Features
HUNGARY-CZECHOSLOVAKIA-LIECHTENSTEIN-SWITZERLAND
CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
After an enjoyable stay in Austria, we were ready to continue our six week-long winter trip to 16 countries. Vienna is a perfect hub to visit cities of countries adjoining landlocked Austria. Today, it is bordered by eight other countries – the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. As the next step of our adventure, we planned to travel to Hungary and then Czechoslovakia, or Czecho-Slovakia
HUNGARY
Having arranged to travel to Hungary with a travel agency in Vienna, we woke up early morning to meet the Austrian driver/tour guide who came in a small van to pick us up. He was friendly and so were the other passengers, four British teachers working in Saudi Arabia. After an hour of travel from Vienna, we reached the Austria-Hungary border. There was a small challenge there. Hungarian visa officers required our photographs, but their photo machines were out of order. We were allowed to rush back to the Austrian side of the border to take photographs for Hungarian entry visas. After that, the trip was without any further setbacks.
Hungary is another landlocked country in Central Europe. The territory of present-day Hungary has for centuries been a crossroads for various peoples, including Celts, Romans, Germanic tribes, Huns, West Slavs and the Avars. The foundation of the Hungarian state was established in the late 9th century. By the 12th century, Hungary became a regional power, reaching its cultural and political height in the 15th century. After that it was partially occupied by the Ottoman Empire for over 150 years. Hungary came under Habsburg rule at the turn of the 18th century, later joining with the Austrian Empire to form Austria-Hungary, a major power into the early 20th century.
The Austro-Hungary Empire collapsed after World War I, and after World War II, Hungary became a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Following the failed 1956 revolution, Hungary became a comparatively freer, though still repressive, member of the Eastern Bloc. A few years after our visit in 1985, the removal of Hungary’s border fence with Austria accelerated the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union. That was a part of a broad wave of revolutions in various communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Győr
En-route to Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, we visited a small city with a population of 70,000, Győr. In spite of the small size, it is the sixth largest city in the country and it is also the main city of Northwest Hungary. As it is halfway between Vienna and Budapest, and situated on one of the important roads of Central Europe, it appeared to have some movement of tourists. In 1985, the total population of Hungary was around 10.5 million and today it has gone down below 10 million. Twenty percent of Hungarians or in 1985, over two million lived in Budapest.
Budapest
We reached Budapest by mid-morning and could not believe our eyes. Based on our first impressions and experiences in a few key cities in the Eastern Bloc countries in 1985, our expectations were not high. Budapest was clean, beautiful, grand and friendly. “No wonder that some call it the Paris of the East”, I told my wife.
The history of Budapest is the history of three cities: Óbuda (old Buda), Buda the high city found on the banks of the left bank, and Pest, found on the right bank. The history of Budapest began when an early Celtic settlement transformed into the Roman town of Aquincum. The Hungarians arrived in the territory in the late 9th century, but the area was pillaged by the Mongols in the mid-13th century. Re-established Buda became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century.
After the reconquest of Buda in late 17th century, after a 150 year long Ottoman rule, the region entered a new age of prosperity, in 1873, with the unification of Buda, Óbuda and Pest the name ‘Budapest’ given to the new capital of Hungary. Budapest also became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Bisected by the Danube River, Budapest’s cityscape is studded with architectural landmarks Buda’s medieval Castle Hill and grand neoclassical buildings along Pest’s Andrássy Avenue to the 19th-century Chain Bridge are impressive. Turkish and Roman influence on Hungarian culture explains the popularity of mineral spas, including at thermal Lake Hévíz.
We visited most of the key tourist attractions in Budapest and nearby areas, including Matthias Church, Buda Castle built in the 13th century, Fisherman’s Bastion, which is an architectural icon of the city, and one of Europe’s oldest and most beloved coffee-houses, Café Gerbeaud. Our lunch at a small restaurant included goulash soup which was much hotter than the versions I had tasted before, and used to prepare when I was an executive chef. I also made a short visit to the best five-star international hotel in the city, Budapest InterContinential. On our way back to Vienna, we stopped again in Győr for refreshments.
CZECOSLOVAKIA
Towards the end of our stay in Austria, I planned a quick trip to Czechoslovakia. My wife wanted to skip that trip to spend the day with her mother and our Austrian friends, doing fun things in Vienna. I went alone to Czechoslovakia early in the morning with a group of tourists travelling in a coach. Learning from a bad experience at the Bulgaria-Romania border, 10 days prior, I took the advice from the Austrian travel agency, and armed myself with an additional visa for Czechoslovakia.
Czechoslovakia was an interesting country with a population of 10 million divided among two main ethnic groups – the Czech people and the Slovak people. Ethnic Czechs were called Bohemians in English until the early 20th century, referring to the former name of their country, Bohemia. Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state created after the World War I, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, at the eve of World War II, a major territory of the country became part of Germany, while the country lost further territories to Hungary and Poland.
After World War II, the country of Czechoslovakia was re-established, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR (a republic of the Soviet Union). From 1948, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc. A period of political liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was violently ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by some other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded Czechoslovakia.
Four years after my visit, in 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments (and communism) were ending all over Central and Eastern Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their socialist government in the Velvet Revolution. Later, in 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia as the result of nationalist tensions among the Slovaks.
Bratislava
The tour coach reached Bratislava, by mid-morning. Bratislava in 1985, the second city of Czechoslovakia and today the capital of Slovakia, is set along the Danube River by the border with Austria and Hungary. It’s surrounded by vineyards and the Little Carpathian Mountains, criss-crossed with forested hiking and cycling trails. The pedestrian-only, 18th-century old town is known for its lively bars and cafés. When we reached the city, the coach left us and the driver asked us to meet him in the same spot in eight hours.
That was a challenging excursion as no one at information and tour desks spoke any English. My German was not good enough to find my way. Bratislava and suburbs had several universities, and as a result there were many student excursionist. I eventually became friendly with a couple of students from West Germany, who liked to practice speaking English, and a Czechoslovakian student. We created our own city itinerary for the day, with the help of her Slovak-English dictionary.
Bratislava Castle
We visited the picturesque Bratislava whose Old Town banks the Danube River. It is relatively a smaller city with a population of around 350,000. It is one of the best preserved medieval old towns in Europe. Besides the colourful medieval houses, impressive churches, bell towers and beautiful baroque palaces, the most enchanting building is definitely the Bratislava Castle. Perched atop a hill, the reconstructed Bratislava Castle overlooks old town and the Danube.
My new friends and I spent hours at the castle in the midst of heavy snowing. When snow fall eased, we walked a lot around the city. We had lunch in a Slovak cellar type restaurant. After lunch we continued our discovery tour by foot. It was wet and cold, but fun.
An Assignment in Switzerland
When I returned to Vienna, I received a call from Sri Lanka. It was my father-in-law who ran our family business – Streamline Services, a travel agency and hospitality consulting company. We also represented a few well-known hotel schools in Europe for whom our company recruited students from Sri Lanka.
My father-in-law, Captain Wick chatted over the telephone for a long time. He said, “Chandi, the HotelConsult Hotel School contract you secured for us three years ago has progressed well. When you are in Switzerland, HotelConsult has invited you to check their facilities, meet our students, have a luncheon meeting with the President of the school, and also deliver a guest lecture. Their main campus is in Brig, which is only a three-hour train ride from Zürich which you have planned to visit. Can you go there and spend a couple of days?”
I said, “Yes, Captain!” and changed my travel plans immediately. My wife and mother-in-law suggested that I go to Switzerland alone on the business trip while they went on to Munich to stay with our good Bavarian friends in West Germany. We agreed to part for three days.
After leaving Vienna, the train passed some beautiful Austrian villages as well as cities such as Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Bludenz. Mr and Mrs. Schädler, an elderly couple returning to their country Liechtenstein, after a week in Vienna, became friendly with me, and were impressed with my hunger for global travels. “On your way to Zürich, why don’t you visit our country?” Mrs. Schädler asked me. When I told them that I don’t have a visa, Mr. Schädler was quick to encourage me saying “there are no border controls between Liechtenstein and Switzerland and, the Swiss visa is valid in Liechtenstein.” I was tempted.
The train reached the Swiss border city Buchs around 3:00 pm. When I realized that Liechtenstein was only five miles away, I changed my mind, and travel plans and got off the train. After leaving my bag in a station locker, I took a bus to Liechtenstein.
LIECHTENSTEIN
Liechtenstein is a German-speaking, 61-square mile wide principality between Austria and Switzerland. It’s known for its medieval castles, alpine landscapes and villages linked by a network of trails. In 1985, with a population of only 26,000 (today, 39,000 inhabitants) Liechtenstein is one of the smallest countries in the world. It is the same size as the District of Columbia, in the USA. Liechtenstein is the world’s wealthiest country. According to the World Bank, its annual per-capita income is $175,813, ranking Liechtenstein ahead of Monaco, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Bermuda in 2022.
Vaduz
Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, sits on the Rhine River near the Swiss border. It is a cultural and financial centre, home to Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, with galleries of modern and contemporary art. The Postmuseum displays Liechtenstein’s famous postage stamps. Although ideal for tourism, the largest hotel in the city had only 41 rooms! The main attraction is the Vaduz Castle.
Vaduz Castle
On a hillside overlooking the town, Vaduz Castle dates back to the 12th century and is a royal family residence. The nearby national museum houses archaeological and cultural artifacts in a medieval building. After a brief visit to Vaduz, I took a bus to return to Buchs in Switzerland. But I realized that it was now getting too late to travel to Brig according to my original plan before my spur of the moment decision to visit another country.
SWITZERLAND
Having travelled in Switzerland for studies and leisure three years ago, I was familiar with half a dozen key cities in this beautiful country. Switzerland’s political structure is fairly unique in the world. In total, there are 26 cantons (states of the Swiss Confederation) with an average population of 250,000 per canton. The primary language in 19 cantons is German, six cantons are French and one canton is Italian. In 1985 the population of Switzerland was only 6.5 million (today, nearly 10 million).
Before catching the last train from Buchs, I called HotelConsult to inform them about my slight change of travel plans. Then I called my Ceylon Hotel School batch mate and hostel mate for three years, Patrick Taylor (Patta) who was living in Zug with his Swiss wife, Judy. They met, fell in love and got married when Patta was the first Executive Chef of Triton Hotel and Judy was a Tour Leader for a Swiss tour operator in Sri Lanka. They invited me to their home, which was 30 minutes south of Zürich by train. They came to the Zug railway station to pick me up.
Zug
As I arrived in Zug, when it was very dark and cold, and did not see much. Zug is the main town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. The city is small and had a population of just over 20,000. Its name originates from the fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to pull up fishing nets and hence to the right to fish. This town is well-known for its low taxes and affluence with beautiful nature. The historic town of Zug a favourite destination for those who are fond of discovering noteworthy landmarks.
I stayed in Patta and Judy’s house that night. Judy quickly prepared a traditional Swiss meal including Zürcher geschnetzeltes (meat cut Zürich-style), a simple but very tasty dish consisting of veal cooked with mushrooms, cream, onions and wine. Patta prepared rösti (a Swiss dish made with raw grated potatoes and butter).
Zürcher geschnetzeltes mit rösti
As Judy was starting a new job next day, she went to sleep early leaving Patta and I to catch up about our memorable college years. After dinner I had a long chat with Patta till early hours in the morning. We talked about how our lives have changed since we first met 14 years ago in Colombo. Judy had motivated Patta to set up a small business in Zug called, Taylor Catering Services. “Machang, I also make some income from a new hobby of mine, Patta told me.
Their apartment was beautiful and had a collection of large abstract paintings. Patta surprised me when he told me that he is the artist. Painting had been something he tried after settling in Switzerland. I never knew about my friend’s artistic talent when we were college students. Those beautiful paintings inspired me to try abstract painting myself. I did this for many years after that, with a few solo abstract art exhibitions in four countries in South Asia, South America, the Caribbean and North America. Thanks for the motivation, Patta!
Patrick Taylor and I during a CHS trip in early 1970s
Patta was fascinated with my travel record and future travel ambitions. “Machang, where else are you travelling during this trip before returning to your base in London?” he asked. I said, “just a few brief
The last lap of the six-week long trip
To be continued next Sunday…