It’s been a little while since we’ve updated things. We’ve been pretty busy going first from Salzburg to Budapest, then to Prague, Heidelberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber (in Germany) and now on to Amsterdam for the next few days. Brooke and I ended up staying in Budapest for longer than we originally intended. Partially because there was more to do and partially because we had been moving around so much we felt like we need to chill in one place for a bit and Budapest was a fairly inexpensive place to do it. We had a chance to plan out other things. I got a haircut. There was no way I could tell the guy to take an inch off the top besides gesturing with my hands. When I said “how much” I think he thought I meant “machine”. At least that’s what I thought he said. Anyway, it’s a bit shorter than usual. Other than what have become fairly typical monuments/castles/churches etc. what was distinctive about Budapest were the bars that we went to. The first one we went to was described to us by our host as a bar that doesn’t look like anything special and that it has a couple of guys standing outside. We found the two guys and went inside where we found one of the coolest looking bars I think we’ve ever seen. It had a kind of hippie style to it in that nothing matched and the open air beer garden in the middle of the building was lit up by a couple of tall fires in the middle. Hard to describe I suppose but definitely a positive experience after arriving at the train station earlier that afternoon and seeing many characteristics reminiscent of Milan (garbage/graffiti). We also had a chance to visit one of Budapest’s famous bathhouses. Apparently there are hot springs in and around Budapest. So they’ve built large complexes with different pools which have water of varying temperatures anywhere between around 50 and 110 degrees. We spent the afternoon hanging out in these pools. Brooke got a massage and I had a few beers. It was pretty relaxing.
Bathhouse
Parliament in Budapest
We left Budapest after 5 nights and headed to Prague. There are a couple of ways to get to Prague from Budapest. One is to go through Vienna. The other, more direct way, is to go through Slovakia. When we got on the train we weren’t exactly sure which route we were going but knew it was listed in our trusty Eurail book that has all the train schedules so everything should be fine. Turns out we were on the route that went through Slovakia. It was explained to us while we were on the train by our little old toothless conductor that even though it was in the book because Slovakia is not part of the network of countries that participate in the whole Eurail thing the pass was not valid from when we entered until we left Slovakia. Keep in mind, his English was only slightly better than my Hungarian or whatever it is that he spoke so most of this conversation took place through hand gestures and him punching in numbers on a key pad. Eventually it became clear to me that he was saying that we needed to pay about 70 Euro to go through Slovakia. This is a little more than $100. Not great but not the end of the world. Then he just disappeared. He came back about 10 minutes latter and told me to follow him. So we left that car and went into a more private area where he proceeded to make absolutely no sense for about 5 minutes until he finally said pay 10 Euro each and then said ‘Shhhhh‘. I said ok and then he told me to sit back down. He came back later and we went away again I gave him 20 Euro. Then he gave a big toothless grin and that was it. My first bribe.
When we arrived in Prague that’s when it started to rain. We were originally going to try and see a bit of the town that first night but it was pouring rain so we decided to stay close to our hotel and just get dinner. It cleared up for most of the following day so we had a chance to see most of the city before it started to rain again. Prague really is a beautiful place. Maybe as nice as Salzburg but it is a much larger city. We ended up staying in Prague for an extra night too. When the sun would come out we would spend a fair amount of time at some of the restaurants in the main square in “Old Town”. Apparently there is an “Old Town” in most of the cities that we are visiting. For the most part I guess they were the parts of these cities that either weren’t bombed or were worth rebuilding after the various wars.
Flat Stanley at the Prague Castle
In Prague on the Charles Bridge
From Prague we went to Heidelberg. Another beautiful place. Heidelberg was spared from being bombed during the second World War. I’m not sure why. On the way we passed through Dresden which, if you know your WWII history or have read Slaughterhouse V, was blown to bits by the Americans to scare the bejesus out of the Russians as they crossed into Germany from the east towards the end of the war. I’ve always been curious what it looks like. It looks pretty normal. I was surprised to see that there were some older looking buildings. Anyway ,we got to Heidelberg pretty late in the day so we just made some dinner and crashed. The next day we went into “Old Town” Heidelberg. Again, beautiful. By this time though I’m getting kind of weary of old beautiful buildings. Not that I don’t enjoy it but it starts to feel a little monotonous after a month or so. So that night we went bowling. As I explained to Brooke, I am one of the greatest bowlers of all time. I told her I could break 300. She told me that was impossible. Regardless, I still won.
We headed to Rothenburg ob der Tauber the next day. It was raining and we were only planning on staying one night so we ventured out to explore anyway. Luckily, it is a tiny, little town in the middle of nowhere so it was easy to see in one afternoon. Rothenburg is the stereotypical traditional German town. If you think about old school Germany what you probably envision is a place like this. Very quaint and nice but it’s strange to me that anyone actually lives there. And without tourism, most likely, no one would. Living there would be kind of like living at the German village at the Epcot Center in Disney World. It took us a little more than 4 hours to get there even though it was right down the street from Heidelberg because the bus that used to go there didn’t go there anymore. So we took the train back up through Frankfurt. I’m glad we went, just to see it, even though it was cold and raining. We had seen what we needed to see so we took off this morning.
Streets in Rothenburg
Right now we are on the train to Amsterdam. Brooke just got some wet naps from the train attendant. She can bareley contain herself. By the time I post this we’ll be there. After Amsterdam we’ll be going to Paris to meet up with my family. We are traveling together with them from Paris to Nice and then to Italy for the following week or so. I learned a couple of hours ago that getting on the train from Paris to Nice with them could be a problem. I was told that we need to wait until we are in Paris to book the tickets but I was told by someone else that all of the trains were booked. Hopefully by the time she reads this we will have figured all of this out but otherwise I think my Mom might have a heart attack. Chill mom!! We’ll get there.
Things we’ve learned:
- 1st floor means 2nd floor, 2nd floor means 3rd, etc, etc.
- Grocery shopping is more difficult when you can’t read what you’re buying
- Beef and pork are not in short supply in Germany and Eastern Europe
- The bars in Budapest are some of the coolest around
- Bribery can save you a couple of bucks and get you where you need to go
- Don’t trust the stupid Eurail train schedule book. It’s been wrong a couple of times. We’ve done some running with 30 pound packs on our backs.
- If you don’t do laundry for a couple of weeks, everything you own starts to smell real funky. I feel kind of sorry for the people sitting next to us on the trains.
- If there are beautiful Hungarians, they don’t go to the bathhouses in Budapest.
- As we go forward we should mix up the trip more so that we are doing different things in different places.
- There isn’t a big difference between 1st and 2nd class on the trains.
This is what Brooke looks like with her backpack = not easy running
We had much fun in Amsterdam! We arrived around 6pm on Saturday evening and had made arrangements to stay on a houseboat. So yes...we're on a boat! Since Amsterdam is a city on the water with many canals we felt it appropriate to stay on the water. Pretty cool to stay somewhere different like this. We actually ended up having the place to ourselves for a couple of days and enjoyed cooking and having our 'own place'. Anyway, upon arrival we were hungry so decided to go find a fondue restaurant we had read about. Interestingly enough, as we ventured into the city looking for this restaurant we stumbled upon the infamous 'Red Light District' neighborhood first thing. Just like that. (See pic below)
And by 'moves like a ram', I actually mean that the Tram moves like a roller coaster. I seriously felt like I was on the Screamin' Eagle at Six Flags when we were on the Tram. It would jerk you around and go about 50 mph! One afternoon we decided to just ride the Tram for about an hour, just for roller coaster fun and to see different parts of the city. We did take in some other sites by taking a canal tour and also visited the Anne Frank House. We arrived in Paris today and are spending a couple of days here before Scott's family joins us on Friday. We are really looking forward to seeing them. We will be going to Nice on Saturday, then to Italy on Monday.
