Monday, September 19, 2005
After spending a total of 2 days with Mendel we got up early on Monday 19th and did a last minute pack for our short visit to Eastern Europe. The only thing was that due to our frequent house guests we were a little all over the place. We hadn't organised anything other than our getting to budapest on a plane and a few nights accomodation after that.
It was quite a frantic moment when about an hour before we left I started browsing through the Lonely Planet guide and it indicated that we needed visas!! The book was 2 years old so we searched on the internet, which gave us other information about requiring a return ticket. Either way, we decided to just try our luck (not really prepared for what could happen...) so we caught our Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Feringhy after a 2 hour delay and a change in aircraft. It was almost as though the gods were trying to tell us something. It wasn't exactly a great start, but we perservered. We were extremely relieved when we landed safely in Budapest without any problems at all.
As soon as we stepped outside, it was pouring down with rain and we couldn't handle waiting 40 minutes for the next bus to get to the train (the cheapest option). Instead we caught a taxi to the hostel which cost us 8600 forints which was the same cost of the mini-bus. It was a good option because it was dark and late, and I have no idea how we would've found the hostel.
I was relieved once we arrived at the hostel (about 11pm), only it was very short lived. I had managed to book the hostel for 2 days time. Lucky for us they had room and we met some interesting people during our stay there. That evening Scott and I went out to find some food and a pub. We found both in the form of Gyros (£1.35) and a small local pub. It was quite interesting.
Tue 20/09/05
The next day we found an Illy coffee house serving quite good coffee. So we had breakfast there and wandered into the tourist information to see what the "must-see's" were, or whether there was a hop-on, hop-off bus. We ended up leaving with tickets to a City Tour bus for 2 hours. It was quite good because it was raining and quite miserable outside, and being in the warmth of a heated bus was quite nice. It was also nice to have live commentary and the history of the sites. I had no idea that Ghenghis Khan once ruled Budapest!
Comparatively, the city is a lot more developed than Prague and everyone speaks english because they all appreciate that Hungarian is the 2nd hardest language in the world to learn. That evening we went to a really nice posh bar in Liszt Square called 'Incognito', and had a lovely cocktail. I had a traditional hungarian meal of 'Chicken Paprika' for lunch that kept me full until the following day.
Wed 21/09/05
The next day we awoke early-ish and had a coffee & breakfast with some great people from the hostel - David, a french ski instructor; Annette, a swiss girl working in Geneva indirectly for the UN; and Dina, another Swiss web-designer/developer. They were all quite lovely and interesting people. After we parted with those guys, we walked over the Danube to the beautiful 'Buda' side. [The whole city of Budapest is divided into two sides (Buda - meaning Water, and Pest - meaning Fire) by the Danube River].
We walked down to the Chain Bridge and from the distance on the hill we could see the Liberty Statue, the citadel, the palace and the fisherman's Bastillion. As we walked over the bridge between the two lions guarding it (they were statues), we spotted the old furnicular that would take us all the way to the top of the hill where the castle stood.
We got off the furnicular car and we were immediately amazed by the view from the top. We could see Parliament House beautifully situated right on the water (the most amazing parliament building I have ever seen in my life!). We briefly wandered around the castle, amazed by the copper fountains and the statues of dogs (!?!). It was quite lovely but also very different to western design. The castle was no longer inhabited, and a gallery now resides in its place. What did strike me was how amazing the gardens were maintained and the little bit of colour that was added made a great difference. This refers to all of Budapest actually - all the parks and gardens were magnificent.
We walked around the area of the castle up to St Matthias church with the colourful roof, and then to the Fisherman's Bastillion which still takes my breath away. I know it may sound like an over-used cliche, but it truly was an architectural masterpiece. The name arose because apparently the ramparts used to rise above a town called Fisherman's town. There were stairs going up and down every-which way culminating in several towers. There were statutes of soldiers/knights lining the covered stairs and an interesting fountain in the centre of the courtyard. A beautiful fortress, and my favourite part of Budapest!
That evening I tried by first bowl of hungarian goulash and we had a brilliant bottle of Hungarian Merlot to accompany the meal! (Brilliant wine, pity I don't remember the name of it!).
Thu 22/09/05
The following morning we packed up and headed to the station to catch our 10 hour train to Poland. I was still cut that we didn't have time to see the Communist statue park, and the thermal baths. Next time gadget, next time! Most of our time in Budapest was terribly wet, except the last day! How typical is that!?
The journey to Warszawa was quite uneventful other than it was extremely long, and a waste of a good day. It was exciting having our passport checked twice (Czech border; and the Polish border), and we even got a stamp for Poland! Yay! We arrived at Warszawa Centralna Station at 10pm and managed to successfully navigate ourselves and our luggage to the Hostel (which conveniently was hidden around the back of the building! Some kid on roller blades was kind enough to help us out!).
We went that evening down the main street and although it was a thursday night, we were suprised that there weren't that many people about. There were loads of posh bars and restaurants open, but very few people. We went to a mexican place (it was a choice between that, pasta or kebabs), and I had the best Mohito I have ever tasted in my life!
I was suprised by Warsaw, arriving into the station I was expecting old run-down communist buildings and loads of ghettos. I had read that the city had been re-developed and all that, but I thought there would be remnants of the old days (I don't know why). It was quite a modern place with loads of shopping areas and bars. All the major roads (and there were a lot of them) were connected for pedestrians via a myriad of tunnels underneath. This was mainly at Central station, and with the huge number of exits, it managed to confuse me on more than one occasion.
Fri 23/09/05
The morning after, (Friday) we spent getting a train ticket to Krakow for Saturday afternoon, and trying to find a tourist information place to aquire a map that was more comprehensible than a 2 year old Lonely Planet guide. We gave up after about an hour and headed towards the Jewish Quarter (the reason for my desire to see Poland). We found the monument to the Heros of the Ghetto which referred to the Jewish people that resisted arrest and committed suicide in the Ghetto rather than being killed by the bombs from the Nazi's. We found a stall with maps at the monument, and a lovely man who showed us the jewish path to the wall, and a really interesting wagon monument depicting a railway track with a broken wagon full of crosses. A really heart-wrenching tribute. I was so moved to see so many lit candles still at these monuments.
On the way to the statue, we passed the park with the tomb of the unknown soldier. A flame was burning and the tomb was guarded by 2 armed soldiers. It was very full on! After completing the jewish walk, we began the 'Royal walk' past the Grand Opera Theatrewhich was quite a grand building, but it was over-shadowed by the numerous palaces about the place. All of which are now occupied by the government. We took a brief detour away from the Royal Square to have a look at the "Monument to the Uprising" commemorating Polish independence. It was a beautiful monument - very brilliantly created and very impressive. It is almost as though half of the monument is underground the way that it is designed.
We joined the Royal Walk back where we left it, and walked past St John's church (with a gorgeous interior). There were too many churches to count! We walked past the Old Town Square with the Mermaid 'Syrena' on display in the middle of the square, to the Royal Square via the Barbican. After walking back down the main street we saw the Monument to Adam Mickiewicz (a famous Polish poet), we peered into the Carmelite church (beautiful), past Radziwitt palace to the huge statue of Nicolaus Copernicus.
That evening we went down to Foksal St again and ate in one of the many lively cafes surronding the main Nowy Swiat street.
Sat 24/09/05
This morning was our last day in Warszawa and we spent it cramming in several tourist bits we missed out on, namely the Royal Palace. We walked around viewing the state apartments and were intrigued by the paintings and furniture (including an extremely tiny bed). The palace also showcased the wealth of the kings with their china, gold and brilliant portraits and statues. I was extremely impressed with the detailed life-size wood carving of a boy (it was taller than me!). The palace contained one really special room - it was a small cylindrical room covered from floor to ceiling in marble. Each king had a portrait and a marble plaque commemorating their reign. I am not so sure whether they were actually buried there because historically all kings of Poland are buried in Warwel Cathedral in Krakow.
We had lunch of traditional Polish dumplings (Pierogi) which has become my favourite meal now! At 3pm we had to head down to the train station to catch our 4 hour train to Krakow. It was actually quite an ordeal to orient ourselves at the station as there were 2 platforms with the same number. Luckily for us a lovely polish woman managed to help us, and we found ourselves in quite a busy cabin. I had a difficult encounter with an old man wanting to sit in a seat next to me (which was already taken!). Then I had to spend the next 10 minutes explaining to him how to do a SuDoku. I was well relieved when we pulled in to Krakow Glowny station.
We arrived at about 8pm and found our hostel really easily. It was situated right on one of the main streets and a stones throw away from the Main Market Square. The only downfall was that it was so close to the bugle that was played after the clock chimed every hour (regardless of the time of day!) that we found it difficult to sleep. The bugle only plays half a tune because it is supposed to commemorate the fact that an original bugler got shot with an arrow in his throat mid-tune, since then the tune has never been played completely.
We got to know the square pretty well that night and I learnt an important polish word "Lody" which means ice-cream! I found the best ice-cream place in the square, where one scoop only cost 2 PLN. That same night, the square was packed full of people as there was a Sting concert being telecast live. That is one thing we noticed in Eastern Europe (well Budapest and Poland) was that they were really 'behind' in terms of music. All the 80's retro is considered new for them.
It was really good staying so close to the city centre (plus the hostel had really good hot showers too!).
It was quite a frantic moment when about an hour before we left I started browsing through the Lonely Planet guide and it indicated that we needed visas!! The book was 2 years old so we searched on the internet, which gave us other information about requiring a return ticket. Either way, we decided to just try our luck (not really prepared for what could happen...) so we caught our Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Feringhy after a 2 hour delay and a change in aircraft. It was almost as though the gods were trying to tell us something. It wasn't exactly a great start, but we perservered. We were extremely relieved when we landed safely in Budapest without any problems at all.
As soon as we stepped outside, it was pouring down with rain and we couldn't handle waiting 40 minutes for the next bus to get to the train (the cheapest option). Instead we caught a taxi to the hostel which cost us 8600 forints which was the same cost of the mini-bus. It was a good option because it was dark and late, and I have no idea how we would've found the hostel.
I was relieved once we arrived at the hostel (about 11pm), only it was very short lived. I had managed to book the hostel for 2 days time. Lucky for us they had room and we met some interesting people during our stay there. That evening Scott and I went out to find some food and a pub. We found both in the form of Gyros (£1.35) and a small local pub. It was quite interesting.
Tue 20/09/05
The next day we found an Illy coffee house serving quite good coffee. So we had breakfast there and wandered into the tourist information to see what the "must-see's" were, or whether there was a hop-on, hop-off bus. We ended up leaving with tickets to a City Tour bus for 2 hours. It was quite good because it was raining and quite miserable outside, and being in the warmth of a heated bus was quite nice. It was also nice to have live commentary and the history of the sites. I had no idea that Ghenghis Khan once ruled Budapest!
Comparatively, the city is a lot more developed than Prague and everyone speaks english because they all appreciate that Hungarian is the 2nd hardest language in the world to learn. That evening we went to a really nice posh bar in Liszt Square called 'Incognito', and had a lovely cocktail. I had a traditional hungarian meal of 'Chicken Paprika' for lunch that kept me full until the following day.
Wed 21/09/05
The next day we awoke early-ish and had a coffee & breakfast with some great people from the hostel - David, a french ski instructor; Annette, a swiss girl working in Geneva indirectly for the UN; and Dina, another Swiss web-designer/developer. They were all quite lovely and interesting people. After we parted with those guys, we walked over the Danube to the beautiful 'Buda' side. [The whole city of Budapest is divided into two sides (Buda - meaning Water, and Pest - meaning Fire) by the Danube River].
We walked down to the Chain Bridge and from the distance on the hill we could see the Liberty Statue, the citadel, the palace and the fisherman's Bastillion. As we walked over the bridge between the two lions guarding it (they were statues), we spotted the old furnicular that would take us all the way to the top of the hill where the castle stood.
We got off the furnicular car and we were immediately amazed by the view from the top. We could see Parliament House beautifully situated right on the water (the most amazing parliament building I have ever seen in my life!). We briefly wandered around the castle, amazed by the copper fountains and the statues of dogs (!?!). It was quite lovely but also very different to western design. The castle was no longer inhabited, and a gallery now resides in its place. What did strike me was how amazing the gardens were maintained and the little bit of colour that was added made a great difference. This refers to all of Budapest actually - all the parks and gardens were magnificent.
We walked around the area of the castle up to St Matthias church with the colourful roof, and then to the Fisherman's Bastillion which still takes my breath away. I know it may sound like an over-used cliche, but it truly was an architectural masterpiece. The name arose because apparently the ramparts used to rise above a town called Fisherman's town. There were stairs going up and down every-which way culminating in several towers. There were statutes of soldiers/knights lining the covered stairs and an interesting fountain in the centre of the courtyard. A beautiful fortress, and my favourite part of Budapest!
That evening I tried by first bowl of hungarian goulash and we had a brilliant bottle of Hungarian Merlot to accompany the meal! (Brilliant wine, pity I don't remember the name of it!).
Thu 22/09/05
The following morning we packed up and headed to the station to catch our 10 hour train to Poland. I was still cut that we didn't have time to see the Communist statue park, and the thermal baths. Next time gadget, next time! Most of our time in Budapest was terribly wet, except the last day! How typical is that!?
The journey to Warszawa was quite uneventful other than it was extremely long, and a waste of a good day. It was exciting having our passport checked twice (Czech border; and the Polish border), and we even got a stamp for Poland! Yay! We arrived at Warszawa Centralna Station at 10pm and managed to successfully navigate ourselves and our luggage to the Hostel (which conveniently was hidden around the back of the building! Some kid on roller blades was kind enough to help us out!).
We went that evening down the main street and although it was a thursday night, we were suprised that there weren't that many people about. There were loads of posh bars and restaurants open, but very few people. We went to a mexican place (it was a choice between that, pasta or kebabs), and I had the best Mohito I have ever tasted in my life!
I was suprised by Warsaw, arriving into the station I was expecting old run-down communist buildings and loads of ghettos. I had read that the city had been re-developed and all that, but I thought there would be remnants of the old days (I don't know why). It was quite a modern place with loads of shopping areas and bars. All the major roads (and there were a lot of them) were connected for pedestrians via a myriad of tunnels underneath. This was mainly at Central station, and with the huge number of exits, it managed to confuse me on more than one occasion.
Fri 23/09/05
The morning after, (Friday) we spent getting a train ticket to Krakow for Saturday afternoon, and trying to find a tourist information place to aquire a map that was more comprehensible than a 2 year old Lonely Planet guide. We gave up after about an hour and headed towards the Jewish Quarter (the reason for my desire to see Poland). We found the monument to the Heros of the Ghetto which referred to the Jewish people that resisted arrest and committed suicide in the Ghetto rather than being killed by the bombs from the Nazi's. We found a stall with maps at the monument, and a lovely man who showed us the jewish path to the wall, and a really interesting wagon monument depicting a railway track with a broken wagon full of crosses. A really heart-wrenching tribute. I was so moved to see so many lit candles still at these monuments.
On the way to the statue, we passed the park with the tomb of the unknown soldier. A flame was burning and the tomb was guarded by 2 armed soldiers. It was very full on! After completing the jewish walk, we began the 'Royal walk' past the Grand Opera Theatrewhich was quite a grand building, but it was over-shadowed by the numerous palaces about the place. All of which are now occupied by the government. We took a brief detour away from the Royal Square to have a look at the "Monument to the Uprising" commemorating Polish independence. It was a beautiful monument - very brilliantly created and very impressive. It is almost as though half of the monument is underground the way that it is designed.
We joined the Royal Walk back where we left it, and walked past St John's church (with a gorgeous interior). There were too many churches to count! We walked past the Old Town Square with the Mermaid 'Syrena' on display in the middle of the square, to the Royal Square via the Barbican. After walking back down the main street we saw the Monument to Adam Mickiewicz (a famous Polish poet), we peered into the Carmelite church (beautiful), past Radziwitt palace to the huge statue of Nicolaus Copernicus.
That evening we went down to Foksal St again and ate in one of the many lively cafes surronding the main Nowy Swiat street.
Sat 24/09/05
This morning was our last day in Warszawa and we spent it cramming in several tourist bits we missed out on, namely the Royal Palace. We walked around viewing the state apartments and were intrigued by the paintings and furniture (including an extremely tiny bed). The palace also showcased the wealth of the kings with their china, gold and brilliant portraits and statues. I was extremely impressed with the detailed life-size wood carving of a boy (it was taller than me!). The palace contained one really special room - it was a small cylindrical room covered from floor to ceiling in marble. Each king had a portrait and a marble plaque commemorating their reign. I am not so sure whether they were actually buried there because historically all kings of Poland are buried in Warwel Cathedral in Krakow.
We had lunch of traditional Polish dumplings (Pierogi) which has become my favourite meal now! At 3pm we had to head down to the train station to catch our 4 hour train to Krakow. It was actually quite an ordeal to orient ourselves at the station as there were 2 platforms with the same number. Luckily for us a lovely polish woman managed to help us, and we found ourselves in quite a busy cabin. I had a difficult encounter with an old man wanting to sit in a seat next to me (which was already taken!). Then I had to spend the next 10 minutes explaining to him how to do a SuDoku. I was well relieved when we pulled in to Krakow Glowny station.
We arrived at about 8pm and found our hostel really easily. It was situated right on one of the main streets and a stones throw away from the Main Market Square. The only downfall was that it was so close to the bugle that was played after the clock chimed every hour (regardless of the time of day!) that we found it difficult to sleep. The bugle only plays half a tune because it is supposed to commemorate the fact that an original bugler got shot with an arrow in his throat mid-tune, since then the tune has never been played completely.
We got to know the square pretty well that night and I learnt an important polish word "Lody" which means ice-cream! I found the best ice-cream place in the square, where one scoop only cost 2 PLN. That same night, the square was packed full of people as there was a Sting concert being telecast live. That is one thing we noticed in Eastern Europe (well Budapest and Poland) was that they were really 'behind' in terms of music. All the 80's retro is considered new for them.
It was really good staying so close to the city centre (plus the hostel had really good hot showers too!).
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