Budapest and Searching For Vampires in Romania (and failing)

Last post on the backpacking trip. As I write this I’m chilling at Nathan’s place in London – being minimally touristy. Trip was loads of fun, but it sure is nice not having to carry around a backpack with me all the time, to not have to wear flip flops to the shower, to be able to sleep in a nice bed without being woken up by some other guy snoring, to not have to carry a map around with me all the time – all little things that can be annoying while traveling on the road. Well not really annoying – just not as easy as lounging at a friend’s place and having no real agenda.

Budapest

You know, I’ve heard so many things about Budapest but never really had an image of Budapest in my mind. So when I got to Budapest by myself (Nathan had to stay back in Vienna for a few more hours to wait for his left-behind-on-the-train-backpack to show up at the lost and found at the railway station), I didn’t know what to expect at Budapest. After walking around in the evening, this image now pops up when I think of Budapest:

A large palace on top of a hill and bridges across the river.

And of course Budapest wasn’t just the palace on top of the hill, or otherwise Nathan and I would’ve been so bored for the 4 days we spent at Budapest. There was a “House of Terror”, a museum about communism in Hungary, Memento Park, a park with a collection of statues that were situated around the city when the USSR was in power, Szechenyi Baths, a Turkish bath, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and a few other sites. We went at a snail pace (even slower than the norm on our trip already) at Budapest since we had so much time. As for food, by this time we were starting to get sick of Eastern European food…but nonetheless still had some delicious regional cuisine, like goulash, while mixing in Burger King into our diet. 

In the House of Terror museum, they recreated the interiors of where they would keep prisoners who resisted the party. This toilet was…awesome…

 

We walked into a Christmas fair on Budapest’s biggest street for tourists/shopping.

In Memento Park. This statue used to be in Budapest, but after communism fell they moved this statue along with others to the outskirts. It was far - we took a public bus to it which took about an hour of travel time each way– but it was pretty cool to see the park.

Szechenyi Baths (photo from some website). I didn’t take any photos for obvious reasons, but the Turkish bath experience was really unique. It was really cold outside (like ~3/4 degrees Celcius) and the main heated “baths” (more like pools) are outside. The place was bigger than I imagined it to be, with three large heated pools (with the hottest being around 36 degrees Celcius), a few smaller interior pools, and some saunas.

As a result of the cold, we scurried  in the cold in our boxers from pool to pool, which were filled with people lounging– a very memorable experience. And definitely very relaxing hanging out in the heated pools.

After Budapest, we took a 12 hour overnight train to Brasov, a town in Transylvania, Romania.

Brasov, Bran, and Sighisoara

We stayed at Brasov, a relatively unexciting but pretty city, and took day trips out to Sighisoara and Bran to see an old medieval town and a castle. Nathan thought Sighisoara, which is the birthplace of Vlad, Prince of Wallachia, otherwise known as Dracula, to be quite unworthwhile since it took us about 5 hours round trip to get to a place where we just walked around for 1.5 hours. I thought it to have a nice small old medieval town feel to it making it quite worthwhile despite traveling so much to see it.

Bran Castle, which is what most people go to see in Romania, was quite a cool castle, but nonetheless no what I expected. I expected it to be extremely gothic, but it turned out to be quite tame in terms of the gothic decor. More pretty than intimidating.

  View from the hills of Brasov – quaint town.

Train we took to Sighisoara was a tourist attraction itself – it was reaaally old school.

Bran Castle – not that intimidating/gothic right? Kind of just like a cute little castle on a hill….and I didn’t find any vampires.

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capitol of Romania, and despite being in Romania, a lot of the central parts of the city look like Paris, thanks to the efforts by its communist leader after WWII who had a thing for Paris. Nathan left without really seeing the city since he had to go back to London early to deal with some stuff. I enjoyed walking around the city on a sunny day, marveling at their large administrative building, which is the 2nd largest building in the world after the Pentagon, among other buildings which were quite aesthetically pleasing. I didn’t want to wake up late the next day and miss my flight so I had a grandpa night – sleeping at 9pm.

The Palace of Parliament was humongous, and I have to say despite being built under the reign of a communist (or maybe because it was done under him),it looked pretty good.

Not too shabby buildings in the center of Bucharest.

Sour ox-tripe (stomach) soup – a Romanian specialty and super delicious.

This boulevard is supposed to mimic Paris.

Back in London now, I think I’ve decided that I won’t really take many touristy photos and thus won’t really blog about it. I’m going home to Hong Kong next week so my days traveling are numbered – quite sad but I sure don’t mind home at all!

Guess I’m going to take a break from blogging on my travel blog for a while…but hopefully not too soon because traveling is too fun. Maybe I’ll turn this blog into just my musings about life - just until the next time I travel…

The Sound of Music: Austria – Salzburg, Vienna

Salzburg

I  never watched The Sound of Music as a kid. I watched Snoopy (Charlie Brown) and Transformers. When I told my girlfriend online and Nathan at different times, I was met with the same outrage. WHAT??? And then instantly they would sing a song from the movie.

So after we got to the hostel in Salzburg from Ceske Budejovice, we put down our luggage, Nathan went off to talk to Michelle on his computer, and I went off to the TV room, sat myself down, and watched The Sound of Music.

Good movie/broadway show turned into movie with catchy songs, but definitely a little long.

Salzburg itself was definitely as pretty as the movie depicted it, even though the weather was no where as nice. Nathan and I decided to just stroll around the city for our first day, stopping in at the Dom, getting a good feel of the city, and ending our walk at Nathan and my first ever beer hall experience.

Statue of Mozart. He was plastered everywhere, on chocolate, on liquor, on postcards, etc.

That’s not a real person on that sphere – it’s “art”. Also behind is Salzburg Castle

You pick out a mug (we picked the 1L), clean it at a fountain, and they fill it up with beer. Awesome. Many of you have probably done it before, but I was impressed, OK?

On our 2nd day, despite Nathan’s protests, we went on a 2 hour hike on the hills of Salzburg. We got to explore Salzburg more and snap some nice photos. I’m going to go on the record and say that Nathan eventually appreciated my push to go on the hike.

With a background of the snow capped mountains of the Alps, Salzburg was damn nice.

The hike gave us some good views. And it was fun.

Vienna

I have to say I’m not the most musical person – meaning I’ve had a history of sleeping in operas, in broadway shows, concerts. However, even I have heard about Vienna and its musical tradition. So in our two nights in Vienna, Nathan and I got to see 2 shows – Swan Lake, and a concert with music composed by Schubert and others. For both of them, we got standing tickets since we weren’t baller enough to get sitting tickets. As I result of being forced to stand, I can happily report that I didn’t fall asleep.

As for the city itself, all I can say was that there sure were some rich people living here – the Hapsburg empire/dynasty that ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the 1920s was BALLER. Nathan and I got to see the apartments where they lived, as well as their summer palace. Extravagance at the maximum.

The whole block of the Hapsburg’s rich and extravagant buildings. 

This is their cutlery….CUTLERY! In contrast, I use plastic plates and cheap chopsticks.

Our standing tickets for Swan Lake – 4 Euros and I didn’t fall asleep, what a deal!

 

The sight of the music concert hall was already well worth the 5 Euros we spent on standing in the back.

Wiener Schnitzel…this place had some XL ones. We were so full we barely ate dinner.

 

Last but not least, two pictures dedicated to the apple strudel. Top one has nuts in it too. A half eaten one is here on the bottom. It’s basically like an apple pie but with much less of that sugary liquid in the typical American style apple pie.

From Vienna, we took a 3 hour train ride to Budapest. A tip to y’all who might travel in Austria: OBB, the train for Austria, offers Sparschiene, which are discounted tickets to international locations (which is weird, since international travel is more $$ usually). So for my 3 hr train ride from Salzburg to Vienna, it was 47.50 EUR. For my 3 hr train ride from Vienna to Budapest, it was 19.90 EUR (which I bought online). Insane.

Next up? Budapest!

Where Beer is Cheaper than Water: Czech Republic: Prague, Plzen, Ceske Budejovice

After an 8 hour train ride south bound from Krakow, Nathan and I arrived at the Czech Republic, where beer is cheaper than water. As an economics major, when good tasting beer costs less than water, you drink beer. So I drank beer basically at every meal we had. On that note though, due to the weak US dollar/ British Pound, everything else other than beer was not cheap, at least not anymore.

Prague

We first arrived at Prague, to what Nathan would refer to as the “Adult Disneyland”. It’s nothing sexual - it just refers to the castle up on the hill and the touristy-y feeling of the whole place. It’s as if the whole place was meant for just tourists. We didn’t like that. Nonetheless, it was a picture-perfect city, with a winding river flowing through the middle, arching bridges, and a medieval-esque atmosphere. Before we got there, we intended to do the generic pub crawl, but the cold weather just made it unappealing. Additionally, we talked to some fellow hostel-ers and they said that only 15 people went on their pub crawl, and half of that 15 was from their group. Sounded like a rip off at about 15 Euros.

Prague seemed like a good place to go back in the summer and just go out and enjoy the cheap beer.

Picture perfect Prague.

Astronomical clock where hordes of people gather every hour just to see a small gap open and figurines moving around. I’m not going to post the picture of it happening – don’t want to ruin the surprise and also, it’s not that exciting.

We went to a microbrewery called Pivovar u Bolovky (Pub Bolovky) in the suburbs, and these woman were next to us taking shots and drinking beer, basically outdoing Nathan and I. Made me feel little. On another note, the beer was phenomenal – go try some if you’re ever in Prague, even though it is a bit of a trek to the suburbs.

After Prague, Nathan and I had originally planned on going down self to a place called Cesky Krumlov, but found out last minute that the castle there was closed for the winter. Instead, we decided to go visit the breweries of the two most famous beers from Czech Republic: Pilsner Urquell in Plzen and Budweiser Budvar in Ceske Budejovice. Also Budweiser Budvar is the original Budweiser (the US company just stole the name), and tastes 10x better than Budweiser in the US – as much as I like my Bud lights.

Plzen and Ceske Budejovice

Since Nathan and I came to these small towns pretty much just for Pilsner Urquell and Budweiser Budvar. Everything in these towns was largely unexciting.

That’s right, a beer vending machine. They should have one at Georgetown.

The Pilsner Urquell bus…talk about corporate branding!

Person more important than our tour guide – he poured out the unfiltered/unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell for us. Delicious.

Brewery had a very corporate feel to it.

In contrast, Budweiser Budvar was quite obviously a state owned enterprise – uncharacteristic buildings.

Stacks and stacks of beer.

Budweiser Budvar was damn good – Budweiser USA should just give up its name.

Beer hall attached to the Budvar brewery where we spent an afternoon.

After 2 straight days of brewery tours, Nathan and I knew more than we needed to know of how beer is made. Superbly educational... they really don’t teach you everything you need to know in life at school.

Next up? Austria!

Pierogies are Better in Poland: Warsaw, Krakow (Days 37-40)

Warsaw

We woke up in Poland to the cold morning breeze. Warsaw is the capitol of Poland, but like Lisbon, it felt like a small town. However, when visiting “historical” sites we were always reminded that most of the original parts had been bombed and destroyed in the World War and the subsequent U.S.S.R reign over Poland. As such, most of the sites weren’t especially interesting but nonetheless they were aesthetically pleasing. We also went to the Warsaw Rising museum, which was a very interactive museum about troops in Warsaw resisting the Nazi army near the end of WWII. With a plane in the middle of the museum, it was definitely worth the price of admission.

We only stayed in Warsaw for a night, but we’d seen pretty much most of the tourist sites. At night, we went out to a bar full of locals, and as we had expected in Eastern Europe, it was full of smoke – but it was definitely fun to people watch. Polish beer is alright, but really nothing special. Vodka’s definitely the specialty.

We were hungry when we got off the train, so we instantly went to the atm, pulled out some cash and went hunting for food. My first pierogies in Poland – with sweet cheese filling. I had always thought that pierogies are only filled with potatoes, but they can really be filled with just about anything from chicken liver to spinach.  Cheap and amazing in Poland.

Everything in this picture had to be reconstructed. Sadly lots of the original historical sites were destroyed.

Polish people like their zupy (soup) and will just eat soup and bread for a meal. Sounds like my kind of thing – well at least the bread part.

This plane was in the Warsaw Uprising museum, which was definitely cool, and well at times gruesome with videos of lots of dead bodies.

Krakow

Krakow is an amazing city. It was certainly cold and rainy when we were there, but I could tell that it would be a great city to be in during the summer. It has tons of restaurants and bars all in the vicinity of its old town, and it gives off a pleasant laid back feel. Even though while we were there it was rainy and foggy, I really liked the city. Apart from exploring the city, we also took day trips to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

We took a minibus to Auschwitz from the bus station, which dropped us off right at the front of the camp. From then on, we spent 4 hours walking around the camp, with a tour guide. Auschwitz, was well, what you would expect from a concentration camp – extremely sad and depressing. However, I couldn’t help but feel surprised and awed (in a bad way) by the size of the concentration camps. These were large and vast camps made JUST to kill people. Nathan and I talked about it – despite what it was meant for, the concentration camps were really quite an engineering feat. The Nazis were just that good at killing people. I was awestricken and appalled simultaneously.

Talking to the tour guide, she told us that she had to take half a year off after giving tours there for 6 months – it was too depressing for her. Even I, who am usually indifferent to things like death, immediately felt saddened and depressed by the camp only by being there for 4 hours. I couldn’t imagine being there for 6 months- having to walk by horrifying things such as hair being used to make carpet, gas chambers, and pictures of scrawny children. (I’m already censoring it guys…)

On the other hand, the Wieliczka Salt Mine was pretty cool. First time I’ve been to a salt mine, and as you would expect, there was salt everywhere…

The chandelier? Made of salt. That figure below of the previous pope? Made of salt. 

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was vast and wide. All constructed just for one purpose…

On the other hand, Auschwitz I was small and extremely eerie.

 

The big square in Krakow, very relaxed atmosphere and surrounded by great bars and restaurants.

It was extremely foggy in Krakow – apparently very common in the winter. These are the stairs leading up to Wawel Hill, a beautiful palace in Krakow.

Next Up? Prague and other places in the Czech Republic!