Blogs from Hungary, Europe - page 149

our last full day in Prague was spent basically wandering around the city...we had a rather late start and journaled and had some breakfast in the lounge before finally heading out. first we had to do some errands, the primary one being laundry. we walked over to traveller's hostel down the street and dropped off our laundry, quasi-pretending we were staying there. they didn't ask any questions, so that was easy. we stopped back to pick up our forgotten passports, kasia got pizza and myself a drink from albert's, and then we headed to the train station to purchase our tickets to hungary. probably our favorite part of the morning's journey was seeing an old man's scrotum hanging out of his shorts on the metro. dobry den, indeed! once our "business" was done with, we took ... read more

Corrective note: the song they played was called "Panic," not "hang the dj." But everyone who can illegaly or legally download music should download that song, "panic" by the Smiths because it is supremely stuck in my head. We went to a little resort town of the charmingly named Revfulop. The hostel had a weird atmosphere as it seemed to be the hang-out spot of the 12-14 year olds, with a bar downstairs and some very laid-back staff. The hostel itself was full of two groups: Aussies and Belgians. The Aussies were nice enough, but as Sam put it, they were more like "Bros" with their surfer clothes and thick jaws, so we didn't have a lot in common. This was the first Belgian we went, it went something like this: (Sam and I in the ... read more

So my first taste of Hungary from the train was favorable. Lots of fields and farm lands and billboards with too many z´s. My first impression of Budapest was a little unfavorable though because as soon as you get off the train you get lots of people asking you if you have accomodation and you don´t know what is a scam and what isn´t so you just kind of ignore them. Jack and I met some people in the hostel last night and we went out which was fun. We went to what is supposed to be a jazz club but they had a band playing 80s rock which was still fun. Then we went to this like outdoor club with a couple dance floors and styles of music. We ended up mostly just watching drunk ... read more

I met up with my older brother Sam, I didn't meet him at the station because he got off too early, but it worked out. Now I will have a travel companion, and I'm really relieved. He has started a travel blog as well, and he is a much better writer: www.travelblog.org/bloggers/kazuo Budapest is a real, Western city. Wide boulevards, leafy trees over head, as usual everyone dressing snappy and window shopping. We stayed in Pest, on the other side of the river(the Danube), the bustling trade town, compared to the bourgeois, hilly Buda, home of the nobles and more touristy. We went to a great art museum, walked many kilometers, ate fried dough with mushrooms and sour cream (langos, a real heart-stopper, but cheap and delicious,) Today we went to the statue park where they ... read more

The last town I stayed in was Oradea, a border town in the Western plain. Although hailed by Lonely Planet as a city that "kept its 18th century Austrian elegance," it looked sort of shabby to me. I liked it, it looked more authentic with its peeling paint and holes, it was a good exit from Romania. I stayed one night, and then went on a train to Debrecen, the 2nd largest city in Hungary, with only 200,000! people. It is located in the Great Plain, which covers half the country and they have their own version of a cowboy. Hungary is verrry different from Romania and Bulgaria- the gdp is almost 2x higher, and everything looks like Western europe for the most part, except for the language. You see, the hungarian word for Hungary is ... read more