Day 61 Sun. June 21 (continued…)
Okay, so I left for the train station, got there, grabbed my pack and went to the platform for Budapest, and the train just arrived so I jumped on and got a good seat. I caught the 3:50pm train, I slept most of the way there and we arrived in Budapest at 6:49pm, I walked through the train station and stopped at a bank machine, well this is confusing, the options for money was like starting at 1000 I think, and I forgot to look up the exchange with the Euro so I had no idea what I was taking out. I got some $ and then made my way to the metro, bought a ticket and I overheard a couple of girls going to the same stop as me so we travelled together. I got to my stop Astoria, I read the directions and of course once again not completely clear (sorry to say but some of these hostels need to take the route and write it down more accurately for their sites….u other travellers know what I mean…..there is always something listed that isn’t really there or, not in this case but the hostel is not actually five minutes away…..anyways). I decided to ask one of the security guard/ information people and they had no clue, funny that they can’t even find where I am going and they live there. So, I called and the hostel directed me and stupid enough it was up one of the entrances and right behind me, so I walked over in the pouring rain and got in. The staff were very friendly and were happy that I made it in earlier then I had anticipated. I got my room, was a co-ed room, 4 bunk beds and a full bath, it is small hostel but nice, there was a common room right outside my door, a self-catering kitchen and small balcony just off the kitchen.
I made my bed, and then grabbed my puter and went out into the common area, I looked through a few of the pamphlets to find some things to do in Budapest and then sat down to work on my blog. I ended up meeting Emily and Chris, from Tasmania, Australia…”Hi guys!”…
they were doing a Europe tour as well, and they were travelling for 6mths. We got chatting away and they were also doing a blog so we compared notes on the sites we were using, etc and how it was going. (they too were behind….lol, it is a lot of work but don’t get me wrong I enjoy it very much). They were heading to Vienna and Prague after Budapest so I gave them some maps and pamphlets, glad that I do keep some of them, as they have come in handy more then once to give to fellow travellers. I told them about the hostels I stayed in and a bit about my experiences in each country. A funny thing while we were in the common area the reception guy came out to watch his favourite show ‘Two and a half Men’, it was funny because it was dubbed in Hungary….lol. He heard be talking about Croatia and suggested a few options to me and particular places to go, nice to know. I checked some emails and I got one from my friend Thomas in Hungary and planning to go see him while I am here, good stuff. I also met a couple of guys from Glasgow and talked a little about the places I went to and hung out in Glasgow, and with them were a couple of girls from the Netherlands, cool group. I continued along doing some other researching on my puter and I also met Carlos from Mexico, he is travelling with some friends on his way to go study in Spain. “Hi Carlos”,
(I have to say he is very photogenic)
we chatted about some of the walking tours that we have been on in some of the countries and there were a couple that were the same. I also quickly met another Carlos from Venezuela, and he lives in Pisa, Tuscany-Italy, very interesting guy. He was travelling just to get away from his family that were visiting in Italy…lol. And finally I made my way to my room and crashed for the night, hoping for no rain tomorrow.
Day 62 Mon. June 22
Awoke to another rainy day unfortunately. It was very quiet in the hostel as well, breakfast was suppose to be ready and I thought for sure people would be up already, but I walked out and there was one person on the computer and no brkfast available yet. I chilled in my room for a few minutes until I heard some steering around in the common area, haha, the staff were woken up by one of the guest and came out in his p.j’s and put out the food …. guess what we were having……ur right, toast, jam, cereal, and coffee, but no juice. I decided on a big bowl of cereal and sat down to eat and “yuck” part way through I discovered a bug in my cereal, so gross, so that finished that, got some toast and then back to my room to clean up. I chatted with Chris and Emily to see what they were doing for the day and mentioned the free walking tour and if they were interested in going. There was one at 10:30 and at 2pm, so we decided to go together for the 2pm tour. We made our way down to the metro, bundled in our rain jackets and jumped on to head down to find the location of the walking tour first. We got to the spot and then started to make our way along the river Danube and go across the chain bridge to see the Palace on the other side of which is now a museum.
That is the Palace and it is on the Buda side. Ok, need to explain, Budapest is divided by the river and one side is called “Buda” and the other is “Pest”, pretty neat.
These are on the way to the Palace, the first is the tunnel under the Buda hills
Danube River
It is the second longest European river, it rises in Germany and flows to the Black Sea, passing along or through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova. (just a tib bit of information)
This statue “The Little Princess” was just along the river bank and there is more then one of them throughout Hungary….I also saw one when I was in Balaton Lake
It was a bit of a trek to get up to the Palace but we made our way and walked around taking some nice pics of the scenery from up there.
This is the Parliament Building
So we walked all around the outside of the castle and then we came to a spot where we were directed by a guy to go around another way, that we couldn’t enter this one walkway, although there seemed to be a lot of people over there. So we followed his directions to go around, which brought us to the other side of where we just were and to our surprise there was lots of film cameras and some people dressed with bloody shirts and suits. We discovered after asking one of the gentlemen dressed in a black suit what was going on that they were filming a Korean T.V drama show. called “Iris”. The guy we spoke to was one of the stuntmen, and while we stood there for awhile and watched we got a few pics of the stunt. Was pretty cool.
We then made our way back down to cross back over the bridge and find something to eat. And we ended up finding a great little spot and I had a good old fashion ham and cheese omelette, was delicious. Finally we went and met up with the walking tour. Our tour guide was Hungarian, and she had lots of information about the Hungarian history.
Here she is
A few things, not about the history but about Hungary itself is there are 44 letters in the Hungarian alphabet and it is the 3rd hardest language to learn.
Ok, now for a little history on Hungary
Hungary is one of the oldest countries in Europe, settled in 896. Before the first world war, Austria, Romania and the Czech Republic were all part of Hungary. They were forced to give up a lot of their territories during WW1. It went through an awful time in both wars and the country has gone through bankruptcy twice and working on the a third time unfortunately. Of course the Jewish community was affected here as well, the Nazi’s either sent them off to the concentration camps to die or they were pushed into the Danube River. There was the domination of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party (Hungarian Nazis) in 1944 and then between 1945 and 1956, there was the Soviet Occupation. I have more on all that history later when we went to the ‘House of Terror’. I didn’t realize that Hungary had gone through so much and the strange thing is while walking around and seeing all of the souvenirs and most of them in Prague and Vienna also, were all very Russian influence, after everything that the Russians did to these countries and now they sell souvenirs pertaining to them, My only guess is that theses countries never got a chance to establish a theme (so to speak) for themselves so that is all they know is the Russian influence, unfortunately.
Here is a link to read up more on the history and some interesting facts about Hungary….like, did you know that the Rubics Cube was invented in Hungary, and the noiseless match as well as the first electric motor to name just a few….lol, but all true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary
We started out the tour going back up to the Palace and stopped to look at few things along the way, so here are some more pics. This is a Military wall and it was affected by the war, as you can see bullet spot on it.
here is us, with a nice view behind
One of the cathedrals on the way to the Parliament Building
This statue has a special spot on it, made by some of the students of the university, they came along one night and shined up the balls of the horse to make tourists believe the legend that if you rub them, you will have good luck……haha!
We ended up meeting up with Carlos on the tour and we all walked along to the Fisherman Bastion, and took some pics while making our way to the Parliament Building
This was a cool monument
This is St.Mathews Church of which they have been working on for 10yrs now, due to the low funds of the country, it isn’t getting done very quickly.
Just another great shot of the Parliament Building across the River Danube, it is pretty gothic looking…
We walked across one of the other bridges and made our way to see the Parliament up close.
Statues out front
We walked along the River front looking for the Holocaust monument we were told about, they said there was a Jewish monument of shoes. It was there, representing the many Jews that were pushed into the River Danube.
They are iron shoes, was really kinda sad.
From there we made our way back to the hostel and chilled out for awhile. We then ventured out to find some food, and came across an Asian restaurant, it was rather amusing trying to order as none of the staff working understood any English except maybe chicken, so we played charades with them to order our food, they did give great portions though and it was good. Back to the hostel and got online for a little while, I gave Carlo some information of places I have been for his travels, and exchanged emails also with Em and Chris, then off to bed.
Day 64 Wed. June 24
Today we decided on an easy day. We had brkfast and I attempted the cereal again, was fine today….lol. Then packed a bag for the baths today, so exciting. First we made a stop at the train station so I could look in to my ticket to Lake Balaton to visit Thomas and Trixi. I ended up having to head to a different train station but that was fine it was just a few more stops away. I bought my ticket and it was 1480 HUF, which is only about 5.50 Euro, a nice cheap train ride. We left there and went to find the ‘House of Terror’, this is the location that used to be the headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis in 1944 and then between 1945-56 the Communist organization, the AVO and the AVH took up residence there. It is now a museum that commemorates the victims of the terror, and is a memento, reminding them of the dreadful acts of terrorist dictatorship.
Each floor was a different exhibition of those times in Hungary and of the events that occurred within this building. There were no pics allowed but at the start of it and I found this to be a very interesting monument……..a tank set in a huge vat of oil, and as you will see on the wall is many faces of the many people that died during these times.
The first room was about “Double Occupation” the Nazis and Soviet Union, the music was very eerie and they had videos playing of different events that happened in Hungary. I snuck one pic of the Nazi video, but I have to say watching these was rather disturbing. Again, I can’t believe the things that went on in the wars, terrible.
The bottom floor was the was the cellars which were underground labyrinths of prison cells and the torture chambers. After seeing this, and reading up on some of the history, I now see that the Soviet Union was worse then the Nazis, they tortured and killed people for no reasons sometimes, and they did it in some very cruel ways to say the least. So terrible, and sad. So this museum, got the point across of all that went on in Hungary and it was rather depressing. So from there we moved on. Further down this street was the ‘Heroes Square’, which is a monument with statues of the leaders of the seven tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th century and other outstanding figures of Hungarian history
here is a link to read more, very interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%91s%C3%B6k_tere
now some of the statues up close, pretty cool monument
Now it was finally time to go to ‘The Baths’ and cool off and relax. We choose the
The Széchenyi Baths are one of the largest bathing complexes in all Europe, and the only “old” medicinal baths to be found in the Pest side of the city. The indoor medicinal baths date from 1913 and the outdoor pools from 1927. There is an atmosphere of grandeur about the whole place with the bright, largest pools resembling aspects associated with Roman baths, the smaller bath tubs reminding one of the bathing culture of the Greeks, and the saunas and diving pools borrowed from traditions emanating in northern Europe. The three outdoor pools (one of which is a fun pool) are open all year, including winter. Indoors there are over ten separate pools, and a whole host of medical treatments is also available.
The thermal water is drawn from both natural springs and a 3,000-foot deep artesian well drilled in the 1870’s (the temperature of the water coming from this well is 165°F (74°C)). If you have seen winter pictures of men playing chess in an outdoor pool while the steam rises around them, then this is where they were taken.
Water temperatures: 68-100°F (20-38°C). Pools: outdoor swimming pool, fun pool and thermal pool, twelve indoor thermal pools. Water mineral content: thermal water containing nitrates, calcium-magnesium-hydrogen-carbonates and sulphate-chlorides, as well as fluoride ions and metaboric acid in significant quantities.
We went into the small 40°C bath first and it was hot, but nice, then we went into the larger 30°C pool, then another one that was 35°C, made our way outside for a swim in the large pool which I think was maybe 35°C and then back inside to in the medicinal bath of 36°C . Chris and Em, really enjoyed the whirlpool part of the outside pool. Here are a few pics of the inside and the outside pools…..was very large and very neat place, and was a nice relaxing afternoon.
this was a lap pool, they had everything here ;)
We got dressed and decided to head out of there before the thunderstorm came. We actually made a few other stops on the metro to find a grocery store and did but had to manoeuvre a way in without getting soaked….lol, and we did. Got some snacks and food for dinner and jumped back on the metro to get back to the hostel. We got in and ate and chatted with some English travellers, Greg and Katie, who just arrived. I tried to work on my blog til late and to no avail. Headed off to bed to get up and catch the train to Lake Balaton.
Day 65 Thur. June 25 *Lake Balaton
Got up for brkfast, then chatted with Anthony from Pisa, Italy, he is a chef and he is trying to find work elsewhere. Funny these people live in such beautiful countries and they want to leave them, but I guess it is understandable since I am somewhat the same way, only I say “I love my country, just don’t like the cold, so I want to get to a warm place to live and work”. Anyways, I packed my things and made my way to the train station, got on the train at 12:08 and off to Balatonfüred to meet up with Thomas. I watched a few more episodes of Curb on the train and we arrived at 3pm, which was a little later then scheduled but all good. Thomas was there waiting for me and we headed off to see his tattoo shop as he had a client coming in. His shop is in Révfülöp, and there I met Trixi again, we met once in Bermuda when Thomas was there working for my friend Mark. So, Thomas went to start doing the tattoo for his client and I decided to take a nice walk along the pier and see the rest of this small village.
Here is Thomas’s tattoo shop and that is Trixi “Hi Trixi” Thanks again for a wonderful stay in Lake Balaton!
Thomas working away…..he is a very talented artist, he does great tattoos (he did all of mine) and he does amazing paintings.
“Hi Thomas,Thanks again for everything!”
A few views from the pier
This area is the summer retreat for most Hungarians as well as some other tourists, like Austrians, and some of the other surrounding countries. It is a very nice area, with the Lake, and lots of very unique villages with lots of history also.
It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the foremost regional tourist destinations. Due to Hungary being landlocked, it is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea". It is 77km in length and the width ranging from 4 to 14 km. The lake's surface is 104 m above sea level, and its depth varies up to 12.2 m. It is very popular and special to the Hungarian people.
I went back to the shop and watched Thomas do the tattoo for awhile and then I heard some music down by the square so Trixi and I went to see what was going on and it was some original Hungarian Folk Dancing, was really neat to see.
The dance is known as something that the Hungarians have done for many years and during the wars and Nazi and Communist Occupations this was something to keep them going and make them smile, along with drinking some Hungarian wine. :)
Once Thomas was finished with his client we walked over again and got a bite to eat. I had Hungarian Sausage, was very good. Thomas had véreshurka, black pudding sausage, Yuck! (if you don’t know what it is here is the definition- made from pork meat mixed with freshly roasted Buckwheat and pure young pork Blood and seasoned with rich herbs and spices). From there we took a drive back to Balatonfüred, we stopped in another small village along the way and got some nice view pics, and the church in the pic is over 1000 yrs old. Also, for Hungary being known for loving their paprika, I took a pic of this one house that had strands of it hanging outside and apparently that is what they used to do to dry it out and I guess make the spice from it. Here are some pics
Thomas and Trixi
This is the Paprika house, made it bigger so you could see it, all those rows are paprika hanging.
So from there we made our way to Balatonfüred, it was quite busy with lots of tourists. It is considered to be the capital of the Northern lake shore. We walked around some of the shops and down along the dock.
Then we made our way home in Balatonederics, another small village. Here is their house and my room for the next couple of nights.
Once we got in, we chatted for a little while and then off to bed.
Day 66 Fri. June 26
I ended up sleeping in a bit this morning and when I got up Trixi was preparing breakfast and Thomas was out in the backyard doing some things. I joined him out there to discover this gorgeous gazebo that Thomas and his father made
and that is where we sat and had our breakfast that Trixi prepared for us, “thanks Trixi, was very good”. Then I got changed and ready to go on our adventures for the day. When I was in Budapest, I was reading through some leaflets about Balaton, so there were a few spots I wanted to see and a few that they wanted to take me to see, so off we went.
First we went to Tapolca to the lake caves under the streets of the town…was really cool
the water was crystal clear and it was very cold, a some points we had to duck in there as the tunnels were not very high, the water levels change in the caves throughout the year. We went to the main town square area, where we met Thomas’s mother who works in the library and walked around to this nice quiet place with a pond, where there was a water wheel where they used to bake there, I think that is what they told me (sorry guys, I don’t remember everything)
there were tons of these fish in the pond, and as you see the water was nice and clear also
this is a memorial wall of the Jews that were actually executed here
This is a really nice statue they had there, each side was a statue of the seasons
Summer Fall 
Winter Spring
After that we went to a nice little restaurant that Thomas liked. And there I got to try Hungarian Goulash, it was delicious, reminded me of this soup mom makes that is one of my favourites and now I have to say that Goulash is one of my favourites. I had to take a pic, it was in a bread bowl so you get to eat everything and it was soo yummy!
Next we drove to Sümeg, to go see the castle there.
Ruins of Sumeg Castle -Hungary's best-preserved fortress presumably was built before the mid 13th century since King Béla IV lived here for a while during the Mongolian invasion (1241-1242). It was extended several times during successive centuries.
The view again was great from up there.
Ok, next was to the Spa Resort, the baths in Sárvár. Here there are a bunch of different pools, different temperatures and some with medicinal waters. I was alot of fun, in the outside pool there were stations of different treatments that went off a different times, one for your showers was a heavy waterfall and another that was like a jacuzzi, and one that had the jets shooting up for your legs and there was the same concept as the other one I went to with the whirlpool that just takes you along with the current.
We spent quite a few hours there and then finally pulled ourselves away and headed home. Once we got in Trixi was a trooper and made something quick to eat. While we sat to eat, Thomas interpreted the news that Michael Jackson died today, was kinda wild to find that out. Then off to bed. Tomorrow I head out to somewhere, hadn’t decided 100% where I was going but I will figure it out.
Day 67 Sat. June 27
This is just half a day and then continues on the next post…..sorry was a split day traveling.
So got up and packed my things, and ready to go, we had to first take Trixi to work. Then Thomas and I got a quick bite to eat and picked Mc.D’s, funny they offered for brkfast the the inside bun of a big mac with cheese, or with ham I think it was, that was their brkfast sandwich :) From there we went to get some information at the train station to figure out where I was going. I was trying to find out the price and time to either go to Croatia, straight to Bulgaria or stop and then onto Bulgaria. The lady at the train station thought we were joking when we asked for this information but she gave it reluctantly, and the best solution was to head back to Budapest and book a ticket from there to Bucuresti (Romania) and then to Bulgaria, as the ride straight to Bulgaria was too long and the price/time to Croatia was crazy. So got the ticket to Budapest and then we went to see the Palace, the summer home of the Hungarian King.
Thomas and his King…..lol
We didn’t pay to go inside, as after the disappointment of the Palace in Vienna, I felt it isn’t worth spending the money. So from there we went to a park so I could log online and book my accommodations for my next stop in Bucurest. We picked up Trixi from work and stopped at the grocery store so I could get some snacks for my train ride. They took me to the train station for just after 1, as my train was for 1:33pm, I got my things onto the train, chatted for a bit, said our goodbyes and I was off to go back to Budapest and catch another train.
I got into Budapest at about 6 ish and bought my ticket to Bucurest, and had to wait til boarding the train to pay for a sleeper cabin. Finally the platform # came up and I walked over, got on and paid the extra $ for the sleeper cabin, it was a long ride ahead and I know I would need the comfort for a good nights sleep on the way. We left Budapest at just after 7pm, I asked the man working our car for the linens for my bed and he told me to come into the one cabin and he showed me how to lock the door. He said to go back in my cabin and lock the door and keep it locked, I asked about other people getting on and told me that he would make sure that I had the cabin for myself, how nice! So, this was going to be a pretty decent train ride. I got back into the cabin, made my bed and was very happy there was even an outlet in there so I could work on my blog.
So, that is what I did. We got stopped at around 10:30pm, to get stamped out of Hungary, then again just a bit after and stamp you into Romania. Finally after all the quick stops were done and I was getting tired, I turned in for the night, when I get up we should be in Bucurest and you can find out about that in the next blog posting.
I hope you enjoyed Hungary, Budapest and Balaton…….I did, was nice to see the city and then go and relax and see the summer retreat area of Balaton…….Nagyon köszönöm Thomas és trixi I......volt egy nagy maradjon meg! and also Chris, Em and Carlos for sharing my adventures in Budapest with me, was lots of fun!
Onto Bucurest…….will be a short one so don’t miss it.
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