Dear Cha-Wel-Dor-Sue,

Pat and I visited Eastern Europe in October en route to a Urologic Seminar in Vienna and thoroughly enjoyed our introduction, brief as it was, to life behind the Iron Curtain. Life there is much less affluent and material things are in great demand. Black markets exist in all of these countries, and particularly in Poland. The demand for hard cash is obvious. To be sure we only visited Prague in Czechoslovakia, Warsaw, Krakow, and Auschwitz in Poland, and Budapest in Hungary, and our reactions are largely the impressions we have gained of these capitols. However, life in the country or rural areas is usually far worse than life in the urban centers.

Our first stop was Prague, a center of culture in central Europe for many years and still very beautiful today. It is the site of the Charles University, one of the oldest in Europe. While fighting took place there during World War II, the city itself was not irreparably damaged as occurred in Warsaw and its history is indelibly inscribed in its beautiful architecture. We attended a concert of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and visited several of its famous restaurants. The old town with its astronomical tower is a fascinating place to visit, and one of the chief products of this beautiful country is its magnificent crystal ware.

Warsaw, our next stop, is an entirely new city, some 85 percent of the city having been totally destroyed by the direct order of Adolph Hitler during the second uprising that occurred during the second World War in 1943. The old town has been beautifully restored, and an attempt has been made in the bordering new town to conform to the old architecture. The city is interesting, but it certainly lacks the charm of Prague and Budapest. We visited Chopan's birthplace and attended a piano concert in his honor in the Chopan Memorial Hall. I think our ticket cost us about 12 cents.

A most interesting day was spent in Krakow which was the ancient capitol and which was not in any way damaged during the war. It still retains all of its former charm and we visited the church there that was the parish church of the present Pope. We also drove to Auschwitz to see the prison camp where genocide was practiced on a tremendous scale. We were actually in the gas chambers and the crematoriums where millions of Poles, Jews, Czechs, Hungarians, Greeks etc., were killed by the order of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi storm troopers. It is a site long to be remembered. Fortunately for history the Russian commander, Konev, came in so quickly that they did not have time to blow up the installation as they did in nearby Birkenau.

Budapest was to my mind one of the most beautiful city that we visited and it is divided by the Danube River. On the west coast is the hilly section known as Buda whereas on the east there is a plain known as Pest. The west side houses the Castle and St. Matthias Church and also a Russian monument to the heroic efforts of the Russians in defeating the Germans at that site.

Its subway system is the oldest in Europe, and we actually rode on that particular subway in Budapest. Budapest has many museums and a beautiful boulevard which terminates at the "Hero's Plaza". It is compared to the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Shopping in Eastern Europe is usually done in the so-called dollar stores as in Russia. In Czechoslovakia the stores are called Tuzek stores, whereas they are called Pewex in Poland, and In Tourist in Hungary. No great bargains were available except for liquor.

Vienna was certainly the most beautiful city of all and it rivals Paris in it attractiveness. Everything in Austria was very expensive, and our room in the Intercontinental Hotel in Vienna was rated at $225 per night. Since we were on a tour, we of course did not have to pay that large sum of money for our room. As a consequence of everything being so expensive, we bought next to nothing. While we were in Vienna Nureyav was at the opera house and tickets cost from $40 to $80 per person. Our tickets for a philharmonic concert were $15 and we were told that tickets could be procured at the folk opera, not the grand opera, for between $20 and $40 a piece. Dining out was also very, very expensive and yet we met a couple who had just come from Zurich who said that the charges in Austria were relatively inexpensive compared to those in Switzerland.

The Urologic seminar that I attended in Vienna at the Allegemeines Krankenhaus was absolutely superb, and I greatly enjoyed walking about this ancient and historic mecca of medicine. To simply do so enabled one to relive the history of medical progress particularly during the late 1800's and early 1900's. For many years Vienna was simply the mecca of medicine and well deserved this title.

Since we had friends in Vienna we enjoyed our visit more than ordinarily.

The flight home was relatively uneventful as we flew from Vienna to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to New York. While in Eastern Europe we flew the Czechoslovakian and Polish airlines as well as the Austrian airline.

All in all, it was a delightful two weeks vacation.

Love,

DAD

CEJ/dm