Video Highlights – Germany – Austria – CzechRepublic – Poland – Slovakia – Hungary- Romania and on to Montenegro.

Nightfall in Krakow Poland.

The Route Travelled by Train.

Red For Train. Pink For Plane. Blue For Road. Green For Boat.

Budapest was a quick layover for sightseeing and eating local specialties . It was TotalAdventure’s first visit since 1983 – when the Red Star of Communism was at the top of the Parliament Building.

We arrived early on Sunday morning , June 19, after an overnight journey form Krakow, through Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Though we had First Class Eurail, only second class sleepers were available. Comfortable enough.

Our luxury hotel ( quite cheap ) , the Buddha Bar was just across the bridge.

No Euro here. At 285 forint to the  U.S. Dollar, gourmet meals are amazingly cheap.

In the Central Market.

Delicious Game for lunch.

As the Owner and Producer of ArcticTropic Adventure Travel, I have been to over 75 countries ,beginning when I was 8 years old. I have saved every passport. Follow my journeys from Europe in 1967 to expeditions over 6 continents today. I’ve just begun a new passport which will fill up quickly upon the launch of our new app later this Summer 2015.

Late on a Sunday night, I boarded at train from Krakow that would arrive in Kosice, Czechoslovakia ( now Slovakia ) the next morning. This Soviet train going from Paris to Moscow, passed by but did not pick up passengers.  I shared a compartment with construction workers – we spoke in broken German while swilling vodka the whole night. Once a bottle was opened, the cap was tossed away.

Kosice was peaceful in the early morning, though there was no place to eat or even have a coffee.

Art Deco Proletarianism.

” Truth ” for the Working Masses.

Punk Concerts – Catching up with the times.

Open discourse. This picture was actually taken in Prague.

Fresh picked harvest.

Late in the morning I boarded another train for Debrecen,Hungary. Finally,I could sit down for an excellent kitchen cooked meal.

On the vast plains near Fuzysabony, Hungary. The flat lands stretch thousands of kilometers eastward to the Urals.

In October of 1990, just after official German Reunification, I traveled from Berlin, in the former East Germany, to Czechoslovakia ( now two nations) ,Poland,Hungary and Romania. While today the Eastern countries are much a part of the modern world, the East 20 years ago was a group of lands newly awakened from a long and stifling slumber.

In the next few days, ArcticTropic will feature a photo series  – Eastern Europe at the Fall Of Communism – to be interspersed with our regular adventure news and updates. Eastern European travel at the time was an adventurous undertaking, given the lack of infrastructure, the lack of any understanding of tourism and the unfamiliarity of many people with the outside world.

In Communist times hunting was off limits except for the most Elite Comrades. Now, Hungary offers some of the greatest Boar Hunting anywhere.