Day 36 - June 20

Recovery Day

Today wasn't too eventful - we just visited the massive Great Market Hall, where I tried a sweet version of Hungarian Langos.  We then walked to the top of Gellert Hill, where the Hungarian version of the Statue of Liberty stands, and then we went to a mass in the cave church under the hill (Going to a service in the cave church is the best way to experience it and the only way to visit it for free).  The Buda side of Budapest is very hilly and full of massive underground cave complexes.  Caving is a very popular and recommended activity in Budapest, one that we missed out on but one that I'll certainly do if I come back someday.

On my last night in Budapest, I went to the Backpacker's Pub Crawl again (if you do it once, you can do it for free every night for the rest of the year  ...so long as you can manage to keep wearing your orange paper wristband).  Curtis stayed in the hostel and slept (He requires a lot more sleep than I do) which is what I should have done too because I left the pub crawl very early due to an upset stomach (probably the Hugarian Langos).

Dessert version of Langos

Great Market Hall

Great Market Hall

Liberty Bridge

Hungarian Statue of Liberty - she's holding a palm branch

Statue near the Liberty statue

View of Budapest from the top of Gellert Hill

Day 35 - June 19

Recovery Day

The day after our pub crawl, we did what any local Budapestian would do to recover - visit the baths.  We went to the biggest baths - the Szechenyi Baths in the park.  They have dozens of different pools of different temperatures and different mineral and sulfur levels.  It was nice.

That evening, we, along with our whole hostel, went on a boat cruise on the Danube where everyone is provided with a bottle of crappy but potent champagne.  The views from the boat were spectacular, but it wasn't the best for socializing because it was about 80% males and they're all drunk on champagne so it's like being stuck on a boat full of ravenous hyenas scavenging for their next meal... I mean social interaction with the opposite sex.

Heroes' Square

Heroes' Square

What is George Washington doing in Budapest?

Szechenyi Baths

Szechenyi Baths

Outside of Szechenyi Baths

Vajdahunyad Castle - it was built for Hungary's Millenial exhibition at the turn of the 20th century and is made up of replicas of famous buildings around Hungary, especially of Hunyad Castle (now in Romania)

Vajdahunyad Castle

Chain Bridge from the boat cruise

Parliament at night

Day 34 - June 18

Recovery Day

The first things of note that we accomplished on our first day in Budapest were a visit to St. Stephen's Basilica followed by a free walking tour of the city.  Whenever you're in a major city in Europe, always be on the lookout for free walking tours (You're more likely to get them if you stay in hostels, because often hostels cooperate to put together free walking tours that are only available for their guests).  Of course, "free" comes with a catch.  It's still pretty much expected that you tip the guide at least a couple Euros worth if they did a decent job (or a gazillion Hungarian Florints - that's about what the conversion rate is).  Granted, not all walking tour guides are decent (as we later discovered in Vienna) but this one in Budapest was excellent and certainly deserved more than the small tip we could giver her at the end.  The walking tour also gave us an opportunity to meet some of the people staying in our hostel and other hostels around town, and afterward we stopped at a pub for some traditional Hungarian goulash with Mike from San Diego who's studying biomedical engineering in London.

That night, we went on a pub crawl that was basically made up of people from different hostels across Budapest.  We had a very small group (like 10), but it was fun and we got to experience Budapest's "ruin" pubs in the Jewish quarter.  Basically, they're big abandoned buildings - apartments, offices, even a dentist's clinic - that have been turned into big clubs and bars.  They're not remodeled much from their abandoned state, but they are decorated in the strangest of ways (giant plastic bats hanging from the ceiling, half-human-half-rabbit sculptures, etc.).  It's not as sketchy as it sounds, but it's every bit as crazy as it sounds.


LOTS of pictures for today...

St.. Stephens Basilica Panorama (It's so big I had to use panorama mode to capture the whole thing floor to cieling)

Inside the dome of St. Stephen's

Ferris wheel in the main park square

Chain bridge

View of chain bridge from Castle Hill

Statue at the castle

St. Matthias Church

Fisherman's Bastion

Parliament from Fisherman's Bastion

Hungarian Parliament Building - the most beautiful building in Budapest and one of the most beautiful in the world

Chain Bridge

Baby and St. Stephen's Cathedral

St. Stephen's

A church

Day 33 - June 17

Recovery Day

The greater part of the day was spent traveling - almost 7 hours from Maribor to Budapest. Fortunately, we were on a train, which is far and away the most comfortable and reliable mode of transport there is.  On the train, we met a couple of gals from Scotland.  Upon arriving at our hostel in Budapest that evening, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it seemed to be managed by a bunch of hippies from around the world.  This was made apparent in several ways: the place is a "no-shoe" zone, half the staff members have dreads, and fortune-tellings are a normal part of the check-in procedure (apparently Curtis is going to be rich and I'm going to find my soul mate soon).  After, checking in, Curtis and I got some Thai food near the hostel (Pad Thai is now one of my new favorite foods) and we later met up with the Scottish girls at a pub for some beers.  Hungarian beer is quite good... and quite cheap.
 

Day 32 - June 16

Distance: 7.0 miles hiking (11.3 km)

This morning we did the hike that everyone "has" to do when staying in Bled - Vintgar Gorge.  The Vintgar Gorge is basically a canyon/gorge cut into the hills just north of Bled where the river flows over a bunch of waterfalls and a wooden path (built in the 1800s) takes you along the cliff faces and over the waterfalls.  With Kravice in Bosnia, Plitvice in Croatia, and now Vintgar Gorge in Slovenia, I've seen so many waterfalls on this trip, I'm definitely not following the advice of TLC.  I just keep on chasing them. 

Anyway, in the afternoon, we headed for Maribor, Slovenia, where we'd stop for the night before taking the long train ride to Budapest.  Maribor is a small city located in a wine-growing area near the first foothills of the Alps.  It's an attractive place with a nice old town and lots of Hapsburg-era architecture - similar to Ljubljana but even smaller.  We got there on a Monday evening, so the place seemed especially quiet and empty.  We hiked up to the hill overlooking the city where the castle used to stand (its ruins were recently excavated).  After that, we just watched the US play Ghana in the World Cup and went to bed.  We've got Budapest ahead of us, and from what we've heard, it's going to be a fun and exhausting place.

Maribor

Maribor

Vineyards on the hill above Maribor

Castle ruins above the city of Maribor

Quite a sunset peaking through the rainclouds

Monument depicting a bunch of important saints

Day 31 - June 15

Distance:  1.0 miles running (1.6 km), 0.7 miles swimming (1.1 km)

We started the day by walking the 1 to 2 miles to the end of the lake closest to the island.  There, I swam a quarter mile to the island with the church on it.  They have boats that take people to the island, but it's much better to swim.  You get the best view of the island from the water, the water's warm (well, not cold), and it's free unlike the boats!  The only downside is not being able to go into the church when you're shirtless and soaking wet... and also the huge, mildly aggressive (but harmless) fish that inhabit the lake and brush up against swimmers, nearly giving them heart attacks (This didn't happen to me, but I'd heard stories).  After finally reaching the island and pulling myself out of the water and onto the boat dock, I dried off in the sun, talked to some Slovenian dudes who had also swam over, and then climbed the 99 steps to the top of the island and up to the church.  Curtis had chosen  to take the boat over, and he brought my phone and a shirt over so I was able to go up to the church and take some pictures, but I didn't go inside (that costs money).  After making the swim back, we walked around the other side of the lake and back to the hostel.

Later in the day, I went for another quick swim before going to mass in the town's church.  I had to walk over a mile to get to the spot to where you could swim for free, so I jogged part of the way.  The swelling in my ankle is stiil there but I'm not sure slow running is any worse than fast walking.

The rest of the evening was spent in the hostel getting some things done on the computer, watching some of the world cup, and making plans for getting to Budapest.

Anyway, I'd have some pictures from today, but they seem to have disappeared. Oh well.

Day 30 - June 14

Distance: 22.0 miles biking (35.4 km)

We rented bikes in the late morning and took them for a lap around the lake and then through the villages in the area surrounding Lake Bled.  We started by heading up the hill (everywhere we went was uphill, it seemed) to the villages above Vintgar Gorge.  After about 5 miles or so (total guess) it was looking like it might rain and Curtis turned back but I didn't care about getting wet so I kept going.  I ended up riding along a stream into Triglav National Park for a couple miles (Triglav contains Slovenia's highest mountains, which I will have to come back to someday to climb).  I then made a wide circle around Lake Bled, traveling through the hills and villages within a few miles of its shores.  By the end of the afternoon, I had ridden about 22 miles (calculated afterward with Google Maps).  Given that most of it was going up and down huge, steep hills, my legs were quite tired.  I really, really needed a good workout though.  The biking allowed me to do that without putting stress on my Achilles.  It was an unbelievably beautiful ride with perfect weather - the rain held off until about 10 minutes after I got back to the hostel.  It was really nice to get out and travel a long distance through the countryside again.  It hasn't even been a week since I (almost) stopped running, and I've been longing to go out and explore places on foot.  Biking provided a decent substitute, but one that makes your bum hurt a lot more!

Church on the island and Bled Castle in the distance

Probably the first and only picture of Curtis I have taken or will take on this trip - he doesn't like being in pictures, and I don't take a lot of pictures with people in them

Typical scene in Slovenia

They really like churches with red roofs!

Waterfall

Biking in Triglav National Park

Relatively clear I'd say

Horse drawn cart - how the Slovenes get around - jk