15 July 2008
Day 11 – Ljubljana (travelling to Zagreb)
Day 7 saw us travelling to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The three-hour train journey was quick and easy, and we arrived straight into the mid-afternoon heat and bustle of Budapest´s Keleti train station. The heat really hit us, as Bratislava had been quite cool! We travelled straight to the hostel, Maxim Doubles, which is the nicest place we´ve stayed so far!
After a week of travelling and sleeping in hostels, we decided we deserved a trip to one of Budapest´s famous thermal spas, the Szechenyi Furdo. The spa is in Pest, in the City Park, and dates back to 1918. It was heaven! Big outdoor swimming pool, thermal baths indoors and outdoors (ranging from 30 to 38 degrees), lots of different pools to go in (including a 20 degree one, which was quite chilly after the thermal ones!), saunas and jacuzzis! Ahhhh!
After the spa we got hot corn-on-the-cobs, walked around the City Park and Heroes Square, and then got the oldest metro in continental Europe back into the city centre. We had dinner at a local restaurant in Raday Street, where we ate traditional beef ragout and paprika chicken. Yum!
Day 8 was the hottest day we´ve had so far – 36 degrees in the shade! We laboured up Gellert Hill (past the famous Gellert Baths) to see the monuments and the views from the top. We got the funicular to the top of Buda´s castle hill, where we spent the afternoon exploring the old castle. In the late afternoon we went to Deli train station to try and reserve a seat for the nine-hour train journey to Ljubljana, Slovenia, only to be told parts of it would be replaced by a bus and no reservations were possible. O_o
In the evening we went back to the hostel for a much-needed shower, and then had Turkish food at a street cafe (Hungary has a lot of Turkish influences) and ice-cream at Buger King (got to mix it up a little!).
Day 9 saw us travelling to Ljubljana on the dreaded un-reserved, part-bus journey – and it was fine! The first train was modern and spacious, the bus leg was only and hour, and the second train had Hogwarts-style compartments! We got a little delayed and arrived into Ljubljana at 10pm, had emergency McDonald´s (it was right there!) and headed to the hostel. The hostel, DIC, is actually a university halls of residence, and we were lucky enough for them to have run out of dorm beds, so we got a private room! Woop! We stayed up later than planned to watch an awesome lightning storm, which lit up the sky with continuous lightning for almost an hour! Crazy!
Day 10 saw us exploring Ljubljana. We got the funicular (obviously – our third one so far on this trip after Prague and Budapest!) to Ljubljana Castle, where we watched the Virtual Tour of Ljubljana and climbed to the top of the castle tower. We had lunch at Hot Horse in town. which served a favourite dish of the locals – horse burgers (sorry Kaja!) After lunch we walked around town for a while, but it started raining, so we headed to a cafe and had the weirdest hot drinks ever: we thought we ordered hot chocolates with vanilla and berries, but we ended up with custard and hot berry yogurt! I swear!
After the cafe we walked around for a bit longer, and then got some food from a supermarket and headed back to the hostel as it was still raining. It was nice to just relax in a private room for a while!
In the evening we had dinner at Sokol, where the waiters wore national costumes and Tulpesh had deep-fried bull´s testicle! He was more worried that the dish came with tartar sauce than the fact it was a testicle. O_o Apparently it tasted like turkey!
Today we are going to explore all of Ljubljana´s museums, which are closed on Mondays, and then get a late afternoon train to Zagreb. All our travelling has gone really well so far, and the hostels we´ve picked have largely been decent. It feels like we´ve been travelling for an age, though, so I think by the time we have to head home we will feel like we´ve had a long enough holiday!
Morten Dagre
16 July 2008
Høres ut som dere har hatt en fin tur så langt, og opplevd masse spennende ting. Og ja – det ER slitsomt å være på reisefot, selv om man ikke anstrenger seg så mye rent fysisk. Husk å ta mange pauser, og drikk mye vann i varmen. God tur videre!
Uma
21 July 2008
Hi Mae! I’ve enjoyed reading your travel posts! First I was like ‘wow Pigs knee the size of a baby’s head!’ And then went to Horse Burgers and finally testicles?!?!!
You guys are brave :P