It’s already November and I just came back to Bulgaria from a 9 day autumn break. On the first day of break my roommate, Valya and her boyfriend, Bobby drove me to Sofia, since I was flying out the next day and they both live in Sofia. I stayed with Valya’s family in a small village just outside of Sofia. Her family is very sweet and took a lot of interest in me. That evening Valya, Bobby, their two and I went out in Sofia to a hookah bar. While I hate smoking, I do enjoy hookah and I was happy to go to a nice hookah bar in Sofia.
The next day Valya and her father dropped me off at the airport, which was really kind of them because the airport is not really in the city and they definitely had to drive out of their way to drop me off. Something I learned at the airport is that when Austrian Airlines says 20 kg they mean 20 kg…not 23. At a rate of 10 euro per kilo over I started to panic and had to call Valya and ask her to come back and pick up some of my things. I definitely have the best roommate ever.
The flight from Sofia to Vienna is about 1 ½ hours, which went by pretty fast. The main reason I flew to Vienna was to visit one of my friends from Augsburg that I’d gone to gymnasium with from 2006-2007. I had not seen him since I lived in Germany but had kept contact with him over the years and also just really wanted to go Vienna! It was exciting having a mini reunion with someone I had not seen in so long! Ben was kind enough to allow me to crash at his lovely, centrally located flat for most of break. His couch was very comfy. Over the days I was definitely a tourist, doing all the typical things one does when being a tourist. But on the other hand I got to meet locals, and go out with them. While in Vienna I watched the movie Der dritte Mann, which is pretty famous, and takes place in Vienna right after WW2. It was interesting getting to see the destruction of Vienna right after the war.
Vienna:
I also got to meet up with another friend from Germany, Max! He was part of the Bayern Rotex when I lived in Germany and planned out all the trips from Deutschland tour to Berlin tour. He also showed me around and even ate schnitzel and had a mélange with me…all things that were on my must do list for Vienna. I had coffee at Café Sperl, which apparently was Adolf Hitler's preferred café. http://www.cafesperl.at/index_fla.htm
I also went to Bratislava over break, which is about a 40 minuet train ride from Vienna. It cost 14 euro, which I learned later is a bit of a rip off. When I arrived in Bratislava I was so excited! I’d always wanted to go to Slovakia because my moms side of the family is from there, and I remember when I was younger my grandma making Slovakian food. I managed to take a tram from the train station, and find my hostel without getting lost. The hostel was nice, and the lady working at the hostel told me where to go for typical Slovakian food. When I went to the Slovakian restaurant it was like eating my grandma’s food. I ate a mixture of dumplings, bacon and sauerkraut which was so yummy. It was defiantly comfort food. The rest of the day I spent touring the city and taking in all that Bratislava has to offer, which complies into a one day trip since really there’s not much to do there! I’ve heard if you want to party, that Bratislava is a far cheaper choice then Vienna, but I did not go out while I was there.
Bratislava:
The next day I bought a 5 euro student bus ticket for a 3 hour bus ride to Budapest. I was amazed that it was so cheap to go to Budapest, vs the 14 euro I had paid to go to Bratislava. I arrived in Budapest around 2, and I did not have the slightest idea what I planned to do while in Budapest. I had my Lonely Planet travel book, but typically I’m a big planner and have to have everything worked out before hand. I found the Budapest public transportation extremely confusing! But I took the underground to what I’d guessed was the city center. I then had the task of finding a place to exchange my Euro to Hungarian forint. The forint is a crazy currency where a meal can cost 2,000 forint! Between the leva, euro, dollar and forint I had 4 currency on me..which can suck. While I hate the euro (due to exchange rate) it definitely makes life easier in Europe! I can not imagine before traveling and each country having a different currency!
On my first day in Budapest I had coffee and cake at a beautiful café for 1,000 forint (around $5). I then headed to the famous Gellért Baths:
"Gellért Thermal Baths and Swimming Pool, also called Gellért fürdő or Gellért Baths, are a bath complex in Budapest, Hungary, built between 1912 and 1918 in the (Secession) Art Nouveau style. They were damaged during World War II, but then rebuilt. References to healing waters in this location are found from as early as the 13th century."
While I found the baths beautiful, I also found it overpriced, with unfriendly staff, and extremely confusing to navigate the building that the baths where located, it was like a never ending maze with no directions. After I went to the baths I read the online reviews, and the same things where said. If I ever went back to Budapest I would go the mineral baths, but not the Gellért. I did not take any pictures at the baths, but I found the above pictures online.
The next 2 days I spent walking around Budapest taking in all the amazing things to see. I enjoyed going to a Hungarian restaurant that was clearly a local hangout. It was funny because at this restaurant the guy I was with pointed out 2 famous Hungarians from TV eating there. It was not an expensive place, but had lovely home cooking. Thank goodness for having locals show you around. I also went to eat at a gypsy restaurant where they make one thing per evening and that’s what you get. I was excited to go at first since I’m writing a paper on gypsies and thought it would be interesting to eat at a gypsy restaurant. The live music was great and the place was about the size of my bedroom back home, but after we got our meal consisting of grilled chicken seasoned with salt and pepper, and beats and where charged about 4 times as much as the Hungarian restaurant we went to I was NOT impressed. Not that I like stenotypes but these gypsies definitely knew how to rip off tourist. The lady running the place even ran after American tourist trying to get them to leave a tip, even though the tip was already written in the bill.
Budapest:
One of the reasons I’ve always wanted to visit Budapest was because of my favorite book: http://www.amazon.com/See-You-Again-True-Story/dp/0452280710 I’ve read it soo many times and I wanted to go to all the places in Budapest she’d been to. But I did not exactly write everything down.
However I did have a few places from the book I knew I wanted to visit, one of them being castle hill. From the book, I thought it would be just an endless area of ruins and I was really amazed how big it is! I had always planned to find the spot where the author and her boyfriend had carved their names into the stone but after going to castle hill I knew it would be impossible to find.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buda_Castle
Castle Hill:
Another place I wanted to go to was St. Istvan park, where I had read in
To See You Again, that Jews where made to stand in the park for hours on end.
The park:
“Once again, we were marched to St. Istvan Park and were made to stand there for hours on end. Once, again, hundreds of other Jews were also brought there. We were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones took a walk to the river and were shot there, to land like so much flotsam on the gently flowing Danube. How could the river absorb so many bodies, so much blood?”
Going to the park, kids were playing ball and old people walking about peacefully really made me sad. To think that such evil happened in a place and it seems like everyone has forgotten it. I mean I don’t expect people to be mourning in the park but there was not even a memorial, and the park looked so peaceful.
Near the park lays the Danube where there was a memorial for all the innocent people lined up and shot into the river as if their lives held no value.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Promenade
I really wanted to do more things related to Jews in Budapest, and I was sad I did not get to go inside the synagogue or go to the museum, or see the mass grave near the synagogue. “Over two thousand of those who died in the ghetto from hunger and cold during the winter 1944-1945 are buried in the courtyard of the synagogue.”
Unfortunately I ran out of time and had to head back to Vienna on the 31st. I took a 3 ½ hour bus ride, that cost 12 euro to Vienna. I spent 2 more nights in Vienna, and sadly said goodbye to my friend I was staying with..although I think he’d had enough of me. ; )
In the next few weeks I have finals, presentation, papers and oh so much more to do. I’m also planning a Thanksgiving dinner for around 40 people to attend so I’m staying busy. Christmas break starts around December 17th and ends January 17th which means I have a whole month of adventure awaiting me after finals!
