Welcome To Bosnia! Wait, What?

Ok so we are now on day.....23?
Oh wow. How did it get there. All those trains have taken us through lands and apparently time. Moving on and on to Croatia.
Croatia, the Dalmatian Coast! I would like to point out that I extensively googled whether the Dalmatian Coast was named after the Dalmatian dog or vice versa and the answer is no. So look there trusty comrades. I also don't like to point fingers, but I was right. They are cute though:

Anywho. Let's begin with the story of how we got to and through the Dalmatian Coast. So, we take a really really early morning bus to Ljubljana followed by a really early train to Zagreb, Croatia. Pleasant enough train ride. My passport got some funny looks, but other than that, smooth tracks. We get to Zagreb and our one and only goal: attack the city on a search for a car to rent so that 1) we can drive on foreign lands 2) we can say we have exhausted every form of transportation 3) we can finally take off the 38 pound packs we have been carrying around. Reason 3 was my one and only motivation. Also, we were pretty awesome at saving money on this trip and thought we deserved to ride in style. So Avis generously provided us with a Mercedes to play with during our 3 days in Croatia. Thanks Avis! (see end note about Avis please).
So, nice lady tells us we pay full in cash when we drop off the car but I'll go into that whole thing later.
We decide to forgo the sites in Zagreb and drive around in our new toy instead. Good decision I think. We even forgo lunch (those who know us will agree that this is a feat). The lady at the car rental agency tells us it's a straight drive to Plitvice, our next destination and the main picture of this blog (see above). So we find our way through Zagreb city streets to find a large roundabout, or rotary. Whatever you wish to call it, it had signs in Croatian and lots of exits. Needless to say we had to pass through the rotary about 4 times before we could read the signs for the exit we needed. On the fifth time, we were out and about the highway that would take us the 3 hour drive to Plitvice National Park. We drove until we got to the toll ticket booth. Oh oh. None of us have Croatian money. I wasn't about to give the Croatian government a reason to arrest the Israeli, so we stopped at a rest stop in order to go to an ATM. No ATM at this rest stop. Luckily, one of the cashiers spoke some sort of English and pointed us towards the next one. This ordeal really took it out of us, so we decided to get lody (I still call it by it's Polish name, but if you haven't been following, it's ice cream).
Sitting in the parking lot, eating ice cream and enjoying the beautiful Croatian weather was quite a treat. It almost made want to WOOT out loud. But off we went on the road once again to reach some sort of food location and the park itself. We come upon a random restaurant, stop, hope that they speak english or can mime food items, and go eat. The food was good, they spoke english and they even had wifi! SUCCESS in numbers I tell you. Anywho, let's get to Plitvice already. I don't want to lose you on the Dalmatian roads.
Plitvice National Park: unbelievable amount of waterfalls, hiking trails, wildlife, and beauty. 16 lakes total with the water ranging from green to blue due to the different amounts of mineral deposits. It was one of those places that no matter how hard you tried, or what angle you turned your camera, the pictures would never, ever, come out the way that your eyes saw it. And just for that, I'm slightly ashamed to put up a picture. But how else would you believe that we were actually there? So don't judge and go there yourself. It's worth it and you'll understand when you take out your camera.

We also stood under those waterfalls, thank you nice Asian tourists for taking our picture. Wait, they might have been British.

We hiked the 3 hour trail and reached our hotel for a quick shower before we went out to a fancy dinner. Not because we really wanted to, but Plitvice National Park had 3 restaurants, all of which were expensive. So we figured we'd be classy for the night. Also, just as a fun note: the only hotel we stayed at was the hotel in Plitvice. It was our most expensive stay and frankly, the worst. No fun, attractive hostel managers. No exotic tourists. Failed showers. However, we had a balcony overlooking the park and sheets and towels. We shouldn't really ask for more.
Dinner was quite a salty experience, so let me tell you about it. Literally, salty. I think the meat was cured in salt, salted prior to cooking, and salted once more before its arrival to our table. It was uneatable. And we were really hungry, which means a lot. So we ate some bread and butter, picked at our "fancy" meal and angrily walked away for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, Split. Yes, that's what it's called.

Day 24:
We get up and have our only free hotel breakfast on this trip. Lots to eat, terrible coffee. We stole some fruit. SHHHH. And we're on our way to Split, a 3 hour drive once again. I drove. It was great. The Benz knows how to cruise the Dalmatian Coast. Literal coast by the way cause we drove along the water the entire time, hill after hill, and tunnel after tunnel. We were told to call Baldo, our trusty hostel manager, as soon as we get to Split so that he could help us find parking. I say hostel loosely as Croatia had Zimmers. People's rooms in a house or apartment that they rent to tourists. Pretty cool business. We don't have a Croatian phone so we find some random parking before going to look for our room. Split's old town is within what used to be Diocletian's Palace. Meaning it's tiny streets that swerve and turn, no signs, no directions. Great for touring, terrible for finding things. It took us about 45 minutes with our packs on to find this apartment. Thankfully, Baldo was pretty gorgeous so that made up for the donkey mule-pack feeling. He helps us find parking and we set out to explore Split. I'd just like to say that 1) Split was one of the most beautiful cities we got to see and 2) We were so tired by this point that we decided to just walk around, eat, shop and not do touristy things such as taking pictures.
Here are some of the few that we took. Look at that, mountains, palaces, oceans, ships, and trees all in one.

What can I say about Split? I have a lot of love for Split. It might have been the weather, that we finally got to wear shorts in balmy winds or it might have been Baldo. It might have even been the good food, random street performers, lody, beautiful people, friendly vendors, unbelievable views, or the nice nap we took in our apartment room. All of those could have really contributed to my liking of this city, but mostly I think it was you two. Katie and Kat, I'm about to get all profound and stuff so be ready. It's probably cause I'm writing this from my living room back in Baltimore, but man am I glad I got to experience Split with you. You provided me with extreme amounts of laughter, rest, relief, and mental therapy. I adore you guys and couldn't imagine a trip with anyone else. I also didn't get sick of you. Fancy that.
Love from the top of the tower and really the epitome of friendship.

After climbing the endless-stair tower, we went to the hostel for that nap. Nap time was great. We then went out to explore the city at night. There were festivals, football games broadcast in squares, pizza, ice cream, michael jackson look a likes, and high school band performers. Love was in the air.
We watched the football game (it was some country vs another and we watched so many that I can't remember which it was) and had some coffee in the 78 degree weather while watching music performances. It was serene and the ultimate end to the love that is Split. Early to bed, early to rise, early to Dubrovnik tomorrow.
PS. Forgot to mention that Baldo, the young Croatian literature student, gave us some amazing cookies and coca cola when we came to the hostel. I want some of those cookies right now.

Day 25:
Drive to Dubrovnik. Beautiful coast. Swively turns. I like that word even though it doesn't exist. Katie drove, we lived through it. After about 2 out of the 4 hours of driving we come upon a weird toll looking booth thing that has police men. They ask for our passports. Border control? Yes. They let us through. We are confused. We drive for a minute and see a quite noticeable, very large sign that says Welcome to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were really excited until we realized we're not supposed to be in Bosnian territory and were in fact supposed to stay in Croatia. WHAT? No warning, no sign that says goodbye from Croatia, no signs that say watch out Bosnian territory ahead. So we drove for a while, hoping that Croatia would come back and behold! It reappeared after about 10 minutes. So WARNING: if you're driving from Split to Dubrovnik, you will enter Bosnia unintentionally. However, it looks just like Croatia, the border patrol people are nice, and you will come back into Croatia. Not to panic.
Here is a picture of Bosnia once we realized we were in it. I think that brings our country count to......16? That's if you count England, Israel and dun dun dun Uzupis. But who really counts Uzupis? So I say 15.

After that scare, we continued driving on the Croatian coast. I guess they literally mean that as it's the actual country border. We drove for 2 more hours before arriving in Dubrovnik. So.... old city Dubrovnik is a no driving zone, much like Split. Small passageways, limestone, slippery steps, lots and lots of steps and nowhere to park. Our trusty Zimmer renter named Anna told us to go find her and she would tell us where to park. So we did. Kat stayed in the car, while Katie and I took all 3 packs (me 2 of them and Katie hers, of course) and walked over to find Anna. Oh Anna. Crazy Mediterranean lady. Wild, absolutely wild. We get there and it takes her 20 minutes to answer the buzzer and come help us find our room. Once in our room, she half-in-english tells us where to park and says 15 minute walk from old town because we are young and have good legs. She then tells us where her family restaurant is and where we should go drink and that she will see us on the streets? We didn't really know what that meant but we were hoping it wasn't anything illegal because we had a flight to catch tomorrow morning. So Katie and I drop off our stuff and go find Kat. We park the car and walk 45, not 15, minutes back to the old town. Change clothes because it was hotter than my Polish husband and go to explore the city. Honestly, and don't judge us. We were so tired by that point from the walking, not eating, the heat, the climbing, the lack of real sheets and towels, and lack of normal life that we decided to do nothing touristy and I mean nothing. So we ate. We willed away the day shopping the streets of Dubrovnik, people watching, and bargaining for souvenirs. It was wonderful and I enjoyed every bit of Dubrovnik. We even met Anna on the streets in a non-sketchy way at all. We ate lody and had delicious pizza with an attractive waiter. I could really get used to Croatian men and Balkan music. At night, we went to Buza which literally means hole in the wall (and it is). It's a hole in the mountain where there are about 10 tables and some chairs overlooking the ocean. We had a nice fruity drink (a breezer?) and watched the sun set over the water. It was memorable. Thank you Anna for the suggestion.

Lovely ladies

We ended the night early and went to bed in the nicely air conditioned loft apartment that Anna gave us. Oh wait, I forgot to say our payment for this zimmer included us going to pay Anna's family at the restaurant. It was very mafia style and I loved it.

Day 26:
Early once again. Find car, load packs, find airport. Success and on time. Return car. And here comes the note about Avis.
Car first though. Thanks for taking us through the beautiful Dalmatian Coast.

Remember that time the Avis agent told us we could pay in cash? Yea, apparently that was a lie. Which we found out an hour before we could check in to our flight. Needless to say, I became an Israeli, raised the roof and yelled at some people. They yelled back, were rude to me, told me that I should jump off a bridge and get a sleeping bag cause I'm not leaving there paying in cash. I got mad and had to step outside and have Kat rub my shoulders as if I was in a boxing game. We are writing a letter, we will get our money back and if you're reading this DO NOT RENT WITH AVIS. I promised them that my friends and family would not be using their services and I plan on making that a reality. Let them know that this is what happens when they mess with an Israeli. After that whole ordeal, we checked in to our flight and boarded an Easyjet flight for the first time to London Stansted. Easyjet has no seats by the way. So it's like a bus, but it flies. Magic School Bus anyone?
Off to London.
Arrive in Stansted, take an hour train to the Underground (or the Tube as they call it). Then take the Tube to Paddington station and walk 30 minutes with the packs until we reach our hostel. Fun enough hostel. Of course, we were starving. We immediately go eat, drink some Strongbow as you all should when you're in England. Across from the bar Katie excitedly finds this gem. Geeky as it was, I was secretly impressed but tried to not show it. Sorry Katie.

Notice the spelling of storey. I love it. E's should be in anything and everything along with u's. Colour. Flavour. It's correct.
After a satisfying meal of fish and chips we listed our london preferences as we had limited time. I asked for Platform 9 3/4 naturally as I had already been to London and really, all I wanted was some Harry Potter goodness. Kat joined in and Katie was slightly angry about that whole thing. No one knows why. We get to King's Cross and look for platform 9 and 10. We thought it would literally be there. A nice railway worker noticed our confused looks and said "Harry Potter?" and we, with a little embarrassment, said yes. He pointed us to the correct location (not between the two mentioned platforms) and we were ecstatic. Well, at least Kat and I were. Look! It's almost real.

Katie really wasn't happy, so we decided to do something to please her as well. We went to find Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben, Thames River, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We did all of that in about 2 hours. Impressed no?

And there it is. London ladies and gentlemen. Just as I remembered it. Lots of pigeons, lots of tourists and yet a charm that I can't describe. I think it's the accent really. Magnetizing. For dinner, we went to a traditional British pub, had some food and watched another football game. It's a good thing people are passionate about the world cup over there. Back to the hostel and another departure tomorrow. At that moment in time, we were packing for good. Kat back to the US and Katie and I will be moving on to Israel. I can't tell you how much motivation I'll get to blog about my homeland. I want to. I will try my best as it is always an entertaining experience. But if this is my last post let me say a few words before I part.

To all those who were determined to listen to my words, who religiously read my tid-bits, who followed my life with my friends, who experienced these adventures through their computers. Thank you. If you were the only ones to read this then my job here is complete. I would have loved to personally share this experience with every single one of you. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog not only so that you could learn about my travels, but so that one day, when I look back, I will have all these written and un-erasable memories. I have become quite the addict for blogging and would highly enjoy it if you continued to follow my food diary. I will link it here

A few words to my comrades:
Ladies. I love you. You are everything to me. Thank you for being a part of one of the most memorable experiences in my life. I hope, that when we are old and graying, that we will meet up and tell these stories to our children and grandchildren. I want you to know that no matter the distance, we will always always be friends. I appreciate you and everything that you are to me. Let's do it again. I say South America 2013? We'll make it happen.

Man, won't this be awkward if I post again? I probably will, but just in cases (hope you got that movie reference).
I'll leave you with my favourite British warning:

I'm Fresh Outta Medals

Day 20:
Wake up in the morning. It's gloomy in Budapest. But not to worry, we have Hungarian Meusli. Probably the best muesli ever. And our gracious host who looked pretty delicious himself. Check out...and go try to see castle hill across the river in Buda before boarding an afternoon 9 hour train to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Hey hey, sounds wonderful. Let's do it. We get to the train station, drop off our packs and head in a search for bus #16 that will take us to the top of the hill. But where is this bus? Is it a 30 minute walk from the train station on the side of a highway? No...it's not. It's in the complete other direction. Good thing we had a lot of time to waste that day and let's just say that Kat wasn't allowed to be the map reader for the rest of the trip. We found this elusive bus (actually a 5 minute walk from our original location) and had about 10 minutes to see Castle Hill.
Bus #16 at its gloriousness.

Maybe it was the tough journey and lack of success, but I wasn't too impressed. A sunny day and better circumstances might have helped though. We ate lunch, the goulash was delicious, and we bought plenty of snacks so as not to starve this time (see post on 10 hour train from Vilnius to Warsaw).
Here is the short scoop on the train ride:
1) We had wet laundry to dry, so obviously we blocked our compartment and aired it on the train. Classy.

2) We ate some delcious gourmet sandwiches with fake cheese and rolls.

3) I was yelled at by a Slovenian man for a visa at the border because I am Israeli. No picture of that cause I would probably be writing this from immigration jail.
4) We arrived in Slovenia at 11 pm at night and according to our hostel directions, we were to take a 20 minute bus or train to the hostel. WHAT BUS?
There was no bus, no train, no living person to talk to. So we wandered around the train station aimlessly until we decided to breakdown and take our first real cab ride on this trip. We find the first cabbies available and show them the address and then chaos ensues. They all talk amongst themselves in the rain, asking questions, animatedly moving their hands, looking up address books, and checking maps. No one told us what was going on, so we watched helplessly as these guys debated our future. Finally, some cabby tells us that the address is not in Ljubljana and that they are calling the hostel to try to find it. Turns out it's a 17 km ride outside of the city, or what they told us was 17 km. I counted and it seemed more like 9, but whatever. Maybe Slovenian km's are longer. We finally get to the hostel, overpay our cab driver because of the long km's and go to bed. Tomorrow, Bled!

Day 21:
We wake up early to check out of the hostel, eat breakfast, and take some sort of transportation to Bled, Slovenia, a popular resort town that centers around Lake Bled. One thing led to another and we were confused....again. We ended up walking on the highway to get to the strange thing that Slovenians think are round-abouts, but are actually just shoulders in the road. Doesn't matter, we caught a bus to Bled and drove 1 hour through the beautiful Slovenian Alps to get there. I really started liking Slovenia. When we arrived in Bled, we walked to our hostel through, yet again, some construction. Our hostel was adorable, with a dog, and a view of the mountains. We also had some fun fellow backpackers there from...Keith, wait for it....Winchester, VA? Who comes from there? Anyway, there were some great Finnish people and British people as well and we all had merry conversations about our many similar travel itineraries.
Our plan: rent bikes, bike around the lake, rent rowboats, row to the island in the middle of the lake, eat some creme cake (traditional Bled dessert), walk around the city and maybe try some local liquor that involves honey.
We rented bikes, we rode them, Katie was uncomfortable and unsteady, Kat fell, the lake was beautiful.
Here are some pictures.
Lake Bled:

Bike Helmet Picture Success:

We tried renting some rowboats as well so that we could get to the middle of the island and look at the magnificent church, and also so that we could say we rowed our very own selves to that island. The waters were choppy and what Kat thought was a flag for decoration, was actually a red flag for dangerous and choppy waters. Ugh, we need to know boat rules in other countries. Could have been helpful. Anywho, we rent the boat and try to row ourselves, unsuccessfully might I add, to the island. It took us about 30 minutes just to get ourselves out of the 10 m range of the dock which cut our 60 minute rental in half. We got some good rhythm going at some point and it was mostly after I had gotten soaking wet from Kat's violent paddling, but luckily, she calmed down. Look at how well I'm hiding my "I want to kill you" face:

It took us about 30 minutes to gracefully row ourselves to the island. A quick tour and a few pictures later we were back at our beloved rowboat, ready to tackle the task again. This time, with Katie's arm strength as half of the team. She almost did a good job too. It was only after she helped us bump the handmade traditional Slovenian gondola boat that she really got into her groove and was paddling with ease.
After our memorable yet taxing and cold rowing experience, we got back to shore, left the oars in front of some office and kept biking around the lake. The views were beautiful and the stairs were apparently tempting as that is when Kathryn decided to sneak a peak at some stairs and fell over. Almost into the lake, but luckily was stopped by some prickly bushes. I used my nursing skills to pour water on her bleeding hand. JHU has obviously taught me a lot :) We kept biking to find a local secret....creme cake. Actually, it's not really a secret. It's very well known in fact. For years, this has been my favorite cake and now we know where it comes from! Don't you just love finding your roots? Here are mine:

Layers of flaky phyllo with creme and whipped cream. Heaven.
We continued biking/shopping/walking around the town and then ran out of things to do. We reluctantly tried to go mini-golfing, and by reluctantly, I mean, I didn't want to because I'm a sore loser. The heavens smiled and the place was closed. Instead, we went to try some of Bled's famous seafood at one of the most amazingly decorated restaurants I have ever seen. The staff was immensely friendly and we all enjoyed our various dishes. I, again, was too full to finish mine. So Kathryn volunteered her talents and finished both plates. The waiter was impressed.

After all that food it was a task to bike uphill to the hostel, but we managed to do just that. We pet the dog, talked to interesting fellow hostellers and commenced the task of trying to rent a car in Croatia. Splendid idea if I do say so myself. We researched a little, saw some promising options, and went to bed. Tomorrow, back to Ljubljana.

Day 22:
We woke up to the smiling mountains and the sounds of birds and fresh air. There were no birds, but if I hadn't told you, you would have believed me. We biked back to our bike rental area, got some pastries and bananas from the local supermarket and took an early bus back to Ljubljana. Apparently, Ljubljana is the next next Prague after Warsaw (I credit Rick with that). So we thought we would need some good time to cover the wonders. We parked our stuff at the train station and went to explore. First couple of stops: Sixt, Hertz, Budget, and Europcar. We were really set on that Croatian car. For some reason, prices kept getting more expensive as we kept asking, so we gave up and decided to enjoy the city and look in Croatia. We walked along the main part of the city and looked for the local pizza shop that Rick raved about. We thought 3 hungry girls could take care of 2 medium pizzas. Oh no. That was false. We ate and ate and the pizza was never-ending. Delicious, but never-ending. We vowed to never eat again until we got gelato 3 hours later. Also, delicious. Pitango is better though, not to worry. We mosied along the Ljubljanica river and purchased some souvenirs and clothes. Here is the view we saw:

There were also candles, dragons, artists, and singing children everywhere. I could have enjoyed that for longer. We walked some more, had mentioned gelato (Pistacchio and Chocolate for moi), and ran some errands such as mailing all of you your postcards. There are more coming by the way, the wait is worth it. After the Slovenian post office experience, we went to wait for the bus which only comes every half an hour. We wait for half an hour, try to board and pay, find out you can only pay at the station, look dejected and angry, get off the bus and wait another half an hour to get to our hostel. Kat took it hard, so I gave her a bus massage (mostly just a massage at the bus station, locals were staring).

We got to our hostel in the middle of nowhere and watched the amazing Slovenian sunset through the alps before heading to bed.

Gotta get up early tomorrow because we are going to the Dalmation Coast...Croatia!

How I almost suffocated at the Vienna Opera

Day 17:
Schonbrunn Palace. The only European Palace to rival Versailles. Stealing this word for word from Rick Steve's Eastern Europe book. I think not so much, but ok Steve, I mean Rick. We arrived at the palace, bought the Classic Pass ticket that includes palace grand tour, the maze, the viewing terrace, the gardens, and the strudel show. Strudel Show, Strudel Show! The interior of the palace was full of gold, green, red and ugly tapestry....everything you want in the monarchs' vacation palace. The strudel show however was extremely tacky, touristy, but unbelievably fun. Kat was picked out of the millions in the crowd for her strudel talents (it shows in the eyes if you look closely) to help put the strudel on the pan and butter it up. Check her out, master strudel maker (literally, she has the certificate).

Here is the castle from the viewing terrace.

We were also pretty pumped about the palace maze. Little did we know that getting lost on the way to the maze was going to be part of it. We were less than excited to be lost in the maze and finally made the destination. Happiness, pure happiness.

Note: if I went to high school with you, I met Mr. Lieberman at the palace with his entourage of 85 band members. They praised my sister. It was good.
As per Rick Steve's suggestion, we decided to be cultured and go to a classy Viennese music experience, the Opera. Little did we know, we might die trying. He suggested we get standing room tickets for 4 euro. A backpacker's dream really. We find the secret entrance to the standing room ticket office. We get excited. We buy tickets for the section right under the emperor's box. We find the box, think that our spaces are marked and go try to find food as we were hungry yet again. I decide to stay and get our seats anyway. If you're reading this and are planning on doing the same, don't. Bring scarves, trash bags, loin cloths, small animals, whatever you have that you can tie to a pole as those seats are gone gone gone within seconds. People get there, tie a scarf to a pole and that means their seat is saved. I get there and stand on a stair trying to pretend I know what I'm doing while the people in the know tell me even the stairs are saved by these elusive scarves. I was like a lost puppy. Might have been the most scary/angering moment in my life, or this trip. I finally secure a stair that can fit 2 people comfortably for 3. Katie and Kat come back from the snack time to help me man the stair as people were starting to crowd me. A man tries to explain to me that the napkin with a twig tied to the pole next to me means that that stair is his. WHAT. I think my face turned red I was so angry. I didn't move and he ended up not seeing the Opera so I was happy. We stayed for 30 minutes as there were 5 of us on that one stair, a tall Austrian man with a huge head was right in front of me, I couldn't breathe or move, the Opera was in German and we understood nothing, and it was steamingly hot. Great experience, but when I have money I am paying for a freakin chair. It might be worth it.
A nice lady let us walk through the opera after we left, these are faces of fear.

After that we went to eat at a Viennese style cafeteria and I met Freddy, a nice Nigerian man who at the end of the conversation was calling me his sister and telling me to visit the Nigerian ghetto when I go back there. Love it.
Vienna was good to us with torrential downpours, a whole lot of second hand smoke, efficient subways (or U-bahn), and croissants filled with hot dogs and cheese (Katie's favorite part).

Tomorrow....the West Virginia of Eastern Europe (Slovakia) and its Detroit (Bratislava).

Day 18:
We took a train from Vienna to Bratislava. Torrential downpours once again and even a non-mistakable tornado on the way. Eastern European weather has just been way too good to us. We arrive in Bratislava and the first thing we notice: no tourists. Success! We have finally gotten away from the zombie tourists. We stowed our packs and went sightseeing. Little did we know that we could have covered the entire city within 1 hour. Oh well, at least the tourists weren't there. Bratislava provided a nice getaway from the hectic, modern, European cities. It had charm, history, great souvenirs, and remnants of communist life. Here are the highlights:
The presidential residence, or the white house if you will.

A "0" km mark where all distances from Slovakia are measured. Here I am, by the holyland mark...fitting.

Highly-regarded-by-locals chocolate shop that serves melted chocolate as hot chocolate. Ok in my book.

The most famous statue in Bratislava of a working man. No good story there, just a statue.

And another scandalous approach to a statue.

All in all, Bratislava was nice. We had some excellent food at a poor man's pub and continued on our way that very same day to BudaPest (said Budapesht).
We arrived in Budapest at evening time to find no ATM's, cabbies that hassle you for a ride, a lack of metro signs, and extreme teenage PDA on the subway. Our hostel is a little, ok a lot, outside the main tourist areas....consolation, it's nice, clean, we have it all to ourselves and the manager is an attractive Hungarian mountain biker. We settle in, get a free shot of unicum, the traditional Hungarian liqour, and start our plan for food. We get ready to leave and once more, without fail, torrential downpours. But this one was different. Lightening, thunder, and massive, I mean massive amounts of rain. It was starting to flood. We were hungry. So Kat and I put on our rain jackets, got our safety whistles and flashlights, and rolled up our pants to go scour for food.

We get outside and it's not really raining anymore. Such is life. Acceptance please.
We get some gyros and falafel, along with hazelnut wafers with a questionable aftertaste. World Cup Game with a strange archeological fellow housemate and sleep.

Day 19:
We awake to the smell of brewing coffee, the attractive mountain biker, and fresh granola. Always the way I want to wake up by the way. We get ready for the day, eat a whole lot of this delicious Hungarian Muzli and plan our day of fun. First off, a market full of meat, produce, cheese, souvenirs and lots of paprika (both as a spice and pepper). Beautiful.

Also, Kat was magnetized once again to the fur hats. Summer essentials guys.

After a nice stroll in the market we embarked on our leisurely 10 km stroll down
Vaci Utca, Andrassy Ut., towards the Museum of Terror and the Szechenyi Baths. Leisure.
Actually, the whole thing was pretty leisurely and here are the sites we were able to witness.
Vaci Utca and the ridiculously toursity side of Hungary. Complete with the most famous restaurant/bakery in Budapest called Gerbeaud. Delicious and full of pigeons walking the floors. Not for the light hearted or those scared of pigeons (Katie).

The second largest synagogue in the world. Breathtakingly beautiful and it had what I think is the most touching Holocaust memorial I have seen to day. It's a willow tree monument that is supposed to look like an upside down menorah. Each leaf has the name of a victim and the words at top are truly meaningful.

The Budapest Opera. Another of Rick's recommendations for the city that we decided would be a most painful experience if we were to try it once again. But here I am showing my talents to the people of Hungary. Well received I would say.

And...last but not least strolls through parks with lots of candy and pastry stands, more palaces, and the Szechenyi baths. Rick gave it 3 stars so it was a must. We get there 1 hour before it closes. Oops. We don't get the promised off peak discount and we pay more than the book listed. We get confused by the immense amount of staircases, changing cabins, lockers, and doors. We get told to be back within 20 minutes. We get into a pool and it's not as warm as our showers. There are potbellied Hungarian men everywhere and a whole lot of nakedness. The building is beautiful though.

Maybe it's because we are seasoned thermal bath bathers, but Blue Lagoon....much better, less ugliness. Budapest is wonderful though. I would live here too. Great food, environmentally friendly atmosphere, less smoke, and more culture. Besides....the paprika is really the reason I would move. Sweet and spicy.
PS Budapest is divided by the Danube River into Buda and Pest. We did Pest today. Buda's castle hill tomorrow and then a 9 hour train to Ljubljana, Slovenia in the afternoon. Good thing we found an English bookstore here.
Also, we are currently enthralled by a Hungarian movie that includes the following: the mating of horses, dog shootings, betting of some sort, anger, and no English.

These coins are weighing me down

6 days....6 long days and 4 countries. That's right ladies and gentlemen. We have been to 4 countries in the past 6 days and it was good.
To start off, let's continue our journey in the ever so gloomy Czech Republic.
Day 14:
We woke up ridiculously early to catch a bus to Cesky Krumlov. Not only was it pouring rain, but the bus station wasn't even really in Prague, or what we thought should have counted as the borders of Prague. Point: it was far away. Bus arrived, we got on, that bus was awesome, it had free coffee and hot chocolate. Go European bus lines. We took a nice leisurely nap on the bus after drinking our free hot chocolate. It was yum. We went for a second round, but only to figure out, and by figure out I mean we were yelled at by a very angry Czech bus stewardess "not for you!!!!" Katie ran away in fear and cuddled on my shoulder for comfort. I laughed. Pleasant experience I would say. We arrive in Cesky Krumlov, and guess what? It's still raining. We get off the bus and commence our "10 minute" walk to the hostel. No no, we have our own way, or should I say Katie's own way of arriving at our hostel. Guys, let's take this ridiculously curvy, forest-y looking road to a random bridge in the middle of nowhere, cross it, find some construction and construction workers and then climb up a hill. Yes! What a great idea. As you can tell, we will now always have Katie as our beacon of direction. Lost in Cesky Krumlov, we sent Kat out to scour the area for some sense of direction. She, again, had to hop over a barrier, it wasn't her fault that it was in the way.

She oriented us in the right direction and we finally made it to our hostel. Krumlov House Hostel, my favorite one yet. They gave us an entire apartment with clean sheets, towels, and some attractive backpackers. Well, not in the apartment, but still. They also recommended a delicious little lunch special in the old town that really made us instantly love Krumlov. Look at that warm leek soup. To die for.

We were obviously exhausted from the rough yelling on the bus to the taxing meal we just ate, so we went to take a nap. Glorious! Don't judge, it was our first and only nap this entire trip. After a hibernating period, we went for some more food. Cesky Krumlov had a lot of it to offer, so we took advantage in a non-evil way. We went to the most touristy square for the coffee and dessert special. We ordered the coffee and dessert thinking it would come as the special. Again, we should probably stop thinking because it hasn't been working in our favor. We paid about $25 for 3 apple strudels and some coffee. FAIL. We tried to ask for the special price, but the woman was relentless and kept mentioning how much strudel we ate, we let it go. Good thing it was delicious or else I would have apple strudeled her face. Not literally.

We took it in good heart and instead complained about it for our half hour walk to the Krumlov castle. It helped, we were pretty happy when we arrived.

The castle is guarded by real bears, even though the only people that go in there are tourists and people who try to rip them off. I think I am going to apply that sort of security in Baltimore. Useful. We climbed up to the top of some tower and on the way found some prisoner bones and bells. Spectacular view though:

We came back down, looped around some gardens that, according to the queen of castle gardens (Katie) was apparently disappointing and decided to go for a cheap supermarket dinner. We are getting pretty good at those. We might start renting our services. If you need a cheap dinner that consists mostly of carbs, bananas and pastries, you know who to call. Tomorrow.....Salzburg, Austria and a real Sound of Music Tour, YES!

Day 15:
We get to the hostel entrance at 9 am to pick up our $30 laundry, that's right, $30 for a couple of shirts, some socks and underwear and a pair of pants or two. Whatever, moo point (hope you got the reference, if not, it's moot). We waited to be picked up by our legitimate van service to Salzburg. I say legitimate because it was booked by our hostel, it cost a lot of money, it's the only real way to get to Salzburg, and because the next few sentences will sound sketchy. We meet our driver, nice guy, who is waiting for the van to get there. The van gets there with another car and a man with long hair that hasn't been washed in a while, a full jean outfit (jacket and pants), and lots and lots of tattoos but no English whatsoever. We try to get into the van with our nice driver, but instead we take the private car with sketchy man. We drive and drive and drive. The only words that come out of his mouth in English are.... "ok." We then stop at a less than attractive car dealer and he gets out of the car and imitates stretching. Great. Now we're getting exercise lessons from our Czech driver. It rains, we eat some cookies and we keep on driving. He gets lost with his GPS and we give up and get out of the car 2 blocks, on a hill, from our destination. We walk with the smell of manure to Haus Lindner, a nice B&B in the middle of farm country on the hills of Salzburg. Mathilda, our host, was pleasant, but had cats. Allergies galore. We enter our room with a balcony looking over the singing hills. I step out onto the balcony to enjoy the mountainous view, but instead, I enjoy or I guess recoiled in horror from a different mountainous view, a naked old man. What? This is the welcome I get from Salzburg. This Sound of Music tour better be really good. We were so hungry, and all we had for lunch was a plethora of granola bars, salt with some peanuts, and broken vanilla cookies on the floor of the cat hair filled room. The Sound of Music van showed up 45 minutes late, so we happily jumped on the van and headed for the city centre. We arrived to the glorious sight of a Sound of Music bus, filled with pictures of Julie Andrews and the von Trapp family.

Our excitement....pretty intense.

We did not take this bus. Instead we got on the boring, picture-less bus. A snobby, rude woman walks by us telling us that SHE will be the first one to get on the bus, because if she doesn't get on, no one does. That was our guide and this attitude continued for four hours amongst conversations of alcohol intake with little children. Just plain awkward.
The tour was interesting. Mostly it was interesting to learn that most of the movie was actually filmed in the US. But some of the sites we found were pretty cool. There were hills, they looked like they could have been alive with music at some point, and we found the infamous 16 going on 17 gazeebo. It's closed now because an 82 year old was hopping on the benches having her husband sing to her, her hip had other plans.

The hills:

The church where the captain and Maria got married:

We also found the do, re, mi song steps:

And check out this photography genius:
Raindrops on roses and schnitzel....with potatoes? Whatever, it works.


Something unique to Salzburg...Mozart balls. Not invented by Mozart but it's chocolatey goodness.

All in all, Salzburg is beautiful, cloudy, and slightly gloomy. Next.
Train to Vienna!

Day 16:
Took a train to Vienna and once again the skies opened and the rain came down. We got soaked on the way to our hostel, dropped our bags, and decided to be adventurous abigails and walk the town. I suggested we take a bus in the pouring rain, but was shut down immediately. Scale of misery was 12 out of 10. Kat broke down and we decided to take the metro with soaking wet pants, shoes, and socks. Check out the attractiveness of those yellow pants.

We took lunch at a traditional Austrian something that started with an H. Delicious. Kat's stomach could stomach 5 large plates of food. The waitress was shocked, but the dog wasn't and it was adorable.


After lunching, we went to the only indoor attraction, the Haus Der Musik. We walked through the many interactive music exhibits and were able to create our own waltz, listen to some Mozart, and conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. Kat was the only one that failed and got yelled at by first violin guy.



More Vienna tomorrow.