We went straight into Brasov, and from the train station went to the taxis. Now common sense as a traveler, never use a taxi rank as they will most definitely mug you off. But when you arrive in a country where you do not speak the language, and you don't have a map, sometimes it just isn't an option. The hostel told us that it should not have cost more than a certain amount to get there. The first taxi driver quoted us over four times the amount! C'mon buddy, im foreign not an idiot. So 3 taxi driver's later, the price was right, and off we went.
Brasov is quite a medieval looking town, and clearly thrives off of the tourism side of it. It wasn't packed with tourists as there isn't much in brasov itself, and there are closer options to seeing Draculas castle, but it is fairly cheap, and quite pretty. The buildings are old with beautiful architecture and here is where the smallest street in eastern europe is. It was really rainy the first day but we wondered around for a bit and ended up at a quiet coffee shop. The prices where really cheap so we stayed here for a while.
The next day we got a taxi and did the 3 main tourist attractions in the area. The first stop was Bran Castle, or better known as Draculas castle. Its quite small when you compare it to castles in England, but it is definitely my favourite. It was very cozy inside, with small rooms, each having a purpose. The actual person who lived there was named Vlad Tepes, who was a pretty gruesome guy. He would chop people's heads off and put them on sticks, but his people loved him. Dracula was loosely based off of him. There was also an extra part of the castle dedicated to medieval forms of torture. I could barely stand to read some of the descriptions. A lot of the tortures where mainly created to use against witches or homosexuals. It was sick!! Only a few of the tortures are still in use today, and those would be in the less civilized parts of the world. Bran castle itself is in quite a romantic setting and very picturesque.
The second stop was Rasnov fortress. Also a fairly small fortress but on top of a large hill surrounded by forests and other hills. It is still in great condition, and now instead of houses, it hosts little souvenir shops. From the distance looking onto the fortress, 'Rasnov' is written in front of it just like the Hollywood sign! Brasov town had this as well. Not sure who did It first, the states or Romania. Last but not least, we went to Peles palace. The owners of this residence have 17 other palaces around the world as well. It looks just like a palace out of a fairytale. With little fountains and plenty of statues. The walls were painted and It had plenty of turrets as well. Once inside there are over 27 different types of wood used to decorate. Each room represents a style from a different country. He also has one of the largest weapon collections in europe, plenty of the weapons just hung up on the walls. It had hidden staircases and doors in the book shelves in the library. It is my favourite palace we have been to. It is quite remote and took us at least an hour to get to, but definitely worth it!
We headed back to the hostel, and ended up in that cafe again. The drinks are so delicious and cheap! I had two pina coladas, a large glass of rose, and matt had 3 pints of beer, all for less than €10. Such a cheap country! Romania is beautiful to travel through and has some amazing medieval architecture but a lot of it is very under delevoped, and there is garbage everywhere. Its all over the rivers, alongside the roads and in the forests. A lot of the houses looked like they had been destroyed and were now just housing squatters. Bulgaria seemed to be very similar as well. Although I felt safe travelling and did very much enjoy what we saw, I wouldn't recommend it to any single travellers or girls travelling without men. As tough as I like to say I am, if it weren't for Matt, I wouldn't have felt safe at times throughout Romania and Bulgaria.
Moving onto Bulgaria. We wanted to go to Varna and the black sandy beaches, but unfortunately time is no longer on our sides and it would have taken two night trains to get there, as eastern europe isn't up to date on the high speed train systems yet. So without much of a choice, we had to go to the capital Sofia. We hopped on a train from brasov to Bucharest which took about two hours, and then we had to wait until midnight before we could get our train from Bucharest to Sofia.
When we arrived at Bucharest station, we hopped off the train and the first thing we saw was a sign in massive letters saying to not use taxis to the right of the station as they aren't safe. Just pass the sign were at least 6 homeless people. It was dimly lit and by no means comforting for a foreigner. As we continued to walk, we were being watched by everyone, mainly men in the station. They looked at us as if we were walking bank accounts, and most of them looked pretty worse for wear. I will openly admit, I was scared. The friendliest looking place in the station was mcdonalds. We camped out here for 2 hours until it was time to board the train. Finally our train pulled up into the station. If I haven't painted a clear enough picture of the surroundings, let me describe the train for you. Please picture thomas the tank engine... then picture him 40 years later after having a meth addiction and being in an abusive relationship. This was our train. Once again, terrifying. There were no beds left, so we sat in the carriage for 13 hours, being asked multiple times for our passport and tickets, before finally arriving in Sofia. Safe to say, there Is no way in hell will we be returning the same route we came here.
Sofia is definitely the roughest city we have been to, and didn't leave a positive taste about Bulgaria. We are both sad that we couldn't make it to the coast, as we have realized that capitals dont fairly represent a country. Nine times out of ten, capitals tend to be dirty, over priced, pick pocket tourist traps. For example, if you went to italy, I would say go to venice instead of Rome. In england, go to Cornwall instead of London. In france, go to Lyon instead of Paris. In Spain go to Barcelona instead of Madrid. In Slovenia go to Lake Bled instead of Ljubljana. I think you get the point. With that being said, the Colluseum, Buckingham palace, Eiffel tower, retiro park and the bridges in Ljubljana are all must sees. Its just you have to take the good with the at times sketchy, dirty, bad. If you go to the capital of a country and hate it, dont let that be your only place in the country.
We will definitely be back in Bulgaria one day, just with plans of seeing the better, safer parts. Most of our time spent in Sofia was in the hostel due to us hiding from the police that may have been called. The story behind this one is as follows. We went to a restaurant recommended by the hostel. It was really cheap but inside looked really posh. We ordered our food, and mine came out first. I ended up completely finishing it (keeping in mind im the slowest eater) before Matts food even came out. We waited an hour from when we ordered our food, and no sign of his. So we politely asked for the bill, to which the reply was no, you need to wait. Unfortunately we didn't see the point in that. I offered to pay for the drinks, and my meal but refused to pay for a meal we never even recieved. Long story short, the manager came over and was shouting over me in bulgarian (not a pretty language to be shouted at in), refused to take our money and said to never come back. Suited us just fine as we didn't have any plans of returning.. as we walked towards the door, the waitress came back shouting at me saying we had to pay, I replied with "you have no right to speak to people the way you do, .." and kindly told her where she could go. At this point she threatened to call the cops. So we went into hiding in the hostel and enjoyed the safety and fun of scrabble, chess and figuring out how the hell to get out of this country! I would like to point out, that this story, matt and I find funny now, and by no means do I think its ok to swear at someone whilst at work. However, I would also never speak to someone, especially a customer, in the way they spoke to us. Bulgaria was definitely a funny one, and will look back at this country as the one we escaped from the cops. Next stop greece, for a safer, prettier side to europe!
4/23/2014
A Hot Bath with 100 Strangers
We arrived in budapest and found our hotel fairly quickly. Yes that's right, hotel! The posh lifestyle. We booked ourselves into a four star hotel in the hopes of no snoring or sharing, and having a great nights sleep. So for three fantastic nights, we slept comfortable, and had a sauna and jacuzzi at our disposal. It was fantastic! Since we got to our hotel around 5ish after a 6 hour train journey, we decided to unpack, relax and have a look at where to go for dinner. One of our friends from butlins had recommended one called Trofea Grill. For less then €18 its all you can eat & drink. So we 'dressed up'... I put on my one packed skirt and leopard peplum shirt, some black flats, and we headed out for our date. Budapest is easy enough to navigate and we found it within 10 minutes. It has quite a romantic vibe, but a little on the noisy side when it was busy. I ordered some rose wine, and was given a bottle, and Matt stuck to the beers. Loads of different salads, soups, fois grois, hot and cold starters, cheese, bread, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and they had plenty of different meat which they cooked to order. This place was fantastic! We loved it so much, we came back on Sunday night as well, Matts treat. Thanks bubs!
Saturday we decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour, after about 2 or 3 hours, we did the full circuit including both Buda and pest. It was all audio guide which for me can be a bit boring at times as it doesn't include an quirky people or funny stories. Just the facts, and lots of them! When it wasn't giving you the history, it would play classical music. It was a little bit boring, but Budapest itself is a really nice place.
We wandered around and went to the Coffee&Wine House, where we ordered ourselves two ice caramel lattes! Refreshing and super sweet! After we headed down the road to Arriba. With our bus tickets we got a free margarita, so it would have been rude not to go. I ordered a salad with loads of avocado and delicious dressing, washed down with my free mixed margarita. It was an awesome dinner.
We walked back to the hotel and treated ourselves to a spa night. I loved the sauna, but Matt enjoyed the Jacuzzi more. For the most of the night it was only us there, our private spa! We skyped Matts mom for a bit, finished off our books and off to bed. Matts been reading the first game of thrones, and I read a book by Mitch Albom called The Time keeper. Hes one of my favourite authors, and I finished the book in a day! I also read 'Are You there God? Its Me Chelsea' which is one of Chelsea Handlers autobiographies. Its fantastic, witty and at times innapropriate.
On Sunday I really wanted to find an easter market, and was told by a tourist information point and our hotel that Budapest doesn't do anything like that. A little disappointed, we decided to head to the baths. Budapest has over 120 natural spring, thermal healing baths. To me, it just like a massive spa! We went to one of the top 3, Szcheny. It was near the river and an old, little castle in the park. The bath as two big hottubs, and by big, I mean over 100 people, with healing waters. As well as a normal swimming pool in the middle. It has saunas, and plenty of different shape and styled pools serving different purposes. However, due to it being Sunday, it was packed!! When we left the bath, we realized that inside the mini castle was an easter fair!! So much for Budapest not doing them! It was fairly small but had plenty of stands with different food and drinks. There was music, some farm yard animals and even a stand selling weaponry and leather whips... something for everyone! I tried the strawberry wine, loved it.
We headed back to the hotel so we could skype my family. Had a good catch up, then headed off to Trofea again. Monday we had a late check out and headed back to the fair to try some different food and book our train tickets. We had a hungarian styled gyro and It was awesome! Full of flavor, huge and less than €5! We washed it down with some cider, which was a bit more like a sweet scrumpy.
Our train tickets were booked for €10 to take us to brasov, for a whopping 18 hours. We grabbed our bags, a subway and headed to the station. Our room had six beds, technically. But there is no way room for more than four people in these little boxes. It holds 3 beds per wall and its pretty much a day long sauna. No one else in our room speaks english and Its a constant battle to keep the window open for fresh air. After 14 hours of the window being closed, I could no longer handle it, so I opened the air and breathed in the glorious fresh romanian air! I pretty much sat next to the window for the next few hours until we got to Brasov! Next blog update will be about Draculas castle!
Saturday we decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour, after about 2 or 3 hours, we did the full circuit including both Buda and pest. It was all audio guide which for me can be a bit boring at times as it doesn't include an quirky people or funny stories. Just the facts, and lots of them! When it wasn't giving you the history, it would play classical music. It was a little bit boring, but Budapest itself is a really nice place.
We wandered around and went to the Coffee&Wine House, where we ordered ourselves two ice caramel lattes! Refreshing and super sweet! After we headed down the road to Arriba. With our bus tickets we got a free margarita, so it would have been rude not to go. I ordered a salad with loads of avocado and delicious dressing, washed down with my free mixed margarita. It was an awesome dinner.
We walked back to the hotel and treated ourselves to a spa night. I loved the sauna, but Matt enjoyed the Jacuzzi more. For the most of the night it was only us there, our private spa! We skyped Matts mom for a bit, finished off our books and off to bed. Matts been reading the first game of thrones, and I read a book by Mitch Albom called The Time keeper. Hes one of my favourite authors, and I finished the book in a day! I also read 'Are You there God? Its Me Chelsea' which is one of Chelsea Handlers autobiographies. Its fantastic, witty and at times innapropriate.
On Sunday I really wanted to find an easter market, and was told by a tourist information point and our hotel that Budapest doesn't do anything like that. A little disappointed, we decided to head to the baths. Budapest has over 120 natural spring, thermal healing baths. To me, it just like a massive spa! We went to one of the top 3, Szcheny. It was near the river and an old, little castle in the park. The bath as two big hottubs, and by big, I mean over 100 people, with healing waters. As well as a normal swimming pool in the middle. It has saunas, and plenty of different shape and styled pools serving different purposes. However, due to it being Sunday, it was packed!! When we left the bath, we realized that inside the mini castle was an easter fair!! So much for Budapest not doing them! It was fairly small but had plenty of stands with different food and drinks. There was music, some farm yard animals and even a stand selling weaponry and leather whips... something for everyone! I tried the strawberry wine, loved it.
We headed back to the hotel so we could skype my family. Had a good catch up, then headed off to Trofea again. Monday we had a late check out and headed back to the fair to try some different food and book our train tickets. We had a hungarian styled gyro and It was awesome! Full of flavor, huge and less than €5! We washed it down with some cider, which was a bit more like a sweet scrumpy.
Our train tickets were booked for €10 to take us to brasov, for a whopping 18 hours. We grabbed our bags, a subway and headed to the station. Our room had six beds, technically. But there is no way room for more than four people in these little boxes. It holds 3 beds per wall and its pretty much a day long sauna. No one else in our room speaks english and Its a constant battle to keep the window open for fresh air. After 14 hours of the window being closed, I could no longer handle it, so I opened the air and breathed in the glorious fresh romanian air! I pretty much sat next to the window for the next few hours until we got to Brasov! Next blog update will be about Draculas castle!
4/20/2014
The Museum of Broken Relationships
Just a quick one! We went from Ljubljana into Zagreb and only took about two hours on the train. The plan was two nights in the capital, then we would spend easter weekend rafting and camping alongside the river. Unfortunately matt is still feeling poorly, and would not be up for doing the trip. We were going to try to head down to split or Dubrovnik but it would be a 12 hour overnight train to get there, and without sleep, wouldn't be worth it for just a couple days. So we've decided to keep Croatia a short trip and maybe come back another time.
Whilst here we stayed at Mali Mrak Hostel, just on the outskirts. We chose this because of the outstanding reviews, but when we finally got here, we felt that it fell short, and was a dissapointment. Nevertheless we stayed two nights and actually happened to bump into someone we met in Slovenia the week before. The weather was really crappy. Very cold, and rainy.
We headed to the museum of broken relationships for a few hours and then went back to the hostel again. The museum had different items with a little story, from failed relationships all over the world. Some sad, some funny, and some moving. For example there were things like a football from a summer camp romance, or a peddle car from a 40 year marriage. A wireless internet adapter that read "we lost connection". It was a really cool museum and probably my favourite museum that we've been to. Its a shame we had to cut Croatia short, but it does however mean that we get to Stay in a 4 star hotel in Budapest for easter weekend.
Whilst here we stayed at Mali Mrak Hostel, just on the outskirts. We chose this because of the outstanding reviews, but when we finally got here, we felt that it fell short, and was a dissapointment. Nevertheless we stayed two nights and actually happened to bump into someone we met in Slovenia the week before. The weather was really crappy. Very cold, and rainy.
We headed to the museum of broken relationships for a few hours and then went back to the hostel again. The museum had different items with a little story, from failed relationships all over the world. Some sad, some funny, and some moving. For example there were things like a football from a summer camp romance, or a peddle car from a 40 year marriage. A wireless internet adapter that read "we lost connection". It was a really cool museum and probably my favourite museum that we've been to. Its a shame we had to cut Croatia short, but it does however mean that we get to Stay in a 4 star hotel in Budapest for easter weekend.
A Pretty Little Lake & a Country with 'Love'
Well I am not sure about you, but I knew nothing about Slovenia before I came here. I don't think I ever even looked at a picture of it, in fact I wouldn't have been able to point it out to you on a map. It is a beautiful hidden gem of europe and without a doubt, probably the prettiest country so far.
We opted for a 4 night stay next to a lake in a hostel called Castle Hostel 1004. This is by far one of the better hostels we've stayed in. As soon as we arrived, Miha (the owner) said we could have an extra night free because we booked 4. Bonus. It cost us €10 per person per night. I will help you with the math. This means we paid €40 each for five nights in a beautiful hostel, with the amazing kitchen facilities and a view of the lake. This was a great start! Unfortunately, both Matt and myself were at a point of exhaustion. The 70 or so days of constant bed swapping, planes, trains, automobiles, castles, churches, endless paintings and tours had worn us down. These 5 days were filled with pure relaxation and an opportunity to recharge our batteries. With that being said, we didn't do a whole lot of anything really! We wandered around the 6km path of the lake, fed some ducks, hiked up to the forest and enjoyed the tranquility. We made home cooked meals every night, including steak, mash, chicken, veggies, pasta.. all the good stuff, and it was delicious!
The hostel only has 8 rooms, the biggest being an 8 share I believe, but also had a double, we slept in a four share. So it was a cosy little hostel with a great living room, easy to meet people. Oh, I forgot to mention it had a PlayStation 4, so as you can imagine, matt was thrilled with that. We first shared with a very friendly irish couple, but after they checked out, the worst was to come. Around 10pm at night, two 40-something year old men showed up. They were weird. At night, I have literally never heard snoring so bad in my life. I had ear plugs in, and he woke me up through that. I tried the classic single clap really loud to wake him... nothing. With my patience wearing thin at 2am already not feeling well, I reached over to my locker, unlocked it, and slammed the door as loud as I could... nothing. So I turned the light on, got up, went to the toilet, came in and slammed the door, and still nothing! This wildebeest needs to be checked. Not only was the snoring annoying, but both of them had some sort of sleep walking issue. Around 4am, when I was still clearly wide awake, one of them got up, was mumbling away to himself and proceeded to stretch himself over the side of his bed, crawled onto the floor and lied down with his head, underneath my bed! Oh and I forgot to mention, his pajama choice was y-fronts, aka little boys underwear and a ripped shirt, showing off his capital D, pregnant, hairy belly. So that was really cute. We had planned on leaving the hostel 2 nights early, but found out they were only staying one more night, so we just dealt with it.
Having met other people in the hostel, we played a game called cards against humanity. If you have no shame in all levels of inappropriateness and a great sense of humor, this is the game for you. Basically there is a black card that asks a question like "what would be the next storyline to a disney movie?" And then you have 7 cards to choose the funniest answer. It gets really innapropriate, really fast, but it is hilarious! We also played the game spoons and quite a few rounds of chess. Great hostel atmosphere.
On one of the last days, I decided to go horse riding. Matt isn't a fan of horses, but its been on my bucketlist to go horseriding in europe, so I couldn't miss this opportunity. I paid €45 for 2 hours of pretty much a private tour through rivers, around lakes, alongside the mountains and through the forest. It was breathtaking. My horse was 6 years old named Venetu and she was beautiful. We also stopped along the forest, to meet two little bears that had been rescued when they were just cubs. They were found without a mother, so were taken and protected and fed by a family that was friends with the ranch owner. We had a shot of home made blueberry wine with schnapps and hopped back on the horse. It was such an amazing day and definitely my favourite part of the trip so far.
We left lake bled, and headed to the capital, Ljubljana for two nights. We stayed in Tresor hostel, which is a converted bank, in the middle of the town center. It looks quite funky and we slept in a 10 share, but each bunk is divided into little cells with curtains. As far as privacy and comfort, it was spot on. However, that is it for anything good about this place. The showers were bad, having to turn them on again every 15 seconds, the staff were appalling and there were no plugs near the bed so everything that needed to be charged, had to be left out in the open. Due to its location and funky idea of being an old bank, the hostel clearly felt that it didn't need to put in any extra effort or be helpful in anyway. Its a shame because it has the potential to be such a great place. The only reason we went to the capital was for easier access to the Skojcan Caves.
These are a UNESCO world heritage site, so we took the bus 2 hours to see them. After arriving in the middle of nowhere, we took a 3km hike down the highway to find them. We then did about 5 hours worth of caves and hiking up and down and It was well worth it!! The caves were amazing. Its unbelievable that it is all natural, other then the bridges to walk through it. We got to see waterfalls and where the river runs through it. A truly spectacular day. Worth the crap hostel and extra money.
We didn't spend loads of time in Ljubljana, but what we did spend was really nice. Its quite small, and very clean. A river runs right through the center with plenty of pretty bridges to walk across. We went to a local slovenian restaurant recommended by the hostel and recieved a free Drink upon arrival. It was their homemade wine. It tasted similar to a cinnamon, christmas mulled wine and it was heavenly. I wanted a bottle, but they didn't sell it unfortunately! We both had Ljubljana styled steak with fried potatoes. The steak was wrapped in ham with eggs and cheese and then deepfriend! How Slovenians eat that and stay skinny is beyond me! I finished about half of it before being defeated. It was our first time In awhile actually sitting down in a restaurant for dinner, and it was a lovely date. Overall Ljubljana is a great little city.
You can't spell Slovenia without love and that is exactly how we feel about this beautiful little country.
We opted for a 4 night stay next to a lake in a hostel called Castle Hostel 1004. This is by far one of the better hostels we've stayed in. As soon as we arrived, Miha (the owner) said we could have an extra night free because we booked 4. Bonus. It cost us €10 per person per night. I will help you with the math. This means we paid €40 each for five nights in a beautiful hostel, with the amazing kitchen facilities and a view of the lake. This was a great start! Unfortunately, both Matt and myself were at a point of exhaustion. The 70 or so days of constant bed swapping, planes, trains, automobiles, castles, churches, endless paintings and tours had worn us down. These 5 days were filled with pure relaxation and an opportunity to recharge our batteries. With that being said, we didn't do a whole lot of anything really! We wandered around the 6km path of the lake, fed some ducks, hiked up to the forest and enjoyed the tranquility. We made home cooked meals every night, including steak, mash, chicken, veggies, pasta.. all the good stuff, and it was delicious!
The hostel only has 8 rooms, the biggest being an 8 share I believe, but also had a double, we slept in a four share. So it was a cosy little hostel with a great living room, easy to meet people. Oh, I forgot to mention it had a PlayStation 4, so as you can imagine, matt was thrilled with that. We first shared with a very friendly irish couple, but after they checked out, the worst was to come. Around 10pm at night, two 40-something year old men showed up. They were weird. At night, I have literally never heard snoring so bad in my life. I had ear plugs in, and he woke me up through that. I tried the classic single clap really loud to wake him... nothing. With my patience wearing thin at 2am already not feeling well, I reached over to my locker, unlocked it, and slammed the door as loud as I could... nothing. So I turned the light on, got up, went to the toilet, came in and slammed the door, and still nothing! This wildebeest needs to be checked. Not only was the snoring annoying, but both of them had some sort of sleep walking issue. Around 4am, when I was still clearly wide awake, one of them got up, was mumbling away to himself and proceeded to stretch himself over the side of his bed, crawled onto the floor and lied down with his head, underneath my bed! Oh and I forgot to mention, his pajama choice was y-fronts, aka little boys underwear and a ripped shirt, showing off his capital D, pregnant, hairy belly. So that was really cute. We had planned on leaving the hostel 2 nights early, but found out they were only staying one more night, so we just dealt with it.
Having met other people in the hostel, we played a game called cards against humanity. If you have no shame in all levels of inappropriateness and a great sense of humor, this is the game for you. Basically there is a black card that asks a question like "what would be the next storyline to a disney movie?" And then you have 7 cards to choose the funniest answer. It gets really innapropriate, really fast, but it is hilarious! We also played the game spoons and quite a few rounds of chess. Great hostel atmosphere.
On one of the last days, I decided to go horse riding. Matt isn't a fan of horses, but its been on my bucketlist to go horseriding in europe, so I couldn't miss this opportunity. I paid €45 for 2 hours of pretty much a private tour through rivers, around lakes, alongside the mountains and through the forest. It was breathtaking. My horse was 6 years old named Venetu and she was beautiful. We also stopped along the forest, to meet two little bears that had been rescued when they were just cubs. They were found without a mother, so were taken and protected and fed by a family that was friends with the ranch owner. We had a shot of home made blueberry wine with schnapps and hopped back on the horse. It was such an amazing day and definitely my favourite part of the trip so far.
We left lake bled, and headed to the capital, Ljubljana for two nights. We stayed in Tresor hostel, which is a converted bank, in the middle of the town center. It looks quite funky and we slept in a 10 share, but each bunk is divided into little cells with curtains. As far as privacy and comfort, it was spot on. However, that is it for anything good about this place. The showers were bad, having to turn them on again every 15 seconds, the staff were appalling and there were no plugs near the bed so everything that needed to be charged, had to be left out in the open. Due to its location and funky idea of being an old bank, the hostel clearly felt that it didn't need to put in any extra effort or be helpful in anyway. Its a shame because it has the potential to be such a great place. The only reason we went to the capital was for easier access to the Skojcan Caves.
These are a UNESCO world heritage site, so we took the bus 2 hours to see them. After arriving in the middle of nowhere, we took a 3km hike down the highway to find them. We then did about 5 hours worth of caves and hiking up and down and It was well worth it!! The caves were amazing. Its unbelievable that it is all natural, other then the bridges to walk through it. We got to see waterfalls and where the river runs through it. A truly spectacular day. Worth the crap hostel and extra money.
We didn't spend loads of time in Ljubljana, but what we did spend was really nice. Its quite small, and very clean. A river runs right through the center with plenty of pretty bridges to walk across. We went to a local slovenian restaurant recommended by the hostel and recieved a free Drink upon arrival. It was their homemade wine. It tasted similar to a cinnamon, christmas mulled wine and it was heavenly. I wanted a bottle, but they didn't sell it unfortunately! We both had Ljubljana styled steak with fried potatoes. The steak was wrapped in ham with eggs and cheese and then deepfriend! How Slovenians eat that and stay skinny is beyond me! I finished about half of it before being defeated. It was our first time In awhile actually sitting down in a restaurant for dinner, and it was a lovely date. Overall Ljubljana is a great little city.
You can't spell Slovenia without love and that is exactly how we feel about this beautiful little country.
4/16/2014
Overnight Train & the Sound of Music
We took our first over night train experience. Ben feasey, this would be your dream hotel. At 10pm we got on the train at Krakow to a tiny little room with bunk beds. They were rock hard and the pillow you wouldn't even have made your dog sleep on. At 630 am we arrived in vienna with little to none sleep because our room was basically a sauna. We headed straight to Wombats City Hostel, and luckily because no one stayed in our room the night before, we could check in right away. We went and got showered then walked down to the tiergarten. This is the worlds oldest zoo, and Its located on the palace grounds of vienna. It was really big, very clean and plenty of animals. We were there before it even opened, so when we got inside, there was barely anyone there yet. We were able to sit down next to the orangutan enclosure for a while with no interruptions and all of them just sat on the other side facing us. It was a really cool interaction. Matt and I for some reason seem to go into every zoo we pass, so it only seemed fair to go to the worlds oldest, and it was probably one of the best we've been to.
As the budgets a bit tight, I made pasta for dinner with some veggies in the hostel kitchen, it was delicious if I do say so myself. We managed to skype both of my parents as well which was nice. Matt hasn't been feeling very well the past few days, so in the morning we ended up just going straight to Salzburg. We had planned on stopping over in Linz to go to the Ars Electronica Center, basically a hi tech museum. It was only about a 5 hour train from Vienna to Salzburg.
We checked in at the Yoho International Youth hostel and with matt not feeling very well, stayed in for the rest of the night. I did some laundry and watched the sound of music. I have been collecting post cards from everywhere and have got myself up to 15 of them that I haven't actually posted yet, so I did that in the hostel. The next morning we did what we had come to Austria for. The sound of music segway tour. It was two hours long and we saw the house from the movie, which is now part of the university; the square with the horse fountain; the convent & the gazebo that the oldest daughter sang '16 going on 17' in. We also saw the smallest house in Austria and Mozarts birthplace. The tour was supposed to be based on the sound of music but the tour guide had only seen the film once and knew less about it than me so I was really disappointed, however it was still a fun morning and we did get to see some of the places. Austria is a bit more on the expensive side, however it is beautiful and it would have been nice to have a bit more time here. Now we are off to Lake Bled in Slovenia.
As the budgets a bit tight, I made pasta for dinner with some veggies in the hostel kitchen, it was delicious if I do say so myself. We managed to skype both of my parents as well which was nice. Matt hasn't been feeling very well the past few days, so in the morning we ended up just going straight to Salzburg. We had planned on stopping over in Linz to go to the Ars Electronica Center, basically a hi tech museum. It was only about a 5 hour train from Vienna to Salzburg.
We checked in at the Yoho International Youth hostel and with matt not feeling very well, stayed in for the rest of the night. I did some laundry and watched the sound of music. I have been collecting post cards from everywhere and have got myself up to 15 of them that I haven't actually posted yet, so I did that in the hostel. The next morning we did what we had come to Austria for. The sound of music segway tour. It was two hours long and we saw the house from the movie, which is now part of the university; the square with the horse fountain; the convent & the gazebo that the oldest daughter sang '16 going on 17' in. We also saw the smallest house in Austria and Mozarts birthplace. The tour was supposed to be based on the sound of music but the tour guide had only seen the film once and knew less about it than me so I was really disappointed, however it was still a fun morning and we did get to see some of the places. Austria is a bit more on the expensive side, however it is beautiful and it would have been nice to have a bit more time here. Now we are off to Lake Bled in Slovenia.
4/09/2014
Krakow & the Darkest Room I've Ever Seen
We took the train from Prague into Krakow, even though Poland is not included in our rail passes. The ticket only cost us €16, so cheap! To get from Bognor Regis into London (hour and a half trip) costs £15, so a cross country trip like that was a bargain! We booked 3 nights at Goodbye Lenin hostel. It should have been an 8 share for all 3 nights, instead we were put in a 6 share for two nights and a 4 share for the last, bonus. We grabbed a polish dish which was basically a massive piece of bed with a base of mushrooms and cheese, then on top you can put whatever you like. Mine had pickles, ham and salsa. The description translation however, described it more like a pizza. So it was a surprise when it came out, however, still very nice.
On our first day we took a free tour (if you haven't noticed yet, we love a good free tour). It met in the main town square and took as all over the city showing us the old fortress surrounding krakow (whats left of it); the popes window; the university; the castle on wawel hill; the dragons den and much more. It was a huge tour full of lots of history. One of the interesting things was the trumpet player in the main square. Every hour on the hour a trumpet plays for the highest towers four different windows. He plays the same song, but it stops abruptly every time. The myth is that years ago when the city was about to be invaded, the trumpeter at the time played this to warn everyone, but the invaders were known for their archery skills And they shot him in the neck so he would stop. This was 600 years ago and they still play, every hour, every day.
Later this day, we went of a food tour. The guide was free (tip if you want to sort of thing) and the food was cheap. We went all over krakow to loads of different restaurants, markets and shops to try various types of food. Everything was made in a typical polish way and majority of things were delicious. Some of the things we tried were cheese; bread; wawel chocolate; perogie; gerkins; sauerkraut; sausage; soup; stews; apple fritters & ice cream. That was only some of it and the whole tour was less than 30 zloty (€7). Our tour guide was a polish hipster with a massive mustache and the funniest laugh. The food tour was fantastically surprising and well worth the 3 hours.
Our last day, we went to a gun range. It cost €60 and a very large polish man in a hut showed us all of his guns. We shot an M4, MP5, AK47, glock 17, magnum and pump action shotgun. I did a lot better than I thought I would and Matt only hit the target 8 more times than me. So I was pretty proud. It's basically a bachelor weekend sort of activity but we both really enjoyed it, and if you do go to krakow, give it a shot (no pun intended).
So that was all of the fun stuff we did in Poland. While we were here, we booked a trip to Auschwitz. It's very difficult to describe this place. It is cold, dark, and at the time, would have been hell on earth. I will tell you what I saw, but to feel it is a whole different experience. Its life changing. When you get to the entrance, the gate reads 'arbeit macht frei'. Most concentration gates had this sayig somewhere in the camp. This basically means 'work will set you free'. When people were arriving at the camp, the SS guards would point to the chimney and tell them that was their exit. Work was not going to set anyone free, death was.
We continued into the camp and went into old barracks which are basically little museums now. Most of what would have been brought to the camps would have been destroyed but what is left, is in these barracks. One barrack that was particularly difficult had lots of personal items. One of the rooms had seven and a half tonnes of human hair. On average, one person has 30-40grams of hair. This room had seven tonnes. Let that sink in for a minute. This hair would have come from the women that were put in the gas chambers almost immediately after arrivin in Auschwitz. They would have been told they were going for a regular shower and afterwards would recieve a hot meal and their uniform. Inside the gas chamber the chemicals would take no longer than 30 minutes to kill everyone in the room. They would then been taken out, shaved, any gold in Their teeth would be removed, and they woukd be put in the ovens. The hair was used for creating blankets and mattresses. The nazis would sell these to companies to make more money. Everything about this place was disturbing.
In this same building there was 70, 000 pairs of shoes. All different styles, easy to see that it didn't matter what class you were to Hitler, he wanted every jewish person dead. There was also pots & pans; shoe polish; clothes; kids toys; glasses and hair brushes. These people were just innocent human beings trying to live their own lives. Mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends... all murdered.
We continued on into the basement which used to be a prison, which described three inhumane tortures, as well as being the first place that gas was used to murder 600 jews. We also went into the only gas chamber left, the smallest of the 6 that used to stand in Auschwitz. We walked through it, just as they would have. Into the undressing room and then Into the coldest, darkest room i've ever seen in my life. Words cannot describe the feeling when you are stood in this room. Knowing that mothers would have been stood here with their babies with a glimmer of hope that it would be a shower, and after they would be able to see their husbands again. Yet their lives would be taken from them for no other reason than the religion they practiced. Its the most heartbreaking thing, and the worst part is, its still happening in the world today. At some point the world needs to look back and understand history because right now, it just keeps repeating itself. None of the camps were easy to walk through. Its not a museum or just another day trip, it was a life changing experience.
On our first day we took a free tour (if you haven't noticed yet, we love a good free tour). It met in the main town square and took as all over the city showing us the old fortress surrounding krakow (whats left of it); the popes window; the university; the castle on wawel hill; the dragons den and much more. It was a huge tour full of lots of history. One of the interesting things was the trumpet player in the main square. Every hour on the hour a trumpet plays for the highest towers four different windows. He plays the same song, but it stops abruptly every time. The myth is that years ago when the city was about to be invaded, the trumpeter at the time played this to warn everyone, but the invaders were known for their archery skills And they shot him in the neck so he would stop. This was 600 years ago and they still play, every hour, every day.
Later this day, we went of a food tour. The guide was free (tip if you want to sort of thing) and the food was cheap. We went all over krakow to loads of different restaurants, markets and shops to try various types of food. Everything was made in a typical polish way and majority of things were delicious. Some of the things we tried were cheese; bread; wawel chocolate; perogie; gerkins; sauerkraut; sausage; soup; stews; apple fritters & ice cream. That was only some of it and the whole tour was less than 30 zloty (€7). Our tour guide was a polish hipster with a massive mustache and the funniest laugh. The food tour was fantastically surprising and well worth the 3 hours.
Our last day, we went to a gun range. It cost €60 and a very large polish man in a hut showed us all of his guns. We shot an M4, MP5, AK47, glock 17, magnum and pump action shotgun. I did a lot better than I thought I would and Matt only hit the target 8 more times than me. So I was pretty proud. It's basically a bachelor weekend sort of activity but we both really enjoyed it, and if you do go to krakow, give it a shot (no pun intended).
So that was all of the fun stuff we did in Poland. While we were here, we booked a trip to Auschwitz. It's very difficult to describe this place. It is cold, dark, and at the time, would have been hell on earth. I will tell you what I saw, but to feel it is a whole different experience. Its life changing. When you get to the entrance, the gate reads 'arbeit macht frei'. Most concentration gates had this sayig somewhere in the camp. This basically means 'work will set you free'. When people were arriving at the camp, the SS guards would point to the chimney and tell them that was their exit. Work was not going to set anyone free, death was.
We continued into the camp and went into old barracks which are basically little museums now. Most of what would have been brought to the camps would have been destroyed but what is left, is in these barracks. One barrack that was particularly difficult had lots of personal items. One of the rooms had seven and a half tonnes of human hair. On average, one person has 30-40grams of hair. This room had seven tonnes. Let that sink in for a minute. This hair would have come from the women that were put in the gas chambers almost immediately after arrivin in Auschwitz. They would have been told they were going for a regular shower and afterwards would recieve a hot meal and their uniform. Inside the gas chamber the chemicals would take no longer than 30 minutes to kill everyone in the room. They would then been taken out, shaved, any gold in Their teeth would be removed, and they woukd be put in the ovens. The hair was used for creating blankets and mattresses. The nazis would sell these to companies to make more money. Everything about this place was disturbing.
In this same building there was 70, 000 pairs of shoes. All different styles, easy to see that it didn't matter what class you were to Hitler, he wanted every jewish person dead. There was also pots & pans; shoe polish; clothes; kids toys; glasses and hair brushes. These people were just innocent human beings trying to live their own lives. Mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends... all murdered.
We continued on into the basement which used to be a prison, which described three inhumane tortures, as well as being the first place that gas was used to murder 600 jews. We also went into the only gas chamber left, the smallest of the 6 that used to stand in Auschwitz. We walked through it, just as they would have. Into the undressing room and then Into the coldest, darkest room i've ever seen in my life. Words cannot describe the feeling when you are stood in this room. Knowing that mothers would have been stood here with their babies with a glimmer of hope that it would be a shower, and after they would be able to see their husbands again. Yet their lives would be taken from them for no other reason than the religion they practiced. Its the most heartbreaking thing, and the worst part is, its still happening in the world today. At some point the world needs to look back and understand history because right now, it just keeps repeating itself. None of the camps were easy to walk through. Its not a museum or just another day trip, it was a life changing experience.
Beers & Bones
In prague we decided to stay at a hostel called madhouse. By the name alone, you can imagine which type of hostel this was. I booked this one because I thought it would be fun for us to stay at one that had some good pub crawls and a party style. This was the extreme version of that though. Id like to make a point of saying that I am 20 and matt is 24. We have been travelling for close to 9 weeks and have only been really drunk once, and that was in Tenerife. Most people our age, I would think, would want to do this trip to see what partying in europe is all about. We have instead, seen europe in a different light... for example, daylight. At first I felt that maybe we were being boring, but the more I thought about it, you can get drunk anywhere in the world and with enough shots of tequila in your system your backyard wainfleet party next day hangover will be near enough the same as the hangover you'd get from a bar in prague. So with that being said, the madhouse was too intense for our liking. When we checked in, the receptionist was half buzzed from pre drinks and insisted we go to the bar with him. When we got there, the rest of the staffs idea of a good night was getting 10 shots of jager in before your first beer. How about I dont do that, and save myself the hangover and morning sickness. Cheers.
Prague, in the daylight, is a truly beautiful city. We took the sandemans free tour and learned a lot about the history and various things within prague.Our tour guide explained in detail how to read the astronomical clock and spoke to us about the large list of names on the bottom circle of the tower. Everyone in prague has to name their child one of these names, and if they don't want to, they need to ask the council if they can choose a different name and explain why that name is better. This clock is 600 years old, so you can imagine it isn't the greatest list.
We went down the road to a theatre where Mozart once played and recieved a 30 minute standing ovation. Can you believe that.. 30 minutes of non stop clapping! They loved him in Prague. We also went to another theatre that used to have 6 statues on top of it. Now it only has 5. Hitler used to love this theatre, it had his favourite musician, amongst 6 statues, including mozart and Beethoven. However, one of the statues was a jewish musician. Of course we know hitler wasn't the biggest fan, so he ordered some of his SS men to go ontop of this building and remove the jewish statue. They didn't know which one was the jewish one though. Hitler told them to get a ruler, and measure all of their noses. The one with the longest nose 'must have been jewish'. This is one of the most ridiculous things, even for hitler. They destroyed the statue with the biggest nose, only to find out later, that it was infact hitlers favourite musician, and wasn't jewish at all. Wow. I barely believed it when she said it, but it is a true story.
The tour was full of great stories, legends and lots of history. I would recommend this one for sure! Our tour guide told us that in 2 nights time, there was the first fire party of the year. This is basically just a party in the park, very artsy and free spirited. The style of the night was dreads and bohemian. Anyone was welcome, and in the center of the park there was about 20 people with drums, banging away and lots of people with various forms of moving fire. Some juggled, a couple hula hoops and a few things with chains. It was really cool. We didnt realize it at the time, but our tour guide recommended it, because she does it!! She had two different chains with little fireballs at the end, and she was very good. It was a very non touristy way to see prague.
The same day as our free tour, we booked and paid €15 for the beer tour. This was not a pub crawl, it was a beer tour, very different. Pub crawls, you get wasted over the span of 5 different bars... beer tours, you learn about the history and different types of beers, as well as food. We went to 4 different establishments, trying very different beers in each of them, as well as typical czech cuisine. Delicious. I dont actually like beer, so to me it all tasted bad, just different forms of bad. Matt however enjoyed each sip and of course got a 2for1 cause I didnt finish mine. One of the pubs had only one person who was allowed to pour the beer because it is poured in three different styles. The beer tour was well worth, learning about where it came from, ways to drink it, the local cuisine and last but not least, where would be better to take a beer tour than the beer drinking capital of the world.
Our last night we stayed in Florenc 41 hostel which was way older and not hostel atmosphere whatsoever. It was a great, quiet break. We took the train to a place called Kutna Hora. In this town there is a church which holds the bones of 40, 000 people. This happened because their cemetary became full, they had no where else to put the bodies, so they had to dig up the old ones and hold them in the basement until they could do something. Instead of burning them of finding a new plot of land to put them in, they decided to decorate the church. When you walk around the four corners hold majority of the bones, stacked ceiling high. The family that owned the church had their coat of arms or family crest, made out of bones and mounted on the wall. It is a little bit eery in there but if bones don't bother you, then its worth the look. This pretty much sums up prague for us. We enjoyed Czech Republic and its very easy to see why so many bachelor and bachelorette parties come here. Cheap beer, cheap bed, happy days. Next stop is Poland.
Prague, in the daylight, is a truly beautiful city. We took the sandemans free tour and learned a lot about the history and various things within prague.Our tour guide explained in detail how to read the astronomical clock and spoke to us about the large list of names on the bottom circle of the tower. Everyone in prague has to name their child one of these names, and if they don't want to, they need to ask the council if they can choose a different name and explain why that name is better. This clock is 600 years old, so you can imagine it isn't the greatest list.
We went down the road to a theatre where Mozart once played and recieved a 30 minute standing ovation. Can you believe that.. 30 minutes of non stop clapping! They loved him in Prague. We also went to another theatre that used to have 6 statues on top of it. Now it only has 5. Hitler used to love this theatre, it had his favourite musician, amongst 6 statues, including mozart and Beethoven. However, one of the statues was a jewish musician. Of course we know hitler wasn't the biggest fan, so he ordered some of his SS men to go ontop of this building and remove the jewish statue. They didn't know which one was the jewish one though. Hitler told them to get a ruler, and measure all of their noses. The one with the longest nose 'must have been jewish'. This is one of the most ridiculous things, even for hitler. They destroyed the statue with the biggest nose, only to find out later, that it was infact hitlers favourite musician, and wasn't jewish at all. Wow. I barely believed it when she said it, but it is a true story.
The tour was full of great stories, legends and lots of history. I would recommend this one for sure! Our tour guide told us that in 2 nights time, there was the first fire party of the year. This is basically just a party in the park, very artsy and free spirited. The style of the night was dreads and bohemian. Anyone was welcome, and in the center of the park there was about 20 people with drums, banging away and lots of people with various forms of moving fire. Some juggled, a couple hula hoops and a few things with chains. It was really cool. We didnt realize it at the time, but our tour guide recommended it, because she does it!! She had two different chains with little fireballs at the end, and she was very good. It was a very non touristy way to see prague.
The same day as our free tour, we booked and paid €15 for the beer tour. This was not a pub crawl, it was a beer tour, very different. Pub crawls, you get wasted over the span of 5 different bars... beer tours, you learn about the history and different types of beers, as well as food. We went to 4 different establishments, trying very different beers in each of them, as well as typical czech cuisine. Delicious. I dont actually like beer, so to me it all tasted bad, just different forms of bad. Matt however enjoyed each sip and of course got a 2for1 cause I didnt finish mine. One of the pubs had only one person who was allowed to pour the beer because it is poured in three different styles. The beer tour was well worth, learning about where it came from, ways to drink it, the local cuisine and last but not least, where would be better to take a beer tour than the beer drinking capital of the world.
Our last night we stayed in Florenc 41 hostel which was way older and not hostel atmosphere whatsoever. It was a great, quiet break. We took the train to a place called Kutna Hora. In this town there is a church which holds the bones of 40, 000 people. This happened because their cemetary became full, they had no where else to put the bodies, so they had to dig up the old ones and hold them in the basement until they could do something. Instead of burning them of finding a new plot of land to put them in, they decided to decorate the church. When you walk around the four corners hold majority of the bones, stacked ceiling high. The family that owned the church had their coat of arms or family crest, made out of bones and mounted on the wall. It is a little bit eery in there but if bones don't bother you, then its worth the look. This pretty much sums up prague for us. We enjoyed Czech Republic and its very easy to see why so many bachelor and bachelorette parties come here. Cheap beer, cheap bed, happy days. Next stop is Poland.
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