The famous 2002 spring tour of Eastern Europe.

Over at Facebook, Tom Henderson made my day by posting photos of our springtime group trip to Eastern Europe in 2002. Meet Adrian, myself, Tim and Tom.

To the best of my recollection, this photo was taken in Nowa Hut, a suburb of Krakow, Poland. Nowa Hut is the steel mill and community built by the Communists after WWII, and I urged the guys to accompany me in an examination of newer socialist realist architecture, in contrast to Krakow's historic core. As you can see, we found beer.

Jeno, he short fellow in the center, was our tour guide. An Olympic swimmer, he escaped Hungary for Los Angeles after the failed 1956 uprising. While in Budapest, the man with the mustache (a full-fledged Senator) gave us a close-up and personal tour of the Parliament building.

Levoca (above) is a town in eastern Slovakia, near Spis castle (below).

Thanks, Tom, I really needed these! This trip is one I've comparatively neglected in my writings, so perhaps it's time to redress the balance.