Day Ten: Welcome to Wien! (but first, try to get out of Budapest…)
July 3, 2008
After a rather relaxing night in Budapest (to remind you, Leslie fell into deep snoring slumber early on and I just blogged away until ridiculously late) we awoke with a plan (and, to remind you, we’d been having good luck with plans in Budapest). The plan: go down to the market again, get some food for the day, do a bit of shopping and whatnot, and then quickly go to the post office (which we’d already located) and send the insane amount of alcohol Leslie was going to buy back home before catching the noon-ish train to Vienna.
[side note: Through shopping, Leslie and I have discovered yet another difference between us! Leslie, while also just being a bigger shopper than me, is also much better at deciding to buy things. She sees it, she likes it, she buys it. done. The deliberation time is maybe a minute or two. This of course allows her to cover more ground and buy more stuff. As for me… oh dear gods – nobody should actively opt to go shopping with me. I am super picky as to which stores I want to enter and then, once I’m in, I’m there for an epic amount of time. When in a good store I do some sort of bizarre primitive-man dance thing-ah-mah-jig. I enter. I do a quick survey. Then I go through everything again more slowly, this time mentally eliminating some things from the list of possible purchases. Then I go through again and again… and again and again. Slowly but surely I get down to business. And then… maybe… I buy something. I’m exhausted and I’m sure Leslie is exhausted (and amazed at how long it takes to buy one stupid thing) but there it is! Another difference]
Anyways, back to Budapest. So we had a plan. The plan took a horrible evil hot and sweaty 5ish hour detour. Watch the 3-part video below to find out what happened. [side note: I know you hate that I break the videos up into parts. I know it breaks the flow. But look people!! The Internet in these raggedy hostels is, in the words of Leslie, sketch! And, uploading three or four minute videos can take hours! I’m not lying! So give me a break. When I get back home and feel so inclined I’ll go back and upload the full versions and then replace these broken up ones. But until then, no complaining!]
Suffice to say, Leslie will never ever complain when I want to go shopping. Not that she did before, but she certainly won’t now!
So, after Budapest was all finished, we were on our way to *trumpets please* Vienna! We got super duper lucky and got an air conditioned cabin all to ourselves. We took the liberty to lay down and sleep most of the way (after I finished some blogging… of course!). And oh, we keep passing the most beautiful and cheery fields of sunflowers on these train rides but I just can’t get a decent picture! I so badly want you to see how lovely and sunny they are! But instead you just get to see a blurry disaster. I think I’ll try and take a travel photography class or something when I get back… that way next time I’ll take better more artsy-funky photos.
Alright – then we hit Vienna (aka: Wien). And let me tell you, we knew it was going to be awesome right from the start. And why? Because the signs and public transportation systems were so clearly labeled! It was glorious! We didn’t get confused, everything was clean and organized… it was just what we needed after the chaos of the Budapest postal service.
After we dropped our stuff off we got some dinner at the place down the street. And I, being totally exhausted, felt justified in getting myself a cider (the alcoholic kind) but, alas, they didn’t have any. So our very friendly cute waitress recommended these flavored beer things. I got lemon and it ended up tasting a lot like cider! Yummy!
After dinner I subjected Leslie to about 2.5 hours of walking. I’m now a big fan of the once-you-get-to-a-new-country/city-walk-everywhere-that-first-night plan. The temperature drops to perfection, all the locals are out (Europeans stay out ridiculously late), and you can just relax without all that hustle and bustle. On our trek we randomly fell upon the Museum Quarter, which is an area where a bunch of Museums come together and in between them exists this piazza thing. In this middle open area there had to have been over 2000 people – and they were all super young and hip and just hanging out together at 1AM! There were also all these cafes and swank bar things set up in there. It was totally awesome and I was so excited. It seemed like such an awesome thing to be doing.
After all that we kept walking down to the downtown/main area and oh my gosh we almost died from all the cool stuff we saw. So much art and culture and performance listings and beautiful things to buy – it’s crazy! I said to Leslie, “I don’t know how I’m going to get across how in love I am with this place on the blog.” – and it’s true. You have to imagine I’m standing in front of you with my hands on your shoulders (shaking you) while yelling, “soooo freakin’ awesome!!!!!!”
I don’t know what these people are all doing for a living (especially given the fact that everyone is out so late on weeknights) but whatever it is, they are doing well. I was instantly sorry that we’d only have one full day because it was obvious that much much more time was needed. Vienna is the city I’ve visited so far that I most wish I could stay at for significantly longer. There is an incredible amount of art stuff going on and it would take weeks to process it all! So if anyone out there is up for a week in Vienna, you just let me know!
So after walking around we called it a night and got ready for our artsy full day in Wien!
Oh and as a random side note – isn’t the baby outfit to the right the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?! In case my future husband ever reads this: if we have a boy (I mean we won’t actually have any boys, just two girls… but you know, if the metaphysical fabric of the universe rips and we somehow freakishly have a boy), he will so have to wear this at some point. In Vienna. Just so you know… 
Oh and of course, for all the pictures from today please go here.
Day Nine: With Wheels, We Fly!
July 2, 2008
Today was our full day in Budapest!! And, my first time trying to set the agenda!! Like I mentioned in the last post, my idea was for us to wake up, go the market (to get some deliciousness), go to the Dohány Street Synagogue and Jewish Museum (where we’d take a guided tour), then head over and rent some bikes, go to the baths (via bike), and afterwards, just bike randomly around the area to get a feel for the Budapest vibe. And I’m here to tell you that that’s pretty much exactly what we did! We didn’t get lost (thanks to the fact that we walked pretty much all of Pest the night before) and we had a jolly good time! For some reason the day seemed to extend on forever – not in a bad this-day-will-never-end way, but instead, the day seemed to drawl on like one of those lazy summer days filled with low-key low-stress goodness- a day that demands little of you and, in so doing, permits you to soak up all it has to offer.
Or, to be more in touch with the Hungarian-ness of it all, it was sort of a ‘goulash and warm bread’ day – yummy, satisfying, and down-to-earth.
But I guess I should just tell you about it instead of going on and on about what it was like…
[Oh, but first I want to make an interesting side comment that comes from Leslie and my extensive people watching: People from different countries really look different. At this point Leslie and I have been in three countries: Italy, Croatia, and Hungary – and the people from each are very distinctive. So let the stereotyping begin!
In Italy the men tended to have dark features, smaller frames, and very extroverted carefree and expressive personalities. As for Italian women, gee wiz are they fancy things! When we were in Rome for instance, we saw these Italian women decked out in super tight fancy clothes with the most insane high heels ever. And they’re walking on these cobblestone paths! Do you realize that I would die (!) if I attempted that. I friggin roll my ankle wearing flats and platforms… I can’t even imagine dressing like that with my hair all done-up and lots of makeup on! Especially in the hot humid weather hell that is Italy. You can for’getta ‘bout it!
In Croatia, which is right next to Italy (which at least might suggest that they’d be similar), you see a shift on lots of levels. The men in Croatia don’t yell out at you when you’re walking down the street but, when in an appropriate context, they’re super chatty and friendly. So for instance, our waiter – I can definitely tell that this guy would not be into cat-calling (thank the gods) but he was all about talking with us for as long as possible. He even wanted us to come back the next day for more! So I’d say, from my limited pool of waiter dude, Marin, and Frane (well, and people watching) that they have darker hair color, lighter complexions (even occasionally having blue eyes), are very tall, smaller framed, and (on a personality note) tend to be outgoing and quick-witted when you sit down with them. As for the woman, they also have smaller frames, tend to be very tall, and generally each have a sense of individual style. I didn’t really talk with any women, so I can’t say much more than that.
Hungry has been the most different of the three. For the first time we saw a lot of people with some serious meat on their bones. It’s not just that they were overweight and whatnot (though there were plenty) it’s just that they have much bigger broader frames. And, as Leslie pointed out, their legs are much more muscular. Height wise, they seem to hit both extremes – either they’re these short stout little things or they’re super tall Viking gods and goddesses. So we saw a lot of these sorts of Hungarians. We also saw plenty of average and seriously anorexic looking youths, but comparatively, Hungary had the largest people. Must be all that yummy hearty goulash!
So it’s just interesting to notice changes not only in environmental vibe but in the people, too!]
But back to our day…
So first we went to the market which, in contrast to Zagreb’s outdoor affair, is housed in this giant building with three floors of stuff going on. The ground floor (which in Europe they consider level 0) had my favorite stuff: fruits, veggies, pastry stuff, etc. the basement floor had most of the meats and all the pickled items (they’re really into that here it seems… and I’m not complaining. I love when you go to the fair or whatnot and buy those ridiculously huge pickles. So tasty!). The top floor was filled with both the pre-made “fast food”-esque stalls and all the handiwork (from Hungarian amber to dolls to clothes to lace etc.) Leslie and I decided to spent a bit longer than we anticipated in the market because it was so fun to look through every last stall! In the end we bought some breakfast stuff and headed on our merry way.
Next up was the Synagogue and Jewish Museum – which I was so very very much looking forward to. Why, you ask? Am I Jewish? Well… in not so many words, “no” … not in this life anywaays. But in all seriousness, I’ve been particularly interested in the Holocaust since a very young age (I remember reading “Night” on the way up to a camping trip at around the age of 10… it totally did not help the camping-joy experience). It’s interesting, I know someone whose very interested in the Holocaust from the German point of view (as in, he’s interested in understanding how people in Germany voted for Hitler) but I’m pretty much exclusively interested in understanding it from the view of those who were preyed upon. So going and spending time in part of what was once the Budapest ghetto really meant something to me. It was the first time I’d been somewhere “in real life” that was a part of this period of history.
So, given my excitement, it may come as no surprise that I got Leslie to go on a guided tour with me. We had two great tour guides and the entire thing was totally fascinating. If you’re interested in seeing a bit of the pieces and parts that we saw, you’re in luck (!) since I photographed some of the interesting tidbits and wrote up little explanations for you! So check out the web album.
So I really highly recommend you check this place out – the guided tour doesn’t take very long at all (around 90-100 minutes) and you get a real taste for Jewish culture along with some background about the Hungarian Jew population.
After finishing up we had a snack and then made our way to the bike shop, The Yellow Zebra. I highly recommend this place if you’re looking to rent your standard hybrid-cruiser like bike. Doing so is relatively painless and the location is great (right behind the Opera off the main drag). So we rented our wheels and then we were off! I actually took a video of Leslie biking and talking… and it’s pretty funny watching her try and manage that. So enjoy!
First up: the baths! Thermals baths are a tradition in Hungary- a tradition fixed in Hungarian culture starting around the 17th century when the Turks occupied the space. As I’ve mentioned, Budapest is actually formed out of two separate cities (Buda and Pest) that are now connected across the Danube river via bridges. There are actually fault lines running up the Danube area and this has made it a great space for springs of mineral-rich waters to sprout up. And, the Turks and Hungarians think these super-rich waters have healing properties – so they created these baths all over the area.
So Leslie and I decided it was high time we get in on this healing-water action. Biking over there was a breeze, though figuring out how to pay (and only pay for the right things) was a bit of a struggle. But (!) eventually it all worked out and we made our way to the baths. [As a side note: In the pictures you may recognize Leslie’s sports bra as my own – as mentioned, Leslie forgot her bathing suit top in Venice and, since the baths were only renting one-pieces, Leslie preferred to take the clothes off my back (literally)!
Now, I’ve been told that the baths are pretty much exclusively used by old people… but that’s not true at all! There are lots and lots of super old people in there but there were also plenty of younger people. Either way, Leslie and I had fun going for pool to pool (each one is a different temperature with, I think, a slightly different mineral composition). We also spent a whopping two minutes in the dry sauna room before I decided I’d pass out and die if I stayed much longer. But getting out of the sauna and jumping in this freezing pool was pretty fun! We took a video at the baths, so be sure and check it out!
After we finished up we spent there rest of the day biking around – across the big chain bridge, up to some palace thing (which provided a most gorgeous view over the cities), a bit up in Buda, and then back to the bike rental place. I highly recommend biking for anyone going to Budapest – though it is best to have someone with some bike experience and handling skills there – the roads and bike lanes are a bit non-intuitive once you leave the main areas. Hungarians seem to go between riding in a bike lane to riding up on the sidewalk and back with neither reason nor rhyme! But, we made it and Leslie was totally digging it! Yay!
After all that we finished our day at the Hummus Bar – a small delectably delicious restaurant! We ended up getting falafel-hummus pitas and a big thing of hummus… oh, and baklava. (We were starving having not really stopped for food all day). The people who run the place are super friendly. László, the guy you see, was super fun and quick-witted. Actually it was Leslie who said, “He’s so sharp in English… just think what he must be like when he’s actually speaking Hungarian!” So, yes, I highly recommend you check out this place on your next trip to Budapest – it’s cheap, delicious, and the people there are great.
After that we walked back to the hostel and pretty much called it a night – Leslie totally knocked out and I, go figure, spent time writing blog posts and captions for photos.
Budapest was fantastic. It’s hard to explain what makes the vibe so great, but there’s something! It’s true the language barrier is a bit of a problem from time to time – but I think the younger generation speaks English a lot more than their parents do.
So tomorrow we’re finishing up in Budapest and then making our way to Vienna!
Sziasztok!
And to see all pictures from today, go here
Day Eight: Welcome to No-English land (Budapest!)
June 30, 2008
Alright! Look at how far we’ve come already! From Rome to Florence to Venice to Zagreb and now, here we are, in Budapest. This move to Hungary marks an important turn in the trip. What’s the turn? Well, as I’ve mentioned, Leslie was sort of in charge of leading the way through Italy and I’m supposed to sort of quasi-lead the way in Eastern Europe. This means a few things
First: say goodbye to meth-driven Rick Steve!! And hello to Lonely Planet and random wanderings! (don’t tell Leslie but, yay!!!!)
Second: expect more action-packed adventures (i.e. biking through towns and the forced eating of authentic fill-in-the-blank weird foods)
Third: Expect more attempts to eat food gotten at local markets (this isn’t a me versus Leslie thing… it’s more of a something-we’ve-come-to-learn-while-traveling thing)
Fourth: Get ready to walk!!!!
I know Leslie’s excited and I hope you are, too!
So what’s been going on? Well, we got up after about one and a half hours of sleep in Zagreb, ran to the market, got a giant chunk of cheese (again, we didn’t know what kind it was), a big fluffy loaf of bread, and some peaches, and speedily walked over to the train station. And then *trumpets please* we got on, fell asleep on and off for about seven hours (seven hours is how long this ride was) and landed in Budapest! But even from this short ride we’ve already learned interesting information about Hungarians (because, you know, by meeting two we can make claims about the entire group of them!)
So, as I’ve mentioned, I’m a quarter Hungarian (my mom’s father was full on Hungarian). Now, my mom (and random others) have told me some interesting things about Hungarians. Here are the two main ones
1. (from my mom) Hungarians don’t express that much emotion and they don’t chit-chat. If they have something to say, they’ll say it. But unless the house is burning down, they aren’t going to just randomly initiate conversation with you. And, generally, they just aren’t that friendly.
2. (from Frane) Hungarians are highly sexually creatures
Now I’m not sure how 1 and 2 are supposed to go together, but who am I to judge?!
I can say, given my extensive experience with Hungarians (i.e. one woman on a train) that number 1 just isn’t so true anymore. Granted, they aren’t like Italians yelling cat calls midday, but they aren’t looking on in complete scorn or discontent either! So, the woman on the train, basically she ended up sitting next to Leslie and me and when she realized we were trying to find out way, offered to help explain it, get us on the bus, and even told us, once we were on the bus, which stop to get off at. And, it wasn’t like she only spoke when she had an important direction for us. Oh no! She told us a little bit about her sister, what she was doing on the train, how she liked Budapest, etc. It was great! And a very warm way to enter a new country.
And! Even before her Leslie and I had a positive Hungarian experience. When we first got on the train we didn’t know where on earth to go. We were fairly confident there were assigned seats (turns out there weren’t) so we were looking at all these numbers, etc. Now, I recognize that I don’t hide my emotions particularly well, and so I’m guessing that this old guy saw me looking up in confusion and decided to help alleviate it! But, of course, there was a small problem. He didn’t speak any English. So, instead, we played charades! And actually, it worked quite well. I made the gesture of sticking-the-card-in-the-validation-box and he acted back a “no” and then pretended to be the train guy walking past with a pen and checking it off. We went through a few more and they were fantastic! He was so adorable and so very very friendly.
So generalization 1 is wrong!
As for number 2 I can’t make any claims. Sorry!
So anyways, finally we made our way to our hostel, took a nap, and then decided to just walk around. And oh boy did we walk.
First we came across Judafest – a Jewish street fair in what was once the Jewish ghetto of Budapest during World War One. There were lots of people eating yummy food, singing, and just generally gallivanting about. It was so neat that we just came across it and then had the opportunity to check it out.
After Judafest, we made a stop at a restaurant for dinner, ordered some traditional-ish Hungarian food and chilled out there for a bit. Our waitress barely spoke any English at all but we made it work. The only bad part is that I think I’m somehow allergic to egg… because whenever I eat them I get such a horrible stomach ache. So I had that to deal with for a while, but otherwise it was great.
After dinner we walked up to Hero’s square and ended up stumbling upon a giant gathering of Hungarians watching the EuroCup: Germany versus Spain. It seems that Hungarians are for Spain and so we were, too! (well…because the Hungarians are and, of course, because of our Spanish friends). We sat down with the zillion of them and yelled and screamed right along. It was great!
After watching that for a bit we moseyed on over to the most gorgeous castle. We walked around, found a friggin frog prince hopping on by, and went out the back way into a gorgeous path. Budapest, like Zagreb, feels very safe at night.
While walking we stumbled upon two additional giant EuroCup parties. It was crazy! There were thousands upon thousands of people watching this game in a one mile radius alone!
After that we walked by the baths we were going to go to the next day and then made the long journey back to our hostel (but not before Leslie got her gyros fix).
So overall, it was a relaxing day used to get our bearings about this city… since, as the title suggests, not all Hungarians speak English. At all. So best to not get lost!!
Tomorrow we are going to the Giant open market in the morning (to get food and have a look around), Dohány Street Synagogue and Jewish Museum (which I’ve been excited about for a very very long time), and then we’re renting bikes so we can bike to baths and then around both Buda and Pest.
Doesn’t that sound like fun?!
Oh and to see pictures from this day, click here.
Day Seven: Old Friends in a New Country (Croatia!)
June 30, 2008
Zdravo! As you may have guessed, Leslie and I successfully made our way to Zagreb, Croatia! And, since there really was no sleep going on between the last post and this one, we’ll just pick up where we left off…
So Leslie and I awoke from our 30 minutes of sleep when, at around 4:30AM, the train conductor guy knocked on our door and said, “Zagreb!”. (Well, to be fair, we were rustled from our feeble attempts at slumber a bit earlier than that when the border cops came knocking asking to see our passports – but you know what I mean)
So we said goodbye to Fleur (who was taking the train to Budapest), grabbed our bags, and headed into the twilight of early morning Zagreb. Now at this point I was fairly awake, which I attribute to the fact that I sort of get a rush of excitement at the prospect of being somewhere new and having no plan. It’s like anything is possible and there’s no pressure to do or see certain things. It’s just you and this new place… so you get to go nuts!
But, since I can read your mind and all that, I know what you’re wondering “what do you mean no plan? Didn’t you have a hostel to stay in? Didn’t Leslie have some Rick Steve’s insight?” – and the answer to all of those is, simply put, No. Friends of ours (well, very good friends of Leslie) actually live in Zagreb and we were there to see them.
[So first a bit of background about the friends: Marin was a software engineer at Google with us for (I think?) five years before he quit and moved back to Zagreb where he was joined by his girlfriend, Chelsea. Frane is Marin’s slightly younger brother who we met when he interned at Google two summers ago. Marin and Leslie used to hangout a lot when he was still at Google – I remember they’d go down to the SportsPage after work a lot (SportsPage = local sports bar) and drink drink drink and talk talk talk (Marin, once he gets started, doesn’t shut up.ever). When I was up interning for the summer I went out with them a few times, too (and no, I wasn’t 21). They’d buy me all sorts of yummy drinks and introduced me to (I think it’s called) Jaeger-bombing? I don’t remember. The point is, that’s how we all know each other. Leslie actually keeps in touch with them (especially Marin I think) but I don’t (I just didn’t know them as well)]
So, why no plan, given all these connections? Well, Leslie had been trying to contact them for ages and ages but the communication chain was failing… miserably. It wasn’t until she was running out the door to pick me up to leave for this trip that she heard back at all. And, on top of all that, we hadn’t been able to get a hold of them to let them know that we were taking the insane overnight train from Venice to Croatia. Anthony, who has been our last-minute logistic helper, had been calling them while we were on the train, but it was all unclear and crazy. So at this point all we had was an address and some rough directions from Marin.
And so… we winged it. Leslie had spent almost two weeks in Croatia last summer and had a general sense for the area (which helped), so we managed to make our way to the main square area. From there we got bus tickets and made our way to Marin’s (after, I confess, a few hiccups). Once we finally found his apartment building we ran into a bit of a dilemma (well, as you’ll see, dilemma for Leslie… I thought the right course of action was fairly obvious). Marin and Chelsea live in one of those buildings with a little buzzer-panel at the bottom. You know, where you have to call someone up and then they ring you in the door. The problem was that, upon inspection, we realized that Marin wasn’t listed. But! There were two buzzers that had blank name plates. So what were we to do?
Well Leslie thought we should just walk around some more and, I don’t know, wait for some magical moment when Marin would realize we were in Croatia. I, on the other hand, was at this point fairly tired and had to pee… a lot. So I did what I thought best, I picked one of the blank name plates and buzzed. (And, to further paint the picture, the time it took me to deliberate as to the best course of action was about, oh, let’s say… 3 seconds.). Leslie at this point was totally mortified. I, in contrast, was only irritated that I didn’t hear a voice on the other end of the buzzing. I then, thinking my noble attempt had failed, proceeded to yell “Marin” up at the apartment complex. Leslie, I gather, wanted to crawl into a hole and die. But lo and behold who came down the steps in their PJs? Chelsea!
So we then went upstairs where, I am told, Marin was sleeping buck naked. We waited (well, I peed) and then Marin graced us with his presence. Leslie kept apologizing and apologizing while I looked on in awe. I mean, seriously, if I had friends from the other side of the world visiting me would I care if they showed up at the crack of dawn because that was the only way they could make it to see me? Of course not!! I’d get my naked ass out of bed and get the day started. Sure I might need a nap at some point, but come on! This isn’t like your friend down the street bugging you! We’re traveling gypsies for heaven’s sake!
So we all hung out for a bit and then Chelsea went back to bed and Marin took us to find a hostel. The first place was totally booked, but we ended up getting a great deal at this place right in the heart of downtown Zagreb. When I find out the name of the place I will tell you because if you ever stay in Zagreb, you absolutely must stay at this place. If you look at the pictures you’ll see why – it was super clean, the shower area was great, the rooms were adorable, and you really couldn’t ask for a better location.
Since it was so early we dropped our stuff off and walked around for a bit – we had a few hours to kill before we could officially check in. So Marin first showed me (Leslie is old pro at the Zagreb thing) the open Market. It was so so so awesome. I’m talking rows and rows and rows of local Croatian farmers selling their stuff. From fruits, veggies, flowers, fresh made cheeses, breads, handiwork – you name it, it was there. And it all looked so tasty (well, minus the handiwork stuff).
After that we walked around a bit more until deciding to get breakfast/lunch at this sandwich shop. In Croatia (and much of Europe) the “fast food” tends to be sandwiches. So we got those, watched some pigeons (which Leslie was totally into), and then went down to an Internet cafe so I could try (in vain) to post. At this point we were all running on empty and at one point or another we each fell asleep.
After all that Marin dropped us off at our hostel, we crashed for a few hours, and then went out to eat. We walked down this lane that was just filled with cafes until finding a pizza-ish place to go to. So a few things:
First: In Croatia everyone does the cafe people-watching thing. They have hundreds and hundreds of chairs set up outside where people sit, get a drink, and talk for hours and hours. At night, they’re totally packed. Midday, pretty much packed, too [I’m getting the sense that nobody *really* works in Europe].
Second: Croatia feels much much more foreign than Italy. While a lot of people speak some English, it’s not the same as Italy. In Italy I had enough Spanish to basically read the Italian signs. In Croatia, Spanish doesn’t help. At all.
So anyways, Leslie and I had lunch and people-watched for a while until Chelsea came out to play. She ended up showing us around the town a bit until we ended up sitting down at a cafe ourselves… and then… I admit… another Internet cafe.
Soon, though, Frane came out! Frane is so fun. You know those people who just desperately need to have their feathers ruffled a little bit because they’re just a bit too neurotic? Well, that’s Frane. Apparently last summer Leslie would give him all kinds of crap because he freaks out when people touch his food or get too close to him. So what did she do? Touched him every chance she got. I didn’t know this beforehand but found out on this special trip (see the Bubble-boy trilogy of videos below to understand).
So soon Marin showed up and it was the 5 of us. We got some delicious dinner, drank the nastiest shot of some domestic Croatian crap, and then went to a cafe before heading out to this super duper late night bar in the middle of, I swear, a friggin forest of beauty. People in Croatia party so hard. For instance, when Leslie and I got in to Zagreb at like 4:30 in the morning, people were still in their party clothes, finally going home after a long night. Madness!
Eventually Main and Chelsea called it a night… which means Frane was left alone with Leslie and me. And oh did I give him crap for his neurotic bubble-boy ways. We had such fun hanging out. (and I’m sure he agrees!)
But, sadly, at about 4AM we had to call it a night – Leslie and I had to catch a train to Budapest at 6AM.
Yes, we’re crazy.
Zagreb ended up being a beautiful and very intimate city. While it’s home to about a million people, it feels super tight knit. Marin, Frane, and Chelsea all explained that that’s in part because everyone meets up at the same places near the main square – so everyone sees each other. Plus, with the cafe-lounging culture it’s very clear that community is a priority.
I’m sad that the three of them are moving away soon… I’d like to spend a lot more time getting to know the (super biker friendly) area! Especially with the help of native speakers!
I guess for now we have to settle with making our way to (one of my many) homelands: Hungary! To Budapest!
And, of course, to see all the awesome fun pictures from our Croatia experience (plus fun comments and a bit of a Croatian history lesson), go here.
FRANE BUBBLE BOY TRILOGY!!
Day Six: Venice and “Venice-Venice”
June 29, 2008
So we managed to mess-up Venice. Funny thing about maps… if you flip them the wrong way, sometimes things that are “really” to your left end up looking like they’re to your right. So for instance, just generally, if you had a map of Venice (let’s just say) and you flipped it so San Marco *looked* like it was to your right, then it would make complete sense to start walking in that “right” direction. In fact, it would further make good sense for you to be pretty damn confused when, after a few hours of walking, you really didn’t come across anything like the “Venice-Venice” idea you’ve got in your head.
And that pretty much explains what we did. We had a map, we knew where we were, and yet, somehow, we managed to mess up every other piece of the map-reading experience after that. So, instead of spending the vast majority of our time in what I like to call “Venice-Venice”, where that means the Venice you’ve seen a zillion pictures of and all that, we spent a good chunk of time in just plain Venice – the Venice where people live, hang their laundry, sit around with their other Venetian friends, etc… So no, we didn’t actually see San Marco and the trillions of pigeons. No, we didn’t see a zillion cute shops. And no, I really don’t think Leslie wants to talk about it. If it’s any consolation, eventually we did find our way and managed to walk the correct way for about ten minutes or so, but that’s about it.
So now we can start from the beginning of our day and let you know what we did, in fact, see and do.
After a night of being eaten alive by mosquitoes, Leslie and I awoke to, thankfully, much cooler weather. This isn’t to say it wasn’t still super hot and humid, but, comparatively, it was a lot better than the day from hell (see previous entry for detailed explanation of what sort of hell we’re talking about here). Our hostel lady had mentioned that there was a grocery store right across the street from us and that we’d save a lot of money if we got food there and brought it with us to Venice. So, being the savvy travelers you know us to be, we decided to head over there and see what was going on…
First off it was air conditioned – so we knew things we’re going well. Then, we walked around and were shocked to see how good the prices were compared to the money we’d be spending earlier in the trip on food. But for me, the best part was the price of wine. You can get a bottle of wine for .99 euros! That’s like $1.50 USD!! You can’t even get a friggin Coke Zero for that price here (in a grocery store or otherwise). And, as a side note, I’d like to officially submit my complaint: Coke is way way way too expensive here. In Venice you were looking at $2.5 euro for one! And they’re smaller than in the US!
But back to the store…
After circling around once to get a feel for the place, Leslie and I settled on a few items: yogurt drink shake thingies for breakfast (I got a massive one while Leslie got a baby sized one and a little pizza thing) and for lunch, a big loaf of bread, a massive circle of cheese (the sort of cheese was unknown but we were feeling adventurous), fresh salami, and chocolate wafer cookies (though, as noted in the video, the cookies were really just mine. Leslie doesn’t really go crazy for cookies the way I do. She’s weird like that)
After buying our groceries, Leslie and I got on a bus and found ourselves in Venice. This is where we messed up. We ended up spending about two hours walking around the wrong Venice. At one point Leslie did say, “Something is just missing. Rick Steve said ‘get ready to splurge!!’ but there’s just nothing to splurge on.” Eventually we sat down and reexamined the map… which is when we realized that we had the orientation between the train station and Rome Plaza was off. As we flipped the map we slowly looked at each other. Shit.
But no matter! We found our way to the good area and decided that the best way to keep ourselves oriented would be to do what Leslie has been dying to do since way before the trip, namely, to take a gondola!
Leslie let me know that Rick Steve said that the average price for a ride during the day sits around 75-80 euro. And, that sometimes, they try and rip you off. I then knew there’d haggling in our future!! And oh do I love to haggle. We found a gondola place and Leslie asked them how much it was “cuantos cuestos?” They said 100 euro for 40 minutes. I then gave a look of surprise, grabbed Leslie, and told them that we’d been quoted at a lot less. Then we left. We waited about 2 two minutes before the guy came over and started the haggle-speak. I gleefully played and go us down to 70 euro for 40 minutes. It’s still a LOT of money, but this was Leslie’s big fantasy!It was listed as one of the things she was most looking forward to! And so, we went.
And, because this was Leslie’s big thing, I’m happy to announce that the following will be her verbatim account of the experience (finally Leslie types!!):
“Ok, we sat down in the gondola which had black cushions (pretty gothic looking) and a sketchy gondaler. It was pretty awkward at first because he didn’t initiate any conversation, but Heather and I managed to make small talk. This guy was born and raised in Venice and claimed he doesn’t sing (how did he qualify for the job then?!). Further, he ended up taking us the Venice way and not through “Venice-Venice” so yet again, we missed the opportunity to see what we/I had hoped.
On a positive note, it was great to ride through the canal and view the buildings from a different angle. Plus, I got to ride with my Heather and people did take lots of pictures of us on our “romantic” ride. It was nice, but next time I’d like to start the ride in the “Venice-Venice” area and ride at night. Hopefully Anthony will take me!”
And there you have it – Leslie’s account! I thought the whole gondola experience was super hyped up but I did feel a bit bad for Leslie. I think she was most looking forward to Venice and we totally messed up large parts of it. But, it was fun to see some of Venice from a different view and to learn a bit about life there. Plus, by nature I’m a giver, and so, I’d like to think by sacrificing my own “Venice-Venice” experience I’m giving you the information you need so you don’t have to! Yah, you like that don’t you?
Moving on with our day in Venice, after we got off the gondola we knew we wanted to go to Moreno, the island where all the glass blowing is. And so, we went by water taxi (which, I have to confess, was much cooler than the gondola ride since we went straight down and out through the main canal).
Moreno is friggin full of glass. Seriously, I don’t know how many days it would take to enter every single glass store on that island. Days! Weeks! Months! Years!! It’s incredible. And while most stores seemed to carry the same general stuff, if you looked hard enough you could find some unique-ish pieces in some of them. The two best parts of the Moreno experience were
1. Eating our picnic after a few hours of looking around (see video)
2. Directly after our picnic we went to the big glass blowing place on the island and we met a guy who I think must run the place. He was probably in his late forties, super well dressed, handsome, and (lucky for us!) chatty. So we first went in and looked around in the down stairs area because all the other areas were closed off. (in Europe all the stores close around 5ish… it’s weird). So we were looking around downstairs and we started talking to the guy. I told him I thought all the glass was beautiful and that I really liked the bigger fancy things, and that one day I’d come back and get some real piece of art from there, blah blah blah. Oh and we talked about California and all that, too. So we were about to leave when he looked to us and said, “So do you want to see upstairs?” At which point we must have looked like 5 year-old kids who were just asked if they’d like some warm chocolate chip cookies and cold milk (well, 5 year-old kids and me when I’m asked if I’d like some of that wholesome goodness…but anyways!). We said “yes!” and then he led the way. He took us upstairs, turned back on all the lights and before us were rooms and rooms of the most beautiful glass I’ve ever seen. This one room had serious pieces of art. I’m talking giant sculptures and pieces of the most brilliant colors and shapes. Soooo beautiful. He then went with us room by room as our jaws continued to drop and our eyes, twinkle. It was so fun. When we’d looked around enough we headed out the door and on the way out he looked to me and said, “I’d better see you here again, Heather. It’s this sort of glass that makes Moreno famous – and now you’ve seen it”. It was so neat.
After that we left Moreno and were all happy inside (because of 1 + 2 + our new jewelry!)
And then the craziness re-began.
So Leslie, being the “planner” on the trip recommended that we stop by the ferry station and figure out what time the ferry left for Croatia the next morning – that way we could figure out if we’d have time to actually go to San Marco and do all the Venice-Venice stuff. So we head over. Turns out, every single last boat to Croatia the following day was sold out. Crap! We then realized that the only way for us to get to Croatia by any time the next day was to take an overnight train… and overnight train that was leaving the station 2 hours after we learned of its existence. Now I thrive on these crazy hectic moments. Where decisions have to be made and you’ve got to go a bit nuts. I looked at Leslie, looked at the train station woman, and said “We’ll take them”. We got the tickets and ran for the bus station (remember: our hostel was about a 10-15 minute bus ride from where we were at). We stood and stood at the bus station but for the first time ever, our bus line didn’t show. For like twenty minutes, no bus. So what did Leslie recommend? (if you can’t guess than you haven’t been following this blog enough!) Leslie said, “Heather, we’re taking a cab”. I agreed and we were off.
We got to the hostel, checked out, jammed our stuff in our bags and ran out the door again. Luckily, we made it back with about 15 minutes to spare.
Now I’ve never been on an overnight train before, but to me it has a very Harry Potter Hogwarts feel to it… so I was all sorts of excited. Plus, I was over Venice and quite ready to leave a bit early. And, lucky for us, it turned out to be great. We were in a cabin that was supposed to hold 6 people (gods only know how) but it ended up being just the two of us and a girl named Fleur. Fleur is from Perth, Australia and before that Scotland. And, get this – she’s currently traveling all over Europe alone (which I think is so friggin awesome). She’s been all over the place and hasn’t run into any real problems (in terms of safety and whatnot). And, she’s going to continue to travel until all her money runs out. More power to her!
So there we all were chit-chatting away for a good while when the two guys in the compartment adjacent to ours ended up coming over because they were stuck with some crazy woman and her son. So that was super fun. We even got Fleur, after some serious persuading, to guest star in our video!! So I hope you enjoy that!
So that my friends was our crazy crazy day.
And, to see all the pictures from said craziness, you can go here.