Colin and I had a much more open itinerary this time with an idea of a few cities and sights that we wanted to see. Once of them was the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest. I saw a picture of this building in Rick Steves' Eastern Europe guide book last year and both Colin and I wanted to see the building and the city. We did not have the time last year, so for '06 we decided Budapest would be the last stop for us in '06. The rest of the trip we basically flew by the seats of our pants.
The following are my journal entries from Euro Trip '06.
10/3/06
Colin and I are heading back over to Europe next month. After two months over there last year we just didn't see enough. So we are heading back to see more of some places we really enjoyed, and take in some places we heard great things about but did not have the time to see last year.
Our itinerary so far is. October 11th fly from SLC to Atlanta, depart to Munich. Arrive Munich on the 12th and hop a train to Salzburg Austria. Last year we did not get to see much of Salzburg, because we were always out on day trips while we were there. So this time we will tour Salzburg and do some local hikes. Saturday the 14th we will be going to a professional football(soccer) match, Salzburg Red Bulls. We have 2nd row tickets so we will be right down on the pitch. Sunday morning might be a late morning especially if the Red Bulls win. We will head out to the Lake District of Austria and stay in Hallstatt. We plan to move around to a few of the cities around the Lake District, hiking and relaxing. Around the 19th or 20th of October we will hop a train to Croatia. We have a few place picked out, but nothing set in stone right now. The plan is to stay on the coast, and do a little island hoping, but mainly in the North of Croatia. We would like to make our way down to the South, but the rail system is very rudimentary in Croatia. Sometime around the 25 or 26th of October we will head to Budapest Hungary; relax in the spas, tour the city and surrounding area. We have a local in Budapest that will take us around and show us the sites and all the fun night spots. We will be in Budapest for Halloween, so that should be a lot of fun!! We head back home on the 8th of November; fly from Budapest to JFK, to SLC.
I look forward to the fun times ahead of us.
Hello from Salzburg,10/21/06
We have arrived and have decided to move to the place we stayed last year.
Last night we stayed in St. Sebastian; Mozart’s Father and family are buried out
back. It was a nice place but the church bells rang every 15 minutes and went crazy
at 18:00 and 06:00. Fortunately they stop at 22:00, but man are they hard to
sleep through.
The flight over was not too bad, got some shut eye on the flight from SLC to Atlanta,
but not much on the flight from Atlanta to Munich. That was a LONG flight!
We have tracked down the Nutella and had some lunch.We are now officially back in EUROPE!!
Going to head out to Berchastgarden Germany this afternoon to explore
that city again and after that checkout more of the old town in Salzburg.
We walked down to Mozart Platz last night, but we did not stay too long;
we were both feeling the time change.
Signing off for now...
Until next time this is Judge saying "The hills are alive with the sound of MUSIC!"
Salzburg Day 2 Continued...
So today we planned to head out to Berchastgarden and explore that area.
Well after a trip down to the busbanhof and finding no help whatsoever we decided
to explore the Hohensalzburg Fortress and surrounding grounds.
After a vigorous climb to the top of the hill which the fortress is perched on;
I can see now why it was one of the only fortresses never to be sacked.
The views of Salzburg are breathtaking from high atop the fortress. We explored
the fortress grounds and inside the fortress. Made another meat sandwich
with Nutella while sitting in the fortress, these will be the staple meal for us
over here. We began our walk down from the fortress and decided to check the grounds
around the backside of the fortress. There are some amazing houses perched against
the cliffs below the fortress.
The streets up to these houses are so narrow; one can only imagine how they get their
cars up and down these streets. After exploring the grounds we decided to walk back
across the river and head up the hill that is on the opposite side of the fortress.
Another steep and long hike was a head of us; along the way there were statues
of the stages of the cross.
We timed our ascent perfect;as we arrived to the top of the climb the sun was just
starting to set on Salzburg. What a site this is; I wish you all could see it,
and if I would not have forgotten my cable for my camera I would be uploading some
pics for all to see.
Maybe later on the trip I will be able to.
We hiked through the forest for a bit and found some cool trails,
wish I had my bike with me for this part.
There were some remnants of an old fortress wall still in tact, guard posts and all.
On our way back down the hill we stopped by a small bust of Mozart and took some
pics.
This inspired us to pick up some Mozart Balls on the way back to the hostel.
Oh what delicious treats Mozart Balls are.
One could make a meal out of them, which Colin and I ended up doing.
The wireless connection we had going in our room no longer wants to connect,
so we are without internet for a bit.
I was working my way around the room window to window trying to pick up a signal,
half hanging out the windows at one time.
Picture Colin holding me by my feet as I dangle from the second floor window
trying to find optimal wireless reception; what we would give for a wireless sniffer
right now.
Tomorrow is the big day, SALZBURG RED BULLS FOOTBALL!!!
This for sure will be one of the highlights of the trip for me.
I finally let the true football hooligan in me out to play, YES!!
It is time to put these tired dogs of mine to sleep, feet are a little
on the tired side from walking all over today. I must say it is so nice
just to be back in Salzburg walking around! I highly recommend a trip over here
to you all!!
Well until next time, this is Judge saying “Goodnight, farewell, auf wiederschen.”
10/15/06
Goodbye Salzburg. Hello Hallstatt,
We are off to Hallstatt this morning;
sitting here at the train station writing this e-mail right now,
listening to the recorded messages on the PA system in German.
We have some time to kill so I thought I would get in an update
on how things are going over here.
Last night we went to see the Salzburg Red Bulls play, they won 3-0.
The match was great; the fans are so into their football over here. They
have a section for the visiting team’s fans and it is all caged in so no
fights can break out between their fans and the home team fans.
Only bad part is that EVERYONE smokes at the games
and when they are drinking they are smoking like chimneys!
I wore my RCB scarf (my local football support group) to the game,
got a bunch of looks from people trying to figure out what my
scarf was all about. After the game everyone was in high spirits chanting and
singing all the way to the train and on the train back to Salzburg. It
is a short ride from Salzburg to the stadium.
I spent yesterday walking the city of Salzburg taking in all the
sights; Colin is a little under the weather so he took a nap. Walked along the
river path, the water is so green and clean looking. I am sure it is VERY
cold! I got to see where Mozart was born, baptized and where he grew up. The
tourist crowds were not that bad at all this time around. Last year we were
here in June and the old town was much more crowded. Salzburg is such a great
city: I could so live over here!
Next stop is Hallstatt Austria. It is located in the Lake District of
Austria. We plan to stay there for three nights, and then move to
another one of the Lake District cities.
Until next time this is Judge saying; Salzburg, Salzburg, Red Bulls,
Red Bulls, Danke, Bitte!! (little chant from last nights game)
10/16/06
Hallstatt
Arrived in Hallstatt this afternoon, the train ride here was amazing.
Passed through some beautiful countryside full of lakes tucked in
between towering mountains. We had to take a boat across the lake from the
train station to get to Hallstatt, that was a nice little ride. The town of
Hallstatt is very small but has a lot of charm. We walked to the end of
the town, which can be covered in about ten minutes; sat in the sun and
watched the day tourists leave. Talked with some Austrian tourists that was
here on a company sponsored outing. They were some goofy guys; one thing we
have noticed is that Austrians do not have as much command on the English
Language as the Germans have. This town clears out and we have the
run of the place after 18:00. Since this is the off season for around here
we are pretty much all by ourselves. The place we are staying in is called
Gasthof Simony; it is over 500 years old!! This city is ancient; it has
been around longer than ROME!! An entire epoch known as the Hallstatt era
800-400bc tells you the importance of this small city due to its salt
mining trade. Tomorrow we are going to head out and explore this city and
surrounding area.
Well I am off to bed, here it is only 21:18 and I am tired and there is
nothing to do here. This is definitely one of those places where it is
early to bed and early to rise.
Goodnight.
10/17/06
We are dead tired from the hike we did yesterday. The day started off
with something like this; “Let’s just take in an easy hike today.”
Five hours later we were dragging ourselves back into the room. We embarked on
an easy hike and ended up hiking three quarters of the way up the highest peaks
around. It was a very nice hike, went through some amazing woods with
all the fall colors on the trees and the forest floor bellow. You should
see the roads they build over here; they go straight up the mountain hugging
thousand plus foot cliff edges and all one lane with small pull offs
every so often. They also have a thing here where if they can’t go around
the mountain the go through the mountain! After the hike we ate some food
in our room and crashed for the next 5 hours, turning in at 21:00. There is
not much to do here once the sun goes down and man does it go down fast
here this time of the year!
Today we went and sat in the sun next to the lake to try to warm up.
After watching the ducks and swans for a bit we decided to go check out the
Catholic Church that has a room in the graveyard full of skulls and
bones. They are painted, and have the names and years on each one. There is
limited space for bodies so after 10 years the bodies would be removed and the
skulls would be bleached and painted and placed with the long bones in
the bone room. This continued until the Catholic Church gave the OK for
cremation. Colin and I were going to go check out the world’s oldest
salt mine, but we read there are over 600 steps you have to climb and we
said,“BAG IT!!” Our legs are way too tired from yesterdays death march.
We finally found some WIFI here that we could connect to, but it is in the
shade and in the shade it was 45 degrees; Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!! It’s about
nap time over here in Hallstatt, in a few hours the sun should be shining
on our WIFI spot and we will be heading back there to send off some more
e-mails and check on the next place we are off to tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are off to Badgastein, Austria. It has some hot springs
there and is a very popular winter resort. We plan to stay three nights there
before moving on to Croatia.
Until next time this is Judge saying, “Gruss Gut” (may God greet you) this
is what Austrians say to one another.
10/18/06
We stayed the night in Bad Gestein Austria, it is a major ski
destination in Austria. The town is virtually a ghost town this time of the year. We
walked around last night to checkout some of the town, and it really was like
walking in a town that had an H-Bomb dropped on it. No one was around
and there were very little signs of anything being open. This would be a
perfect place to film a movie that called for a deserted town!
In the center of the town is this amazing waterfall, it is all lit up at night.
Most of downtown is perched on the edge of a gorge that the waterfall
runs the length of.
When we first got to town our plan was to stay at the Euro Youth
Hostel, but it is closed for renovation. So we had to hike down the hill
for a few kilometers to the Information Office. Wouldn’t you know it, we had
to hump back up that same hill and then some to find the place we would be
staying in! The cold Colin is getting over has now settled in with me.
So after getting to our place I was completely out of it. Hopefully in the
next few days I will be able to kick this thing.
Since there is nothing going on here we are going to head to Slovenia
and check out the capital city Ljubljana. The hostel we plan to stay in was
a prison at one time but now is a very unique hostel according to Rick Steves.
Good part about traveling like this is that we only have a general outline
for the trip so when things like this come up we can go with the flow
and travel where the wind takes us.
10/20/06
Dober dan from Slovenia,
We are here in Ljubljana the capital city of Slovenia.
Arrived yesterday afternoon and ended up walking most of the old town in
search of a hostel to stay at. For some reason they were all booked up Thursday night.
After crossing the city a few times and using the internet to search for rooms we
finally found a room in an old cold war era looking building up on the 12th floor in a
4 person dorm room; we were the only ones in the room.
What a dreary place that was! We looked right across a square into another building where
people actually lived, very stark living quarters. My cold has started to break up a bit,
but I have developed a nice cough. Went by the pharmacy and got some kind of drink mix
medicine that is supposed to help my cough. Fortunately the pharmacist spoke very
good English and was able to help me. The weather today is very dark and grey with
threatening storm clouds. Colin and I both found it interesting that last time we were in
a former eastern block country (Czech Republic) it was dark and grey just like today.
We are sitting in a little café right now having a few drinks and waiting to see if the weather
clears a bit. Our room for the evening is in a very cool hostel called Youth Hostel Celica.
It was a former military prison that has been converted into a very trendy and hip youth hostel.
We might stay one more night and head out to Croatia on Sunday.
The people here are very friendly and speak very good English; even most of the older generation
we have come across speaks it well. The city is alive all hours of the night.
Until next time this is Judge saying Nasvidenje.
Ljubljana Day 3
Lazy day here in Ljubljana just relaxing and recovering from the lack
of sleep last night, what a funny time it was. We talked to many local
people here in the hostel, which turns out to be one of the hot spots of the
city. People come from all over the city and hangout here.
As we sat and had some dinner last night in the dining room we talked with
a local man that migrated here from the Middle East. After talking with
him for awhile we found out he was a tobacco smuggler, and sold tobacco
here in Ljubljana on the black market. He was a quirky interesting person to
share a table with. After he left we talked with a bunch of local youths who
come to the hostel to hangout and smoke hookahs. We talked with them for an
hour or so and found that most of them had immigrated here from all over;
Mexico City, Moscow, and all over Europe. Colin and I were crashing around
21:30 due to the fact that the last four nights we have been asleep before
22:30. Outside the hostel there is a little shanty town set up in the old
military installment that used to be here. Supposedly this is the place to
hangout; with a few bars/clubs and mostly people just hanging out on the grounds,
it was the place to be. Colin and I decided we would head out to see what
all the fuss was about. Here we were thinking a handful of people would be
out there; oh no there was a few hundred people out there! We walked around
in shock of all the people just hanging out in this little area. We ran
into some of the people we were talking with earlier, talked with them for a
bit then talked with some tourist from Mexico City and Panama; they were
funny guys. It was quite the experience seeing all this happen with no police
presence. After standing outside for an hour or so watching all this
and talking with a few people we decided it was time to hit the rack. Oh
the fun had only started! We got back into our room in time to see our new
roommate had just showed up. She was from the US but lives in the
Netherlands now. She was a larger older lady that could snore with the
best of them. After listening to a book on my MP3 player until 01:30 I
decided to put in the earplugs and try to sleep. My sleep would be short lived,
the lady got up to use the WC and fumbled about with the light switches
flipping the lights off and on in the room countless times until she figured out
which one turned on the light in the WC. Not too hard to figure it out
since there was only three, but I guess she felt like we all needed to be up
to enjoy such momentous occasions. Our other roommate is from Norway; she
is a very friendly person and speaks English amazingly well; her name is Angelica.
Right now I am sitting in the main square enjoying some free wireless
and watching people walk by. For a Saturday it is very dead here, most
shops are closed for the day.
We are trying to get down to Croatia but the bus or train down does
not go on Sundays. So we are here again for another day. The next stop for us
should be Pula Croatia.
Until next time this is Judge saying so long from Ljubljana.
10/24/06
Pula:
I'm sitting on the coast of the Adriatic Sea watching the sunset
here in Pula Croatia. What a site this is! There are a few local fisherman
40yds off bringing in the last catch of the day. I went out into the water a
little while back when it was a bit warmer, but only got up to about my
knees and felt that was good enough.
We spent the day in Pula checking out the sites, strolled through an
ancient Roman Coliseum where at one time gladiators did battle and
these days the likes of Sting sing, hiked up into an ancient theater, and
walked under older archways. Pula is a nice small old town that has some neat
old Roman sites to see. We are staying at the youth hostel just outside the
city right on a small bay on the Adriatic. Tomorrow we are off to some other
city, not quite sure where yet. The thought is to take a bus to a city
further down the coast. Then we will catch a ferry and take that the
rest of the way down to Dubrovnik. We can catch one from here but it we will
miss most of the sites because it is an over night trip. The sun is about to
set, I am going to stop for a few minutes and watch the sun dip into the
Adriatic.
That was very beautiful, wish you all could have been here to
have seen this sunset. Now I can see some big boats way off in the distance;
probably making there way to a port for the night. I can also see a
major freighter making its way south along the sea.
So tomorrow we are off to some other Croatian city. Colin and I have
been talking about maybe heading up to Sarajevo after we hit Dubrovnik. A
Swiss traveler we are sharing a room with told us that the city is very
beautiful and that the people are very friendly there. So we may head there and
we are also looking at heading to Romania along our way to Budapest. We are
having a good time in Eastern Europe.
Until next time this is Judge signing off from the coast of the Adriatic.
10/25/06
Long Bus Ride To Spilt:
We are in Split Croatia; endured a ten hour bus ride from Pula to
Split. That same distance could have been covered in a car in about
four and a half hours.
The bus wound down the coast, and when I say wound, I mean WOUND!
There were times were the only thing that would keep the bus from
splashing down into the Adriatic a thousand feet bellow was a
minuscule guard rail.
It was very beautiful drive for the first bit and around sunset. The rest
was just torture! Croatia does not have very good public transportation,
so the bus is used as a way to get around the country. The bus goes through
all the small cities and down two lane highways making numerous stops to let
people on and off the bus. It was a nice Mercedes Benz Touring Bus and was
never crowded, but we truly got to see the coast; about 9 hours too much of
it I must say. If you make your way to Croatia, rent a car or fly.
Along the way on the bus we meet a fellow traveler from America; he
has traveled the world a few times over. First time he traveled this region
was back in 1973. He is some sort of author, we believe on antiquities
since that is what he talks about all the time. His name is Mike, kind of an
odd guy but very friendly. When we arrived in Split a little after 21:00 we
were barraged with little old ladies trying to see if we needed a room (Sobe)to
rent.
Colin, Mike, and I talked with a lady that looked the most trustworthy
and walked to her place. Along the way she told us all about the city and
Diocletian’s Palace which was built here between 295-305AD. It is
absolutely amazing especially at night with it all lit up. The place we are
staying at is a nice flat that has an amazing view of the Palace Tower. We decided
to stay here for two nights to checkout the Palace and other sites. Colin
and I went for a short walk after we got all checked into our place.
The plan for now is to enjoy Split tomorrow, and catch a ferry to
Dubrovnik the next day. Looks like after that we are going to Sarajevo in Bosnia
& Herzegovina, after that we may head to Bratislava in the Slovak Republic
before heading to Budapest. If we still have time we are talking about
heading into Romania and seeing Transylvania, maybe even look for
Dracula while we are at it. As you can tell we are planning on seeing much more
of Eastern Europe than we initially planned to see. I am really excited
about seeing Sarajevo; the CNN news reports are still fresh in my mind about
“Sniper Alley” and how war torn that city was. From what we have heard it is
a wonderful place to visit now.
Until next time this is Judge saying “Dovidenja.”
10/27/06
Split To Bol:
I’m sitting on the famous Zlatni Rat Beach on the island of Brac,
Croatia. We took a ferry from Split to Supetar this morning then
rode in a VERY hot and stinky bus across the island to Bol.
You know it is a stinky bus when every time we stopped to let
people on or off I was awaiting the fumes from the buses exhaust
to come in and overpower the stinky people!
Upon arriving to Bol we had to walk along the coast for about a
mile to reach the Zlatni Rat Beach.
It is a little fin that sticks out into the Adriatic off the island.
The water is very blue and so clear. I have never seen such water,
not even in Miami Beach! We pretty much had the beach all to ourselves
most of the day; the locals are starting to show up now, must be getting off
work and out of school. Have been watching sailboats and other small crafts
go by. The water itself is a bit warmer than up in Pula, but not by much.
The wind has really picked up in the last hour. We have moved up the beach
to seek a little windbreak from the trees where all the locals are
sitting. I have had enough sun for the day so I am back in the shadows of the
trees writing this. Colin is still out in the sun, and has already begun to
turn bright red. I should go flip him over soon and cook the rest of
him..LOL…Don’t want him too overdone.
Tomorrow we are off to Dubrovnik, via ferry if it is not too long of a
trip. We would rather avoid more bus travel, but the ferry ride might
be a good bit longer so we may opt for the bus. The weather has been great
today in the shade where I am it is 70 degrees and feels good to be in
shorts, t-shirt with flip flops on. Oh there was one nude bather, but sadly I
must report is was some old dude. We did get a good laugh out of that! Soon
we will be off to hike back to the catch the bus back to Supetar and ferry
back over to Split.
Until next time this is Judge signing off from Zlatni Rat Beach.
10/29/06
Dubrovnik Day 2:
Hello all from Dubrovnik. Just got back from a nice dip in the
Adriatic. It is a beautiful sunny day here, low 80’s in the sun.
It is going to be quite the rude shock heading back to Salt Lake City
and winter like weather after spending time here.
In a bit we are going to head down to the old town and walk around the
fortress. It is amazing to think that artillery shells struck 68% of
the 800+ buildings in the old town during 1991-92. It is very well
reconstructed; one would never think this town was hit so hard.
Yesterday was another very long, stinky and hot bus ride; they must
get cold easy down here because the bus did not have the AC on and people
were wearing sweaters and jeans on the bus. Some Australians along with us were
dying from the heat! You know it is hot when Australians are complaining!
Again the bus followed the coastline with nice views of
the Adriatic a thousand or so feet bellow the road with no shoulder to stop
the bus from going straight down for a big splash. A real good sign is
seeing cars every so often on the cliffs bellow; just as long as we don’t
see a bus we are alright. We walked around the old town last night for a bit,
there is so much to see here! We were not expecting this big of an old medieval
town. We might stay here a few more days before moving on.
Right now we pretty much have the hostel all to ourselves.
We plan to have 4-5 days in Budapest so that should put us in there
around Friday the 3rd. As of now we do plan to stop in Sarajevo
but nothing is set in stone. I have been taking a bunch
of pictures and will post them online when I get home.
This is Judge signing off from Dubrovnik.
10/31/06
Happy Halloween Everyone!!
Another day of traveling, another long bus ride! Today our bus driver
looks like he was on an all night binger. I’m sitting on a bus going
through Bosnia & Herzegovina right now; listening to a little Mazzy Star.
The views are amazing! We passed through a few small towns and you could
still see the remnants of shrapnel and bullet holes on many of the buildings.
Stopped in one small town and I went to use the WC and the WC Nazi was in full
effect blocking the door with her body. Most the time I can just blow by them;
I refuse to pay to use a bathroom that is not maintained! That is part of
the fun traveling in Europe; the hunt for the WC. That and looking for a
place to buy food such as a grocery store.
We were thinking about staying in Dubrovnik one more day but the
weather was starting to turn. The winds are amazing there when they kick up!
Yesterday we walked around on the fortress wall of Dubrovnik. The views
of the city were astonishing from the wall. Took a bunch of pictures and video.
It took a little over an hour to walk the whole wall including stops to
checkout the scenery. We hung out with some Australians that we meet on
the bus ride down from Split. They were leaving town too because of how
dead it was. Last night was pants and sweater weather, the night before I
was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt.
So this trip we have been bombarded with Sobe Ladies. They wait at all
the bus stops looking for people like us with big backpacks to offer a Sobe
(basically a private room). There are signs all over offering Sobe’s/Zimmers.
I am sure when we hit Sarajevo they will be out in force. Some of them
are very nice, but others look like total con-artists. No passport stamps
yet, just the one we got when we landed in Munich. We are way bummed about
that; thought for sure we would get one going into Croatia and Bosnia. Guess
I will just have to settle for my country patches I buy to put on my
pack. Think I might be running out room soon with all the patches I need to
buy, the list of countries I have been to is starting to get long. Canada,
US, Mexico, England, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, and soon Hungary. Not too bad of a list I must say; I do
plan on adding many more countries to this list down the road.
Read a great book on this trip called “Cold Kill”. I highly
recommend it; I went through all 500+ pages in three days!
Right now I am working on a book Colin got off some guy in
our hostel in Salzburg. It is called “The Devils Picnic”;
very interesting look at governments and how they control societies.
We are finally back on the road, had a rest stop for a bit.
There was a German Shepard there that I played with. I miss my dog!
Hopefully next stop is Sarajevo!
This is Judge signing off from somewhere in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
11/1/06
Sarajevo Day 2:
Went on a great tour today of Sarajevo. One of the guys who runs the
hostel took us out to three sites. First we stopped at what is left of the
tunnel that ran under the airport that they used to keep Sarajevo alive during
the siege. It was 800 meters long, there is 60 meters still around that you
can walk through. There was also a little museum set up where we watched a
video about the siege. There was a mortar stuck in the cement right in front
of the tunnel. When mortars hit the ground they leave these marks that
look like a flower. They call them here Sarajevo Roses. Around town they
have taken red paint and painted some of these red where people had died
from the mortar strikes. After the museum we went up to the Jewish Cemetery
where the Serbian snipers were positioned. They had a commanding view of what was
dubbed “Sniper Alley.” Our guide gave us a good talk about the siege; he
lived here during it. We finished the tour with a stunning view of Sarajevo.
Today was a cloudy dark, dreary day, perfect for where we are
and the subject matter we learned about. After the tour we walked down to
the bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot, then down to the Hilton where
all the foreign journalist stayed during the siege. It is so surreal to walk
down “Sniper Alley” and see all the Sarajevo Flowers on the ground and
bullet holes all over the walls of all the buildings. After the sun went down
it started to rain, perfect weather for ending the evening in Sarajevo.
All of us staying the hostel went out to a Thai restaurant for some dinner.
Tomorrow we are off to Belgrade, Serbia with a few of our roommates and then
off to Budapest. If you have the chance to come over to this city, do it
before it is completely rebuilt.
This is Judge saying goodnight from Sarajevo
11/2/06
Sarajevo To Belgrade:
Just passed into Serbia & Montenegro, this has been another long bus
ride!
The day started off with an early rise to make the bus. The hostel
arranged a ride out to the bus station for the five of us. It started to snow
when we arrived at the bus station; the hills that surround Sarajevo had a
light dusting of snow bellow the cloud line. We ran into a bunch of
snow in the mountains along the way. Got out and tossed a few snowballs!
We decided to head to Belgrade a few days back, and a group of us have
band together to head there. We will all end up in Budapest this
weekend. Which we have heard has protests planned for the weekend. Could make
for some great footage!! Talked to a guy that was there a month back when
they had some going on and he said it wasn’t too bad as long as you were
not on the front-lines in the thick of it all. Plus it was in a small section
of the city. Later we would find out one of the protestors fired up an old
Soviet tank and drove it around through the middle of the protest.
As for Belgrade I am not sure what there is to see in the city, but I
can add another country to my list. We finally got another stamp in our
passports!! Had to wait at the border for a good 20 minutes though.
Having a hard time writing this; the roads are so bad here! We are riding in an
old East German bus, so that is not helping either. I’m going to sign off
for now and finish this up later.
We are in Belgrade now, this city is a thriving metropolis. We were
all expecting a city much like Sarajevo. Colin and our Canadian travel
friends are staying in a guest house and our Australian friend is in the hostel
we could not get into but he had already booked a bed. It is quite cold
here, all of us are not really prepared for this cold of weather. The air
temperature itself is not bad but the wind cuts right through you.
Our bus ride here was a little over 8 hours because of snow delays and
a car crash in the mountains. We drove right through a whiteout into a corner
and the bus banged into the side of the road as we made the corner. We took
every side road there possibly was in Serbia; imagine taking the
Greyhound Bus from Vegas to Denver and taking every surface road along the way
stopping in neighborhoods to drop people off and pick them up along the
way. That is close to what we went through today. Riding this bus must be
close second to riding the boat across river Styx. All of us are so tired and
beat from the long ride. Four of us went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant.
It was amazing, they served us and took such good care of us. The food was
great and very cheap! We are going to check on the trains to Budapest
and the four of us are going to head out tomorrow. I am looking forward to
a good nights sleep.
This is Judge signing off from Belgrade.
11/3/06
Belgrade To Budapest:
What a day!!
We all woke up around 07:00 and got ready to catch the
08:10 train to Budapest. It was the fastest of the three that we looked up
online. It was either wake up early for that train, take one at 9:45 and get to
Budapest at 22:00 or take an overnight train. So the consensus was to take
the 08:10 train to Budapest, it was only a 7 hour ride.
We got out the door late because someone was dragging due to the fact
they jumped in the shower late. I won't name the person, but she should
have known better!!!
So we got to the train station just in time to have an old man get in
line in front of us at the ticket window and hear something over the PA
system about a train departing. Well there went the 08:10 train.
So we asked about the next train; well they said the next one wasn’t
until the overnight train. I was so upset that we had missed the train
by a few minutes and that we were stuck in Belgrade until the overnight train,
and there was no day time bus either.
If our room that we had was available that night it would not have been too bad.
Belgrade is a very modern city; you would be hard pressed to distinguish it
with a modern Western European City.
So it was off to get some food and figure out what we were going to do.
After getting some food in us we decided to look into renting a car.
The idea of driving from Serbia to Hungary sounded a little scary but quite
the adventure all in one.
While sitting in the warm café we spotted a few
other fellow backpackers. I started to talk with a few of them and found out
that a few of the ones in their group had missed the train to Budapest as well.
I told them about the car rental idea, and all of the sudden our band of backpackers
went from 4 people to 7;
We tired, We disheveled, We band of backpackers.
Now the mission was to find a car rental place and see how much it would
cost to get us to Budapest. After a few hours of searching the conclusion
was that it was going to be super expensive to rent a car and drive it
to Budapest. Ben our savior Canuck came through by finding a tour company
that would drive us to Budapest in a van. So we jumped at that and now we
had our means of transportation to Budapest. Colin, the two Canadians and I
went off to get the driver and van while the others stayed behind at the train
station. Along the way we passed a few buildings that had been struck
by some kind of missile; also along the way was the US Embassy. Later we
found out the buildings that were destroyed were the ones that the US hit in
the 90’s. We arrived at the travel agency and were treated to a nice warm
sitting room with coffee and juice. We sat in the leather couches
sipping our drinks and surfing the net while waiting for our driver.
Our fellow travelers stayed back because one had a big suitcase that had a broken
wheel on it so it took two of them to carry the thing around. After 45
minutes or so we were off to pick up the rest of the group which by then were
freezing waiting for us. The look of relief on their faces when we pulled up in
the van was worth a million dollars. Oh, but things can’t go that smooth
for us. One person was missing! The others said he would walk around every so
often looking to see if we were coming back. We ran around looking for him
for 20 minutes. The driver who’s name is Sasha got a call, turned to me and
asked. “What is the name of the person you are looking for?” I knew right
away what had happened. He had gone looking for us and ended up back at the
travel agency. What an idiot!! Not only that but he did not tell the others
what he was doing. So 40 minutes of travel time was wasted looking for him.
This person exemplified the prototypical “Stupid American” which he was
every bit of.
The drive up to Budapest was crazy at times. We went through a
blizzard for a good portion if it. The highways out of Serbia are two lanes,
and the big trucks would drive on the shoulders in the oncoming traffic to
allow people to pass. So here we are passing cars in our lane where there
were no shoulder and having oncoming traffic on their shoulder. There was no
room for error! I can say the roads in Hungary are much better; looked like
we were back in the States. We also got more stamps for our passport.
While we were leaving Serbia the border guard asked one of our travelers where
they picked him up jokingly because he was Slovakian and the rest of us were
American, Canadian, and Australian.
Colin and I were able to book a hostel for Saturday through Tuesday night
but we could not find one online for Friday night.
Once again our new friends from the travel agency came through for us.
They had a contact in Budapest that rents out apartments. So we
got this great apartment for two in the center of the city for 60 Euros.
The driver dropped off some of our group, and just like that we were back
to 4. We were dropped off at our apartment, ditched our bags and went out
looking for the hostel our friends had reservations for and some place to eat.
It was so cold outside, the wind cuts right through all our clothes!
We parted ways with one of the Canadians at the hostel and went out for food;
down to 3 now.
After dinner I crashed; was too tired to go out, it was about midnight anyways.
What a crazy day it was. Everything fell into place just the way we
needed it to and when we needed it to. Tomorrow the local here in Budapest I
know is going to take us out and show us the nightlife.
This is Judge saying Jo ejszakat (good night in Hungarian) from Budapest.
11/4-5/06
Budapest Day 2-3:
We have moved into our hostel which happened to be just down the road
from the apartment we were staying in. It is a nice place but is a bit on
the cold side. We said our goodbyes to Kelly from Canada and now we are
back to 2, Colin and I. The rest of the day we relaxed at the hostel and tried
to recover from the last few days of hectic travel. Around dinner time I
was able to get a hold of the local who said he would take us out on the
town and show us some sites. Colin and I got a bite to eat at a place called
Walhalla’s. It was alright, but the service really sucked. It is a
rare thing to get good service over here in Europe, very hit or miss. Chris
from Budapest meet up with us at the restaurant, and took us out to see some
city sites. We walked for a bit talking bikes; he is a fellow mountain
biker. After walking for a bit we jumped on a tram and used that to get
around. He took us down to see the Chain Bridge, Parliament, and some other very
impressive sites. Chris is a very cool guy, he learned his English from
just talking with people and watching American TV. Colin was not feeling too
well so we went back to the hostel and Chris and I went out to a club. We
meet up with some girls he knows from Spain and hit the town. The club was your
typical dance club you would find in most any US city. Every once and
awhile they would play a Hungarian dance song which was cool to hear since I
can hear the other music they were playing back at home. We partied it up
until the wee hours of the morning. Around 03:30 we all crashed and decided
to go out for gyros; that hit the spot! I finally crawled into my bed around
05:00.
I woke up Sunday afternoon around 11:00; spent the rest of the day
recovering from the long night. Colin and I finally went out to see
some sites during the evening while it was raining. Today must be some kind
of Remembrance Day because there were a bunch of people at this memorial
commemorating the 1956 uprising. There is also candles all over the
city in places where I am guessing people died during the uprising. The rain
was coming down too much to get any filming in, I did get a few shots of
things with the camera but it is just lousy weather for that. Chris is going
to take us out tonight to show us the best view of the city from atop
Castle Hill. I will for sure be getting some pictures and film of that! This
city is a photographers prefect dream city. It’s about time to go eat so I
will sign off and go get some grub.
Tomorrow we are heading out to the Statue Park where all the communist
statues are stored that use to be all around the city.
This is Judge signing off from Budapest.
11/6-7/06
Colin and I woke up early and headed out for a tour today. We decided
to take the Hammer & Sickle Tour. This tour included a trip to the Statue
Park, where they have on display some of the old communist statues that at
one time were all around Budapest. We were thinking it was going to be a
big junkyard of statues, but it was actually a well planned out display of
the statues, with a lot of symbolism on how they were displayed. Didn’t
do too much the rest of the day; that night we hooked up with Chris and went
out to shoot some pictures and see more sites. This city really is amazing at
night; I can see why the call it the Paris of Eastern Europe!
Last day of our European Adventure 06. Headed out to the flea market
and looked around for any good bargains. I picked myself up a Soviet Navy
Hat. There was a bunch of Third Reich items too, but it is hard to tell the
fake items from the real deal. The flea market had so much, but we have such
little space in our packs to bring things back. Just like the rest of our
trip the journey out to the market was quite the adventure. I went out
and toured a museum in the afternoon while Colin took a nap. I walked
through the Terror Museum; it is where the Soviets would torture and kill
people that were considered enemies of the state. The prison cells in the
basement were so disturbing. They had one where you had to stand, and they
shined lights in your eyes at all times, another you would not be able to
stand up in. It was quite a sobering tour through this museum.
After that I went down to what use to be called Heroes Square;
it is one of the only monuments still standing for the Soviets action on
freeing the city of Budapest during WWII.
While standing there I heard some people talking through loud speakers.
Sounded like some kind of rally or protest. Since I was around the embassies
I thought I would go see if a riot was going to breakout. I stumbled upon a
small rally of about 200 hundred people or so. I have no idea what they were
talking about but I walked around and watched for a bit.
The police were there but letting things be for a bit. After awhile I noticed
more and more police and some big police vans coming down a street.
I made my exit stage right and did not look back.
Colin and I went to go to one of the thermal spas but it was closed when
we got there. So we never got to experience one of the thermal spas.
Oh well, guess I will just have to come back someday.
I went out to take some more night shots when we got back. Headed down to
the Chain Bridge and got a bunch or really good shots.
I really like the nights here in Budapest. Headed up on a hill that had
an incredible view of the city and just sat up there and took it all in.
I really don’t want to go back home quite yet, could use a few more
weeks over here.
Colin and I are heading back home tomorrow morning bright and early.
We should be touching down in SLC around 20:30.
I hope you all have enjoyed my e-mails, it has been a pleasure to
share our adventures with you.
This is Judge signing off one last time from Europe. Goodnight!
11/8/06
New York, New York:
Start spreading the news, Colin and Judge are in New York City!
I would be more excited about this if I have not been up for the
past 19hrs and our flight wasn’t over two hours late
getting into Budapest. Which made us very late arriving in New York City.
So here we sit in the Ramada at JFK; not only did we miss our flight but
the rest of the flights were grounded because of rain and fog.
I am very tempted to jump into a cab and head downtown, but I am tired and
seen so many great places these last 4 weeks.
Our day started off early in Budapest, catching a cab out to the airport; then it
was wait and wait. We were lucky enough to get an emergency row again;
makes life much more bearable when you can stretch your legs out on those
long transatlantic flights.
I’m ready for bed, did not get any sleep on the flight over. So I am
off to bed. Hopefully tomorrows flight goes much smoother.
This is Judge signing off from New York City.
11/9/06
We finally made it back to Salt Lake City after a very long couple of days traveling
from Budapest back to SLC. It is nice to be done with that part of traveling,
but I am ready for my next big trip already!
I had a great time on this trip; Eastern Europe was a magnificent surprise.
I look forward to seeing more of it. I really wanted to get into Romania but
I did not have enough days left on my passport. As a US Citizen you need six months
on your passport before it expires to go into Romania, I only had three left.
I am sure I will get back over and see more of Eastern Europe, especially once I
renew my passport.
Until my next trip, this is Judge signing off from HOME.
You can check out all my pics from this trip on Flickr
