Lovely Vienna

Friday 7/29 -

After what seemed like an eternity on Dora, we crossed the Slovakian border and made our way to Bratislava. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and to my surprise is a very cute town. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Eurotrip, but that is the depiction of Bratislava that I had in my head prior to our arrival and it is not even close to what it actually looks like. Anyway, we spent about an hour in the city and had a lovely lunch before getting back on Dora to head into Vienna. Although before we left, Amanda and I each bought Bratislava T shirts which we both find ironic and funny since we were there for such a short period of time.

Once we arrived in Vienna, we drove straight to the Schoenbrunn Castle and it was one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen. There was a wedding going on and I saw the bride and groom kiss from the balcony and it was so cute. They have a Zoo, fountains, a few labyrinths, and beautiful gardens. A couple of us girls did several of the labyrinths (mazes) and felt like kids all over again...it was awesome! We were even more excited when we completed them!














Once we got to our hostel and got checked in (by the way, our hostel is so lush compared to everywhere we have stayed so far) I decided to go for a run around the city before dinner and try and get acquainted with my surroundings. For dinner we had traditional Vienna Wiener Schnitzels and apple (pronounced apfle) strudels. Both were pretty gross if you ask me, but our group was pretty divided on the topic of dinner. Alan gave us the option after dinner whether or not we wanted to go to the Prater Amusement Park, which is supposed to be the oldest amusement park in the world. Most of us ended up going and had a blast! The first ride we rode when we got there was called Extasy (that is how it is spelled) and it was insane. It looked like some kind of alien spaceship... I have never seen a ride like it. It jostled you around in so many different directions you had no idea which way was up all the while smoke is blowing at you, there is raging music, and wild flashing lights in every corner of your eyes. Needless to say, riding this ride after a huge meal was not the best idea. Most of the group didn't feel well afterwards but we all stayed and played for a few hours which was great fun!


The below picture is a bunch of girls with ponchos on after they rode a water ride.





Saturday 7/31 -

This morning was yet again another dreary, rainy day in Europe. I don't know how it is possible that our days on the bus are always beautiful and sunny and our free days seem to be so cruddy, but that is just the way it has been lately. Fortunately, we had checked the weather report in advance and knew what to expect so we all turned off our alarms and slept in until a whopping 10AM!!! It was amazing! I didn't even know my body could sleep into the double digits anymore! Anyway, Amanda and I set off into the city and decided to go shopping first. We have a couple of themed parties coming up and I was in need of a few things and we luckily came across everything on our list! After shopping we took the metro over to "Ring Row" which is a famous circle around Vienna that takes you past a bunch of the cites. We saw a bunch of beautiful buildings and churches, played in a park, stopped and enjoyed Austrian beer & wine from a cafe (of course we were people watching), shared a brownie from Der Mann (which is a local cafe that I was instructed to try by a friend who used to live here) and just as it was a bout to rain, we made our way to the super market to grab some food to make dinner. I didn't know this even existed, but our hostel has a whole kitchen area set up and you can cook and leave leftovers for other guests to enjoy.





















After a lovely home cooked meal, which after eating out for 6 weeks was amazing, we decided to go and see another movie!! Everyone knows how much I love seeing movies, so this is probably not that much of a surprise but we decided to see "Cars 2" since it just came out the other day. We saw the movie in 3D and it was especially good because it featured many of the places in Europe we have just seen.


Now I am back at the hostel preparing for bed and tomorrow we are off to Krakow, Poland. Talk to you again soon!

Love,

Lindsay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vienna, Austria

Yummy eats in Hungary!

Wednesday 7/27 -

We arrived into Budapest on Wednesday afternoon around 3pm and Alan took us straight into our driving tour around the city. Our first stop was the Fisherman's Bastion and it immediately set the mood as I fell in love with Budapest. As you can probably imagine, it was stunning! We also learned that Katy Perry's "Fireworks" video was filmed there which I thought was pretty cool...I am going to have to watch it when I get home since I was actually there!








We continued on our way and spent the next hour or so touring some of the most beautiful sights that Budapest has to offer, including the Citadella, Gallert Hill, the Liberation Monument, Memento Park, etc. I didn't know this but one of the bridges that we saw, the chain bridge, was the first bridge that crossed the Danube River to connect Buda and Pest when they were separate cities. Now Budapest is obviously one big city but depending on what side of the bridge you are on, either side is often referred to as the Buda side or the Pest side.

For Dinner we all went to a traditional Hungarian restaurant where Alan told us there was a challenge awaiting us. He told us once we got there that Hungarian meals are massive and that we were all being challenged to be able to finish our meals. I hadn't eaten in 6 hours and was starving! I was almost laughing to myself thinking, "has he met me? This is going to be so easy!" Well after 45 minutes of trying my hardest, I wasn't able to do it. Only two guys did out of a group of 36. Look at my before and after shots. It doesn't even look like I put a dent in my entree! Even though I didn't win, the food was delicious and my meal ending up feeding me three times so I was happy!





Thursday 7/28 -

We woke up to a rainy, cold, very blah day in Budapest which put quite a damper on our plans for our "free" day. Amanda and I set out anyway to try and make the most of it and ended up walking for several hours in on again, off again rain. We saw the Parliament Building,


Took our photo in front of the Danube River,



and went to see the Royal castle (which was my favorite),





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before giving up and heading indoors. We stood underneath the awning of a nearby restaurant for a while contemplating what to do. We didn't want to go to the hostel or to a museum but also didn't want to spend any more time in the rain, so we decided to try and find a movie theater to wait out the storm. We tried asking people but no one spoke any English and we were both getting really frustrated. I finally located a WiFi connection in a cafe and googled "Budapest movie theater" and found the Cinema City Alle (which at the time we weren't even sure was a movie theater). We tried looking at the google maps walking directions and found ourselves so lost and confused that we conceded defeat and hopped into a taxi. Looking back, the taxi experience was actually pretty funny because he didn't speak English and we weren't sure if he understood what we were asking for. He kept pointing to his wallet and then to the post office and we thought he was telling us to pay at the post office before we could get into the cab. We ended up inside of the post office trying to explain what we were doing and yielded nothing but blank stares. Long story short, the taxi driver was trying to tell us he needed to deposit his money in the post office/ western union before he could take us. Our sweet Hungarian driver still seemed a bit confused about where we were going but we finally arrived at our destination (which ended up being better than we expected because it was not only a movie theater but a brand new mall)!! Considering we hadn't checked movie times and had no idea how long the rain would last, we were glad to know we had hours of entertainment right in front of us. The shopping complex ended up being in the local part of town so Amanda and I relished the opportunity to hang with locals and benefit from non tourist pricing. The only two movies showing in English were "Larry Crowne" and "The Lincoln Lawyer" so we ended up seeing both! Haha! I know it wasn't a very touristy day, but we really enjoyed ourselves! Finding the movie theater was still an adventure and it absolutely made both of our days!!! :)





That's all for now. Tomorrow we are off to Vienna via Bratislava in the afternoon so I will check in again soon!

Love,

Lindsay

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Budapest, Hungary

Stunning Croatia!!

Monday 7/25 -

Today we traveled from Dubrovnik to Plitvice, via Zadar. Our original plans were to arrive at our campsite in Plitvice around 5pm and have dinner with our group. However, because Alan is such an amazing tour guide and knows there isn't much to do in camp for two nights (regarding food and entertainment options) he arranged for us stop off in a little town called Zadar for about 4 hours allowing us to shop, see sights, and pick up an early dinner in town before heading to our campsite accommodations.

I must say, Zadar was really quite lovely. Amanda and I even found a place there to exchange our Croatian Dinars that we had been desperately trying to get rid of for several countries!! Seriously, we must have tried in 15 different banks and exchange bureaus over the last few days so accomplishing this was a major plus! :) We also found a really amazing local place to have dinner and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon popping in and out of various shops and taking in what Zadar had to offer. One of the coolest things about Zadar was the Sea Organ. Right along the beach where the waves hit met the sidewalk, there were little holes that played beautiful tunes. I can only assume there are pipes below that push the air from the waves through the holes making the music, but I'm not entirely sure. Zadar is also well known for it's disco tech floor, which is a floor that lights up at night when you step on it. Apparently, there is always some sort of live music being played there at night and it is supposed to be pretty cool. I took a picture of it but obviously it would have been better if it had been at night time!


This is the Sea Organ... Can you see the holes in the sidewalk?


Here is the picture of me on the disco tech floor. I wish we had seen it at night!





Can you see the mountains in the background? It was neat to be facing the sea and mountains at the same time!


Zadar was our last chance to be alongside the Mediterranean on this trip. :( From this point forward we are going to be visiting land locked cities which is exciting and sad all at the same time. Being along the coast has been so wonderfully relaxing but I am also really looking forward to all the upcoming cities so I guess it isn't too bad!

Sunday 7/26 -

Our campsite in Plitvice is only about 15 minutes from the lakes and for once on this trip we got to sleep in! Yay! Too bad Amanda and I both woke up early because our bodies are obviously programmed to our routine 6 or 7am start times! Anyway, we met our group this morning at 10am to leave for our day inside Plitvicka Jezera Nacionalni Park, which is Plitvice Lakes National Park in English. The lakes and the park were stunning! Croatia as a whole has been an amazing country with such a variety of beautiful sights but Plitvice Lakes is by far the most impressive. We spent roughly 5 hours hiking through the lakes today. There really isn't much to say about it and honestly pictures can not do it justice but today's experience was so wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed being outside and taking in all the sights. I think I said this before, but this part of Croatia somewhat reminds of Switzerland with it's overwhelming natural beauty. Actually, the cities on the coast are very similar to Greece so it's almost as if Croatia encompasses my favorite parts of Switzerland and Greece which is why I think Iove it so much. Here are some of my favorite pictures from being inside the park!

























































I know there are a ton of pictures but honestly they only scrape the surface of the pictures that I took today and I found it extremely difficult to narrow them down to just those few. All in all, I have enjoyed my time in Croatia immensely and once again I am sad to leave and wish I could stay longer but I am looking forward to the next stop which is Budapest. There are only 13 more days left on tour! I can't believe it!

Love,

Lindsay


-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Zadar and Plitvice, Croatia