After spending a week in Hungary, I took a train back up to Krakow see about a girl (further explanation in a later post; perhaps). It was also a chance to try pierogi and see the Wawel castle which I missed on the first pass.

Another neat spot that we came across was an old, disused limestone quarry that has transformed itself into a lake. It’s not far from residential areas and main roads but you feel like you’re out in the country side. Apparently you can swim in it in the warmer months.

See the full set on Flickr.

Pécs is another smaller town in Hungary. While Eger is in the north-east, Pécs sits in the south-west and is a little further away.

I managed to see it in a day, although I’d probably recommend staying a night and using it as a stopover along your way out of Hungary and into Slovenia, Serbia or Romania.

The drawcards for Pécs is the awkwardly named Mosque Church and the museums. The museums house artifacts that illustrate the Turkish occupation and influence within the town (e.g. said Church with many features that are typically found in a mosque).

I really liked Pécs for the marble, sandstone, and brighter coloured buildings which give it a real mediteranian feel.

More photos from Pecs are here.

Eger is an easy and worthwhile day trip from Budapest; about two and half hours by train.

I made the trip to see what Hungarian life is like outside of the capital. It was nice to see similarities in the peoples hospitality and the architecture around the place. The cleaner air and less crowded public spaces were also appreciated.

The highlight of the day was probably relaxing in Dobo Istvan Ter (the main square) and watching the world go by.

I also found and quite liked a monument to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It features an Uprising Flag which is essentially the Hungarian flag of today, with a hole torn from the center. The reason being that at the time the Hungarian flag featured a communist coat of arms. One of the revolutionaries ripped it out in protest and this action quickly spread. The site isn’t listed in the Lonely Planet so for anybody interested, it’s on the left hand side as you walk into town from the train station (on Hatvani Kapu tér, I think).

As always, I’ve uploaded a few photos which I hope everybody enjoys.

Apologies to all those who have been anxiously waiting for this next installment. I was flying under the radar for a few days and then got caught without accommodation in Cork on a bank holiday long weekend. So not a lot of time to write.

All the way through planning this trip I was excited to get back to Budapest as I think it’s one of the most interesting and beautiful cities in Europe. The people are always warm, the architecture and sites are quite unique, and the nightlife is always on.

We stayed in the Green Bridge hostel which is in a fairly central location, just two blocks back from the river on the eastern Pest side of town. Similar to the hostel in Krakow, there was a really good vibe around the place and we met some great people from Canada, the United States and a few other Aussies.

The first trip was to Széchenyi Fürdő, the public baths. Since it was a warm and sunny day we spent a couple hours in the outdoor pools before heading inside to an 80°C sauna.

Later in the afternoon we set off on a caving expedition which saw us spend about 4 hours in overalls crawling around underground. Watching Matt try to wriggle his huge frame through some relatively tight places (like the back of a volkswagon) proved quite amusing for the rest of the group.

The next two days saw quite a bit of walking with trips over the Chain Bridge to the Buda castle, along the river to Parlament, through the Jewish quarter, and up the long and leafy Andrassy Utca to Hero’s Square.

I’ve uploaded more photos of Budapest here.

Where?

Zdair. It’s a small village on the Slovakian side of the Tatra Mountains, not far south from the border with Poland. It was great to get away from the bigger cities and do some hiking and mountain biking in the fresh air.

This beautiful spot wasn’t on the original itinerary so I’m really thankful we got some good advice and so glad we made the effort to get down there.

I liked the idea of the Tatras and was reading up on towns further south like Stary Smokovec and Tatranska Lomnica in the Lonely Planet. It was just lucky that another Aussie bloke I met in Krakow had just come from Zdair and recommended we stay at The Ginger Monkey. I now recommend it to you.

Now that I have paid for a ‘pro’ Flickr subscription, I’ve started uploading a selection of highlight photos for everybody to see.

Enjoy!

I didn’t make it to Poland on my last trip to Europe and I was a little disapointed to have missed out on Krakow. Matt and Wes were keen as beans so we organised a bus back from Cesky Krumlov and an overnight train from Prague.

The overnight trains are always an interesting experience; sometimes they’re fun and others a bit of a nightmare. Ours was fun despite a couple of those confusing/concerning moments that are occurring to frequently for my liking.

The first was that I’d managed to purchase couchette reservations but not actual tickets for the journey. This was despite making it abundantly clear (or so I thought…) to the lady at the sales desk that I wanted both. Luckily the gentleman managing the couchette car was understanding and Wes had enough Euro to cover the three tickets.

The second was that I woke up on the train at 7:30 despite the fact we were supposed to arrive at 6:15am. After quizzing the Canadian guy who’d joined us about whether he knew what was going on, I decided I’d better speak to somebody. Luckily there was a simple explanation (a 2hr delay we’d slept through) and we were still on route to Krakow.

Once off the train we walked straight down and checked into the “Good Bye Lenin - Let’s Rock” hostel (such a stupid name that I insist on using the full version…. like “Warner Brothers’ Movie Word - Hollywood on the Gold Coast”).

The common room was buzzing with people eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. I got talking to a girl who was recruiting people to take a trip to the Wieliczka salt mine.

The tour of the mine was definitely a little kooky which suited me just fine. A few other people said they thought it was lame so it’s obviously not for everyone. In essence, you end up ~100m underground where there quite a few interesting exhibits carved from salt. The salt varies in colour from snow white to quite dark due to impurities.

There is a bar at the very bottom so we had to have a beer underground, if only in to observe the effects in the name of science. It was a low point for some and I’m pretty sure a few others hit rock bottom that afternoon.

Other highlights in Krakow were the coffee shops and restaurants in the streets that radiate outward from the Town Square as well as the jazz and blues bars in Kazimierz (the old Jewish Quarter).

Of course, there is also Auschwitz/Birkenau where no words can really describe the experience. I have put up a small set of photos that might begin to give some indication of what a chilling and desolate place this is.

On advice from a number of friends, I had this small town in Southern Bohemia high on the list of places to see in the Czech Republic. It’s a quiet spot (pop. ~14,000) but despite it’s size there was plenty to do and a bunch of great people to meet.

We arrived early and after dropping our bags we headed for breakfast at Cafe 99. Being a Monday morning the town was pretty much void of people. Coming from the crowds in Prague made this even more noticeable. The numbers picked up throughout our stay but judging by all the restaurants and their empty chairs, the high season has definitely passed for another year.

One of the more interesting activities we undertook was a four hour rafting ride down the winding Vltava river. It was a leisurely trip without any real rapids or waterfalls in our way. The most excitement was navigating the three weirs on our course. A new friend from the hostel joined myself, Matt and Wes so we had plenty of paddelling power. Having a fourth person was also helpful when we ‘beached’ ourselves on the shallow rocky bottom.

With so many restaurants, we were spoilt for choice. Standout meals were a bean burrito from a homely vegitarian place and chick/pork/lamb skewers in cavernous underground restaurant.

The Krumlov Castle is an interesting attraction. It includes a rounded tower with elaborate paintwork, a large chalet, and a wide garden that’s perfect for an afternoon stroll. On our last day, we paid up and took a tour of the inside of the Castle. Unfortunately the guide was a little robotic with her script so I was keen to finish up and hit the road/tracks for Krakow, Poland.

I’m fairly sure the plan (if you could call it one) for Pilsen was hatched in the Lowenbrau tent on the first day of Oktoberfest. Andy and Tim had hired a car in Germany and said they had a great time driving down to meet us in Munich. I was sure we could have similar fun driving out to Pilsen and then on to Cesky Krumlov for a few days. It turns out I was mistaken.

We picked up the Renault from a rental agency in the middle of town. After arranging a GPS we chose Jane, an English woman, to be our guide.

This was my first time driving on the right and going from an old mini to a shuttle-like people mover made things quite tricky. The rain and congestion on the roads meant the difficulty level was pretty much set at ‘ludicrous’ right from the start.

The first merge into traffic took place in third gear. The second started out in first gear but when going for the up-shift I nearly opened my door. This was met with nervous laughter from the passengers but at least we were on our way.

Despite a few other minor difficulties, we eventually made it to Pilsen. Since it was already early evening we grabbed a meal and set about finding some nightlife. The Italian restaurant was noteworthy for the unchilled Pilsener Urquell. The night, mainly spent in a local karaoke bar, was memorable for a short Czech guy belting out What a Wonderful World.

The only item on the agenda for Thursday was the Pilsener Urquell brewery. On arrival we noted that the malting aroma, and the site itself is much nicer than the XXXX factory at Milton.

The tour was fairly involved, with a guide, bus rides, lots of stairs etc. As it was my fourth brewery tour, I knew pretty much what to expect. Aside from tour staples like the “how beer is made” video, the kettles, and bottling, there were a few unique things to keep me interested. We were taken down into the winding cellars that have been around since the early days of the brewery. An old video of the Coopers at work constructing the traditional timber beer barrells was another.

The trip out to Pilsen was a mission but we survived. And I’m certainly glad we did it!

Cesky Krumlov went on hold but I eventually made it. There’ll be more on that South Bohemian gem later.

Prague was excellent. I was a little apprehensive before arriving because the last time I was here (a 36 hour train stopover in reality) wasn’t such a great experience.

We split our time in the city into two parts. For the first two days we stayed on the eastern side of Nove Mesto at a hostel called Marabou. The second stint was the weekend and we were at Miss Sophie’s on the southern edge of the inner city. A day trip to Pilsen slotted in between but this was an adventure that deserves a separate post.

I took the first day at a very leisurely pace; wandering the cobble stone laneways of inner city Stare Mesto and across the Charles Bridge into Mala Strana, the Prague Castle and Hradcany. The streets and architecture are brilliant. The crowds at this time of year were much more manageable than what I experienced on my last trip which was at Christmas time.

Andy arrived for the second day and I gave him a lightening fast tour that took in a lot of what I’d seen the day before. This was necessarily so we could head off for Pilsen by mid-afternoon.

Returning to Prague on Thursday, we gatecrashed a friends Contiki pub crawl which turned out to be fun. It started at a pub called the “Beer Factory” where the attraction was a glass chiller and your own beer tap at each table.

The weekend was jam packed and all good thanks to a visit from a friend who’s living in London. We woke up and watched the AFL final at 6am which was a bag of fun and a major dissapointment at the same time. After going back to bed for a few hours sleep we made it to a walking tour in the afternoon. Dinner was a very tasty traditional Czech meal of goulash and potato pancakes. Sunday was a similar affair with a walking tour in the morning and stops at the Sex Museum and the Torture Museum.