Budapest Blog

So far, I think that Budapest has been my favourite city in Eastern Europe. It hasn't been spoilt by all of the tourists which is sort of what's happened with Prague. There is no large main square but rather a nice collection of smaller squares and green spaces. Most of the people that you see are the local Hungarians going about their daily business so we just blend in with them, rather than the other way around. There is a real sense of calm about this place, it was just wonderful.

I stayed in a brilliant hostel, right in the middle of town. To celebrate your arrival, you were given a shot of their local liquor, 50% proof, really warms you up! Again, this hostel was more like a home and everyone was very friendly. The only negative has been that I only stayed for three days, I definitely needed a couple more. The city is divided into 23 districts and I only had time to explore 3 of them, the main ones. 

I did one of the walking tours on offer, exploring the communist history on the Pest side. The city is divided by the Danube River, Buda is on the West and is the hilly part of the city, Pest is on the East of the river and is completely flat. Hungary has certainly had a very turbulent history and only fairly recently escaped the clutches of communism. I visited the House of Terror to try and get a feeling for life here during the communist regime. This house is on the main street, Andrassy, and it used to be the home of the dreaded secret police. In many of the rooms they had videos running, of citizens talking about what it was like for them, about being arrested, tortured, dehumanized. It was very, very depressing and I needed another shot of that liquor when I'd finished! 

Crossing over the Chain Bridge, which was completely destroyed in WWII and had to be rebuilt after the war, I climbed up and explored Castle Hill. This is where most of the medieval buildings are and you get a great view of the city from up there. The old Royal Palace is at one end of the hill and Matthias Church is at the other end. It was nice to just wander through the old streets and a bonus was that the sun was shining! I actually felt warm again after a month of cold. 

There are a lot of thermal springs in Budapest so, on one of my afternoons here, I went to the Szechenyi Baths. This complex is comprised of 3 large outdoor pools and 15 indoor pools. They range in temperature from a rather chilly 20 degrees to over 40 degrees, the hottest I could cope with was 38 and that was only for two minutes. There are also saunas, mud baths and massages available if you want the full spa treatment. I didn't so just enjoyed a couple of hours of soaking.

As I mentioned, 3 days passed in a blur and there was a lot that I didn't get to. But you cant do everything and there's always next time!

Bratislava Photos

Bratislava Photos, a set on Flickr.

Bratislava Blog

I felt very proud of myself when I left the hostel in Olomouc, to go to the train station. I was supposed to go by tram no. 4 but, upon reaching the track, I had a suspicion that I would have to get to the station by some other means because there was a team of men fixing the overhead wires. That indicated no trams. I deduced that they must have put on buses in their place so went up to the main road and actually found the right bus! This may not sound a big deal but the language here has not even the minutest similarity to English, French, Italian or Spanish. And, besides that, almost no-one speaks English so, for me, it was a big deal. 

It was only 2.5 hours to reach Bratislava, in Slovakia. This is the great thing about traveling in Europe, everything is quick to get to. Night buses are a thing of the past! I was interested to see what Bratislava was like because people say that it's like the baby version of Prague. I'm not so sure of that. It's certainly tiny but lacks the charm. I did the walking tour, which was excellent and I learnt a lot, dating back to the time when it was part of the Austro/Hungarian empire. Slovakia has split and got back together with the Czech Republic about 3 times but joined the EU 8 years ago and is definitely now a thriving country. It's tax rate is a flat 16% on everything, including salaries so this makes it a sought after location for many large manufacturing businesses. Apparently they're soon to be the largest car manufacturer in the world.

You can walk around the old city in about an hour and, apart from that, there's not a lot else to do here. I'd booked to stay for 3 nights but, to any future visitors, you can get away with 1. It's always nice to have a rest though, and the hostel was very nice, so I was happy sitting in a comfy chair and catching up with some reading. Particularly as it rained all day on my last day here. I'm now off to Budapest, which I'm looking forward to. Everyone who I've met, that have travelled here, says it's a wonderful city. I'm just hoping that the weather will start to warm up soon. My legs have forgotten what it feels like to be exposed to the sun!

Prague Photos

Prague Photos, a set on Flickr.

Prague Blog

When I was in Cesky Krumlov, one of the other guests told me about a bus company called Student Agency Bus. Anyone can use it, not just students. It was a great find because I was able to travel from this place to Prague for just €8. The bus was a decent one too, offered free tea and coffee and showed a movie on the way. Anything to save a few dollars. Prague was really overrun with tourists as it was Easter holidays but it's a beautiful city. There are about 1.5 million people who live here so it's not too huge in the big scheme of things. The only negative was the extreme cold! For the first two days, the temperature didn't get above 5 degrees but for a lot of it, it was zero and snowing. I was forced to go and buy some extremely attractive woollen tights in an effort to keep my legs warm. There'll be no photos of that particular sight! I did a 4 hour walking tour on my first full day, just to get my bearings, along with a bit of the history. And then, for the remaining days, I returned to the various areas and covered them in more detail. The whole Jewish Town was really interesting. This was the ghetto area before and during the war. There's one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Europe here, built in the 13th century. It's called the Old-New Synagogue which is rather a strange name. When it was first built, it was called the New and Great Shul but, when more synagogues were built in the 16th century, it became known as Old-New. I also found the cemetery fascinating. It's not known how many people are buried here because there are layers of tombs but an estimate is 100,000. According to a Jewish custom, you're not allowed to destroy graves or remove the tombstone. Because there was only a limited amount of land available, layers of soil were placed on the existing graves, the new person was then buried and the original tombstone put back in place. There are 12 layers of burials here and the tombstones are really close together and kind of all over the place. If you have a look at my photos, you'll see what I mean. I spent a whole day exploring the castle area. It's dominated by a huge cathedral and there are a whole collection of other buildings that have been added over a period of 1,000 years so the styles of architecture are very different. I learnt a new word - defenestration, the act of throwing someone out of a window. This happened to some statesmen back in 1618, which resulted in the thirty year war starting.  I loved an area called Golden Lane, near the end of the castle complex. There is a long row of tiny little houses (apparently the average height back then was only 5 ft) that were originally built for the castle guards. About 1,000 years later, goldsmiths moved in and that's how it got it's name. A whole lot of them were demolished in the 19th century because they were completely unfit for living. Poor people and criminals moved into the remaining ones but they were all evicted after the second world war when the powers that be saw that tourists were fascinated so they might as well make some money out of it! They were all spruced up with a coat of paint and some of them were equipped with the furnishings of the time.  5 days was about the right length of time to stay here, I got to see pretty well everything I wanted to, without being too manic about it. There's a good tram system that you can use but, if you're not in a rush, it's easy to walk everywhere. I left Prague yesterday and, for the first time on this trip, I missed my bus! I hadn't looked at the ticket properly and just assumed that I'd be catching the bus from the same station where I arrived. But no, that wasn't the case. By the time I figured out that I was in the wrong place, it was too late to get to the right station so I made my way to the main train station and caught a train instead. The ticket was only €8 so not the end of the world. And it got me to the next place 2 hours before the bus would have arrived anyway so all was good. I'm now in a town called Olomouc which is to the east of Prague. I've found that I need the calm of a small town or village after being in a large city, just to unwind and relax. A couple of days is enough and then you're ready to go again. Tomorrow I head south to Slovakia, to the capital city of Bratislava. I'm hoping that it'll be warmer!  

Ceske Krumlov and Budejovice Photos

Ceske Krumlov and Budejovice Photos, a set on Flickr.