Austria and Hungary and Slovenia oh my!
Greetings!
Happy (late) 2020!
To celebrate the new year, I took a bus trip with pmtoam student trips. Their three capitols trip was during New Years, and happened to be during my time off from being an au pair.
I went with fellow au pair and new friend Meagan, who is currently living in Amsterdam (hello!!).
I don’t mind bus trips. I always have a book or two to keep myself entertained and I’m one of those weird people that can stare out of the window for hours thinking about nothing. It’s like meditation, very relaxing. But riding from Amsterdam to Vienna on an old bus with 100 strangers, no wifi, no power outlets and one bathroom that should only be used in emergencies was hard. It took us over 12 hours to get to Vienna.
Schnitzel and Kaiserschmarrn. Very delicious!
Don’t worry, the long bus ride was worth it, Vienna was great- for the 10-ish hours that we got to spend there. M and I did a free walking tour (like I’ve said before, always do the free walking tour) so we could see the main sites within a couple of hours. Then, our main goal was food. We spent a couple of hours just trying all the favorites at Cafe Mozart, a place next to the Vienna state Opera house.
The last thing we did in Vienna was walk along the Danube river. It was a nice place to see the city at night, with the boats in the water. The paths next to the river, under the bridges, reminded me of the ones next to the Tiber river in Rome.
We couldn’t visit Vienna and not have apple strudel! We also had Sachertorte, a famous chocolate cake.
The Széchenyi Chain Bridge, which connects Buda and Pest.
The outdoor pools of the Széchenyi bathhouse. We got there right when it opened, so the pool was not yet filled with tourists.
My new favorite meal! Hungarian goulash and paprikash with dumplings. Hungarian food was the best.
We had a long day, and were going on almost no sleep. It was difficult to fall asleep on the bus, but our day of adventuring was not yet over.
We took the bus to our hostel in Budapest that night, then prepared for our tour group’s pub crawl. We had signed up for the pub crawl before the trip and it included admission to some of the famous ruin bars. The ruin bars are located in the old Jewish district of Budapest and were built in various abandoned buildings.
We managed to do a lot during our time in Budapest. Another free walking tour, exploring the fisherman’s bastion, seeing the Buda castle, going up the Budapest Eye and seeing the largest synagogue in Europe- the Dohány Street Synagogue.
We brought in the new year in the streets of Budapest, right out St. Stephen’s Basilica. We ate cinnamon chimney cakes, drank different flavors of mulled wine ( I remember blueberry being the best) and watched the countdown with a thousand other people who were also in the streets that night.
I think M and I’s favorite part of the trip was the day that we spent at the Széchnzyi bath house. The bath house is 100+ years old and was the perfect way to spend New Years Day. We swam in the heated outside pools, even though it was almost freezing temperatures outside.
M and I posing with one of the dragons on the dragon bridge. Behind us, in blue, is Ljubljana castle, constructed in the 11th century. .
Our last stop on the trip was Ljubljana, the city of dragons. We spent 10 hours in the beautiful medieval city, exploring the city center and the castle. In greek mythology, Ljubljana was said to be the place where Jason and the Argonauts visited after Jason had taken the golden fleece. While in the city, Jason and his men stumbled into a dragons lair, causing the beasts to wake up and burn several of his men. Jason was able to defeat the dragons, but their story became part of Ljubljana’s history.
Our three city trip finished up with a 12+ hour bus ride back to Amsterdam. We were exhausted, but happy that we took the trip. I had a lot of adventures in 2019, but I’m really excited to see what I do in 2020.
Bye for now!
And happy 2020 from Frankie!
