This is Why I Love Traveling in Eastern Europe
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2023
- Walking through the city of Gyor in northern Hungary while talking about eastern Europe, what it is or isn't and why I love traveling in this part of the world.
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Gabriel is a world traveler and travel writer who has been adventuring around the world since his first trip to Europe in the summer of 1990 when he was 18 years old. He is author of "Gabe's Guide to Budget Travel", "Following My Thumb" and several other books available on Amazon.com and elsewhere.
Thanks a lot for watching and safe journeys!
A few things: As I said in the video, establishing what exactly is Europe can be tricky, so defining Eastern Europe is also very open to debate. The term Central Europe is also used to refer to several of the countries that were behind the Iron Curtain. Even the Wikipedia page doesn't state exactly which countries are included in Eastern Europe, but leaves it open: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe As for Kazakhstan, this is the first line of the Wikipedia page: "Kazakhstan,[c] officially the Republic of Kazakhstan,[d] is a transcontinental landlocked country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan And Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan,[c] is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan And a correction, the map at 10:30 gets things backwards as the key shows the blue countries as the Eastern Bloc and the red countries as the Western Bloc, when it's the other way around.
Yes but the definition of Central Europe is pretty clear: Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein. Some people also include Slovenia. It's not the wrong geography but rather the socio-economic-political-cultural-whatever associating of more developed countries in Central Europe with miserable places like Russia what provokes people. If you want to point out countries behind the former iron courtain generally you can just say "postcommunist countries" or "the former Eastern bloc". Anyway your videos are great, it's just some technicality like this what catches my critical eye from time to time :D
Gabriel there are really nice places in Romania with the Carpathian Mountains nearby like Cluj,Targu Mures,Sibiu,Brasov. But also Timisoara in Western Romania is good too.
No debate - The Iron Curtain was a short period, and the cultural ties that constitute Central Europe are much longer.
@@lukassuchanek7692 Basically every definition or map you can find on Google has Hungary marked as Eastern Europe. Like it or not.
for westerners of our generation Gabe, Eastern Europe meant Eastern Bloc. I remember looking at a Lonely Planet guide to Eastern Europe back in the 90s, after the fall of the wall, and they still included Poland, Hungary etc in their book!
It was not a purely geographical term for us then.
Driving around in Eastern Europe is all I do on my holidays. Everything is modern but it is like Sweden was when I was young. Safe and polite❤
@@chamade166 No. Just facts.
Question: Are all countries in the World equally good?
...If so...why are Europe and North America the dream destination for millions of emigrants?
It’s sad how Sweden went from the safest country in Europe and on of the safest in the world to one of the least safe in Europe within a generation. Have you Swedes gotten so violent and uncivilized suddenly?🤔🤫
@@chamade166 Do you even know what racist means?
Apparently you don’t.
How could one European be racist about other Europeans by saying that a part of their own continent it’s safer and more polite than the other part?
What is racist about that and in what way…?
Your comment is quite silly, like the far fetched ridiculous imported “wokeism” that influenced it.
Don’t let stupid trends from abroad divide Europeans, it’s just a recipe for disaster no one could benefit from ever.
It’s a false narrative instilled artificially and forcefully into western societies everywhere by trolls with a platform and their scope is quite nefarious.
watching a man walking about different cities- why do I do so much of this and why is it so strangely comforting?
What a pretty central European city. Beautiful architecture, amazingly clean and well maintained town.
It's definitely Eastern European tho.
@libertas5005 It's definitely not and from your comments here it shows your poor understanding of the European geography. Those comments don't contain facts but are mere wind ups.
@@libertas5005 Are you from US that you dont understand geography ? Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary is central Europe
Regarding your comment at 8:10. For your information, Europe is a continent. "Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits." That's from Wikipedia, but as a European (England) teacher (retired), let me assure you that it is right. Over on this side of the pond we teach that there are five continents, excluding the polar land mass of Antartica: Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America.
Wikipedia also states the following: In geology, a continent is defined as "one of Earth's major landmasses, including both dry land and continental shelves".[3] The geological continents correspond to seven large areas of continental crust that are found on the tectonic plates, but exclude small continental fragments such as Madagascar that are generally referred to as microcontinents. Continental crust is only known to exist on Earth.[4]
The notion is more less a result of "residual political tailing". Franky, I do not know why Gabriel even talks about it. There is NO base nova-days for such designation. The general level of culture in eastern Europe is on co-measurable level wit the rest.
So, is the term Eurasia a canard?
This is correct.
Gabriel has shown multiple times that he is very ignorant on basic geography topics which is hilarious coming from someone who does traveling for a living 😅
Gabriel, I love all of your videos, but the kind where you are walking around and just showing the scenery and speaking about relevant topics are my absolute favorite!!!! I feel as I am walking along with you experiencing similar things; I know nothing can compare to actually being there, but it’s still amazing ❤️🙏☮️
Hi Gabriel, The Hungarian language is a member of Finno-Ugric group of languages related to Estonian and Finnish. At first, I thought it was part of the Slavic language being it's on the eastern side of Europe. You can tell while you walk in the streets that the younger generation is more inclined to speak and understand English because of the exposure and access to social media which in turn is making the world a smaller place with more things in common than different. These places are still places where many people wouldn't necessarily travel to but are becoming more travel friendly because of channels like your channel that are more personal travel vlogs. Showing the various places around the world in the most natural way possible.
Bulgaria is one of my favorite countries, great outdoors, interesting towns and local life
well bulgaria sucks...but ok...
Hungary's treasure is Lake Balaton! Beaches, vineyards, fortresses, historic towns, great restaurants
Yes, and if you want to see more than beaches, I recommend the northern shore between Balatonfüred and Badacsony, including the Uplands. Especially of course the incredible village of Fövenyes 😊 where I have a house that will be my home for the next weeks. Well, the village itself has not that much to offer but it is a great base for exploring the region. Hopefully I will upload some more videos of the region soon.
Locals told me that Hungary is Central Europe. I thought of Hungary as Eastern Europe until I traveled there. Ask some Locals and see what they say Gabriel
They are only calling it Central Europe now because it sounds better. Eastern Europe still reminds people of the hard times, when the country was poor and communist.
@@mrsamice3416 But no matter what who thinks. See map .. it is pretty much central
Ditto!! I went on a eastern europe tour. That is how they described it. I found it charming because it was different. Not commercialized yet. Hope they keep the wonderful towns!
You do realize most of Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and prior to that mostly in the holy roman empire (modern day Germany) and during this time the architecture was developed. A few decades of communism should not mean “eastern” Europe is different. Also it has been 30+ years since the wall came down, the EU has restored these countries’ European identity.
The architecture of Eastern Europe somehow seems to have been kept so well even in these modern developing times. Thanks again for another down to earth video Gabriel 👍
We had lovely colonial architecture here in major cities of Australia. Most of it has been pulled down and they look like New York with high rise buildings. I love Gabriel's videos of Europe.
Depends on your definition of Eastern Europe. Big cities in Central Europe, like Budapest, Prague and Krakow have a lot of architectural richness that has survived modern development, but you also have smaller places, like Győr in this video, that never had the level of development of big cities, and they have reached the conclusion that their small old towns are assets to be preserved. If you go further east, like Belgrade, Bucharest or Odessa the architecture changes, becomes more hectic, still charming, and less successfully preserved. Smaller places can often have very little or almost no old architecture.
Except that this is not Eastern European architecture, if you want to see Eastern European architecture, then go to Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus. When these buildings were built 120 years ago Hungary and Austria was one single country and belonged to the west. Hungary has an 1100 years old history, eversince its foundation it culturally belonged to the west, belonged to Roman Chatolicism, and later Protestantism, used Latin script. Our royals married with French, Italian, German, Spanish royals, even the British Royal family has significant amount of Hungarian blood. Eastern Europe on the other hand was Orthodox Christian, used Cyrillic script, and was much less developed then Hungary or the west. In 1890's in Budapest there was already an electric subway system while in Eastern Europe they just started considering paving the main roads of their largest cities.
The term 'iron curtain' was first used by Winston Churchill in a speech in Fulton, Missouri in March 1946.
Yes, I liked how Gabe said that it was a term coined by "some guy"!😀
It’s always nice to walk along with you, listening to you explain your surroundings I find quite soothing. You articulate so well, like an upbeat geography teacher.😊❤
Gabe love all your videos now for many years continue on
20:30 Traveling from NYC to rural Massachusetts has the same effect. Prices in restaurants gets much more affordable and service friendly.
Ohhh...my hometown! So lovely to see it in one of the best travel vlogs. ❤
I was there last week from Komárom. My name is also Gabriel
Cool. 👍
my hometown too :)
Most people from the west think of the old soviet bloc countries as eastern europe, but the the people of Hungary, Poland, etc hate that and consider themselves central europe
Yes,they definitely do not belong in civilized and cultured Western Europe.
they've been sensitive about that for a few centuries, not just since the communist period!
@@chestermosburger3113And we have reasons for that!! Funny that Germany is not referred to as Eastern Europe even though there used to be East Germany and West Germany. Also Prague is more west than Vienna! 🙄
@@ivonahofman8457 Greece is east too, and Finland. Vienna is further east than Prague. Central is wherever i am at the particular moment. There certainly was a visible difference between old East Germany and the west for many years after the fall of the wall. Deep history and interesting places abound- i am particularly fascinated by the variety of languages in the region even though I'm useless at speaking them!
People in Hungary and Poland and others in the neighborhood need to get a reality check and stop whining. Accept that they're actually just Eastern European countries.
Thoroughly enjoying seeing these less popular countries because if we had to guess, we would imagine them being more or less 'war-torn' rather than stunningly beautiful. Thanks for opening our eyes to places like Hungary and showing that it's fairly easy to travel and sightsee there in a comfortable and reasonably affordable way. So much good, practiclal information on your channel. Always a good use of our time.
The Czechs don’t like to be referred to as Eastern Europe.
Quite right! Czech Republic is a landlocked country right in the centre of Europe and therefore referred to as CENTRAL EUROPE! 😅
This country still was under russian influence, communist ideology etc.etc...so Tchécoslovakia is considered to be an Easter Europe country.
@@hasslucie8143was, not is.
It’s too affordable to be Western Europe
Yes Czechs are easy offended about this topic… whilst Slovakians even call themselves Eastern Europeans. For me Eastern Europe has more to do with the history and the Iron curtain, and is not used in a bad way or bad intention.
Agree I love travelling Eastern Europe. Cheaper prices and outside the main tourist blocks can be ridiculously cheap. There is also a lot more preserved old town centres that have a lot of charm. It is often said people are more standoffish but that is more of a cultural thing than being unfriendly. As more of an introvert I much prefer this to the more in your face, haggling type cultures. if you are heading to Budapest, a stunning city. A fairly short train journey from there is Szentendre which is worth a visit, a beautiful small town.
Remember, it is cheap for the tourists, not for the people who live there!
@@ivonahofman8457 We only compare restaurant and hotel prices when we travel but actually these are just a very small part of the cost of living in a country . For example a restaurant bill is 3-4 x higher in Switzerland than in Ethipoia, but a car is 3-4x more expensive in Ethiopia than in Switzerland.
Always a treat to watch your videos. Really good and honest . Keep em comin...
Gabriel you could also take a train to High Tatras Slovakia for just 20 euros. They are little bit similar to Alps with many interesting trails and places to explore. Then you could continue to second largest city of Slovakia - Kosice. Cheers.
High Tatra mountains are beautiful esp Štrbské Pleso and Poprad ❤
Great video Gabe! Always enjoy your walk and talks!! Cheers from Toronto Canada
This video will complement my morning coffee like there is no more tomorrows. ☕ 🙏
My ex-girlfriend is Hungarian for English speakers it's probably one of the three or four hardest languages to learn after 5 years I probably ended up learning about 20 or 30 words and because few people in the world speak it I found it fascinating
Eastern Europe has developed differently to Western Europe. They’ve kept their ‘old town’ areas preserved, and built newer developments nearby, whereas in Western Europe they’ve knocked down some old town areas and added modern buildings amongst the area. The old towns are the main appeal to Eastern Europe imo.
Not to mention that a lot of Old towns were bombed off the Earth during WW2 in Western Europe.
@@artfx9 Not only were they bombed and destroyed, imagine all the deaths and suffering the US and their allies have forced upon them too.
@@Daswars777 It was the right thing to do. They brought it onto themselves (if you want to poke a corpse from the past).
In Eastern Europe there is practically no area of old towns because, apart from exceptions, there were no towns in the classical sense of the word. This is one of the many factors that distinguish Central Europe or the Balkans from Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe is Russia, i.e. an area in which social and economic processes characteristic of Western Europe and then Central Europe did not take place.
Most cities in Europe have beautiful downtown areas, especially Italy, France , Spain, Portugal and Belgium.
Really loved this video.. ❤ Keep it up, Gabe.
Carpathian mountains are beautiful in Romania.
Churchill mentioned the "iron curtain" in his Fulton, Missouri speech on March 5, 1946. But, he was not the first to use it. It was first printed in 1918, in Apocalypse of Our Time, by Vasily Rozanov.
Well said, I love eastern Europe as well. That authenticity and purity you talked about being the main reason, globalization has ruined the west for the most part which is so sad. I mean look at Canada, US or UK, once upon a time ( as far back as 10 years ago) these three countries were considered the heaven on earth, not anymore unfortunately....
Actually only old downtown neighborhoods are preserved by law, the rest is just as globalized as Canada or the US. Shopping malls, modern buildings, global frenchise chains all over, etc.
Enjoyed your video. Gyor looks peaceful, different architecture, one thing I love is the sound of the bells in these little towns
Another great video thanks for taking us on the road less travelled ! Always different and unexpected locations 👍👌
Love all your videos and looking forward to your East European adventures
Peter Scholl-Latour, a French-German journalist, author and legendary reporter, called Europe once a Cape of Asia, since it's not really a continent but rather tiny in comparison to other continents.
Continent names are just geo-political names
Beautiful, quite neat city, i'd love to take a walk there, it's delightfully peaceful.✌
Nice city no graffiti no litter
The same all over Eastern Europe....
Hungarians settled from the Ural Mountains to Central Europe over 1000 years ago. And they kept their language. Its similar to the Udmurt language. Just look at the map where the Udmurt Republic is located in the Russian Federation.
I was told by a Chinese person that they are taught in China that Hungarians have some Chinese/Mongolian background. I guess dating back from when old Huns, Avars and Tatars invaded and settled that part of Europe.
Hungarians look like any other Europian ppl.
Nice vid!!!
I love these walk n talk videos 😊 thank you Gabriel! 😎☀️😊❤
83 USD for what seems like a budget hotel is extremely expensive for that region, Hungary used to be much much cheaper even recently!!
there is a reason why the hotels cost so much in Györ. there is a huge industry in the town, Audi has a mega factory + a lot of connecting industries. lots of business travellers are coming to the City and hotels can charge whatever price they want!
We have been to Sopron. We really liked it. My grandfather in law immigrated from there. My husband found cousins there and the grave of his great great grandparents at St. Michael's cemetery. If you find Jandl wine while in Hungary, please try it. Made by the Jandl cousins.
Europe's eastern border is Ural mountains, Ural River, Caucasus mountains.
The best travel channel on YT.
Yugoslavia split from the USSR in 1948 just before the Warsaw Pact so I'd say it was indeed behind the Iron Curtain if only briefly - 2 years or so.
I never heard of the Schengen area until your videos. Keep your videos coming.
The thing with countries like Hungary is that there is a 5th category of Europe rarely mentioned by outsiders that is neither west, east, south or north - that is Central Europe. Many people in these countries identify with just that. The core countries of what constitutes as Central Europe in this particular division of Europe is Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland, roughly the countries that were in the former Habsburg Empire. Sometimes, Switzerland is included in this also, but usually considered more as part of the geographic Western Europe. Bulgaria and Romania is either Eastern Europe or South-Eastern, though Transylvania may be considered a part of Central Europe also. I know, very complicated divisions of a continent that isn't really a continent, and someone may not agree with another.
With these definitions nothing is Eastern Europe. To me Central Europe is a made up term in certain countries who think they’re “too good” to be Eastern Europe and and see that term as something negative(when it’s literally just a direction these days). I don’t think anyone in France or Scandinavia uses “Central Europe” for example. I’ve never used it
In Sweden "Eastern Europe" is not a geographical description. It means that it used to belong to USSR:s communist sphere. Behind the iron curtain.
Central Europe is geographical...
"Eastern Europe" as ex-communist will disappear. Give it another 30 years😜
@@johanswede8200 It's about time "Eastern Europe" as ex-communist disappears, and I am saying that as a Swede! After all, we don't lump countries like Spain together with Germany because they once were fascist countries. Eastern Europe is a real and cultural and geographical region, the core countries that are always considered part of it are Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, those are in Eastern Europe and are never refered to as Central Europe.
@@vaultkeeper2 Things change slowly. And is it really important?
I use Central Europe...but do I change anybody's use...hardly.
When some American mistakes Sweden for Switzerland I just think he is ignorant. I don't get angry...
@@vaultkeeper2Bravo, well said and explained 👏👏👏 Totally agree 👍 🫶
16:30 btw that side of the bridge is for bicycles. the other pedestrians as you can see are on the other side.
Great video. I miss travelling in Europe.
Beautiful video walking around Gyor and chatting. It is good to see they preserved the architecture in all European Cities. I am most impressed the place is not choking with cars and tourists (terrorists) like southern European countries. . A big thank you Gabriel. Keep safe and keep enjoying your travels.
I love your insights and reflections. There is indeed something enigmatic, and hence intriguing, for us in the West about the countries that were previously under USSR influence in Central & Eastern Europe
As you crossed that bridge, I noticed you may have been on the bike side. the people on the other side, walking in stride were looking at you as if to say , ok he's talking to himself and on the wrong side of the bridge. 😂Love it, man! I may be wrong. I hope not because it would be classic.
Yeah, he was on the bike path, the wrong side. I did the exact thing myself when I visited Györ. Some old man said something to me in Hungarian and clearly wasn’t happy. Too funny! 😅🤣
huge fan of yours
Guilty as well 😎✌
Győr is my home town :) Thanks that you show it to such a wide audience :) It deserves more attention!
Churchill coined the term "Iron Curtain". I remember hearing that term when I was young (early 80's) and imagining a literal stage curtain separating NATO from the Warsaw Pact.
Hungarian, like Finnish, is not even a part of the Indo-European family of languages. Finnish and Hungarian and I believe Estonian is related, but loosely. I really enjoy these walk and talks. This is a super interesting discussion.
Pleasant walk and reflection!!!👣💡👣💡
I love Easstern Europe too, im in serbia now...
Great travel
The cost is the reason I will focus on Asia countries to explore. Plus there are so many I want to visit, Nepal is first, September, then I want Pakistan,Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand Turkey and more, so I have enough to keep me busy 😁
When you mentioned that you had been behind the "iron curtain" in 1990, it reminded me that we had visited Bulgaria in 1991, but wasn't sure that we were behind the iron curtain, I guess because the Berlin Wall had fallen a couple of years before... Though Bulgaria at the time did have a very communist feel to it. Our ultimate destination was India, flying from Canada, and the rock bottom cheapest tickets we could find was from this new airline called Jes Air based in Bulgaria, so our connection was through Sofia. Decided to spend a week there on our way to India. Visited Sofia and the Black Sea coast (Varna/Albena). This was our honeymoon trip and my wife is originally from Ukraine, so the Black Sea has a very special connection to her. I remember the only food option at the Sofia Airport, aside from the always excellent beer (pivo), was a cheese sandwich, which was still good as the cheese was similar to feta, only sharper. Good times!
Nice clean city.
Very nice city!
Kazakhstan is in central Asia which is made out of 5 stans. It does have a mix of European and Asian cultures.
For the Americans that doesn't understand the issue. The problem is that the Iron courtain was just a tiny little part of European history (1948-1989). For example Czechs, Slovakians, Austrians, Hungarians, Slovenians, Serbians, Bosnians, parts of Italy, Croatia, Romania and Ukraine were before 1918 locked in one country called Austrian Empire. It's a typical Central European, distinguishable area (German, Slavic, Romanic and Hungarian languages and cultures) that were all in one country for around 600 years. Even the houses are very similar. Not to mention the association with Roman Empire, the latin alphabet, etc. If you go to Eastern Europe, the culture, historical connections, the Alphabet, culture and way of thinking is completely different from Central Europe. Russia was an empire on its own competing with Central and Western Europe although run by the same European royal families. In the Czech Republic, children are/were thought even during the communist times to be a part of Central Europe and that what they associate with. That's why they get upset if you tell them they are from a different part of Europe like Eastern Europe and they will be upset even when you tell them they are Western, Southern or Northern Europeans. They are Central European and it has been like that since the ancient times. The European history didn't start in 1945 and the Americans need to understand that.
Just to add:
Austria was considered to be included in the Eastern block after ww2, but they announced neutrality and since then are considered Western Europe even though they are Central as the rest of the ex-Austrian-Hungary Empire. Eastern German states are also now considered to be western Europe even though they were behind the Iron courtain on the Soviet side. Finland is way more East than the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, etc. Stockholm and Vienna are way more East than Prague. So even geographicaly to call Central Europe - Eastern doesn't make any sense. As you see the Iron courtain distinction is not usable and is not reflecting the complex historical realities of Europe.
I like Eastern Europe or the former countries of the ussr are friendlier to tourists and I like the old architecture.
I do too, I'm from Southern California.
I went past this town last week on the way to Bratislava from Budapest.
Dear Gabriel ... You are welcome to Slovenia - capital city - Ljubljana ... We have beautiful castle in the middle of the city ... It is a great place to film a video ...👍🏔🏰📽🎬📸🌄⛰🍻🍽✌ ... There is beautuful river "Ljubljanica" - with a lot of very nice bridges ... "Dragon bridge" + "Tromostovje bridge" + " Mesarski / Love bridge " ... + many more ...
Went there last June from Croatia. Also went to Lake Bled. Both are beautiful.
Sounds beautiful. But i heard that Slovenia is quite expensive compared to the countries that more east.
Hi,the line that divide Europe from Asia are the Ural mountains in russia to the Bosporus and the border from Turkey to the Middle east,that is what I,as european had learnd in school,but today its seems that eurasia and maybe Afrika are one landmass,its complicaded ❤ u Videos and welcome in Good old Europe:)
True, continents what we refer today are mainly geo political names.
Turkey is also debatable. When you take the boat across the Bosphorus in Istanbul then it's considered that you're crossing from Europe over to Asia.
Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech was March 5, 1946 and took place in Fulton, MO
Good information about prices. Eastern Europe seems like the place to go.
Welcome to Hungary! You may find more interesting places than Győr in Hungary, which is an industrial city. There is huge Audi factory, so unemployment almost not exsists, Prices are higher in Győr, generally. Hungary is getting dearer everywhere, unfortunatelly, though you can still find good restaurants for reasonable prices
That "some guy" was Winston Churchill from his Iron Curtain speech. At the war's end, Churchill wanted the Allies to declare war on Stalin. America wasn't keen, to say the least even though they were encouraged to atom bomb Moscow as the USSR didn't have a response at the time
To make things easier let’s just say they’re in Europe, soon as you say Central, Eastern, Western it just confuses things. They are European countries or Asian. 😃👍. People don’t like to be referred to as Eastern Block or Eastern European as it still holds a stigma of countries restricted by USSR Soviet rule.
maybe if those eastern european countries werent so poor, homophobic and criminal they wouldnt be considered that way anymore. theres a reason many dont consider slovenia eastern europe anymore but rather western nowadays. because its open and accepting and more developed than the other eastern countries
I enjoyed your video a lot. Thank you for visiting Győr. If you travelling towards Romania, you can consider visiting Szeged, Gyula, Debrecen. They are all close to the border.
I too heard that Szeged is a nice city to visit.
Great video Gabriel. I was born in the Czech Republic back in 1976 and spent my first 14 years behind the iron curtain.. Last 25 years I have been living in the US and I can tell you people in the Czech Republic dont like to be called Eastern Europeans.. at least my generation or older folks. It has to do with the dark times of Communism.. back in the 90s and early 2000s, Eastern block has been looked upon as poor, dirty and dangerous.
I share your background. Grew up in Russia in 1970-1980s, the immigrated to New York in 1990s. Never been to Russia since.
Have to say we just travelled a bit of Europe and turkey and we found the prices very expensive. We also spent time in Bulgaria which was reasonable and the cheapest country for us was Macedonia. We actually found that some things are cheaper here at home in Aussie than Europe
@gabriel. Hello. Said "see-aaa" 👌
Love your "high roller" camera angles. 😂
Welcome to Hungary im a big fan of yours😊😮
Explaining the "cheaper" prices in "eastern" Europe. They have several times lower wages then in the "western" countries such as Germany or Austria. When judging prices, you have to ALWAYS factor in how much local people make.
Hi Gabriel. Long time following your travel adventures. Very good! Amazing! I would like to see you visiting Portugal. You will also find amazing places which will turn out in amazing videos as well. You will find one thousand years of history there! Think about it! In the mean time safe travels. My best.
There are a few videos of Portugal on my channel: www.youtube.com/@GabrielTravelerVideos/search?query=Portugal
You probably know most of this . . .The "some guy" who coined the term "Iron Curtain" was Winston Churchill. He was one of the first to see what Stalin was doing in the European countries he had control over after WWII. Yugoslavia was definitely communist, but Marshall Tito, it's leader, was te one guy in the Eastern Block who could stand up to Stalin and get away with it. When France became more non-aligned under DeGaulle in the 60s, he told the American Secretary of Defense, I think Dean Rusk or Dean Atcheson, I forget, that he wanted all American GIs out of France, and the Secretary famously responded, "Including the ones buried there?"
Hi Gabe, nice city, good food, reasonable prices. Choas
It would be nice to go to the Danube Bend by boat, because it's a wonderful beautiful place! (Start in Budapest > Visegrád )
Many loves Eastern Europe for some reasons.
I have traveled quite a bit in Poland, Baltics, Bulgaria, Hungary etc., but I never really fell in love with the Eastern part of Europe. Even though Western Europe is more expensive, I prefer going there instead. I do understand why people like Eastern Europe, though, and it is definitely A LOT more wallet-friendly that the richer countries in the West. Just a matter of taste, I guess.
Interesting how much easier it is for us to understand Romance languages than Germanic ones even though English isn’t in that language family. Of course linguists don’t classify language based on vocabulary, but I find it amusingly counterintuitive for speakers.
Like someone else said, I love these videos of you wandering around reflecting on various topics.
English is almost a Romance language.
As I understand it, one of the reasons there are so many words in English is because it takes words from both the Romantic and the Germanic. So there are usually multiple words to describe the same thing. For example water is very close to wasser in German. In Spanish it's agua, but we also use the word aqua. I play a little mind game with Spanish sometimes in which I try to find a word in English that sounds very similar, and you can almost always find one.
@@GabrielTravelerVideosry to play this game with Greeks, you'd never win!! 😅
@@GabrielTravelerVideos And all this because after Norwegian and Danish Vikings in the year 911 lead by Rollon (Rolv the ganger) got Normandy and a lot of silver and gold for ending their conquering warfare in the Frankish kingdom. Then their relative, William the conquerer, 150 years later, in the very determining year 1066 this time won the throne of England in the battle of Hastings. Had an enormous influence of the penetration of french and romance words into the English language.
@@GabrielTravelerVideos , to be precise, Old English was a Germanic language, very similar to Dutch and even German, before 1066 (even today's Germans can still partly understand Old English, as seen on the Ecolinguist YT channel). But in 1066 after winning in the Battle of Hastings (seen very well on Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy), there was that famous successful Norman invasion of William the Conqueror and Norman French took its path to the English vocabulary, making like 30% of today's English words from French. But Norman French was not the same as normal French at that time, was a mixture because Normans were Vikings before they came to France. However, as Langfocus YT video mentioned, it is linguistically still the Frisian (in the Netherlands and Northern Germany) the most sister language to English on Earth today, although very influenced by Dutch nowadays. Some people making jokes that Frisian language is what would be English if England was conquered by Dutch and not Normans. :) Although in the Glorious Revolution 1688 de facto England was successfully invaded by Dutch as William III of Orange, the Dutch king, became also the English king, but he wasn't enforcing Dutch as the language of nobility and peasants as Normans did their version of French 6 centuries earlier.
If you come from Switzerland, it gets cheaper when you go east. But it gets cheaper if you go west, south or north, too :D
True. Switzerland is a rule breaker.
Love the content. Would love to see you hiring a car and doing a proper tour of Scotland and it’s islands
Of course Gabriel, as a Northern Mexican, is familiar with the Romance languages.
If you're going to visit Romania (the neighbouring country, where i'm from), do yourself a favor and visit: Oradea (great city, close to the hungarian border), Cluj, Sighisoara, Brasov (great city).
I visited some of those places on my last trip: czcams.com/video/_1loOG9UUII/video.html
About three months, one video every day, great stamina!
You are most definitely in central Europe
maybe if those eastern european countries werent so poor, homophobic and criminal they wouldnt be considered that way anymore. theres a reason many dont consider slovenia eastern europe anymore but rather western nowadays. because its open and accepting and more developed than the other eastern countries
Good morning from Arizona 4 AM 90 degrees..Expecting 117 degrees
Yo. ✌️
The map at 10:40 has the blocks labelled backward.
Exactly, see the comment I pinned at the top.
Gabriel if you come back to Greece I will be from 29 July in Limnos Island and stay till 3 August there if you will visit my island just let me know!
I would say Hungary is in Central Europe, culturally and geographically, it was part of the Austria-Hungro empire
3 most expensive Eastern European countries are Czechia, Slovenia and Estonia for sure.
Slovenia and Estonia have (in the latest stats) even higher GDP per capita than Spain, if you believe or not. :) So the south of Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece) is losing a gap to some Eastern European countries (although we in Slovenia say that we are in Central Europe) and become even poorer than them.