Eastern Europe’s secret is out

I almost wish Susan Spano had not written “Budapest, So Nouveau� [Unexplored Europe, Oct. 1]. I just kind of hope too many Americans don’t discover it.

I’ve had nothing but delightful multiple trips the past several years to Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland. Having first seen several of these countries as a college student in 1970, it’s been a delight to see them now and watch them reawaken. Where so much of Western Europe looks as it does here in the U.S., with vast freeways and mega-malls, to visit Eastern Europe is to step back in time to a slower pace, beautiful, mostly untouched countrysides, and to meet genuinely warm people.

I stayed this summer at the Gresham Palace Hotel, strolled wide avenues and the banks of the Danube and attended an opera in the opulent opera house. Eastern Europe indeed has much to see and explore. I can’t wait to see more.

SALLY B. ALVINO

Huntington Beach