Impressions along the Danube

I haven’t slept terribly much in the last four days. 

On Friday, I woke up at 5:50am and went to work until 12:30pm.  Then, I flew from Iqaluit to Ottawa, Ottawa to Toronto, and Toronto to Budapest.  I slept for six hours in the hostel, and last night I took an overnight bus to Prague.  That brings me to today.  I’ve had maybe 10-12 hours of sleep since Friday.  Currently, I’m sitting on the third or fourth floor balcony of my couchsurfing host’s apartment, waiting for the moment I have run inside with all my expensive electronics, because it looks like rain.  I started writing this on the train, but I fell asleep.

Hungarians invented the rubix cube. The more you know. 

Budapest (pronounced Budapesh – who knew?) was lovely.  I arrived mid-morning after thirteen hours of flying from the low arctic and three planes, and after making acquaintances with my seat mate Angela who was flying to meet her husband from Korea (they hadn’t seen each other since last October, and she was really worried about brushing her teeth before going through customs).The weather was overcast, and 28 degrees above zero.  I’ve been sweating profusely since. 

I grabbed my things and headed into the city centre, where I walked for twenty minutes to reach my hostel.  I almost missed finding it – just a teeny tiny little sign that said Big Fish Hostel tucked into an apartment building style entrance.  I got checked in with no issues, and went to spend the afternoon walking around town. 

Part of the inner garden of the synagogue.  Those are all tombstones of jews that died in WWII, but I wasn't sure if they were just commemorative or if there were bodies in there.  Nothing was in English, and I took this photo through a fence. 

The outside of the synagogue.  Apparently it's the largest in Europe.  I think I heard someone tell me that. 

I didn’t have a purpose, other than to see what there was to see.  I ended up walking past a beautiful synagogue, and a bunch of street art. I ended up down near the Duna (or the Danube River), but the sun was coming out, and I got really warm.  I grabbed some groceries and headed back to the hostel to shower, change out of my pants, and make some dinner. 

Sneaky Edit: I completely forgot I also climbed the bell tower at the Basilica of St. Stephens.  This is why heat isn't good for me.  See photos. 

This has a name, and it's completely escaping me at the moment.  This monument is on Buda hill, and I was near the top of it on Sunday.  

Yeah, you grow little plant.

I'm basically the paparazzi.

A random view across the Duna.

Just a lovely walkway. 

The Basilica of St. Stephens.  

View from the bell tower. 

I asked a rando to take my photo.  This was the best of the bunch, and it's still heavily edited.  Some only had my shoulders up.  At least he tried. 

The beeeeeauuuuutiful ceiling inside the basilica!

The altar.  I totally don't regret bringing two lenses. 

I ended up making friends with a few of the hostel volunteers and guests, and in the evening, a big group of us headed to Durer Kert, an outdoor ‘ruin pub’ with some live psychedelic music playing.  I had a good time, and tried this delicious Hungarian liquor called palinka.  It’s a clear distilled liquor made from fruits.  I tried a shot of apricot and a shot of plum, but apricot was my favourite.  At this point, I hadn’t slept in a really long time, and the jet lag was kicking in, so when Anna wanted to walk back for her shift at 11pm, I joined her.  We left behind Fergus, Matilde, Camille, Sam, Paula, and Connor. Everyone else didn’t come home until 3am and I didn’t see any of them until mid-next day.

My group of merry-makers front and centre (the table with the ginger and the dude in a hat).  Live music at Durer Kert!

I woke early on Sunday because I couldn’t sleep, made myself a coffee in the kitchen, and then headed to a farmer’s market at Szimpla.  Szimpla is another ruin pub, or outdoor garden/abandoned building turned bar, but in the mornings on Sundays, it is the home of a farmer’s market.  I wandered around, and bought some fresh tomatoes, a few apricots, some little jars of honey to eat while I travel, a half loaf of some kind of dark sour dough bread, some little crescent moon pastry filled with poppy seeds, and a small slice of kielbasa to try.  (I wasn’t that into the kielbasa.  It upset my stomach.)

I bought tomatoes and paprika off this lady.  She seemed super unimpressed at my sneaky photo.  

The rest of the day was just really warm, and a rush.  I only had the day left in Budapest, and I really wanted to get to the Buda side of the river to see some of the older sites.  Budapest is called Budapest because once upon a time, the town of Buda and the town of Pest were separated by the river Duna, but eventually they grew together to become Budapest.  I don’t know any more history than that though, sorry.  I was, uh…too busy partying or walking around. 

I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to, just because of the size of the city, but I saw a fair deal.  I paid for this stupid tourist hop on hop off cart, which I really didn’t enjoy.  I wanted to head up to castle hill, and then Buda hill, but I was hot, and dehydrated, and cranky, and that area of town had a lot of tourists, and I just really wasn’t into it.  I was actually having a pretty crummy day, until after a fortuitous turn of events, an American lady leaving the city gave me some bus tickets for free, and I took the bus up to Buda hill.  It was nice and hilly, and full of greenery.  I walked back down it, and found myself pretty close to Gellert thermal baths (this is a thing in Hungary – I endorse it wholeheartedly).  I was carrying around my bathing suit in case I fancied a dip at one of the numerous baths in the city, and I figured this was a good way to cool off.

Erzsebet Bridge

I wanted to ride this thing - they're called funiculars, but apparently it was out of service.  I'm still not sure if I didn't get scammed with that hop on hop off alternative. 

In the time it took me to pay for my entrance, and change, the weather turned from 30c and sweltering, to a full blown thunderstorm.  I was soaked before I managed to walk out to the warm pool.  It made up for the entire day, honestly.  A giant hot-tub filled with locals and foreigners alike, laughing in unison at the sudden severity of the weather.  We all stayed in there, even after the lightning started, until the staff came and kicked us out.  Everyone ran inside for a little while, and when the rain stopped, I went back out. 

Found this dude just chilling. 

I was still tired, but I had managed to cool off and grab a bite to eat, and I felt a lot better.  I hung out at the hostel for a few hours in the evening, and then went for one last apricot palinka with the group from the hostel…and nearly missed my bus because of it! I have no sense of time, sometimes. There was a jam session happening at Szimpla, and because it was super close by, I thought it’d be fine if I packed up everything, went for a drink or two, and then ran back to the hostel and headed to the bus stop.  Except…the bus station was A LOT farther away than I thought.  I was told it’d take 10 minutes to walk to the metro, and it took me thirty.  I made it to the metro just in time to catch a ride, and then made it to my bus just as it was rolling up. 

A man and a little girl play chess. 

The view from the top of Buda hill. 

Another attempt at getting someone else to take my photo.

Let me preface with this: taking the overnight bus to Prague because I’m a cheap bastard was a terrible idea.  I was absolutely drenched in sweat because I had been wearing pants (anticipating A/C on the bus), and then the bus lights didn’t go totally out, and it was full of big groups of young 20-somethings. I did manage a few hours of sleep, but the sun rose at 4:30am and I didn’t sleep after that.  Oh, and the bus station is super sketchy at midnight.  If it wasn’t for some random lady giving me directions, I’m sure I would have wandered into the night never to be seen from again.    

The beautifully art nouveau interior at Gellert bathhouse.

That leads me to this morning.  I meant to make a post earlier than this, because I don’t like recapping multiple days, but I’ve been busy and haven’t really had wifi anyhow.  I got into Prague at 05:50, none of the banks were open that early, and I only had a small amount of Czech koruna on me (that Connor handed off to me the night before).  And I had no idea how much it was worth/not worth.  I thought he handed me small change, but nope!  Totally had enough to get an espresso, breakfast, and use the washrooms at the bus station to change clothing and brush my teeth.  I was so grateful.  (Yes, washrooms cost money).  I took out my own money once the bank opened.  Since I was there so early, I just wandered around.  I paid for a luggage locker, and just picked a direction and I walked – I have the map loaded to my phone, so I wasn’t worried about getting too lost. 

Prague just has the best graffiti.

I ended up taking a really pleasant stroll down by the river, and watched some early morning wedding photos at Charles Bridge.  Then, at 10am, I went to see the Alphonse Mucha museum (my second favourite artist, after Van Gogh – mom, that picture of the lady I drew smoking the cigarette is one of his). 

After that, I headed back to the train station, and caught the train to Ceske Budejovice.  And then I caught the wrong train.  It did indeed go where I needed it to, but it wasn’t the train I paid for.  So I had somehow caught the scenic route and didn’t know it (because I can neither speak, nor read this damned language), had to pay a ticket for doing that, AND THEN it stopped all over the place, AND THEN it broke down in some random town that I already can’t remember the name of, AND THEN we were loaded onto a bus and driven to the next train station, where I finally caught a train that took me straight here.  To this place…that I can’t quite pronounce.  It’s something like Chesky Budeovitzay, but there’s some throat sounds in the middle. 

It’s pretty here. 

I’m staying with a couchsurfing host named Karel, and his two cats Freddie and Leyla.  I found an indian restaurant and ate a real meal for the first time since I’ve started traveling (I’ve been living off of random market groceries), and I’m showered, my clothes are drying, and it’s bed time. 

Tomorrow, I’m going to just enjoy existing.  I’ll walk around, take some photos, possibly go back to that indian restaurant.  There’s a brewery here – the original Budweiser (I don’t know the exact history, but the one in the USA was something of a plagiarism in the 1800-1900s).  I might go check that out.

Peace out, homies!