East Europe Blog
ROMANIA:
Places visited: bucharest, brasov. Sighisoara, sibiu. Targu mures.
Day 1
Took 1 full day to reach bucharest. Flight to milan, switch terminal to transit easyjet to bucharest. Take a bus to town(Gara de Noord) heavy backpack walked ard the town to look for our hostel. Finally rested our feet aft 24 hrs of travels. Butterflyville is very cosy n homely. Felt at home immediately, andrei is very friendly. Rested a while, moved out to explore the city, parcul=park. Went to a park near hostel, lotsa pple in the park, animals, pond with swans, ducks. Walked to romanian parliament house, 2nd biggest building in the world aft pentagon. Looked imposing and grand. Walked along city river to town area, stravopoleos church, national museum of romania, many govt buildings located in the same area. Oldest inn, "hanul de munuc", oldest church etc.. A bit of grandeur and communist feel at the same time. Dined at a nice restaurant to reward ourselves. Nice ambience, old pub/inn feel with romanian dance performances in the middle n a chill out bar. Walked to piata de revolutional, saw some commerative monuments of the revolution before heading back.
Day 2
Headed out to brasov. Left late, day trip. Couldn't go to Bran to vist dracula castle. Might make a trip there from sighisoara to visit rasnov fort at the same time or head to sibiu. Stayed in town in brasov. Took bus to old town central, walked around, met a very kind hearted gentleman who showed us ard a bit and told us the history of brasov. Saw the 2 "entrance" gates of brasov, which wasn't on any tourist information. Saw the black church, which was black cos of fire. Wanted to take a cable car up the tampa mountain but it was closed. So recommended to climb up to the black tower(which was white) and white tower to get a nice view of the old town. Seemed like we will achieve the objective of losing weight with the climbing and walking tt we do but the setback is nice food is cheap here. We walked in the main street of old town and went up the eastern fortifications of brasov where fort walls were build to protect the town from wild animals like bears and wolves. Cos along the wall, there are hunting towers for shooting at wild animals. There is a piata revolutionlei here as well. Brasov is a more typical european town, pretty similar to heidelberg, as compared to bucharest. More well developed and runned. Its one of the 3 medieval transylvania towns, which includes Sibiu and Sighisoara as well. Too bad we din have time to visit bran castle and pele castle and the real dracula castle at ...
Day 3
The day began early, cos serene is finally joining us after many mishaps which prevented us from leaving together. We wanted to do some sightseeing before leaving bucharest. Realising that there is a unesco world heritage near our hotel where a palace was built for a princess by a prince to profess his love for her. It was in the very garden that we walked thru without us realising. We went down to the parliament house area again to the government buildings area, it was nicely done up as many govt buildings are in the same area. There were fountains along the whole stretch of road and it provided a nice view with the majestic parliament house as backdrop. We chance upon the patrichial cathedral and explored it before heading back to the hostel to pick up our stuff to meet serene. It was sad to leave butterfly villa as it proved to be cosy and homely to us. Met up with serene at train station and we managed to get an earlier train to sighisoara. Trouble brewed after we boarded the train as one of the tickets bored a seat which wasn't there. A little frantic, casey took the ticket and asked ard, apparently its quite common and we could sit anywhere just as long as the ticket is correct. Most unfortunate that casey lost the ticket and she had to pay a fine for it. The initial conducter was nice to ask her to pay half the penalty(30 lei), but there was a miscomm as we thot she is safe for the journey to sighisoara. But at Brasov, a different set of conductor came onboard and demanded for ticket, with no ticket nor receipt, she had to pay another 53 lei. Hopefully that's the end of the trouble as we made our way to sighisoara and being able to find our hostel with no hassle.. Hope its nice and cosy.. I'll buy her a beer later.. Having a hostel in the middle of the attraction means u have to cross a river and climb up the hill, hunt the streets to find the hostel. The owner was nice enough to wait up for us till 11pm. The decor felt nice and medieval, cosy countryside feeling. The bedroom is nicer than butterfly, its not at all hostel-like, more like a bedroom with antique furniture. The girls get the main bed while mine is a add-on. I had mine under the slanting roof with a sky window which peers out into the Romanian sky at night with the full moon in full view. Very much like what I would like for my own bedroom :) I'm happy :) feels especially excited when u know that all these is happening in a medieval town in transylviania with a possibilty of vampire or werewolf popping out of nowhere.. Dinner was at a count dracula themed cafe for some desserts and beer as all proper food was closed by the time of our late arrival.. Targu mures tmr.. by bus..
Day 4
Didn't have to wake up too early today as we were only going to Targu Mures. Bus was supposedly 1hr away and its taken at the bus terminal beside the Gara, ie train station. The bus ride across the countryside was pretty scenic, as we came across vast fields of greenery, forests, and farms where we saw pple ploughing their fields and grazing their herds. When we reach Targu Mures, it was a little surprising cos we seemed to have ended up in some residential areas. Armed with no maps nor any information, and the rain falling on us.. We were filled with dread, maybe its a wrong trip to come. Den we have to start asking ard the shops about where we can go, where to get information, lucky pple were warm and friendly. There is this guy who works in a souvenir shop that brought us ard to ask for a tourist map(harta turistica) but to no avail as we were smack in the middle of residential area. Eventually, he gave us the directions to get to central, where we trekked to thru the residential areas, drawing much stares from the locals. Can't remember how many km walk it was, we finally got to central and there was a flower parade going on, different breed of plants, flowers and all the tools u will ever need for gardening, can be found there. We walked ard town, saw some churches and the cultural palace and the palace of Avram Iancu. Then we came across a very huge piata which was fortified, it seemed like it used to be the opera house area as there were many defunct opera houses and stages within the compound. It was rustic and run-downed, but still gave an arty-farty feel as there were many sculptures and props lying ard the compound and a group of young teens were there, singing Songs and strumming their guitar. We trekked back the way we came from and took a squeezy packed bus back to sighisoara where we had our dinner at thr house of Vlad Dracul, where Count Dracula used to lived for a while. The food was rich as we had soup and main course which filled us to the brim. The setting of the restaurant was set to colonial times, or maybe medieval would be a better word to use. High chairs and tables with big plates and wine glasses. The waitress was a grandmother who treat us very well and often gave us extra portions. Dinner marked the end of the day as we gotta wake up at 5am next day to catch a train to Sibiu.
Day 5
Woke up very early to catch the first train to Sibiu. Everyone was cooperative as we have to walk a distance in the morning cold to the train station. No more missing train or losing tickets this time... Sibiu is a beautiful town with a super big piata.. We actually had a lot of time in Sibiu, so much that this is the first time we can sit down and relax, bask in the sun, slowly enjoy breakfast and coffee and reading the newspaper I brought from singapore, whiling away 2 hours just doing nothing but enjoying the atmosphere. We had the choice of making our way down to Medias, which is supposedly another beautiful small town and it housed the 3rd biggest leaning tower in europe. Apparently, a lot of people from all over europe come to visit. We gave that up cos Sibiu is a big city and there are quite a few sights to see, so we decided to take our own sweet time to cover the town thoroughly. The different cathedrals were main draw of the city besides the Stairs Passage which served as a connectin archway tt connects the upper and lower town and Liars bridge, which was the first ever iron cast bridge in Romania, built in 1859. Sibiu, like Brasov was a fortified town, thus there were fortified walls ard the city tt repels invaders in the past. Naturally, there would be watch towers and bridges which are icons of the town, most famous would be the Potters tower and Carpenter tower as they are linked by a wooden skybridge and Harquebusiers tower which was named after the guild house tts defending the tower then. The weather was nice and warm, which warrants an ice-cream. Lemon sorbet best served its purpose in this kind of weather. Dinner was taken in town too and we had pasta, which was like proper starch after so many days here.. Proper exploration of Sighisoara tmr, the last of the 3 main transylvianian towns, its another relaxing day before heading to Budapest at night on an overnight train, where new language and surrounding has to be learnt and hectic exploration starts again :)
Day 6
Had the luxury of waking up late.. We went out at mid day and had our bags packed and deposited in the kitchenette while we head out to explore sighisoara thoroughly. Due to that we were out very early and back very late, so its always a dead town when we see sighisoara. Finally entered the tourist information and the first thing tt attract us was the free wifi available. We literary camped there for a while as we update ourselves with news, facebook and emails. First stop was the museum where we climbed thru the clock tower and viewed the history of the city and the museum of weapons and the ancient torture chamber which was kept mainly in its original state and site. Its does feel eerie and cold in there.. Phototaking seemed to be the key objective, as we kept on taking lots of photos maybe because its our last day in romania. The covered passageway up to the church on the hill was 176 stairs but the view up there was beautiful with all the old buildings and fortified walls. We met a group of students on excursion and they requested to have a photo with us and duely it will be sent to them. Lunch cum dinner was at this pizzeria which serves spaghetti and pizzas as well. As there was free wifi there, we ended up staking out at the cafe for hours before returning to the hostel to grab our bags to head to the Gara for our train to Budapest Killeti. Feels sad to have to leave romania after u get used to the place and language. Though the country is backward, but the people are warm and helpful... Dispelling much myths about the pickpockets and gypsies which I often hear about.. Train to budapest next... I wud leave romania feeling sad to leave behind such a beautiful country and people.. I wud love to be back soon..
HUNGARY:
Places visited: Budapest, Eger.
Day 7
Reach budapest early morning, but not after much trouble with sleeping on the train and being awoken 2 times for leaving Romania and entering Hungary. Reachimg early in the morning does have its advantageous. Meaning that u have the rest of the day to sightsee but also mean that u are freaking tired after not sleeping properly the night before. After resting at the hostel for a while, though its for mainly using internet, clearing mails and updating facebook.. We finally headed out after the 2 girls bathed. Budapest is huge! Initially, we thought we could complete budapest in 1 day den we can head out to Lake Belaton and Pecs or a few of the smaller towns nearby. I guess fatigue caught up with us, we didn't move as fast we would like to. We only managed to walk down to the Danube river and covered the riverside before crossing over to Buda(old town) on the famous Chain bridge, trekked up the hills to the Mattias church, Fisherman's Bastion which is overlooking the Parliament house on the Pest(new town) side. The view is very nice, reminded me Venice and certain perspective reminded me of the Bund in shanghai. At the top of the hill was the Buda castle, it really looked magnificent and grand as we entered the compound. There was a fountain which resembles the Trevi fountain in Rome. Budapest is supposedly famous for thermal baths, there was one on the top of the Buda side but we weren't going there since the girls didn't bring their swimming costume, pity :( That pretty much summed up the day as we went in search of food, with the hope of catching a river cruise to have a view of Danube river at night, but we were too tired after that and we headed back to hostel after dinner, deciding that the next day should be spent covering Pest and the last day going down to Lake Belaton only. The hostel was very warm is welcoming us, the owner Gabriel is a funny man who tried to crack us up and was intending to bring us out for drinks but we were simply too tired. Sharing room with 10 strangers weren't a bother for me, cos I've been thru army, but listening to the snores at night was pretty interesting, I'm quite sure I contributed to the lullaby in some ways too. I think its fun staying in hostels like this, u meet peole, u talk to them, exchange information and I made some friends already with the backpackers from all over the world :)
Day 8
Woke up early in the morning while the girls are still sleeping. Decided to go ahead with breakfast as it would be a long wait for time yet again. They simply get on my nerves sometimes with their wasting of time and them going crazy over every single flower plot they see on the street. Otherwise they are pretty ok, cooperative and easy-going most of the time. The other thing which I dun understand is their need to make up even before they wash up and serene complaining about everything be old and smelly, I mean its like backpacking??? Who cares man, I dun see other backpackers making up. Oh wells, I wonder if its a girl's thing or issit asians or issit just them. Anyway, I met Pierre and gf from France who are studying in Sweden for their masters and the semester load is light, they decided to take a week off to travel to prague and budapest. Nice people really, kinda friendly, tt added a few points to the negative scores which I gave to Parisians on my one and only visit to Paris. I was talking to Gabriel after that, he told us tt its not a good time to go down to Lake Balaton as its too cold and windy now and most of the things are closed cos its not summer month yet. He even called his mum who is staying there to double confirm for us. Nice chap! He suggested that we go down to Eger, instead of Balaton or even Pecs, even though Pecs is like highly recommended. He said Eger got the older days feel as compared to Pecs which is and upcoming town, developing into city. Thus it was decided that Eger would be our destination tmr. And by the time the girls wake up, had their breakfast and usual makeup session, it was almost 12noon (-_-), tt left me pretty much fuming cos they were simply taking their own sweet time even though they were late, slowly strolling to add on to that. Heroes Square is the first destination, grand square with many statues of heroes. In the same area, there is the Vajadhunyad castle and a museum incorporated and a transport museum along with zoo, circus and funfair. But of cos with that pace, we naturally covered only the the square and the castle before its 4pm and time for lunch. We tried to cover the rest of Pest, including the Opera house, St Stephan Basilica, the Synagoge and the central market, which was some distance away which they insisted on going despite us managing to get tickets to an Opera based on the music by Wolfgang Mozart, lucky I would say, cos I wanted to see the opera house interior and there's a play available. Its super grand and themed gold and red. Exceeding the value of the cheapest ticket we bought by miles and the best thing is the usher gave us better seats cos it wasn't fully packed. Value for money if u minus the part where the girls were dozing off. There's a group of myanmese based in UK who came up to sit next to me and we started chatting a little, only to find out that they were doctors, taking a break and travelling together, they've been to most part of the world except Africa. Before this trip they spent 2 months in south america-Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Next trip in october was 1 month in Korea and Japan, they recommended the Japanese Alps-Toyama and Takayama. The opera was pretty good thou I dun understand a single bit of it cos it wasn't in English. The opera was a saving grace thou for all the lateness and mad rushing done for today. Naturally, I konked out on bed immediately as we have an early train to catch to Eger. Its Barney's big day today, his wedding with Wai You and I wasn't around.. I wonder how izzit like...
Day 9
Woke up freaking early again, if they say fatigue is cumulative, I think I would vouch for it.. With the girls taking their own sweet time, there was a rush to train station again. Sometimes its rather trying to keep your temper in check when things are happening again and again, esp when they are your friends, I guess the tolerance level is slightly lower cos u would expect them to understand better. But on the train to Eger, it was all very quiet cos everyone is tired, everyone dozed off. The walk to centre of the town was mainly conversations between the 2 of them and sometimes it mellowed to whispers, I guess they know that I am not too pleased so they were staying clear from me. Tts my guess. Eger is a small place, but very culturally rich, most of the sights are centred around the town central, but I guess when u r tired, everything seemed to come to a slow and we couldn't even complete a small town like that. It housed the 2nd biggest church in Hungary-The Basilica. The Lyceum is supposed to be academic place now as it was a university converted to now a college. The archbishop palace was to commemorate the bishop of this small town being given the rank of archbishop in 1804, it houses many treasures and master pieces. Besides the Basilica, there is also the Rac church, Cistercian church, Minorita church and a Minerat which is one of the tallest in the country and one which is the northernmost built during the turkish era. The central square is is the Dobo square, which houses statues of the local resistance against the Ottoman empire in the past which they prevailed for the first time but fell when the turks came again 44 years later, Eger was occupied for 91 years. The castle became the symbol of patriotism against the Ottomans in the 16th century. It was originally a Bishop castle converted to a border castle with the help of italian engineers. Eger is a famed wine producing area in Hungary, they have a unique blend of local grapes with cabernet sauvignion and merlot which give it a semi sweet acidic taste. Its one of the better red wines that I came across. Of course, there is a legend behind it as valley of nice(beautiful) women is found here, (Szepasszony-volgy) the actual legend is lost thru time but it was roughly about beautiful women who used to sell Eger wines in one of the cellars. That valley was something we missed out with the Fazola gate and provost palace due to lack to time. Its our last night in Hungary, another long day tmr to Vienna... I hope everything turns out well.. :)
AUSTRIA:
Places visited: Vienna
Day 10
Woke up early to try to catch a train to Vienna... 5am to be exact, good thing is that I packed my stuff the night before, so there is basically not much to do. The girls were making a din thou, I guess the lack of consideration is a tell-tale sign, or maybe cos they never stay in a community living before.. Rules are set for a reason, esp when you are living with pple from all over the world and different culture and background. After creating a din for an hour with their packing and making up, finally the kind host had enough. I guess he must be wishing that we leave earlier. Train ride to Vienna was a concussed ride, everyone was just too tired. Reaching Vienna was more like a relief than excitement initially, hardly worthy for a city considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world. As we were too early, we weren't allowed to check in, in the end we had to deposit our bag at the lobby and proceed with sightseeing as we only have 1.5 days here... Definitely not enough, this place is for enjoyment, not rushing thru.There were many sights to be seen here, some of the most beautiful churches and museums. I wanted to get to the tourist information to get some directions to the places we can visit, but casey has already found out the way to schonbrunn schloss without saying anything. Bad enough wasting time, we proceeded to schonbruun schloss first after deciding to cover the rest of the city the next day since its the furthest one out. It was a magnificent palace with marvellous compound which comprises of a extremely big garden, a zoo and a gloriette which sits on top of a hill which gives a skyline view of Vienna city. We spent at least 3 hrs there, as we toured the palace, and went thru the history of the Austrian Empire. I always knew that there was an Austrian Empire in the olden days, but I never expected it to be that big and grand, possibly overshadowing that of the French and Ottoman and comparable to the scale of Caesar's reign. No wonder most of east europe's history is so closely linked with Maria Therese, who was the ruling Queen then, with her husband Frank Joseph. I left the palace deeply impressed, pity I couldn't take any photos as membrance. Next was to Stephansdom, the national cathedral, foundly known as Steffi to the locals. The weather turned bad and began raining. We had no choice but to sit at one of the cafes near Steffi to wait for the weather to clear up. Maybe its psychological, I find the coffee extremely aromatic in this coffee city of Vienna. I'm glad for the rain partially, tt gave me some time to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee instead of rushing to see the sights. I find it extremely romantic here to enjoy coffee and waste time away and in budapest too. I dunno about prague yet cos I haven been there... But I'm already considering here for honeymoon, couple that with budapest and maybe prague or santorini. Somehow, I started thinking of christy, I dunno why, but its the 3rd time I thot of her for this trip, once in romania-sighisoara, 2nd time in budapest along the river and now in vienna. After coffee, we decided to continue sightseeing in the rain, hofburg the winter palace was next on the list, its a palace Maria stayed at during winter. Then there is the Minoritar church, Schottenstiff, before the girls decided to catch a performance of mozart and strauss music while i opted to roam the city on my own to try to cover as much as possible. Finally there is some time to myself... Not that I'm dying to get away from them, they have been nice and considerate most of the time, its just that they tried to but they dun practice it. I have been trying to be extremely tolerant but I find myself having to remind them to lower their volumes every other time. Felt like a nanny having to nag at them, though they are independent enough carry their own stuff, they dun really bother about anything unless its something they are interested in. I had to reigned them in for walking the wrong paths so many times, they dun read the map, dun bother to remember things, they like to take their own sweet time but yet expecting to cover everything... They just dun learn and I dun bother to say them too. Anyway, alone time in Vienna sounds good, I can go where I wanna go, walk where I wanna walk and make impromptu changes without having to worry if they can take it. I think sometimes they see tt I am quite black faced, but I never tell them off. I visited the Burgh theatre and Rathaus church/palace. Walked past the Wien Universitat towards Roosevelt platz where the magnificient Votivkirsche stood. I decided to give the parliament house a miss, thinking that I could make it back in time given the speed I'm at, so I headed towards the river, after deciding to take a look at this city from another perspective. There wasn't anything much along the river, I was pretty disappointed considering that this is Vienna, I would expect it to be lively, but food shop could be found towards more central of the city along the river. The heavy rain forced me to take a break and have dinner at one japanese restaurant which I chanced upon, I asked for a table but the waitress misheard me and thought I wanted a zipfer and brought me a glass of zipfer which is a local beer. Bewildered, I decide to not argue and just order some food to fill my stomach. Zipfer wasn't too bad, but I had to carry on the journey in the rain. I walked past the kassi-mak building which is supposed to be a place of interest and stadtpark before returning to the tourist information to pick the girls up after their play. It wasn't too bad considering the rain, I managed to made a round around the city centre. Though I wanted to detoured to karlskirche and belvedere and parliament before meeting them. Nonetheless, those were planned to be covered the next day, as the girls went in search for food, finally settled on pasta and illy. The girls had a good time oogling at the cute waiter who pisses me off cos firstly he din acknowledged my presence, secondly, when he offered the girls a drink, he din bother to give me one as though I'm invisible and throughout the meal, he knocked into me 3 times without even an apology, I was pissed and it was worsen by them taking their own sweet time surfing net instead of getting back to check in when its almost midnight. Tt summed up a pretty bad day for me except on the sightseeing part.
Day 11
Woke up early again cos of the limited time we have before leaving for prague. Personally I like it a lot in Vienna, I wanted more days here, but they decided during planning that there's nothing much to see, so they shortened the stay here. Now that they realised that there are so many things to cover, they want a piece of everything and expected me to bring them round the route I went the night before. Which I know inside me it wasn't possible given that we haven bought train tickets, haven visited Belvedere(beautiful view), Karlskirche, music museum(where the world's oldest piano is), national museum, only been to outside of steffi, and michelle told me to visit Mozart's haus, Hadny memorial. The task seemed even more impossible. Belvedere was so huge that we spent almost 4 hours there looking at the exhibits. The paintings, the history and artwork there is simply amazing... Prince Eugene came thru a lot to build up his collection and building Belvedere, only to be squandered away by his niece Victoria. He wasn't married and has no heir. Even more amazing is Prince Eugene lived before Maria Therese, tt gave me even greater respect for Austrian history now. However, thru these visits, I actually realised that I really like art, paintings and music, esp those of olden days. I realised that I actually took the interest to scrutinise the paintings and artworks, something which I din realise before. After Belvedere, we made quick visits to Karlskirche, Wien Museum, music museum, all on the outside and gave up on the parliament house so tt we can visit Mozart's haus. Due to time constraint, we had to rushed back to hostel to collect our backpacks before going over to Mozart's haus again to view the exhibits. It was nice but wasn't too impressive, most of the exhibits were replicas if not guessworks.. but to be fair, the lack of time din allow me to explore thoroughly this haus which Mozart once lived in for 3 years, yet at I learnt more about his life. To be honest, this trip to Vienna left me in regrets why I didn't have more time to explore this beautiful city thoroughly, so many places were touch and go but that gave me a reason to want to come back to Vienna soon. I miss this city of coffee, city of music. And I can't believe that I forgot to eat the apple strudel in vienna. Hopefully, thru these 2 days, the 2 girls wud have realised that they can't have everything done their way and yet wanna achieve everything. There is a reason why I wanna move fast and do things fast. If u ask me if I wanna go backpacking with them again, though they are nice but I would think twice, firstly for my own interests to see the things I want, secondly, to preserve my sanity...Blogged on the train to Prague... Hope we can find our hostel effortlessly later..
CZECH REPUBLIC:
Places visited: prague, kutna hora, cesky krumlov.
Day 12
Reached earlier than planned the night before, the extra stay plus miscalculations cost us dear in the hostel expenditure. It was additional 30 euros spent, something which I can ill-afford now considering the amt of resources I have left. Plus we need to take a cab to airport from prague and from milan bergamo to malpensa. The only saving grace is tt we got a good night sleep.After breakfast, we headed out to the prague castle which was supposedly the biggest in compound grounds in europe, surprisingly, cos I would expect castles of england or germany to be bigger. We walked on the Charles bridge, and it was a sight to behold. If not for the number of tourists, it wud be a real magnificient sight. We met this elegant japanese lady who asked to me take a photo for her. Initially, she spoke in jap, thinking that I am one, but I couldn't reply her, so she knew I am not. She was totally shocked when I counted in jap tt I captured her shock expressions, she asked where were we from. It was a pleasure to meet her cos she is so elegant and ladylike. Nonetheless, prague castle is really huge, they have 2-3 palace in the castle, not counting the number of churches and cathedral and amazingly, they could fit a vineyard inside, together with a belvedere and old castle stairs. Those took up a lot of time and casey went missing. We went hunting for her to no avail and she replied to our sms stating she want me-time. Oh well, so serene followed me on a prague sightseeing trail. We went ard in the city seeing the major sightseeing points like the Rudolfinum, Astronomical clock, Tyn church, Powder tower, municipal house,Henry's bell tower, went down to Wenceslas Square then to Manes which is Prague's art house. That was followed by National Theatre and the Bethelam chapel before meeting casey at the old square at 8pm for dinner. Plans were altered for the next day as its more convenient to travel to cesky krumlov by bus, so we decided to go kutna hora first and on the way back, buy bus tickets to cesky krumlov. So it was settled then, we headed back to hostel for sleep, passing by the square first, took some nice photos den back to hostel..
Day 13
Changes in plans meant tt we were heading down to Kutna Hora, where the famous bone church is at. The real name of the church is Sedlac Ossuary or Kostnice. The journey wasn't too far, just an hour, this gotta be the nearest day trip tt we made. The church is situated slightly out of town, its much nearer from our train stop, only 10 mins walk. We discovered tt the church is actually a unesco world heritage site together with 2 other churches in the same town- St Barbara and St Maria cathedral which is just opposite the bone church. Thoroughly amazed by the interior of the church, we spent a long time in there cos there were 4 pyramids of human bones, and the walls and ceilings were decorated with different parts of human bones. There is also a chandelier made of bones too, not to mention 2 anchors, the code of arms of the town, 4 lamp stands and 2 large ornaments. It would be amazing to see the church in original state cos some of the structures has collapsed, there used to be confession room made of bones too and other things which fell prey to time or undisciplined visitors who stole the bones. We skipped going into the st maria cathedral and headed straight to town instead, where a few other buildings were supposed to be significant, like the silver museum, the town square, italian church, a few others and Kassa Kamena, which is related to the water source of the town. Finally, we reached the st barbara chruch on the other side of the town, it was really grand looking, looks a little like the Duomo in milan. I guess, after 18 days, everything starting to look the same, so it doesn't really matter anymore. We were just rushing to cover the sights. We ended the day early and headed back to prague. Thinking that we can get the bus tickets to cesky krumlov. We didn't realise tt it was publick holiday in czech on sat, so everyone is taking the chance to travel. All buses were full, our only chance was to go by train, tt is if we decide to go, which we did in the end.
Day 14
Very early in the morning, woke up at 430 to prepare for the train ride. We got to transfer train at cesky budejovice to get to cesky krumlov, I would expect the place to be packed judging by the turn of events. Small trams were used for the transfer, in our carriage, it was a tour group of deaf and mutes, it can be quite interesting when all of them started communicating at the same time with all the different hand signs and odd noises they make, but they all seemed so happy and enjoying themselves wherelse, the able-bodied always seemed to be fighting and quarrelling amongst ourselves. Think casey is in one of those moods again, its pissing pple off. We still got 2 more days together den its headed for home.. Decided to do some random walking in cesky krumlov... Without a map, we were just walking randomly, seeing whatever we want without any aims... At least cesky krumlov looks pretty much different from the rest of the towns tt we have been to, there is a river that runs thru the town, and the entire town is built on both sides of an ox-bow river, the castle flanking the exterior of the river, protecting the town inside. This town is very different from the rest of the town partly also because many of the buildings had their walls painted with different patterns to decorate it. We just randomly walked into the castle, and there were bears reared in the castle moat. The castle too has her walls painted and it presented something very different to us, something refreshing. We visited an exhibit by a local artist which is held in the castle dungeons, something which we hadn't experienced the entire trip before, the eerie lighting and the astract art brought a fresh breath of air and brought us into the artist world as we read thru his perspective which was inscripted besides some of his works. Further exploration brought us to a bridge linking 2 cliffs and a castle garden which was right at the end of the whole compound. That brought the end of the castle tour and we made our way down to the little town below where we saw groups of people doing river rafting. Coupled with the cool breeze, maybe its the river tt brought a different sight, maybe its the anions, maybe its the pace tt we were walking on and perhaps its the different interesting ornaments tt we see in the cobbled streets, any fatigue was taken away and we thoroughly enjoyed this day trip out. We walked along leisurely, looking for souvenirs, I got a little crystal deer for christy, and starting looking for a wedding gift for hansen and kaisi and finally found a porcelin pair of holy babies pink and sky blue for their house cos I missed their wedding which is today. The holy baby is suppose to be the symbol of czech republic, not seen elsewhere. Since its a pair, so I thought its just perfect :) I'm glad I found them. I got a pair of small ones for myself too and an table ornament which changes design whenever u flip it, so its always different, and of course magnets to remember this little town. Pleased with my loot today. We took nice photos of the river and the life on it and stood under the magnificent stone bridge of the castle and of the castle tts built on the cliff before deciding to chill and have something to eat along the riverside, to relax and enjoy the town before we head back to prague. Even the tram back to ceske budajovice was nice because it ran thru the countryside and thru the forest which is different from the usual path. Lucky for us was tt we decided to ask the conductor cos we were wondering why the train didn't arrive, little did we know tt we were suppose to take a different bus to another train station for the train back to prague. Tmr is the last day of our east europe backpacking, its gonna be in prague. As much as its enjoyable and I wish it to continue, it too had taken its toil on us cos of our hectic schedule and constant rushing and of course having to put up with each other's tantrum and differences along the way. I think I gave my fair share as well as taken them.. I dunno, but all in all I enjoyed ther trip thus far, maybe the next one will be a all guys trip? Or one with my loved one, hopefully its christy maybe? I need to step up the efforts... Prague tmr!!!
Last day
Woke up late today, courtesy of going to take night shots of charles bridge. When its the last day and there is nothing on your agenda, u tend to be slack. After breakfast, fatigue carried me to sleep again till 12 noon. After that was simply following the girls ard town, doing shopping. Basking in the sunday atmosphere of prague. From the looks of it, prague is a very much more lively and visited places than even milan or some other major european cities. We spotted a sunday flea market where serene went crazy buying things. After that is more charles bridge and we visited the dancing building before I split up with the girls to catch the final day of premier league season at a pub while the girls go walking and shopping. The pub recommended by the hostel was good, its showing all the major games of the day, the title decider between man u-stoke, chelsea-wigan and the champions league qualification battle between arsenal and spurs playing fulham and burnley respectively. So u have different groups of fans sitting in diff corners cheering their respective teams on. No trouble or quarrel yet.. Beer is real cheap too, 1 euro for a pint?? We tried local street food, roast bread and crepes on the go..End of the season, we won but we lost.. Beat stoke 4-0 but chelsea won too, we lost the title by 1 point. I guess its an early night for we need to catch early transport to airport tmr.. End of holidays... Back to work. Return to singapore is shrouded with uncertainties now, as latest news had europe airports closed for the last 2 days running, only reopenning in the afternoon today. Worried and uncertain, we had to get back and started pondering over alternative plans, trains to milan? 20 hours... Alternative airports like frankfurt or munich were some of the options we considered, but can we get on from there with our milan tickets despite us being crew. In the end, we decided to check the airport at midnight since flight is at 6am. Still open... Decided to go ahead with plan, lucky us, at least now we are in Bergamo, milan, trying to get to malpensa. Tts not after the 2 girls pissing off our roommate with the noise they make when they come back, and the wizz air groundstaff forcing me to stuff my camera bag into my bag and crushing the boxes... Ask me now if I will come holiday with them again? I think I will say no, at least not when I'm the only guy, thou they are independant, I can't put up with the inconsiderations and sometimes attitude, serene is not so bad at least, casey... I dunno...
Places visited: bucharest, brasov. Sighisoara, sibiu. Targu mures.
Day 1
Took 1 full day to reach bucharest. Flight to milan, switch terminal to transit easyjet to bucharest. Take a bus to town(Gara de Noord) heavy backpack walked ard the town to look for our hostel. Finally rested our feet aft 24 hrs of travels. Butterflyville is very cosy n homely. Felt at home immediately, andrei is very friendly. Rested a while, moved out to explore the city, parcul=park. Went to a park near hostel, lotsa pple in the park, animals, pond with swans, ducks. Walked to romanian parliament house, 2nd biggest building in the world aft pentagon. Looked imposing and grand. Walked along city river to town area, stravopoleos church, national museum of romania, many govt buildings located in the same area. Oldest inn, "hanul de munuc", oldest church etc.. A bit of grandeur and communist feel at the same time. Dined at a nice restaurant to reward ourselves. Nice ambience, old pub/inn feel with romanian dance performances in the middle n a chill out bar. Walked to piata de revolutional, saw some commerative monuments of the revolution before heading back.
Day 2
Headed out to brasov. Left late, day trip. Couldn't go to Bran to vist dracula castle. Might make a trip there from sighisoara to visit rasnov fort at the same time or head to sibiu. Stayed in town in brasov. Took bus to old town central, walked around, met a very kind hearted gentleman who showed us ard a bit and told us the history of brasov. Saw the 2 "entrance" gates of brasov, which wasn't on any tourist information. Saw the black church, which was black cos of fire. Wanted to take a cable car up the tampa mountain but it was closed. So recommended to climb up to the black tower(which was white) and white tower to get a nice view of the old town. Seemed like we will achieve the objective of losing weight with the climbing and walking tt we do but the setback is nice food is cheap here. We walked in the main street of old town and went up the eastern fortifications of brasov where fort walls were build to protect the town from wild animals like bears and wolves. Cos along the wall, there are hunting towers for shooting at wild animals. There is a piata revolutionlei here as well. Brasov is a more typical european town, pretty similar to heidelberg, as compared to bucharest. More well developed and runned. Its one of the 3 medieval transylvania towns, which includes Sibiu and Sighisoara as well. Too bad we din have time to visit bran castle and pele castle and the real dracula castle at ...
Day 3
The day began early, cos serene is finally joining us after many mishaps which prevented us from leaving together. We wanted to do some sightseeing before leaving bucharest. Realising that there is a unesco world heritage near our hotel where a palace was built for a princess by a prince to profess his love for her. It was in the very garden that we walked thru without us realising. We went down to the parliament house area again to the government buildings area, it was nicely done up as many govt buildings are in the same area. There were fountains along the whole stretch of road and it provided a nice view with the majestic parliament house as backdrop. We chance upon the patrichial cathedral and explored it before heading back to the hostel to pick up our stuff to meet serene. It was sad to leave butterfly villa as it proved to be cosy and homely to us. Met up with serene at train station and we managed to get an earlier train to sighisoara. Trouble brewed after we boarded the train as one of the tickets bored a seat which wasn't there. A little frantic, casey took the ticket and asked ard, apparently its quite common and we could sit anywhere just as long as the ticket is correct. Most unfortunate that casey lost the ticket and she had to pay a fine for it. The initial conducter was nice to ask her to pay half the penalty(30 lei), but there was a miscomm as we thot she is safe for the journey to sighisoara. But at Brasov, a different set of conductor came onboard and demanded for ticket, with no ticket nor receipt, she had to pay another 53 lei. Hopefully that's the end of the trouble as we made our way to sighisoara and being able to find our hostel with no hassle.. Hope its nice and cosy.. I'll buy her a beer later.. Having a hostel in the middle of the attraction means u have to cross a river and climb up the hill, hunt the streets to find the hostel. The owner was nice enough to wait up for us till 11pm. The decor felt nice and medieval, cosy countryside feeling. The bedroom is nicer than butterfly, its not at all hostel-like, more like a bedroom with antique furniture. The girls get the main bed while mine is a add-on. I had mine under the slanting roof with a sky window which peers out into the Romanian sky at night with the full moon in full view. Very much like what I would like for my own bedroom :) I'm happy :) feels especially excited when u know that all these is happening in a medieval town in transylviania with a possibilty of vampire or werewolf popping out of nowhere.. Dinner was at a count dracula themed cafe for some desserts and beer as all proper food was closed by the time of our late arrival.. Targu mures tmr.. by bus..
Day 4
Didn't have to wake up too early today as we were only going to Targu Mures. Bus was supposedly 1hr away and its taken at the bus terminal beside the Gara, ie train station. The bus ride across the countryside was pretty scenic, as we came across vast fields of greenery, forests, and farms where we saw pple ploughing their fields and grazing their herds. When we reach Targu Mures, it was a little surprising cos we seemed to have ended up in some residential areas. Armed with no maps nor any information, and the rain falling on us.. We were filled with dread, maybe its a wrong trip to come. Den we have to start asking ard the shops about where we can go, where to get information, lucky pple were warm and friendly. There is this guy who works in a souvenir shop that brought us ard to ask for a tourist map(harta turistica) but to no avail as we were smack in the middle of residential area. Eventually, he gave us the directions to get to central, where we trekked to thru the residential areas, drawing much stares from the locals. Can't remember how many km walk it was, we finally got to central and there was a flower parade going on, different breed of plants, flowers and all the tools u will ever need for gardening, can be found there. We walked ard town, saw some churches and the cultural palace and the palace of Avram Iancu. Then we came across a very huge piata which was fortified, it seemed like it used to be the opera house area as there were many defunct opera houses and stages within the compound. It was rustic and run-downed, but still gave an arty-farty feel as there were many sculptures and props lying ard the compound and a group of young teens were there, singing Songs and strumming their guitar. We trekked back the way we came from and took a squeezy packed bus back to sighisoara where we had our dinner at thr house of Vlad Dracul, where Count Dracula used to lived for a while. The food was rich as we had soup and main course which filled us to the brim. The setting of the restaurant was set to colonial times, or maybe medieval would be a better word to use. High chairs and tables with big plates and wine glasses. The waitress was a grandmother who treat us very well and often gave us extra portions. Dinner marked the end of the day as we gotta wake up at 5am next day to catch a train to Sibiu.
Day 5
Woke up very early to catch the first train to Sibiu. Everyone was cooperative as we have to walk a distance in the morning cold to the train station. No more missing train or losing tickets this time... Sibiu is a beautiful town with a super big piata.. We actually had a lot of time in Sibiu, so much that this is the first time we can sit down and relax, bask in the sun, slowly enjoy breakfast and coffee and reading the newspaper I brought from singapore, whiling away 2 hours just doing nothing but enjoying the atmosphere. We had the choice of making our way down to Medias, which is supposedly another beautiful small town and it housed the 3rd biggest leaning tower in europe. Apparently, a lot of people from all over europe come to visit. We gave that up cos Sibiu is a big city and there are quite a few sights to see, so we decided to take our own sweet time to cover the town thoroughly. The different cathedrals were main draw of the city besides the Stairs Passage which served as a connectin archway tt connects the upper and lower town and Liars bridge, which was the first ever iron cast bridge in Romania, built in 1859. Sibiu, like Brasov was a fortified town, thus there were fortified walls ard the city tt repels invaders in the past. Naturally, there would be watch towers and bridges which are icons of the town, most famous would be the Potters tower and Carpenter tower as they are linked by a wooden skybridge and Harquebusiers tower which was named after the guild house tts defending the tower then. The weather was nice and warm, which warrants an ice-cream. Lemon sorbet best served its purpose in this kind of weather. Dinner was taken in town too and we had pasta, which was like proper starch after so many days here.. Proper exploration of Sighisoara tmr, the last of the 3 main transylvianian towns, its another relaxing day before heading to Budapest at night on an overnight train, where new language and surrounding has to be learnt and hectic exploration starts again :)
Day 6
Had the luxury of waking up late.. We went out at mid day and had our bags packed and deposited in the kitchenette while we head out to explore sighisoara thoroughly. Due to that we were out very early and back very late, so its always a dead town when we see sighisoara. Finally entered the tourist information and the first thing tt attract us was the free wifi available. We literary camped there for a while as we update ourselves with news, facebook and emails. First stop was the museum where we climbed thru the clock tower and viewed the history of the city and the museum of weapons and the ancient torture chamber which was kept mainly in its original state and site. Its does feel eerie and cold in there.. Phototaking seemed to be the key objective, as we kept on taking lots of photos maybe because its our last day in romania. The covered passageway up to the church on the hill was 176 stairs but the view up there was beautiful with all the old buildings and fortified walls. We met a group of students on excursion and they requested to have a photo with us and duely it will be sent to them. Lunch cum dinner was at this pizzeria which serves spaghetti and pizzas as well. As there was free wifi there, we ended up staking out at the cafe for hours before returning to the hostel to grab our bags to head to the Gara for our train to Budapest Killeti. Feels sad to have to leave romania after u get used to the place and language. Though the country is backward, but the people are warm and helpful... Dispelling much myths about the pickpockets and gypsies which I often hear about.. Train to budapest next... I wud leave romania feeling sad to leave behind such a beautiful country and people.. I wud love to be back soon..
HUNGARY:
Places visited: Budapest, Eger.
Day 7
Reach budapest early morning, but not after much trouble with sleeping on the train and being awoken 2 times for leaving Romania and entering Hungary. Reachimg early in the morning does have its advantageous. Meaning that u have the rest of the day to sightsee but also mean that u are freaking tired after not sleeping properly the night before. After resting at the hostel for a while, though its for mainly using internet, clearing mails and updating facebook.. We finally headed out after the 2 girls bathed. Budapest is huge! Initially, we thought we could complete budapest in 1 day den we can head out to Lake Belaton and Pecs or a few of the smaller towns nearby. I guess fatigue caught up with us, we didn't move as fast we would like to. We only managed to walk down to the Danube river and covered the riverside before crossing over to Buda(old town) on the famous Chain bridge, trekked up the hills to the Mattias church, Fisherman's Bastion which is overlooking the Parliament house on the Pest(new town) side. The view is very nice, reminded me Venice and certain perspective reminded me of the Bund in shanghai. At the top of the hill was the Buda castle, it really looked magnificent and grand as we entered the compound. There was a fountain which resembles the Trevi fountain in Rome. Budapest is supposedly famous for thermal baths, there was one on the top of the Buda side but we weren't going there since the girls didn't bring their swimming costume, pity :( That pretty much summed up the day as we went in search of food, with the hope of catching a river cruise to have a view of Danube river at night, but we were too tired after that and we headed back to hostel after dinner, deciding that the next day should be spent covering Pest and the last day going down to Lake Belaton only. The hostel was very warm is welcoming us, the owner Gabriel is a funny man who tried to crack us up and was intending to bring us out for drinks but we were simply too tired. Sharing room with 10 strangers weren't a bother for me, cos I've been thru army, but listening to the snores at night was pretty interesting, I'm quite sure I contributed to the lullaby in some ways too. I think its fun staying in hostels like this, u meet peole, u talk to them, exchange information and I made some friends already with the backpackers from all over the world :)
Day 8
Woke up early in the morning while the girls are still sleeping. Decided to go ahead with breakfast as it would be a long wait for time yet again. They simply get on my nerves sometimes with their wasting of time and them going crazy over every single flower plot they see on the street. Otherwise they are pretty ok, cooperative and easy-going most of the time. The other thing which I dun understand is their need to make up even before they wash up and serene complaining about everything be old and smelly, I mean its like backpacking??? Who cares man, I dun see other backpackers making up. Oh wells, I wonder if its a girl's thing or issit asians or issit just them. Anyway, I met Pierre and gf from France who are studying in Sweden for their masters and the semester load is light, they decided to take a week off to travel to prague and budapest. Nice people really, kinda friendly, tt added a few points to the negative scores which I gave to Parisians on my one and only visit to Paris. I was talking to Gabriel after that, he told us tt its not a good time to go down to Lake Balaton as its too cold and windy now and most of the things are closed cos its not summer month yet. He even called his mum who is staying there to double confirm for us. Nice chap! He suggested that we go down to Eger, instead of Balaton or even Pecs, even though Pecs is like highly recommended. He said Eger got the older days feel as compared to Pecs which is and upcoming town, developing into city. Thus it was decided that Eger would be our destination tmr. And by the time the girls wake up, had their breakfast and usual makeup session, it was almost 12noon (-_-), tt left me pretty much fuming cos they were simply taking their own sweet time even though they were late, slowly strolling to add on to that. Heroes Square is the first destination, grand square with many statues of heroes. In the same area, there is the Vajadhunyad castle and a museum incorporated and a transport museum along with zoo, circus and funfair. But of cos with that pace, we naturally covered only the the square and the castle before its 4pm and time for lunch. We tried to cover the rest of Pest, including the Opera house, St Stephan Basilica, the Synagoge and the central market, which was some distance away which they insisted on going despite us managing to get tickets to an Opera based on the music by Wolfgang Mozart, lucky I would say, cos I wanted to see the opera house interior and there's a play available. Its super grand and themed gold and red. Exceeding the value of the cheapest ticket we bought by miles and the best thing is the usher gave us better seats cos it wasn't fully packed. Value for money if u minus the part where the girls were dozing off. There's a group of myanmese based in UK who came up to sit next to me and we started chatting a little, only to find out that they were doctors, taking a break and travelling together, they've been to most part of the world except Africa. Before this trip they spent 2 months in south america-Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Next trip in october was 1 month in Korea and Japan, they recommended the Japanese Alps-Toyama and Takayama. The opera was pretty good thou I dun understand a single bit of it cos it wasn't in English. The opera was a saving grace thou for all the lateness and mad rushing done for today. Naturally, I konked out on bed immediately as we have an early train to catch to Eger. Its Barney's big day today, his wedding with Wai You and I wasn't around.. I wonder how izzit like...
Day 9
Woke up freaking early again, if they say fatigue is cumulative, I think I would vouch for it.. With the girls taking their own sweet time, there was a rush to train station again. Sometimes its rather trying to keep your temper in check when things are happening again and again, esp when they are your friends, I guess the tolerance level is slightly lower cos u would expect them to understand better. But on the train to Eger, it was all very quiet cos everyone is tired, everyone dozed off. The walk to centre of the town was mainly conversations between the 2 of them and sometimes it mellowed to whispers, I guess they know that I am not too pleased so they were staying clear from me. Tts my guess. Eger is a small place, but very culturally rich, most of the sights are centred around the town central, but I guess when u r tired, everything seemed to come to a slow and we couldn't even complete a small town like that. It housed the 2nd biggest church in Hungary-The Basilica. The Lyceum is supposed to be academic place now as it was a university converted to now a college. The archbishop palace was to commemorate the bishop of this small town being given the rank of archbishop in 1804, it houses many treasures and master pieces. Besides the Basilica, there is also the Rac church, Cistercian church, Minorita church and a Minerat which is one of the tallest in the country and one which is the northernmost built during the turkish era. The central square is is the Dobo square, which houses statues of the local resistance against the Ottoman empire in the past which they prevailed for the first time but fell when the turks came again 44 years later, Eger was occupied for 91 years. The castle became the symbol of patriotism against the Ottomans in the 16th century. It was originally a Bishop castle converted to a border castle with the help of italian engineers. Eger is a famed wine producing area in Hungary, they have a unique blend of local grapes with cabernet sauvignion and merlot which give it a semi sweet acidic taste. Its one of the better red wines that I came across. Of course, there is a legend behind it as valley of nice(beautiful) women is found here, (Szepasszony-volgy) the actual legend is lost thru time but it was roughly about beautiful women who used to sell Eger wines in one of the cellars. That valley was something we missed out with the Fazola gate and provost palace due to lack to time. Its our last night in Hungary, another long day tmr to Vienna... I hope everything turns out well.. :)
AUSTRIA:
Places visited: Vienna
Day 10
Woke up early to try to catch a train to Vienna... 5am to be exact, good thing is that I packed my stuff the night before, so there is basically not much to do. The girls were making a din thou, I guess the lack of consideration is a tell-tale sign, or maybe cos they never stay in a community living before.. Rules are set for a reason, esp when you are living with pple from all over the world and different culture and background. After creating a din for an hour with their packing and making up, finally the kind host had enough. I guess he must be wishing that we leave earlier. Train ride to Vienna was a concussed ride, everyone was just too tired. Reaching Vienna was more like a relief than excitement initially, hardly worthy for a city considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world. As we were too early, we weren't allowed to check in, in the end we had to deposit our bag at the lobby and proceed with sightseeing as we only have 1.5 days here... Definitely not enough, this place is for enjoyment, not rushing thru.There were many sights to be seen here, some of the most beautiful churches and museums. I wanted to get to the tourist information to get some directions to the places we can visit, but casey has already found out the way to schonbrunn schloss without saying anything. Bad enough wasting time, we proceeded to schonbruun schloss first after deciding to cover the rest of the city the next day since its the furthest one out. It was a magnificent palace with marvellous compound which comprises of a extremely big garden, a zoo and a gloriette which sits on top of a hill which gives a skyline view of Vienna city. We spent at least 3 hrs there, as we toured the palace, and went thru the history of the Austrian Empire. I always knew that there was an Austrian Empire in the olden days, but I never expected it to be that big and grand, possibly overshadowing that of the French and Ottoman and comparable to the scale of Caesar's reign. No wonder most of east europe's history is so closely linked with Maria Therese, who was the ruling Queen then, with her husband Frank Joseph. I left the palace deeply impressed, pity I couldn't take any photos as membrance. Next was to Stephansdom, the national cathedral, foundly known as Steffi to the locals. The weather turned bad and began raining. We had no choice but to sit at one of the cafes near Steffi to wait for the weather to clear up. Maybe its psychological, I find the coffee extremely aromatic in this coffee city of Vienna. I'm glad for the rain partially, tt gave me some time to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee instead of rushing to see the sights. I find it extremely romantic here to enjoy coffee and waste time away and in budapest too. I dunno about prague yet cos I haven been there... But I'm already considering here for honeymoon, couple that with budapest and maybe prague or santorini. Somehow, I started thinking of christy, I dunno why, but its the 3rd time I thot of her for this trip, once in romania-sighisoara, 2nd time in budapest along the river and now in vienna. After coffee, we decided to continue sightseeing in the rain, hofburg the winter palace was next on the list, its a palace Maria stayed at during winter. Then there is the Minoritar church, Schottenstiff, before the girls decided to catch a performance of mozart and strauss music while i opted to roam the city on my own to try to cover as much as possible. Finally there is some time to myself... Not that I'm dying to get away from them, they have been nice and considerate most of the time, its just that they tried to but they dun practice it. I have been trying to be extremely tolerant but I find myself having to remind them to lower their volumes every other time. Felt like a nanny having to nag at them, though they are independent enough carry their own stuff, they dun really bother about anything unless its something they are interested in. I had to reigned them in for walking the wrong paths so many times, they dun read the map, dun bother to remember things, they like to take their own sweet time but yet expecting to cover everything... They just dun learn and I dun bother to say them too. Anyway, alone time in Vienna sounds good, I can go where I wanna go, walk where I wanna walk and make impromptu changes without having to worry if they can take it. I think sometimes they see tt I am quite black faced, but I never tell them off. I visited the Burgh theatre and Rathaus church/palace. Walked past the Wien Universitat towards Roosevelt platz where the magnificient Votivkirsche stood. I decided to give the parliament house a miss, thinking that I could make it back in time given the speed I'm at, so I headed towards the river, after deciding to take a look at this city from another perspective. There wasn't anything much along the river, I was pretty disappointed considering that this is Vienna, I would expect it to be lively, but food shop could be found towards more central of the city along the river. The heavy rain forced me to take a break and have dinner at one japanese restaurant which I chanced upon, I asked for a table but the waitress misheard me and thought I wanted a zipfer and brought me a glass of zipfer which is a local beer. Bewildered, I decide to not argue and just order some food to fill my stomach. Zipfer wasn't too bad, but I had to carry on the journey in the rain. I walked past the kassi-mak building which is supposed to be a place of interest and stadtpark before returning to the tourist information to pick the girls up after their play. It wasn't too bad considering the rain, I managed to made a round around the city centre. Though I wanted to detoured to karlskirche and belvedere and parliament before meeting them. Nonetheless, those were planned to be covered the next day, as the girls went in search for food, finally settled on pasta and illy. The girls had a good time oogling at the cute waiter who pisses me off cos firstly he din acknowledged my presence, secondly, when he offered the girls a drink, he din bother to give me one as though I'm invisible and throughout the meal, he knocked into me 3 times without even an apology, I was pissed and it was worsen by them taking their own sweet time surfing net instead of getting back to check in when its almost midnight. Tt summed up a pretty bad day for me except on the sightseeing part.
Day 11
Woke up early again cos of the limited time we have before leaving for prague. Personally I like it a lot in Vienna, I wanted more days here, but they decided during planning that there's nothing much to see, so they shortened the stay here. Now that they realised that there are so many things to cover, they want a piece of everything and expected me to bring them round the route I went the night before. Which I know inside me it wasn't possible given that we haven bought train tickets, haven visited Belvedere(beautiful view), Karlskirche, music museum(where the world's oldest piano is), national museum, only been to outside of steffi, and michelle told me to visit Mozart's haus, Hadny memorial. The task seemed even more impossible. Belvedere was so huge that we spent almost 4 hours there looking at the exhibits. The paintings, the history and artwork there is simply amazing... Prince Eugene came thru a lot to build up his collection and building Belvedere, only to be squandered away by his niece Victoria. He wasn't married and has no heir. Even more amazing is Prince Eugene lived before Maria Therese, tt gave me even greater respect for Austrian history now. However, thru these visits, I actually realised that I really like art, paintings and music, esp those of olden days. I realised that I actually took the interest to scrutinise the paintings and artworks, something which I din realise before. After Belvedere, we made quick visits to Karlskirche, Wien Museum, music museum, all on the outside and gave up on the parliament house so tt we can visit Mozart's haus. Due to time constraint, we had to rushed back to hostel to collect our backpacks before going over to Mozart's haus again to view the exhibits. It was nice but wasn't too impressive, most of the exhibits were replicas if not guessworks.. but to be fair, the lack of time din allow me to explore thoroughly this haus which Mozart once lived in for 3 years, yet at I learnt more about his life. To be honest, this trip to Vienna left me in regrets why I didn't have more time to explore this beautiful city thoroughly, so many places were touch and go but that gave me a reason to want to come back to Vienna soon. I miss this city of coffee, city of music. And I can't believe that I forgot to eat the apple strudel in vienna. Hopefully, thru these 2 days, the 2 girls wud have realised that they can't have everything done their way and yet wanna achieve everything. There is a reason why I wanna move fast and do things fast. If u ask me if I wanna go backpacking with them again, though they are nice but I would think twice, firstly for my own interests to see the things I want, secondly, to preserve my sanity...Blogged on the train to Prague... Hope we can find our hostel effortlessly later..
CZECH REPUBLIC:
Places visited: prague, kutna hora, cesky krumlov.
Day 12
Reached earlier than planned the night before, the extra stay plus miscalculations cost us dear in the hostel expenditure. It was additional 30 euros spent, something which I can ill-afford now considering the amt of resources I have left. Plus we need to take a cab to airport from prague and from milan bergamo to malpensa. The only saving grace is tt we got a good night sleep.After breakfast, we headed out to the prague castle which was supposedly the biggest in compound grounds in europe, surprisingly, cos I would expect castles of england or germany to be bigger. We walked on the Charles bridge, and it was a sight to behold. If not for the number of tourists, it wud be a real magnificient sight. We met this elegant japanese lady who asked to me take a photo for her. Initially, she spoke in jap, thinking that I am one, but I couldn't reply her, so she knew I am not. She was totally shocked when I counted in jap tt I captured her shock expressions, she asked where were we from. It was a pleasure to meet her cos she is so elegant and ladylike. Nonetheless, prague castle is really huge, they have 2-3 palace in the castle, not counting the number of churches and cathedral and amazingly, they could fit a vineyard inside, together with a belvedere and old castle stairs. Those took up a lot of time and casey went missing. We went hunting for her to no avail and she replied to our sms stating she want me-time. Oh well, so serene followed me on a prague sightseeing trail. We went ard in the city seeing the major sightseeing points like the Rudolfinum, Astronomical clock, Tyn church, Powder tower, municipal house,Henry's bell tower, went down to Wenceslas Square then to Manes which is Prague's art house. That was followed by National Theatre and the Bethelam chapel before meeting casey at the old square at 8pm for dinner. Plans were altered for the next day as its more convenient to travel to cesky krumlov by bus, so we decided to go kutna hora first and on the way back, buy bus tickets to cesky krumlov. So it was settled then, we headed back to hostel for sleep, passing by the square first, took some nice photos den back to hostel..
Day 13
Changes in plans meant tt we were heading down to Kutna Hora, where the famous bone church is at. The real name of the church is Sedlac Ossuary or Kostnice. The journey wasn't too far, just an hour, this gotta be the nearest day trip tt we made. The church is situated slightly out of town, its much nearer from our train stop, only 10 mins walk. We discovered tt the church is actually a unesco world heritage site together with 2 other churches in the same town- St Barbara and St Maria cathedral which is just opposite the bone church. Thoroughly amazed by the interior of the church, we spent a long time in there cos there were 4 pyramids of human bones, and the walls and ceilings were decorated with different parts of human bones. There is also a chandelier made of bones too, not to mention 2 anchors, the code of arms of the town, 4 lamp stands and 2 large ornaments. It would be amazing to see the church in original state cos some of the structures has collapsed, there used to be confession room made of bones too and other things which fell prey to time or undisciplined visitors who stole the bones. We skipped going into the st maria cathedral and headed straight to town instead, where a few other buildings were supposed to be significant, like the silver museum, the town square, italian church, a few others and Kassa Kamena, which is related to the water source of the town. Finally, we reached the st barbara chruch on the other side of the town, it was really grand looking, looks a little like the Duomo in milan. I guess, after 18 days, everything starting to look the same, so it doesn't really matter anymore. We were just rushing to cover the sights. We ended the day early and headed back to prague. Thinking that we can get the bus tickets to cesky krumlov. We didn't realise tt it was publick holiday in czech on sat, so everyone is taking the chance to travel. All buses were full, our only chance was to go by train, tt is if we decide to go, which we did in the end.
Day 14
Very early in the morning, woke up at 430 to prepare for the train ride. We got to transfer train at cesky budejovice to get to cesky krumlov, I would expect the place to be packed judging by the turn of events. Small trams were used for the transfer, in our carriage, it was a tour group of deaf and mutes, it can be quite interesting when all of them started communicating at the same time with all the different hand signs and odd noises they make, but they all seemed so happy and enjoying themselves wherelse, the able-bodied always seemed to be fighting and quarrelling amongst ourselves. Think casey is in one of those moods again, its pissing pple off. We still got 2 more days together den its headed for home.. Decided to do some random walking in cesky krumlov... Without a map, we were just walking randomly, seeing whatever we want without any aims... At least cesky krumlov looks pretty much different from the rest of the towns tt we have been to, there is a river that runs thru the town, and the entire town is built on both sides of an ox-bow river, the castle flanking the exterior of the river, protecting the town inside. This town is very different from the rest of the town partly also because many of the buildings had their walls painted with different patterns to decorate it. We just randomly walked into the castle, and there were bears reared in the castle moat. The castle too has her walls painted and it presented something very different to us, something refreshing. We visited an exhibit by a local artist which is held in the castle dungeons, something which we hadn't experienced the entire trip before, the eerie lighting and the astract art brought a fresh breath of air and brought us into the artist world as we read thru his perspective which was inscripted besides some of his works. Further exploration brought us to a bridge linking 2 cliffs and a castle garden which was right at the end of the whole compound. That brought the end of the castle tour and we made our way down to the little town below where we saw groups of people doing river rafting. Coupled with the cool breeze, maybe its the river tt brought a different sight, maybe its the anions, maybe its the pace tt we were walking on and perhaps its the different interesting ornaments tt we see in the cobbled streets, any fatigue was taken away and we thoroughly enjoyed this day trip out. We walked along leisurely, looking for souvenirs, I got a little crystal deer for christy, and starting looking for a wedding gift for hansen and kaisi and finally found a porcelin pair of holy babies pink and sky blue for their house cos I missed their wedding which is today. The holy baby is suppose to be the symbol of czech republic, not seen elsewhere. Since its a pair, so I thought its just perfect :) I'm glad I found them. I got a pair of small ones for myself too and an table ornament which changes design whenever u flip it, so its always different, and of course magnets to remember this little town. Pleased with my loot today. We took nice photos of the river and the life on it and stood under the magnificent stone bridge of the castle and of the castle tts built on the cliff before deciding to chill and have something to eat along the riverside, to relax and enjoy the town before we head back to prague. Even the tram back to ceske budajovice was nice because it ran thru the countryside and thru the forest which is different from the usual path. Lucky for us was tt we decided to ask the conductor cos we were wondering why the train didn't arrive, little did we know tt we were suppose to take a different bus to another train station for the train back to prague. Tmr is the last day of our east europe backpacking, its gonna be in prague. As much as its enjoyable and I wish it to continue, it too had taken its toil on us cos of our hectic schedule and constant rushing and of course having to put up with each other's tantrum and differences along the way. I think I gave my fair share as well as taken them.. I dunno, but all in all I enjoyed ther trip thus far, maybe the next one will be a all guys trip? Or one with my loved one, hopefully its christy maybe? I need to step up the efforts... Prague tmr!!!
Last day
Woke up late today, courtesy of going to take night shots of charles bridge. When its the last day and there is nothing on your agenda, u tend to be slack. After breakfast, fatigue carried me to sleep again till 12 noon. After that was simply following the girls ard town, doing shopping. Basking in the sunday atmosphere of prague. From the looks of it, prague is a very much more lively and visited places than even milan or some other major european cities. We spotted a sunday flea market where serene went crazy buying things. After that is more charles bridge and we visited the dancing building before I split up with the girls to catch the final day of premier league season at a pub while the girls go walking and shopping. The pub recommended by the hostel was good, its showing all the major games of the day, the title decider between man u-stoke, chelsea-wigan and the champions league qualification battle between arsenal and spurs playing fulham and burnley respectively. So u have different groups of fans sitting in diff corners cheering their respective teams on. No trouble or quarrel yet.. Beer is real cheap too, 1 euro for a pint?? We tried local street food, roast bread and crepes on the go..End of the season, we won but we lost.. Beat stoke 4-0 but chelsea won too, we lost the title by 1 point. I guess its an early night for we need to catch early transport to airport tmr.. End of holidays... Back to work. Return to singapore is shrouded with uncertainties now, as latest news had europe airports closed for the last 2 days running, only reopenning in the afternoon today. Worried and uncertain, we had to get back and started pondering over alternative plans, trains to milan? 20 hours... Alternative airports like frankfurt or munich were some of the options we considered, but can we get on from there with our milan tickets despite us being crew. In the end, we decided to check the airport at midnight since flight is at 6am. Still open... Decided to go ahead with plan, lucky us, at least now we are in Bergamo, milan, trying to get to malpensa. Tts not after the 2 girls pissing off our roommate with the noise they make when they come back, and the wizz air groundstaff forcing me to stuff my camera bag into my bag and crushing the boxes... Ask me now if I will come holiday with them again? I think I will say no, at least not when I'm the only guy, thou they are independant, I can't put up with the inconsiderations and sometimes attitude, serene is not so bad at least, casey... I dunno...
posted by EniGmAtiC NoStaLgiA at 5/11/2010 08:28:00 PM
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