Thursday, July 22, 2010

krakow, bratislava and budapest










Arrived in Budapest this afternoon after two days in bratislava, and again, there is an annoying keyboard where the Y is where the Z is and vice versa' so apologies if things are spelt incorrectly- it takes alot of getting used to! Also, im able to upload some photos as the hostel computers are the best ones ive encountered so far and the internet is fairly fast.


I shall start with krakow, where we spent 4 days. the weather for the first two days was amaying- around 34°c average, and what we had been used to in prague and berlin. the first day, we did laundry and had a wonder around the little city. we also did a free walking tour of the jewish ghettos which was interesting and saw where the shindler factory was. there was alot of references back to that film and between the three of us, none of us had seen it! so we consulted Tony, the guy who we had bumped into again on this tour, and who we had met on the train from prague to krakow before. that evening we went to a little jazz bar down a dingy little cellar and watched some awesome band play with our new room mate Thomas, who was a jazz bassist from germany. That night the most horrible thing happened, where a drunken dickhead (who was probably irish) was checked into one of the spare beds in our room, and after falling onto the floor, vomited all over himself and the floor. kate woke up, and seriously effed and blinded this guy who was paraletic when jack ran out to fetch the receptionist. worst night ever. the hostel was full of disgusting 18yr old irish girls and boys whose aim in life was to live like they were in the hills. flipping disgusting. Anyway, we did meet some nice people. we spent some time with a guy called jared from BC, Canada, who always had a story to tell and got us into pierogies. seriously, never eaten so many pierogies in my life!








we also went to auschwitz the next day which was moving. i never realised the full extent of the extermination which happened in ww2 until visiting birkenau, where the cabins and buildings are mostly still standing. crazy stuff. we didnt make it to the salt mines as it was way too expensive (well out of our budget anyway). the third and fourth day of krakow rained like a mofo. it wasnt nice but thankfully we didnt get caught out in it to catch our deaths.
The pope ˇˇˇˇ In Kates words "he looks like he wants to go raving!" the tour guide didnt get the joke. the poles are very religious....!


After krakow, we had a night train to bratislava, which was an experience. we had a 3 bed cabin between us and we were quite suprised by the modernity of it considering the stories we had heard about night trains. we got on the train at 10pm and got off in bratislava at around 5.40AM. and check in at our next hostel wasnt until 1pm so we had a good few hours to kill on about 2 hours sleep. the train had been so shaky so a good nights sleep was well out of the question! All we had wanted was a shower and a kip, but we caffeined ourselves up with mcdonalds breakfasts and coffee, which is actually not that bad considering! So we had about a day and a half here, and the first was pretty much a write off. the second, we did another free walking tour, informing us mainly of the history of bratislava which is good, because i really wouldnt have known about it otherwise (except wiki, but internet time is pretty limited).
So now we are in budapest. got the train in this morning, got to our hostel, checked in and we were waiting for a tour around the hostel when who turns up at the door?! only soner kemal! he is here for around a month, but travelling to cities nearby such as bratislava and belgrade in serbia (which hes leaving tomorrow for), with his mate marcus from home. we went to a little weird tea shop which is decorated like an arabian shisha lounge and served the biggest tea selection i have ever seen. it was pretty cool. then we trekked up to the citadel on the buda side in the blazing 3pm heat. it was hot hot hot (still is). Apparently, according to those sign things on the highway which tell the time, date and temperature, it was 42°c which is RIDICULOUS. it definitely felt that hot by the time we got up to the top.
Tonight, we are being cooked a traditional hungarian meal by the hostel for free and it smells blooming yummy from where im sitting. then were going to meet up with soner and marcus later for a few drinks in some places they recommended. should be good fun!
hope alls well at home.
Lyn. xo

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