Ciao! I survived a weekend of complete chaos but it was filled with unforgettable moments and experiences. First of all, I can now say that I have slept on a bench for 4 hours in Slovakia, see the biggest Synagogue in all of Europe in Budapest, and slept in a hostel that was annexed to an apartment where a man named Hitler lived in for a year in Vienna, Austria. Europe is weird like that.
After flying in to Bratislava late on Friday, we hopped onto a random shuttle without knowing where it was going, but lucky guess, it took us to the train station where we needed to go. It's amazing how vastly different Eastern Europe is from Western Europe--it's another world. Slovakian seems so so foreign of a language so signs were of no help to us. We waited in a long line to purchase tickets and noticed that we were in the sketchiest of sketch train stations we've seen in all of Europe (which is saying something in comparison to Milan's Stazione Centrale). This place looked like it had just been bombed and the whole place wreaked of urine, cigarettes, and other foulness. The next train to Budapest was at 4:00 am so our only choice was to camp out. The boys and Tara walked about the city of Bratislava for a bit (they said it was equally as sketch with tons of drunk people wandering about) leaving Nancy and I in this random covered area with benches that looked like death. And yes, we slept on the benches. Only a handful of people were around, including some homeless men who were kicked out of the area by two Slovakian guards. The guards tried communicating with us, but the language barrier was too difficult--however, we could deduce that what they were trying to tell is was not to sleep on the benches because it was too dangerous (especially being two young women). When the guards left, this man sitting on the bench next to us told us in broken English in which he threw in broken French, Italian, and Hungarian, that it was okay, that we could sleep and he would keep an eye out for us. He seemed trust worthy enough so we slept though miserably under the circumstances. Then finally, the we got of the train for Budapest.
We arrived in Budapest after three hours of travel, checked our bags at the station, then explored the city for the day. My impressions of Budapest were affected by the fact that I have already visited Prague, Czech Republic, and Belgrade, Serbia. Bascially Budapest, felt like standard Eastern Europe, though not as run down as Belgrade, and not as pretty and scenic as Prague. The Danube river (which also runs through Belgrade, Prague, and German cities) runs through Budapest, separating "Buda" from "Pest". On the Buda side, we explored Buda Castle, views from the Halaszbastya, Szt. Anna templom, Matyas templom, Baths created from natural hot springs and other monuments. On the Pest side, we saw the impressive Parliament building with monuments dedicated to the resistance of Hungarians towards the Soviets, Zsinagoga (the largest synagogue in all of Europe, some museums, and Szt. Istvan Bazilika (St. Steven's Basilica) which was beautiful. That evening we ate some traditional Hungarian gulash! Then it came time to return to the train station and take yet another late night train ride to Vienna, Austria.
Only Tara, Nancy, and I went to Vienna, and we wished we had had more time there because Wien (Vienna) is actually an enormous city with so much culture and so much to do it could keep you busy for weeks! It's the birthplace of so much classical music, (Beethoven, Bach, Strauss to name a few) and was a location for so many important events in European history. To begin our Austrian adventure, we checked in to our hostel where the nicest Austrian man ever was our host. The hostel was several buildings large and we inquired as to what the history of the area was. With that said, the man led us to the backside of the building and pointed up to an apartment and a brick building next to it. He said that the brick building was an old abandoned factory and that the apartment was occupied for a year by "a man named Hitler" is how he put it. In shock we said, "you mean...THE Hitler!?!" And yes, indeed, the hostel we stayed in was annexed to an apartment Hitler lived in for a year during a time which he ironically was dating a Jewish girl that worked in the factory right next to it. So that was some interesting WWII history.
The next day we got an early start and visited Schonbrunn Palace, the most important monument in Austria, where generations of important historical rulers, the Empress of Austria, even Neopolian lived. We took a tour and even stood in the room where the 6-year old Mozart gave his first concert and public appearance. The Palace is enormous but the gardens behind the Palace are really really enormous. We walked all around and even sampled some Austrian coffee at the cafe on top of the hill overlooking the Palace, the Palace gardens, and a sweeping view of the city of Vienna (Austria too, is famous for its coffee and coffee houses, NOT to be confused with Amsterdam's coffeehouses!) After doing the Palace and gardens, we took the absolutely lovely and clean, easy-to-use Vienna public transit system to the City Center. We were lucky because only the day before we arrived the Christmas Market had opened! So we got in the Holiday mood, sipping our cider as we walked about the tents filled with Austrian Christmas trinkets and goodies. There were also TONS of crazy cute Austrian kids that we people watched while sitting on a bench near a playground. We saw a little boy holding the cutest puppy we have ever seen so of course we made friends so that we could pet it.
The evening we had to then return to Bratislava by bus, so that we could catch our flight back to Milan. By the time we got back we were completely, and utterly exhausted in every sense of the word. I have never crashed so hard to bed, ever. We felt to accomplished after pulling off such a stunt of a weekend. In a course of 36 hours, we were actually in 4 countries (including Italy) and we actually got to see sights and explore a decent amount).
Our next trips should be no where near as chaotic since we will be staying in one city for each. We are SO stoked for next weekend in beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark (and we plan on poping over to a Swedish village as well), Barcelona, Spain, and our finale, 3 days in Paris, France. C'est la vie!
Ciao, friends, I will be home before you know it!
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