AUSTRIA vienna (yes, all the recordings on transport sound like arnold)
yay for vienna! i was really starting to lose interest in sight-seeing when this city rejuvenated my appetite for travel. the sight-seeing here (especially the parliament building) here is AMAZING, the mozart chocolate is AMAZING, and the crocs store is AMAZING! conveniently, my thongs broke so i had to search for new ones. . .and found a pair at the crocs store across the street from the hostel. (i swear it was meant to be) ya the sandals are ugly but when they are all you can wear after surgery you end up loving them. and now i have the thong version! since then, i have worn my ultra-comfortable crocs almost every day!
one of my favorite sights was the ´zentralfriedhof´, which is a huge cemetery a bit outside of the city. with extravagant family tombstones, parts of it reminded me of the recoleta cemetery in buenos aires…with trees! damn how i miss trees. anyway, the layout is also unique in that there are general lots, and then the special sections. for example, there is a section for important politicians, artists, and musicians. this last section was my favorite since beethoven and schubert are buried here. . .kind of weird but i definitely took a bunch of photos of the graves.
continuing with the australia theme, i stayed at the ´wombat´hostel in vienna. it was probably my least favorite animal at the bredl´s, (the wildlife/reptile park i volunteered at in australia) but i chose it since the amenities sounded alright. it was actually pretty cool, except for the price which was over €20. . .and NOT ok when you are running low on money. but there was a bar downstairs and the atmosphere was chill so i would recommend it if you are ready to throw down some dinero.
HUNGARY budapest (buy your subway tickets!)
mary, charice and i (friends from my hostel in beograd) booked our accommodation at the “aboriginal hostel” on the pest side, which was amusing to us since they are from australia. looking at the list of hostels on the web, they basically chose this one based on its name. so of course we get there and along with a painted map of australia on the wall, there are artifacts like the boomerang. . .and turns out the hostel is run by hungarians. haha. we look in the guest book and there are entries like, “made us feel at home.” because, you know, all aussies have their places decorated with aboriginal artifacts.
after taking photos of buildings (churches, parliament buildings…all kinda the same by now) we get some tourist maps with suggested places. we picked the statue park since it looks really interesting and historical. but after missing the ’statue park’ bus and having to hop on trams and local buses to get there, we were sodisappointed. ok so it was supposed to be “eastern europe´s most exciting outdoor museum,” with soviet-era statues that were moved from budapest´s streets to this park. ya right. we had fun since we ended up climbing around and posing like the statues for our photos, but i would never describe it as “exciting.” there were probably a total of 12 statues in a field of dead grass and pathways…all scattered around a parka bit smaller than a football field. none of the statues moved either. so exciting? not really. basically, the marketing team did an amazing job.
man the subway patrol here are anal! what happened to the “honor system” that most cities use? (haha…) we managed to ride the trams and buses for free, but the subways were another story. it was a little exciting game since i only bought tickets half the time and you never knew when they were going to ask for your ticket. i have never been anywhere where the regulation is so strict! you buy your ticket, validate it, and then have it checked by officers not only as you are going towards the platform, but AFTER you get off at the exit. we even had three officers approach us as we stepped off the train on to the platform…we had no idea what they were saying, and since they had their hands out we thought they wanted money. so of course we try brushing past them muttering “no” and then realized they wanted to check our validation. close call, but we were legit that time!
i almost forgot about the turkish baths! there are atleast ten places you can go to in budapest, but we chose the most famous and biggest one called the szechenyi bath. go big or go home, right? the place is really amazing, with a neo-baroque building housing the indoor baths and sauna, and big outdoor pools that are so gorgeous it looks like you are swimming in a fountain! some baths smelled really bad because of the sulfur, but then you could just move on when you couldn’t't take the smell. i think it was the most relaxing day i have had in a long time!
SERBIA beograd
man the people over here are so much friendlier than people in western europe. you can almost count on someone coming up to you and helping you out with directions and such if you look lost. and apparently, america is not well-liked over here. surprise, surprise. people who talked to me would make sure i did not tell others i was from the states, like it would decrease my chances of being helped. in any case, some quote-worthy conversations came about and are on my quotes page.
we heard great things about the nightlife in beograd, but we must have been hitting up wrong spots or not asking the right people since we didn´t find much. a couple of drinks here and there. that was it. but beograd has a really inviting fortress compound/park, which is open at night. i may sound like a bum but i love hanging out in parks at night! i would definitely recommend exploring the sprawling area to get views of the city like our hostel did. what else did we do at the park? kick around soccer balls of course.
we also went to “the beach.” well, this “beach” was the murkiest lake i have ever seen, and probably not any bigger than 400 yards long and about 100 yards wide. so more like a big pool of standing water. . .but since it is the closest water source to beograd center, people kept calling it the “beach.” i saw it and thought, “sick” but lying out on this crowded shore was still relaxing. haha. . .
BOSNIA AND HERZGOVINA sarajevo
the first thing you notice when you leave the train station is the bright yellow building not too far in the distance. this is the holiday inn, but it is important because it housed journalists during their coverage of the war. . .and was also the place where the hostel was gonna pick me up. my driver was the hostel owner, who cheerfully greeted me and seemed extremely interested in me since i was apparently one of the first japanese people he had spoken with. he and the hostel would be among a bunch of memorable experiences in sarajevo!
one of the first things he shared with me about his japanese knowledge was, ”i know japan! tokyo, hiroshima, and nagasaki!” i was like, ” really? well good job man. . .” i knew he did not mean anything. and when i met some people at reception and he overheard me telling them i was from seattle, he glares at me like i was lying. so ofcourse as he checks me in he reminds me that i am from japan. i was like, “oh yea…”
i had booked a dorm bed over the internet, but he informs me the site is wrong and that i had actually booked a tent. for THREE EUROS a night the tent was just fine. “do you have a sleeping bag?” he asks. i lie and say yes since sheets were an extra two euro. if i had only realized how cold the nights get, i would have paid for a dorm bed (which was only a few euros more). i woke up in the morning with my bag open and half my clothes on top of me, and then realized i was missing my favorite bracelet from my first day in la paz. i do not know how i lost it sleeping in a tent, but i did.
walking around sarajevo was sad at times because some remnants of the war are still evident. for example, it was not uncommon to see apartment buildings with huge bullet holes on the side. but the town and people are all extremely friendly and interested in other’s cultures, so i met some cool people while walking around the market. it was realy awesome to see that the locals are positive and looking forward to good times!
CROATIA zagreb (try split,rijeka or zadar…actually anywhere else)
coming from ljubljana, zagreb plain sucked. i only went against everyone else’s recommendations (for every other awesome town in croatia) since it was a convenient two day stop over on the way to sarajevo. next time i shall listen.
first of all, there were two walking tours that was recommended on the city guide. . .and we did them in three hours. we would follow the map, see the buildings, and move on unimpressed. this is the moment i realized i need to settle somewhere for a bit. i mean, i usually LOVE marveling at architecture. and here i was, not caring. but all the parliament buildings and important institutions are all starting to look identical, i swear. maybe the city would not have been that bad a few months ago. i dunno. someone let me know what they thought.
SLOVENIJA ljubljana.bled (yay for dragons!)
my first stop in eastern europe! or so i thought. . .as the hostel owner made sure to correct me and inform me that slovenia is actually central europe. . .and i soon realized how true this was. visibly annoyed, he says most people that come through believe so just because it is not one of the “main” european countries. way to piss him off before checking in, right? ok so now i know. anyway, he turned out to be super nice and the hostel was fantastic. ‘aladin hostel’-with the logo looking like the film cover but the interior decoration looking nothing like the name. i met some cool people there-fun girls from wales (no surprise, as i have not gone TWO DAYS in the last eights months without meeting an oz or someone from the uk. . .they are EVERYWHERE!) and a couple of cool dudes from sweden.
and so it turns out slovenia has a happening night life! the coolest club we went to was up a clear elevator to the rooftop, which was open and letting in the warm breeze. the music was not half bad, and we ended up staying out till the morning. i wish seattle clubs were open past two!
i wish i spent more time in slovenia. . .most specificly in bled. lake bled is brilliant! (haha ok another lake, i know) there is a castle on the high cliffs and then an island in the middle of this huge lake just big enough to fit a church. picture perfect. kinda like a bob ross painting-with lots of ‘happy trees’ and the only thing missing was a lone cabin. how cool is that?
oooh two more reasons ljubljana is worth checking out: green dragons statues on the bridge, and a sprinkler system in the center (kinda like in the veggie section) that gently sprays water from ten metres above you. ABSOLUTELY clutch on a hot day.