Heading East

I am so far behind in this blog.. everything I'm writing happened so long ago!

View of Pest

Well last week after my time in Austria, I went to Budapest for the weekend and stayed with Geri, who I met back in January in Rome.  Budapest just might be my favorite city so far!  Once again, it is a little off the typical tourist path, at least at this time of the year, and for the first time, I could really see the Eastern influence in the architecture and buildings, which adds an irresistible charm to the place. My first night there, we climbed up to the citadel for a fantastic view of the city.  For reference, Budapest actually used to be two cities, Buda and Pest, split in half by the Danube river.  Buda has the castle and citadel, and Pest contains most of the old town, but now they've been combined to make one city that we know as Budapest.
The next day, Geri had to do some things for class, so his roommates took me to the gym to play squash! I didn't even really know what squash was until I got there, but it's kind of like racquetball.  And it turns out that I'm actually not that bad at it!  I gave the boys a run for their money :)  Later that day, we walked around the city a bit, but it was so cold that we ended up going back to the flat and watching episodes of the Big Bang Theory.  Typical Hungarian day, I suppose.  My last day in Hungary, we walked around and took a visit to see the medicinal baths (too expensive for my budget to actually go in though..), and we went to the Terror Haza Museum, featuring exhibits about the communist regime in Hungary.  In the basement were reconstructed prison cells to show how prisoners were tortured and confined in that very building... a little unsettling..
   Then my time in Budapest was over too quickly, leading me to probably the biggest monetary mistake I've made on this trip.  Oops.  My plan was to go to Ljubljana, but almost any destination from Budapest is... well, tricky.  The only direct train that I found didn't get in until 2 am, and I decided that showing up alone in a new city at the wee hours of the morning was a poor choice.  So I opted for the 11 hour train that went back to Salzburg and arrived at 6:30 in the morning.  Only problem? I failed to figure out the cost beforehand, so instead of the direct train which would have cost me $40, I ended up paying $120.  Ouch.  And it turns out, I got kind of sick on the train... probably too much pizza :)... but I decided to hop off in Salzburg around 1 am, wander back to the hostel I stayed at before, sleep for a few hours, and then head on to Slovenia, adding another $20 or so to my total cost of the day.  Fail.

Lake Bled and the castle

    Well, the train was still worth it, because I adored Ljubljana.  Hardly a tourist in sight, Ljubljana has a very eclectic, funky vibe to it.  All the shops and cafes were very unique, streaming fun music into the streets, and it almost seemed... hippie.  It was then that I realized that I just might have an inner hippie waiting to be free somewhere inside me.  Haha- I never thought that about before, but I guess bumming around Europe alone qualifies you for that status.  I also stayed in a sweet hostel that used to be a jail.  Now the cells are converted into hostel dorms. It was very cool until I saw the bloodstains on the wall... just kidding!  The next day I met Jin from Japan, and we took a daytrip to Lake Bled.  In the middle of the lake is Slovenia's only island, home of a huge cathedral.  The only way to get to church is by boat!  We decided not to take the expensive tourist ferry to the island, but to climb up the side of a mountain to Bled Castle for some fabulous views of the city.  Because of the cold, and the fact that we saw more chickens, dogs, and ducks than actual people, we decided to call it a day, and he went back to his hostel in Bled, and I took the bus back to Ljubljana for the night.
    After that it was off to Croatia!  Let me take a few seconds to explain the intricacies of visa regulations for the EU.  Currently, US citizens can travel to Europe for 90 days within a period of 6 months without a visa.  This means 3 months in Europe, then 3 months out.  The part that gets confusing is that this applies to countries that are a part of the Schengen Agreement, which is not necessarily the European Union, but it is close.  And countries that use the Euro are something different altogether.  The point is, I am reaching my max number of days in the area (I'm about at 70), so I want to pause and regroup myself before going back in, so Croatia it is, because it is not part of the Schengen countries.  Therefore, I can stay here as long as I want (within reason..)  This meant passport control for the first time since coming to Spain in December.  That is one thing though that the EU has done very well for itself- erasing the border controls.  Every time I pass a country border, I've gotten used to seeing abandoned checkpoints, and it makes the whole travel process so much easier, especially since countries are so small here. But now, I have a little stamp officially welcoming me to Croatia.  Anyways, this will be a good break for me.  I will travel down the coast and hang out in some beach towns and work on some job applications for the fall.  A breath of fresh air, because I feel like I might be getting burnt out on moving around so much and the fast pace of seeing so much all at once.  So after I have time to plan my next leg of my journey (and cry over the status of my bank account :), then I'll head out again with a revived energy.  That's all for now!