TravelStream™ news feed for member penny71 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/penny71 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:18:31 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232737920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232737920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232737920/tpod.html Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:18:31 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Budapest, Hungary

After our awesome day yesterday we woke up earlier than usual this morning expecting a nice clear day as promised in the forecast. We were to be greatly disappointed, as it was raining and misty.Had the usual breakfast then headed down to the Elisabeth Bridge and then changed our initial plan of walking back to the Chain Bridge on the Buda side and then catching a bus up to the Citadel and decided to just walk up Gellert Hill, hoping that the mist would clear.The walk was fairly demanding as we slowly shed our scarves, beanies etc... as we walked up and it also stopped raining.The first statue that emerged from the fog was Gellert holding the double cross and surrounded by Roman pillars on the hill side. It was very impressive and we had a fairly obscured view back down to the river.We pressed on for a while and eventually reached the top and were rewarded with a commanding view of bugger all as the mist was so thick. We could barely make out the Statue of Liberty through the impenetrable veil of white. Bought our tickets to enter the citadel and dawdled about reading all about the history of the place then touring the bunker facility with all of its displays of WWII. When we emerged it seemed the mist had thickened so we gave up any hope of getting a decent view and headed down to the the photo area of the Liberty Statue and took a couple of misty shots. Oh well.We climbed down on the other side of the hill and checked out a pretty cool set of slides before making our way past the Gellert baths and going to the Cave Church. As luck would have it mass was on so we waited about for a bit until about 6 people emerged and then followed 3 tourists who were much braver than us and walked on in. It was not bad but not at all what Darren had expected. Tiled floors and TV screens with chairs scattered about were all a bit disappointing and seemed to lack the spiritual edge that you grow to expect in ancient European churches.We exited and decided to go in the Gellert Hotel to try to see what the baths were like but we only got as far as the foyer (which was very nice) but didn't let us see what the baths were like. It also looked more expensive then the public baths back in Pest that we went to yesterday.Crossing the Liberty bridge and back into Pest we thought another visit to the markets would be nice so in we went. Headed upstairs hoping to try Langos but the serving was much bigger than we expected so we passed on a snack, went back down and out to Karoly Korut and made our way to the synagogue. The building is very new looking and extremely impressive. We bought our tickets and went into the synagogue and found it has an interior more like a church with rows of pews. The windows and lighting are magnificent. We went to the museum that is attached and it was full of the many items of worship with a grim display about the Holocaust at the end.Once finished we wandered back to Deak ter and made our way to Gerbeaud cafe for another sensational afternoon tea.There really isn't that much to report after that. We tried to go for another walk along the river, but it was too misty to see anything. Even after dark, we could only barely make out the lights on Castle Hill. So we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying our room, having a bath (Penny only - Darren doesn't really go in much for "soaking in a tepid pool of his own filth"), looking up how to get to the airport, and doing some preliminary packing before going out again for dinner to the Gerbeaud, where we shared a plate for two that included just about everything on the menu. It was delicious. We didn't need sweets. We do need vegetables sometime soon. Very serious diet, here we come.Tomorrow we embark on the longest journey home ever. Think of us! Back in Australia on Australia Day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232661780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232661780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232661780/tpod.html Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:37:26 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Budapest, Hungary

We had an awesome day today. Will skip breakfast - the same as usual. Think we have the tipping situation under control though - we hope.It was raining again, so we decided to do rain-appropriate activities, and of course the rain stopped. So instead of going straight to the House of Terror museum, we took the metro to the Parliament to take some photos of that and the Museum of Ethnography opposite, which used to be the Justice building. That accomplished, we hit the metro line no. 1 again up Andrassy utca to the House of Terror, which was the headquarters of the evil Arrow Cross and the equally evil Soviet secret police. The museum's exhibits focussed mainly on the latter.Again we were greeted by a school group on its way out, which was a fine thing. We skirted around them and went into the ground floor of the atrium area, where we were greeted by a Soviet tank and a display of photos of victims of the Soviet secret police. We then, as directed, went up to the 2nd floor for the beginning of the exhibition, about the Arrow Cross and then the Soviet occupation of Hungary. The beginning was accompanied by thumping music that Darren thinks is by the Dust Brothers and from the Fight Club soundtrack. In short, the museum mostly tells the story of the Communist secret police in Hungary, their modes of operation and their victims. Apparently it has been criticised for not presenting enough material about the Holocaust, but that is really only a small part of what it is about. We found it really really interesting, although a lot of the material was not in English. A highlight was the carpet in one room that was a map of the Soviet Union - how cool! In the basement were reconstructions of the interrogation and detention cells that actually existed in that building - quite chilling, especially as we got down there by means of a very very slow lift that played a DVD with a former cleaner describing how executions were carried out.After this we thought we deserved a coffee - well, actually that had been the plan all along. We walked the few metres up the road to Lukacs which was once the favoured coffee house of the secret police agents who, we imagined, would drop in for an espresso during a long and arduous interogation. We, however, each had a cappuccino. Darren had another heavenly piece of Esterhazy torta while Penny had the Lukacs torta, basically a chocolate cake. Both were great. We had both been expecting a dingy Communist-era atmosphere with Eastern bloc concrete architecture but we were pleasantly surprised to find a stunning white, silver and golden Art Nouveau interior with very modern, plush conveniences. Darren didn't even dare take a photo for fear of embarrassing us. Service was great too and the service charge was stated clearly on the menu and applied as promised.We then strolled up Andrassy utca to the City Park and thence to the Szechenyi baths, where we eventually found an English price list, which told us what to ask for, and bought two "mixed thermal pools with cabin" tickets. Actually it was quite easy to work out what to do as the staff was very helpful and kept pointing us in the right direction. We changed in our little cabin and then proceeded through an almost endless series of hot, warm and cool baths, plus about ten seconds in the sauna, which was enough for both of us, eventually coming across the door to the outside pools. The first was 37-39° and carried a warning to only stay in for 20 minutes, although there were quite a few people playing chess in it. The next was somewhat cooler and we swam exactly one lap - to the other end, where we exited and quickly moved to the next, at 35°. This had a spa in the middle that was a bit crowded and a number of jets off to one side that were also all occupied. When they stopped and people moved away, we went to take up position there, but were soon corrected in a mixture of Hungarian, English and German by a gentleman who told us that they were only on for 10 minutes at a time, and that we should go to the edges of the pool. His gestures towards the circular area around the spa were soon explained when it started to whirl like the Albany Leisure Centre whirlpool, only faster. This was cool fun. Then we staked out a position over the jets just before they came back on, and enjoyed those for a bit, before reversing the whole procedure to eventually arrive back at our cabin relaxed and refreshed. Here we shared Penny's travel towel to remove most of the water from ourselves before going back to the hotel.We collected our tickets for the evening cruise on the Danube then went to the room for Penny to have a quick non sulfur smelling bath and rinse out our bathers. We then, very lazily, caught the metro to Vorosmarty ter and found our way down to the docks. The views over the Danube to the palace and the castle were breath-taking as they were both lit up as was the Chain Bridge. Making our way to dock 7 we boarded the boat and headed off on our cruise. The accompanying video presentation was a little naff but not as bad as the one we had in Paris last year. We enjoyed a champagne followed by an interesting wine for Penny and a Hungarian version of Emu Export for Darren. The views of the city were quite magnificent and we knew in advance that no photo we took could ever match them.The boat made its way back to the dock and we headed back to Gerbeaud to have dinner in the Brauhaus. Even though we were both a little pissed we had some more of their excellent beer then Penny had the goose again while Darren tried the meatloaf, both of which were excellent. So excellent in fact that Penny said we could come again tomorrow, which made Darren very happy as he wasn't 100% committed to Penny's previous plan for dinner, the cafe at our hotel. The compensation for the change of plan was dessert - Darren's second for the evening - at the hotel. Penny had chocolate souffle and Darren had what he insists was custard pie with berries on top, while we typed up this blog!It was an awesome day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232567460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232567460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232567460/tpod.html Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:52:18 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Budapest, Hungary

We awoke reasonably early this morning but by the time we both had a bath (the inefficient method of washing) it was about 9.00am before we got downstairs. The waiting staff were much more pleased to see the reformed non-tippers and we were being brought capuccinos before we knew it.Darren played it safe and stuck with the Hungarian omelette and Penny being more adventurous had the quiche, both of which were very good. Needless to say the 10% rule was adhered to.After heading back to the room for toothbrushing and fetching raincoats (which would be needed for the rest of the day) we went to the supermarket for some fruit and chocolates.We caught the metro at Deak ferenc ter and headed to Batthyany ter so we could catch a train to Aquincum, the Roman ruins out in the suburbs of Budapest. We checked which station we should get off at and found a conflict between Lonely Planet and the Hungarian tourist map, but since there was a station called Aquincum we felt that that had to be the place.Alighting at that station we walked through the drizzle to the ruins of a forum close to the station which was more like a rubbish dump, and had a temporary camp located on one side of it full of even more trash. Very disappointing start.We then crossed over the road and made our way to the museum and found that the ruins were not accessible from November to April. We could see them easily through the fence and saw they were reasonably sizable, almost as large as Herculaneum in Naples.The museum was open so we entered and we immediately surrounded by a sea of school children who, thankfully, were leaving. The museum had quite a collection of both Celtic and Roman pieces and some very interesting and well laid out displays. However one of the rooms was closed off, which appeared to have the larger statues and mosaics on display. One unique exhibit was a Roman organ, very few traces of which have been found anywhere else.We caught the train back to the metro stop and headed for the surface, where we walked along the river (in the rain) and caught the funicular to the top of Castle Hill. From there we headed into the Royal Palace to visit the Hungarian National Gallery, again passing the funny man at the funicular who again wanted to know where we were from. Penny has now identified him as the "shouty man" who has been discussed at length on the TripAdvisor Budapest forum. Apparently he is difficult to get rid of once he has attached himself to you, but he doesn't seem to go for Australians. In the National Gallery one wing was closed and we were therefore offered tickets for half price. The very nice girl at reception gave us a very helpful and detailed description of where we should/could go and how to get there. As it turned out, the accessible two wings were plenty for us Philistines, who didn't really appreciate much of the art on display. A collection of late 19th century Hungarian art was nice, and some contemporary stuff was interesting, but there was a lot of what Darren termed "filler" in between - ie, art that didn't particularly appeal to us who don't know much about it. Most entertaining were the attendants - more numerous than the patrons - especially the woman who wouldn't let us skip a room and looked very disapproving when we went through it too fast, and the man who didn't think we could really be trusted to be there at all and stalked us through the rooms that were his responsibility.We then walked back down the hill, across the Chain Bridge and to Gerbeau, our new favourite place, where we had cool three-layered lattes and cakes - Gerbeaud torte for Darren and cappuccino cake for Penny. We tipped far more generously than intended by failing to notice that a service charge had already been added. Should have noticed that there wasn't a highlighted, circled and underlined statement at the bottom of the bill that service was extra. Tipping is such a pain for Australians - well, for us, anyway. Come to think of it, maybe that's why the "shouty man" isn't keen to impose his unofficial guided tours on us.We were now thoroughly wet and decided that was a good enough reason to head back to our lovely hotel room, where we hung out until it was time for the next meal.We caught the metro to Oktogon station to Liszt ferenc ter, where we went to Menza, recommended by both Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor. There were real actual Hungarian people there! Darren had pork fillet with potato pancake and beer, and Penny had catfish stew with cottage cheese pasta and wine. Both meals were very nice although Penny thinks catfish takes a little getting used to. Then we had chocolate dessert (sort of like a fondant thing) (Darren) and sour cherry and poppyseed strudel (Penny).Although it was still early, we abandoned our plans to walk along the river again due to the rain and retired to the hotel. No photos today - too rainy! Although it has been much warmer here, the rain is pretty annoying, and there's more forecast for tomorrow. We're glad we did some major outdoor things while we could.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232474280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232474280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232474280/tpod.html Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:52:48 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Budapest, Hungary

This morning we awoke late-ish and headed downstairs but not before having a minor flood in the bathroom. We had half our order taken for breakfast before the waiter wandered off; eventually we got most of our order in, but unfortunately not completely understood.We also figured the waiter might be a little shitty with us for not tipping him yesterday (apparantly a 10% tip is customary, but the issue we thought was somewhat clouded by having "tickets" for an included breakfast). Anyway we got most of what we ordered (Darren was short an orange juice and Penny didn't get her Viennese sausage) but at least Darren's eggs were properly cooked. Needing cash and fruit we made our way to the market and grabbed the only two decent apples in the store (the rest of the fruit and veges were more like compost) and then some $ from the ATM. Darren had expressed a strong desire to go to the Statue Park that is basically a monument museum for all the old Soviet and Communist statues and plaques from around Budapest from 1945 to 1989. Luckily a tour bus left from Deak ter at 11.00 so we looked for a suitable place for dinner close to the hotel as we killed time until the bus appeared. By the time we got back the bus was ready and was half filled with English tourists.We made our way to the park listening to stirring music of the revolution against the reactionary capitalist dogs on the car stereo. We went under the Buda tunnel and arrived fairly quickly to the park. As we had our tickets checked we were given blue plastic booties to protect our shoes against the mud, and soon had to swallow our pride and actually put them on, as it really was very muddy. Each statue was obviously meant to be very impressive and inspire the workers, but all together they were kind of funny. Darren was even funnier as he posed in front of many of them for photos.Other parts of the exhibition at Statue Park, which is supposed to be expanded in time, are a tribune under Stalin's boots, all that is left of the great statue of Stalin destroyed in the 1956 revolution, and a barracks building with a description of Hungary under Communist rule and a film made from Secret Service training films, which we also bought on DVD. Darren also bought quite a funny T-shirt.The bus trip back to town had some of the Grease soundtrack instead of the stirring socialist music. From Deak ter it was a short walk to Gerbeaud Kafehaz, which Penny had warned Darren could be a similar experience to the Cafe Sacher, for coffee and cake (kind of like lunch!). It was actually much better - cheaper, less snooty and better coffee, and we will probably go back. We both had traditional Hungarian cakes that were very yummy.Having refreshed ourselves, we started on the longish and very interesting walk to the Great Market Hall. This was possibly the best market we had ever seen - produce below and souvenirs etc above - clean, orderly, nobody yelled at us - great. Apart from the pigs' faces that Penny didn't like very much and Darren would have loved to photograph but thought it would be a bit obvious. We didn't buy anything, but we did enjoy it!From there we walked up Vaci utca, finding at the end of it we hadn't yet explored quite a few restaurants to try on the the next few nights. Penny also bought a charm for her bracelet and Darren looked at but didn't yet buy Budapest T-shirts. We then turned down towards the river and headed north along the Danube promenade, past various very ugly international hotels and the stunning Parliament building. We came across a very sad memorial, of bronze shoes, to the Jewish people who were shot into the Danube during the Hungarian Arrow Cross's short period of government in 1944-1945. Just north of the Parliament building the promenade became more of a goat track with no way to get off it and across the road back to civilisation without risking life and limb, but eventually we made it. We walked back along the other side of the Parliament building, past what we think was a memorial to the 1956 revolution, to a Metro station where we caught the metro and walked back to the hotel just in time to watch Barack Obama's inauguration. It did feel like an historic moment - hope the poor bloke can do what we all want him to do, ie change the world!Since we were so impressed with Gerbeaud for coffee, we decided to go back to their pub section for dinner. As we approached we wondered why we hadn't found it last night, as we had been past. This was probably because we thought it was closed. When we walked up to the door, there were no lights on. However, the door was open and we went in and down some stairs from which light was coming, and there it was in the cellar. There was only one large table of English, American and Hungarian business colleagues in the non-smoking section and nobody in the smoking section when we arrived, although that filled up afterwards.While Darren tried to ignore the large table and Penny tried to eavesdrop on them, we ordered. Penny had goose with red cabbage and dumplings, which was absolutely delicious, and Darren had sausages, sauerkraut and pretzel. His only mistake was to order the small size, which was fairly small. He then tried to make up for this by ordering the sponge cake, but the waiter didn't understand and brought pancakes which, to his disgust, contained curd cheese. In the end, though, he thought they were pretty yummy. Gerbeaud also makes its own beer, which was superb. This was (we think) our most expensive meal for the trip at about $100 for two, but it was great.We walked back to the hotel in time for a bit more Obama - en route to the White House. How exciting.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232396220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232396220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232396220/tpod.html Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:16:12 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Budapest, Hungary

This morning we were intending to get up early, but Darren woke up with a headache and sore neck so we took it a bit slowly. It was the start of a day of many trials for Darren.Things looked good at first as the sky was blue and clear and the sun was shining. We went downstairs to breakfast. Penny chose a delicious omelette and Darren chose scrambled eggs with ham and cheese that looked good at first but unfortunately were very very undercooked at one end. Yuck. He generously said he was glad he had got them and not Penny with her egg "issues" but even he struggled. Bread and coffee were both delicious.After breakfast we took the metro line 1, the oldest metro line in continental Europe, almost to the end. We were very impressed with the cleanliness of the stations and the lack of graffiti, which we put down to the very strong official presence - we have already had our tickets checked more often than in the whole of the rest of our Europe trip! We emerged from the metro at the square at the top of Andrassy ut, where we could admire the large monument and two museums, which we saved for a day with less beautiful weather. We walked around the City Park and looked into the Szechenyi baths - another activity for another day. When we walked into one entrance an attendant saw us looking like tourists and pointed upwards to make sure we saw the ceiling, which was beautiful.We walked all the way down Andrassy ut, looking at the lovely 19th century buildings along the way. As we walked past Burger King, Darren thought he would go in and use the conveniences. Penny helpfully pointed out the public toilet sign, so he went there instead. Penny, after waiting for a while, thought she may as well go as well and went into the female entrance, which actually connected with the male entrance - a good thing, as it happened. When she came out she was surprised to find Darren there, looking grateful and hustling her quickly back up the steps and out of there, and also to find that she didn't have to pay. It turned out that Darren had only had a big note to pay for his visit, so had had to wait around while the male attendant went to get change. While he was waiting he was being propositioned in no uncertain terms by the female attendant, who dealt with the language barrier by stroking his face and her own breasts. The arrival on the scene of his girlfriend was rather timely. Again, while Darren was fairly traumatised by the experience, he was much braver than Penny would have been.We reached the end of the avenue and decided that we should make the most of the weather by going up to Buda Castle, so we crossed the river via the impressive Chain Bridge and took the old (1870-something?) funicular to the castle district. We walked past the Hungarian President's offices, where the strong odour of dog poo turned out to be emanating from - you guessed it - Darren's shoe. It really wasn't his finest day. We checked out the fantastic views from Fisherman's Bastion, before visiting the church, Matyas Templon. Unfortunately it was covered with scaffolding on the outside, although stunning on the inside, with the Eastern influence leading to lots of painted decoration over all the surfaces. We walked around the rest of the castle district, looking both at the lovely buildings and at the spectacular views, especially of the Parliament, until we decided it was time for a bite to eat. At the Cafe Miro, we had goulash soup and potato soup and shared a Hungarian specialty sponge "cake" that was more like a trifle, except without the custard.We walked around the Royal Palace from the outside, then took the funicular back down and went back across the Danube, which seemed to have much less ice floating in it than in the morning, and wandered through the shopping streets between there and the hotel, which magically appeared at the end of the road just as we decided to consult our map. It was now late afternoon so we trudged back up the many stairs for some bludging and washing before considering the next meal.We wandered the streets to the west of our hotel looking for a promising place to eat dinner. We eventually settled on a place called Corso, where Darren had stuffed cabbage with a sausage, which he liked, and Penny had extremely ordinary chicken paprika. For some reason we were not allowed to order a salad with it. Darren restricted himself to one beer and Penny had a glass of wine that tasted like nothing. Both of us, unnecessarily, had dessert - the sponge cake for Darren and chestnut puree with chocolate sauce for Penny. This was pretty good.We are hoping for more good weather (in spite of the forecasts) and a better day for Darren tomorrow!
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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Waking up fairly late this morning, Darren was pleased to find that all of his laundry strung around the apartment was dry. We left to go find some breakfast and were intercepted by the landlady who told Penny how great her German is.We walked down to a cafe we saw yesterday and decided it would be a nice place to eat. We each had a melange coffee (in a very small cup), Penny had a brioche and Darren had Vanillekrapfen (fancy talk for Custard Donut). A noticeably smaller breakfast than normal.After a short discussion we came up with a plan for the day: to walk around the ring road and stop at anything that caught our eye. Wandering back to the apartment we bought Vienna Cards (transport and discount card)s, more travel laundry detergent, and Penny got a new chapstick, then we were off. Walking down the road we eventually hit what we thought was the Danube (actually a canal of the Danube) and followed it to the ring road. Following the road, with a smaller canal along it, we came to bridge into the Stadtpark which was a very pretty area. We continued on and found an excellent statue of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Darren had to have his photo taken with the stern German master. The statue was located next to a school that had people like Lise Meitner, Franz Schubert and Tomas Masaryk (founder of Czechoslovakia) as previous students. Unfortunately the only students we saw hanging about outside were either smoking or snogging. Continuing on we made our way to the Karlskirche which is just a magnificent cathedral. The entry fee was 6 euros which Darren felt was a bit stiff but as the church was being renovated the ticket included the use of an elevator right up to to the top of the dome. The cathedral had an awesome vault with a golden plate with the word for god carved into it so the light from the window behind shone through and around it. The marble and carvings were incredible as were the frescoes painted on the ceiling of the dome. Darren took many photos.We loitered about outside as Darren took some more photos then set off again and soon came across the Naschmarkt, a food market, where we bought some apples and a snack of a Turkish spinach and feta bread thing. It was pretty yummy but it was lunch time by now and after our light breakfast and big walk we were ready for more, so we walked to Cafe Sperl, an old traditional Kaffeehaus, where we had a "large" Mocca, an even smaller coffee (they all have different names in Austria), and Darren had a Sachertorte and Penny an Apfelstrudel. It was very nice.We kept on walking, with frequent photo breaks, until we got to the Rathaus, which we couldn't get to as it was being prepared for the Eistraum, a huge open-air ice rink and ice paths later in January. We could see what a beautiful building it is, though. We were then tempted to go into a bar called Einstein (more time had passed since the Kaffeehaus than it sounds like, honestly!) for a beer and some chips. We then kept walking and walking through gorgeous Vienna and ended up back in the shopping streets near the apartment. Penny had yesterday spotted a Pandora shop and managed to steer Darren in that direction, reminding him that had asked for one for her birthday. He duly bought one and the first charm for it, a coffee cup, which seemed appropriate. Penny is very excited and wearing it now.This had taken a little while so we abandoned Plan A, which was to go to a museum, and after a cup of tea and some internet research "at home" took the U-Bahn to the Haydn English cinema where we watched Australia. Perhaps a strange thing to do in Vienna, but we really enjoyed it.Then it was off to the nearby brewery-pub 7SternBraeu for a beer and dinner - Darren had Nuernberg sausages and Penny finally completed her first vegetarian day for a month or so by having spinach gnocchi. Both were very good. We then walked home admiring the wonderful Vienna by night again.
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Budapest, Hungary

This morning we awoke reasonably early and headed off for breakfast at Stroeck again, where we had the usual. We headed back to the room and packed up all our gear, left the keys on the table as requested, and went to the station. We were a bit sad leaving Vienna as it ranked as our favourite city (Penny) and second favourite city (behind Rome for Darren) in Europe .Caught the U to Suedbahnhof and then walked a different and seemingly much shorter way to the station. We then walked an unusually long distance along the platforms (making the distance average out) and found ourselves to be quite early for the train to Bratislava.Once the train from Bratislava pulled in we figured it was going back again and sat inside a nice warm train for 30 minutes until it was time to go. The journey was uneventful except that it looked particularly cold outside the train with all the trees and field covered in snow and ice.Puling into Bratislava we both noticed that the station was in particularly shabby condition, but we eventually found a very useful info booth where the helpful girl gave us a map and told us which tram to catch. We wandered about looking for and eventually finding a left-luggage area and dumped our packs there. The tram stop made the train station look OK but we got our tickets from the machine and headed into town. The outer suburbs were covered in graffiti and we were hoping the city would be better. We soon arrived there and it was very picturesque indeed, much to our relief.The tram stop was across from the Danube, so we had a quick look at the icy bits then went up to Hviezdoslavovo Square with some nice big statues of the man in the middle of it. Quickly checked out the Bratislava Opera House across the road then we headed toward the castle but found that it was mostly obscured in fog and the sleeting snow that had begun to fall.St Martin's Cathedral was also very nice but did not appear to be open so we walked back through town toward St Michael's Gate and found many unusual statues through the town on our way including Rubberneck (a man half out of a man hole), a paparazzo (a photographer leaning round a corner), the Dandy (a top hatted man dancing in the street) and others. The town's main square is quite lovely and has two statues of its own. The town hall and other buildings are all quite beautiful. We then walked to the primate's palace and found it to be lovely as well. By this stage we were a bit peckish and stopped at a pub that specialised in Slovakian food and we each had a beer and roast pork (Darren) and roast duck (Penny) with cabbage and dumplings, which were very nice.We then headed back to the tram stop as it started to snow in earnest and caught the tram back to the train station. On the way Darren caught sight of the Uni Chem building and saw the fabled Mendeleyev statue and he nearly cried with happiness.We retrieved our bags and jumped on the train and even successfully found a seat in a not too crowded carriage. We shared an apple on the way to Budapest, while the German gentleman in the carriage ate various sandwiches and the Slovak boy ate three cold McDonald's burgers.Our arrival in Budapest was incredibly stress-free. Although the first cash machine we found didn't have any cash, we soon found another one outside the station, got some money, found the Metro, bought 7-day tickets from the very nice attendant who understood and spoke English, caught the metro, followed the clear signs out of the station to the road we wanted, and walked to our hotel, which was quite close by. We were given a beautiful room whose only disadvantage really is that is on the third floor with no lift. That doesn't sound too bad, but the ceilings are really really high, and three floors is a pretty long way.Anyway, we settled in for a while then went downstairs to the cafe (it was a cafe first then rooms were added above to make it a hotel) for dinner. Penny had a special, which was pork, potato, porcini mushrooms and peas, and Darren had a pork and dumplings dish. Although the dessert menu was tempting, we decided we really couldn't justify it after two main meals today, so we left that for another time. We went back to the room and Darren, having drunk three large beers, was very "tired" and went to bed. Penny had a lovely bath before doing the same.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232223180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232223180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232223180/tpod.html Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:14:03 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

We started the day today with breakfast at another different bakery - coffee and a pastry again. Today didn't involve a lot of walking, but did involve a lot of public transport, based on directions from the internet, and in some cases walking would probably have been easier.First we went to the Schloss Belvedere, to the Unteres Belvedere, where there was an exhibition on Klimt and the 1908 Vienna Art Show. After we had caught the U-Bahn, then the A-Bahn, then a tram, there were no signs pointing us in the right direction, and Penny may have been excused for getting grumpy, if she weren't so even-tempered (not!!). Something may have been said about wanting to go home, but she didn't mean it. The exhibition, when we found it about 3 steps from the tram stop in the opposite direction to the one we'd tried, was pretty good. The definite highlight was the Klimt room, which included the famous painting The Kiss. Those of Prinz Eugen's rooms we saw were also pretty impressive.For a bit of a change, we then caught the tram to the KunstHausWien, which was designed by and features the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (born Friedrich Stowasser, and confirming Penny's prejudices about people who change their names, perhaps a bit nutty). He was quite clearly a genius though, although Darren thinks he could have knocked up some of his paintings quite quickly. He is most impressive as an architect and we loved the KunstHausWien and the nearby Hundertwasserhaus. Penny would have liked a Hundertwasser-designed teapot from the shop, but not at 500+ Euro! Also it would be heavy.We caught the famous no. 1 tram back to Schwedenplatz, or nearby, and walked back to the apartment, stopping at the bakery for some rolls for a late lunch (salad - again!). We had a bit of a bludge before going back out, to do a little bit of shopping (a little present for the Lucie Pie and a present for Penny's mum's birthday, plus a souvenir T-shirt for Darren) and then walk the few steps to the Mozart museum, just on the other side of the Stephansdom. Mozart apparently lived in 13 places in the 11 years he was in Vienna, but stayed in this house, the only one remaining, for two and a half and wrote some of his most important works here. It was a great museum with some funky exhibits.We decided it was time for a drink and went to the Gutenberg, a bar/restaurant nearby, for a beer for Darren and Penny's second wine for the trip (first was last night). It was quite nice but, like many places in Vienna (and I guess elsewhere in Austria), quite smoky. Not so bad when you're there, but a bit revolting when you smell like smoke afterwards. We then dropped into Figlmueller to see if we could reserve a table for later and were told no, just to come back and we'd get a table even if we had to wait for a little while.We went back at about 7.30 and only had to wait 10 minutes for a table. Having declared she would never eat another schnitzel, Penny was convinced by Darren to try one. We both had them, with potato and green salads, and they were great. Big but very very thin and not greasy - yummy. So good we had to have dessert - Topfenknoedel with apricots for Penny and Apfelstrudel for Darren. At 60 Euro with a tip, this was our most expensive meal of the trip so far, but excellent.And such a short walk back to the apartment, for cups of tea and blog updating.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232142000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232142000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1232142000/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:41:53 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

We had a bit of a late start this morning. Breakfast was at a different nearby cafe - coffees and pastries. Afterwards we went to the tourist information office to buy our train tickets to Budapest via Bratislava. We then caught the U1 from just outside the apartment to the Donau-Insel and went for a long walk along the New Danube, then just the Danube, then back over the island, past the UN city, and to the Old Danube, which was frozen over. Convinced by the many people walking on it, and the woman ice skating round and round pushing her pram, that it must be safe, we went for a walk too. It was pretty cool. It was a very nice way to spend the morning, particularly as the sun was shining and it felt positively warm.We got back on the U1 to Prater-Stern with the intention of having a ride on the giant ferris wheel but realised we were within the two weeks of the year that it doesn't operate, and neither does the amusement park around it, which was a bit of a shame. Still, it looked like we could get much the same experience at Luna Park.The next underground station we needed was handily near the Naschmarkt, so we went back for some kebab sandwiches before walking to the Museumsquartier to visit the Leopold Museum. Penny was looking forward to seeing lots of Klimt works, but there weren't really all that many. The building was fantastic, though, with nice views, and it was interesting to find out about the Viennese artists and architects around 1900.We thought about visiting another museum but then decided to walk back to the apartment to do some blogging. However, on the way Penny got distracted by the famous Cafe Sacher and suggested we go in. We had very nice coffees and yummy Sachertorte in the very elegant cafe, served by very elegant waiters, and Penny coped quite well with paying about $40 for two coffees and two pieces of cake - it was never going to be cheap, and Darren didn't see the bill, so that was OK - until we had to pay $2 each to pick up our coats from the (compulsory) cloakroom. What a ripoff!! Anyway it was quite funny and we're over it now.So we did get back to the room eventually and sorted through the 5000 photos Darren has taken over the last two days, before heading out again for more food (!!) - dinner at the famous Figlmueller. Darren had what is supposed to be Vienna's best, or perhaps it's most famous schnitzel, which was very good, and Penny had pork medallions. Both meals involved salad/vegetables, which was exciting. Despite having had apartments in three of the places we've stayed, we have yet to cook a meal, which has meant not as many vegies as usual. But the weather has been good for stodge!After dinner we took the U1 again to the Musikverein, where we picked up tickets we had ordered to see/hear the Wiener Symphoniker play Carl Maria Weber's Overture to the Opera Oberon, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and Johannes Brahms' Symphony no. 2 in D major. While not as roomy as the Prague Opera, it was comfortable enough and a beautiful concert hall, and we both enjoyed the music.It was a quick trip "home" for cups of tea before bed. Staying right in the centre of town definitely has its advantages.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1231966680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1231966680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/penny71/2/1231966680/tpod.html Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:59:23 -0500 Central Europe 2008-2009

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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

This morning we enjoyed our last Arcadia breakfast then sadly said goodbye to Max, Pasquale (who insisted we ring before we left since he had missed us last night), and Pasquale's mum, before taking the tram to the main train station to catch the SuperCity train to Vienna. It was a nice, new, nearly empty train and a good trip, except for the part where Penny thought she'd better get rid of our remaining Czech coins and spent them on sausages in rolls with mustard, which were entirely unnecessary.Our first impressions of Vienna really weren't that great. The Suedbahnhof railway station was pretty much deserted and didn't have a very nice feel, the walk to Suedtirolerplatz to catch the U-Bahn was far from scenic, and the U-Bahn was kind of creepy too. When we arrived at Stephansplatz, however, we had to change our minds. We quickly found our apartment on the 7th floor of a building right on the square and were soon right at home. The view and position are just amazing.After a little while appreciating the apartment - decorated like someone's grandma's apartment, but pretty cool - and the English TV stations (it had been a while since we'd seen the news), we went out for a walk around Vienna. It is beautifully lit in the evening and basically quite stunning. We walked around admiring the shops and the many many lovely buildings, went to a supermarket for teabags and other essential supplies, and took them back to the apartment before heading out again for a longer walk and dinner.We had dinner in a place recommended by someone on TripAdvisor, called Zu den 2 Lieserln. We had very nice Ottakringer beers and ridiculously huge schnitzels. Darren's was much smaller and he just finished it; Penny's was bigger and she finished half and never wants to see another schnitzel ever again. It was yummy, just too much. The pub was another "local place for local people" and was very good value. We just hope they had a dog, or something.We walked back to the apartment agreeing that Vienna may end up being our favourite city. It is just stunningly beautiful - and that's despite the slushy grey-brown ex-snow everywhere. Oh and it is also markedly less old than Prague, which is a good thing. We are really looking forward to tomorrow!
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