Blogs from Budapest, Central Hungary, Hungary, Europe - page 10

We left Munich early and arrived in Salzburg in the morning. We parked near Schloss Mirabell and made our own tour of the filming locations from the Sound of Music. Everywhere you go, you are reminded that this is Salzburg’s favourite movie. Film locations include the winged Pegasus statue, the grumpy gnomes, the Mozart bridge, the Felsenreitschule Riding School and Salzburg Marionette Theater. Of course, we visited them all over the course of the day. Riley really liked the playground at Mirabell Park that had a pyramid that reached over 40 feet with a big slide at the top. We crossed over the Salzach River into the old town and had lunch in a cozy outdoor courtyard. I moved the car to a parking lot located inside a mountain and went off to visit the Horse ... read more

It was a busy day on public transport today; trams and buses zigzagging across Budapest for Natalia’s last day here. The Ruin Bar, where we were meant to go last night but it was too busy, was abuzz with activity. It turns out it operates a very eclectic market of food, artisan produce, and home grown arts and clothes, before morphing into a very popular target at night. All the inviting colours and smells of the cheeses, salamis of all sizes, shapes and origins, combine with the ‘Free Bread’ stall to compile a visual sandwich that has your mouth drooling; and it’s calorie free. It turned out the bread was gluten free, not really free. It’s a little intimidating at first as there’s so much random looking paraphernalia suspended from the ceiling, and various oddities wired, ... read more

Approaching the station by tram I couldn’t help but notice very few people about; strange for 8.40 on a weekday. Surely the Slovaks hadn’t gone on strike in solidarity with their European neighbors, the French. No, it soon became evident that the wind howling down from the blue icy sky had driven all the police, vagrants, touts and smokers into the main station to avoid becoming ice sculptures. It had become a demographic microcosm of everything Bratislava had to offer. Normally the authorities have little tolerance for any activity initiated by the disadvantagged on the streets (ie begging) but I don’t think they had the heart to send anyone back out into the cold. The folk of Bratislava had been deceived by the weather gods; yesterday’s golden warm sun had abandoned Bratislava, with rain predicted for ... read more

Uplne rozbity nasadam do letiskoveho busu co nas vedie k terminalu, tu pasovka velmi rychlo, len kuknu pas a uz som na madarskej pode. Samozrejme vsetky sedacky obsadene, presun na druhy terminal, tam tak isto, padam teda na zem a snazim sa zaspat. Na par desiatok minut sa mi to dari. O 5/00 rano nasadam do busu 200 a smer metro kobanya - kispet. Vcera som si este kontroloval spoje domov, dost ma prekvapilo,ze vlak nejde z keleti ale z Nyugati. Tam som este nikdy nebol som zvedavy ake to tam bude. No je to tam dobre na kokot, nikde sa neda sadnut, ziadna vyhriata miestnost, vlak mi ide az 7/40, je nieco pred 6/00. Postavam pred vstupom do metra, odkial obcas zafuka teply vzduch. Inac metro M3 uz ma nasadene nove supravy, som bol uplne ... read more

Rano rozlucka s nasimi a premierovo presun z Dolnej Stredy busom do Galanty. Tu navstevujem policajnu budovu kde si vybavujem svoj druhy pas, bohuzial mi ho vydavaju len na 5 rokov, povodny mi tiez konci o 5 rokov. Druhy pas potrebujem kvoli navsteve Brunei, kde udajne nepustaju ludi s izraelskym razitkom. Bol som tu uz minuly tyzden, kde som na stanici vyzdvihoval malajzijcanku,ktoru som hostil, bohuzial som u policajtov nepochodil, bo chceli vydiet aj povodny pas a ten som vtedy nemal pri sebe. Cakacka cca 15.min, fotenie, odtlacky a o najneskor o mesiac bude pas hotovy. To mi vyhovuje, bo na spiatocnej ceste 27/12 sa tu pre nho zastavim. Na vlakovej stanici kupujem spiatocny listok nz-budapest, ktory plati jeden mesiac a jednosmerny listok do nz. Platim visou od mbanky, az cul zistujem, ze to nieje bezkontaktna ... read more