[I guess I never actually said on here that we found out we can’t travel in Poland because it’s one of the ONLY countries our Eurail pass doesn’t cover! I was pretty disappointed, as we were right beside it and couldn’t go in. Strange that the country I spent a year of my life in is the one place I can’t go back to this trip. On the bright side, I found Yogobella yogurt in Czech Republic—my favorite when I was living in Poland.]
Saturday, March 6th
We spent the morning on the train to Budapest. At least our Sabbaths on this trip are usually filled with sitting on a train looking at nature, where we already have snacks to eat and don’t have to pay for anything. I will certainly be happy to be back in America though where I can dress up and go to church every week and the sermon will even be in my language. I don’t know how people who have no weekly “rest day” set aside do it; when my days and weeks run together like this I feel like something is missing.
We found Activity Hostel easily enough once we got to Budapest, even though the reviews complained that it was hard to find and not well marked. Well it wasn’t well marked, but we like to think of ourselves as smarter than most. It was a small place on the 4th floor of a bland gray building, but it was cute and cozy. Our 10-bed room was booked to full capacity with a group of Asian girls and American girls. Shane was the only guy in that particular room. Makes up for the time in Interlaken when I was the only girl in a 6-bed room. Awkward is the word. The two rooms on either side of ours were fully booked too. Must have been because it was the weekend.
That evening we went out in search of food and night pictures. We ended up giving in to familiarity and eating at KFC. Shane wanted to find the chain bridge and the Parliament building, so we hopped on the metro, got off and headed in the direction of the lighted buildings. Some pictures and a cool castle-looking thing later, we realized that we really weren’t in the right spot, so we got back on the metro and went the other way. By this time I was freezing (Budapest is almost as cold as Vienna, but without as much wind), so we headed into California Coffee café (yes, tourism sucked us in again) to get something warm to drink. We ended up ordering a veggie bagel sandwich with tomatoes and chive spread, a blueberry muffin, and hot white chocolate. It was probably one of the best snacks I’ve ever had, or maybe it was because I was really hungry. Either way, it was a relaxing café and I got warmed up by a yummy drink. After that we got discouraged by the fact that we still weren’t sure where the sights we were trying to find were, and that it was getting colder, so we went back to the hostel.
My night didn’t start out too well. Our room was full, which meant lots of extra noise both at night and in the morning. When I finally did go to bed I happened to be next to a closed-off door to the room of the group of guys who were watching a soccer game over their laptop speakers. And you know how that goes. I could hear every little sound even with my earplugs in. To make it worse, our doors had frosted glass panes, and the 24-hour reception desk light on the other side shone through the whole night. The pillows were tiny and slightly lumpy, but at least they were softer than Hostel Elf’s. I finally fell asleep and it wasn’t too bad. Around what had to be 3am two girls came back from partying.
Sunday, March 7th
We slept in a bit and got up around 10, took showers, and set out to find breakfast. It wasn’t the best of mornings. We were both somehow annoyed and frustrated, especially over the ever-present debate over where and what to eat. Shane says that it’s easier for me to decide because I’m pickier about what I want to eat, whereas he’s the one with the money so I always feel that it’s up to him to decide what we can afford. The end result is both of us getting really frustrated and annoyed at each other, which begins an hour or so of either the mutual silent treatment or conversations that consist of short, snappy, sarcastic sentences. I’m pretty sure we have this same spat in every single city we go to. But we have been getting better since, thanks to a serious conversation regarding what we really HATE the other doing when it comes to restaurant decision-making.
We ended up going to the California cafe again, where I had exactly what I’d had the night before, minus the hot chocolate and a caramel muffin instead of blueberry. I did that because Shane had wanted to try it the night before, so I figured maybe sharing it would make him happier. It didn’t really work, and I got a headache because it was so sweet. Later on the metro I decided to swallow my pride and be the first to make amends. Sightseeing together really sucks when you’re at odds.
We found the chain bridge and the Parliament building, taking pictures briefly before headed to St. Steven’s cathedral, where we paid to go to the top for a view of the city. These two days we were in Budapest were forecasted to be sunny, but partway through the morning the sun disappeared and it started SNOWING! Huh?! Where’s the blooming SUN??!
Back at the hostel later, we heard the others talking about how the House of Terror was free that day because it was the first Sunday of the month. We had opted to not go because of the cost, but if it’s free…..! I pawed through my blogs of Poland to try to find the name of a really awesome smoothie/pie café Lydia and I had found last time in Budapest, but to no avail; I hadn’t written the name down. While browsing though I read that I had actually been to the House of Terror before…and had found it boring and a waste of building space. But being free, we went anyways.
I felt the same about it this time as I had last time. The explanations weren’t even in English, and the vast number of rooms containing pithy little plaques and occasional videos made both of us feel that they were making something out of nothing just trying to fill up the rooms. At one point it felt like an art exhibition. You know, the kind that contains one painting per wall and you wonder how they sell anything. The most exciting part of the whole thing was the downstairs jail cells, including a tiny claustrophobic stand-up one that Shane thought would be fun to lock me into. What a great boyfriend.
That evening we ate at Pizza Hut, sitting next to an American guy in marketing and advertizing for the film industry. Within the first couple introductory sentences we found out that he lives in San Diego and went to CalPoly just like Shane! Of course that was several years ago, but still, what are the odds?! We had a nice conversation throughout the meal. It was apparent that he was 10 times wealthier than us when he mentioned staying at a 5-star hotel down the road, his scheduled 1-hour massage later that evening, and his advice to pay just 2000 Forints ($10) extra at restaurants to get exceptional service. He also cautioned us about safety and theft when we mentioned we were staying at hostels. That kind of annoyed me. It’s obvious that hostels are way more secure now than they were back when he stayed at them, but still, his friendly warning sounded slightly uppity to me. Not like we can afford your 5-star hotel which “pays off the gangs and mobsters to stay away from their guests”. We’re lucky just to be here!
When it came time to pay the bill, the waiter handed it to us and pointedly brought to our attention a paragraph written in 5 languages on the inside of the bill cover: “It is customary in Hungary to tip your waiter 15% for service.” We didn’t tip him.
Following Pizza Hut we went back to the bridge and Parliament building for night pictures, then decided to check out a pub that was supposedly a big tourist attraction in Budapest due to its uniqueness. I relied on Shane, as usual, to deliver us to the correct place. It was snowing again. After he said 3 times in 3 different blocks that it was “somewhere in this block”, I began to notice that we were venturing into what looked like gangster land, and suggested that we walk toward some lights instead of dark alleys. We eventually found the place, and it looked for all appearances to be a deserted, run-down building that housed axe-murderers or the occasional homeless. But we followed another couple into the doorway, through 3 sets of thick rubber flaps, and were suddenly in the midst of a cave-like, darkened pub. This pub is unlike any place I’ve ever seen, in that it is so random. High tables covered most of the floor, while a back corner was occupied by low red velvet couches. Candles were lit everywhere, and colored lights shone above the bar. The only other lights in the place were very dim, some coming from odd nick-nacks covering the walls, such as a cat-scan of a skull, and a mannequin wearing underwear made out of a candy-necklace. Nothing in the place matched; it was a hodgepodge of this and that. Some of it was unique, some was romantic, and some was disturbing.
After we had taken in our fill of the low lighting and cigarette smoke, we headed back to our hostel, making a spur-of-the-moment detour to Burger King for a late-night snack.
That night the room on the other side of us was loud, and once again the receptionist did nothing about it. She actually even told me, when I went to ask her to turn off the overhead light, that it was ok for me to tell them to be quiet if they disturbed my sleep. Uh…..isn’t that what YOU’RE getting paid for? I just said, “Yeah, they are pretty loud” and went back in my room. Let her deal with them, it’s her job. I’m not sure if it was her doing, but about 30 minutes after I went to bed the noise in the next room suddenly quieted.
Monday, March 8th
We slept sorta late again and got up after everyone else was already making tons of annoying noise packing their suitcases for checkout. The first thing we did was take a bus to a park of sorts outside the city….it took a looong time, but the bus was warm and the sun shining down on me made me happy, so I actually enjoyed it. The park turned out to cost money—at lot of money actually, for what we actually got. Basically the “park” was just a bunch of statues and sculptures that you took pictures of and then left. But Shane and I made the best of it by making goofy poses in our pictures with the statues. We even climbed on a few…probably would have gotten reprimanded or kicked out had we been caught, but the place was like a ghost town. We waited for the bus back into the city after that, which took just as long as it took to get up there.
We explored an indoor market after that, which was colder than it was outside. Following this we humored me by visiting the second-hand shop right next to our hostel. I’m a sucker for those things, but I was disappointed this time. It contained nothing but old-lady coats and dresses (no offense anyone), and didn’t even have any shoes. Probably a good thing in the long run; I don’t need the extra stuff nor do I need less money.
When we got back to the hostel everyone was gone except for the slightly creepy-looking 40-ish man in our room who had gotten there the night before. Oddly all he seemed to do was sit on his bed all day sleeping or bumming around on his laptop.
Shane and I had been looking forward to one thing in Budapest the most: the thermal baths. This was the night we planned to do it. And I have to say it went a lot better than the last time Lydia and I tried this—when we both accidentally left our bags full of crucial things on the metro. (We found them in the end.) Shane and I found the baths without a hitch. It was freezing cold, but the baths were oh so warm!
The baths consisted of a lukewarm pool, a cooler lap pool, and a hot steaming pool. We stayed mostly in the hot steaming pool, which was hot enough to enjoy without me feeling like I was going to suffocate. (I can’t take hot tubs for very long because they make me lightheaded after a while. Sad.) Men could be seen floating around poring over a chess game, and others enjoyed the sprays of water flowing from a statue of a naked woman and a goose. The lukewarm pool was fun because in the middle was a circular canal containing jets to propel you through. Shane and I had fun being goofy in that one, making everyone either smile at our youthful enthusiasm or stare like we were stupid. We didn’t care. It was fun.
The sauna was extra hot too—unfortunately my flip flops broke in Berlin, thus only Shane had his and he stubbornly refused to wear them out to the pool. So we both burned our feet and acquired who knows what fungus from running in and out of the sauna, and I’m positive I burned my butt before I got smart and sat on my towel. Hands down the hottest sauna I’ve ever been in. I could only last 5 minutes, both because of the heat and the sight of 90-year-old men in too-small speedos lying out like lizards in the sun.
We watched a movie AND a show when we got back to our hostel that night. Reward for a long and good day. The man who had been in our room was gone when we went to bed, and never came back that night.
Tuesday, March 9th
We got to the train station an hour early (we will never miss a train again!), and decided to have Burger King for breakfast in the interest of staying warm. We supplemented our cappuccinos and fries with the groceries we had gotten that morning.
When we finally did get on the train, we found a good table seat and were stowing our backpacks away when a bald man pushed passed us in the aisle. Noticing that he seemed a bit disgruntled, I watched him as he reached a scrawny younger guy coming up the aisle from behind me. There was a moment’s silence while the older man grabbed the younger man’s collar and said something to him in a low voice. Then he started almost silently punching him in the face! (I guess it doesn’t ever sound loud like in the movies.) My first reaction was wanting to stop this shocking turn of events, as well as to remind the guy that he WAS beating someone up in the midst of others. So the first thing that came out of my mouth was a profound, “WhooOAH!!” You know, the kind that changes pitch in the middle because you’re appalled. I don’t think it helped things, but after this the younger man cowered in a seat while the other man stood over him, speaking in low tones and occasionally throwing a punch. Shane and I stared for a while before he pulled me back down the aisle away from them. We wanted to stop it, but there was nothing we could really do, especially without knowing the situation. No one else in the train car did anything but stare either. It didn’t last long—after a while the man pulled the guy up by his collar and roughly shoved him ahead of him down the aisle and off the train.
I was just mute with shock for a while. Being fairly sheltered throughout my life I’ve never actually seen anyone get punched in real life, and it was disturbing, Especially since the man was so much bigger and the other guy was obviously not trying to fight back. We came to the conclusion that perhaps he had been trying to stow away on the train and the man, who was dressed in a white collared shirt, was a train authority who had been trying to catch him. If so, it was still a very unprofessional move to punch the guy in public, or at all for that matter. I couldn’t get the image out of my head for several minutes after the train left the station. I felt so bad for the younger guy.
After what seemed like the entire day (it nearly was), we reached Salzurg, Austria. We found our way to YoHo Hostel (which turned out to be the same one Lydia and I stayed in, but I didn’t remember until I got there and recognized it…weird) and got checked in to our room. A girl was sleeping in her bed. It was like 4pm. What’s with every room we stay in having a random girl sleeping at all hours of the day? Plus she was sleeping with all her clothes in the bed around her, like a nest. Even more weird.
We went out in search of a restaurant, opting for an organic one we read about online. After passing it up several times, we found it and got ready to order…until we found out they didn’t take credit card. We didn’t have cash with us so we decided to go somewhere where they took cards. We ended up giving up on anything spectacular and went into this crowded Italian place. The ONLY thing they had there, besides salads, that wasn’t laden with seafood or pork was lemon pasta. We both tried it and…it was delicious! It was basically fettuccini with some type of white lemon sauce, with 3 huge slices of lemon sitting on top. I was pretty proud of myself for liking it, as I have discovered the older I get, the pickier I get. (Shouldn’t it be the other way around?)
I called my parents via Skype that night. Can’t wait for cell phones again!!! By the time we went to bed, our room was full. With girls, minus Shane. Haha!
Wednesday, March 10th
We got up around 10. Seems to be a reoccurring thing of late, and I gotta say I think it’s because we’re simply drained. Three weeks straight of jumping from place to place is just too much. I lost the desire to get out of bed in the mornings right after Vienna. It’s just too cold. And I’m tired of having to go outside and take pictures all day in that cold.
We set out for the train station, which would be our landmark for starting our self tour. Unfortunately we hadn’t brought our Rick Steves book, so we had no idea where to start. And Shane hadn’t worn his gloves or his hat, a fact that I hated; it had snowed the night before. We ate at McDonalds for breakfast because it was the closest thing. Becoming a more common occurrence lately it seems. After that we decided we should go back for our book, and I secretly decided Shane wouldn’t go back out without his gloves or hat either. By the time we got to the hostel we had talked over what we really wanted to do. It was cold outside. The wind was blowing and frankly a self-tour didn’t sound fun. The Sound of Music bus tours were expensive, but they were an option. I’ve always wished I’d gotten to do one the last time I was there.
Eventually we decided to bite the bullet and do it. I was excited. I heard that they show the movie on the bus, which was good cause Shane couldn’t even remember if he’d seen it! You can’t go on the Sound of Music tour if you haven’t seen the movie! But guess what, he did. The tour bus turned out to be an 8-passenger van, and there was no movie on board, just a jovial man who had an oddly funny sense of humor. We were joined by 3 women from California, a girl from New Zealand, and a couple from….we never found out where. The tour took us through the town, to a few spots the movie was filmed, and then out of town to the lakes. The lakes were absolutely gorgeous, nestled in between mountains and cute towns. We stopped for an hour at one of these towns--the town that sported the wedding cathedral featured in the Sound of Music. Our tour guide kept raving about the apple strudel in a café there, so we all ended up going to have some. Shane and I made a meal of that and soup. It was good. The soup that is. The apple strudel was, well, better in America. The cheese one was incomparable as I’ve never had it before, but it was good. In addition to being good, it was all so sweet that I got a terrible headache.
The rest of the evening after getting back we spent hiking up to the ridge bordering the river and taking gorgeous pictures of the city. Much better camera than Lydia and I had when we were there, so I’m sure the pictures turned out great. Once back at the hostel I tried to read a book (A BOOK!!) that I got from the book exchange shelf, but my headache had turned into a mean migraine so I ended up going to bed after a sweet Shane rubbed it for me.
Thursday, March 11th
We were at the train station getting ready to leave for Verona, Italy when Shane realized that he’d left the camera charger plugged in the wall at our Amsterdam hotel. We’d wondered about this previously, but the camera has such a long battery life that we were just now needing to charge it again. Unfortunately the battery probably wouldn’t make it through the rest of our trip. Bummed about this, we decided we could only take a few pictures in Verona and Venice (yes, we were doing them over again). But on the train to Verona Shane mustered up his courage and asked a young couple sitting near us if he could use their Canon battery charger. They said yes, and we got to charge it for a little under 2 hours; plenty to last the rest of our trip. Yay!!
Once to Verona, we were able to use the bus tickets we hadn’t gotten to use the last time around. The B&B we were staying at this time wasn’t hard to find, but there was no one there when we rang the doorbell. (Seems like a reoccurring thing for B&B’s in Verona.) We found an internet café and used Skype to call them, but no one answered. It was around the time we’d told them we’d be there, so we went back to try again. Luckily there was a woman there this time, taking the place of the owner as I guess he couldn’t make it. She didn’t speak too much English but she spoke enough to get by. She was very helpful and informative. The B&B was nice. It had a huge kitchen which was self-service, meaning we could cook in it, which we did. We bought angel-hair pasta and sauce and ate like kings that night. The breakfast was also set out all day, so we were able to snack as we pleased. We actually only saw the owner once the entire time we were there for 3 nights. It was more like living in a house. There was another couple there from England/Canada who were really friendly.
Friday, March 12th
The next morning we toured Verona. It was beautiful weather, warm compared to what we’d been going through, and the day was fabulous for that reason alone. We bought the Verona card for 10 Euros, which allowed us to enter 15 sights “free” of charge. We didn’t get to them all, but we got to the main Romeo & Juliet sites. Verona is a nice peaceful city, and we got some great pictures.
We ate the leftover spaghetti that night, again having a feast.
Saturday, March 13th
We used this day to take a day trip over to Venice once again. It was a beautiful day there too, much warmer than our previous trip to Venice. We spent the afternoon walking around taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine. That night before we left for Verona again, we scurried around buying souvenirs before the shops closed. We (or I should say Shane) bought a beautiful Venice mask, famous here. (But if we get married someday it will look great on OUR wall :)
The day was pretty good--relaxing and stress-free other than wasting time on boats getting to the other little islands that were unimpressive. Maybe we just didn’t go to the right one, I don’t know. The second stressor came when we got on the boat to head for the train station. About 2 minutes into it I realized that I’d left my gloves in the boat waiting area….again!! Now if you remember, I left my LAST pair of gloves on a boat last time we were in Venice. I’d bought the new pair in Berlin and had loved them. We jumped off the boat 2 stops later and ran back to the place I’d left them, but alas, they were gone. Someone must have taken them, which burned me up. I at least hope they needed them more than me. I was pretty bummed about my gloves this time around, maybe because of my own negligence, or maybe because I’d just bought them and they weren’t cheap and flimsy but rather nice warm wool ones. Shane tried to cheer me up, saying we would get even better ones in America, but I was kicking myself for being so irresponsible again. Note to self: never put down my gloves when I’m in Venice!
Despite the delay, we got to the train station in time to take an earlier train, which was good because it made more stops and took longer than the one coming to Venice. We took turns reading out of the book we’ve been sharing and eyeing the drunk guy who was talking way too loud. I slept amazingly that night.
Sunday, March 14th
We took our time getting out of the B&B, since no one was around to kick us out at the 10:00 checkout time. Upon waiting for our bus, we realized that we’d have to wait half an hour; possibility of missing our train not a happy thought, we walked to the other train station, only to find that the 12:00 train didn’t go there--just one at 12:30. We were heading back to Milan. Finally. I can honestly say I’m ready to be done traveling. We only have one more week in Milan, then 4 nights in London and Ireland before flying HOME!!! I’m so excited. My excitement is only lessened by the ever-looming thought of having to cram for boards. Oh, and the fact that we have no home to move into in California yet. But God will provide.
On the train home I got annoyed at these two guys sitting across from us who acted like I was a TV. Them and the woman behind me singing out loud to her music that sounded like a creepy tribal chant.
Once “home” we found our hotel that we’ll be staying at for 6 nights. It’s not that great compared to what we could have gotten in the U.S. for that price, but it will do. The most annoying thing is having to go to first floor to get internet.
We went over to Ryan’s to get the rest of our luggage he’d been keeping for us, ate pasta at a restaurant, and went out in search of more souvenirs and groceries. Milan isn’t great for souvenirs we discovered, but we did stumble on a fun-looking carnival to browse through. On the way to buy groceries several more men on the metro stared at me. Do I have food on my face? Do I look extra attractive today…or extra ugly? I didn’t think it was either, but regardless it was extra annoying to me for some reason. I finally did what I’d been wanting to do all day and gave one frizzy-long-haired guy the raised eyebrow look that said, “Uh, excuse me, can I HELP you??” He turned and stared blankly out the door at a dark tunnel wall for the rest of the metro ride after that.
We bought food and stuffed it all into our tiny mini-fridge and outside on the window ledge. Home Sweet Home. I miss having a kitchen already.
And that concludes our 3-week trip! Hope you’ve enjoyed it! But there’s still a bit more to come of course. For now though, I will hunker down and attempt to get back into the groove of studying for Boards.
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