Bratislava and Budapest...yay for old communist statues everywhere!!

(EDIT: I tried...I really did...to get all of these posts done before I actually left Europe, but the last week I was there was a lot busier than I had planned for. not busy in a bad way, just a lot of things to see and do before everyone left Prague for good... :( )

EDIT #2: Apparently a lot more people read this than I thought, and for that, thanks. Keep reading though, there will be at least one more post after this one. And if they are getting longer and longer, too bad. Good humor takes a lot of set up, and I ramble. Get over it. )

So I forgot to mention that I went to Paris May 8-12, and then I went to Bratislava and Budapest May 21-24.

So pretty much from the time I went to Rome, to now, I had been on a trip every other week. it was Rome..weekend off...Krakow...weekend off...Paris...weekend off...then Bratislava and Bupadest. It was a bit hectic. But one of my roommates went twice as many places as that in the same amount of time...and had a few days (if that) off between each trip. So I'm kinda glad I did it my way. I also kinda wish that I had time/could afford going to a few more countries, but I've already seen and done more than I expected to, so I'm pretty ok with where I decided to go. My only real regret was not going to Vienna, but I went to Munich instead (but more about that rained-out trip next time)

Of course there are other things I have done while being in Europe...like go to class (usually)... and other such activities...BUT, too bad. You all can't know EVERYTHING that goes on here....I like being mysterious like that...

My trip to Bratislava and Budapest was the second trip I went on with just one other person. Trips go a lot smoother when there are 4 or less people on them. I went with another one of my guy friends that happens to go to K-State, Chris (I only mention the names so it makes the story telling easier). First we were only going to go to Budapest, because no one else wanted to go, and we both wanted to, but then he tacked on Bratislava for some reason, and I didn't really care either way, so we went to both.

Bratislava (which is in Slovakia, which was part of Czechoslovakia until 1993 when it split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia)...for those of you who watch horror/thriller movies, is the setting for the movie "Hostel", and I'm pretty sure that our hostel was remodeled to look like said movie, at least in its bar area. It definitely was slightly creepy.

So we got on the bus to go to Bratislava at about 7.30 in the AM, and got to the bus station i think around 11. We then proceeded to go to the train station, because on our way back, we could get a bus from Budapest to Bratislava, but then had to take a train from Bratislava to Prague. We were assured that this would be relatively simple, and about the same amount of money.

the guy at the bus station in Prague lied, as you will see later. First off though, our train tickets were twice the price we were quoted, but there was nothing we could do about it....grr... and then we thought we had bought the

but anyways, so we check into our hostel, walk to the city center, eat at McDonalds (something familair in a unfamilair area, yet it looked like Prague kinda)


Bratislava..."the little big city" or something like that. The town was large enough to have trams, buses, and trolley buses (I believe trolley buses are the buses that run on the electrical cables from above...similar to a tram...but don't run on the track)

One of the first places we wandered to was the Bratislava Castle. I would have posted a picture of it, but, it is covered in green scaffolding, so its really not all that exciting. Instead, I included a picture of the largest panelac community in Europe. A panelac is pretty much a large apartment building that was built during Communist times (standardized communal living and all that jazz) , and I think this community held almost 500,000 people.

Then we got bored (there is only so much to see and do and walk to in Bratislava), and decided to get on a bus and go visit the Devin Castle, which was about 20 minutes outside of the city, and which I learned later, was about a few kilometers away from Austria.

WOOT…a castle. In all seriousness, it was a pretty sweet castle. If I remember correctly, this castle was at the edge of Roman territory back in the day, and later on, was the site of some of the earliest Christian churches in the area.

We hit a stone wall (not literally…but it meant that the path pretty much stopped) but there was this path through the trees, and of course it only looked slightly chilling, and of course that’s the way Chris wanted to go. We didn’t pass anyone on this path, and I was seriously hoping that I didn’t die, because It would have been the perfect place, but it was very pretty as you can see from the picture above.

There was a break in the trees and some foundations and stuff, and then we get to this path, which is not made for flip flips. Flip flops were a very bad choice, so of course I had to walk ridiculously slow to make sure my shoes didn’t get stuck and I tumbled and died, which would have sucked a little bit.

The part of the castle that looked crazy cool, but was closed for renovations.

After wandering around the castle and its surrounding area, we had some time to kill before the next bus came, so we killed some time and had our first Slovakian beer, which wasn’t too bad. And now I see why beer can be refreshing after being out in the hot sun for some time.

We wandered around Bratislava some more, ate at KFC, and continued to wander around for a bit

Long reflecting pool in Downtown Bratislava.

It was getting late, and dark, so we headed back to our hostel, but FIRST, Chris and I (but really Chris was the one that wanted to go, I just went along because I didn’t have much of a choice, and really had nothing else pressing to get to either) tried to go to some statue that was at the top of a hill that we saw when we got to Bratislava earlier in the day. The only way to get to the top of said hill though, was to follow the winding road up the hill, or use cleverly placed staircases that step up the hill to cut down on travel time for the average pedestrian. Needless to say, after going up the first set of stairs, I was done. These were the most eerie stairs I had ever traversed, and was slightly scared for my life. They were steep, and very badly lit…

Of course.

After getting to the top of them (as you can see from the above picture), and we had walked a little bit, I bitched about not wanting to die, and we left.

The next day, we left for Budapest, and got there around 2 I think. We checked into our hostel, which was like 1000 degrees (well, it was a humid 90ish degrees out, and we were on the 3^rd floor I think, so it was humid and stuffy.), found a Burger King (whose fries tasted like McDonalds fries), and wandered around.

Our first stop, the Terror Museum. The museum is in the house that the top officials in the Hungarian Soviet Party used to interrogate who they saw as criminals and threats to the Party. It was a few floors of fun and excitement, and was chock full of information. There was a sheet of paper in each room that would either explain that exhibit, or give information about what was going on at the time. It was one of the best designed museums I had ever seen (after the Jewish Museum in Berlin), but we were not allowed to take pictures….yet little high schoolers that had gotten there after us were.

Terror Museum. Way Cool.

After that, more wandering/ walking. And then at some point we get to St. Steven’s Basilica. I think. It was HUGE. And other than that, pretty much similar to many of the other churches I’ve talked about…so I’ll just leave it at that.

Statue. St. Some Lady or Another. I want to say St. Theresa.

Domed Roof.

After that…more wandering around and Picture taking of various Budapest sites, and then we were walking down what looked to be one of the more touristy parts of Budapest, we got sucked into a restaurant because they had a tourist deal for food. Neither of us were in the mood to argue though because we both were hungry (HA…hungry in Hungary! Too bad I’m not paid for this comedy gold), but it turned out fine in the end. The restaurant across from the sidewalk had a better deal on food, but you had to deal with guys with violins playing music right by your table…because they walked from group to group embarrassing people.

So in the end…we won.

Real Hungarian goulash, and our Hungarian beers in the upper left. Hungarian goulash tastes like the best parts of chili and stew, probably because of the paprika. It was tasty. And dare I say it, better than Czech goulash.

Paprika Chicken with noodles (but they tasted like spatzle). And I believe the white mess on the top was sour cream. Because, well, I was in Eastern Europe, and sour cream goes with anything, and you can never have enough of it.

Its true.

The next day, after a little confusion and a lot of standing around in the heat, we got on a bus and headed to Memento Park, which was like 30 minutes away from wherever we were in Budapest. (but really the Pest side I think). Memento Park was a way f’in far out there “park” that had a collection of 50 old communist statues from former Communist Budapest. A lot of them were torn down and destroyed, but I guess some of them were just too elaborate, massive, and interesting to simply destroy. It was f’in hot when we were there though.

I have no idea what the actual name of this one was (Probably Liberation or Working Man’s Freedom or some nonsense like that), but Chris and I titled it “Man Forgetting to Put Pants in Washing Machine.”

Lenin.

After we got back from the park, We headed to the Buda side, and wandered around. We went to a Bauhaus Style church. It was one of the first churches I had seen where the stained glass windows curved and met with the roof. (as seen below)

Window. Get Excited.

And then we walked to the castle area, and came upon this lovely…

Buda Castle. I think the original one was destroyed in the War. Yes, in the picture and in person, it looks like a sand castle. And when we were there it was incredibly sunny out, so the sun bounced off of the castle, and made it worse. Fun times.

Buda Castle area.

After this, we went to some castle labyrinth thing (which we could not determine was a tourist trap or not), and then headed back towards our hostel. We started watching a Blackhawks playoff game that we somehow caught on the tv in the common area, and got sucked in. It was in Maygar though (the Hungarian language), and I complained I was hungry, and I knew he was, so we decided to go to Pizza Hut because we had seen atleast one of them in Budapest. And, it turned out that there was one like a block away from our hostel, so go us.

The delicious pizza, it had sausage, pepperoni, jalapenos, and green peppers. And the place had American music videos playing in the background, so it made it kinda hard to leave. AND, it was the classiest Pizza Hut I had ever been in. It looked more like a nice Italian restaurant.

The NEXT day (the last day of our trip, and as you will soon see…the most frustrating) we decided to go to the Citadel. It’s a monument at the top of the “hill” where there is also a bunker, and some other old important buildings. ONLY, we somehow found the LOOONG way to get up there, and followed the route that cars would take, and then guessed on which way to go up the hill (it turns out we guessed correctly. I would have been pissed if he hadn’t.). We get to the top, take a few minutes to regroup, and then start to look around.

Stunning view from the top.

We went in an old Nazi bunker too, which was cool at first, and then got horribly depressing when we left, and then we (but really I) felt better after Chris took off running because he was chased by a bee for like 20 yards. I should have taken a picture, but was too busy laughing hysterically.

After this we make our way down the hill, get lunch, and then go to some other park. It had some famous monument or something, and then walked around it, and then got to a tram stop, but we didn’t have any tickets. I was willing to risk it, but they have plain-clothes people randomly check, and we had already seen 2 people thrown off the tram. So then we walked back through the park. Keep in mind we had our backpacks through all of this, and it was in the 80s. This is the only time I was pissed during the whole trip, but eventually we got where we needed to and got on the bus to go back to Bratislava, so it all turned out ok in the end…

Almost too ok.

We get back to Bratislava at like 6 in the PM, and don’t have to be on the train til 10 in the PM. Apparently its pretty hard to waste 4 hours in Bratislava. We ate and then walked around the old part of Bratislava (which took like an hour) But we stumbled upon this…

YES… We found the Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy. In Bratislava. I guess if you have got to put it somewhere, that would be the place. Since there is not much else going on there. Sadly this was closed, but it inspired us to kill some time by getting beer, which we did, and then headed to the train station.

And thus began our night of “you have got to be kidding me” (only the words we used were not as nice.

So we get on the train, and the train leaves, and we’re pretty sure all the old guys we were sitting with were talking about us. And then the ticket guy comes, and yells at us for being in the wrong car (different cars go to different places), and we had to get to the right one because there one we were on was not going where we needed.

It took us ten minutes for us to learn all this, because we had no idea what the guy was saying, but one of the people we were sitting with translated, and then some guy that barely spoke English wrote down us what station to get off at to get to the right car. So the train finally stops there (I think it was right before the border), and we bolt halfway down the train to get to the right car. So we are relieved to find it, and then see that there are NO seats. So we stand at the front for a while, and see the rest of the train leave and our car stay. So we were damn glad we got off the wrong car. So the train leaves, and we stand for a while longer, and then go and see if we can find seats. It turns out that most of the cars are full and everyone in them is passed out, so we hang out in the corridor for the rest of the trip (which was another 2 hours). There were seats that folded down from the wall, but I went between standing and sitting on the floor. I think Chris eventually fell asleep on one of the chairs.

So we get back to Prague, and then have to wait like 20 minutes for a night tram to get us to the main part of Prague, and then we have to wait another half an hour for the tram to get us back to our dorm.

And I think we arrived some time between 3 and 4, and then I passed out around 6 (I think.).

Next Trip: MUNICH. Could I afford it? Not exactly. Was it spur of the moment? A little. Was it worth it? Heck yes.

Stay tuned. Same Bat Time…Same Bat Channel!