Alright, this is very weird. I alone in my room, sitting at my desk with a completely empty apartment, no key, and 100% checked out. I am really going to miss looking out this window...More on that later. I wanted to make sure I finished my spring break posts before taking off on my next adventure.
I had pretty low expectations for Bratislava. Honestly, Ben really wanted to go there (mostly because of the movie Eurotrip) and we had to transfer trains there anyway to go from Vienna to Budapest so I agreed to spend the night. Our hostel met those incredibly low expectations (I didn't book this one...). The city, however, was very nice. Beautiful cobblestone streets lined with restaurants and outdoor seating. We walked around a nice plaza where the US Embassy for Slovakia is located and saw the large castle in the city, currently under construction. That night we did our own little group pub crawl and saw even more of the city. The next morning we woke up early to catch a 9:50AM train to Budapest.
On the train from Vienna to Bratislava I was digging through my bag looking for my camera and found a large key. Not knowing what it was I looked and saw that it said the name of our Vienna hotel on it, accompanied by "luggage room key. We only have one. Please do not remove from hotel." Oops. Luckily Reilly was heading back through Vienna on the way home and I was able to avoid the threatened 30 euro charge.
I can see Bratislava becoming a Prague-like tourist city in about 5-10 years. As of January, 2009, Slovakia has been on the Euro and the economic boom that has accompanied it (relative to the economies of all the other countries in the world) shows. Not to mention I have never been to another city in the entire world where there were so many women that were so gorgeous-no joke. Definitely takes the cake in that department.
We arrived in Budapest around 1:00 and walked about a mile to our hostel. This one was much nicer than the one in Bratislava. After settling in we walked through a plaza and grabbed some great food before heading to a bathhouse. Unfortunately it was closing soon that day and we decided not to enter. Instead we wandered around the large park near the bathhouse and enjoyed the amazing weather. We then started the long walk back towards our hostel and decided to stop at the "Terror Museum". I learned an incredible amount about the history of Hungary, including the reactions to the Nazi party and how it came to power there, and how communism took over after World War II. It was truly fascinated to learn of the dynamic nature of Hungary's political systems over the last 100 years.
We then continued our walk back to the hostel and stopped to listen to some music in the same market where we had grabbed lunch before getting ready for dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant overlooking the Danube river, dividing Buda from Pest (yes, they are actually two separate areas). Not really wanting to go out Marc, Jordan and I decided to hit up the casino. I lost 3000 bucks, ha. If you look up the conversion for Hungarian Florent's (aka: Huffin-puffins) to Euros/dollars it doesn't seem nearly as bad.
That night I got 8 hours of sleep- definitely the most of any night on the entire trip. At 10:30 we joined a free walking tour of the city. On this we ventured through the main plaza, the palace, Buda, and the 'White House' while also learning some interesting things about Hungary's language, history, and architecture. After lunch in another plaza we headed to a bathhouse for about 3 1/2 hours. It was incredible. There were about 20 pools both indoors and outdoors. Some were hot, some were cold, some were very hot, some were ice cold. There were also saunas scattered throughout along with an incredibly fun mini- 'lazy river', though it went incredibly fast. There was one sauna which was easily the hottest sauna Ive ever been in. Then you run out and right next to it is a freezing pool. Jumping in feels incredible.
For dinner that night we went to a restuarant right across the street from our hostel. I had duck, again. On the menu there was also an entire section for Belgian beer, which I was very happy to call myself an expert at. That night we just hung out in the hostel before going to bed way later than planned.
If you've read all of my spring break blogs I assume your mildly impressed with how smoothly everything went- we didn't lose anyone, miss a train, or mess up a hotel reservation. Well, I almost made it the entire way without a hiccup- almost. Matt and I thought our flight back was at 7:05AM the next morning, turns out it was at 7:40- fine. Kellers was at 7:15. The evening before we booked a cab for 5:00AM. Alarms set for 4:40 so we could finish any last minute packing-perfect. Monday morning I was woken up to a firm poke to the shoulder- Keller. "Look at your clock" he says. Still half asleep I scramble through my sheets-its dead. He then shoves his blackberry in my face. It reads 5:57. The first thing that went through my mind was that it was a joke. I asked if Kogan was up-no. I then looked outside and realized it was not a joke. I jumped out of bed as quickly as I could and through my stuff in my bag in quite a disorderly fashion. Keller was ready in 3 minutes, Kogan 4, and me 5- impressive. We ran downstairs and went on the computer to find a taxi company phone number. I felt bad, but woke the receptionist to help us when the person could barely speak english. At 6:20 the cab pulled up- we were told it takes about 30 min to get to the airport...I thought it would be close for me and Kogan, Keller had no chance. We sat in the taxi in silence as the driver weaved through the streets. He made incredible time. Keller gave me money and ran out of the cab, we had arrived at the airport at 6:40. Kogan and I quickly paid and scurried inside to see Keller at the check-in counter. He then gives us a thumbs up and runs to go through security. Kogan and I checked in with about 15 minutes to spare and walked through and right no to our plane. Somehow we had all made it. We connected through Milan, switching airports in that city, and were back in Barcelona that evening.
Overall Budapest was a very nice city. I felt that it was similar to Prague in a lot of ways, but less touristy. I could not get over how large of an impact communism still had on that country- it persisted in virtually every aspect of society and our tour guide made the government out to be very not-democratic/ capitalistic. It was very strange.
OVERALL:
If I had to grade the trip I would give it an A+. The weather was incredible, we got to see what we wanted in each city while still having fun, no one got lost, and the accomodations were, for the most part, great. My allergies were absolutely horrible, but it didn't hamper my ability to have a great time. When I got back on Monday I slept for about 13 hours to make up for 10 days of constant going and no rest. It was well worth it though. I, along with a large group of friends, took Europe by storm and came out on top.
And now for the really sad part. It is officially 2 1/2 hours after I have been kicked out of my apartment and I think I actually have to leave now. For 4 months I have called Casanova 189 floor 4 room 2 my home. "He vivido en Casanova con Londres por cuatro meses" I told a taxi driver last night. I don't live there anymore. Its been good to me and I will definitely miss it.
Homeless Josh signing off.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment