Hungary and Austria
November 21st-24th
I never planned on traveling to Hungary or Austria prior to actually being in Europe. It was one of those things where some of my roommates were contemplating going and we ended up getting the trip for a really good deal so I just decided to go for it. That alone set it up to be a really good trip, until we actually went. Not saying that there weren't ups to the trip, but let's just say there were a lot of downs as well. Side note, this has NOTHING to do with the destinations! I loved all of the cities very much, we just didn't have good luck while being there. I would go back in a heartbeat to all three cities. I want vindicate the cities and actually enjoy being in them.
Budapest - Let me start by saying Eastern Europe is great. I have only been to two cities over there but I enjoyed both of them quite a bit. It is a different feel than Western Europe, but not in a negative way at all. It's hard to explain but the two sides are really different and really European at the same time. If you ever make it to the east side you will know exactly what I am talking about. We took an overnight bus ride from Florence to Budapest and arrived to Budapest in the late morning. I was really excited when we got to where we were staying because it was a hotel not a hostel. See, Budapest is a very cheap city to go to. Most things are significantly cheaper than a lot of other European countries and the US as well. This means that it makes sense that we would stay in a hotel rather than a hostel. After we were settled into our rooms, we headed on a walking tour of the city. The first stop on our walking tour was a huge market called, The Great Market Hall. The name alone describes it perfectly. The market was HUGE. Everything from food to clothing were for sale in the multi-level building. Everyone in our group broke off to go explore, most went to find something good to eat because we were on the bus all night. One of my friends, and also one of the tour guides, said that there was this really good Hungarian food called lángos. It's a flat fried bread with toppings on it. We obviously decided that it sounded so good so we wanted one. We found a little stand on the second floor and bought one. It was so cheap and so delicious. Once we were done eating we explored the market some more. I bought this really cool wooden box with a hidden lock. It was really confusing at first to figure out how to open it, but once you know, you know. It is purple with a floral design and Budapest carved into it.
When we left the market we started walking towards a really big bridge and the other side of the city. My roommate and I began talking about how cheap tattoos would be if we got them there, we had talked about the topic prior to arriving in Budapest, but it didn't get serious until we were on the walking tour. Naturally, about 20 minutes into the tour Nicole and I decided to ditch it and go see if we could make it happen. We told the guides that we were leaving the tour to go get tattoos and with surprised looks they told us how to get back to the hotel so we could start research, I never thought that would be the beginning to such a long process. We headed back to the hotel to get some internet to start looking up places to go. Since we were so excited about the idea of getting tattoos, we kind of forgot to pay attention to what the guides were saying and we ended up getting a little lost along the way. We eventually found it though and we researched a few tattoo shops in the city. We read great reviews of one that wasn't that far away from the hotel so we decided to check it out. After getting a little lost we eventually found the shop. It was in a little intimidating area and it was actually in the basement of a building. We walked in at the person working looked at us like we were crazy. We asked if there were openings and she looked at us like we were even more crazy. She then said no and we were really upset. We left that shop and we were determined to find another one. That was extremely hard though because we didn't have internet. We found this little bar on a side street and ordered a drink so we could use there Wifi. After a little bit more research we came across another shop, Green Skull Tattoo. We emailed them right away and after a few replies and the sending of pictures, we were on our way to get tattoos. I was so excited. When we got to the shop we were surprised about how small it was. It was really nice a clean, but it was smaller than a bedroom all together. The artist said that she could do mine now and Nicole's a few hours later than night. I wanted an outline of a world map on the back of my shoulder and Nicole wanted a compass. It was my seventh tattoo so I had been down the whole tattoo road before. It wasn't even my first tattoo abroad. I got a tattoo done when I was in Berlin as well. When she told me the price of the tattoo I was shocked. It was pretty big and she said it would be the equivalent of $57. If you know anything about tattoos you will understand my shock. I couldn't believe how cheap it was.
After I got my tattoo we headed back to the hostel to change for the night, the plan was that we were going to go to dinner, go get Nicole's tattoo and then go and meet the rest of the group to go out for the night. We went to an American restaurant really close to our hotel. It was pretty good and decently cheap so we couldn't complain, we then headed back to the shop so Nicole could get her tattoo. Her tattoo wasn't much bigger than mine, but man did it take the artist a long time to do. It felt like we were there for forever. At one point myself and my other roommate Lizzy even left to go walk around while she was getting it done, it took so long. She eventually finished and we were on our way. Since Lizzy sat with us for so long at the tattoo shop, we said we would go with her to look at the Hungarian Parliament building. If you have seen pictures of people in Budapest you most likely have seen it. It is an extremely touristy place to go and take pictures. I was a little excited to have my picture taken in front of it to I have to say. After about what it seemed like 2 hours of walking around. We realized that due to construction, the building was not lit up and pretty. We then made our way back to our hotel because it was too late to go out. We were really upset that the night portion of our trip was kind of a bust but oh well.
Vienna - We got up the next morning and headed to Vienna, Austria. It was about a 3 or 4 hour bus ride so it wasn't horrible. We arrived in the early afternoon at our hostel. We were so excited to see Vienna and all of the christmas markets. Right after the hostel we headed to the train station to do a little necessity shopping and grab a quick bite. After that we went to the zoo! We were all so excited because we got to see pandas and many other cool animals. I felt like a little kid when I was exploring the grounds. We were at the zoo for around two hours total. I know I mentioned this before when I talked about when I went to the Berlin Zoo, but European zoos are so much different than ones in the States. Instead of hundreds of feet between you and the animals, it is only a few. It is a little scary, but really cool at the same time. I know going to the zoo seems weird because they are pretty much the same everywhere, but that is not the case! If you are ever in Europe I highly recommend visiting one.
After the zoo we went straight to the christmas markets. Christmas markets are extremely popular in Europe. They are little markets with a such a festive feel. You can buy christmas themed things and drink mulled wine. Some of the biggest ones are in Germany but they are located in many different countries. I went to christmas markets in Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic. I just loved the feel of exploring them. I am so used to extreme festivity the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day in the States and since my apartment wasn't decorated obviously, it was nice to have that feeling again while I was abroad. While I was at the market, I bought my stepdad a beer glass and some mulled wine that was bottled for his gift. I was really excited about the stuff I found. My roommate bought a really pretty ornament and some other things. I really enjoyed being there. After the market we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night. We were really excited to go out and experience the nightlife in Vienna. After we were all ready, we headed down to the bar in the basement of the hostel. It was a little small and expensive but we didn't mind. I bought a drink called a snakebite. I had never heard of it before. It was cider mixed with beer and topped with grenadine. I wasn't really in the mood to go too crazy because I was still feeling a little sick from the birthday earlier that week. Let's just say I went a little crazy. I will post about my night soon I'm sure. The snakebite was pretty good, a little weird, but still really good. This is when the night went wrong. We were all hanging out, having a good time when my roommate noticed that her purse was gone. She was pretty much freaking out when a random girl walked up and asked if the bag she was holding was hers. Nicole said yes and the girl said she found it in the bathroom. Nicole opened her bag to find her iPod, her phone and her wallet gone. Her tears began to fall and she was freaking out. I wasn't sure what to do so I started looking everywhere. I read that when people steal wallets, they are only really interested in getting the cash and many of them throw the rest away. We checked every garbage in a two block radius and we didn't find anything. I even found two random credit cards that weren't hers. We then went to the police station to file a report. We knew that it wasn't really going to help, but it made nicole feel better so we did it. After that no one was really in the mood and it was getting late so we just decided to head back to the hostel and crash.
Salzburg - So we were already in kind of an off mood because of the events that happened the night before and that plus the horrible weather, I wasn't really expecting a great turn out to my sunday day trip to Salzburg. When we arrived, some people went on the Sound of Music Tour and some of us went to explore the city. We opted out of the tour and headed on a walking tour of Salzburg. I didn't plan for rain so I left my umbrella in Florence. That was a horrible idea. When I went to go take out cash so I could buy an umbrella, the only ATM that we could find was broken. This is when I started to get really frustrated. We found a little store that sold umbrellas and when I went to pay, they had a 10 euro limit on cards. So my roommate and I decided to buy a little bottle of kiwi schnapps to enjoy on the walking tour, that is what kind of day it was. We began on the walking tour and that is when, of course, we found a working ATM. We stopped so I could get cash, thinking we would just catch up to the group, little did we know they decided to go on a short cut under ground into the old city. We did not know this so we ended up losing the group. The day just kept getting worse and worse. We then head to a restaurant with wifi and hung out to get out of the rain for a while. We didn't really know what to do because we knew we weren't going to be able to find the group. We did know that the end of the walking tour was at the Augustiner Beer Hall in the city. We then decided to go there and wait for them. We got really bad directions and ended up walking all the way around the building without even knowing it. We eventually found the entrance and the group. We got liters of beer to make the day feel better, and it worked. We spent the time getting to know some of the Euroadventures guides on the trip better. That is when I decided that I could see myself being one.
After a few hours we headed back to the bus with a nice little buzz and a somewhat better ending to the day. We took the bus back to Florence and arrived around midnight.
Like I said it had nothing to do with the destinations of the trip, we just had a lot of bad luck. I really hope that I have an opportunity to travel back to the cities so I can enjoy my second trip more than my first one!!
Sorry it took me so long to post this. I had been working on it forever, but with my move home and my new job, I got a little busy. I hope it was worth the wait!
November 21st-24th
I never planned on traveling to Hungary or Austria prior to actually being in Europe. It was one of those things where some of my roommates were contemplating going and we ended up getting the trip for a really good deal so I just decided to go for it. That alone set it up to be a really good trip, until we actually went. Not saying that there weren't ups to the trip, but let's just say there were a lot of downs as well. Side note, this has NOTHING to do with the destinations! I loved all of the cities very much, we just didn't have good luck while being there. I would go back in a heartbeat to all three cities. I want vindicate the cities and actually enjoy being in them.Budapest - Let me start by saying Eastern Europe is great. I have only been to two cities over there but I enjoyed both of them quite a bit. It is a different feel than Western Europe, but not in a negative way at all. It's hard to explain but the two sides are really different and really European at the same time. If you ever make it to the east side you will know exactly what I am talking about. We took an overnight bus ride from Florence to Budapest and arrived to Budapest in the late morning. I was really excited when we got to where we were staying because it was a hotel not a hostel. See, Budapest is a very cheap city to go to. Most things are significantly cheaper than a lot of other European countries and the US as well. This means that it makes sense that we would stay in a hotel rather than a hostel. After we were settled into our rooms, we headed on a walking tour of the city. The first stop on our walking tour was a huge market called, The Great Market Hall. The name alone describes it perfectly. The market was HUGE. Everything from food to clothing were for sale in the multi-level building. Everyone in our group broke off to go explore, most went to find something good to eat because we were on the bus all night. One of my friends, and also one of the tour guides, said that there was this really good Hungarian food called lángos. It's a flat fried bread with toppings on it. We obviously decided that it sounded so good so we wanted one. We found a little stand on the second floor and bought one. It was so cheap and so delicious. Once we were done eating we explored the market some more. I bought this really cool wooden box with a hidden lock. It was really confusing at first to figure out how to open it, but once you know, you know. It is purple with a floral design and Budapest carved into it.
When we left the market we started walking towards a really big bridge and the other side of the city. My roommate and I began talking about how cheap tattoos would be if we got them there, we had talked about the topic prior to arriving in Budapest, but it didn't get serious until we were on the walking tour. Naturally, about 20 minutes into the tour Nicole and I decided to ditch it and go see if we could make it happen. We told the guides that we were leaving the tour to go get tattoos and with surprised looks they told us how to get back to the hotel so we could start research, I never thought that would be the beginning to such a long process. We headed back to the hotel to get some internet to start looking up places to go. Since we were so excited about the idea of getting tattoos, we kind of forgot to pay attention to what the guides were saying and we ended up getting a little lost along the way. We eventually found it though and we researched a few tattoo shops in the city. We read great reviews of one that wasn't that far away from the hotel so we decided to check it out. After getting a little lost we eventually found the shop. It was in a little intimidating area and it was actually in the basement of a building. We walked in at the person working looked at us like we were crazy. We asked if there were openings and she looked at us like we were even more crazy. She then said no and we were really upset. We left that shop and we were determined to find another one. That was extremely hard though because we didn't have internet. We found this little bar on a side street and ordered a drink so we could use there Wifi. After a little bit more research we came across another shop, Green Skull Tattoo. We emailed them right away and after a few replies and the sending of pictures, we were on our way to get tattoos. I was so excited. When we got to the shop we were surprised about how small it was. It was really nice a clean, but it was smaller than a bedroom all together. The artist said that she could do mine now and Nicole's a few hours later than night. I wanted an outline of a world map on the back of my shoulder and Nicole wanted a compass. It was my seventh tattoo so I had been down the whole tattoo road before. It wasn't even my first tattoo abroad. I got a tattoo done when I was in Berlin as well. When she told me the price of the tattoo I was shocked. It was pretty big and she said it would be the equivalent of $57. If you know anything about tattoos you will understand my shock. I couldn't believe how cheap it was.
After I got my tattoo we headed back to the hostel to change for the night, the plan was that we were going to go to dinner, go get Nicole's tattoo and then go and meet the rest of the group to go out for the night. We went to an American restaurant really close to our hotel. It was pretty good and decently cheap so we couldn't complain, we then headed back to the shop so Nicole could get her tattoo. Her tattoo wasn't much bigger than mine, but man did it take the artist a long time to do. It felt like we were there for forever. At one point myself and my other roommate Lizzy even left to go walk around while she was getting it done, it took so long. She eventually finished and we were on our way. Since Lizzy sat with us for so long at the tattoo shop, we said we would go with her to look at the Hungarian Parliament building. If you have seen pictures of people in Budapest you most likely have seen it. It is an extremely touristy place to go and take pictures. I was a little excited to have my picture taken in front of it to I have to say. After about what it seemed like 2 hours of walking around. We realized that due to construction, the building was not lit up and pretty. We then made our way back to our hotel because it was too late to go out. We were really upset that the night portion of our trip was kind of a bust but oh well.
Vienna - We got up the next morning and headed to Vienna, Austria. It was about a 3 or 4 hour bus ride so it wasn't horrible. We arrived in the early afternoon at our hostel. We were so excited to see Vienna and all of the christmas markets. Right after the hostel we headed to the train station to do a little necessity shopping and grab a quick bite. After that we went to the zoo! We were all so excited because we got to see pandas and many other cool animals. I felt like a little kid when I was exploring the grounds. We were at the zoo for around two hours total. I know I mentioned this before when I talked about when I went to the Berlin Zoo, but European zoos are so much different than ones in the States. Instead of hundreds of feet between you and the animals, it is only a few. It is a little scary, but really cool at the same time. I know going to the zoo seems weird because they are pretty much the same everywhere, but that is not the case! If you are ever in Europe I highly recommend visiting one.
After the zoo we went straight to the christmas markets. Christmas markets are extremely popular in Europe. They are little markets with a such a festive feel. You can buy christmas themed things and drink mulled wine. Some of the biggest ones are in Germany but they are located in many different countries. I went to christmas markets in Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic. I just loved the feel of exploring them. I am so used to extreme festivity the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day in the States and since my apartment wasn't decorated obviously, it was nice to have that feeling again while I was abroad. While I was at the market, I bought my stepdad a beer glass and some mulled wine that was bottled for his gift. I was really excited about the stuff I found. My roommate bought a really pretty ornament and some other things. I really enjoyed being there. After the market we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night. We were really excited to go out and experience the nightlife in Vienna. After we were all ready, we headed down to the bar in the basement of the hostel. It was a little small and expensive but we didn't mind. I bought a drink called a snakebite. I had never heard of it before. It was cider mixed with beer and topped with grenadine. I wasn't really in the mood to go too crazy because I was still feeling a little sick from the birthday earlier that week. Let's just say I went a little crazy. I will post about my night soon I'm sure. The snakebite was pretty good, a little weird, but still really good. This is when the night went wrong. We were all hanging out, having a good time when my roommate noticed that her purse was gone. She was pretty much freaking out when a random girl walked up and asked if the bag she was holding was hers. Nicole said yes and the girl said she found it in the bathroom. Nicole opened her bag to find her iPod, her phone and her wallet gone. Her tears began to fall and she was freaking out. I wasn't sure what to do so I started looking everywhere. I read that when people steal wallets, they are only really interested in getting the cash and many of them throw the rest away. We checked every garbage in a two block radius and we didn't find anything. I even found two random credit cards that weren't hers. We then went to the police station to file a report. We knew that it wasn't really going to help, but it made nicole feel better so we did it. After that no one was really in the mood and it was getting late so we just decided to head back to the hostel and crash. Salzburg - So we were already in kind of an off mood because of the events that happened the night before and that plus the horrible weather, I wasn't really expecting a great turn out to my sunday day trip to Salzburg. When we arrived, some people went on the Sound of Music Tour and some of us went to explore the city. We opted out of the tour and headed on a walking tour of Salzburg. I didn't plan for rain so I left my umbrella in Florence. That was a horrible idea. When I went to go take out cash so I could buy an umbrella, the only ATM that we could find was broken. This is when I started to get really frustrated. We found a little store that sold umbrellas and when I went to pay, they had a 10 euro limit on cards. So my roommate and I decided to buy a little bottle of kiwi schnapps to enjoy on the walking tour, that is what kind of day it was. We began on the walking tour and that is when, of course, we found a working ATM. We stopped so I could get cash, thinking we would just catch up to the group, little did we know they decided to go on a short cut under ground into the old city. We did not know this so we ended up losing the group. The day just kept getting worse and worse. We then head to a restaurant with wifi and hung out to get out of the rain for a while. We didn't really know what to do because we knew we weren't going to be able to find the group. We did know that the end of the walking tour was at the Augustiner Beer Hall in the city. We then decided to go there and wait for them. We got really bad directions and ended up walking all the way around the building without even knowing it. We eventually found the entrance and the group. We got liters of beer to make the day feel better, and it worked. We spent the time getting to know some of the Euroadventures guides on the trip better. That is when I decided that I could see myself being one. After a few hours we headed back to the bus with a nice little buzz and a somewhat better ending to the day. We took the bus back to Florence and arrived around midnight.
Like I said it had nothing to do with the destinations of the trip, we just had a lot of bad luck. I really hope that I have an opportunity to travel back to the cities so I can enjoy my second trip more than my first one!!
Sorry it took me so long to post this. I had been working on it forever, but with my move home and my new job, I got a little busy. I hope it was worth the wait!
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