CENTRAL Europe is the region at the heart of Europe, located between the Baltic and Adriatic Seas. It is home to some of Europe’s and the worlds’s most prosperous economies and cities. Lastly, it includes the fabled mountain range of the Alps, which acts as a transition zone between the Latin, Germanic, and Slavic cultures that call the region home.

Because of its rich heritage of nationalities, likewise Central Europe is home to many languages. Some languages enjoy national status and thus are taught in schools and used widely in the media; others, however, are only regional or minority languages and are sadly in danger of eventual extinction despite efforts to preserve them.

Castles such as Bojnice Castle, Prague Castle, and Schloss Neuschwanstein—the real-life inspiration behond Cinderella’s Castle in Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom—dot the central European landscape, their keeps and turrets piercing the heavens, as if appearing straight out of a fairytale.