Eastern Europe: What's now

(Tribune Media Services) -- Forget lists of "What's Next" in travel. Eastern Europe is "What's Now." While it's catching up to the West -- becoming more modern, expensive and crowded -- Eastern Europe remains a great value. Here's what to expect this year.

Throughout Europe, treaties determine who must show a passport at which borders. Eastern Europe is following Western Europe's lead by opening things up. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Baltic countries -- but not Croatia -- just joined the Schengen Agreement for land and sea borders (it applies to airports beginning in March). That means you can freely pass between these countries, and existing Schengen countries (such as Germany, Austria and Italy), without stopping at any borders. Passport stamps will become even more rare, and you'll get a better night's sleep on international overnight trains.

Croatia and Slovenia

In Split, the harborfront promenade called the Riva has been completely overhauled. The cafe umbrellas, concrete and patchwork landscaping were replaced by a broad, sleek, bright-white public space. While some people enjoy this snazzy and slick people zone, many locals think it clashes with the higgledy-piggledy Old Town.

Croatia's top destination, Dubrovnik, is being re-discovered, including by cruise ship crowds. On a very busy day in summer, as many as 30,000 passengers -- seven giant ships' worth -- inundate the little Old Town. Non-cruise travelers should do their sightseeing, especially walking around the City Wall, early or late to avoid the midday crush and heat.

The Nona Ana catamaran, which swiftly connects Dubrovnik to Mljet Island (with its national park), has extended its run. In the summer, it now also continues four times each week to the ever-popular island town of Korcula.

In Ljubljana, a new funicular effortlessly zips visitors up from the riverside market to the castle above town. The city's airport, which already had two names ("Ljubljana Airport" and "Brnik Airport," for a nearby village), was recently given a controversial third moniker: Joze Pucnik Airport. The recently deceased Pucnik was one of many politicians instrumental in Slovenian independence in the 1990s.

Poland

Krakow is changing fast, including an ongoing transformation of Oskar Schindler's old factory (near the Kazimierz Jewish quarter) into a museum. The main office building will host an exhibit about the non-Jews who aided Holocaust victims, while the old factory buildings will become an art gallery. Also in Krakow, the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art will likely return to Cloth Hall on the Main Market Square, and three new stained-glass windows based on century-old designs by Polish Art Nouveau headliner Stanislaw Wyspianski are now displayed in the newly opened Wyspianski Pavilion.

Renovations at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum continue. The plan is to spread the existing exhibit through more buildings -- mostly on the ground floors -- to allow easier movement through this poignant memorial.

Warsaw is improving its infrastructure. The Royal Way thoroughfare through the most historic stretch of town -- until recently a congested mess of potholed asphalt -- is being replaced with wide, beautifully landscaped sidewalks. Once gloomy and urban, downtown Warsaw is fast becoming an appealing place to hang out.

In Gdansk, the wonderful "Roads to Freedom" museum (about Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement in the 1980s) has moved to a temporary location not far from is original home in the shipyard where the protests took place. That part of the shipyard will be renovated into a super-modern zone of shops and homes, with the museum moving back in a few years. Other parts of the city are also undergoing a long-overdue redevelopment, in preparation for the Euro Cup soccer championship coming here in 2012.

Hungary

In Budapest, a new tour company leads visitors through an old World War II-era military hospital and bunker under Castle Hill. Just up the street from the Great Synagogue, Budapest's Jewish community recently re-opened the Rumbach Street Synagogue, designed by the great Viennese architect Otto Wagner in the late 19th century.

In Eger, a delightful new Marzipan Museum shows off truly impressive sculptures by local marzipan artist Lajos Kopcsik, including a sword, minaret, gigantic wine bottle, suitcase, Russian stacking dolls, old-time phonograph, grandfather clock, giant bell ... and paintings galore (such as Van Gogh's sunflowers and Picasso's musicians). Who'd have thought candy could be great art?

Prague, Czech Republic

Renovation of the Charles Bridge, which began last year in conjunction with the bridge's 650-year anniversary, continues. The bridge, which connects the Old Town and Prague Castle, remains open (and crossable) even during construction.

Eastern Europe somehow feels like a modernized Old World and a new frontier all at once. Whether you're rambling the Riva or strolling across Charles Bridge, fascinated by modern history or marzipan, Eastern Europe is full of surprises for the intentional traveler. E-mail to a friend

Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020.

Copyright 2007 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

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