Budapest, I think, was the most British city. But the crazy hippy hostel made up for it. Yet again we spent the first day wondering around the city, with our new Welsh friend. We explored the castle and there was a big soviet gun that I wanted to take home! Our second day there we went wine tasting. 2 hours out of Budapest on the train there was a horseshoe road full of cellars selling lots and lots of wine where a small glass of wine was 100 forint, or about 30p!!! We tasted 1 glass of wine before moving onto the next cellar. With minutes to spare we bought a big tub of wine each to have with takeaway pizza, Richard had a poison pizza but I just stole some guys leftovers!
Our next day was spent lazing around and finishing up the rest of our plans. We were running out of time on our inter rail (and money...Too much partying!) so we had to miss Warsaw, Berlin, Munich and Prague out. But that just means I have another trip to plan!!
Monday, 7 June 2010
Vampire Hunting
Night trains:4
Lost socks:2
Squatters:0
On the train to Bucuresti we found the perfect hostel - Funky Chicken Hostel, 'No reservations, but guaranteed accommodation for everyone who turns up'. How could we not go with a name like that! However when we turned up after our impossibly long train journey we were greeted with the three worst words to a backpacker, 'no rooms available'. They sent us to another hostel whiich was pretty nice, who gave us the name of a beer hall with directions to go get some food. Where we had a big meal and beer for
Rich's birthday. We explored the rest of the city and headed to Brasov in Transylvania. We had plans to go out that evening, for Richards birthday but our train was an hour late which meant that we got to the hostel at half 11.
When we arrived at the hostel there was a cat curled up on the carpet to which I said 'aww, cute, you have a cat' the girl replied 'yes, we have 5'. I didn't think any more of this until the word kitten was used. They had 5 kittens all curled up together in a box that were repeatedly offered to me for free. They were so small and the cutest things ever! They'd only just opened their eyes and just getting up to walk. I couldn't leave them alone. The cat had been stolen by a group of Frenchies and left in the hostel before getting fatter and fatter until one day it just exploded.
The next day we went to visit Draculas castle, its not at all like anything I was expecting. It was just so simple and unvampire like. In one room there was a shut door and Richard said 'hey Rhianna, open that door' so expecting it to be locked I gave it a push and it opened up to some steps leading down. I quickly pulled it shut, but the door handle came off into my hand!!! I can't beleive I broke Dracula's castle!
We went to see another castle that was crazy huge with something like 50 rooms. Everything was just so castle-like and it even had a secret passageway. We had to wear ridiculous little slippers over our shoes but it was definately worth the visit. I think Dracula chose the wrong castle to claim!
When we got back to the hostel we were bombarded by 20 Romanian kids who spoke no english. So we spent the next hour playing cards with them before heading out for a celebratory drink with yet another Aussi and a Welsh.
In the morning us and the welsh walked up a massive hill to the hollywood-style Brasov sign, explored the city and got the the worlds most uncomfortable nighttrain to Budapest!
Lost socks:2
Squatters:0
On the train to Bucuresti we found the perfect hostel - Funky Chicken Hostel, 'No reservations, but guaranteed accommodation for everyone who turns up'. How could we not go with a name like that! However when we turned up after our impossibly long train journey we were greeted with the three worst words to a backpacker, 'no rooms available'. They sent us to another hostel whiich was pretty nice, who gave us the name of a beer hall with directions to go get some food. Where we had a big meal and beer for
Rich's birthday. We explored the rest of the city and headed to Brasov in Transylvania. We had plans to go out that evening, for Richards birthday but our train was an hour late which meant that we got to the hostel at half 11.
When we arrived at the hostel there was a cat curled up on the carpet to which I said 'aww, cute, you have a cat' the girl replied 'yes, we have 5'. I didn't think any more of this until the word kitten was used. They had 5 kittens all curled up together in a box that were repeatedly offered to me for free. They were so small and the cutest things ever! They'd only just opened their eyes and just getting up to walk. I couldn't leave them alone. The cat had been stolen by a group of Frenchies and left in the hostel before getting fatter and fatter until one day it just exploded.
The next day we went to visit Draculas castle, its not at all like anything I was expecting. It was just so simple and unvampire like. In one room there was a shut door and Richard said 'hey Rhianna, open that door' so expecting it to be locked I gave it a push and it opened up to some steps leading down. I quickly pulled it shut, but the door handle came off into my hand!!! I can't beleive I broke Dracula's castle!
We went to see another castle that was crazy huge with something like 50 rooms. Everything was just so castle-like and it even had a secret passageway. We had to wear ridiculous little slippers over our shoes but it was definately worth the visit. I think Dracula chose the wrong castle to claim!
When we got back to the hostel we were bombarded by 20 Romanian kids who spoke no english. So we spent the next hour playing cards with them before heading out for a celebratory drink with yet another Aussi and a Welsh.
In the morning us and the welsh walked up a massive hill to the hollywood-style Brasov sign, explored the city and got the the worlds most uncomfortable nighttrain to Budapest!
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Our international compartment
Our night train was terrible. We had to pay on the train for the beds, but found that the free seats weren't too bad. We found a room with 3 other people so it wasn't too bad. After talking to them all we discovered that one was from Morocco but lived in France , another was from India but lived in Switzerland and the Third was from Bulgaria. We also found out that he had a wife, 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy, and 2 grandchildren, Also that he spoke no word of English, but he was very enthusiastic and kept going till we all knew what he meant. He was even more excited that we were all from different places, and every 2 minutes would shout 'international compartment!!' Yay! But as soon as we got to passport control, he was up and off the train before anyone could catch him. I think he didn't have a passport...
At 3.30 am, passport control got too us, I asked the guy if I got a stamp in my passport. But apparently I didn't, I said 'ooh never mind' and he looked at me and said 'souvenir, yeah? yeah i'll stamp your passport,' he took them back off me and i got up to go with him, but he said 'no, you stay here, I bring them back' and was gone with the 2 other guys and off the train with our passports.. Oops.
I was sat there worrying that I wouldn't get our passports back, but soon we were joined by some Romanian Mafia! There was the main guy, with about 10 bags, an even bigger guy who just stood outside the door with his arms folded, and a tiny little man who I reckon was the guys agent. Me and Richard looked at each other like ' oh dear,' I thought they were going to steal from us while we were asleep. They were however very nice, but I was still scared. The guy left the compartment leaving the little guy sleeping in the corner when the Indian man appeared back in our compartment. He just didn't shut up. We were just nodding along, agreeing, and stuff and then I realised that Rich was pretending to be asleep and left me talking to this guy on my own! Eventually there was a gap and I closed my eyes and hoped he wouldn't carry on talking.
Then the engine started. We still didn't have our passports back. Rich was just about to get up to go chase them down, when the guy appeared with our passports, and a stamp for leaving Greece, and another for Entering Bulgaria. My only 2 stamps!
At 3.30 am, passport control got too us, I asked the guy if I got a stamp in my passport. But apparently I didn't, I said 'ooh never mind' and he looked at me and said 'souvenir, yeah? yeah i'll stamp your passport,' he took them back off me and i got up to go with him, but he said 'no, you stay here, I bring them back' and was gone with the 2 other guys and off the train with our passports.. Oops.
I was sat there worrying that I wouldn't get our passports back, but soon we were joined by some Romanian Mafia! There was the main guy, with about 10 bags, an even bigger guy who just stood outside the door with his arms folded, and a tiny little man who I reckon was the guys agent. Me and Richard looked at each other like ' oh dear,' I thought they were going to steal from us while we were asleep. They were however very nice, but I was still scared. The guy left the compartment leaving the little guy sleeping in the corner when the Indian man appeared back in our compartment. He just didn't shut up. We were just nodding along, agreeing, and stuff and then I realised that Rich was pretending to be asleep and left me talking to this guy on my own! Eventually there was a gap and I closed my eyes and hoped he wouldn't carry on talking.
Then the engine started. We still didn't have our passports back. Rich was just about to get up to go chase them down, when the guy appeared with our passports, and a stamp for leaving Greece, and another for Entering Bulgaria. My only 2 stamps!
Ferry to Greece & Athens
Setting off from Venice was beautiful. When we got on the boat, we were shown into a huge room full of people in sleeping bags and little tents. We dumped our stuff, layed out our sleeping bags and then I realised that we weren't in a room at all. We were on the deck. The roof just covered about half of the deck with no wall separating us from the outside. I passed one of the side decks and saw some dudes hanging up hammocks. What a genius idea.
We arrived in Patras at 5am, our earliest start so far! we then waited 2 hours with three Americans for our train to take us away to Athens. I was expecting a nice long nap on the train, but we had to swap from train to bus and back again. So by the time we got to the hostel I completely passed out on the bed!
We went back to the train station to sort out some tickets to Istanbul and had to hang around before a very big jolly man came to help. We gave him dates for the trains and threw his arms in the air and said 'no trains, no trains' with an awfully big grin on his face. I'm preeetty sure he was drunk. We checked out the city and went back to the hostel bar for our free shots of ouzo and more drinks where we met Alessia from Switzerland.
Filled up with pancake and coffee, we spent the next day exploring the old Athens in the sun. We saw all the greek remains and went for a wander round the museum. We found a nice little cafe down a side street, and got a free dough-nut each. They were so good!!
We caught a train to Thessaloniki the next day to get a bus to Istanbul, but after spending all day looking for the tourist information, which was closed, we decided to unfortunately miss out Turkey and continue north. We walked back to the station along the sea front and caught our second night train to Bucharest.
We arrived in Patras at 5am, our earliest start so far! we then waited 2 hours with three Americans for our train to take us away to Athens. I was expecting a nice long nap on the train, but we had to swap from train to bus and back again. So by the time we got to the hostel I completely passed out on the bed!
We went back to the train station to sort out some tickets to Istanbul and had to hang around before a very big jolly man came to help. We gave him dates for the trains and threw his arms in the air and said 'no trains, no trains' with an awfully big grin on his face. I'm preeetty sure he was drunk. We checked out the city and went back to the hostel bar for our free shots of ouzo and more drinks where we met Alessia from Switzerland.
Filled up with pancake and coffee, we spent the next day exploring the old Athens in the sun. We saw all the greek remains and went for a wander round the museum. We found a nice little cafe down a side street, and got a free dough-nut each. They were so good!!
We caught a train to Thessaloniki the next day to get a bus to Istanbul, but after spending all day looking for the tourist information, which was closed, we decided to unfortunately miss out Turkey and continue north. We walked back to the station along the sea front and caught our second night train to Bucharest.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Italy
So once we had sorted out our accomodation we went to check out all the Romanness. At the Colloseum a guy rounded us up and got us a tourguide and in for cheap (Rich was conviced it was a scam!). Our tour was crazy boring, but i guess it was pretty interesting. After that we got a tour of the roman forum with a really funny guide. And Rich liked him because he walked extra fast. It was all so amazing. The guy told us that he was doing a tour of the vatican the next day so we signed up. That evening we explored the streets of rome and had a 3 euro pizza and a bottle of wine!!
The next day we set out nice and early to meet with our tour guide and grab a coffee. We crowded round with the rest off Italy to watch and wave at the Pope as he circled round in his Pope-mobile. We got into the Vatican museum for cheap and learnt all about Michelangelo's love for naked men before breaking my neck looking at his sistine chapel. We went out for lunch and the best ice cream in Rome!!! We went to look at the castle but i was disapointed to find that we had to pay to get in. So we sat and watched some sneaky little birds steal bread from pigeons. On our way back to the hostel, it started to rain. And when i say that i mean torrential downpour and the street had become a river within minutes. We took cover under a porch with a group of tourists and had to say no thanks to about 50 people who were trying to sell umbrelllas. Half an hour in the rain and we discovered a little cafe so we sat in there and wrote some postcards while waiting for the rain to ease.
When we arrived at the accomodation we'd had to move rooms, but noone had any idea where we were sleeping so that night we ended up in an appartment with a fold out sofa bed, a kitcchen in the wardrobe and an ensuite all on a dorm budget.
The next day was Pisa day. We arrived and followed the crwod for half an hour towards the leaning tower. I was highly disapointed by it's lean (or lack of... Rich's photo exagerates this just a little too much) and it was surrouned by buildings, tourists holding it up and stalls all selling the same thing. After wandering around we got on the train to florence which was beautiful. That evening we strolled the streets and and amazing Italian pasta. We spent the next morning in the sun exploring, saw michelangelo's the copy of David and had some more yummy ice cream. We arrived at the station early so went and lay on the grass outside the station for half an hour. 10 minutes before the train we saw a man get peppersprayed. It wasnt like a quick squirt into the guys eyes, it was a full on pppppppppppssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh kinda spray all over his face til he was sat on the floor. And then another quick psh, just to make sure. He called for backup and within 30 seconds 6 cops had arrived had dragged him away in handcuffs!! I thought they might have gotten their guns out, but I guess I can't have everything!
Venice was another beautiful city. It was so weird to walk out the station and see boats floating past. We got the bus boat down the main canel to our hostel on the island. We had take away pizza and sat on the front watching the sun set and listening to a guy play banjo.
The next daywas another day spent walking round the city. On our way back to the station we headed roughly the right way, but several times the road we were following suddenly stopped because there was a canal and no bridge. But eventually we found our way and boarded our 36 hour ferry ride to Greece!
The next day we set out nice and early to meet with our tour guide and grab a coffee. We crowded round with the rest off Italy to watch and wave at the Pope as he circled round in his Pope-mobile. We got into the Vatican museum for cheap and learnt all about Michelangelo's love for naked men before breaking my neck looking at his sistine chapel. We went out for lunch and the best ice cream in Rome!!! We went to look at the castle but i was disapointed to find that we had to pay to get in. So we sat and watched some sneaky little birds steal bread from pigeons. On our way back to the hostel, it started to rain. And when i say that i mean torrential downpour and the street had become a river within minutes. We took cover under a porch with a group of tourists and had to say no thanks to about 50 people who were trying to sell umbrelllas. Half an hour in the rain and we discovered a little cafe so we sat in there and wrote some postcards while waiting for the rain to ease.
When we arrived at the accomodation we'd had to move rooms, but noone had any idea where we were sleeping so that night we ended up in an appartment with a fold out sofa bed, a kitcchen in the wardrobe and an ensuite all on a dorm budget.
The next day was Pisa day. We arrived and followed the crwod for half an hour towards the leaning tower. I was highly disapointed by it's lean (or lack of... Rich's photo exagerates this just a little too much) and it was surrouned by buildings, tourists holding it up and stalls all selling the same thing. After wandering around we got on the train to florence which was beautiful. That evening we strolled the streets and and amazing Italian pasta. We spent the next morning in the sun exploring, saw michelangelo's the copy of David and had some more yummy ice cream. We arrived at the station early so went and lay on the grass outside the station for half an hour. 10 minutes before the train we saw a man get peppersprayed. It wasnt like a quick squirt into the guys eyes, it was a full on pppppppppppssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh kinda spray all over his face til he was sat on the floor. And then another quick psh, just to make sure. He called for backup and within 30 seconds 6 cops had arrived had dragged him away in handcuffs!! I thought they might have gotten their guns out, but I guess I can't have everything!
Venice was another beautiful city. It was so weird to walk out the station and see boats floating past. We got the bus boat down the main canel to our hostel on the island. We had take away pizza and sat on the front watching the sun set and listening to a guy play banjo.
The next daywas another day spent walking round the city. On our way back to the station we headed roughly the right way, but several times the road we were following suddenly stopped because there was a canal and no bridge. But eventually we found our way and boarded our 36 hour ferry ride to Greece!
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