Buses this time

The trip on the bus was a day in itself so in my mind it constitutes its own little section.

After being an hour late in starting, probably caused by the fact that it was pissing down with rain all afternoon, the bus got underway and was a long trip. I got literally the last seat on the bus but was fortunate in the fact that it was against the window which meant leaning over to get some sleep was that little bit easier – sleeping on buses is something I am proud to say is becoming much easier than it used to be all that time ago when I started. Sleeping on and off for a few hours saw the time fly by and before I knew it we were at the border between Hungary and Ukraine

(Not “the Ukraine” – it pisses off the locals).

This was probably one of the worst things about my fucking long 22 hour bus ride into Ukraine. We, the bus and everyone on it, were stuck waiting at the border for an eternity – 3-4 hours is the guess that I would make for them to check all of the passports/visas etc. I have to say that having the British passport in this situation was an understated bonus. If I was on the Aussie passport I would have needed a visa to get in but with the EU passport it wasn’t needed and I unlike at least 4 other people on our bus, got through the border with no problems at all.
Had to give a slight snicker at the people who got turned away at 5 in the morning in the middle of nowhere on the border, but it freed up enough seats for the woman next to me to move so I could have the pair of seats to myself and that made getting some sleep so much easier.

The wonder of Ukrainian roads is something to marvel at.... or not.

They made getting sleep while we were on the move a challenge to say it lightly.
The entire day was a combination of broken sleep and looking at the very poor rural areas that we were passing through.

Ended up getting to Kiev around 7 pm and then got a taxi to the hostel.

I was in Kiev, Ukraine after all this time.

And to think, I had no intention of going even as east as Krakow, Poland when I started all of this travel.

Down the Rabbit Hole and off to Carpe

Budapest, Budapest, Budapest.... where to even start with Budapest and the people that were there.

This city was by far some of the most fun I have had in all of my travels. The hostel while giving you the opportunity to go and sightsee and play tourist is not geared towards that type of traveller in any way shape or form.

Carpe Noctem (seize the night) is a party hostel and the people working and living there make it some of the most fun you will have in Europe provided that you are willing to be open and join in on all of the fun. Every night has a destination and usually a good drinks deal.

My first day there I had only had a bed for about 30 minutes when I was invited out in passing to Mongolian BBQ, which was 4000 florins and included unlimited food, beer and wine. The guys I went with turned out to be staff for the most part and this led to some great impressions of them as I learnt the wonderful back stories of a few of them. The day progressed quickly and then before I knew it tequila had been ordered, much to Suzi’s dismay. The three guys who were hitting it hard got some shit for their antics to put it lightly, in the end one of them even lost the battle with his stomach at the table and resulted in me making a hasty retreat while it was dealt with – not my problem is the phrase that came to mind.

That night was, like all at Carpe, one for going out, the exact specific destinations on that night eluding me at this point but there was drinking and more than one bar that we went to over the course of the night.

The drinking specifics is something that will come in a later post, after I grab the schedule from Carpe’s site.

More importantly is the fact that some sightseeing was enjoyed. On one day I went with three other people to the House of Terror/Horror which is based in the old headquarters of first the Nazi secret police and then the Soviet secret police. It was an experience to say the least, I had no real idea about the role that Hungary had played in the second world war, other than the fact I knew they were in it, and then the information about what the Soviets had done in their time in the country was a bit of a shock.

I recommend to anyone who heads to Budapest to go there, but at the same time make sure you have something to do afterwards that is a bit more uplifting as the museum in the end is depressing in the reality that it portrays.

After the museum I headed with one of the other guys to Hero Square which is one of the quintessential things that most people see in Budapest and it is on almost all of the post cards that you will get. It was nice and made, like so many sights in Budapest, for some nice pictures. We then wandered around for almost 3 hours in Budapest and took in the main tourist street, one that we were warned not to go near at night, and also the market hall and one of the main bridges in town which gave some nice views across the city.

The other main chunk of sight seeing that I did, embarrassingly, was not done until the day I was leaving, very hung over from the Shit Pub Pub-crawl, to be explained another time, I wandered quite some distance in a random direction and ended up at some of the sights I had not managed to get to the time before and even with the mediocre weather that day it made for some nice pictures and being able to get to almost all of the sights on the Pest side of Budapest.

This leaves the other city, with respect to my experience, unexplored and will probably prove to be the excuse for me going back there at some point for another drunken week of Carpe madness.

The time I was going to be spending in Budapest was only 4 nights, this number quickly changed once I checked the time tables for the buses and discovered that the bus to Kiev that ran on Fridays no longer existed – I had to stay till I got the bus on Monday night. This meant a weekend in Budapest which in the end was the best way to have it and it was just as fun as I expected it to be but once it was over the bus on Monday to Kiev was looming and it was not something I was going to miss.

After a goodbye that was almost on par with when I left Australia from the people at Carpe I went to the bus station and wait is something that I certainly did. The bus was scheduled to arrive in Budapest at 9 pm. Waiting there early as always 9 pm came and went, and with no bus in sight, concerned to say the least I waited, and waited and then over an hour late the bus arrived much to my relief. I go the last free seat on the bus and then we were away.

Trains, I tried but no

The transit to Budapest was an…. Interesting day.
I had every intention of getting my first train since I had left Austria.
This didn’t happen.
I had packed my stuff and left for the train station with about 45 minutes of buffer time, lots or so I thought. Heading down the pedestrian zone to a spot where I had seen lots of taxis before I was greeted with a grand total of NONE. Unperturbed I continued walking on as there was a shopping centre in the distance and where in the world is there a shopping complex that doesn’t have a taxi rank somewhere on its periphery – I was wrong, apparently Banska Bystrica is a place where this concept is completely abstract. So I walked some more and then some more and then back tracked to the spot where there was meant to be taxis initially and this time there wasn’t just one, there were two.
By this point there was no point trying for the train connection that I wanted, bus station.
Got to the bus station, waited almost 40 minutes and then got a bus back to Bratislava.
Once in Bratislava I was presented with the idea that there are only three buses a day from there to Budapest, so I had two hours to kill. That too passed soon enough with the help of a book and some food.
The one thing that was a great surprise was that when I got on to the bus to Budapest, it cost me a grant total of €2 for my ticket, and €1 for my bag. Getting into Bratislava from Banska had cost me almost €10 so it was a pleasant shock to say the least. Had an uneventful bus ride and then got into Budapest at around 9.30 and made my way to the go between hostel I had booked – Carpe Noctem was booked out for that night.
Got in slept got up early and bailed out ASAP to the other hostel where I was greeted with a coffee and one of the most laid back atmospheres I had ever seen in a hostel.

Ba Ba Banska Bystrica

Banska Bystrica was a small place to say the least, small but good.
After spending about 4 hours on the bus to get there and then a fucking long time attempting to find the hostel and make my way in, the office was closed on weekends so it was a 40 minute wait for me till I could get in, I finally got myself into a bed and was able to relax a bit.
The relaxing is something that I most definitely needed, in Bratislava I had managed to get a bitch of a cold and it was holding on for dear life.
Both nights in Banska were early ones with me in bed ridiculously early and sleeping for in excess of 12 hours both nights, but even with that I did manage to get some random sightseeing in and wandered around town aimlessly for a bit, at one point stumbling into a spot with some WWII vehicles and then the uprising museum which I had no clue was there till it was found. It was a nice town, a small one but a nice one.

One of the amusing highlights for me was the search on the Sunday for both wireless and a supermarket. I seriously wandered around town searching for unsecured wireless for almost an hour before I found some, and in the process I found the only open supermarket in town and spoilt myself to some rather unhealthy food and a giant thing of Multi V juice, which did not make it back to the hostel as the 2 litres barely even lasted the time I was leaching internet in the town square. The internet I finally managed to find was reasonable on speed and the place I set myself up was café that wasn’t quite open yet so I had a comfy chair and a table to work on and all, pretty good.
Plotting my move I knew where I was headed, Budapest and the Carpe Noctem Hostel, confirming my booking I searched my bus/train connection and got myself ready to move for the next day.

Bratislava, cheap but not cheap enough

The fair city of Bratislava is nothing like the wonderful image created by Eurotrip, the main point of contention being that they had changed over to the Euro on the first of January this year and while things were still cheap they were not as cheap as they could have been.
The hostel there in Bratislava was a good find, cool atmosphere and good to chill out in for a bit, the only problem I had was finding it initially as the street it was on was nicely hidden behind a bloody big building.

In Bratislava my days were spent doing the type of sight seeing that I had done way back when I started travelling, which for the most part involved walking around aimlessly for a quite some time and finding what things I could which I found for this city worked quite well, everything was easy to find and the old city lent itself to some fun photos being taken. Some of the more interesting ones being that of the statues and other random things that had been put up around the old town. To me, Bratislava definitely lent itself to be a city that was advancing quickly towards a good European city like so many others.

One of the definite good things that I managed to be shown in Bratislava is the wonders of a place called “Bagel and Coffee Story”, great place, cheap and good for an easy breakfast.

I was planning to hang around in Bratislava for something like 4 nights but on the second day it was quite apparent that the city was not one to hang around in for that long so I hopped on the internet and looked up some of the other cities in Slovakia. Some look good but had no hostels, others looked average but had horribly reviewed hostels; but in the end I did manage to find a place to go that was ok.

Buses onward to Banska Bystricka.

I came, I saw, I left

The next stop was Brno.
I had every intention of spending a while in Brno, until I got there and found that it was shit, the hostel almost empty and just no fun at all… I got out of Brno the next day without hesitating once.
Onward to Bratislava...

Kutna Hora - Bones and Churches

Kutna Hora was a great place to head.

We met up at the main train station and then headed out in the morning around 11 pm. All of us, except for me who forgot, with an extra bag of stuff for the picnic like thing that we were going to have later on. The train was uneventful and then we were there.

The walk to the church was easy enough and then the experience of heading in was amazing, you haven’t even paid and you can still see bones everywhere. Really it is smaller than I or the other people in the group were expecting for 40000 persons worth of bones but it was still cool to see never the less.


After spending some time there we headed out and then moved into the town in an effort to find somewhere for lunch, and a supermarket so I could contribute my part. We eventually found a park near a church that was undergoing massive repairs. The picnic was good and me randomly finding my pocket knife in my bag was a bonus.

The time after lunch we wandered aimlessly for a while and headed up the hill a little, eventually finding the main square and then the cathedral on the hill.

All in all it was a relaxed afternoon before we headed back to Prague and a good change of pace from the drinking and everything else.

Prague, the city of a thousand spires

Prague was a different feel to the small place I had been the previous couple of nights, got there mid afternoon, got the bed, stored the stuff and then sorted dinner, then got my directions to the Pub Crawl, the main reason I had wanted to get into Prague on the Friday night. The crowd was massive and it looked to be a ton of fun.

The first Bar was from Euro trip, the English bar that the guys meet the football hooligans in, which made it cool, then was a couple of other places including one that had like 4 levels and an awesome Czech scar band playing in the basement, great for something different. The last place was a club, also in the movie Eurotrip, the one where the twins hook up, had an awesome time and with a little chemical help, danced like an idiot till 4 in the morning before pulling the pin and leaving. I discovered walking back that it was quite far from the hostel and that the buildings in Prague look amazing as the sun comes up at 4 am.

The next day was essentially a write off and not a whole lot was done at all.
The day after, the Sunday I was determined to do something more productive and I dragged my ass up so I could make the walking tour. It was good and like all of the free tours almost all of the good sights that you want to see you do.

On the tour I got talking to a couple of girls, an Aussie and an American and we all had the idea of meeting up the next day so we could sort out going to Kutna Hora and the Bone church which is there. The next day we met up near the castle and ended up spending a good chunk of the day hanging out and exploring around the castle and then some more of the old town, finally organizing the next day over coffee at Bohemian Bagel.
And the next day was Kutna Hora and the Bone Church…

I, the walker, move unto thee

So after a hiatus of far, far too long I am finally going to put a little bit of information on this wonderful blog of mine, probably with about 1 blog per city that I have been too so far.

Leaving the YOHO was an interesting time, I had many a drink with Phil on the Monday night and then spent my time with Gail on Tuesday, saying good bye was not an easy thing for either one of us I think, and I hope she took it well considering I think I was acting rather cold near the end, the future can only hold that answer and I am sure we will meet again. The Tuesday night I think some of the people at the hostel may have been around in an attempt to say goodbye but I wasn’t there, I headed out to O’Malley’s to have a couple of beers and say my farewells to the staff there that I had gotten to know to a certain degree. Getting back late I packed the very last of my things and crashed out so I could be up for my early train. I was up at half five, late believe it or not, had a quick shower and was out of the YOHO before 6 without more than a quick goodbye to the night porter, who was someone new and didn’t even know the significance of it. That wonderful overused T.S. Elliot quote came to mind as I walked to the train station.

[So] This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

I missed the train I was aiming to get, but managed to get one not 10 minutes after to the same initial destination. What I did not realize was that those 10 minutes would result in a 2 hour wait in Linz train station waiting for the next train to Summerau where I would get my connection into the Czech republic before getting a third train to Cesky Kromlov.
In a way the trip was great going out to Summerau, it was empty grain fields in a sea of green on a beautiful clear day and just gave that great feeling that things were headed for change. The stop itself was in the middle of nowhere, not even platforms to wait on really. The wait was short lived as I boarded the third, train of the morning and it rattled its way to České Budějovice where after waiting a short time I made my way on the final train for my trip through Eastern Europe to the town of Cesky Kromlov.

The town was great and the stop was exactly what I needed to get myself out of work mode after being at the YOHO and working myself into the ground. There was a free keg on the Wednesday when I got there and it was a great treat to have. The night was an enjoyable one with the crowd that was at the hostel, one of the best I have ever been to when it comes to atmosphere and fun, Hostel99.

The next day was a search for a memory card to take its place in the camera that Gail had given me as a go between before I got my new one. After much searching I finally got a chip for it and played tourist for a little while. Then I heading back to the hostel I ran into a group of people from the hostel that were going to the local brewery for a tour…. Great idea.
The tour was a bunch of fun and for 180 Krone you got the tour, 2 draught beers and a “gift pack” of 4 more.

Straight after the tour there was more fun to be had, the “Rafting tour”. This was a 6 hour leisurely tour down the river on inflatable rafts on a wonderful clear and warm day with 4 stops at places to buy beer along the way, not to mention the beer you had already had before getting on the raft and then the stuff you drank on the rafts as well…. It was a great and thoroughly enjoyable day.
The night was a comparatively early one but the rest was well earned and Prague was on the horizon for the weekend. The next day was a slow pack up and then I made my way to get the bus to Prague; it was faster and cheaper to get the bus than it was to get a train.
And then I was in Prague by day’s end…