Vienna, Budapest, and arriving in Venice

Vienna was one of the most beautiful places we have seen thus far in our trip. We got upgraded to a single dorm rather than the 6 bed mixed dorm we had reserved. Our room was a lively bright yellow, a much happier feel than the rest. We stayed three nights and had some of the best times I could have never imagined.

Our first night we took it easy; explored a bit, did a bit of grocery shopping because we finally had a kitchen to use at our hostel, and went or bed pretty early. The next day we took the tram into the heart of Vienna and had a look at where Popfest was going to be taking place later that day. We went back for a nap and were ready to go out.

We took the tram back downtown Vienna, grabbed ourselves a couple Ottakringer and had a seat on the fountains edge. With our feet In the water we enjoyed the first band. They were the best all night in my opinion. Their sound was a very chill alternative which fit perfectly with the still of the fountains water and the orange glow of the sunset.

After our first beer I asked the woman next to me if she spoke English, she said "of course I do" so I proceeded to ask her how to say "can I have two beers please?" In German. It was a very proud moment when I went up to the counter and confidently said "svie grosse bier bitte" and got a smile from the woman behind the counter.

We stayed for a few hours at Popfest and then headed back to our hostel for a good night sleep. The next day we ventured out of the city via two metro lines and an entire bus line. Much to our surprise we found our hiking trail with no problem. It was in the upper 90s that day and our breathing was heavy but the views of the vineyards and the city made up for it.

After completing our hike we decided to venture to a swimming we had heard of. Thankfully it was only a few bus stops away. We purchased a ticket and got a key for our locker and proceeded up the tall cement stairs. We were hot and exhausted by the time we got to the pool we just dove in without taking a good look around. Soon we realized there was much more to see than a beautiful pool and recreation park; the whole city of Vienna was below us. We sat on the second pool's edge and looked down over the city. We could see the monuments we sat by just the night before at the festival, and some of the vineyards we had hiked through just earlier that day. We stayed at the pool for an hour or two before catching our bus back to the station.

***

We arrived in Budapest on Saturday in 100 degree heat. We took a few metros and a tram line to get to our hostel but had no luck finding it. Finally after asking help from a few people we found it. It was just a slim black gate in between two other stores. It was extremely sketchy looking and set up like a big maze. After climbing a few flights or stairs a woman opened up another gate for us and we were inside the hostel. The inside was actually very pretty and modern looking. We had a 5 bed room we shared with a woman from Canada, a man from Southern Australia, and a mystery woman who didn't say much.

We took a little while to lay down and figure out what we wanted to do for the short time we were there. Aussie told us about a few things he had done and we took a few of his suggestions. We headed to Heroes Square, which at first looked to be just a monument on an empty cement patio. We decided to walk down behind the monument and it was like another world. In front of of us was a beautiful bridge over water and to our left a line of restaurants right on the edge of the water. We got gelato at a little shop for 200 HUF which is actually less than 1 euro.

We enjoyed our gelato and then walked around the entire area. I was one of the most beautiful and calm spots we have been to so far. There were couples everywhere, old and young, laying in the grass, sitting with their feet in the water, and strolling around.

We spent a long while sitting, just watching the sunset over the water.

Once back at the hostel we planned out the next 10 or so days of our trip. We got hostels booked for Zurich, Venice, Verona, and Rome. We were just planning to go to bed, but Aussie came back and told us he and another girl he met from Colorado were going to check out a bar that is ranked 3rd in the world, Szimpla Kert...we couldn't decline his offer. Around 11 we started walking over with the two of them and the Canadian who was staying in our room.

It is one of the many ruins bars that are in Budapest. It is probably one of the hardest places to explain. It was gigantic and the walls, ceilings, and floors were covered in the most random of materials. It was not at all fancy, it actually looked kind of grubby, but in an acceptable way. In some parts there was no roof, and in some places there was. I enjoyed it because it was not a club, there was no dancing or anything like that. It was just a pub with about 25 different rooms. It kind of reminded me of Sona (mom dad and mike) except without riots. And the beer was extremely cheap; a half liter for 500 HUF which is only 1.5ish euros.

We sat around this old car that had been turned into a kind of couch/bench/pen. We talked to Aussie, Colorado, and Canada most of the night and go to know them better. We also made some friends with some men from London and I talked to a nice man from Switzerland for a while who told me a lot about where he comes from.

We wanted to stay out so badly we were having such a good time, but decided to head home so we could get some sleep because we had to check out early the next morning. We were planning on taking a walking tour of the city, but in the 100+ degree heat we decided it would be better to try to eat into the water. Aussie told is about this wellness spa with hot sprigs only a few metro stops away so we decided to check it out.

Inside there were 15 water holes all with different temperatures ranging from 18c to 38c, and outside were massive hot springs and swimming pools. We hung out in the giant hot spring for a good while, cooled off in the whirlpool and had a few beers on the terrace.

We had such a good time we never wanted to leave, but eventually we had to. On the way back we learned that we had gotten the wrong metro ticket and after getting off we got charged 8,000 HUF which is about 26€ which was not the best. Apparently our time stamp had run out and we were not aloud to use that ticket anymore. We had to find out the hard way. We went and picked up our bags and headed to the station for our 12 hour overnight train to Zurich.

The train was pretty miserable, we were in a cart of 6 people in seats that didn't recline. It was so hot in the car for the first few hours that we would sweat just sitting in our seats not moving a muscle. After about 7 hours Shelby and I were the only ones left in our cart so we were able to finally lay down and get a few hours of non-continuous sleep. Overnight the train got so cold that we had to use our blankets as towels. Finally 7am rolled around and we were able to get off the train.

Zurich was really rainy, and we felt absolutely awful. We were really hungry, sore, and exhausted. We got coffee and a snack and then layed down in the hostel bar for a good couple of hours before we could check in. We barely left our hostel at all in Zurich. We used it as a rest stop which was much needed. We met a few nice people while we were there, and when we were finally feeling better later on in the night we went downstairs and had a fewbeers, pizza, and had some pretty lovely long conversations.

Now, I am on the train to Venice. We had a train earlier today to Milan and we watched letters to Juliet on the way since Verona, where it takes place, is our next stop. We met a man from Verona in Paris who we hope to get in contact with while we there.

I also talked to Piero last night, an artist I met in Australia last summer who lives in Florence. I haven't had wifi to see his last response yet, but we are hoping we will be able to meet up with him and possibly stay at his place while in Florence.

I am really excited to finally be in Italy, it's somewhere I have always wanted to go. We are staying in a campground to save some only these first two nights. We have a tiny private cabin lined up--it should be pretty hot but hopefully there will be water nearby.

Ciao!

***

Made it to Venice. Our train station was on the grand canal so we got a glimpse of it already. We met some nice people on the bus to our campground who gave us some advice where to go while back in Holland.

It is so refreshing to be on the outskirts of the city and be in a wooded area. Our cabin is 6x8 probably. Very tiny! There are just two beds and the bathrooms are separate. Luckily it's semi cool tonight. So I am looking forward to getting a good nights sleep. We plan to be in the city all day tomorrow! Can't wait!

A blurry pic of our cabin

Quick walking pic of grand canal

Made it to Venice. Looking like a bum.

Hanging out in hostel bar in Switzerland.

Resting

I still have a lot to write about Budapest but the past two weeks are catching up to me and I am very tired and don't feel good today. On our way to Venice from Budapest we decided to stop in Switzerland to rest. We got  here at 7 am this morning and haven't done much else than rest. We have a cabin booked for Venice tomorrow night and the next.

When I have a bit more energy I will fill you all in on Budapest. It was a blast.

I have a few pictures from the last couple days from heroes square and the spa.

Long day

We had the perfect day in Austria today. We finally got a good nights sleep. The beds in this hostel are actually comfortable and for the first time in a week there was no construction outside our window at 7 am. We slept in until 830 and got ready for a day of adventuring. We took two metro lines and a bus to get out of the city.

We managed to not get lost along the way and made it to the trail we had planned to go to. It was extremely hot but very worth it. We hiked through the mountains, vineyards, and walked through a few suburbs where we got to see what everyday life was like on the outskirts of Vienna.

After our hike we were exhausted. Good thing we found a pool on a mountaintop! I didn't bring my camera or phone with me because we put them in lockers before we went up but the view was absolute,y beautiful. We swam for a bit, and then sat on the edge of the pool and could see the entire city of Vienna below us. It was a moment like no other.

We finally made our way home and rewarded our long day of adventure and exercise with nachos and beer. We thought we deserved it. We just packed all of our things for our day of travel tomorrow. We leave about noon for Budapest, Hungary. We should be getting there tomorrow before 4.

If we have wifi I will update from Budapest.

Last day in Vienna

We are getting ready to go hiking. We are headed to the train station to grab the metro, once off we have to catch a bus and then we will be at the spot! We will probably be back later on tonight. I will try to take a few pictures on my phone to post on here.

It's supposed to be 90+ degrees and we are hiking 7 miles so wish us luck. We have apples, granola bars, and plenty of water!

I love Wien already

Hallo aus Wien!

We got to Vienna this afternoon and so far everyone has been so friendly! It's been an awesome day so far. We made it to the hostel which is really close to the train station, the receptionist was awesome and told us all about what to do while we are here. There is a free pop festival going on for the next few days, it's a short train or a 30 minute walk away. We plan to go to that at some point tomorrow.

We got groceries down the street because we finally have a hostel kitchen to cook in! Score. When we were making dinner we met some girls from Quebec who we might try to head to the festival with. There are a ton of things to do nearby, we will have to pick and choose what to do. We hope to make it to a national park that is relatively close by to do some swimming and hiking.

This is my favorite hostel we have stayed in so far. As soon as we checked in we got welcomed by a free glass of beer and lots of smiles. Tonight we explored around our part of town and will venture out tomorrow.

I finally found a post office so I can get a few our from here!

Our new room

On the train

Vienna bound

Waiting in the train station, going to Austria in an hour. Scored a hostel there for 18 euro a night. Looking forward to doing some heavy hiking. I hope everyone is well at home.

Auf Wiedersehen!

photos

Marianplatz in München

Grocery shopping on a budget

From the pubcrawl in Amsterdam

Lunch on the canal with Shelby and Greg

Windmills in Holland. This ones for sad and haywire

Last day in Deutschland

The last 24 hours has been pretty eventful. Shelby and I weren't able to get money out of the ATM and most food places at the station would only take cash. I scrounged all change I had in my purse and returned a bottle at the front desk (one plastic water bottle has a ,50€ deposit). I was able to buy a beer and a burger for a total of 3,40€ and had ,16€ to spare. Success.

Today we went on a four hour walking tour of the city. We got to speak English all day which is always exciting. The tour took us to a lot of historical spots. We got to learn a bit about Hitler, and learned more about King Ludwig and King Ludwig II. We learned that when King Ludwig got married he had a big celebration with lots of food, beer, and music. The people had such a good time that they had another celebration the year to follow, and every year to follow since.... Oktoberfest!

Now we are back from our tour and pretty exhausted. Tonight we have to pack and get ready for our trip to Austria tomorrow.

Sightseeing

...Tuesday evening...

I have been writing word documents and posting them later when I have WiFi so there will be a few entries at a time.

Today We took a guided tour of the castle on the island of Herrenchimsee. It was built in the later part of the 19th century at the expense of King Ludwig II. Almost everything in it was an exact copy of Versailles. The king only lived for 14 days in the mansion he constructed, and all of the rooms were built only for his use. We even learned that Ludwig had a lift that was operated by his servants. From the king's personal dining room, the table could be lowered down to the lower level where the servants would load the table and hand crank it back up to the king when he didn't feel like seeing people.

He seems to have been a very private, mysterious man. He admitted to the public that he didn't want people to know much about him, and to this day no one is sure how the king and his doctor died at 40.

Other than the castle we walked around and took pictures in the garden. We took the ferry home and ended up getting on the wrong one and got stuck on the ferry for two hours when it was only supposed to be a 20 minute ride. But we eventually got back, Gina drove us to the station and we took the metro home.

It was fun talking to Gina about Germany, we got to learn a lot from her. The coolest was learning about their highway. The autobahn doesn't really have speed limits but there are certain places where a speed sign flashes. She said the speed signs that arch above the highway have cameras that measure the density of traffic. When the traffic is dense the speed signs will flash say 120 so that people slow down and don't create traffic jams further ahead. This seems to be a pretty advanced country, almost all appliances have built in energy saving technology. Even the escalators have a sensor so that they do not run and waste energy when people are not using them.

Once we got back we were desperately searching for WiFi because we hadn't been in touch with anyone all day. Finally I found a pay phone and was able to make two calls.

Tonight Shelby and I sat out on the balcony of our hostel and had our first German beer and listened to some country music to have a moment like home for a second. Monday we plan to hit up Starbucks for a long breakfast and WiFi session to get in touch with people and do some planning.

...Monday afternoon...

We got some planning done today and booked a hostel in Vienna. Thankfully we found one that seems sage and will only cost us 20€ a night. This afternoon we planned to go on a three hour walking tour of the city but we read the sign wrong and showed up at the wrong time, so we will plan to do that tomorrow.

I have been able to send a few post cards but it has been hard bto find post offices and stamps are expensive. So if you don't get one from me, Im sorry.

I can only post pictures from my phone which isn't working with the wifi lately. Will post some later.

Catching up

Since I have last blogged we have gone on a pub crawl in Amsterdam, taken three trains to get to Munich, and spent the day out of town with a contact Shelby's dad had here.

The pub crawl in Amsterdam was absolutely insane. The tour takes you to five different bars and one club. In each bar you are given a token for a free drink, and four bottles of pucker need to be finished by the group before the group moves on. While waiting outside we met two guys, one who was raised in Chicago but now lives in Germany, Victor, they two seemed very nice so we stuck with them for a bit so we weren't all by ourselves.

We only made it to four of the pubs--we thought we should quit while we were ahead and still safe to make it back to the hostel. We met quite a few people that we got to talk with fora good bit of time. We met two very sweet girls from London who we hung out with for a while. They were just in Amsterdam for the weekend to spend a few days relaxing and going out.

So, we survived the bar crawl and got a free t-shirt! Success.

The next morning we had to wake up early to check out of the hostel. We had a leisurely breakfast at a restaurant on the canal and made our way to Amsterdam Centraal train station. There were no direct trains left to Munich so we had to take three. The two were about an hour and the next was somewhere around five hours. We finally made it to our hostel around 9:30pm.

When we arrived we learned that we had gotten a room upgrade. We had signed up for a 12 bed shared room, but they had a cancellation and upgraded us to a private twin. It's a bit of a bummer that we don't have roommates to chat with, because in Amsterdam we met some really awesome people, but on the other hand it's nice to have some privacy.

Last night at the hostel when we were in the lobby, Gina--a woman Shelby's dad knows--came looking for us. Se invited us to a major music festival but it would go on into the wee hours of the morning and we really wanted to get some sleep. After declining the festival invitation she invited us to go visit a famous castle on an island outside of Munich with her daughter and her boyfriend, and two other couples who are staying with them from the states.

We took the tram this morning to a location near Gina's house where we got picked up by Anya and her boyfriend. They drove us to Gina's and we had breakfast there before taking off. Since it was far out of the city, we had to take the Autobahn to get there. We clocked in at 190km/hr which felt pretty crazy, but when all the other cars are going just as fast it wasn't hard to adjust to.

After the trip in the car we had to take a ferry to the island where the castle is. From where we were you could see the mountains of Austria. They were absolutely breathtaking.

We took a guided tour of the castle with the group which I will write about tomorrow because I only have a few minutes of wifi left.

Write again soon if possible

PS
Sorry mom and dad for all the scary details of bar crawls and the autobahn. But I assure you we look 
out for each other

Munich, Germany

Guten Abend,
We have had a long day of traveling to Germany. But we are here safe and excited to explore the city tomorrow.

I cant write much because I only have a few minutes of internet left. We are going to try to find an internet cafe tomorrow where we can do some research and planning.

Love you all, talk to you soon.

Amsterdam

Goede  morgen van de Nederland,
I have been away from WiFi for a bit so I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday. Thursday morning Shelby and I got up early, had breakfast at our hostel and said goodbye to all the friends we made while in Paris. We had to walk a kilometer and a half with our heavy packs to get to the Gare du Nord train station. Once there we boarded a train to Brussels. Thankfully I was able to get some sleep on the first train because I was exhausted. 

The Belgium train station was huge and confusing. A guy who spoke English approached us and he turned out to be from Houston; we worked together to navigate our way through the station and took our next two trains together. He is in between graduation and law school, so he decided to take off for a mo th and backpack Europe solo. Once in Amsterdam all three of us got dinner on the edge of the canal before going our separate ways.

We checked into our hostel and met our roommates. We share a room with two girls who do not speak English do we don't know where they are from. There are two guys in our room as well. One from VA and one from Liverpool. The two of them both went to Centrral Connecticut State University which is about 30 minutes from ECSU where Shelby goes to college.

Last night we walked around the district for a while; we went to a few coffee shops and got pizza around 11 before heading back to the hostel to go to bed.

We got espresso this morning and talked to the owner there about what we should spend our time doing. He suggested we take a boat tour of the canals, so we will probably do that this afternoon. We may take a tour of the Heineken factory as well. 

My phone is off so I cannot upload any pictures, but I will post some later in the day.

Spreek je later
Vaarwell

Into the City

Today has even another wonderful day in Paris. It started with espresso at Terasse de Maubeauge. We have already been there three or four times; we try to hit the owner with a new French phrase every time we go. He really appreciates the effort we make, and it's fun for us too.

After coffee we took the metro into the center of Paris. We saw a flyer for a free tour and education session through CultureFish. We managed to take the right metro and got to the meeting point with no problems. Our tour guide, Pierre, is a dual citizen of America and France so he spoke very good English. He was telling us that himself and his two siblings hadn't been living in the same country for years; they were always traveling about and would scarcely see one another. So, in 2009 they decided to drop everything, all three move to Paris and open up a company. Now they have a service called CultureFish where they run tours everyday rain or shine by donation only. So far it's been a success for them.

It turned out that four other people from our hostel went to the same tour that we did. We met two really nice guys from Florida who are actually leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow too. So we plan to meet up with them in the Netherlands as well. We also met four others, two from New Zealand and two from Australia.

We got to learn a lot about the history of Paris and how it came to be what it is today. Today while we were at the river, Pierre was telling us about Paris Beach. Every year for a few weeks the mayor closes down the road that runs right next to the river and has massive amounts of sand dumped on the road, they bring in palm trees and have a great number of bands and musicians perform. He says they do it to give the Parisians who don't have time to get out of the city and go to the beach to feel like they are in the tropics for a bit. The whole thing is free and open to the public.

After walking through the center of the city we visited the Louvre which is the largest museum in the world. It is where the Monalisa is displayed. We didn't go inside, we just visited the courtyard. Afterwards, we walked down to the end of the lawn where we could see the Eiffel Tower in distance but we didn't get too close to it. Shelby and I are planning to go to the tower when we come back to Paris at the end of our trip. We took the metro back with our new friend from Latvia.

After walking all day we still had more walking to do because we had to find Gare du Nord--the major train station to make reservations for our train to Amsterdam tomorrow. Turns out the direct trains already filled up so we have to take a train to Brussels, Belgium first. We figure we might as well stay for a few hours, so we plan to arrive around noon and get lunch and explore Brussels and Belgium a bit before hopping the train Amsterdam tomorrow evening.

We spent the afternoon in our part of the city. We went back to our favorite cafe for a glass of Rosé and walked around and ate baguettes. We are finally back at the hostel.We hung out and wrote in our room for a bit. We then went downstairs and met a man from outside of Verona. He helped us decide where we want to go during our time left in Europe. So far our route consists of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, and Spain.

We have talked to many people that we have met about where to go and have taken their advice. We plan to get to bed at a reasonable hour, wake up early and go get our last espresso from Terasse de Maubeague and say Au revoir, then take the train to Belgium around 11AM.

I will blog from The Netherlands tomorrow!

Hope all is well at home.

Ciao

Day 1

Shelby and I made it to Paris around 6am this morning at thr overhwelmingly huge CDG airport . Thankfully we found a nice woman our age from Norway who knew her way around the trains and metros in Paris. She helped us in purchasing metro cards from the French machines and guided us to our stop where we luckily found our hostel.

We had 7 or so hours to kill before we could get into our room at the hostel so we downed a few espressos and walked around our entire area of the city. At this point we have been awake for about 30 hours and plan on going to bed well before 8 o'clock.

Tomorrow we need to find our way to a major train station to make reservations for our train to Amsterdam on Thursday, and we plan to go see the Eiffel Tower and the louvre. It's been pretty difficult to communicate with people here, but we have already added a handful of French words and phrases to our vocabulary.

Two days until departure...

Au revoir America, Bonjour Paris!

I am traveling again this summer and will be keeping a blog so all of you at home can see what I'm up to. Shelby McIntyre, who I met in Australia last summer, and I are going to be backpacking through Western Europe for the next month. We are due to arrive in Paris at 6:00 AM local time on Tuesday (midnight Monday EST).

We will be in France for the first few days of our journey!