Due to a curve ball in our travel plans we arrived last night in Budapest last night. Turns out that our EURail pass isn’t valid in Bulgaria. So our original plan to take the train from Thessaloniki Greece to Sofia Bulgaria is a no-go. Instead we boarded a plan in the outskirts of Thessaloniki bound for Budapest. Good thing Jay was wearing his travel suit that day because we just barely made it to the airport on time! In fact we were cutting it so close that we had to sneak past the preliminary security line in order to make our plane on time.
Anyways, as I said… we are now in Budapest. Well, Pest to be exact. And due to some favorable circumstances with a technical glitch in a hostels calendering system, we have a large furnished apartment here all to ourselves! Score!
Last night we went hunting for some food and came across a Cuban restaurant on some unlit backstreet. The menu looked good, and decor looked classically Cuban so we decided to give it a go and headed down the stairs to the restaurant below.
As soon as we were seated, we were quickly approached by a tall gorgeous woman carrying a tray of ruby red shots. She started off on her sales pitch in Hungarian which sounded just as beautiful as she looked. When she finished, we politely explained that we are idiots who can’t speak Hungarian. She laughed and luckily repeated the whole shpeel in English. As expected, she was there promoting a new drink. It was a new variety of a classic Hungarian liquor. She offered us a round on the house, and despite hearing horror stories of people in foreign countries waking up with missing organs after a free round of drinks, we threw caution to the wind and downed a round. It tasted a lot like cinnamon and was a bit warming, which was nice since the weather outside was quite brisk (and somehow I lost my jacket in Greece). After chatting with the girl for a while about things to do/see in the city, our waiter brought over our first course, a beef chili soup covered in a cheesey blanket.
It was scrumptious! And really hit the spot, getting us warmed up for the main course:
A stuffed chicken concoction on a bed of pasta. Holy crap was that tasty! The portion was enormous, so we bagged up half of it and headed home. This morning it was even more tasty as brunch!
After devouring our leftovers we grabbed our trusty map and headed out, leaving Pest in the dust to explore the Buda side of the river.
We hiked up the hillside of Buda for about a half hour or so, stopping to take a few photos along the way. Here’s on the the royal palace, and off in the distance in Pest you can see the dome of the Parliament building.
At the top of Gellért Hill is The Citadel surrounded by some of it’s defensive artillery and maniacal military personnel.
They don’t exactly seem to have the best aim as you can see from the mortar shell impact next to this window on the exterior wall.
From the edge of the hill you can get a great view of the city and some of the 8 bridges that connect Pest with Buda.
Here’s another shot of the Parliament building with the Chain Bridge in the foreground.
Once we had our fill of majestic sights from the hilltop, we rolled back down the other side for a closer look at the Chain Bridge…
…on our way towards the Royal Palace.
The palace was guarded by a very upset lion.
In fact a lot of the cities major attractions had lions in some form or another keeping a close eye out on the palace…
…falling rocks…
…and Jay.
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on October 2, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Hungary,Travel | No Comments »
“Free ketchup should be a god-given right.”
–Jay T. Moore (Budapest, Hungary 2008)
Said after being charged 80 Hungarian Forint (~$0.50) for a packet of Heinz.
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on October 2, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Hungary,Orgish,Travel | No Comments »
Because I know I am. We’ve been without any reliable Internet access for about 4 days now which is primarily why the blog has been a bit stagnant as of late. Luckily we are now in Hungary (w00t our first former communist country!) where the connection is rock solid and blazing fast! So let me just bring you up to date with what has been going on with us really quickly…
After partying like rock starts in Mykonos, we took a high speed ferry back to Athens. And that’s just about the time when I remembered exactly why we told ourselves we would not party the night before a travel day! It was the longest 2-hour boat ride in history. And let us not forget just how much history they have here in Greece!
Once we arrived in Athens we were still absolutely exhausted. We were also absolutely famished. Since we knew this would be our last opportunity to savor the succulent souvlaki down at Thanasis restaurant, we mustered up the strength to have one last meal there. It was heavenly. It was also dangerous as we were now going on about 36 hours of no sleep, with a full belly of souvlaki, fries, and tzatziki sauce. We could have easily passed out right there on the spot for a long overdue hibernation. But no! We are soldiers damnit! So we hiked back to the hostel for a much more appropriate nights rest.
The next day we boarded a train for a 5-hour train ride to northern Greece and the city of Thessaloniki. Initially I was fairly unimpressed. The weather was gloomy, the city is in the middle of being ripped apart to install a subway system and I was feeling a bit under the weather. That was all about to change. We had arranged to meet up with a couple of lady friends we met on CouchSurfing.com for a coffee. Eri and Georgia met up with us at our Hotel and then proceeded to kidnap us and take us out for crepes and then to a nice cafe overlooking the water.
After getting to know them over a few drinks, we felt confident that they would not be selling our organs on eBay the next day. So we joined them for a night out on the town at their friends newly opened club.
It was here that it was officially decided that Greece has the highest BPC index (Babe Per Capita). So many ridiculously beautiful women! Don’t get me wrong, Stockholm was impressive in that regards, but I’m sorry, Greece takes the cake when it comes to overall good looks. So ya, after picking our jaws up off the floor we partied with our new hosts and their friends late into the night.
The next day (Sunday) was also a bit gloomy, so we were going to call it a work day. However, as I mentioned earlier, the Internet is “teh sucks” here and there was no connectivity all day. So we ventured out and spent the day inside one of Thessaloniki’s museums. They had a REALLY old dude (a 200,000 year old hominid)…
…a really pretty headpiece…
…a really expensive mask…
…and a really heavy receipt…
The next day (still no Internet access) we met up with Eri again who took as around the city to show us some more sights to see such as the White Tower.
…and a really modern “globe”…
…near some really great guys.
(that’s Alexander The Great on the horse by the way)
We ate some really great food…
…by the really calm bay…
…followed by some really delicious desert.
Eri and Georgia were absolutely awesome hosts and really showed us the best of what Thessaloniki had to offer. They single-handedly turned an okay experience into a great experience in their city, and it was because of them that we extended our stay here a few extra days. Thanks ladies!
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on October 1, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Greece,Travel | 1 Comment »
