walking tour

November 2, 2015

Ljubljana travel highlights

Bled Castle, Bled Island, Dragon Bridge, Hostel Celica, Ljubljana, Ljulbjana Castle, Postojna Cave, Predjama Castle, walking tour

stayed: Our one and only hostel, Hostel Celica which was a converted Soviet jail. Each cell was designed by a local artist and ours included bunk beds with intricately carved wood work. Although a bit of a walk from the main core, it included breakfast and offered inexpensive dinner options too. You guys, having breakfast = key to success. I never had to wait for a shower in the mornings and they even gave you a fan in the room. This is a well-run establishment folks. Highly recommended even if you don’t think you’re a hostel person. Try it!

saw: Slovenia in One Day Tour. Highly recommended! It is a bit steep on the price side, but I think you get your money’s worth seeing some of the most spectacular sights in the country. Stops included: Bled Island, Bled Castle, Predjama Castle and a spooky trip to the Postojna Cave.

We took a free walking tour the second day we were there. Local architect Jože Plečnik pretty much designed everything in the city including the funky bridges. His name comes up A LOT. I will ace this Jeopardy question one day…Also, graffiti is a thing here. It’s everywhere and VERY cool.

A milk machine kiosk! Local farmers bring their unpasteurized milk and literally dump it in the machine for people to purchase. They even had a variety of bottles for you to choose from. Mind blown.

conquered: An 8 hour bus ride with two border crossings. With the train situation being a bit sketchy while we were there, I opted to book us a bus to Slovenia. We had to cross the Croatian border twice during that trip so there was a lot of getting on and off the bus with passports. I’d say half the drive was just getting on and off the bus.

Ljubljana has a thing for dragons and the Dragon Bridge fully represents that!

Be still my beating heart! A Farmer’s Market you say? Open every day? I’m packing up my bags and moving here right now.

Ljubljana Castle, which is also a beautifully renovated event space too. Get outta here. This event planner liked that.

other travel notes: This was by far our favorite city. Note to travelers – If you plan on being in this neck of the woods, give this country a few days. I wish we’d had more! What beautiful countryside ready for exploring!

I’m pretty sure we ate at a restaurant with foul (aka baby horse) on the menu :-/ Sorry Liz.

They are on the euro, which is nice IF you remember that AND kept your euros from Amsterdam. Yeah, we didn’t.

The statue in their main square is of a local poet and his topless muse. Not a war hero gallantly riding his steed, but a poet. Notice the tree to the left – planted to keep her lovely nude figure hidden out of site when you exit the church after services. That right there sums up this country.

At this point in the trip, we were OVER paying for bathrooms and water. Ljubljana was a breath of fresh air with free bathrooms and free water fountains!

Try those greasy bureks. Yum. And they make this red pepper spread that’s the bomb too.

October 29, 2015

Budapest travel highlights

Budapest, chicken paprika, Fisherman's Bastion, gelato, ruin pubs, Szechenyi Baths, walking tour

stayed: An air bnb in the shadiest looking building but holy geeze, it was amazing on the inside. It looked straight out of an IKEA catalog all shiny and white-like. I didn’t want to leave! I wouldn’t consider Budapest an easily walk-able city, but this apartment was in a decent location to all public transportation lines. It was also close to plenty of good restaurants.

saw: A whole ton of PDA. European teenage boys are the kings of it I think. On the bus, at dinner, on the street…you name it. We saw one try to get to second base on the tram! Sheesh.

A laid back ruin pub. As I recall it was a Sunday night, so things weren’t poppin’ but I could see why this outdoor bars were so popular.

The infamous Kelti Train station. We’d seen this place on the news a lot prior to our trip and I was a bit worried about what it’d be like there. We arrived on our second overnight train around 8:00 a.m. and found the station to be very quiet. As we made our way to the subway, we did see some tents and a few groups of people sleeping.

conquered: The Szechenyi Baths. We weren’t able to check in until later in the afternoon so figured chilling at the bathhouse was the best way to kill a few hours. The hot water felt SO good after another bumpy train ride. All shapes and sizes were present strutting their stuff. It’s a huge facility with three large pools outside plus a bunch inside with hotter than hot steam rooms.

Drying laundry on a train – check!

The highly recommended Absolute Walking Tour which included a strudel stop and a recommended gelato stop, which we made later that day. Oh and yes, they did show us the main sights in the city too 🙂

Fisherman’s Bastion – the best view of the city IMO!

other travel notes: They’ve got small cabins (basically a small closet) to rent at the bathhouse that fit all of our backpacks, etc. so we didn’t have to worry about storing our stuff in another location. Note to travelers – Bring a towel if you got it, or else you have to rent ‘em. OK to bring in food and booze too.

All of the buildings on the hill of the Buda side were destroyed by the Nazis so everything you see there has been re-built. A big bummer for this history buff because things felt a bit “new” over there, but what can you do?

The streets can look rough, but it’s totally safe to walk around. I’d feel totally comfortable walking around by myself at night.

Note to travelers – Order the chicken paprika with dumplings. You won’t regret it. Best strudel place: Reteshaz. Best gelato place: Gelarto Rosa.