Hungary

If your destination is Bratislava, be prepared for a few questions: Is that in Eastern Europe? (No, it's in Central Europe.) Capital of Slovenia, right? (Uh, no.) Where is that? (The last question courtesy of a Customs employee at LAX.) Until recently, my schooling on all things Bratislavan occurred during a 20-minute stop on a train traveling from Prague, Czech Republic, to Budapest, Hungary, almost a decade ago. Several travelers boarded; a few disembarked. Some of them flashed passports, suggesting that we had stopped in a different country, in a major European city about which I knew … nothing.

With a last round of roster cuts looming ahead of this summer's London Olympics, U.S. Water Polo Coach Terry Schroeder will get one final look at his team in action when it plays a series of exhibitions in Southern California against Croatia and Hungary, the defending Olympic champion, beginning Saturday at Newport Harbor High School. Schroeder needs to trim three players from a 16-man roster that includes 11 former Olympians, among them three-time Olympians Tony Azevedo, the team captain, and Ryan Bailey.

A friend of mine got a lifetime achievement award recently, and it got me to thinking about the Holocaust again, something that's never been completely out of my mind for the last 22 years. Randolph L. Braham and I are an odd couple to be friends because our families were on different sides of the Holocaust. His emails to me over the last 20 years have always been signed Randy, but I call him Professor Braham out of respect. Braham is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, director of the Rosenthal Center for Holocaust Studies there, and the author of more than 60 books on the Holocaust.

A friend of mine got a lifetime achievement award recently, and it got me to thinking about the Holocaust again, something that's never been completely out of my mind for the last 22 years. Randolph L. Braham and I are an odd couple to be friends because our families were on different sides of the Holocaust. His emails to me over the last 20 years have always been signed Randy, but I call him Professor Braham out of respect. Braham is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, director of the Rosenthal Center for Holocaust Studies there, and the author of more than 60 books on the Holocaust.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - American coffeehouses are prized for their quick service and fast Internet - ideal for people on the go. But a century ago, European cafes were places to linger amid Gilded Age opulence. Nowhere was this more so than in Budapest, where some of its great historic cafes have survived economic crises, war and Communism. My wife, Rachel, and my mother-in-law, Edie, had never been to Hungary, but they had been hearing about Budapest and its grand avenues, delicious pastries and vibrant Jewish community all their lives: Edie's parents were born here in the 1890s.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO BUDAPEST, HUNGARY From LAX , connecting service (change of plane) to Budapest is offered on KLM, Lufthansa, Air France, British, Alitalia, Turkish and Aeroflot. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $712, including taxes and fees. By taxi, the 12-mile ride from the Budapest airport to the city center costs about $23. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code) and 36 (the country code for Hungary)

Several thousand people held anti-government protests in the Hungarian capital during a national holiday Sunday, and police detained 35 people. Dressed in riot gear, the police chased some of the protesters through the streets of Budapest and prevented them from reaching the parliament building, where violent protests had taken place in 2006. At one point, tear gas was used to drive back a small group of demonstrators that tried to attack police lines near St. Stephen's Basilica.

With a last round of roster cuts looming ahead of this summer's London Olympics, U.S. Water Polo Coach Terry Schroeder will get one final look at his team in action when it plays a series of exhibitions in Southern California against Croatia and Hungary, the defending Olympic champion, beginning Saturday at Newport Harbor High School. Schroeder needs to trim three players from a 16-man roster that includes 11 former Olympians, among them three-time Olympians Tony Azevedo, the team captain, and Ryan Bailey.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir met Hungarian Communist Party leader Karoly Grosz on Wednesday for talks likely to center on the Middle East and moves to restore diplomatic relations broken 21 years ago. It was the first visit by any Israeli premier to an East European country other than Romania, and the highest-level bilateral meeting since Hungary broke diplomatic ties after the 1967 Six-Day War.

There's a museum in Budapest called the House of Terror. It has a metal awning with the word "terror" carved out of it, and when the sun is high, the people below step on terror, pass through terror, because the shadow of the word hangs in the air before it hits the ground. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of Soviet dominance in Hungary, Russia's ghosts linger in a fledgling political system, and its oil and gas muscle spooks the Hungarian government.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO BUDAPEST, HUNGARY From LAX , connecting service (change of plane) to Budapest is offered on KLM, Lufthansa, Air France, British, Alitalia, Turkish and Aeroflot. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $712, including taxes and fees. By taxi, the 12-mile ride from the Budapest airport to the city center costs about $23. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code) and 36 (the country code for Hungary)

BUDAPEST, Hungary - American coffeehouses are prized for their quick service and fast Internet - ideal for people on the go. But a century ago, European cafes were places to linger amid Gilded Age opulence. Nowhere was this more so than in Budapest, where some of its great historic cafes have survived economic crises, war and Communism. My wife, Rachel, and my mother-in-law, Edie, had never been to Hungary, but they had been hearing about Budapest and its grand avenues, delicious pastries and vibrant Jewish community all their lives: Edie's parents were born here in the 1890s.

If your destination is Bratislava, be prepared for a few questions: Is that in Eastern Europe? (No, it's in Central Europe.) Capital of Slovenia, right? (Uh, no.) Where is that? (The last question courtesy of a Customs employee at LAX.) Until recently, my schooling on all things Bratislavan occurred during a 20-minute stop on a train traveling from Prague, Czech Republic, to Budapest, Hungary, almost a decade ago. Several travelers boarded; a few disembarked. Some of them flashed passports, suggesting that we had stopped in a different country, in a major European city about which I knew … nothing.

This is your chance to fly to Budapest, the Hungarian city called the “Queen of the Danube,” for $1,010, including taxes and fees. Lufthansa offers the round-trip fare from LAX, but it is subject to availability. You must depart Mondays-Thursdays between April 2 and May 16, buy your ticket at least seven days in advance and stay over a Saturday night but not more than a month. Deadline for purchase is March 9. Info: Lufthansa, (800) 645-3880 Source: Airfarewatchdog.com

Every year Vienna's Old Easter Market gathers up a mountain of 40,000 or so decorated Easter eggs at  Freyung square in the city. TourCrafters offers a seven-day land tour of Vienna and Budapest in March that's all about the Easter scene -- and saving money. On this trip, participants spend three days in Vienna visiting the Freyung market as well as markets at Kalvarienberg and the Baroque Schonbrunn Palace, which features marzipan Easter bunnies and Easter decorations as well as jazz and soul music.

With European government bond markets already in severe distress, the credit-rating companies keep delivering their equivalent of a blast of pepper spray. Bond yields surged again across Europe on Friday, one day after Fitch Ratings cut Portugal's debt rating to "junk" status. After markets closed, Standard & Poor's dealt yet another blow to Eurozone debt, cutting Belgium's rating to AA from AA+. S&P cited growing doubts that Belgium will be able to reduce its debt load as the continent's economic situation deteriorates.

The heirs of the Budapest-based Jewish banker Mor Lipot Herzog have filed a lawsuit in U.S. courts against Hungary and its leading national museums, seeking the return of what they have identified as more than 40 works of art looted from Herzog's collection during the Holocaust. The lawsuit values the artworks, including well-known paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, El Greco, Francisco de Zurbaran and Gustave Courbet, at more than $100 million. "This is one of the largest — if not the largest — restitution claims ever filed in U.S. courts by a single family against another nation," says Michael S. Shuster, the New York attorney representing the family.

Alarmed by the dramatic increase in drug abuse among teen-agers, Hungary announced that it will launch an anti-narcotics campaign that will include therapy and rehabilitation. It said there are at least 30,000 drug abusers in Hungary.

? The toxic red sludge that burst out of a Hungarian factory's reservoir reached the mighty Danube on Thursday after wreaking havoc on smaller rivers and creeks, and sending downstream nations rushing to test their waters. The European Union and environmental officials fear an environmental catastrophe affecting half a dozen nations if the red sludge, a waste product of making aluminum, contaminates the Danube, Europe's second-longest river. Officials from Croatia, Serbia and Romania were taking river samples every few hours Thursday but hoping that the Danube's huge water volume would blunt the impact of the spill.

A Hungarian Roman Catholic priest has become a YouTube hit with his distinctive method of spreading the word on wheels. The Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on Hungary's border with Slovenia, believes skateboarding can open the way to God for young people. The video of him in action, Funny Priest Skateboarding, has so far attracted close to 170,000 hits and now also has a music version. Lendvai says he follows the ways of Saint John Bosco, an Italian priest and educator in the 19th century who dedicated his life to improving the lot of poor youngsters and used games as part of their education.