Days 40 & 41: Zagreb, Croatia

Most of day 40 was the 6.5 hour train ride from Budapest to Zagreb. Not a very exciting day but the scenery was nice.  

Budapest Train Station

 Balaton, a large lake we passed on the train for several kilometers. We did not see any toxic sludge from the recent spill near an aluminum processing facility, but we passed about 30 km from it.

Nickolai Tesla was born in Croatia and there is a street named after him.

Day 41

We spent the day in Zagreb. Yesterday (Oct 8th) was Croatia's Independence Day so there was a lot going on in the center of the city. After spending the day wandering around the city, looking at buildings and visiting a museum we ended the day, sitting outside, at a cafe on one of the main streets. I love to people watch, especially in other cultures. The fashion trend we noticed today was that apparently it's cool to tuck your jeans into your high tops. After getting back to our hotel, we stayed up late to Skype into Chuck's birthday party. It was great to get to see some friends for a couple of minutes! Hope everyone had a great time! Wish we could have been there in person. 

Zagreb, near the train station.

I love when we stumble upon festivals! These kids were doing some traditional Croatian dancing. It involved lots of spinning and lots of running around in circles.

Performer at the festival. Later he played Stairway to Heaven.

Open-air market at Dolac.

We weren't really sure what this building was; the map we had was in Croatian and not very informative. Every couple of minutes the two guards would walk to the end of the building and back to their positions. I just googled it, and apparently this is St. Mark's Church and the roof is made of tiles, not legos. I'm not sure what purpose the guards serve.

Like most cities we've been to, Zagreb has a big, beautiful cathedral complete with scaffolding.

The Stone Gate.

This is the last of the four original gateways to the city. It is also a very popular place to pray and light candles. Based on our map, we weren't sure why. I just looked this up too and it has something to do with a photo of Mary that was found, undamaged, after a big fire near the gate.

This wall stretched for what seemed like forever. Each section of the wall had been painted by different people. Some were cool, some not so much. I really liked the wall; it was a nice change from the typical graffiti that we've seen.



Budapest, Hungary - Days 37, 38, 39

The first night of our arrival in Budapest, we ate at a Giero, another cellar. This time there was live "gypsy" music, which would have been fine except we were the only people in the place. Therefore, we had a lot of attention from the band. A lot. And they did not appear to be happy when we declined to purchase their CD. The food was good. Not sure exactly what it was as there was no menu. You are brought whatever they have, but it was good and reminded us of gumbo. When we asked the name, we were told "Hungarian."

Hungarian Food

 Giero Restaurant

 The next morning, we walked up to Buda Castle and explored the Buda Castle Labyrinths.

 Labyrinth

 Statue and well in the Labyrinth. 

 View of Parliament across the Danube from the castle.

That night, we ate dinner at the Old Man's Music Pub. The band, Mrs. Columbo, was very entertaining. They are an all female jazz/swing trio. They covered Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Blackhole Sun, among many others.  

The next morning we visited a "Communism Museum." Budapest moved statues from the Soviet era to a park on the outskirts of the city. There is also a documentary that has combined secret police training films about how to develop informers among civilians. Very interesting, and somewhat depressing.   

 Who knew Truman Capote was such an important figure in Hungarian communism. 

Sprinting worker? Possibly from a garment factory? 

These were Stalin's boots that were all that remained after his statue was torn down. 

 St. Stephen's Basilica

 View of the Danube from the Chain Bridge.

 View of the Chain Bridge.

 Flag lowering at Parliament.

Basillica again.

The next morning we toured Margit Island, which is in the Danube. It has several parks, sports fields and a hotel and spa. Most people use electric golf carts or bikes to get around.

 Ruins of an amphitheatre on the island.

 More of the island's parks.

The bridge to the island is undergoing a complete renovation, but it is still walkable. This is a view of Parliament from the bridge, through the construction.

 Budapest was initially a Celtic settlement, but eventually became a Roman base called Aquincum in the first century. The Magyars and Mongols followed. It was two cities, Buda and Pest, until 1873 when they were unified. These are some of the Roman ruins.

Budapest has the second oldest underground in the world after London. This is the train and station in Line 1 that dates to 1896 and which is still running.

Good-bye Vienna, on to Sopron, Hungary

Day 34
We didn't have to catch our train until 4:00, so we had some more time in Vienna. We decided to head out to see the Danube.

Church on the Danube.

Rollerblading is still very popular in Europe.

The Danube

Nicole had asked how much luggage we packed. We each have a big backpack and a small backpack. Nicole, the answers to the rest of your questions are under your questions in the Neckargemund post.

While waiting for our train to Sopron, fans from a visiting soccer team arrived. They were very loud and were setting off flares. Lots of police, some wearing helmets, arrived quickly. You can see the police on the platform closest to us and the rowdie fans on the next platform.

After arriving in Sopron, we met up with our excellent host, Gabi. We took a walk around the city and then settled into a wine cellar for dinner. Thankfully Gabi was able to translate for us because everything was written in Hungarian and German. We avoided the stomach and lungs but trusted Gabi that the brains would be delicious for a starter. It was actually pretty good, but I don't think it's something I would want to eat all the time. After dinner some of Gabi's friends came over and we spent the night hanging out with them. It was really nice to get to hang out with some locals for a change.

Gabi and me

Brains on bread-yum!

Day 35

We started the day off with another walk around the city so that we could see it in the daylight. It is a very cute town.

Old Roman walls.

Center of Sopron

There are lots of neat doors that lead to courtyards off of the main roads.

Next we headed to Lake Neusiedl/Lake Ferto. We were on the Neusiedl side. Ferto is what it is called on the Austrian side. It was very cold for a day at the lake but there were still lots of people kite surfing on the lake. We also walked along a boardwalk over the lake where there were really cute houses that sit on the water.

After the lake we stopped at the source of a mineral spring. The company bottles and sells the water but they also have this interesting fountain where the water is pumped straight from the source. The water smells horrible and tasted a little funny but Gabi promised it was good for us.

After the refresing water, we headed to the forest to meet up with some of Gabi's friends for a nice hike. The forest was beautiful. Along our walk we searched for chestnuts to roast later. We hiked to a lookout tower where we had a great view and could see the lake we had been earlier.

On our way down we hiked down a mountain bike path that some local boys had built. The path was crazy. It was hard enough to hike down, I can't imagine attempting it on a bike. Notice in the picture that one of the trees has been wrapped; it was not very thick or soft. I'm not sure if they were attempting to keep the bikers or the tree safe.

After a long hike we stopped at a place near the forest that sold Langos. Langos is a traditional Hungarian bread deep fried and then covered with various toppings. According to Gabi the best is with garlic, cheese and sour cream.

After our long day we crashed back at Gabi's flat and roasted chestnuts. I had never had roasted chestnuts before; they were quite tasty!

Chestnuts roasting in a toaster oven