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My final two weeks in Europe.
It's been a while since the previous entry. In fact, this is the longest gap between entries so far, and maybe the most I'll have to cover in one single blog post. I've been city hopping through central Europe, and to start this entry we need to go back to two weeks ago, when I was in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Ljubljana is a beautiful, but small, capital city. I found it quire interesting because, amidst the beautiful old architecture, there is a noticeable grit, which I think gives it character. You can see everything in this city in a day, and my favorite spot was Ljubljana castle, which had a beautiful view of the city if you could manage the hike up.
Since I left Croatia and headed north, it has gotten much colder and grayer. Street photography motivation comes and goes, and I think that overall, these past couple weeks haven't been too successful in that regard. Blame it on the cold, the gray, or the fact that I'm almost done with the trip, I don't know.
However, when a good subject comes around, great photos will come from it, no matter the level of motivation. In the town square, I stumbled across a group of ladies dressed as witches, singing and dancing and handing out candy to children with bright smiles on their faces. I didn't know what the occasion was, but they were happy to have their photos taken and will end up being what I picture when I imagine Ljubljana.
On my main night in the city, I met various people from the hostel as we cooked dinner and chatted. Eventually, we played some drinking games and went next door to this graffiti-covered jazz club that looked imposing from the outside, but was quite fun. I mention this because, while we were all hanging out together, another man abruptly came and sat down at our table and started telling us about his novel he was working on. This was one of the weirdest, most creatively grotesque ideas I've heard in a while that I feel I have to impart his wisdom upon you all. Basically, he is writing a story of a main character who chooses to sew shut one of his bodily orifices each day for nine days. Wild.
Just another classic social night at a hostel.
View from Ljubljana castle
Ljubljana
The witches
While I was in Slovenia, I also took a day trip to Lake Bled (only an hour and a bit from Ljubljana). Luckily, that day was also one of the only sunny days in these past two weeks.
I always like to get out into nature in between cities, and this place was so worth it. Hiking up to the vantage point of Mala Osojnica gave me the iconic view over the lake and mountains, and visiting Bled castle taught me a bit more about the history of the lake. Then, in the actual town of Bled, I decided I needed to buy a warm hat because it was getting cold. I found this shop selling hand-made Slovenian hats and gloves and stuff, and struck up a conversation with the employee as I bought it. I needed lunch, and he recommended a traditional Slovenian restaurant called Gostilna Pri Planincu. I'll admit, it broke the bank account a little, but the honeyed pork chops and cheese dumplings was one of my favorite meals I've had on this entire trip.
Bled castle
After Slovenia, I hopped on a train to Vienna. First of all, the train ride through Austria was very pretty. It seems that autumn refuses to let go, no matter how cold it is, and the last oranges on the trees of the Austrian mountains made me not want the train ride to end. This part of Europe is amazing for nature, and I definitely want to come back in the summer sometime to do some more hiking.
Vienna; what a beautiful city. The architecture and overall vibe reminds me a lot of Paris, and spending my days Lime scootering around the city and eating street bratwursts from Würstelstands was quite enjoyable. Plus, my hostel was just off the Naschmarkt, a large market which had readily available street food that I couldn't say no to.
However, I should be honest and say that my time in this city was basically a series of off days. It was the grayest and coldest it's been, and I felt unmotivated, not getting up to much photography or socializing either. It's easy to get in my head and kick myself for "wasting" time in a gorgeous city such as this, but I know that sometimes this just happens. I was also hit with a wave of homesickness while I was here, which hasn't really happened before.
Still, there were many moments in this city that I really enjoyed. There's this square that houses two massive museums, the Kunsthistorisches art museum and the natural history museum. Both of these were amazing, especially the latter, because it took me back to when I was a kid. I remember being young and walking through the Harvard natural history museum with my parents and being super excited by everything; this one in Vienna was like that but on steroids. Also, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek - the Austrian National Library - was super pretty, and Schönbrunn castle - the Vienna equivalent of Versailles - had a cozy Christmas market that was interesting to walk through. Moreover, because of my age, almost all of these touristy activities were free!
Overall, Vienna is definitely worth visiting, and I'd like to go back in the summer sometime, when it's less cold and gray.
Bratwurst
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
Gray outside Vienna
The Naschmarkt
Only an hour away from Vienna is Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. I was eager to keep moving, and this city was the obvious place to spend a night or two before continuing down to Budapest. It is definitely a hidden gem.
Getting off the train at around 4pm, I was greeted by an unreal foggy haze in the city. It was pretty eerie, and the walk from the train station to the hostel was one of the craziest weather conditions I've experienced; everything seemed shrouded in darkness, and I was questioning why I came out here at all.
Like Ljubljana, Bratislava is doable in one day; it's super common to do as I did and take a stop here in between Vienna and Budapest, or vice versa. Luckily, that crazy fog was gone the next day, and as I was exploring the city and making my way up to Bratislava castle, I stumbled upon a cat café. I spent quite a while here, cozy and out of the cold, with a mug of hot chocolate that was highly interesting to the cats.
Even though it was gray here as well, I suddenly felt motivated again, and I tried to embrace the gray and the atmosphere it created in my photography. Find those photos on my Instagram.
I stayed in the Wild Elephants hostel, which was one of the most social hostels I've been to so far. It had quite a weird layout, and the rooms were nothing too special, but it knew what it was doing with its social activities. First, I went with some people from my room to a Slovakian restaurant for dinner. Back in Vienna, I wanted to try schnitzel, one of the main dishes the city is known for, but all of the shops I found were charging 30 euros or more. This obviously seemed outrageous, and so I ended up skipping it. In Bratislava however, this restaurant had a schnitzel which was less than half the price of schnitzel in Vienna! Since the city is only an hour away, I think I can check schnitzel off my list now.
The rest of the night was a sleepless, crazy, and social time. I think it's cool how you can grow super tight with a group of people over the course of just one night, and then never see each other again. Bratislava felt like that, and I will never forget that night.
Little did I know, I'd actually see some of those people again.
Stalking its prey
4pm in Bratislava
The view from Bratislava castle
This brings me to Budapest, where I've spent the past 5 days.
This city is absolutely amazing. I'd heard good things about it before, and now I can safely say it has exceeded my expectations. It's easily one of my favorite cities from this trip. Something about the beautiful architecture of Buda and Pest, being split up by the Danube river, makes it the most awe-inspiring city I've been to. I was actually slightly overwhelmed when I first got here because there was so much I felt I needed to see. From Buda castle with its view over the city, all the way to the Christmas market by the basilica, you need multiple days to do it justice.
Similar to my time in Barcelona and Rome, everything fell into place here socially. Each day there was something new that I wasn't expecting, and each night was action packed with far too little sleep. I stayed at the Maverick hostel by the Central Market, which easily had the best showers and most comfortable beds of any hostel I've stayed in so far. The best part, though, was that the hostel let you book tickets for everything you could possibly want to do in the city, right there at reception. They made it super easy to get tickets, and the hostel also gets a discount, sometimes almost half the price that you'd pay for the same ticket if you bought it online yourself.
Budapest, from Buda castle
Christmas market
Before I could do anything in Budapest, though, my first priority was laundry, which is typically a pretty standard thing that I don't mention; but this unique laundromat gave me my first taste of the craziness of the Hungarian language and currency.
The hostel laundry service seemed too expensive, so I quickly went out to search for a laundromat, because I had zero clean clothes I could wear the next day. I found one nearby which was just a door leading down into a basement, and you needed a code to get in. It wanted me to join a Facebook group to get access to it, but I didn't have the patience to create an account for that, so through the powers of Reddit I managed to figure it out. The next challenge I faced was paying for the laundry. The terminal for the machines was completely in Hungarian, one of the least understandable languages I've ever come across in Europe - it's got something like 44 letters and is insane. With Google Translate, I realized they only took cash, so I headed back out and walked a ways to an ATM, only to find that Hungary doesn't use euros. They use the Hungarian Forint. To this day I still don't have a firm grasp on how much money I'm spending in the city, but I ended up getting WAY too much money out of this ATM. I've been paying for stuff exclusively with cash from then on out. The final plight of my laundry saga came when I accidentally paid for a broken machine. So I switched machines, paid double, and finally the laundry was done.
I hope you liked this super important, immaculate story about laundry.
Anyways, on my first real night in the city, I heard about boat parties from some people in the hostel. Apparently these are a must-do in Budapest, because the Parliament building across the river at night is gorgeous. So, I booked it with some friends and we headed for the dock.
We took the tram, and though normally I would buy a transit ticket, we were only traveling for a few stops, and so that night I didn't. Now, I've been traveling Europe for almost 3 months now, and not once have I ever been asked to present my ticket on any public transit (aside from long distance trains, of course). So when a man started demanding for my ticket in Hungarian, I was shocked. After begrudgingly paying the small fine, I got the BudapestGO app, and discovered that the system for public transport in this city is actually one of the best I've seen. Each single ticket you buy through this app works on everything (trams, trains, and buses); it's all super streamlined and easy to use. I learned this the hard way, but I guess I'm glad I learned.
Anyways, the 2-hour party along the river was super fun, and the best part was when I ended up meeting a bunch of the same people that I'd hung out with in my crazy night in Bratislava. It really is a common route, but it was a complete coincidence that we were all on this boat party together. Eventually, the boat docked, and we got on a bus to take us to an afterparty.
This was my favorite night in the city. Definitely book a boat party if you visit Budapest.
You can't come to Budapest and not go to a thermal spa. The day after the boat party, we booked tickets to the Szechenyi baths, the largest and most famous ones in the city. On the way, we stopped to eat lunch in the park to the north of the city (near the Heroes' square), and when I saw they had deep fried pig ears on the menu, I knew I had to try them. When else would I get the chance to eat something like that? Safe to say, now I know that ears aren't really for me.
We got to the baths and spent almost all day relaxing. The cold outside air made the hot water feel even better, and my friend even had a small Sony digital camera with her, so the photos came out pretty cool. My favorite part, however, was inside. Tucked in a corner off to the side, there's a room with two smaller baths, one freezing and one scalding hot, that you can switch between. It's fun, and the temperature change is good for you.
Also, certain spas will throw huge rave parties (called a Sparty) in the night, but everyone I've met says not to go. I can imagine the water gets pretty disgusting, so I'd suggest you stick to the spas in the daytime.
Pig ears
My favorite thing I did in the city was a caving tour. One of my nights in Budapest, I met someone who told me about a large cave system under the city. They said doing a tour was fun and worth it, but then proceeded to show me bruises on their knees which looked kind of vicious. You only live once, and although I was initially taken aback by the distance, price, and knee bruises, I figured why not.
A long bus ride in the morning to the opposite end of the city took me to the meetup house. Myself and around 7 other people suited up, signed an agreement basically saying that if we died, it wasn't the tour's fault, and entered the cave system through a rusty old door.
The tour guide was super nice and knew the caves inside and out, telling us stories about famous caving incidents and pointing out fossils in the walls. Apparently, these caves are beginner friendly, used for cavers to practice and get their feet off the ground before taking on bigger things. It didn't feel beginner to me when we were crawling sideways surrounded by rock on all sides. Oh, and apparently they throw parties down here. The instructor said that just a couple weeks ago, he decorated one of the larger rooms with cobwebs and spiders and threw his kids a Halloween party. The whole adventure took around 3 hours, and the deepest we got was about 50 meters underground, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it certainly felt like it when I was worming my way through tunnels, some of which weren't tall enough to keep your head straight - you had to bend it to the side to avoid getting stuck.
At the end, we all finally emerged into the sunlight, covered in dirt and dust, but happy. This was definitely one of the coolest things I've done on the trip.
Spelunking
Gollum
Everyone on the cave tour was super cool, and having come out together on the other side unhurt, we were all somewhat bonded. I don't think I'll become an avid caver anytime soon, but I learned that I'm definitely not claustrophobic, and I can see the fun in it.
Afterwards, it turned out that 2 of the others were also staying at my hostel, so we all took the bus back. This is where we stopped and got some Lágos for a late lunch at the Central Market. A classic Hungarian dish, it's basically a fried dough pizza with sour cream, cheese, and toppings. Scrumptious, to be honest, and a good end to my final day in Budapest.
Lágos
Beautiful buildings. Sleepless nights. Ruin bars and boat parties. Tiny cave passageways. Kebabs in the middle of the night. Tons of amazing people. Even a spontaneous Tom Odell concert. What a great city to end my time here in Europe.
I can't believe that in less than a week, I'll be back home in Boston. But I still have one stop left!
Soon, I'll be on a plane heading for Tbilisi, Georgia.
Mark
P.S.
I'm realizing now, as I write this, that I ended up visiting a castle in every place I've been over the course of this entry. This was not planned, but each one was different and unique in its own way, and they all gave great views over their respective locations. Castles are cool.
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