I'm about 99.2% sure that I speak for Koby, Kaye, Enrique, and myself when I say that climbing Machu Picchu Montana was one of the most difficult thing we have ever done. We woke up at 4AM to get ready/packed up and enjoy our free breakfast at Gringo Bill's before we headed for the buses. After breakfast we headed out to wait for the buses that start heading to MP at 5:30AM. We thought we were ahead of the game... nope! We had to wait about 45 minutes for a shuttle bus!
We got through the gates at MP at 7:57AM and headed for Montana Mountain. It was already starting to get warm, even though it's almost winter here. Holy guacamole, the hike is no joke. I mean, we were already out of breath before we reached the check in gate for MP Montana.. It's labeled "moderate", but in my opinion I would say it is difficult in intensity and moderate in skill. We got about half way up and we're really contemplating turning around because none of us were dressed for that. All in jeans and t-shirts; none of us thought we would be climbing a 10,050 foot mountain that morning. It took us about 2 hours to climb to the top. The views were "literally breathtaking" (good one, Kaye!). But really, I can't think of a word other than amazing. We were so high up, any mis-step close to the edge could be the end of us (dramatic but true)! We were level with the tops of majestic mountains and al out touching clouds, insane!
Then we started our descent, which was rough on the knees and took about 45 minutes. We then explored Machu Picchu and spent a good amount of time playing with the llamas. MP is incredible, and you're surrounded by these huge, green mountains; it's magical. I'm sure you've seen pictures, but it's honestly one of those things you have to see to believe.
We waited in line for a shuttle down, totally beat/sweaty/dirty, for about 45 minutes, then arrived in Aguas Calientes once again about 30 minutes later. We headed straight for a restaurant for pizza and beer, so needed- so satisfying.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Back at it again; Peru Edition!
Greetings from Peru! We're currently on a gorgeous train ride from Poroy (Cusco) to Machu Picchu! It's a five hour ride, so we have plenty of time to update.
A few months ago my best friends invited us their trip to Peru, so we looked into flights and costs and it's all really affordable!
So when they asked us to Machu Picchu, I said, "Alcapca my bags!"
Koby and I were overdue for a trip. I didn't think we would explore South America for a looong time, so this is so great! Also, before you think, "OMG I can't believe they went to Peru with the Zika virus outbreak!" It's not in Peru, and we're so high in elevation so there aren't even really any bugs. We're responsible travelers and wouldn't put ourselves in unnecessary danger.
Anyway, it's five months later and here we are!
Round trip flights out of SF: $600
Train to MP: $200
Tickets to actual MP: 650..?
Hostel/Accomodations: $180 approximately
Food/beer: $30-$40
So it's about $1200/person for 9 days, not bad at all!
Everyone can afford to travel, you just need to buy your tickets and go! Make that a priority over your nights out at bars and restaurants.
We left our apartment at 4:30AM Monday morning (after 2.5 hours sleep) to drop our car off at my cousins house in Pacifica (thanks Vanessa!), and head to SFO. We checked into our flight and checked our bags. I recently bought a new pack pack that can be used as a carry on(savings you $$$)! And all of the straps zip in so it just looks like a duffle. AND it has a small, detachable backpack for days trips! The brand is Osprey and it was $180 at Sports Basement, honestly some of the best money I have ever spent. AND it unzips all the way like a normal suitcase so you don't have to reach down and dig around for every little thing you need. Excuse the rant, I just really love it, it's made traveling so easy thus far. Back to the story. Our flight was delayed 3 hours and we ended up having to take a different fight to LAX so we didn't miss our connecting flight to Lima. Once we arrive at LAX we enjoyed some much needed adult beverages and met up with Kaye and Enrique! Then we boarded our flight to Lima!
LAN airlines in amazing! We were served lunch with complimentary beer and wine, m&ms for dessert, a snack later on, more complimentary beer and wine, and they continuously walked around with water throughout the flight. The meals were even served with real, metal utensils! And actual glasses. We collectively decided later that that was actually pretty dangerous in case there was a murderer on board, but we made it to Lima without getting out throats slashed, phew.
We arrived in Lima at 12:30AM, got to our hostel at 2AM, making that about a 22 hour travel day on hardly any sleep. The next day we got up, got coffee, and headed to lunch and a brewery. Same shit, different country. Trying new beers and eating whenever we're together, haha. Lima wasn't my favorite, very crowded, busy, dirty, not too beautiful. Maybe it's nicer on the outskirts.
We then grabbed our bags and headed back to the airport to fly to Cusco! And wow, Cusco was so beautiful even at night. Less crowded, people obeying traffic signals, clean streets, friendly people. We checked into out hostel and went to grab some pizza around the corner. There are no shortage of pizza and chicken places in Cusco, that's for sure! We passed out and in the morning we headed for city center and just general city exploration. Cobble stone streets, incredibly beautiful buildings, and just so much history! There was also a ton of stray dogs. It's really sad:(.
We went to Dragonfly hostel to try their craft beer! Cool hostel with really good vibes; we sat outside and enjoyed some pretty good beer. Then we had lunch as this delicious vegan place called Green Point. We ate like kings for $35 and it was so nice to have some veggies! Next we found a few few craft beer bars.. Then we went grocery shopping for snacks for the train and headed back to our hostel to rest up and get ready for today!
Now it's the next morning at 4:30AM and we're all awake getting ready for MP! Aguas Calientes, the town of Machu Picchu, is so cute and breathtaking and we're surrounded by huge green mountains and it's just amazing! We're staying at Gringo Bill's and we're upgraded to a suite with an amazing balcony!
We will post pictures when we have better wifi.
Chow for now!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
The last bits
Excuse the previous lackluster update, we've both been quite tired and didn't put much effort into it.
Amsterdam was amazing. Definitely one of our favorite cities. It's quite small, but so, so beautiful. Somehow it was warm-ish and sunny when we were there, which according to a friend that lives there, was quite rare! We did A LOT of walking, ate delicious thai food, and also met up with one of the first people we met in Ireland! Our paths have crossed about three times since we left Kilkenny, it's been really nice hanging out with a familiar face.
Our overnight bus was.. an uncomfortable overnight bus, as one would expect. We had to get off twice, once to go through customs, and again to board the ferry. After we arrived in London, we boarded the bus once again and drove for another hour or so to get to the bus station. From there we dropped our bags off at the hostel, freshened up, enjoyed a delicious English breakfast, then met up with our good friend Heather from high school and her wife, Charlie! We went to the Natural History museum, got bangers n' mash (also delicious), and found books for our journey at the book store. It was really great to catch up with them; it was like no time had passed.
The next morning we met Koby's Aunt Terri and Uncle Jeff at the airport and caught a ride back with them to their house in Wales. We all pitched in and cooked dinner together that night; it was really great being surrounded by family again. Yesterday, we went to the grocery store for provisions for today's journey, Koby's aunt made a fantastic chicken stew, and we all watched a couple movies together by the fire. This morning, Koby's uncle dropped us off at the train station, and we took two two-and-a-half hour train rides (with an hour layover in between) and we are currently waiting for 1 AM, which is the earliest we can board our ferry to Dublin that arrives at 5:50 AM, where we will sleep in their airport until 8AM, go through check out, then be on our way to New York, then finally, CALIFORNIA! In total, we had/have about 48 hours of traveling. Not exactly how we would like to spend the last day of our journey, but we're both REALLY looking forward to In n Out, so it's kind of okay.
Amsterdam was amazing. Definitely one of our favorite cities. It's quite small, but so, so beautiful. Somehow it was warm-ish and sunny when we were there, which according to a friend that lives there, was quite rare! We did A LOT of walking, ate delicious thai food, and also met up with one of the first people we met in Ireland! Our paths have crossed about three times since we left Kilkenny, it's been really nice hanging out with a familiar face.
Our overnight bus was.. an uncomfortable overnight bus, as one would expect. We had to get off twice, once to go through customs, and again to board the ferry. After we arrived in London, we boarded the bus once again and drove for another hour or so to get to the bus station. From there we dropped our bags off at the hostel, freshened up, enjoyed a delicious English breakfast, then met up with our good friend Heather from high school and her wife, Charlie! We went to the Natural History museum, got bangers n' mash (also delicious), and found books for our journey at the book store. It was really great to catch up with them; it was like no time had passed.
The next morning we met Koby's Aunt Terri and Uncle Jeff at the airport and caught a ride back with them to their house in Wales. We all pitched in and cooked dinner together that night; it was really great being surrounded by family again. Yesterday, we went to the grocery store for provisions for today's journey, Koby's aunt made a fantastic chicken stew, and we all watched a couple movies together by the fire. This morning, Koby's uncle dropped us off at the train station, and we took two two-and-a-half hour train rides (with an hour layover in between) and we are currently waiting for 1 AM, which is the earliest we can board our ferry to Dublin that arrives at 5:50 AM, where we will sleep in their airport until 8AM, go through check out, then be on our way to New York, then finally, CALIFORNIA! In total, we had/have about 48 hours of traveling. Not exactly how we would like to spend the last day of our journey, but we're both REALLY looking forward to In n Out, so it's kind of okay.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Baltics and Germany!
It's been awhile! So, we last updated from Lithuania. Since then we have been to Riga, Latvia, Tallinn, Estonia, flew to Berlin, Germany, and now we are visiting a friend in Cologne, Germany!
Riga, Latvia- The Old Town was beautiful! We spent most of our time walking around there and playing in the leaves that had changed color and fallen off the trees near the river. I can't explain how wonderful it is to experience a real fall season! Our hostel wasn't the best, it was difficult to socialize and in the kitchen there was only a hot plate that you COULD NOT BOIL WATER ON which made cooking very difficult. Overall, Riga was not our favorite.
Tallinn, Estonia- BEAUTIFUL. Oh my. Very beautiful old town and just a generally enjoyable place to walk around. We stayed at an awesome hostel and met some really great people! We went on a pub crawl, had a little football party where we streamed the Niners game on a projector and watched it with fellow fans, and watched cruise ships come in from the abandoned building overlooking the Baltic Sea.
Berlin, Germany- We couch surfed for the second time! We stayed with a 21 year old and her parents in their really nice/well decorated flat in West Berlin. We did the four hour walking tour which was fantastic! We also went out with our couch surfing host and her friend to a couple bars one night which was great fun. Our last night there we had to find a hostel because our host originally told us we were only able to stay for two nights (turns out we could have stayed al three, but oh well). Our hostel was in a nice area and we met a few people, plus there was a 2 for 1 happy hour at the hostel bar which you really can't beat!
Cologne, Germany- We took an eight hour bus ride from Berlin to Cologne. My friend, Emily,then picked us up and we stayed with her for the weekend in one of the nicest houses! It really was like staying in a hotel. Anyhow, during the day we went to a flea market, got crepes, did a little shopping, climbed to the top of the tallest gothic cathedral in all of Europe (quite scary), did a little more shopping, rested a bit, then we met all of Emily and her boyfriend's really awesome friends and then at like 1 AM or something we went to a club and stayed there until 5 AM or so! Everyone parties a lot later here and it's definitely hard to get used to, but we had a great time!
We are currently in a van on our way to Amsterdam and using ride share for the first time and the driver is playing a bunch of American hip hop/rap, it's funny.
So after Amsterdam, we take an overnight bus to London where we will be for a day, then we meet up with Koby's aunt the following afternoon and get a ride to Wales where we will visit for a couple days, then we have a day of travel (bus, train, ferry), and we'll arrive in Dublin at 5 AM, and fly home at 10 AM! Our trip is quickly coming to an end and it's bittersweet.
Riga, Latvia- The Old Town was beautiful! We spent most of our time walking around there and playing in the leaves that had changed color and fallen off the trees near the river. I can't explain how wonderful it is to experience a real fall season! Our hostel wasn't the best, it was difficult to socialize and in the kitchen there was only a hot plate that you COULD NOT BOIL WATER ON which made cooking very difficult. Overall, Riga was not our favorite.
Tallinn, Estonia- BEAUTIFUL. Oh my. Very beautiful old town and just a generally enjoyable place to walk around. We stayed at an awesome hostel and met some really great people! We went on a pub crawl, had a little football party where we streamed the Niners game on a projector and watched it with fellow fans, and watched cruise ships come in from the abandoned building overlooking the Baltic Sea.
Berlin, Germany- We couch surfed for the second time! We stayed with a 21 year old and her parents in their really nice/well decorated flat in West Berlin. We did the four hour walking tour which was fantastic! We also went out with our couch surfing host and her friend to a couple bars one night which was great fun. Our last night there we had to find a hostel because our host originally told us we were only able to stay for two nights (turns out we could have stayed al three, but oh well). Our hostel was in a nice area and we met a few people, plus there was a 2 for 1 happy hour at the hostel bar which you really can't beat!
Cologne, Germany- We took an eight hour bus ride from Berlin to Cologne. My friend, Emily,then picked us up and we stayed with her for the weekend in one of the nicest houses! It really was like staying in a hotel. Anyhow, during the day we went to a flea market, got crepes, did a little shopping, climbed to the top of the tallest gothic cathedral in all of Europe (quite scary), did a little more shopping, rested a bit, then we met all of Emily and her boyfriend's really awesome friends and then at like 1 AM or something we went to a club and stayed there until 5 AM or so! Everyone parties a lot later here and it's definitely hard to get used to, but we had a great time!
We are currently in a van on our way to Amsterdam and using ride share for the first time and the driver is playing a bunch of American hip hop/rap, it's funny.
So after Amsterdam, we take an overnight bus to London where we will be for a day, then we meet up with Koby's aunt the following afternoon and get a ride to Wales where we will visit for a couple days, then we have a day of travel (bus, train, ferry), and we'll arrive in Dublin at 5 AM, and fly home at 10 AM! Our trip is quickly coming to an end and it's bittersweet.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Labas!
Greetings from Vilnius, Lithuania! So we took an overnight bus to get here from Warsaw that had little TVs on the back of each seat and we were able to watch free movies. We had just treated ourselves to a meal beforehand (it had been about a week and a half since we had more than a quick sandwich or kebab), so on the bus we watched the same movie at the same time, so we basically had a little date night; what a treat!
Vilnius is BEAUTIFUL! It's so clean and has such a old, small town feel. We tried some traditional Lithuanian food. Lithuanian beans with crackling, their version of potatoes gratin, and also zeppelins, which are potatoes with meat inside. It was all very delicious and Koby is extremely happy with all the potatoes. I, on the other hand, have been trying to stock up on the fruits and veggies because this European diet is killing me! I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong, but it's not what my body is used to.
Tomorrow we head to Riga, Latvia!
P.S. Krakow was krakin. But really, another favorite city. Eastern Europe, I love you; I wish we had more time with you.
Vilnius is BEAUTIFUL! It's so clean and has such a old, small town feel. We tried some traditional Lithuanian food. Lithuanian beans with crackling, their version of potatoes gratin, and also zeppelins, which are potatoes with meat inside. It was all very delicious and Koby is extremely happy with all the potatoes. I, on the other hand, have been trying to stock up on the fruits and veggies because this European diet is killing me! I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong, but it's not what my body is used to.
Tomorrow we head to Riga, Latvia!
P.S. Krakow was krakin. But really, another favorite city. Eastern Europe, I love you; I wish we had more time with you.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Oktoberfest and more
After we left Budapest, we took a bus back to Vienna for a few hours, then took an overnight train to Munich on Friday. We camped for Oktoberfest, using Topdeck Travel, which I wouldn't suggest to anyone. It's not that it was terrible, and we were able to book it fairly last minute, but they made it sound better than it was, and the campsite was freezing. That aside, Oktoberfest was AWESOME! Really, really awesome. So the first day we got there at about 8:30AM, got in line for a tent, got inside and got a table by about 9:30. We ended up at a table with some awesome Italians and we're drunk by about 10:15. German beer is strong, easy to drink, and there is A LOT of it. At noon a band started playing, and then it turned into a shit show. But in the best possible way. More and more people joined out table, we sang songs(Ein Prosit), ate half chickens and pretzels. Every couple minutes someone would stand on their table, everyone would cheer them on, and they would attempt to chug the rest of the beer. Most were successful, some weren't, and those that weren't were incessantly boo'd and I also heard they were supposed to dump the rest of the beer on their head, but unfortunately we didn't see that. We somehow made it out of the tent at about 1 PM totally plastered and made it back to our campsite around 2 PM, passed out until about 7 PM, woke up with a gnarly hangover, nursed that, and went back to bed a couple hours later. Next morning, we head to the campgrounds at 8AM again. We decided to actually enjoy the festival that day, who knew that Oktoberfest had rides and games and wasn't just beer? No us. So we walked around for a bit, went into a tent for a stein, walked around a bit more, got bratwursts, rode the swings(yes in that order, no it wasn't a good idea), then we went to multiple tents looking for a seat and we finally found a table and we sat with a bunch of Germans, which was really cool! Koby immediately started drinking, I needed some time. We talked and sang more songs, then we both started drinking more and singing German drinking songs with appropriate dance moves and had a fantastic time. You really feel like family at Oktoberfest. It's serious drinking business, even for serious beer drinkers, Oktoberfest is no joke, but now having been I think everyone should go. It's truly a once in a lifetime experience and definitely one of the best we've had on our trip! "Pacing yourself" is really difficult, so just get drunk and wake up with mysterious bratwurst wrappers in your pockets like we did!
Our lovely, lovely campsite apparently had the flu virus going around, and who gets it? Me. Inevitably, Koby got it as well. That made our five hour bus ride to Prague really, really great. Once we were in Prague, we both needed to do nothing. So we did exactly that. Our second day in Prague, we walked around the city for a few hours, made some really basic soup, went for a walk at night, and went to bed. It definitely sucked that we couldn't explore Prague more. It's SUCH a beautiful city with a magical feel, I'm glad we visited, but I would love to go back. On Wednesday, we took a train and a bus to Krakow, Poland, which is where we are now! We're staying at the best hostel, free breakfast, free dinner, free drinks, free laundry, and more.
Yesterday we did Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. It was a lot. It's hard to explain how you feel when you're there, it's like a combination of sad, depressed, shock, and disgust. But visiting the camp was one of the main reasons I wanted to take this trip, and I'm really glad we went and I think it's an essential trip for everyone else as well.
On another note, as I recovered from the flu, I managed to get a cold. Being sick while traveling sucks, but I'm still so happy to be here. Today we're going to do a free walking tour through the Jewish quarter, and also explore the city. Then tomorrow evening we travel to Warsaw and catch a connecting bus to Vilnius, Lithuania! Then the other two Baltic states, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Scotland(hopefully), Wales, then home! I think the rest of our time here is going to go quickly, which makes me quite sad, but it'll be so great to see everyone and not have to carry out backpacks anymore!
A few last words:
I wish I packed for winter, I'm SO cold.
Also, we will figure out how to upload all our photos to a website for everyone to view! Sorry I know we should be better about that, but there are so many pictures and we're usually exhausted at night and don't want to bother with it.
Also, so.many.Australians. I'm getting really sick of the 'c***' word being used so liberally.
Our lovely, lovely campsite apparently had the flu virus going around, and who gets it? Me. Inevitably, Koby got it as well. That made our five hour bus ride to Prague really, really great. Once we were in Prague, we both needed to do nothing. So we did exactly that. Our second day in Prague, we walked around the city for a few hours, made some really basic soup, went for a walk at night, and went to bed. It definitely sucked that we couldn't explore Prague more. It's SUCH a beautiful city with a magical feel, I'm glad we visited, but I would love to go back. On Wednesday, we took a train and a bus to Krakow, Poland, which is where we are now! We're staying at the best hostel, free breakfast, free dinner, free drinks, free laundry, and more.
Yesterday we did Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. It was a lot. It's hard to explain how you feel when you're there, it's like a combination of sad, depressed, shock, and disgust. But visiting the camp was one of the main reasons I wanted to take this trip, and I'm really glad we went and I think it's an essential trip for everyone else as well.
On another note, as I recovered from the flu, I managed to get a cold. Being sick while traveling sucks, but I'm still so happy to be here. Today we're going to do a free walking tour through the Jewish quarter, and also explore the city. Then tomorrow evening we travel to Warsaw and catch a connecting bus to Vilnius, Lithuania! Then the other two Baltic states, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Scotland(hopefully), Wales, then home! I think the rest of our time here is going to go quickly, which makes me quite sad, but it'll be so great to see everyone and not have to carry out backpacks anymore!
A few last words:
I wish I packed for winter, I'm SO cold.
Also, we will figure out how to upload all our photos to a website for everyone to view! Sorry I know we should be better about that, but there are so many pictures and we're usually exhausted at night and don't want to bother with it.
Also, so.many.Australians. I'm getting really sick of the 'c***' word being used so liberally.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Recently
Alrighty, we've been quite busy since our last update! After we left Florence, which was so fantastic, we went to Venice for about 36 hours, and that was plenty. Venice was beautiful and the sunsets were breathtaking, but it was expensive and so touristic. We took an overnight train to Vienna, which wasn't AS terrible as I was expecting, it definitely wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had. The overnight saved us time and money ( and had a clean bathroom), so I can't complain.
Vienna was grand. The German language was.. difficult to say the least, but thankfully a lot of people speak English. Our hostel had a bar, with pints for 1 euro during happy hour, so I took advantage of that, had an awesome night with
Koby, some Australians, and some annoying people from the East Coast, but I definitely paid for it the next morning. Being hungover in a hostel really sucks, although our was quite clean so that was a plus. When I was able to function again, at about 3 PM, we decided to try goulash. An employee gave us directions to a good goulash place in city centre so we began our trek there. Let me just say, our map was garbage, and the street signs are confusing, so it took us about to hour and a half to find this place, whilst I was still in my hangover daze. We found the flea market that this restaurant was located in, but it was a Saturday, so the businesses and vendors were boomin'. The market was great, lots of fresh fruits, veggies, street foods, goods, etc. We finally found our restaurant after asking for directions, sat down, ordered goulash and dumplings, beer for Koby, big ol' glass of water for me, and enjoyed our delicious stew-like meal! We walked around for a bit after that, then made our way back to the hostel because I still felt like poop.
The next morning, we were determined to make up for the previous, slightly uneventful day, we got an early start to do the walking tour that our hostel puts on for free. The Wombats Hostel has three different locations in Vienna, and the walking tour left from the hostel closest to the market we were at the day before. So we made our way there, but apparently, the hostel does the walking tour every day EXCEPT for Sundays, which our hostel location neglected to tell us. So we ask what to do/see in Vienna, and head that way. We went to an area called the Museum Quartier, an area with a few museums surrounding it and places to hang out in the middle. Koby and I were hanging out in the middle and this guy approached Koby and asked if he could take a picture of his beard for his school project. Of course Koby said yes and was on cloud nine the rest of the day. The photographer also told us that there was a free, acoustic Portugal. The Man show in the same spot in a few hours! Very cool, neither of us are huge fans, but 'acoustic' and 'free' are two of my favorite things so obviously we were going to go. We had some time to kill, so we decided to go for traditional Viennese coffee and apple strudels at Cafe Central, a well known cafe in Vienna. Holy macrol, they were delicious! We enjoyed the surrounding areas for a little bit before heading back to Museum Quartier for the show. It ended up being really fantastic and they even handed out free beer! We met a nice Viennese girl who translated some German things for us and also sent us to a good place to get Wiener schnitzel. I ended up getting chicken schnitzel, because veal makes me sad, but it was really delicious anyway!
We walked around Vienna a bit more and made our way back to the hostel to make dinner and get our stuffed packed and ready to leave the next morning. We woke up early, had breakfast, then made our way across town to catch our bus to Budapest. We arrived in Budapest 3-4 hours later, and checked into our hostel. We walked around the city, grabbed dinner, and talked to others staying in our hostel. One of our roommates lives in the Sunset District of San Francisco! Small world. It was nice to meet an American because we really haven't met too many since Ireland, but we've met a hell of a lot of Australians.
This morning we woke up early, had breakfast at the hostel, and made our way towards the free walking tour. The walking tour was fantastic! Our guide was hilarious and we saw a lot of the city. We're staying on the Pest side, which is the more industrial side apparently, but we also walked to the Buda side, which is apparently where all the "lucky bastards" live. It is more of a "posh" country side. After the tour, the guide showed us a cafeteria type place that was really inexpensive. I got a mushroom stew with dumplings, and Koby got the veal stew with dumplings, both were delicious! We then stopped by a pastry place to try some Hungarian desserts, which were also delicious.
Now we are in a laundry mat doing our laundry because the one in our hostel is out of order. We plan to head back, make some dinner, then head to one of the ruin bars, which are run-down communist buildings that were turned into bars! Should we a fun night.
A few other things that don't really fit in anywhere else. Hungarian is in the top five hardest languages to learn, so I don't feel as dumb for not being able to learn any phrases, but that doesn't make it any easier to communicate! Thankfully a lot of people speak English here as well. The Hungarian currency is weird and SO confusing. The denominations are huge, like there are 10,000 bills. We looked up some conversions to help with our confusion a bit, but most the time we're still totally lost anyway. USD is on the left, Hungarian Forint(HUF) is on the right:
1- 221
5- 1106
10- 2213
15- 3318
20- 4427
25- 5530
30- 6636
40- 8848
50- 11069
100- 22121
Budapest and Vienna are quite cheap though=].
Also, it seems as though meat and cheese plates are normal for breakfast, at least in Vienna and Budapest. Like, people make sandwiches out of them for breakfast. I realllly miss scrambled eggs, and bacon. Oh, bacon.
It's quite common to charge for public restrooms. Wtf, Europe?
One of the reasons I am most excited to leave Europe and to get away from all the cigarette smoke. Really, it's disgusting and it's everywhere. I feel like I've already lost five years of my life in like five weeks.
Anyhow, we leave here Thursday afternoon, return to Vienna for a couple hours, then take an overnight train to Munich for OKTOBERFEST! We're very, very excited. We'll be celebrating our anniversary there, which isn't the most romantic, but hell, it's Oktoberfest, c'mon.
We only have about thirty-three days left =[, time is flyin'.
^^ The above was written last night in my notes while we were doing laundry, but I forgot to post it.
We went to three different 'ruin bars' last night, which are old run-down buildings, mostly old communist buildings, that are turned into bars! Some are multiple floors, have multiple bars, rooms, clubs, retro furniture and decorations. They're really awesome! So we went to one bar before to get a drink and also took a shot of palinkas, a Hungarian drink that is made from local fruits and is high in alcohol... it tasted like tequila, weird. Then we went to the ruin bars and had a good time, got gyros, and stumbled home. Budapest is awesome and crazy; some of the bars don't close until 6AM!
Anyhow, we just had breakfast and now we're going to head to one of Budapest's notorious hot baths!
Vienna was grand. The German language was.. difficult to say the least, but thankfully a lot of people speak English. Our hostel had a bar, with pints for 1 euro during happy hour, so I took advantage of that, had an awesome night with
Koby, some Australians, and some annoying people from the East Coast, but I definitely paid for it the next morning. Being hungover in a hostel really sucks, although our was quite clean so that was a plus. When I was able to function again, at about 3 PM, we decided to try goulash. An employee gave us directions to a good goulash place in city centre so we began our trek there. Let me just say, our map was garbage, and the street signs are confusing, so it took us about to hour and a half to find this place, whilst I was still in my hangover daze. We found the flea market that this restaurant was located in, but it was a Saturday, so the businesses and vendors were boomin'. The market was great, lots of fresh fruits, veggies, street foods, goods, etc. We finally found our restaurant after asking for directions, sat down, ordered goulash and dumplings, beer for Koby, big ol' glass of water for me, and enjoyed our delicious stew-like meal! We walked around for a bit after that, then made our way back to the hostel because I still felt like poop.
The next morning, we were determined to make up for the previous, slightly uneventful day, we got an early start to do the walking tour that our hostel puts on for free. The Wombats Hostel has three different locations in Vienna, and the walking tour left from the hostel closest to the market we were at the day before. So we made our way there, but apparently, the hostel does the walking tour every day EXCEPT for Sundays, which our hostel location neglected to tell us. So we ask what to do/see in Vienna, and head that way. We went to an area called the Museum Quartier, an area with a few museums surrounding it and places to hang out in the middle. Koby and I were hanging out in the middle and this guy approached Koby and asked if he could take a picture of his beard for his school project. Of course Koby said yes and was on cloud nine the rest of the day. The photographer also told us that there was a free, acoustic Portugal. The Man show in the same spot in a few hours! Very cool, neither of us are huge fans, but 'acoustic' and 'free' are two of my favorite things so obviously we were going to go. We had some time to kill, so we decided to go for traditional Viennese coffee and apple strudels at Cafe Central, a well known cafe in Vienna. Holy macrol, they were delicious! We enjoyed the surrounding areas for a little bit before heading back to Museum Quartier for the show. It ended up being really fantastic and they even handed out free beer! We met a nice Viennese girl who translated some German things for us and also sent us to a good place to get Wiener schnitzel. I ended up getting chicken schnitzel, because veal makes me sad, but it was really delicious anyway!
We walked around Vienna a bit more and made our way back to the hostel to make dinner and get our stuffed packed and ready to leave the next morning. We woke up early, had breakfast, then made our way across town to catch our bus to Budapest. We arrived in Budapest 3-4 hours later, and checked into our hostel. We walked around the city, grabbed dinner, and talked to others staying in our hostel. One of our roommates lives in the Sunset District of San Francisco! Small world. It was nice to meet an American because we really haven't met too many since Ireland, but we've met a hell of a lot of Australians.
This morning we woke up early, had breakfast at the hostel, and made our way towards the free walking tour. The walking tour was fantastic! Our guide was hilarious and we saw a lot of the city. We're staying on the Pest side, which is the more industrial side apparently, but we also walked to the Buda side, which is apparently where all the "lucky bastards" live. It is more of a "posh" country side. After the tour, the guide showed us a cafeteria type place that was really inexpensive. I got a mushroom stew with dumplings, and Koby got the veal stew with dumplings, both were delicious! We then stopped by a pastry place to try some Hungarian desserts, which were also delicious.
Now we are in a laundry mat doing our laundry because the one in our hostel is out of order. We plan to head back, make some dinner, then head to one of the ruin bars, which are run-down communist buildings that were turned into bars! Should we a fun night.
A few other things that don't really fit in anywhere else. Hungarian is in the top five hardest languages to learn, so I don't feel as dumb for not being able to learn any phrases, but that doesn't make it any easier to communicate! Thankfully a lot of people speak English here as well. The Hungarian currency is weird and SO confusing. The denominations are huge, like there are 10,000 bills. We looked up some conversions to help with our confusion a bit, but most the time we're still totally lost anyway. USD is on the left, Hungarian Forint(HUF) is on the right:
1- 221
5- 1106
10- 2213
15- 3318
20- 4427
25- 5530
30- 6636
40- 8848
50- 11069
100- 22121
Budapest and Vienna are quite cheap though=].
Also, it seems as though meat and cheese plates are normal for breakfast, at least in Vienna and Budapest. Like, people make sandwiches out of them for breakfast. I realllly miss scrambled eggs, and bacon. Oh, bacon.
It's quite common to charge for public restrooms. Wtf, Europe?
One of the reasons I am most excited to leave Europe and to get away from all the cigarette smoke. Really, it's disgusting and it's everywhere. I feel like I've already lost five years of my life in like five weeks.
Anyhow, we leave here Thursday afternoon, return to Vienna for a couple hours, then take an overnight train to Munich for OKTOBERFEST! We're very, very excited. We'll be celebrating our anniversary there, which isn't the most romantic, but hell, it's Oktoberfest, c'mon.
We only have about thirty-three days left =[, time is flyin'.
^^ The above was written last night in my notes while we were doing laundry, but I forgot to post it.
We went to three different 'ruin bars' last night, which are old run-down buildings, mostly old communist buildings, that are turned into bars! Some are multiple floors, have multiple bars, rooms, clubs, retro furniture and decorations. They're really awesome! So we went to one bar before to get a drink and also took a shot of palinkas, a Hungarian drink that is made from local fruits and is high in alcohol... it tasted like tequila, weird. Then we went to the ruin bars and had a good time, got gyros, and stumbled home. Budapest is awesome and crazy; some of the bars don't close until 6AM!
Anyhow, we just had breakfast and now we're going to head to one of Budapest's notorious hot baths!
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