Tips For Eastern Europe This Summer

I would normally begin a post about a Rick Steves article by poking fun at his get-off-the-beaten-path-by-taking-my-tour-or-buying-my-book mantra, then dissuading you from taking any of his advice, but I’ve got to admit, the guy does know Europe, so take this next bit with a grain of salt. Here’s what Rick’s dug up for new sights to check out this summer while you’re traveling around Eastern Europe.

1) Budapest: Downtown’s gone traffic-free, a fact I haven’t been able to verify outside of Rick’s article, but if true I think it’s a great idea; one that should be applied to pretty much every city in the world.

2) Bratislava: No longer a joke for teen sex comedy flicks (I really hope Google does not pick up that last sentence). Rick’s calling the Slovak capital the next Berlin (and here I though that was going to Kiev). Interesting observation, definitely worth checking that one out.

3) Athens: Still upgrading without an Olympics on the horizon. On June 20, 2009, the 130 million euro new Acropolis Museum will be opening up at the foot of the Acropolis, housing over 4,000 artifacts, including for the first time ever, all surviving treasures of the Acropolis together for the first time in one place since, well, they were originally plundered from the Acropolis.