Last Night in Budapest.

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I mentioned about a week ago that we’d met two Americans when we were staying in Munich. Daniel and Maggie burst into our dorm room with mugs they’d stolen from the Hofbrauhaus and we knew right away they were our kind of people. Both of them are super friendly and outgoing and told us that if we made it to Budapest, where they are studying, they would meet up with us.

Last night we arranged to meet them at Szimpla Kertmozi, Budapest’s oldest ruin pub and surely one of the town’s most unusually decorated buildings. There is a big central courtyard with all kinds of things hanging from the walls and then there are two stories of rooms and little bars and all kinds of weird and interesting spaces.

We sat down and had a drink and Maggie and her friend Steph arrived first, then Daniel shortly after. We tried some… polinska, I think it was called, a raspberry flavoured liquor that is done as a shot. Maggie recommended it but it turned out to be a different drink to the one she’d known and didn’t taste quite as expected (was strong though!).

From the left, Daniel, Steph, Maggie and Luke.

Later we had a different spirit that was more of an aniseed flavour and that also was extremely strong. Despite the fact that Szimpla had cider on tap (first cider since Melbourne!) I moderated my drinking and was able to get Luke out the door in time to get back to our hotel for 6 or so hour’s sleep before our 5am wake up call.

Luke and Daniel in the uncoveted bathtub couch.

We had a great night with Maggie, Steph and Daniel. Hearing about their travel experiences and how they came to study in Hungary was really interesting. Hopefully we might catch up with them again in the US as they’ll be back by the time we get over there. If you’re reading this, guys, a big thanks from Luke and myself – one of our best nights out so far this year :).

Budapest!

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We arrived in Budapest after a long and sleepy bus ride and found our hotel (not hostel! Hurrah!), the Central City Hotel. It’s pretty basic – a shared bathroom (one shower for each sex) on each floor – but clean and, most importantly, quiet. Well, apart from being able to hear the shower and toilet in the men’s bathroom which is in the next room. This is why earplugs are so important when you travel.

Luke waiting for the bus in Vienna.

We unpacked then headed to a restaurant that was recommended by the Lonely Planet – Luke has the ap on his phone that has proven quite handy. The restaurant was great, just a block back from the sparkling Danube. There were tables outside on the footpath and they served traditional Hungarian food. My creamy chicken and bacon dish was fantastic and the serving sizes were big but manageable. The afternoon was lovely and warm and we wandered back to the hotel feeling very kindly towards Budapest.

It might not look like anything fancy, but it was delicious!

Our first full day here we slept in late then walked a few blocks towards downtown to buy tickets for the hop on, hop off bus we’d seen online. There are at least 3 different bus companies doing the major tourist stops here. The red and yellow ‘giraffe’ buses we’d chosen were a bit rickety and the commentary was average – at one point it mentioned a political leader who’d been executed but didn’t say why, then spent a minute giving us the dimensions of a cathedral in metres – *yawn*.

We got off at the castle, from which there was a nice view and a bunch of little towers and walkways that looked like they were made from sand. We stopped for a piece of cake at the little cafe where a string quartet was playing. The violinist wandered over and asked if we had any requests so we gave a few and they played them, then we bought their CD so Luke could use the music for our videos.

We wandered around the balconies to look at the view and saw a bunch of teenagers leaning over the edge and dropping coins, and then bottle tops and who knows what else onto a lady who was busking below. We went over and I told them off, even though they didn’t understand most of what I was saying. A couple of girls in their group pulled them away and we hung around for a few minutes to make sure they didn’t come back. I wish I’d seen their teachers so I could’ve told them what I thought of their students.

We hopped back on the bus and then off again at the Citadella, which has, perhaps, the best view of Budapest – you can certainly see the broadest panorama from there. The bus was supposed to stop there for 10 minutes for photos so we got off but missed getting back on before it left. The next bus, half an hour later, drove right by us, which was both confusing and annoying as we had no idea why it didn’t stop.

Turns out there were two possible stopping places for buses and we’d waited at the wrong one, despite the fact that this was where our bus had stopped. Grrr. When I complained, when we finally got on the next one, the girl said ‘Yeah, that happens,’ and advised me to ring their office. Um, no. I’ll just complain about it on Tripadvisor, thanks. Then other people are more likely to avoid this problem (and possibly this company).

We headed back to the hotel for a break and to pick up our swimmers because we were going to the public baths.

Budapest is set on natural thermal springs and the city is dotted with public baths. We headed to the nearest, Szechenyi. This is the only one that is open after 6 or 7pm and it has 3 large outdoor pools as well as other smaller indoor ones. We took our own towels as it costs money to hire them, and jumped in the pool that was about 34 degrees. It was perhaps 18 degrees outside at that time of night so the water temperature was lovely. In the middle of our pool was a horseshoe shaped enclosure which sporadically turned on jets that made a whirlpool effect. It was fantastic! Luke really liked it and went around lots of times.

Lots of the locals went around too – we’d chosen a really good time to go because there was only maybe 20 other people in the pool with us. I can imagine that in summer or on weekends it would’ve been a crush.

There were also lights in the pool underwater that changed colour. Along with the Victorian architecture the whole scene was very lovely. The sky was clear so we could see the almost-full moon in the sky too. I wished I’d taken my camera, as no one seemed to mind people taking photos but we took a few with Luke’s phone, which will have to do.

I forgot to mention that we had dinner at a very nice outdoor cafe on our way to the pool. It was full of people smoking shisha pipes, which is a much more pleasant smell than cigarettes. The place smelled like jellybeans, actually. I had a raspberry schnapps and apple juice drink with frozen raspberries in it. Delicious!

Today we’ve slacked off – we had an unplanned sleep in til 11am. Which is what you get after staying up til 1am watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I have to watch them all before we get to the UK as I want to go to the exhibition because I’ve heard it’s good), which, btw, is pretty creepy. I’m not sure I’d be letting children watch it, what with all the stuff that happens in the lake.

Anyhoo, we realised that we hadn’t actually bought our train tickets and whatnot to Poprad for tomorrow. When Luke got online it turns out you can’t order them the day before through Europe Rail. Lucky for us, because we walked to the station and got the tickets for half the online price! Apparently being disorganised does pay off occasionally.

Most of the rest of the afternoon has been spent buying enormous blocks of Milka to keep us sustained on our 6 hour journey to the Ginger Monkey in Zdiar and catching up with online stuff. Tonight we’re going to a ruin pub named Szimpla Kertmozi with our American connections, Daniel and Maggie from Munich. Well, really they’re from Budapest since they’re studying here. Daniel has already been super helpful with suggestions of things to do here, and I feel that there’s a great deal of interesting stuff that we’ve missed and I’d definitely like to come back.

The range of Milka you can get here is another reason to come back.My favourite so far: nougat and toffee – *swoons*.

I think that, for our 9 weeks or so later in the year that we have to jump around Europe, I’ll definitely be trying to budget at least 3 full days everywhere. Feeling that you’re rushed, or are missing out is far worse than having a spare day or half day to spend relaxing or on the net if there’s not much to do. It takes at least one full day to get orientated and work out where things are and how to get around, which doesn’t leave much time in a three night stay to see much else. The benefits of such a long trip, I guess, are being able to learn lessons like this and then have the time to apply them.

Next stop, Slovakia!

Last Day in Vienna.

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Since there was nothing much else open on Sunday we spent our last full day seeing touristy things.

First stop, Schonbrunn Palace.

Originally a hunting lodge, these people clearly had no idea when to stop renovating. Believe it or not this is the back door. Actually… I’m not sure. The front and the back look the same.

I’ve come to realise, in the last week, how little I know about European history. I know a tiny amount about the last century (there were two big wars, apparently?), a fact or two about English history and pretty much nothing forward from Attila the Hun when it comes to Central Europe. For example, I had simple no idea that a family called the Hapsburgs ruled most of Europe for many centuries. They were the heads of the Roman Empire as well as Archdukes and Duchesses of Austria. As far as I can ascertain Marie Antoinette was also one of them.

But you’re not here for a history lesson – which is just as well, because I’ve forgotten most of what I heard. All I really remember is that they were stinking rich and one of them had seriously long hair. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the extremely well-preserved palace but there’s some on the website.

The day before we went was cloudy and cold and Luke had left his sunglasses in Krumlov so neither of us went prepared for the retina-burning glare that is Schonbrunn Palace in sunny weather. We sort of half-saw the garden through our mostly-closed eyes. What we saw was pretty nice though.

The Gloriette – no idea what the purpose of this building used to be, probably a room where they just sat and looked at the view,  but now it’s a cafe and we went up some stairs to the roof to admire the view of the Hapsburg’s backyard.

The view from the top of the Gloriette over the gardens to the palace.

After the palace we went into the city and looked through the Treasury. There were many shiny things and some very heavy and scratchy looking tabards and cloaks and whatnot. Quite a good collection. There was also a piece of the one true cross… or so they said.

After the Treasury our feet were killing us, so we spent most of the rest of the day eating and drinking at the Kafka Cafe and looking forward immensely to not having to sleep in a hostel in Budapest. I’m almost excited about the prospect of only hearing one person snoring. Hostels, it must be said, are starting to lose their charm. I’m not sure why, but there’s something about them that causes young men to want to whistle, shout and knock loudly late at night. God knows why.

 

Vienna

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Despite initially feeling that Vienna wasn’t quite as nice as Munich, we have seen and done some lovely things here.

We chose a hostel (Wombat’s) that is right next to the Nachtmarkt, markets that run along a long, wide median strip between two roads. It’s a bit less than a kilometre long and the stalls open from early morning to fairly late at night, except on Sundays. As an aside, we are quickly learning that being in European cities on a Sunday means few shops or anything else open so you have to plan your excursions and grocery shopping accordingly.

The markets have lots of great fresh food, although it’s worth doing a sweep up and down to find the best prices as they do vary a bit. We bought soup for breakfast yesterday – it was served inside a bread roll so all we needed was a spoon. Very environmentally friendly! We’re hoping the guy will be back there tomorrow so we can have it for breakfast again. This whole idea of serving hot food in bread rolls is definitely one I’ll be taking home with me.

Gulash served in bread in Krumlov – I forgot to take a picture of the soup in bread in Vienna.

I bought fresh pasta, pesto and vegetables to make into dinner last night. Even though hostel kitchens are always pretty basic the one here isn’t too bad and we ended up sharing our meal with another traveler, Alex, who started chatting to us in the kitchen.

Yesterday we also did a walking tour of the city. It was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the Munich tour. Nothing beats a tour guide who is funny as well as informative. There seem to be free walking tours everywhere in Europe. The idea is you tip the guide what you think the tour is worth at the end. Doing some sort of tour is a great way to start off in a new city – get one’s bearings and then have an idea of where to go back to. Although we did find Vienna mysteriously difficult to navigate and got lost a few times.

We had trouble finding the Sacher Hotel one afternoon but eventually made it for a piece of the original (well, not *the* original) Sacher Torte. As one might expect, the place is filled almost exclusively with tourists, but the cake was really nice and the iced chocolate was even better. If I hadn’t been trying to moderate my calories somewhat we’d surely have found a few more places selling tortes in order to compare.

One of the last things we did in Vienna was spend an evening at a coffee house – the Kafka Cafe, which several people I know (Anth, I’m looking at you) would’ve loved. Old leather booths, locals sitting around smoking and chatting, endless streams of coffee and beer – it was great. We got chatting to a local girl who’d spent time in Ireland and spoke perfect English with an Irish accent, which was slightly disconcerting. She assured us we’d found the best cafe in Vienna. Lucky us!

Tulips at the markets.

Krumlov to Vienna

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We had originally planned to spend three nights in Cesky Krumov but extended another night on the basis that the town was pretty, we unexpectedly had a room to ourselves and the people we’d met there were really nice.

And thank goodness we did. We ended up having a really great last evening. We sat outside in the sun talking to Brennan, the manager (from the US), his friend Sacha (from Brazil) and his girlfriend, another friend of theirs from the Czech Republic and two travelers who were also staying at the hostel – Judy from Sydney and another guy from Taiwan.

I love hearing people’s stories and Sacha particularly was full of them. In a quite typically flamboyant Brazilian manner he told us about how he’d ended up in Krumlov and what he loved about the place. Brennan told us some hilarious stories about crazy, and in one case axe-wielding, guests at the hostel and also impressed us with his Christopher Walken impressions.

After several hours in the sun we had dinner then moved to a bar belonging to a friend of their from Honduras. He decided to make it a lock in and nailed a ‘closed’ sign to the door and then poured some absinthe shots and we sat around til nearly 2am. Everyone else disappeared then Brennan, Luke and I walked back to the hostel.

The next morning I did not feel fabulous (to put it mildly) but fortunately our shuttle wasn’t picking us up until lunch time. We had booked a shuttle rather than using public transport as the cost was fairly similar and the service is door to door. We shared the car with an American couple and chatted most of the way. Our driver told us about the countryside we went through and was much better than the taciturn fellow we’d had from Munich.

Vienna was cold and grey on our arrival and didn’t have the same impact on me as Munich had. I’ve been wondering about why, because really, they are quite similar cities. I think the weather had a bit to do with it, plus we’ve spent part of our time here dealing with Ryanair and tearing our hair out. I went to print out our Bratislava-London boarding passes and the booking is somehow in the name of ‘Ms (my name) and Mr (my name). Now, I’m happy to believe I could have foolishly entered my own name twice, but to put myself down as ‘Mr’? Ryanair charges 110 euros to change the name on a booking. Which is more than the flights are worth by a significant margin. The woman we eventually managed to get hold of on the phone (and that was a mission in itself) flat out refused to help me or put me through to a superior. We ended up buying a new flight for Luke at nearly 100 euros… the whole thing has left me swearing never to use Ryanair again.