Day 7: Budapest
Despite what some people may think, I'm not dead; just in Budapest at a hostel that promised free Internet but provided only a broken computer. Since I'm actually having to pay for this Internet time, I'll try to keep this short.
Wednesday was my last day in Poland, and it started with a mad scramble to find a way to get to Hungary that night. I was hoping for the cheaper bus, but it only left at inconvenient times or days, so the train it was. For the rest of the day, I visited Wieliczka and its salt mine (awe-inspiring, and words don't do it justice so I'll wait until I have photos), then went back to Krakow and wandered around until my train at 10:30.
On the overnight train I shared a sleeper car with some friendly Swedes, but wound up sleeping through most of the 12 hour train ride, with the exception of the three times I was woken for passport control (by Polish, Slovak, and Hungarian authorities).
In the morning, I followed a tout to a cheap hostel, but opted out and found an even cheaper one on my own (that would be the one with the broken computer). I spent the rest of the afternoon getting my bearings in the city and trying to make head or tail of Hungarian, a language so far from anything I know it's not even distantly related. In the evening, I visited the Terror House (where they've converted the old Nazi and Communist detention and torture building into a really stunning if overly artsy museum) and the national fine arts gallery (some nice exhibits confusingly laid-out, and disappointingly the Greco/Goya/Velazquez was under renovation).
Today, I took a tour out to Statue Park, where they've turned all the old communist statues and propaganda into an open-air museum. It's really stunning to see it all at once, and we had a great tour guide who'd grown up under the Communist regime and provided an interesting perspective (and she gave us a free shot of apricot brandy back at the tour office). For the rest of the day, I walked around on the Buda side of the river and across a couple of the bridges over the Danube. Now, I'm pondering whether to ride the metro up to City Park and wander around until dark, or try to find somewhere to watch the first game of the World Cup.
Tomorrow, I'm off to Vienna! And maybe spend some more time in Budapest depending on how the trains to Vienna shake out!
Wednesday was my last day in Poland, and it started with a mad scramble to find a way to get to Hungary that night. I was hoping for the cheaper bus, but it only left at inconvenient times or days, so the train it was. For the rest of the day, I visited Wieliczka and its salt mine (awe-inspiring, and words don't do it justice so I'll wait until I have photos), then went back to Krakow and wandered around until my train at 10:30.
On the overnight train I shared a sleeper car with some friendly Swedes, but wound up sleeping through most of the 12 hour train ride, with the exception of the three times I was woken for passport control (by Polish, Slovak, and Hungarian authorities).
In the morning, I followed a tout to a cheap hostel, but opted out and found an even cheaper one on my own (that would be the one with the broken computer). I spent the rest of the afternoon getting my bearings in the city and trying to make head or tail of Hungarian, a language so far from anything I know it's not even distantly related. In the evening, I visited the Terror House (where they've converted the old Nazi and Communist detention and torture building into a really stunning if overly artsy museum) and the national fine arts gallery (some nice exhibits confusingly laid-out, and disappointingly the Greco/Goya/Velazquez was under renovation).
Today, I took a tour out to Statue Park, where they've turned all the old communist statues and propaganda into an open-air museum. It's really stunning to see it all at once, and we had a great tour guide who'd grown up under the Communist regime and provided an interesting perspective (and she gave us a free shot of apricot brandy back at the tour office). For the rest of the day, I walked around on the Buda side of the river and across a couple of the bridges over the Danube. Now, I'm pondering whether to ride the metro up to City Park and wander around until dark, or try to find somewhere to watch the first game of the World Cup.
Tomorrow, I'm off to Vienna! And maybe spend some more time in Budapest depending on how the trains to Vienna shake out!
posted by Carlos at 6:03 PM
1 Comments:
swedes, eh?
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