26 July 2008
The photos from our interrailing adventure are now up!
Days 1-4: Prague
Days 5-6: Bratislava
Days 7-8: Budapest
Days 9-10: Ljubljana
Days 11-12: Zagreb
Day 13: Split
Days 14-15: Brac Island
Days 16-17: Trogir
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!
11 July 2008
Day 7 – Bratislava (travelling to Budapest)
Day 3, where we left off the last time we blogged, ended up being a quiet day – we were exhausted from all the walking we’d done the day before. We walked around Josefov, Prague’s Jewish quarter, and sat in a quiet pub and had some Czech beer. In the evening we had proper Czech food in a local pub – Tulpesh had a pig’s knee and we can testify that it’s the size of a baby’s head!
On day 4 we took the metro up to Vyšehrad Castle and walked around the lovely grounds, savouring the views all over Prague. In the afternoon we went to the Kafka museum, which was very interesting. In the evening we got the night train to Bratislava – an exhilarating experience, but we didn’t get a lot of sleep!
We spent day 5 exploring Bratislava, which is a much smaller city than Prague. We walked around Bratislava Castle, visited the Museum of Clocks, and had pizza in a small Italian. We visited St. Martin’s Cathedral and had lovely ice-creams, then spent the evening chilling out in a local cafe.
Yesterday we were running out of Slovakian money, so we had a thrifty breakfast al-fresco (with food purchased from Tesco, the global devil). We visited the Municipal museum, wrote postcards (so look out for those!), visited the Slovak National Gallery and bought some new reading materials at an English second-hand book store. I also spent a chunk of the evening napping on a park bench, head in Tulpesh’s lap – this interrailing business is exhausting!
Today we’ve got up early, and we’re going to catch the 9:40 train to Budapest! Woop!
07 July 2008
Day 3 – Prague
We’re having a fantastic time here in Prague – the city is amazing! We arrived in the afternoon on Saturday, and spent the evening getting to know the city. We walked around for a bit, had Italian food near Wenceslas Square, saw Charles Bridge, had cheap Pilsner Urquell in a nice bar (£1 a pint!) and blueberry milkshake and chocolate cake in a hip cafe.
Yesterday we had lovely weather – sunny and warm. We went to the train station in the morning to book sleeper beds on the train to Bratislava for tomorrow, and then headed into Staré Město to see the old town. We saw the Municipal House, Old Town Square, Tyn Church, the cool astronomical clock, and climbed to the top of the City Hall to see the fantastic views.
We walked into Hradčany, where we had lunch (rabbit and wild boar!), and explored the largest castle in the world, Prague Castle, where the amazing St. Vitus Cathedral is. After all this walking we were so knackered we had a little nap in the shade in a garden in Malá Strana. We also went on the funicular railway to the top of Petřín Hill, where there is a beautiful rose garden and where Tulpesh climbed the 289 steps to the top of the Petřín Hill Tower. We had dinner in an authentic, world-renowned establishment – we think it was called something unpronounceable… like KFC? After dinner we headed to the cinema to watch Hancock, as it started chucking it down with rain!
Today we have explored the National Museum and walked around town, although it’s still raining, and soon we’re going to have lunch somewhere. We’re taking it a little easier today, as we walked almost 15 kilometres yesterday!
04 July 2008
We’re off to Eastern Europe!
We’ve posted our planned route earlier, and now we’re actually going! Woop!
Our route through Eastern Europe:
05/07: Fly to Prague, Czech Republic
08/07: Train to Bratislava, Slovakia
11/07: Train to Budapest, Hungary
13/07: Train to Ljubjana, Slovenia
15/07: Train to Zagreb, Croatia
17/07: Train to Split, Croatia
18/07: Ferry to Brac, Croatia
20/07: Ferry to Trogir, Croatia
21/07: Fly home from Split, Croatia
We’ll be blogging here on our website, and posting photos on our Facebook profiles:
First stop: Prague!
14 January 2008
This is our planned interrailing route for July 2008:
We plan to fly to Prague, and then travel to Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana and Zagreb, before flying home from Split. I can’t wait!