Greece: Lots of old rocks, a little sunshine, very little work

Temple of Athena

Athens

After leaving Bucharest we hopped on a plane heading for Athens.  We flew Olympic Air, which was fantastic -fed a real meal  on a 1.5hr flight. We arrived to sunshine and palm trees and although it wasn't hot, it was a good 10 degrees warmer than Romania.  Unfortunately this was not to last.  Our first set of accommodations in Athens was to stay in someone's apartment that we had found on Air BnB.  It was a very basic flat that had several areas that were not up to code.  The central heating was broken and due to a argument between the tenants of the building was not going to be fixed any time soon, so we were left with a space heater to drag from room to room.  This wouldn't have been a problem except that we arrived just in time for a cold snap to hit.  The other bonus was the typical Greek hot water system- after a flick of a switch and a 20 min wait you get 20 liters of hot water to use.  I'm not sure what definitions of hot and 20 liters were used, but I highly doubt they were of standard units.  That being said we were there to see things, not to sit in an apartment.  We spent about a week in Athens doing the tourist thing, we went to the Acropolis, saw the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, did the museums etc. We were surrounded by old rocks everywhere we went.  Now don't get us wrong, it was interesting to see and to think how old some of the structures were and to try and imagine what life was like back then, but it was a little old rock overload.

Run

Athens itself is a crazy city, it seems to go on forever, and there is no such think as right of way when it comes to vehicles and pedestrians.  Watch your toes...period- they don't stop. There are cars and motorcycles everywhere, traffic lights are more suggestion lights and the natural hills of the the area make for some interesting parking scenes.  Luck had it that while we were in Athens, it was during the annual marathon. Commemorating the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C., bringing news of a Greek victory over the Persians.  It was a cold, rainy, blustery day out, but they still ran, they ran in tank tops and small shorts, long sleeves and big jackets, most with fancy shoes,  some with no shoes. And it all finished up at the site of the first modern Olympics in the "old" Olympic stadium.

Palamidi Fortress: Nafplio

Watch your step

Enough said

After watching thousands of people achieving a great physical achievement, we boarded a bus where we sat in the same spot for several hours on our way to Nafplio, the original capital of Greece, and currently a hot bed of rich retirees.   When you first enter into this small town, you can't help but look up and notice the Palamidi citadel perched on top of this town.  On our first day, we made it our mission to climb the 999 steps to the entrance and explore this fortress.  The weather was a little overcast, and with high winds.  As we climbed up to the top, the lack of hand rails and safety devices caused us to cling to what little we could find.  This was a massive fortress perched over the town, with section after section of cave-like rooms, and extensive walls that allowed the Greeks to defend themselves from their enemies.  As we wandered the fort we had to avoid multiple spots due to the heavy winds and opportunities for us to be blown into the sea below.

992... 993...

From the top, we were able to see a sheltered cove in which, to our surprise, multiple people were swimming in the sea.  They didn't seem to be rushing back to land due to the cold either.  We wandered back down the hundreds of steps and found that the wind dropped down to nothing, and while the beach was made up of stones, the water was quite warm.  We then found a sizable group of retirees hanging out.  It was a scene easily recognized from frequenting the Eager or Klassen household... old guys sitting around all day arguing back and forth as to who's hydro bill was the lowest, or who had the better winter plans.

Retiree beach

Mycenea

Within the next few days we found Nafplio to be quite comfortable, we took a day trip to Mycanea, an ancient city, in which Homer wrote about in the Odyssey and Iliad.  On our last day a few hours before our bus was to depart, the sun finally came out; a quick run through town to rearrange hotels, tickets and ferries and we headed back to the retirement beach.  Katy sat and enjoyed the sun, Will swam in the Mediterranean with the old guys.  Not a bad way to spend the day in November.

I'm on a boat

The next day we boarded an overnight ferry from Athens to Heraklion, on the island of Crete. Although a word of warning to you if you go to Greece.  We could have been taking the ferry to Iraklion, Heraklion, Heraklio, Iraklio or pretty much any fairly close spelling of the four previous places.  It makes it a little difficult to figure out where the heck you are and where you are going, because every book and map spells cities differently.  It has something to do with the difficulty of translating the Greek alphabet to Roman. ...Back to the ferry. This being our first ferry ride in Greece, we weren't quite sure of what exactly to expect.  We elected not to pay the steep amount for an overnight cabin, rather we were given a seat in the main lounge with all of the common folk.  The seats were chairs that you can move, but are not large enough to make yourself comfortable or sleep in.  We made several attempts to arrange these chairs to allow for some sleep, but the ferry company did a great job of finding chairs that were weighted just so if you put your feet up in one, and try to sleep in the other, you will fall out onto the floor.  We were able to get a few hours sleep as Will found a corner on the floor to curl up, and Katy was able to strategically place her upper torso on one chair, her rear end on another and her legs on yet another.

Chania

Chania

Well rested, we arrived into Heraklion at dawn and were off to find our hotel.  On our way the skies decided to open up and pour on us, and when we found the hotel, it was closed... apparently we were too early.  When the hotel help did show up, the employee seemed irritated that we were looking to stay there.  When we asked questions, pointed out the fact that the toilet didn't work and so on, we got yelled at.  It was a true pleasure.  We quickly got out of dodge and headed to another port town named Chania/Hania/Xania.

Ankle twisting gorge

Goats!

Upon arrival in Chania, we were greeted by a German girl running a small pension, who was interested in our business.  She showed us to a room, with a balcony overlooking the town square.  We said we'd stay a night and left after five.  Chania was where we finally started to understand Greece.  Between lazy mornings, watching the tourists from cruise ships from the balcony, and finding real Greek food it finally made sense.  Its not about working to climb the corporate ladder, it sure isn't about staying out of debt, but its about being with friends and family, relaxing and eating well.  Chania did not disappoint in the food department, we found a fantastic restaurant that we frequented several times, the free ouzo and dessert didn't hurt either.  During our stay, we took a day and rented a Fiat Panda and headed to one of the many gorges on the island.  Crete turns out to be an incredibly mountainous island, so we started in the morning on the coast in the sun, drove through snow capped mountains, then made it to a goat filled gorge.  We hiked a good 16 km, saw a plethora of goats and managed not to twist any ankles as we hiked on nothing but small rocks.

Santorini

We were sad to leave our port town and balcony, but we pushed off for one of the most photographed towns in all of Greece... Santorini.  If you've ever looked at a brochure for Greece and seen white buildings, blue round roofs and blue water, you've seen Santorini.  We arrived on a ferry and were dropped off, with the city a good 800m above us.  After being driven to our pension by the owner, we set off to see the picturesque town.  While we found breathtaking views of the sea, and some spectacular architectural feats of building a city on a cliff, we didn't find many other people.  While we walked the streets looking for food, we only found one restaurant open for lunch.

Stupid swimming in the "hot springs"

More rocks!

The next day, we were pleasantly surprised to be able to join an organized tour of a volcanic island, maybe a half mile across the sea from Santorini.  We set sail in an old schooner and were dropped off on a black beach.  Sulfur smells, black rocks rocks aplenty, we climbed to the top of the small island and saw a sleepy, yet active volcano.  We had some time left before departing and given the plethora of rocks we decided to build an inuksuk.  The second stop on our island tour were 'hot springs'.  The ship stopped, threw down an anchor and someone on the boat yelled 'We stop here for 30 minutes if anyone wants to go to the hot springs'.  In order to get to the hot springs, you had to swim through a good 200 m of choppy cold, open water.  While everyone stood around visibly cold, due to the wind and the late November temperatures, one Canadian on the boat (not Katy) said he was going to swim and nervously looked around to see if he was going solo or not.  A few minutes later Katy and the Canadian's wife were saying 'Stupid is as stupid does' as Will joined a few others heading towards  the springs.  What can be said about the hot springs is that they are warm, but even when in the warm springs, pockets of cold water are everywhere.  And swimming back to the boat, against the waves wasn't very enjoyable.

The donkey master

Due to the scarcity of things to do and people, we promptly left the next day via ferry back to Athens.  While we were getting a lift back to the port we asked the owner of our pension where he goes for vacation?  He stated that he goes to Athens to see family.  Turns out most Greeks travel within the country. He then started telling us about all his family in Athens and made a tangent swing about taxes and the government. He told us that his cousin worked for the hydro company and his monthly salary was recently cut by half, he went from making two thousand euros a month to one thousand.  How is that for some austerity measures?

Well worth the wait

Another ferry ride later we were back in Athens at a proper hostel-Yay!  It had dorms and backpackers, and even the other Canadians that we had met on Santorini.  We had one day to spare before we flew out to Turkey so we decided we were going to go to the major archaeological museum.  We headed out, being warned that it was in a dodgy area in the middle of town.  We arrived via metro and found that in the middle of the day it was not dodgy at all; just a typical big city with you standard mix of shoppers, workers, students, bums, and druggies.  We decided to look for some lunch before going in-looking at old pots and rocks can be draining.  We decided we both really wanted a gyro and a Coke.  Now this being the land of gyros (pita+ meat + lettuce+ onion + yogurt sauce + french fries) we had walked past gyros places every few minutes everywhere else in the city, sometimes there were 3 gyros places in a row.  But do you think we could find one when we wanted? Not a chance!  We spent about an hour walking around looking for a gyro.  To give some comparison it would be like driving for an hour to find a Tim Hortons in Canada or any major fast food joint in the US.  When we finally found one, thankfully it was one of the tastiest gyros we had while in Greece.  It was then time to hit up the old pots and rocks museum.

Really old rocks

The Athens National Archaeological Museum is supposed to be the best museum in a city of great museums, so we hoped we'd be able to stay entertained for at least a few hours.  Now on a high of gyros and pop, we went in to see some of the best rocks in all the land.  We found out that the Greeks had added vowels into modern language (thnks fr tht!), we saw the famous Zeus statue (that archaeologists aren't actually sure if is of Zeus or Apollo) and we saw a bunch of security guards playing on their cell phones and b.s.ing with their buddies.  Further into the museum, we found an entire wing of the museum (the section of old vases) was closed to the public.  As we looked on, a girl was clearly frustrated with one of the guards, trying to find out why the section was closed... which she clearly wanted to see very badly.  He couldn't tell her when it would be open or why it was closed.  We later discovered that it was because every room (including the rooms with every rock behind glass) in the museum must have a guard posted, and due to cut backs the guards had been reduced requiring the museum to shut down a wing.  Granted, we didn't care about looking at pots, but if you traveled a few thousand miles to one of the most famous museums in the world and weren't able to see the pots you've wanted to see all your years because the guards have some union agreement which allows them to play on their cellphones all day long and not to be overburdened and watch two rooms at a time, we would have been upset too.

Hats and winter coats- not in the brochure 

After three weeks, we were to push off to a land neither of us know much about: Turkey.  For the most part we enjoyed our time in Greece, but there are a few things worth noting before leaving this land.  Greece's major source of income is tourism, they recently (2004) hosted the Olympics, and yet Athens is not set up to accommodate tourists.  You could fall down a set of stairs into the metro station before you would notice where one is.  Police in the metro weren't helpful when alternate routes were required.  Bus stops don't exist, people just stand on the side of the road in an understood location.  While people do speak English very well, the majority of them did not have any time for the odd tourist that did show up in low season. The debt crisis that has consumed Europe that stemmed from Greece was based on them being loaned money for social programs the wealthier nations had, but they never had the finances to afford.  Although we feel bad for people that have had their salary drastically reduced out of the blue, we didn't get the general sense of anyone working that hard or making much effort about much of anything.

Romania

What City Council Approved This?

Overlooking Brasov

 After our failed attempts at getting some money out of the ATM in Romania, we exchanged a few Euros and took a bus into  town. (We later found out that Romania has a very high fraud rate-hence our cards got denied 3 times in 2.5 weeks despite us calling the bank every single time).  Brasov sits in a valley underneath a tacky Hollywood-like sign reading "BRASOV".  The town had a very Gothic feeling to it: a walled city with towers scattered around the town, a black church, and covered entirely in cobblestone.  Per instructions we took a left next to the Sex Shop and found our way to our hostel.

We were greeted by a gentleman in a suit, not your typical welcome to a hostel.  Shortly we had discovered that he was the owner and yet he couldn't tell us anything about the hostel because 'owned it' and 'didn't run it'.  He also let us know that he was hungover because he had been partying till late the night before and that he couldn't really answer any questions we had about the place.  Warm welcome, right?

We quickly discovered the staff to be atrocious at the place.  The girl who oversaw the place in the evening had a habit of making out with her boyfriend in the guest common area, and couldn't answer most questions, even those as basic as " I broke a glass where would you like me to put it?".  But we did enjoy a wonderful cast of characters that came through the hostel.  Just to give credit where credit is due here are a few highlights:

Rasnov Fortress

1. Woman from Boston / San Francisco: A woman well over 6 feet tall walks through the doors of the hostel with an enormous pack on her back flip flops hanging from the outside; when someone offers her to take off her pack she barked: 'I'm 50 years years old, and I've got a 60 pound pack on my back, I can't put this down!'.  She was traveling for three weeks, that's 20 pounds a week, and still didn't pack a towel.  Turned out she worked in a prison, had packed a Dracula costume and really wanted to party while she was on her vacation. 
2. Karen from Will & Grace: A short little girl who was in Greece for study abroad graced us with her presence for a few nights.  Like the character Karen she would walk into a room and start talking- even if no one was listening. Within 30 seconds of meeting her we found out that she had no small ego, was loved by everyone who met her and came from Queens.  She later asked about getting a driver for the day to take her to the various sights of Romania.  Other highlights were how her mom had 'given her permission' to dump all of her sheets that she had brought at Target so she could have more space to pack souvenirs.  When she became flustered and wanted to get out of Romania she told us 'I'll just get on the bus, throw some money at the driver and tell him I'm never coming back to Romania... I'm sure it'll be okay'.

3. Sanna-  Former Chemistry PhD student turned Law student.  Didn't want to grow up, so has had a constant rotation of living in Paris, the Mid-West and anywhere else that wasn't permanent.  Just turned thirty one, parents from Iran and had threatened to put her on 'somethingwecantremember.com', the Persian equivalent of Marry Me, where you should be married off after about three dates.

Dracula's Castle

Back to Brasov: this is the town to stay in if you want to see Dracula's castle and  climb some mountains (apparently the movie Cold Mountain was shot just outside this city).  The first day we climbed to the top of valley with the Brasov sign and saw the entire valley.  Lying in this valley was a sea of smog, but not a substantial population.  After one day in Brasov, neither of us could breath.   
Using Brasov as a base, we went to Bran on our second day to see Dracula's castle.  With all the hype imaginable, it was naturally going to be a bit of a let-down.  Still, we set off to Bran, and when Katy spotted a bunch of tacky souvenir shops on the side of the road, it was time to get off the local bus.  Perched on the top of a hill, there it sat... Dracula's castle.  This was the castle that Bram Stoker had described in the original novel.  It was at one time a legitimate castle that various royalty of Transylvania (Romania) had occupied. Now to sort out any confusion there was Bran Castle-used by former royalty, used for descriptions of Dracula's castle etc. and then there was the real person Vlad the Impaler also known as Dracula- son of Dracul, and Dracul translating roughly into Devil.  Vlad (now on our short list for cat names) was a Romanian tyrant who used impaling as a form of torture for his many victims.  We'll save you the gory details of what impaling actually entails, but feel free to Wikipedia it.

Katy as a Bat

On our way back from hanging out at Dracula's castle we made a stop in small town called Rasnov, that was equipped with a fortress and another Hollywoodesque sign.  We stumbled through the city and found the fortress sitting atop a big hill perched over the town.  I cannot emphasize this enough... this was the coolest fortress ever.  I'm talking this is what a 10 year old boy dreams are made of.  There was an external wall with a pathway all along the outside.  If you went too far off the pathway you would fall to your doom off the cliff.  Just for bonus points, we found bear scat along this path.  Inside the castle, there were almost no barriers, handrails or anything to prevent one from going over anywhere inside.  Mountains in the background, just all in all a great time.

Rasnov Fortress

Crossing the Tracks...

Christmas in Romania

After a few days in Brasov we decide to ditch our questionable hostel and its host of characters and go over to Sibiu. After our 2 hour ride in a minibus we arrived. Romania is interesting in that there are not really any highways, you drive a few kilometers at highway speed, then slow down while you drive through a little village, then back up to 100kms/hr, then 2 kms later slow down.  It makes for some long drives, and we were told by some locals later that this is why the train is busy at 4am.   Sibiu isn't much to write home about, pretty square, some nice architecture but it was fairly closed down on the few days we were there. We did see them filming a commercial in which the streets were covered in cotton batting and they were blowing fake snow over the houses.  Our hostel was also good with super great staff. The highlight of Sibiu was getting to our hostel which involved the following: crossing the train tracks at the train station (walk over 4 rail lines with trains right in front of you), look for the hole in the fence and proceed down the iron stairs to the road, turn left, walk a bit, turn right.  Not only was the description of crossing the tracks, but also the iron staircase with approximately 7 steps, in the instructions of how to get to the hostel. It was also funny to see that everyone just walked across the tracks, young, old, dogs, you name it.

Frat Party or Recess?

Sighisoara

As there was not much to occupy our time we headed over to Sighisoara via train, another small town with a old fortified city perched on top of the hill with a Gothic feel to it. Vlad the Impaler was born here, you can have dinner at his house as it is now a restaurant. There was an old clock tower which was impressive, some pokey little museums, some decent cabbage rolls but not to much to entertain us. At one end of town there was a covered staircase up to the school, we hiked up it and thought we were in the middle of a frat party.  There were teens everywhere, europop blasting out of the windows, people hanging around outside, turns out its just school.  Not sure if it was recess but for the sake of Romania's future lets hope it was.  We then moved onto the mountain ski resort town of Sinia.

Mountain + pollution

Castle in Sinaia

Sinaia was rather enjoyable.  After taking the train from Sighisoara we had some difficulties finding our accommodations.  As we were walking up a street someone asked if we needed help.  After some conversing in various languages (German & English) we come to find out that the person we are talking to was the flag bearer for the Romanian Olympic team in the '88 Calgary games. He was a bobsledder.  After finding our way we then were introduced to the owners of Villa Anna Maria, some of the nicest folks around.  The wife checked us in, gave us a map etc., after we had put our stuff in our room and came downstairs we met the husband.  He was a jolly fellow who spoke little English but knew a bit of German and once he found out I understood some French was very excited to tell us all about the town, Romania, and to share his homemade liquor.  In the name of 'tradition' we partook in the festivities...and then started to explore the town. We came across an old monastery, and another castle used by the Romanian royals at some point.  The following day we took the cable car up to the top (2000m) of a mountain in the Bucegi National Park.  It was a long way up.  In winter there is skiing, but seeing as we hadn't hit snow temperatures yet you could hike down it.  So we hiked, and we hiked and we finally made it down to the town. We were both quite sore the next day, however it was well worth it.  After a few more chats with our buddy the hotel owner it was time to make our way to our final stop in Romania- Bucharest.

Living the high life

We took another minibus to Bucharest and were picked up by a friend of the person we were renting the apartment from.  As we walked we started weaving our way through rows and rows of white block apartment buildings with all the laundry hanging outside, the dogs and the cars, graffiti, we were definitely staying in an ex-communist housing block.  To our relief, the apartment was much better on the inside than what the outside looked like.  We did a little bit of exploring in Bucharest, but really not that much. We had no troubles, however most people we talked to both travelers and Romanians alike warned us about being careful-especially of taxis.

Overall we both enjoyed Romania. It doesn't have a ton of things to do in the fall, I'm sure a visit to the Caspian sea in summer would be nice, but the people were unbelievably friendly.  We were not hassled or ripped off, people were genuinely happy to talk to us and help.  For animal lovers there are real dogs everywhere, no purse dogs here. The one minor annoyance was the air quality-turns out its the worst in Europe.  On clear sunny days there is a fog-like haze that hangs in the air, apparently its from all of the fossil fuels they burn for their energy in addition to all the old cars that wouldn't pass an emissions test.  Oh the other fantastic thing about this country that is definitely worth mentioning is the chocolate pretzels.  Picture nutella  in a warm soft dough with a slight sprinkle of salt-its carbs, sugar, sweet and salt all wrapped in a easy to hold, mess free, 30 cent package.  North America please take note and copy. One last thing regarding Romania-they love the soft rock hits. Especially the song "Lady in Red" or anything by Celine Dion or Micheal Bolton. Didn't matter where we were, what time of day, for 2.5 weeks straight.

Next stop...Athens. (Here's hoping we avoid any riots).

Where are all the gymnasts?

The Struggles of Travel

Train to Romania

It was pitch black outside, and just after 7pm when we arrived at the train station, we were taking a night train from Budapest to Brasov, Romania.  After the large display boards listed the gate number for our train, we found two seats on a nearly empty old train.  Four seats faced eachother with a desk inbetween, if it stays like this we should be alright.  A few more passengers got on the train, two Spaniards who reeked of smoke, and a handfull of locals.  Right on time, 7:55 we departed for the 12-hour ride.  Which of course we were looking forward to with the utmost of excitement.

A few hours went by and the noises of the train started to run together, occasionally we would hear a ringtone of Lady Gaga's "Judas".  Katy challenged me to cut throat game of 'Go Fish', when we started to realize the Lady Gaga wasn't going away.  After about an hour of hearing Lady Gaga going off over and over again every few minutes, I started to look further down the train.  There was a girl clearly passed out, and in the next seat to her were two neighbors.  One woman quickly motioned that it wasn't her phone.  So I went down to nudge the girl to wake her up...  She didn't budge.  After shaking her a few more times, I wasn't sure if she were alive or just on some really good drugs.  Anyway a few more minutes of shaking and Lady Gaga was finally turned off.  As we kept watching this sherade unfold, it seemed as though the girl had slept through her exit, and her ride was calling over and over again.  Being that it was after midnight, who knows if she ever got home.

It wasn't long until we were welcomed to Romania by the customs officials walking through the train car with passport scanners, a few questions, and some new stamps in our passports.  At this point, its after midnight, the train is almost empty and the florescent lights have never been dimmed on the train, so we pass into a semi-state of unconsious.  At the next stop (2am) in Romania, we are surprised to find that a good number of people enter on the train.

Next stop... 3am... more people get on the train.  This time, we have people join us in our section of four seats, so we have to sit up and hold onto our bags.  Next to us a family of four has shown up, with young children. Down the car a little ways a set of old women dressed exactly like you would think old women in Romania dress take a seat.  We both kept looking at each other thinking...Who gets  up in the middle of the night and gets on the train?!?

As we continue to pass out and wake up between stops, we see that at every stop we make, more and more people pack the train, with almost no one getting off.  Some people are talking, some quitely keeping to themselves, some with small radios (no headphones) playing great hits such as "Lady in Red", "November Rain" and "Thunderstruck".   The other thing that surprised us, was it was a full selection of people: young, old, men, women, you name it, it was on the train at 4am.

Finally dawn hits, we are about 30 minutes outside of our destination and this is the first time we've seen Romania.  After traveling throughout a Western Europe, Asia, South America and North America this definitively has a different feeling to it for us.  Sharp mountains are distantly in the background, fog rolls down onto the towns, the colors are uniform and the houses are simple.  As we continue from town to town, we see people driving horses and buggies on the roads.  In the fields, there are no machines, just horses, buggies and people manually doing the work.

We start to approach Brasov, the last stop for the train, everyone starts to get their belongs together and a few stragglers start to wake up; we pull into the station and get off the train.  We hop over some of the tracks and head into the station to find an ATM.

The message 'Declined' comes up on the screen.  We go to two more ATMs and Katy tries her card all with the same result...  Welcome to Romania.

Budapest: Warning Now Entering Eastern Europe

Buda on the Left, Pest on the Right

Its hard to remember arriving in Budapest, we have been here for over 2 weeks and the time has started to blur.  We took the bus from Vienna to Budapest- a short 2 hour drive followed by a 3 stop ride on the subway and we arrived at our next accommodation. First a note about the subway or metro in Budapest.  We have used several transit systems over the past month- London, Prague, Vienna- all with certain degrees of modernness or areas in need of repair. Upon arrival in Budapest we emerged from the bus and went to the underground. Upon seeing the subway car pull up to the station we both immediately stopped in our tracks and expected to hear the sounds of Mother Russia and the associated troops around the corner.  I don't know where they dug up these subway cars from but they are rough to say the least-with a hefty dose of graffiti and an apparent need for new brakes-desperately as evidenced by the noise we heard as it was pulling into the stop.  The stations we found vary in their modernness however it is apparent that the thought to put large font signs in multiples places to direct people had not occurred or was not included in the budget of the Budapest Transit Authority. (At one major station where 3 lines met there was only one sign per line on the platform).  One last thing to say about the Budapest Metro-if you want a true visual watch the movie "Kontroll" or Control in English, its about the ticket inspectors in Budapest-pretty good even if it was with subtitles.  

Outside the main Market

After the exciting journey through the socialized means of transportation, we found our accommodations easily (right next to one of the many "Szex Shops" in Budapest).  We were staying with a structural engineering PhD student named Kitti.  We had a room to ourselves in her fully-furnished apartment for a whopping $24 dollars a night.  Burdened with a full plate of working part-time, teaching and doing her Thesis she proved to be a fantastic host, telling us where to go, how to get around, tidbits about the culture and history of Hungary.  So we were off to a great start.

Terror Museum

One of the first places we visited was, based on our hostess's recommendations was the Terror Museum.  During the both the German and Russian occupation, the later of which lasted until 1991, they had a building in downtown Budapest where the secret police used to interrogate citizens for all sorts of reasons.  This has been converted into the city's most popular museum giving a history of the city during occupation. We found out that Hungary had avoided occupation in WWII until spring of 1944 when it fell to the Nazi party.  In about 6 months, the Soviet Union took over Budapest leading to a long period of socialist leadership.  It was interesting to think if the Hungarians had been able to stay independent for just a little longer, how different the country would be today.  It was a good museum, certainly not the most uplifting, and at the end you go to the basement floor and see the old interrogation / torture rooms and cells where they kept prisoners.

Over the weekend we were shown around by our hostess and able to see a bit more of the local culture.  One night she took us out to a favorite restaurant where we were able to try authentic 'Hungarian food' followed by checking out some of the night life.  Hungarian food is pretty intense... if they were to modify (or as Katy would say 'G it up') it just a bit, the food could be fantastic.  Most dishes are very heavy and not well-rounded.  Goulash, the most popularized Hungarian dish, is simply beef in a paprika sauce served over noodles.  Tasty, but no vegetables or any relief what-so-ever.  Hungarians are also big fans of cottage cheese and sour cream, they go on everything from pasta to potatoes to fried dough. All these food have potential to be great dishes, they just need a little expanding with locally available foods.  Also, almost all restaurants are packed with smokers making your reek for the next several days (get with the program Europe).  

Fisherman's Bastion

While the food needs some slight modifications, the bars don't.  We were taken to a "rubble bar" after dinner, which was an old building with several stories, done up with really random decor eclectic enough to come off as cool, with one room leading into another, and ample locations to sit, drink, listen to music or whatever you desire.  While sitting having a drink, there was a young bar-maid going from table to table selling of all things: carrot sticks.  Because the novelty, it has apparently been a big success in that bar- you can surely envision some of the conversations that must go on after a bit to much to drink and a girl sells you a giant carrot stick.  

It was 1991 when the last soviet socialist government official/troop left Budapest, only 20 years ago, so we've observed a few funny things about the remnants of the socialist era.  For starters, there are constant subtle reminders  about how everything is best here in Hungary.  One of the first tourist magazines we picked up mentions the fact that the Hungarian tap water is best in Europe!  It later goes on to mention in the General Information section that there are very few homeless people as there is national health care, people can get treatment so no one would need to beg on the streets (I didn't get the correlation either- we also found out from Kitti that the medical system is likely to fold within about 2 years and that most people who can afford it pay for private care or have to slip the workers in the national system some extra money to get any sort of decent treatment).   When visiting the National History Museum, we walked through an exhibit about how Hungarians contributed to every major leap in modern technology.  The best part of the exhibit was the phrasing about the accomplishments 'You might not be surprised to know that a Hungarian was instrumental in the development of the modern day television', not to mention the hologram, the surgical laser, and so on.  

Statues atop the Citadel

One of the must do's in Budapest is experience the public baths.  I know what some of you are thinking 'ewwww a bunch of people-some surely with questionable sanitation habits- sitting around in a giant bathtub for hours on end sounds like a sure fire way to get either a foot fungus or rash' (please note, Will is currently laughing at me).  So maybe there is a certain element of truth to it, but let's face it, people have been taking advantage of the thermal hot-springs here for a long time.  There are several public baths in Budapest, but we opted to go to the oldest: Szechenyi gyogyfurdo or as Will and I referred to it- Szechuan Fish. (Don't worry we plan to abominate every language we come across).  Its the largest baths in Europe, opened in 1913 and the water is supplied from a thermal spring with water around 75 degrees Celsius or 170 Fahrenheit.  Its a huge complex, on the inside are locker rooms and showers, after that you walk into a complex system of pools with various different temperatures from the cold plunge pool, the 34 degree pool with water aerobics and finally smaller warmer pools around the 38 degree range. Intermixed are a variety of saunas and steam rooms.  We however spent the majority of our time outside in one of the giant pools that hovers around 38 degrees.  There is a large Olympic length pool for laps in the middle and another pool on the other side which was drained and being cleaned at the time.  So we sat in the warm water and soaked away for about two hours. There was some good people watching at this establishment, from the women from Calgary who was telling stories about being chased by moose, to the old man corner where they set up a chess board on the edge of the pool and a heated battle of the minds occurs with visitors taking pictures.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the baths to post- if you Wikipedia-it, those are similar pictures to what we would have posted. 

Dove from Jesus Christ Superstar

Fuzzy Pig

One day we were able to hitch a ride outside of Budapest from our host, Kitti and visit the neighboring city of Szentendre, a posh little town where all of the tour buses go with fur shops, the 365 day-a-year Christmas shop and all the overpriced ice cream you could hope for.  It was pretty similar to Niagara-on-the-Lake, entertaining enough to keep us busy for a solid two hours and to grab a coffee.  But outside of this little town we visited an outdoor history museum where we spent the afternoon.  This was the equivalent of 'Colonial Williamsburg' or 'Black Creek Pioneer Village', with acres upon acres of houses built to reflect the different regions of Hungary around the turn of the 19th century.  While there were many pretty churches and houses setup for us to walk around, the highlight of the afternoon was undoubtedly the petting zoo.  Why, you must ask, would the highlight of this trip be a petting zoo?  Because this zoo had fuzzy pigs... fuzzy pigs, I tell you!  The pigs and all the other farm animals were just a little different from North American animals, enough to make it interesting.  The sheep had extra pointy horns, the cattle were super-sized and the doves wore bell-bottoms.  When Kitti picked us up and we explained with delight how we had a great time, she, being a local, didn't seem very impressed, but I'm sure you back home can appreciate how this was a highlight.

Parliament Building

Finally, the one thing that everyone raves about regarding Budapest is how beautiful the city is, we are here to say, what you have heard is correct.  For those not up on their Budapest history, it was once two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River cutting through the middle of this capital city.  The vast majority of sights to see are on the river where Bud and Pest has tried to show each other up when building their cities over the many years.  Per all the guide books, and again Kitti's recommendation, the best way to see these sights is on bike.  So, Katy and I bummed Kitti's bike, rented another and biked the town.  Seeming how we had been walking the city for a week at this point in time, we were pleasantly surprised as to how much ground you can cover on a bike instead of foot.  We toured a pedestrian island, road past Parliament, across the many World Heritage bridges, and finished the day by climbing to the top of the city and scoped out the city Citadel.    Skeptics, if you are out there, we must attest biking the city is the way to go.

All in all we spent two and half weeks in Budapest and had a great time.   Our hostess was great, the city had plenty to offer and was financially viable, the people were welcoming and we had no problems considering we only knew two words in Hungarian.  Both hello and goodbye are szia, pronounced 'see-ya'.   We could have cut the time back by a day or two, but the city definitely warrants a visit. Until next time...Szia! =)

Vienna... So Much Sexier Than North America

After our adventures through the Czech Republic, we were given a ride to Vienna from Jakob, a recent Civil Engineering grad working for a hostel.  By paying a sizable amount we were given the scenic tour of Czech Republic heading to Vienna, full of small villages, back roads and a guide/engineer to answer our various questions.  Passing from one country to the other was unnoticeable as there was simply a stand and a sign on the side of the road; no guards, inspection or any other hassles.

When we arrived in Vienna, there were a few striking details.  1) Vienna is beautiful.  2) Vienna is expensive.  It didn't take us much longer to realize that 3) Vienna's layout is bloody confusing.  Even for us seasoned travelers, we got completely lost the first night, walked in circles until we approached a well-dressed couple walking out of a Doctor's office, when asked if they could help they responded 'Sorry, we don't speak any German, do you speak English?'  Shortly afterward we were on our way to the hostel, finally heading in the correct direction.

While we had had great success finding activities that were free or close to it in other locations, Vienna was quite the opposite.  No museums had free admission, and all prices were steep for us (10+ Euros).  After assessing our options, we did splurge and bought tickets to the Vienna Symphony.  The following night we went to the Vienna Konzert Haus and attended the best musical performance either of us have heard, simply put the musicians were perfect.

With our uncanny eye for  a deal, we sniffed out the fact that we could wander the grounds of the Schoburnn Schloss for free... and there was a hedge maze!  This was the summer cottage  for the Hapsburg's (ruling family until early 1900's)  a nice little summer home.  The palace was enormous, gardens were spectacular, and in the backyard beyond the fountain was a little breakfast nook.  But more importantly there was hedge maze, one tall enough even for Will.  Being the children that we are we decided this was worthy of our 6 Euro investment.  After Will victoriously beat Katy through the maze, we both made it out alive.

Breakfast Nook

Hedge Maze

We try to partake in the local gastronomic staples wherever we travel and as a result we were forced to look for the ever present Wiener schnitzel.  We had obtained a map/info guide from the hostel we were staying in, the map wasn't worth the paper it was printed on but the food section put together by the hostel staff was slightly more helpful.  After wandering outside of the tourist district we found ourselves at "Schnitzel World" or something to that effect. From the outside it didn't look open, but when we opened the door the place was filled to the brim with locals waiting for tables.  Now this is our kind of place!  In Europe if there are large tables with some seats available you will be sat there and served independently of the other group. Keeping in this tradition we were sat at the table with the family of three who were finishing up their lunch.  Will was able to roughly translate the menu-there was certainly no English menus here like in the tourist area. We ordered and then waited.  As we waited we did some people watching, lots of people in and out, lots of large plates of tasty looking things going by, the local cops in to pick up their lunch.  Our plates finally came and our plates included the following: a piece of pork schnitzel that when unfolded was larger than a dinner plate, fried potatoes, potato salad, red cabbage, cucumber salad, lettuce salad, and 1/2 of a canned peach.  We are probably missing something that was on our plate due to the schnitzel coma that was induced after eating.  (The locals were impressed that we cleared our plates.)  Seeing that we had accomplished what we wanted to do in Vienna- eat some schnitzel, go to the Konzert Haus we got on a bus to Budapest.

P.S. We might be leaving out a few details regarding another stellar set of roommates in the hostel which involved snoring, vomiting and loose women in an 8 bed dorm room but we will spare you the details.