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.

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.

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…

Where have I been of late?

Ok, once again it has been far too long and just a little bit has happened.

I was in Salzburg for quite a stint, and funnily enough on the day I decided to leave I was offered a semi permanent position in their kitchen five days a week, I was a bit floored by that but left the offer hanging for a bit to see if I could manage to scrounge up something a bit different or different in one of the other destinations in one of the towns I was aiming for.

With that in mind I moved on to a ski town called “Bad Gastein” where there was another hostel with a possible position that I could have. I got there and the manager, as so many are, had a degree in being vague when it came to whether or not the position actually existed. The position in question being running the hotel/hostel’s second bar which they had yet to open this season, if I was going to take the position I would be essentially the only person running the bar along with marketing it; which while daunting was something I was looking forward to taking on as a challenge. But after being left in the lurch for two days doing a whole lot of nothing I decided to enjoy the fact I was in a ski resort and started snowboarding with a lesson and it went well and even with the copious amounts of pain involved I made what was good progress.

Day 1. Lesson
Day 2. Practice/bunny slopes
Day 3. Blue runs
Day 4. Blue and Red runs
Day 5. Red runs and a bit of off piste

And it kept going on from there for a few days before I finally pulled the plug on that spot and made a move to my next ski town and possible job in “Kirchberg.”

Getting myself to Kirchberg was easy enough and I got chatting with a guy from London on the train who was heading in the same direction as I was. When I got to the hostel, which had lost my booking, I ran into him again and it turned out he was staying there too. The guy was great and the next thing I know he’s letting me use his spare snowboard and bindings for the time I'm there which is great for me, good reduction in the rental cost for me. I snowboarded for the next few days before my Lift pass finally expired and I didn’t feel like shelling out for another one, €140 for 4 days, so I moved on to Munich.


After missing a train by 1 minute I and waiting for an hour for the next one, and then another hour for a connection to Munich I finally managed to get to the home of beer in Bavaria. Got here and got reasonably drunk with the manager here that night, then the next night I went on a beer tour and then went drinking (plus other things) with a few people I met in Bad Gastein who work in the hostel next door – I got messy, messy drunk; probably the worst I’ve been in Europe.

But who said that something like that could stop me... the next night I went out again... and controlled myself a little bit more than the previous night. I started slowly on the Saturday night and then moved venues at least four or five times and then it gets hazy, but I am sure that I got in around midnight on the Sunday night... and then slept well... it was a good party session. Not something I could do every weekend but definitely something I could do again.


An awesome time and it makes me glad that the offer in the kitchen at the YOHO was still there and it’s only 2 hours away by train if I want to drop in and have fun with the guys.

and the feature of the week...


"E-Talking" by Soulwax