We landed in Vienna, and after a quick examination of St. Stephen's Cathedral, we hopped on a boat and floated down the Danube, headed for Bratislava.

Bratislava greets boat travelers with a communist era welcome center and big Hollywoodish letters "B-R-A-T-I-S-L-A-V-A". Blocky communist sculptures further welcomed us as we made our way for the town center. Simply put, Slovakia's capital is beautifully ugly-eye sore communist era poverty mixed with quaint architectural scenes of history in the old town center.

We met friends at the train station and sped down the tracks to Budapest. Our goal was to stay in an apartment with our two friends, but when the ATM refused our debit card, it threw a little snag into the plan. Some computer work, phone calls and plenty of frustration eventually resolved the scare. We spent our first night refusing to buy a violinist and his band a round of Schnapps shots.

Really two cities in one (Buda and Pest), Budapest is huge. It stretches across the Danube River. Sporting an enormous castle too large to see all in one attempt, the Buda side is hilly and treacherous for those idiots (like us) dumb enough to make the climb up the hills by foot. The Pest side boasts many scenic glories, including all of the 19th century architecture-the heyday of the Magyar elite of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

All in all, the experience was great. We relaxed in the famous thermal baths of the city. We sat through a four hour Opera (all in Italian with Hungarian subtitles). We purchased art from a self-declared "real artist," who seemed quite pleased with his photo taken with Tony Curtis. We watched a park drunk wrench his hands together feverishly to illustrate his image of us making whoopee. We ate tremendous food at simplistic outdoor cafes. We even made an adventure out of finding the airport the day of our departure (one tram, one metro, and three buses eventually did the trick).

So, as a spokesperson of the value and beauty in post-communist countries, try Budapest on for size. Your lunch will only be 4,000 forints.