Compare/contrast countries

CHURCH DIFFERENCES:
Vienna, Austria: Mix of colorful and stone work inside, high ceilings, but main focus is mid-level. Roman influence. Outside was like Prague-ornate and inside had paintings in frames on walls. A mix of influence.

Bratislava, Slovakia: A lot of gold, sculptures and paintings were set in the walls, ornate both inside and out. Many places to pray and worship, bright metals, lots of ceramics-basically large museums.

Budapest, Hungary: A lot of gold, paintings in and on the walls, extremely ornate both inside and out. Bright metals and ceramics, very Italian influence, basically a museum.

Krakow, Poland: Actual paintings inside, not painted on the walls. More colorful, stained glass windows, brighter paint. More stone, marble, metal. Very active churches, not just for show. Had coffins with their most famous, important Christians in the churches.

Prague, Czech: Very medieval. Super high ceilings, long narrow center aisles, couldn't see much without tickets. Outside is super ornate.

Rome, Italy: Massive churches, lots of beautifully sculpted sculptures, churches on every corner. Feels like "the church" which sets precedence for other churches.

CITY SIMILARITY: Had to pay for bathroom everywhere!

CITY DIFFERENCES:
Vienna, Austria: Sketchy by our airbnb, large city-very much like an U.S. city. Roman influence, hard to navigate, monstrous buildings, but had gardens inside the city which were beautiful. By the airbnb, no one seemed to be going to work or in an sort of rush/schedule. When we were inside the city there were more people rushing to subways, lots of tourist.

Bratislava, Slovakia: very small city, felt very Italian. Had open squares, hard to navigate, but cool city walls/inner city walls.

Budapest, Hungary: This was Alex's favorite place. A lot more people than Bratislava, more of a city feel, but couldn't tell if people were going to work or not. Bigger buildings and cities, very busy main streets. Way more sightseeing. Moderate to navigate and it seemed more dirty in the city. Lots of homeless people at the entrance to the subways.

Krakow, Poland: More Eastern European feel than the others, more fair skinned. Large city feel-lots of lights, big signs with store names, safest feel of all the cities, most friendly too. This was Danielle's favorite city!

Prague, Czech: People actually went to work and we could tell here. Looked like they were in a hurry getting somewhere. Very metropolitan-lots of trains/trams/buses/ people getting somewhere. Most English we heard, and most city feel.

Rome, Italy: Such massive, beautiful monuments and ruins everywhere. We had such amazement and curiosity about how it all was made because it so monstrous. Very much crowed, very strict guards/serious restaurant management, lots and lots of make-up and made up women--nicely dressed people all around.

FOOD DIFFERENCES: what we ate
Vienna, Austria: Chicken Schnitzel and interesting salads (cucumbers and carrots sliced and diced in small pieces with 1 leaf of lettuce and cold potatoes in a yellow juice). We also had Burger King and it was much much less greasy. I actually like my chicken sandwich--it was made fresh and didn't taste like grease!

Bratislava, Slovakia: Egg brunch-Alex had a fried egg, chorizo, potatoes and hash browns. Danielle had a spinach omelette with toast and hashbrowns. We also had Subway from Slovakia which tasted the same--subway offered different local subs which we don't have here but besides that it tasted normal.

Budapest, Hungary: Famous sandwich from Bors (stuffed inside what looks like a breadstick, Alex got pork and Danielle chicken). We also had donuts and fig danishes which were delicious. Additionally we bought sandwiches to take on the train with us and we had turkey, breaded spicy chicken, and chicken nugget sandwiches.

Krakow, Poland: The best food!!! We had pierogies, nutella crepe, kielbasa, vegan burger, the crazy meat bread which Alex loved, paczkis, cupcakes....all so goooooood!!!

Prague, Czech: Had two trdelniks (cone shape pretzel/donut thing which was out of this world), one with just almonds and the second with nutella and ice cream. We also had a chicken caeser sandwich from Bageterie Blvd for lunch. For dinner, we had dumplings, stuffed chicken with mushrooms, potato stack, corn on the cob, chicken soup with veggies and string noodles (like the polish restaurant Saga's Old Warsaw in Broadview). We also had a chicken caeser sandwich from Bageterie Blvd.

Rome, Italy: We of course has pizza for lunch-Alex sausage and cheese and Danielle mushroom and cheese. We also had some gelato--vanilla, with cookie pieces, nutalla, and almond flavored gelato. And we couldn't help ourselves so we had pizza for dinner and pasta- this time we had a margherita pizza and traditional fettuccine with a tomato sauce.

HOUSE/APT DIFFERENCES:
Vienna, Austria: Small common areas, large bedrooms, have separate toilet and shower rooms.

Bratislava, Slovakia: Didn't stay overnight so don't know.

Budapest, Hungary: Stayed in hostel, really small/crammed/weird/scary/creepy staircases which had to walk to get to the hostel-it was like a utility staircase.

Krakow, Poland: All rooms are the same size (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom), same creepy staircases leading to apartment room, lots of cement everywhere. Had to have 4 keys to open 5 doors so lots of protection even though we felt pretty safe.

Prague, Czech: Stayed with rich woman so huge everything- living room/kitchen/bedroom. Had 2 floors kind off, the living area was on the first and then within the room we stayed there was a staircase (only accessible by our room though) to the bed--only mattress and TV up there though.

Rome, Italy: Large room, kitchen, hallway, small small bathroom and shower. It was in Trastevere which was off the beaten path for sure-had to take a tram to another bus to get anywhere.