Author Archives: Natalie

Island Hopping

Well this morning I was awoken to birds landing on our tent and shaking the whole structure as they perked. I also had some uninvited roommates of ants that were crawling all around and even on me! I somehow managed not to scream and wake up the others in the tent. However, when I left to walk to the washroom I stepped in a lizard! This time I screamed as I heard its tail scrunch under my foot it did manage to runaway afterwards so I hope I didn’t hurt it too bad.,,

Andrea and I then made our way from the mainland back to Venice for our day of Island hopping. Beforehand we sat down for a quick coffee and croissant, but don’t worry no seagulls attacked us this time.

Our first stop was to the island of Murano. It defiantly took longer than we thought it would to get there. We were under the impression that the boats that went through the islands were more for tourists use, but they are sort of like a bus! They have multiple stops typically one for each island, but sometimes two, one on either end. When we got there we followed the other tourists that got off and walked along the perimeter to a glass studio where there was a free demonstration taking place. It was fascinating! The glass master first of all is a job carried on by those in the family and like the profession that is passed down through the generations. Therefore there is no actual place or school you can go to learn. It also takes an average ranging between ten to fifteen years from the age of fourteen before you can master the trade. The glass is over 1000 degrees Celsius and when it is being formed it looks as though it is a soft and tangible plastic. Constant spinning, rotations, pressing onto surfaces and blowing the metal pole are the only things used to make the creations. In the demonstration it took him less than two minutes to make a figurine of a horse and when we were later shown to the store it was being sold for fifteen Euros! After walking around the island which was mainly just workshops and very expensive store filled with glassworks we made our way to the island of Burano.

Now I was super excited to go to Burano as I had seem so many photos of all the colourful houses and wonderful handmade lace that the island is known for. Back in the day when the fisherman use to head back home from a day out on the sea with a bit too much of alcohol there weren’t able to easily identify high house was theres. So as a result, their wives started to paint their houses in outlandish colours so that the husband could easily identify which was their house.Now it was so much more in person! The colours are all in array with different colour window shutter and curtains covering their front doors. There are bridges that allow you to cross the water and boats in the front of the houses rather than parked cars! As we weaved our way through the alleys away form the main drag the colours still continued on. We ventuakly waked the whole side of the island and ended up by a fishing port where all the nets were hanging from a day our in the water. As we walked back to I admired all the lace along the street stands, we got back on the boat and headed over to the island Lido.

Now by the time we got to Lido not only were we bombarded by tourists since this is apparently the resort island we were also starving. We headed into the first restaurant that we could see and watched all the tourists pass by who looked like they were returning from the beach. We went the opposite way of the crowd and magnates to find a beautiful beach. It must have been all imported sand but it was so nice and sort between our toes. After walking along the beach we headed back to the boats and we needed to make sure that we would be able to get back to the camp site before night. As we were on the boat it started to pour of course we were completely unprepared so we wrapped our scarves around our heads for just a little protection. From the boat terminal we dashed to the train back to the mainland and thankfully when we got off then train the majority of the rain subsided. As a out stop on the walk to the camping site we grabbed some of the very best gelato I have ever had and went straight asleep as soon as we managed to make it back to our tent!

Glamping

Starting off the day we grabbed a croissant to go and headed over to the Doge’s Palace our way there as we were passing through the San Marco square and seagulls flew down and snatched Andreas croissant from her had and cut her finger! I thankfully was able to protect mine, and in the line up the children started to clap in celebration and laugh at the sight! We made it to the castle with no other interruptions and headed inside the castle. Inside was beautiful furniture all lined with gold and then most beautiful chandeliers I have seen. They were glass blown and in colourful and playful designs. Each room had a different chandelier and was painted or covered with wallpaper. What was really interesting as well is that some of the rooms had secret hidden doors that were used by the servants so that they would not associate with the royals and nobles.

After looking through we went off to the market to buy a whole bunch of fruit for lunch. Included in this we bought a quarter of a watermelon for just 2 euros! It was all so messy but so fresh and good! Again we went to our favourite little spot, the steps onlooking the water on the side of the market. Since we were able to get here relatively early unlike other days we were able to see the fish market. Well I was actually able to smell it before I saw it! It was fun to watch the locals buying their food for the day and see the tourists follow suit.

We went back into the San Marco square and went to the Museo Correr, which includes the library, and the Archaeology museum inside there were three other museums all within one building and interconnected. The library portion of it was so interesting, the books were form at least the thirteenth century, there were also maps and globes too. Canada wasn’t even drawn onto most of the maps. Then we went to area that had so many busts all of whom we presume were famous Greek statutes that the Romans obtained. Even though there were so many different types to me all the faces started to look the same! After finishing up we were a bit tired of museums, so we went and grabbed some gelato and sat San Marco Square. We then still didn’t know what at else to do, so we roamed the streets and somehow managed to end up at another gelato shop. With a different flavour of course. We then sat down by a canal and watched gondolas pass through. As dinner time was approaching, or as the Italians refer it to ‘happy hour’ since they eat to late here we went off to a tapas sort of bar where we were able to get all we could eat for just 2 euros. We grabbed our plates and loaded up of bruschetta, pasta and rice. There were so many different types of bruschetta that ranged from deep fried tuna, artichoke, beans, capers and of course with tomatoes and basil. Once we felt we justified our all our can eat we needed to cross the other side of the water so instead of walking decide to get a taste of a gonadal ride by taking a treghetto over to the other side. So technically we did ride in a gondola. We then grabbed our gear and made our way over to the mainland to go to the camping site that we will be staying at for the next few nights. No according to Andrea and the website this is t the typical pitch a tent camping. There are tents along with cabins, big washroom facilities, restaurants, bars, Internet cafe and pools: making it glamorous clamping or Glamping. Of course it wouldn’t be an adventure if we didn’t get lost. We needed up having to ask many local at shops, hotels and on the streets befor we got there. What was suppose to be a half an hour walked turned out to be at least double that amount and walking with our big backpacks in total of three hours lets just say that we were very excited to be able to go to sleep. Now it’s been quite some while since I have camped so we shall see how this night goes…

Bellini

We must have been tired last night because we slept in till eleven! We both turned off our alarms when we were sleeping, defiantly not the place to sleep in but I guess we needed it! To start off our day we walked over to the market to grab some fruit to eat while we once again just got lost in the streets. We passed by so many local shops all selling a wide array of things; ranging from leather gloves, kitchen supplies to so many baked goods. On both in the middle of the streets and along the sides vendor spent up little shops mainly selling masks, handbags and oh so many different souvenirs. I have no idea how they are able to all be in business since they sell the exact same goods at the exact same price right beside one another. Even though the walls within the maze of the city block most of the sunshine within the city there are still pockets of sunshine that beam down and luminate an alley with an angelic glow. On other streets are fully exposed to the sunshine and were probably a reason why we weren’t that hungry! Making us to be true Italians who don’t eat when it is too hot outside. So instead we opted to gelato! Now this gelato place was set like a frozen yogurt store, self service and all the toppings you could want! We quickly ate our gelato before it melted and headed over to our walking tour.

What was interesting is that the tour focused on the opposite side of the tourist madness where the people of the island live. First and foremost I learned that the shape of Venice is thought to be as of a fish, so it is all around the city. Also Venice is compromised of a 134 islands with over 348 bridges! Liked this fun fact? Don’t worry have more for you! Italy and Venice more specifically was where the first ghetto for WW2 was and ghetto actually comes from the Venetian dialect for dump. Also the houses in Venice are always prepared for flooding. In the front doors there are metal plates that slide onto the front of the door creating a barrier against the water. These metal plates go up to my mid calf; also during the rainy season in Venice there are wooden planks that are all throughout the island so that people can still get about when it floods! Instead of checking the weather Venetians check the sea levels: if the sea level is estimated for anything 80 and above they then can prepare for flooding.

After the tour we went back to the same pizza place as last night and again grabbed it to go and ate it at our spot along the water. Judge all you want, but is was cheap, easy and most importantly delicious! Later on we grabbed our bottled Bellini, (yes that exists and want it back home) and some cherries from our market purchase and sat at San Marco Square. At the square there were three different orchestras playing famous classical music and people dancing,clapping and watching. We watched the sun set behind the square and as dusk set in the lights turned on around the square and what a sight that was to see and just experience.

A city of islands

We have made it it Italy! Our overnight train wasn’t the most comfortable, rather than having a couchette we had seats and needless to say a full train with people drinking the ride the whole ride I didn’t get the best of sleep. At least it was our last overnight train for this trip!

The train drove from the mainland over to the island and for about five minutes we were driving on water. The bridge was at a much lower level so that it seemed as if you were gliding along in boat. Once we we got off the train station just a few short meters away there was a canal and boats all in the water. It hit that I was actually in Venice! Even though it was water all within it, like Amsterdam did it was so different. We checked our bags in the train station grabbed a map and wandered the maze of the city. We only grabbed a map so that we could find our way back to the station. The street of Venice are literally a maze! We unanimously decided that we would not try to navigate our way around and instead let the streets take us around. The brick wall walls are no more taller than four stories and have balconies where baskets of flowers hang and laundry is hung across to the other side of the streets. We weaved our way through ending up at dead ends of brick walls, houses and docks leading to the sea. What is so strange is that on one street there would be no one but Andrea and myself walking. along but as you turned the corner there was every tourist in Venice! We were able to make our way to San Marco Square. St. Mark’s Basilica and the Rialto Bridge was sadly under construction but even then it did not disappoint. Restaurants were along the edge of either side and people were sat along the edges enjoying passing the time and watching the vendors and people walk by. We partook in this and I enjoyed a super cheesy calzone! We walked to this exhibition where all there was was life sized boars with red paint smeared across their face, defiantly contemporary arts that might give me nightmares! Making our way to the train station we went inside Basilica di Santa Maria Della Salute just a few of the many churches on the island.

We were able to find our way back and grabbed our bags and went off to our hotel. Yes hotel not like hostel, thanks to Andreas parents! Thank you Chuck and Bridget :) It was right along the high end shopping street less than a five minute walk to San Marco Square. No doubt that the reception was wondering why in the world two backpackers were checking in. After settling in we went to search for dinner, we ended up at a pizza place and grabbed a huge pizza for less than six months euros! We walked to where the food market was earlier in the day and sat along the pier. After dinner we went for a walk to park. It was so huge and reminded me of Stanley Park the walk was right along the water with plenty of benches looking about to the water with people running by. We sat on a bench with a view of San Marco Square and waited for the sunset. It was stunning, as we walked our way back to the square we set a new conquest to find a Bellini. An absolute obligation since Bellini’s originated here. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and passed out tired from a long day with not that much sleep.

Socializing like no other

Today is our last day in Vienna! We took the beginning of the morning to rest up and pack up. We the went off to meet with Sarah! She took us around the first district. I can also proudly day that I had Manner Wafer. They literally have any flavour you could imagine and all possibilities of merchandise; that’s right from bikinis to even baby onsies! We went inside the St Stephan Church which we somehow managed to miss when we went sightseeing before. What was really interesting is that placed in the outside church wall were metal measurements. Apparently these were used back in the day so peasants could measure goods and not be cheated by the merchants. One was to to measure the length of fabric, and size of bread. If a merchant was found guilty of ripping off a customer they were caged and dunked into the river! We then went through the high end shopping district working our way to the Jewish Quarter!? In the open square there was a monument shaped as a book store in remembrance of the books burned and Jewish whole were killed during the Nazi regime. We then went inside an office to see the coolest elevator I have ever seen! It was an old wooden one where you had to jump into it to get inside. When we rode it down to the bottom the axis rotated it to go back up, I have never seen anything like it before! Afterwards we walked to one of the summer palaces known as the Hofburg Palace. Apparently the royal family felt too isolated from the city in their primary castle and as a result they built this one, which is now used as the Parliament headquarters. We made our way to an ice team store to have a cone and then say our goodbyes.

Andrea and I then went off to meet Charlotte at the Belvedere. The royal family must have loved having castles, as the art gallery was a former palace. Now I I’ll admit I don’t know much to anything about art yet it still astonishes me how talented artists are. It’s now a surprise to anyone that I can’t even draw stick men :) Another interesting thing about the Belvedere was that they had a sketch of what the room looked like and what’s its purpose was when the royal family inhabited it. Exuberance can’t explain how they must have lived. For example, they had a marble cabinet room, a two story chapel and a minimum of three drawing rooms. Afterwards we then explored the gardens and then made our way to meet Chris for coffee. Well I had Apple strudel, and it was delicious :) Chris was one of Andreas grade seven classmates, a fellow UBC student and just happened to be in exchange in Vienna: such a small world! We then headed back to Charlottes to make a quick dinner and headed off to the train station to go to Venice.Hopefully third time is the charm with our overnight trains, especially since this is our last overnight train during our trip!

Salzburg

Today is Andreas and I’s 50th day anniversary. Or in other words we are halfway done our trip and still haven’t left one another yet, so I say its going well :)

We are off to Salzburg for day and much to our surprise the train had wifi! Now this is so rare its lie spotting a four leaf clover in a meadow. We came to the rational conclusion that this was especially for our anniversary. Lets just say that it was the most enjoyable train ride yet!

Once we got into Salzburg Andrea noticed that is was recycling day there and grabbed a piece of cardboard and headed off to find a hill to slide down. Now she says that she used to do this back at home and that it worked but I was skeptical. We did find a hill and she tried to slide down the hill but she wasn’t able to go! People sitting in the benches began to laugh as did I. She ended up log rolling down hill instead. After the fun was over we went to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens. Which I had just learned the night before was where the Sound of Music was filmed. Then intricate patterns of the flowers in the garden beds was so pretty. When we got closer to the flowers I realized that the designs where with rocks as well, which I wasn’t able to see form above. To walk further into the town we crossed the river where we finally saw some mountains! In Europe people often refer to mountains as what I consider hills back at home. Andreas classification that if you can drive up to then top than it isn’t a mountain, which is not certainly that case here. Crossing the bridge lead us to be bombarded with Mozart everything, and I literally mean everything! Whatever you could place Mozart on there was a Mozart store that has it! We then passed by the birth place of Mozart where the street level has been converted to a very high end bar! We also went to the Salzburg Dom, Nonnberg Convent, and St. Peter’s Abbey. Inside the Abbey there was like an open courtyard with tombstones in the middle and along the covered sides there were extremely elaborate graves. Some had wall high paintings, statues and fences barricading them! After eating lunch in the University of Salzburg’s courtyard we walked past some students sketching scenery; oh how I wish I could draw! With some newfound energy we descend up the hill to go to the Salzburg Fortress. It was insanely steep but the view was so rewarding! We made sure to take it all in before we had to go back down again. Going down was even more dangerous! This should have been the time for Andrea to try out her cardboard sled! We made it down in tact and then roamed through the streets once more stepping inside cute local shops before heading back to Vienna. Once we got back to Charlottes we realized that we need to slow down since we’ve been keeping busy the past few days!

Later Ljubljana

We started off our morning by going to Ljubljana Castle. Ascending up the insanely steep hill we were out of breath with the quick change in altitude when we got to the top. The view although pretty was mainly covered by overgrown tress. Even at the top of the castle the people of Ljubljana still were proudly wearing medieval costumes and had stations were you could fight a night or shoot an arrow. Inside the castle they had an exhibition where they showed the renovations that took place over the castles, as Andrea mentioned, the majority of the castle didn’t look the same as the prior photos. In fact the inside of the castle was very modern and seemed to have been converted for the appeal of tourists. Since there was a very open connect floor plans, gift shops and restaurants win side it.

Heading down the hill we made our way to Tivoli Park. It was huge and we lost a little sidetracked of where the museum we wanted to go to by all the vendors and sorts centres there were. Eventhough online we saw that finding the Museum of Contemporary History it was as if they didn’t want the public to know about it. When we finally made it inside we were literally the only ones there besides just two employees. It was a really nice museum, a lot of the information was just more in detail and comprehensive. Its hard to believe that the country was only founded in 1991! And it still has more history of Vancouver although in the past it was owned by 10 different empires/ countries.

We then went on grab some lunch and dinner for the train. This proved to be a bit challenging since the grocery stores are closed in Sunday, but we were able to manage. After having a rather late lunch we walked around the town a bit more before catching out strain back to Vienna.

Museum Hopping

This morning was a rather early one, as we had to catch our train to Ljubljana for the night. Woooott woot adding the country of Slovenia to our growing list. Now as you can see from the original itinerary, Ljubljana was never in the list, but throughout our travels we heard wonderful things about it, and were convinced we had to go when we saw a picture of a castle on a rocky cliff with aqua blue water beneath it. It also helps that we have our Eurorail pass essentially allowing us to go anywhere at anytime! We have absolutely no idea what to expect when we get off this six hour train aside from the quick google search we did last night, but I suppose that will be the fun if it.

When we got off the train station it was heavily raining, we grabbed a map and went our way to find where our walk tour was meeting. Waking past the stores we realized that ALL of them were closed! Now at this point we were trying to be optimistic, but the thought that we just went six hours to an abandoned town was in the back of the mind. There wasn’t any holiday that we knew of..Thankfully as we got closer to the main are we found people, and stores open! What a relief :) Our tour guide loved both history and architecture, which made for a perfect combination for us. The only disappointing thing is that by this point it was pouring, we thankfully wore our oh so fashionable plastic ponchos so we weren’t drenched! Ljubljana cultural history is full of legends, one story particular is about the death of the dragon, the dragon has became the town mascot! You can see it everywhere you go, they even have a Dragon Bridge. Our tour took us around Presernoc trg Square, Town Hall (where apparently the mayor takes selfie breaks outside), Central Market, Butchers Bridge, Triple Bridge, Krzanke Summer Theatre and Parliament. Essentially wound the whole city! We also went inside the Francisan Church, what is rather interesting is that each for for the church depicts a different story. For example the side we visited goes through a chronological timeline of Christianity in Ljubljana and is depicted by carvings within the door.

After the tour we grabbed some much needed dinner we walked past a wine festival going on in the main square. We were able to have a glass of local Ljubljanan wine for just a euro! If I had to guess there were about 50 different vendor booths set up. Just a few blocks next to the wine festival there was an outdoor concert playing. Shortly after we needed to make sure we were able to take advantage of the Night of Museums, the one night of the year where all the museums in Ljubljana were open until at least 10pm and all free entry. Otherwise known as the best day ever for Andrea! Four museums late and we decided to call our night of museum hopping a success,

An everything performance

Andrea shall finally be able to ride a bike today! She has been yearning to ever since she used Fabians back in Erlangen. Vienna has a well developed bike share program all around the city, just like Vancouver has Car2go. So we made our way over to the closest bike station near the Danube-Auen National Park. We read online that we could register to rent a bike for only one euro and that the first hour with the bikes was free! Yet, when we tried to register at that station it wasted to charge us twenty euros each just to registers. We couldn’t figure out why and assume it could be because we have international credit cards. I just saw it as a sign that we shouldn’t shouldn’t go biking and Andrea didn’t seem so impressed with my theory ;)

We then made our way back to the city centre and went on a tour of the Vienna State Opera. Now our tour guide was completely disinterested and clearly didn’t like his job, but I was able to prod and find out some super interesting things. First of all the building is jaw dropping! The detailed ceilings covered with gold and statues all along the sides were throughout the whole building. The Opera also had different waiting rooms for each intermission and also private reception rooms that people could purchase along with their ticket. For if course a small fortune, but this was where the nobles and royalty watched the Operas. Also the only performances that are permitted to this day are only ballets and operas. What also makes the Vienna State Opera unique from any other opera house in the world is that they have a different opera every night! So yes that means that all the performers must know a set of operas and be able to rotate between them flawlessly. It also means that the stage crew has to take down and set up the sets every single day for the different performances. There are three different stage crew shifts that operate 24 hours per day. Now I find this a waste of time and resources, but they Opera has always functioned this way and seems that it will only continue to in the future.

Afterwards we walked the Vienna Ring Road a five kilometre walk in the city where most of the tourist attractions are. We then walked to the Museumsquartier and walked around the beautiful buildings where the the majority if the city’s museums are. We peaked inside the Naturhistorisches Museum and the inside looked like a palace rather than a museum! We then made our way back to Charlottes to have some dinner and meet up before we went to the ballet.

With Andrea, Charlotte, Christina, Joanna and I in tow we went over to the Volksopera to watch Carmina Burana. We were able to get standing spots for just three euros each! I was able to see the whole stage and every the whole orchestra too! Now if I was to life in Vienna you would bet that I would be at a different show every night. I suppose that what makes Vienna a city of performing arts and culture! Now the performance started off as as interpretive dancing worked its way to modern and contemporary ballet for the first act. Now the second act is where things turned around there was some classical ballet but then it turned into an opera and modern stage! Since there was no program available none of us knew what was happening at least plot wise but it was so captivating! For just going to one show here in Vienna I am glad it was this one because it literally had every variation of the performing arts! At the end if the show assumed that it was a performing arts school years recital but after the show I looked online and found out that the Volksopera is that it is all compromised of aspiring performers from the ages of 12-18. As a sort of an upper level community program, despite this they were amazing and was defiantly a show I will never forget!

Fairytale Castle Time

We started off the day by heading out to Schönbrunn Palace, the formal summer residence of the royal family. Now it was huge! I’ve seen photos of the castle, but it was nothing like I expected in person! Just more exquisite and grand. The palace wrapped around the whole lot, that there was no way I was able to capture it all in a photo no matter how far away from it I stood. Eventhough we didn’t go inside when we walked up to the exterior staircase we could peek inside to see and see the gorgeous ceilings and furniture inside. We walked through the perfectly maintained gardens and headed to the fountain. What I thought know as interesting is that the fountain had statues of the Greek Gods and depicted them each it a pose that demonstrated their attributes. We continued our way up and walked up to take in the view. And also we were able to seek shelter from that rain that decided to make another appearance…After the rain stopped we walked through the forest in our way down and I realized how little actually green space similar to what I consider a forest, aside from Hamburg, during my time here. The palace grounds even have a botanical gardens and the oldest zoo in Europe. We managed to peak into the cages and spotted a fellow Canadian, a buffalo!

As we made our way back to the city centre I of course had to find a donar kebab, as it my goal to have one in every country and judge the best of them all! After lunch we walked along the Rathaus where we realized it was pride week. We walked into the village, but it seemed very empty and there wasn’t that much going on. Apparently on the weekend it is where everyone goes to celebrate. We were able to snag a free ice cream from one of the booths and made our way to the University of Vienna. It is the oldest university in Austria and also within the German speaking world; founded in the thirteenth century. Inside the main entrance there was a courtyard where busts of famous alumni we surrounding the perimeter. I personally would feel intimidated to be going to the same alma mater as scholars like Sigmund Freud.

We then later headed off to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, sadly the front of it was covered for restoration, but the inside did not disappoint! We then took a well deserved break in the park outside the church where the city had supplied lawn chairs. So we rested for and enjoyed the sunshine that made an appearance from behind the clouds. Afterwards we went back to Charlottes to go to her university wherever the rest of the roommates to watch a jazz concert that was playing. Apparently this band only comes to play once a year so we were lucky! They thankfully some classics that I knew and they also had a singer for a few songs who sang in English. So Andrea and I sang along to be joined with the rest of the crowd. It was a super fun atmosphere, there were people of all ages just enjoying the music! The Vienna imagined. After the concert we all headed into the park to watch the bats fly back an forth and gaze at the stars. However, the rain decided to make a reappearance and forced all to head back home.

Medieval to Cultural Haven

To start off the day we got all of our things ready to go for our train to Vienna later tonight, but before we still had the whole day ahead of us in Bratislava! We cant get enough of castles, well at least not yet, so we decided to spend the day at Devin Castle. With it being just less than an hour away we caught the bus as were on our way! When we got the it was already stunning! The castle looks as thought it was built right now to the edge of the cliff and the stones stand out to the lush forests surrounding it. This castle is most likely the oldest one that we will see on our trip as it was apparently constructed and inhabited all the way back to the fifth century. Apparently you are able to see three different countries from this view. Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic. Since they are all neighbour Slovakia and are in such close proximity to Bratislava. It then stared to rain and there was no where to hide so we headed on back. We walked through the town one last time before collecting our things and going to Vienna.

In just less than an hour we arrived in Vienna and thankfully the rain hadn’t followed us. We made our way to Charlottes and got a little lost on the way. We ended up missing the fact that could take a bus from our tram stopped and waked instead. Oppsss, at least we get an eve better workout since we are wearing our backpacks! Once we mad it there we got tour of the place which included their specular view of Vienna from the rooftop terrace. Conveniently that night there was a movie under the stars being shown right in the square in the front of their place. We sat down to wait for the sun to fade and watch the movie. We had an unobstructed birds eye view and could even hear it too. Now none of us knew what the movie was about since it was in Dutch and had German subtitles, so we made our own plot to go with it! After out attempt I think I will leave the screenwriting to the professionals :) Even bundled up it got rather chilly so we headed inside to shortly fall asleep.

Slovakians, not Slovenians

Throughout our trip we have been rather fortunate with getting enough sleep at our hostels, unlike the horror stories we’ve heard from travellers. For our time in Bratislava we choose to stay in just a four person room. To our surprise our two other roommates were at least early 50 year old women! One of them snored like nothing both Andrea have heard before, let’s just say that earplugs and headphones couldn’t deafen the noise. In the morning with whatever sleep if you could even call it that the lady had the nerve to complain to us that we were noisy. Thankfully they both were checking out that day!

We then made our way to the city centre for our walking tour. Now before the trip I didn’t know anything about Bratislava or even where in the map Slovakia was. Apparently this mistake is very common. When President Bush was there and spoke in front of the public he welcomed them as Slovenians even though the Slovakian flag was right beside him. Our tour guide was so informative and let us get to know local traditions and the best places to get a bite of anything! We now know to stay clear of Slovakia during Easter weekend since being a girl reasons in you getting water throw on you and then hit by willow branches by any guy at anytime. After making it through to the end of our tour we needed to try to get some sleep in order to be able to function later on. Once we were all rested up we went to Bratislava Castle. Now there wasn’t much of a castle to see as the whole gardens were basically all dug up with construction around it but there was the very of the city! On our way down we walked into the entrance for the medical city walls. It ha to imagine that the city was once constricted to just within the small perimeter, and there were lots of vendor shops all lined up. Thankfully they were all closed for the day when we were there. We then walked back into the main centre and made our way back to the hostel to catch up on last nights missed sleep.

Bye bye Budapest

To start off our last day in Budapest we meet up with John and Paul for a coffee. Now these lads adore and know their expresso! I tired to follow along with then coffee talk but I don’t think its the same if you don’t drink it for pleasure and necessity. Once we went our separate ways Andrea and planned to make the most of the cheap pricing and of our substantial amount of Hungarian Forints. By going over to the spa before our train! We headed over to, but sadly everything’s booked up for the rest if the day. Determined we went into every other spa we could spot walking done the streets but no where had any vacancies for us even though there was no one inside! So instead we decided to do some shopping, to try to find Andrea a shirt. We went down the major centre and up the main streets as well to come out empty handed. As we were walking to grab a bite Andrea realized that she dint have her money belt on! Instant panic, as we she literally had all her cards, money, eurorail and passport inside. Thankfully we went back into a store where she tried clothes on and security had it there with everything still inside. Lets just say that thankfully she didn’t have to learn her lesson the hard way and not to keep all her eggs in one basket ;)
Crisis averted, and we got a well deserved ice cream and made out way to pick up our backpacks and catch the train over to Bratislava. A quick three hours train and we were in Slovakia! After walking to our hostel we rested up from our shopping and spa day fail with a bit of excitement in the middle for a fresh start tomorrow.

Parading around Budapest

We started off our morning with going to doing a general walking tour! Lucky for us it was the same tour guide that we adored from the communist tour we did a few days before. Yet this time it was even better since there was no rain just lovely sunshine. We mainly toured the main sites that Andrea and I have seen the last few days, but it was fantastic to get some more insight on what we’ve seen! We passed through both side of the whole city. Lets just say that we were a little tired afterwards so we went back to the hostel to freshen up and have some lunch before heading out again.

Today there is a parade for the ?!?!? Festival. We hit the streets with John and Paul in search of the parade. It was easy to spot by the marching band lining up along the river. As the parade began we all began to march along side then. We had Canadian flags on tote on our belongings to it was as if we were proudly presenting Canada in the festivities :) Each costume from every country was so elaborate, detailed and looke way too warm for this heat! Most of the counter that partook in the festival were from Central and Eastern Europe and you can’t forget China either! The parade snaked through the streets all to meet at the city square.

Within a few minutes cultural dancing began. Each of the rare step countries performed a traditional dance routine and some countries even had live music and singing accompany the dances. Even for these countries being is such close proximity to one another their dancing was so diverse. All the routines were so well polished it was really impressive for just a recreational level of performance. After a long wait for the little Chinese girls to perform their acrobatic routine we went to go and grab a bite for dinner

The four of us then decided to go out to a ruin bar. Instead of not using the underground cellars bars and clubs had renovated then for their use. We went to szimpla kert. It was the first ruin bar in Budapest and it had super interesting furnishings. There were lamp chandeliers, driftwood table tops, old cars renovated to be seats and other insane creations. We went to watch a band playing in one of the back rooms and when they invited the audience to join them Paul went up and killed it with them! By the time he finished that the the room was packed. Afterwards we headed out to go to the middle of Elizabeth park where the everyone goes to drink for heading in. When I say everyone I literally mean it all the benches and grass in filled with people, so much so that people were sitting on the pavement. In the middle of the square there is a pool, but actually it is the roof for the club. Sadly when we went to check it out there was no one in the park unlike other evenings and the club was closed. So we settled on all walking back to our hostel along the river and having and resting up, but not before singing along the streets! We were a rocking quartet!

Hills and more hills

Today we decided that we would spend it on the other side of the bridge, in Buda. We crossed over the Chain Bridge as we were walking up then hilltop I turns around and was taken away by the view. I just can’t get over how beautiful the Parliament building is! When looking down I could see the changing of the guards or at least that is what I thought it was. They were six guards and the all performed sequences while playing then trumpet entering and circling the fountain outside the building. The both us gave up trying to guess what they were actually doing and kept going up to the top. Once we finally got the the top we saw lots of stags and bachelorette parties going around the palace. We circled the palace, we weren’t able to go into the gardens since they were hosting a private beer garden. We walked out to the back and saw the ruins from bombing in WW2 and also we got the view of Buda. Now apparently Buda is the more expensive side of Budapest to live in, but to me the only good thing about living in Buda would be the view of Pest, other than that it seemed rather run down and out of the city centre.

After viewing the what we could of the place exterior we headed over to see the ?!? Church. It is certainly wedding season as since we have been walking around we saw at least four different wedding parties and three different couples getting photos taken. I am sure that both Andrea and myself have photo bombed them, not on purpose though it was just enviable to get in the shot! The building are so prestigious all white with columns and detailed tiled roofs. I can definitely see the Turkish influence. We saw Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion at the heart of Buda’s Castle District.

After sightseeing we wandered our way to the Mall in hope to find Andrea a skirt! The mall had a mammoth/ caveman theme. It was so strange! There was one part where there where mammoths on the ceiling! We weren’t able to find a skirt but that malm visit was quite a unique experience!

We headed back to our hostel to make dinner and rest up. We head from other travelers around that Liberty statute was awesome to go to for sunset. So away we went to cross the river once again and climb up an even bigger hill! A twenty minute workout later after walking at basically a 90 degree angle we walked all the way up. What is really interesting is that the Nazis use to use it as a watch tower when they occupied Hungary. We continued on to find a bench a wait to watch the sunset behind the city. The others were right it was beautiful. Before the sun completely set we went back down the hill and by this point the lights along the bridges, parliament and the castle went on. Budapest is just stunning!