I have a plan.

That plan is that in a couple of years, once I've found a job of some substantive nature, I will move to Galway for a couple of years.  I really like Galway.  It's exactly what you'd picture a small Irish coastal city to be.  It's colours are almost completely grey and green (except for the shop fronts of course) but they suit the place so well.  There is a fantastic rippling river running through the city.  I also love its size.  It is small, but there are plenty of people about, to give it a good atmosphere.  Walking down the main shopping street, which we did many times today, is great fun because there are buskers all up and down it.  Some better than others.  One today was particularly brilliant and I managed to get a cd.  Which I then realised I can't listen to until I get home, but that doesn't matter.  Books are also incredibly cheap here.  We whiled away a good hour in a little new and second hand book store and I could have bought so many books.  I managed to keep myself to three - I'm going to have very full carry on luggage on the flight home. 

We didn't get up to much today, just perusing shops.  There are tons of fantastic trinket shops around here, I've picked up one necklace and could have gotten so many more.  There was one gold one I particularly loved, but 180 euros did seem a bit of an excessive spend, oh and these gorgeous little egg shaped pendants, 169 euros.  It's a dangerous place.  I still have Dublins shops to search through though as well of course. 

The weather was mostly fairly bleak today, the occassional ray of sunshine, but it seems very irish to be chilly and grey.  Hopefully tomorrow there will be a little more sun though, and a little less rain, as we're off to do a day tour to the cliffs of Moher.  Looking forward to that a lot. 

Just a short one today, not much else to say about this place really.  I'll show you photos instead.  Though you kind of have to be here.

In the land of Irish accents.

As you can probably all guess, I'm loving being surrounded by people with Irish accents.  Although almost all the hostel workers we've come across so far seem to be French.  Go figure.

We managed to get through the Ryanair flight.  I was not a fan of the whole Beauvais airport thing.  We spent an hour on the metro, to spend an hour and a half on the bus to the airport.  We made it however, and got our baggage checked in.  Thank god I paid for the 20 kilo baggage allowance.  Sophies bag weighed in at a crazy light 8 kilos.  Mine was 19.  No wonder I've been struggling to get it on my back recently.  This could be a bit of a problem when leaving London with the shopping I plan to do.  I'm going to have to get brutal with throwing things out.

After eating a quick lunch we jumped in the security queue.  Oh dear.  It was another stinking hot day in Paris, and the air conditioning in the airport was, well, non existant.  Just as we got to the front of the line I noticed one of the border police leave the little checking box and wander over to a bag.  Unattended baggage, oh yay.  So we waited.  And waited.  The growing line of hot time pressured people not allowed to pass through the border check.  Eventually, after far too long a time, some guy came back through security to collect it.  The other people in line clapped him, I was frustrated I had no fruit (of the rotten variety) to throw at him.  That all cleared up we got through and practically straight on the plane.  Time for another delay, because of various hold ups we had to wait for clearance to take off, so left the airport 25 mins late. 

At least it was a short flight.  Just another delay in getting our baggage, and a long wait for the paddy wagon and we made it to the hostel.  Our hostel in Dublin has the fantastic service of free airport transfers.  So brilliant.  We'll be back there in a couple of days to see Dublin and to do one of the day tours.  For now though we're in Galway, which was a simple transfer between cities.  We just had a lesiurely get up, checked out and wandered the 100ms to the bus station, and caught the 10am express to Galway.  I have to point out, the nonstop express to Galway only means that there were no bathroom breaks, it didn't mean the bus didn't stop.  It did.  In four different towns, and two stops in two them.  However it didn't take to long, and an easy walk to the hostel from the station.

We went out for dinner tonight and wandered down the main shopping street in Galway, and I'm at risk of spending quite a bit of money here.  Theres a celtic jewellery store I'm particularly keen to check out.

Sacre Bleu!

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days, my excuse for missing last night was my computer wouldn't connect to the wifi.  My excuse for the night before is just that the wifi was downstairs in the bar and we were on the 5th floor and I couldn't be bothered going down by the time I remembered - although there the lift worked.  Here it doesn't, and we're back up on the 5th floor.  I'm loving that.

So when I left you I was in Munich.  Our last day there we headed up to Dachau, to the memorial site at the concentration camp there.  It was appropriately grey and cold for our visit.  It was well worth doing.  The camp was a working camp rather than a straight out death camp the way others were.  They built a gas chamber part way through the war but never used it, well not for mass killings at least.  It didn't affect me quite as much as I thought it might until the crematorium.  We walked into the building and I looked up at the sign on the wall and it said that it was the room that it was the room they'd stored the bodies in.  Having seen the photos already of hundreds of bodies piled up it horrified me.  I felt like we shouldn't have been allowed to just walk all over the room, it didn't feel right some how.  Looking at the ovens wasn't a hell of a lot better.  So an interesting day, not a particularly cheery one though. 

It ended up taking up most of the day.  By the time we'd gotten home and eaten a late lunch it was 4pm, and the museum I wanted to see closed at 5, so I missed that one unfortunately. 

The following day, so yesterday, was the travel day from Munich to Paris.  Our final day on busabout, and a long one.  We left Munich at 8am, and arrived in Paris just before 10pm.  It wasn't too rough a day though.  There were only 7 of us on the bus to Salzburg, and then 11 from then on.  So a very empty bus considering it can hold around 50.  That meant plenty of space to spread out and a less 'hearding cattle' like feel.  Arriving in Paris they gave us a quick tour driving around the city.  Which was great with us only having a day so it meant we at least got to see the Lourve and other sights like that we didn't manage to make it to today. 

You remember how I said it was cold in Munich?  Here is where the sacre bleu comes in.  Today it got up to 38 degrees.  Thirty-eight.  THIRTY-EIGHT.  So at least a 20 degree change from Munich.  Oh boy was it hot.  And unfortuntely the one museum we visited didn't have air conditioning.  We started the morning with the effiel tour.  Which took all of the morning.  Between the waiting in line and the climbing the stairs.  Yeup we took the stairs option because it was cheaper and the line was shorter.  I doubted that decision part way up.  I am not as fit as I could be.  We visited the first and second levels, but decided not to bother paying the extra fee to go right to the top.  Great views from up there.  Very hazy though, I still haven't gotten used to that about Europe.

We sljmped up to the arc de triumf (I apologise if I'm spelling these wrong, I'm feeling too tired to look up the correct spellings) keeping in the shade as much as possible.  It was an impressive show of over the top pomp and wealth from Napoleon.  Don't get me wrong, it was amazing, just after 7 weeks of things like this I've started to wonder about the point - and the point of that one was Napoleons ego really.  Anyways.  We had planned to got o Musee D'Orsey after that, but discovered that its closed on a Monday, and today is in fact a Monday.  Days of the week aren't something we keep very good track of over here.  So instead we jumped on the metro up to the Gustav Moureau museum.  I didn't know who he was, but it was a great museum anyway.  It was in his old apartment, so it started off with giving you a look around some rooms decorated the way they originall y were.  Then you headed up the stairs where the rooms were cleared out and his art covered the walls.  There were two (non airconditioned) rooms of this.  Lets say he was an ambitious painter.  The ceilings were very high to incorporate his canvases, and quite a few were unfinished. 

We escaped from the heat of the building back into the heat of the street.  It was at this point that we passed a pharmacy sign that let us know it had reached 38 degrees.  It was at this point that I thought melting was about the only thing I was capable of.  We didn't melt.  We kept walking.  We sweated our way up to the Moulin Rouge to have a look at the outside and take a picture of the windmill.  We watched the Moulin Rouge movie on the bus yesterday, which I haven't seen for years, and I discovered I really liked it, I found it very funny, and loved the cancan scenes of course.  Soph and I asked at the hostel this morning about getting tickets but the girl said they are fully booked till Tuesday which is very sad, as we fly out tomorrow morning.  We really would have liked to have seen one.  Oh I also forgot.  As we walked towards the effiel tower this morning I went to grab my camera to take a photo, and discovered it wasn't there.  That left me in a bad mood for some time, one day in Paris and no camera, and unsure of where it would be.  Soph at least had hers so we got some photos.  Back to the Moulin Rouge.  Can I just say, Paris leaves Amsterdam for dead.  It doesn't have the girls in the windows, but its sex shops out do Amsterdams red light district by a long way.  The street the Moulin Rouge is on is full of them.  We passed them twice, once on our way to the Moulin Rouge, and once on our way back to head up to the Cathedral.  Quite funny really that you walk along the sex shop street to get to Sacre Coeur Cathedral.  We managed the walk up the hill to the Cathedral.  Not much shade to be had up there, plus we were feeing we'd had a pretty full day by this point, so we slumped back down the hill and got back on the metro - which was air conditioned thank god.  So here we are sitting in the bar next to the canal, waiting to get our dinner at 7. 

Tomorrow is the mission to get to BVA airport.  It should be simple enough, just a long process.  Hopefully its simple.  Then its Dublin!  Looking forward to Ireland.  I think it might be strange though be back amongst signs etc that are all in English.  I've gotten quite used to looking at a sign, the packaging on food, and not understanding a word.

Oh and since I last posted we also passed the 2 week mark till I fly out of Heathrow.  Very exciting that.  My track pants are calling me.

Munchen.

No imaginative title today, I'm very sleepy today.  Plus my brain waves are being distracted by the night club style lighting in the lobby/bar here (where we have to sit to use wifi) which keeps changing colour.

Well in some ways the room mates weren't as bad as I thought they might be.  They didn't party in the room, and didn't bring any girls home.  They were also worse.  They came in around 11 to get changed or something, and held an above normal conversation levels conversation.  One of the othe girls in the room asked them if they could speak more quietly and the worst guys response was 'WE'RE GOING OUT IN LIKE 10 SECONDS.  WHY AREN'T YOU GOING OUT?' 'we have a train to catch early in the morning' 'OH, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?'.  Apparently in retarded British boy world asking you to keep the noise down is an invite to start a conversation.  They then left deliberately leaving the light on.

They stumbled back in at 5.30 in the morning.  I heard them coming from some way away.  They were loud once again, but the thing that annoyed me the most was that they got into bed and one minute later, having given us no chance to fall asleep, one of them started snoring.  They were also the only ones in the room who didn't wake up when their phone alarm went off.  On three separate occassions.  Overall the kind of room mates I'm glad to escape.  Tonights can't be any worse.

So a bad sleep last night then, and unfortunately coming after another bad sleep it left me feeling pretty exhausted today.  We spent most of the morning organising washing, but thankfully thats another load dealt with.  Eventually we made it out into Munich.  We headed up to the Neue pinakothek.  It was a great gallery, it had Van Goghs sunflowers, a bunch of Monet, Manet, and other people I can't remember at the moment.  Great with the exception of getting stuck in the door on the way in.  It was one of those turning doors and poor Soph got her sandal stuck under the glass door behind us.  With some shoving by me, and the girl on the other side on the doors, and the guy pushing her shoe from the other side we managed to break free.  It was quite an entrance into the large quiet and formal entrance of the museum. 

It was 2pm by the time we got done there, so we found some lunch at a very popular salad/soup place in university teritory.  I also cruised back past a 'trinkets' store we had passed getting to the museum, and, well....I have another trinket.  A ring this time, I was very tempted by a pearl ring they had, but went for the first one I spotted instead.  It's lucky I had so much spare money coming on this trip, to cover all these trinkets. 

After lunch we planned to head down through Marienplatz to the science museum which I was going to go see.  Part way there, having gotten a little disorientated on the streets, and it now being 4pm I decided to call it quits and head back to recheck into the hostel.  It'll be an early bed tonight.  I still hope to go the museum tomorrow, if we have enough time after Dachau.  But who knows what will happen tomorrow.

On a very positive note, we managed to get our tickets for Ryanair printed today, and for significantly less than the euro a page the last hostel was going to charge us.   So thats one rather nagging problem sorted.

Luckily the 320 kg fatty didn't manage to kill my camera.

Sorry no blog last night, we had to go to the kitchen to get wifi, which was in another building, plus we got distracted by an awful German movie.  We're in Munich now.  It was raining rather steadily when we got here, not so fun considering we were walking to our hostel.  We made it here however, wet but not soaked.  The hostel is ok, the receptionist isn't the friendliest though.  Also when we walked into out room my heart sank.  We haven't meet our room mates yet but I already dislike them.  There is, well stuff everywhere.  It looks like their bags exploded.  There are also mostly empty bottles of spirits and mixers all over the floor.  And just to top it all off a condom wrapper under my bed, always comforting.  It will be an interesting night I'm sure.  The first time I've been glad we're changing rooms tomorrow.

Back to yesterday, in Vienna.  I had to stop and think before as to where we'd come from.  We had a good day yesterday.  In the morning we went to the Kunsthaus which is the museum of Hundtwasser.  He's the guy that did the toilets up north, you know the pretty mosaic ones.  We almost got lost on our way there because we were wandering along obere..whatever it was, instead of unter.  We found it eventually though.  It was hard to miss once you got near it.  I loved it, in large part because I felt quite affectionate towards the artist because he loved NZ so much.  Out the front of the museum was the flag that he designed for NZ.  There was also a documentary made by telecom showing in one room, which made me homesick with the sounds of tuis, and then made me laugh when the old school telecom logo flashed across the screen.  It wasn't long before Soph and I were wandering around saying 'I want that one'.  Over and over again.  We also enjoyed an apple strudel in the cafe there as our cultural eating experience.

In the afternoon we went to the zoo.  Yeup the zoo.  And yes I am 22.  It was great, really good to do something different.  We got to see pandas.  Well one, and only the back of his head, he wasn't so keen on turning around.  We also saw the elephants get feed, while listening to a talk about them in German from a stereotypical zoo keeper, and watching a very unstereotypical zoo keeper check the feet and ears etc of one of the elephants.  Best of all there was a baby olephant.  Very cute, I have tons of photos.

Heres where the 320 kg fatty comes in.  We wandered over to the sealion enclosure and incidently came across the feeding there as well.  We were standing down right in front of the enclosure so we could get a look through the glass.  The guy was feeding them fish, and then threw one for the big daddy sealion to catch.  He landed with a splash, showering all the people in the front with water.  We were lucky because we'd moved to the side just on the stairs.  Then the zoo keeper moved and threw the fish in another direction.  The 320 kilo sealion hit the water causing such a splash we got severly splashed, the biggest problem of which was that I had my camera out in front of me taking pictures at the time.  It's ok though thank god.  With the 31 degree temperatures we dried out pretty quickly.  Yea it was 31 degrees yesterday.  So very hot.  I reckon its dropped around 15 degrees to now though, silly Europe.

We also got to see yesterday an Arctic wolf, an ant eater, a polar bear, a spectaculed bear (though only the back of him), a siberian tiger, and squirrels.  The squirrels were particularly cool because they weren't in a cage so when we stopped and remained still for a minute or two they started hopping around like crazy, and came right up to us.  I was furiously trying to step back and unzoom my camera to get a photo. 

So that was Vienna.  I enjoyed the things we did there, but I didn't love Vienna as a city.  The rest of Austria as seen from the train and the bus however I have really loved.  It's going near the top of my list of places to come back to.  In particular a little town we stopped to drop people in today called Gruneau. 

I'm hoping this rain clears, it wouldn't be fun to meander around town in the rain, but the online reports don't look good, they say its getting heavier tomorrow.

Vienna in pictures.

Sorry I'm missing a section of the trip, the Ljubljana photos are on my last xd card which is buried somewhere in the bottom of my pack.  So this is just recent stuff.

The (true) home of the croissant.

Vienna is large.  I suppose it might seem more so because we've just come from little places like Ljubljana and Pula, but it is a place of wide streets and long roads.  Which for people who like to walk every where is a bit annoying.  The time spent away in other places though has allowed space to be amazed at buildings all over again.  We walked out of the metro station and stumbled, a little accidently, upon the parliament building.  It was an oh wow moment.  It faded quite a bit fairly quickly though.  Theres a lot of big impressive, statue covered buildings around here.   You can defintely see evidence of it being the home of the Habsburg empire.  We wandered through the museumsquartier, and the buildings around there, and then strolled in the rough direction of St Stephen's Cathedral.   If you ever come to Vienna I strongly recommend you visit the cathedral.  It's free to just wander through the cathedral, you do have to pay to go into the Catacombs or the tower though.  The cathedral itself is enough though.  It has large stained glass windows and they light up the pillars that run through the middle of the church with interesting patterns.  It looks amazing.  (Though I did notice part of the effect was fake as they had lights up - to assist when it wasn't quite sunny enough to light up the windows enough.)

After that we meandered down in the direction of the Belvedere next.  Stopping to eat lunch in a shady spot on the way.  The Belvedere is split into two museums in two buildings, we just went to the upper building, where the main museum/gallery is.  It was well worth the visit.  The art covered a huge range of time and styles.  It included 'The Kiss' by Gustav Klimit, who I'm going to admit - I'd never heard of before.  It also included paintings by my favourite pervert Mr Egon Schiele, which I particularly enjoyed as I now know quite a bit about him.  The museum was housed in the Belvedere palace, so it also included small descriptions about the rooms and what they had been used for and how they would have looked originally, or which ones where still mostly in the original condition.  You also got great views of the gardens and of the city from the windows in the upper floors.

That about covers our day, except for our short stop in the botanical gardens, which was cut very short by the large misquitos who decided to stop by.  We've changed rooms, so we're now in a room in a different building, which isn't so bad.  We have a guest kitchen in this building and wifi so its fine.  Once again though we'll have to pack up our stuff and move it to the luggage room so we can check out and then check back in again in the afternoon.  And we'll have to make our beds once again tomorrow.  Thats particularly annoying, remaking your bed every day.  Looking forward to not having to do that when I get home.

Another castle, and another creepy old man.

So we've made it to Vienna.  We caught the Zagreb to Frankfurt train from Ljubljana to Villach, and then transferred to a train to Wien Mielding, luckily managing to make the connection in Villach, despite the other train running late.  The train ride across Vienna was particularly beautiful.  We got to see lots of little town nestled in the valleys surrounded by huge snow capped mountains.  We hit a slight problem when checking in here.  I book this just the other night as a change from the place that was trying to charge us a third more than the price we'd booked at.  As we were booking so late we had to book a couple of different rooms, and some how, I don't even know how I did it, I managed to book one of the rooms one night for only one person.  I was getting a little paniked when the girl said they had no space avaliable in the dorms.  They did however have a private room avaliable.  So we have to pay more, but we still save slightly from the other place.  The most annoying thing is that we have to change rooms every night.  So combine that with Munich and we change beds every night for the next five nights.

Anyway lets go back to the castle and the old guy.  We decided it was about time we saw a castle, so being right there, fairly cheap, and having not a lot to do in Ljubljana, we headed up to the castle on, funnily enough, castle hill.  It was very small, but quite nicely set out for tourists.  The best part was the tower, which gave you a 360 degree view of the whole city.  The city is surrounded by a green belt, theres mountains in all directions.  It also has unpopulated hills within the city.  It was gorgeous, even on a grey drizzly day. 

Upon being unable to find the S gallery, despite following the signs twice, we called it a day at the castle and headed back down the hill and up the river to fill in some times, and give our legs a stretch.  We settled by the river to enjoy the sun which had finally appeared and got caught up in conversation.  At some point a man walked past, I would estimate him to have been in his mid to late thirties.  He asked if the river was the Ljubljanca, by which I mean he pointed and said 'Ljubljanca' we said yes and kept talking.  Then he started trying to talk to us.  Through his pointing and persistance we found out he spoke german, spanish, slovenian, and presumbaly Italian, as he was Italian.  He didn't however speak english.  He did however continue to try and make conversation, most of which was him saying things over and over in different languages and us looking confused and him saying 'shit'.  After a little to and froing he asked as 'kaffe' and we discovered he was asking as to go and get a coffee with him.  A somewhat strange idea considering the language difficulties and our obvious discomfort.  We said no, and he asked why.  Not one to give up.  We of course couldn't really explain, what with us being polite, and not speaking the same language anyway.  I eventually turned to Sophie and said it was six o'clock we should go, and turned to him saying we had to leave, pointing away with a sorry expression on my face, hoping he wouldn't take this as us agreeing to go to coffee with him.  He didn't thank god, and we left some what bemused. 

That brings us to the end of the train section of our journey.  When we leave Vienna in a couple of days we'll be back on the busabout bus.  And in just over a week we'll be flying out to Dublin.  Exciting.

Once again its cold.

After finally settling in and getting used to having warm weather, Slovenia has gone and changed up on us.  During the night it began to rain, and to thunder, and when we got up this morning it had turned very cold.  It's still raining now, which is going to make today a bit of a nothing day I think, touristing in the rain just isn't much fun.  The rain this morning wasn't great either, as reception here doesn't open till 8, which means the kitchen and the common room doesn't open till 8.  It's been a little annoying before now, but we managed to work around it after day one by just taking a bowl and spoon the night before from the kitchen, and storing the milk in the fridge in our room, which we eventully decided did actually work.  So with the things we need for breakfast around, we could just sit outside our room on the window ledge.  Not the best, but fine.  Not so much fun this morning, it was at least dry, but it was still very cold.  Two of our room mates are yet to get up so we can't head back to the room, but at least the common room is open now.

We did manage to make it to Bled yesterday.  Doing it by train meant catching an international train - on its way to Frankfurt - and getting off at Lesce-Bled, which is actually in the next town.  We then jumped on a bus to take us to Bled, a bus which had actually come from Ljubljana.  Once in Bled we had rather a lazy day.  We walked around the lake, which according to the guide book takes around 2 hours, but we dragged it out to 3 and a half by including plenty of stops to enjoy the view, plus Sophie managed a short swim, and lunch of course.  Bled was gorgeous.  Part of me did think at times that it wasn't quite as astonishing for me as it as for the people that had recommended it to us as we have plenty of similar and beautiful scenery in NZ.  However the monastry on the island in the middle of the lake, and the castle at the top of the hill over looing the lake did make it special.  The lake was an enchanting colour as well, it was very transparent still, but looked almost like someone had upset a bottle of blue ink into it.  I'll try and get photos up sometime soon.

We walked up to the castle, but by this time it was getting on a bit so we didn't go in, instead just having a look at the view and wandering down to have a look at the markets and allow me to fritter away some more money on pretty things.  We didn't time the bus back right so we ended up having to wait for an hour at the train station, but there was a bar open just across the road, so we managed to get a glass of wine, and I finally tried the cockta drink that I've seen every where.  The train back was on its way to Zagreb, but we got off at Ljubljana anyway, and stopped by the falafel/kebab place that we went to yesterday.  Just as good the second time around. 

So today will probably be a bit of a wasted day.  You can't avoid having a few of those.  We head back to Vienna tomorrow.  We managed to find another hostel so we loose our deposit but we still save a bit of money, and I got to send them an email 'we found other accomodation please cancel our booking'.  Stupid westend hostel.  9 days till we leave for Ireland, and we still have Vienna, Munich and Paris to get through, so we're going to be busy!

In further other news...

We just got mildly screwed over by our hostel in Vienna.  We just got an email to say that the rooms we booked a couple of weeks ago for 13.70 euros, were mistakenly priced, and we will actually be charged 20 euros a night.  They told us we could cancel free of charge up to 24 hours ahead, but by this time its a bit too late to find somewhere else, and we wouldn't get our 10% deposit back either, so it wouldn't be worth it - there aren't enough cheap places avaliable.  So thats left us a bit bitter, and wondering about the validity of pulling such a move.  I think its safe to say this place wont be getting a good review when I get around to doing such things.

So enough of the bitching.  We're in Ljubljana now.  Which actually is going to require another slight bitch soon, sorry about that.  We got here fine, making all the connections - getting to Pula bus stop and on the bus to Rijeka, and then on the train to Ljubljana.  We got checked at the border, but nothing like last time.  We shared a compartment with a nice slightly older American couple, who were kind of delighted when they heard we were from NZ because they want to travel there (here?).  The guy proceeded to pick our brains about the country, from advice on places to go, to what our economy ran on and race relations - it rather tested my knowledge at times. 

This morning we went on a walking tour of the city.  Crossing Slovenia on the train yesterday it was very pretty, quite like home with lots of forest and greenery.  Ljubljana is the same, it has a green belt around it.  Its also very small, the guide told us the population here is about 300,000, 25,000 of which are university students.  The walking tour, oh god.  It was supposed to be a 2 hour walking tour of the city, it took 2 and a half, because our guide like to talk.  She asked at one point if she was going into too much detail.  And yes, yes she was.  It was all stuff that was interesting, but just too much of it, and too many side tracks.  So not nearly as good as our walking tour in Budapest.  We felt rather free when it finally ended and we could leg it back to the supermarket to pick up a salad each from the supermarket across the river. 

Ljubljana could really turn into a trip about food.  The cheap and fairly decent salads from the supermarket, the fantastic open food market just across the dragon bridge, with great strawberries and blueberries and raspberries.  The good falafel place just around the corner.  The burek I have to try. 

Tomorrow however we're going to try and get out of Ljbljana and up to Bled, which many people have recommended to us.  We should be able to get there on our eurail passes. 

Last night of our beautiful holiday.

Just a few errant thoughts.

It has been a great last day, involving lots of jumping off the pier which is just around the bay from our place.  That's where the photos of us mid air came from.  Plus we have a couple more from tonight.

I'm happy to be moving on, getting on with the final weeks of our travels, but having said that, if I had another week here I'd be equally happy.  I really have loved this place.  I hope I manage to make it back some day, for longer next time.

At the same time as tonight has been fun, and peaceful and a good end to our time here, its also left me feeling a little more homesick than I've been in a while.  Theres just enough similarities to a trip to the beach back home to make my brain feel like I'm going home tomorrow.  Then I remember I'm on the other side of the world and I have 25 days to go before I leave or home.  Another reason I'm looking forward to just getting back to the travelling thing again, to settle back into it, and to enjoy what I have left of this trip, instead of looking at it as 25 empty days standing between me and my bed. 

Fingers crossed for a smooth trip to Ljubjana tomorrow, and I'll write to you again from there!

Sun, salt and Romans

We eat a lot of almonds.

Pula's Ginas

and that water is deep, thats where we jumped off.

Good Morning

Well actually not quite such a good morning, since I'm up so early.  Sophie however was up even earlier, which means I'm currently locked in the house because shes gone out, probably for a walk because she must get so bored being awake so much earlier than me.  Having said that I was out of bed at 6.30am this morning, she was just up at 5.30 this morning.  I went to try and txt her just to check up on her but then realised the cell phone I was holding was hers, so that wasn't going to work so well.

In the meantime I thought I'd give a quick update on Pula.  I kept meaning to, just lazying kept getting in the way.  Theres not much to talk about in terms of things we're doing.  We did walk into town the day before yesterday to see the Roman amphitheatre when the weather was a bit grey.  It was rather amazing, still largely in tact, and right near the water.  The town centre had the feeling of being very old, I have no idea what age it actually was, but there are still plenty of things built by the Romans hanging around adding age and a sense of granduer.

Other than that our time has been spent swimming, reading and eating.  Swimming is interesting, we found a better spot to go in the water yesterday, where the water is deeper.  Sophie hurried off to buy some goggles because the water is so clear and there are plenty of fish around.  She just got back, turns out that was what she was doing, though I don't know how she motivated herself to get in the water, its still pretty cold.  The water around here is still even different though.  It's saltier.  When you get out and sit on the rocks to try you can trace salt lines down you skin.  Our spot yesterday also included some large flat rocks that, once you found the right position, you could get comfortable on. 

Last night we went out for our last father funded meal.  Or supposedly our last, despite ordering mains, wine and dessert, we still didn't even make it over 30 euros, despite it being a white table cloth kind of restaurant.  The hostess was quite funny, spoke three languages, none of which were English.  We walked in and up to her and she said something in Croatian and we shook our heads and she said 'Italiano?'  Nope we said 'Engliski?' 'Deutch?'  Nope.  But we managed to get a table, though not by the window over looking the sea which we would have loved.  I ate a steak with a sauce so hot it almost made my eyes run.  The steak was very good though.  We also tried to order the Istrian donuts for dessert, but they didn't have them (or we assume thats what she meant), so instead got the chocolate pancakes and the lavender ice cream, both very good. 

So as you can see, lazying and eating really dominate our time here.  Tomorrow we leave, and leave early unfortunately.  We managed to find that there is a 8 am bus rather than having to catch a 7am bus, but it still means leaving here quite early.  We have to be in Rijeka to catch a midday train, as there is only two each day, the other not being till quite late.  So Ljubjana tomorrow.  We have major plans there, just strolling through the streets and maybe the hills around the city.   Back to hostels though, that'll be a shock after all these lovely days to ourselves.

Photos of paradise

Part of our walk to the supermarket.  The trees on the right are the cemetery.

Our little path down to the beach.

Soph braving the water for the first time.  Its not as cold as back home, but its still kind of cold.

Our place.  The building on the left is the restaurant, the hedge on the right is our place.

Dinner - the one with our first supermarket mistake - so its pasta with yoghurt instead of cream.  Still tasted alright.

Let's see how many I get through before I get frustrated...

Church in the palace grounds, Budapest.  Note the Turkish tiling on the left side.

View out over Budapest from the top of the palace hill.

Our local bridge in Budapest, the green bridge (yes thats what they called it), looking up towards where we're about to talk, the lady liberty hill.

The Hungarian lady liberty.

The white bridge at night.

The Budapest palace at night.

The Budapest...something, church probably....

The mistaken gallery.  The one we accidently went into, but really enjoyed.

Thermal baths, this i the 30 degree pool.

Soaking Soph

Zagreb.  They like their flowers/grass/fountains.

Peace cranes in the botanical gardens in Zagreb

Soph at the beatles revival band gig.

Beatles Revival Band - complete with statue of random important looking man behind.

I must have died in Zagreb.

Maybe it was the smoke fumes, maybe it was my Ukranian room mate.  Probably the Ukranian.  Whatever it was, I must have died, because I've ended up in heaven.  We made it to Pula and it is all we hoped for.

We came across in a little bus that was 'direct to Pula', by which they meant it was direct to Rovinj and then became an intertown service.  It was alright though, we got to see some pituresque Croatian towns on our way.  It was a little stressful getting the place we're staying (I'm actively avoiding using the word hostel), the bus driver didn't recognise the stop we were aiming for.  All we knew from there was that it was the second to last stop.  We got off at the last stop in the end, which was outside the Stoja camping ground which I knew from google mapping research was just around from our place.  We asked an incredibly nice girl at the ice cream shop (who thankfully spoke English), she tried her best but didn't really know the place.  So we took a chance and walked back up the hill.  And found it. 

It is perfect here.  We have this little apartment on the ground floor, and it is all our own.  No dorm room, no shared kitchen, just our little place.  It is done up very nicely an is clean and private.  The woman that runs the place is a little brisk but very nice.  We also went for a wander towards town and found a supermarket fairly close, within walking distance for our walking legs.  The stairs to the beach are about 5 metres from the front gate, and at the bottom is a little bay which is absolutely beautiful.  So far the weather has been stunning as well, clear blue skies and hot, with a perfect breeze.  They don't do sandy beaches here though so lieing on the beach isn't particularly comfortable (a bit stoney).  Tomorrow however we plan to walk about 100m up the road where there is a little park that leads down to the beach so we can lie on the grass.  Pula thought of everything for us.  Theres even a bus stop right outside, and a good little restaurant directly across the road.  They don't do footpaths so much around here, but it doesn't matter because when you run out of footpath you just wander along the side of the road and the cars go around you.  The people here seem pretty chilled.  The perfect holiday from our travels.

So I wouldn't expect a huge number of blogs from me over the next couple of days.  There won't be much to talk about, we'll just be sleeping, reading and eating.  And drinking Istrian wine.  I will try and get the next round of photos up however.

Oh Zagreb.

As I write this I am proped against the wall on a fold out bed.  The hostel made a bit of a clerical error or something, they had a few big groups come in today.  So firstly Sophie and I were shifted rooms, and into seperate rooms, and then I was asked if I could move to a camp bed in the corner.  They were very apologetic about it though, and gave us each a free drink for our troubles.  I didn't mind, as long as I didn't have to make up my bed again, which I didn't.

We did have plans to go and visit a park at the north end of the city, but when we got up this morning the weather looked a bit dodgy and I was feeling a bit tired and shitty and Sophie a bit ambivalent, so we flagged it.  Instead we wandered up to have a nosey around the botanic gardens, and read of course.  Then back to the hostel for lunch and a lazy afternoon, then back into town for dinner and festival.  We went back to the place we had coffee the other night, but no Alexander.  The other waiter from yesterday was there though, and he was much friendlier than last time, I think because he recognised us.  So we had a decent meal, and a decent glass of house wine, and wound our way up to find the square to go and see some of the street music festival.  The Beatles revival band to be exact.  You should have seen the skip Sophie gave when we heard the first chords of a Beatles song walking towards the square.  It was delightful.  The night air, the crowds and the general atmosphere put us in a great mood, it was fantastic. 

Watching the Beatles revival band was pretty hilarious, particularly in between songs when they would talk in Croatian (and the crowd would applaud and we would be totally in the dark).  As if standing in a square in Zagreb listening to live Beatles music wasn't great enough, we were joined a couple of times by stilt walkers who would twist through the crowd dancing and singing along.  One in particular was brillant, he would dance with the little girls sitting on their fathers shoulders.  It was oh so strange and oh so marvellous.  A real 'I'm in Europe and its great!' moment.

Tomorrow we move on to Pula.  Our sacred place.  A good thing too, us both having landed with rather annoying older gentleman room mates.  Mine Ukranian - just one - Sophie's South African - three. 

Happy halfway day.

Today is officially halfway day.  31 days we've been here, 31 till I leave for home.  It's been a pretty good half way day.  I really like Zagreb.  It's not the architectural wonder some of the other cities we've been to are.  It's got the old buildings, but quite a few are looking quite run down, and there are tons of dreary looking modern apartment buildings scattered amongst them.  Having said that, it is a pretty place.  There is a lot of greenery about, which being a Kiwi I really like.  There was a plan set out when building a new section to leave space for lawns, and fountains, they like fountains.  Theres also a botanical gardens right near the centre of town. 

However the even better thing about in Zagreb is the people.  Oh wow are they nice.  You know I told you about the woman yesterday?  She is not the only one.  They don't smile a lot, which I find a little disconcerting, but they are so helpful.  We went into a cafe to find shelter when it was raining and ordered a couple of coffees and some fries.  About the time we finished eating (unfortunately because then we were keen to head on) the waiter started to talk to us.  He was busy so it was only in snatches, but he asked us where we were from, said he wanted to go to New Zealand, introduced himself - his name was Alexander - and asked us where we were staying.  I felt quite bad when we left, it was obvious he wanted to talk more.  Then this afternoon we were standing in the little supermarket in front of the fruit trying to figure out how to use the machine to print the price stickers (like you get when ordering from the deli at the supermarkets back home - they have that with fruit but here you do it yourself).  So we were standing there looking confused and the woman next to us said something in Croatian.  I stood there looking blank, the phrase for do you speak English having vacated my head.  So she said 'do you need help' and proceeded to stand and help us through the process.  We were so grateful.  Even just the little thing of tonight when standing waiting to cross the road.  We were distracted reading our receipt so didn't notice it turn green and the girl next to us called 'come on' as she started to cross.  It is actually feels almost crazy how helpful people are.

So, as for what we did today.  We ran into the best luck.  It turns out theres a street music festival on at the moment, which we accidently ran into (hard not to its scattered around the centre of town).  Hopefully we'll get to see more tomorrow, though we do have plans to visit a park to the north of the city.  The festival also brought me to cross paths with a fantastic little trinkets place.  So different to the other places we've seen so far.  I picked up this great little wire fairy necklace. 

We spent the morning wandering a route through one part of the centre city that was marked on our map and took you past all the important buildings in the newer section, as well as our beloved greenery.  After lunch we went to a museum called the museum of broken relationships.  It was so great.  Again, very different, it gets a little boring just seeing the traditional galleries and museums, as great as they all are, so you appreciate the less ordinary.  This place was a museum dedicated to momentos of relationships that had failed.  It was so interesting.  People from all over the world had given items to the exhibit, and written something to go with it.  The saddest one was a key bottle opener.  The written explination said the person had always been surprised by little gifts, but had never been able to sleep with their partner.  It was only when the partner died of AIDs that they realised quite how much they had been loved.  The girl at reception there was also incredibly nice, but just to be different, she smiled.

After that we visited the museum of naive art.  Basically a museum of works of unproffesional artists.  I really enjoyed it, some of the art was fantastic.  One man in particular liked to paint on glass, which gave the art a very distinctive look.

We had planned to stay in town for dinner, but at about 4 it started to rain quite heavily again and we didn't have anything in particular we wanted to see, so we headed for the hostel.  Which, skipping the supermarket trip, a bit of Skins watching and dinner, brings us to now.  Bed time.

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto.

Ok not the exact quotation, but its what I've been saying when stumbling upon something particularly foreign to us.  Today was one of those days.

It started at 5 am, waking to the sound of rain as we packed our final things, and eating some breakfast before leaving for the bus stop.  Martin had asked us where we were going and gave us the best route to get the train station bless him. 

So on the train to Zagreb.  the rain, which had obligingly stopped for our journey to the train station, slowly got started again.  It was a very bleak trip across the Hungarian landscape, with the rain, and a chill in the air.  Four hours survived and we arrived at the Hungarian border.  Thats where it got interesting.  The train stopped.  And waited.  Then a man wandered through the carriage carrying a sledge hammer.  Then the train moved up the tracks slowly, then back again.   And we waited.  Then one group of police came through, checking the bathroom, ceiling vents etc.  Next was the 'Hungarian passport', he checked our passports in his portable machine, stamped them and moved on.  After him another group of random officials wandered through the carriage.  Then came more police, then 'Croatian passport' to stamp our passports again.  Behind him was customs.  Being in a four seat with just three girls we were basically ignored, the woman looked at my bag shoved between the backs of the seats and said 'luggage?' I claimed it and she moved on.  The people across from us had their bags searched though.  Finally they all disembarked and the ticket man came through.  Cool we thought, intense for a train, and very different to the train from Vienna to Budapest (no one even looked at our passports, at any stage).  Then the ticket man told us 'next station you get out, bus go 30 km, back on train'.  Sure enough at the next station we all disembarked and were hurried on to a couple of waiting buses.  They drove us through the Croatian country side, alternating between boiling hot and freezing cold with the air conditioning.  Just when I was wondering if they were ever going to put us back on a train, we arrived at another small station where a train was waiting.  We piled on, into a compartment style carriage (and the worst toilets I have ever had to use).  Amazingly we did reach Zagreb, just half an hour late or so. 

So Croatia didn't feel so friendly at that point.  It was strange coming across that sort of border control on a train, particularly since we've been travelling between countries for a while now without any sort of notice being paid.  Arriving in Zagreb was much simpler than arriving at Budapest.  There was an ATM in the train station so we could get some local currency - without being ripped off by currency convertors.  There was also a tisk (or something like that) the newstands from which you can buy tram tickets.  The tram was then right outside the front, the one we wanted sitting there as we walked up. 


When we got off we found the white business building that was our marker, and walked towards the pedestrian lights.  We were standing waiting to cross looking at my notebook trying to ensure that the street we were looking at was the one that we wanted to go down.  There was a grim looking woman standing a few metres away from us.  She looked at us and walked straight up to help us, without speaking any English.  I showed her the name of the street we wanted and she confirmed it was the one we were on.  It was so lovely.  The city suddenly felt much friendlier.  It was just so out of the blue and so helpful. 

Things got better once we reached the actual hostel.  Its clean, and has nice bathrooms, and a nice kitchen.  We have to change for our last night, but thats ok.  Plus the girl at reception was unsmiling but very helpful.   So two days.  We'll have to figure out what to choose to fill them.  We may meet up with an American girl we meet on the train, who is travelling alone in Zagreb.  I guess we'll see.

Lazy hazy days.

So no blog last night.  There really wasn't anything much to talk about.  We had planned to do a couple of galleries/museums, but discovered the night before that none of them are open on a Monday.  So we changed our plans to sorting trains in the morning, and spas in the afternoon.  Then it rained and thundered at lunch time, so we were rather put off going out.  We'd said we would take days off occassionally, so we decided this would be one.  It also gave us the chance to sort the last few things, like accomodation in Ireland and flying out to London.  The Irish plans are now to spend a few days in Galway and a few in Dublin - which we fly out of. 

We did manage to motivate ourselves just enough to go and find dinner, and get a couple of drinks in one of the bars Martin recommended to us.  The bar was pretty cool, though it did feel rather like Krd bars, just on a much bigger scale. 

This morning we made it to the art gallery.  Well an art gallery.  We'd planned to go and see the fine arts gallery, but I was having a stupid day and read the map wrong and took us into the building marked 'art gallery'  not 'fine arts gallery'.  It was actually a happy accident though, we really enjoyed the exhibition that was on.  It was a contemporary artist who worked with paint and canvas.  So it was still a bit 'hidden message-ish', but was really good after getting a bit bored with the 'box in the middle of the road' style contemporary art we've been running into so much.  We then got ripped off for a sandwhich and a cup of coffee.  I've found Hungarian service in general fairly bossy, they kind of hurry you into an order. 

The other museums we had thought of visiting were abandoned because the rest of the afternoon, some 3 and a half hours, were wiled away at the thermal spas.  The perfect attraction for tired people and bodies.  There was the 30 degree pool, where most of the time was spent.  The 37.5 degree pool, which was divine.  And then there was the sauna, which we went into mainly because I'd never been in one.  The sign outside said not to stay in longer than 10 minutes.  Ha.  We were lucky to make it to five.  After the very exact temperature of the pools, the sauna was a very undefined temperature of 80-100 degrees.  Whatever it actually was it was hoooot.  It hurt your nose - or mine at least - when breathing.  But other than that interesting experience, the rest was lovely.  My coordination was rather shot though after all that soaking, my muscles relaxed a bit much.  Oh and the only other down point, lots of fat old men in speedos.  Too much. 

So, bed early tonight, as soon as possible, as we have to be on the train at 6.30 tomorrow.  Yes our train leaves at 6.30, cringe.

More bad assumptions.

The bad news is we wont be going to Pecs any more.  We had planned to go tomorrow for the day, but when I started looking up trains I discovered that its 3 hours from Budapest to Pecs, not the 1 and a half that I had in mind for some reason.  We debated for quite a while, but in the end 3 hours there and back was just a bit much.

This morning saw us walking up the hill to the lady liberty (at least thats what I think she is) statue.  A wee bit of a hike, but not so bad when you take plenty of stops to sit in the shade to take in the increasing views.  The view from the top was pretty spectacular, and the statue is fantastic, Sophie is particularly taken with it.  Much better than the statue of liberty she reckons.  On our way back to the hostel for lunch we stopped at the dangerous store.  Not quite as much damage done as I was thinking, but then again I might go back.

Post a long lunch break, we went on a mini mission to find a artist market we had been told was going on in the Jewish district.  We think we found it, but it seemed like it was in the final stages so there wasn't much around.  The jewish district was an interesting experience.  It was full of so many abandoned, and run down buildings and was so quiet, that I got quite spooked out.  After finding and leaving the market I hurried Sophie back to the main roads a bit, as I was feeling a little vulnerable.  All fine though.  We wound our way back to the river and sat next to it for a while enjoying the view and a bit of conversation, and m&ms.  The Danube river that runs through Budapest is probably the most impressive river we've seen so far.  Its easy to see why the guide yesterday said Hungarians have a bit of a thing about water.  Its significantly bigger than the other rivers we've passed so far in our journeys.

Tonight for dinner we had a go at finding a traditional Hungarian meal.  We tried to avoid the real tourist traps, but it was a bit difficult.  We found somewhere close to home in the end, and I ordered something which claimed to be sauted chicken in Hungarian style.  If the food wasn't legit, the service felt legit.  A rather abrupt old man that some what organised Sophie into her ordering.  One of the times you feel truely guilty about having not managed to learn even thank you in the native language.  My lack of skills with foreign languages, and the tounge tripping languages we have come across recently have left us feeling rather flumexed and rude.

After dinner we decided to take the walk along the river that Martin recommended to see the lights at night.  Well worth it.  The palace, church and bridges were all lit up beautifully.  I tried to capture it with my camera but had little success.

The one positive about not making it to Pecs is that we should be able to fill our time fairly well in Budapest.  Plenty to do here.

Rub the horses balls.

It's only 8.45 here and I'm lying in bed thinking maybe I'd rather just go to sleep than write, but I will persevere for you. 

Where was I up to yesterday?  Ah yes, the less than stellar start to the city.  The bad news is, Soph still can't seem to make her debit or her travel card work, but she is at least able to get money at ATMs with her eftpos card.  The better news is that last night Budapest got a whole lot nicer, in part because of the cheap and good food we ate at a humus restaurant around the corner, but mostly due to Martin.  Marting is the guy that runs this place.  Hes polish.  And he is awesome.  He wasn't here when we first arrived, apparently he was down at city hall trying to sort things 'their problem not mine' *throws hands in the air*.  When we got back from the supermarket last night he'd made it back.  He sat us down, got out a map and gave us a guide to the city.  He told us about the baths, how to get there, how much they cost, and to tell him when we went so he could lend us towels.  He told us about a walking tour which I will fill you in on later (we did it today).  He pointed out the hill we should walk up, for the 'postcard shots', told us we should walk along the river at night.  Pointed out the 'ruined bars' and showed us the best ones.  Ruined bars are apparently something that appeared around Budapest a little while ago, people bought old abandoned buildings and put bars/clubs in them.  So they don't look like much from the outside, sometimes just a door, but inside they're all done up, and the drinks are cheap and there's no door charge.  If we can find time (on a night when I don't have to lie still for fear of moving my stomach to fast and losing my dinner) we might try and find ourselves to one of the bars.  Best of all, they are places that locals go, so you actually get an oppurtunity to see locals rather than just tourists. 

He then showed us the cheapest places to eat, the good local places to eat.  We both had big grins on our faces afterwards.  It really felt like we were getting the insiders guide, though he was telling us about a lot of tourist stuff as well.  I also asked him about Pecs - it took him a while to click to what I was talking about, its pronounced Pech - I wanted to know whether he thought it would be worth doing a day trip, because we have a spare day of train travel.  He put up his thumbs.   Then explained a bit about Pecs to us as well.

All the little things wrong with this place, the funny shower, having no kettle, the occassional hole in the wall, aren't a problem like they'd be in any other hostel, because this is Martins place.  It really feels like his house that we've been given a room in.

This morning after checking out the large fresh food market down the road, and feeling a little put out after being yelled at in Hungarian and made to buy the whole bunch of bannanas, we went for a stroll to try and find some shoes for me.  It brought us firstly to a street full of tourist shops, with one magic shop.  Lets just say its a good thing I have significantly over my daily budget.  I'll be going back there before we leave.  Anyway long story short, we did manage to find some shoes, pretty cheap and cute, hopefully they'll last the rest of the trip.

The afternoon we spent on the walking tour.  It took about 3 hours, a wee bit of a task in the heat (did I tell you that?  Just how hot it is here?  It's so hot your sunglasses slide off your nose).  It was fantastic though.  The guide was great, she really knew her stuff.  It mixed a little history, with a bit of language (the longest word in Hungarian is 44 letters long), a few jokes and more insiders knowledge.  Do you know how a smart Hungarian talks to a stupid Hungarian?  Long distance.  (joke, you may laugh).  Apparently they have a serious brain drain going on here.  50 Hungarians have been awarded a Nobel prize, more per capita than anywhere else, but only one received it in Hungary.  She also told us about current Hungary.  Apparently tax evasion is a game around here, because taxes are very high to keep running a communist sized bureacracy, but wages are low.  As a side effect of this, the only way to get anything done is through bribery.  Which explains why Martin said last night 'they say they are reconstructing it but..*shrugs* corruption'.  She also told us that Pest (the side we're staying on) looks old, but is actually only 19th C.  They just tried to replicate other old european cities.

She also filled us in on the bars/clubs that Martin had told is about, where the worst places for pickpockets were, tipping procedure, and how to avoid tourist traps.  Apparently if a restaurant promenantly displays a sign for goulash, its not the place to eat, and if the food looks cheap, check how much the drinks cost.  It really felt like a tour run by young people trying to help out young people, and navigating a broken system. 

Oh and I just about forgot about the horses balls.  We got shown a statue of a famous warrior, but the important part was his horse.  She told us to look for what stuck out.  The balls were shiny gold.  This is because of a student tradition to rub the horses balls to get better marks in final exams. 

So there you have it.  Day one Budapest.  Much more to go.  We're not far off a month through the trip though, thats a scary thought.

A few more photos for thems that wants them

Yes apparently Prague has an Absinthe museum. 

The Jewish cemetery through the little window in the gate out the back.

The doorway that led to the lovely senate gardens in Prague

Cesky from the top of the tower.  One of a ton of photos.

Bear!  The Cesky castle had a couple of bears, which we had to stop by a couple of times.  Very cuddly looking, in a 'will rip your head off if you come too close' kind of a way.

Cesky Krumlov.  See what I mean about fairytale.

I've learnt something new about myself.

Not much to say today.  We haven't done much, mainly been shuffling.  We've made it to Budapest though.  The new thing I've learnt about myself is about showers.  I can go tramping and not shower for days, and be fine.  However what I can't do is handle cold showers.   The last 3 days I've had to cope with cold showers, and I can barely handle it.  And when I say cold, I mean cold.  Not luke warm, not a little chilly, but ICE cold.  This morning it was so cold that it hurt my head when I tried to wash the shampoo out.  Shivering in your shower is not fun. 

Hoping the showers here are warm, if not, well I don't know what I'll do, but it wont be pretty.  Here is a place called the downtown hostel.  The place has a really homey feel to it, which is both nice and a little strange. 

Last night we got to Vienna ok, and even managed to walk to the hostel which was nice, no figuring out a new metro system upon arrival.  Our hostel was ok.  Our room was actually around the back, through another door.  The hostel seemed to have various rooms in various buildings on the block.  We basically just sorted emails, food and went to bed last night.  We did talk to one of our roommates a little though.  A very chatty American girl.  She was travelling alone, and it was pretty obvious she was getting lonely.   It was nice to talk to her though, she was more like us than any of the other travellers we've met so far.  Doing quite a bit of sightseeing, not going out and getting drunk every night.  It was a relief to find out we weren't the only ones. 

This morning we rolled out of bed and made our way to the train station.  Turns out getting a train to Budapest was simple.  No reservations required, we just activated our tickets and jumped on.  The sun came out as well, which cheered me up a great deal.  I was feeling pretty happy on the train.  Notice the was.  My mood hasn't completely deserted me, but it has been a bit dented.  Arriving in Budapest I felt a little like we were arriving in Barcelona all over again.  It was hot, and we were in jeans and thermals, we were pretty tired, and we couldn't find the entrance to the metro.  Also this time we had no local curreny, and we couldn't find an ATM.  I just changed some of the euros I had, so we could at least get on the metro.  Not a great idea to change money at one of the exchange places, but it had to be done.  We eventually found the metro.  Speaking of which, seems they're pretty tough on their metros around here.  We were watched as we validated our tickets, and checked as we left the metro.  The metro was a bit of a different experience though.  Standing at the platform and this train that looks like its from the oldest dimmest darkest days of the communist era pulls up.  And then there are two guys standing in the doorway in pseudo military gear.  Budapest is the least safe I've felt so far on this trip.  It'll be fine, its just different.  When we got off the train someone tried to stop us and offer us a taxi, and then 2ms later another and another, and then one for accomodation.  They were fairly easy to dodge, but its quite different to the other places we've been so far.

Once we'd navigated the metro we got a bit lost finding our hostel.  Luckily our hostel was within the map in the lonely planet.  We found it eventually, but its still not fun wandering the wrong way twice while you're carrying heavy packs, you're too hot, and you haven't eaten since breakfast.

The final drama of the day (well fingers crossed, we still have to find dinner) was in getting money out.  Theres an ATM quite close to the hostel.  Sweet.  So we strolled down there to get money and some lunch.  I went first, fine.  Soph went second.  She did what I had done, and we talked, and the money didn't come out.  We thought huh, I hope it hasn't charged for that.  Tried again, it said she had her pin wrong.  Tried again, still wrong.  Tried her other card, same thing.  So we have no idea whats going on there.  Thank god there's two of us, and that my card is working.  We'll try again tomorrow, maybe at a different bank machine. 

So.  Theres our travels for the last couple of days.  We moved on from Cesky, which was good, I loved Cesky, but we'd fallen quite deep into a limbo feeling.  Plus it was freezing cold the day we left.  Hopefully we'll get out and see the better side of Budapest tomorrow.