Hello readers!
I left you in Budapest, the Easternmost point of our journey, and the halfway point of the trip timeline. After the day at the baths, we toured "Buda" (Budapest is actually 2 seperate cities), where we got to see some great castle-goodness. There are some good photos up, you can see the incredible blue sky in some- but the polluted haze in others. Overall, Budapest was "nice place to visit, but I wouldn't wanna live there." However, a couple interesting cultural phenomenos there:
1- traffic goes really, really fast, until it approaches where you are waiting near the crosswalk. Cars then (even taxis!!) slam on their brakes and patiently wait for you to cross. Unlike everywhere else, where the crosswalks are generally ignored (including the US).
2- The Budapest train station was the first time I really felt uncomfortable since getting to Europe. Many, many people harassing you immediately upon steppiing out of your train asking if you want a taxi (no!) and constantly being told to double check your change because people will rip you off everywhere.
3- The speedo lives on in the baths of Budapest, especially on the 85 - 90 year old men.
4- Budapest metro trains come every 3 minutes or less all day long. And they go extremely fast, as do the escalators. Maybe the reason that DC metro is always screwed up by people jumping in at the last minute is that people know it could be 15 minutes to the next train...
Overall, Budapest was a good time, but not as great as Prague or Vienna (which were admittedly very hard acts to follow).
We left Budapest for Munich via the night train.... and we made it to Munich at 6 AM, when it was still pitch black outside. You can see a photo of the 3 high bunks on each side in the photostream, but generally, not a good night sleep. Between the rocking of the train (a problem if you are a side sleeper as it constantly pushes you over) and the slight g-forces on your head as you hurtle around corners, as well as the very real threat that someone might try to steal your stuff, not sure there was any point in having a bed. But, luckily our bunkmates were very cool young people, and there were only 4 of us in the 6 bunks.
However, after a nap on the hostel couch (could't check in until 1:00), we rallied and headed out! As you can see from the photos, it was a really beautiful day outside- the trees are putting on their full fall performance here, and the weather was PERFECT (blue skies for most of the day and about 60-65 degrees). The photos from today have comments- look for the river surfing, the glockenspieling, and the beer drinking! Probably one of the greatest days of the vacation so far- especially since we caught a 3 hour afternoon nap in the hostel dorms!!
We have 4 nights here in Munich, and then will head to ROME! Very excited about this week :) Lots of people here celebrating Halloweeen, though we aren't dressing up (big parties seem to be tonight- tons of people out- especially because the time change here is overnight tonight!)
Happy Halloween from Munich!
*Note: I know that I am putting up a lot of photos, but you have no idea how many I'm not putting up. It takes me about an hour to go through them every time I upload to find the best ones to put up, so hopefully you are enjoying them. I love the comments on the photos and on the blog and in my emails, so keep them coming!!!
Awesome :)
ReplyDeleteProst!