in the world cup. Is it any wonder Americans have not fallen in love with soccer?...