Vienna and Budapest

Again, I wasn't able to add pictures from my dslr, but I did manage to get a few on my phone (more in Budapest than Vienna).

Our time in Vienna was pretty uneventful. Probably because all of the craziness was waiting for us in Budapest. But we loved both cities... for the most part :)

Vienna
After a sleepless, eleven-hour, overnight train ride from Venice, we made it to Vienna, Austria! When we arrived at the train station, we walked a half hour to our hostel, which is more than enough with those big backpacks of ours... especially Pia's, whose backpack could fit three large bodies in it. It was a little confusing to find out hostel, since neither of us know any German and the streets there have ridiculous names.

Our hostel was a very small hostel, mostly made up of Austrians and Germans, who like to stare a lot. Since we couldn't check in until 2pm, we decided to take the U-bahn to the city center, get some breakfast/lunch, and nap in Volkgarten Park. We came back to the hostel in the afternoon and took another nap and a shower.

That night, we decided to go to a beer garden (which was beautiful!) then walked back towards our hostel, and decided to stop for some pizza. (Yes, we are still eating pizza even though we aren't in Italy anymore.) We both really had to use the restroom, so we went inside before we sat down. As we were washing our hands, there were two men just full on staring at us in the doorway. What is with everyone staring in Vienna?! They were talking to each other in German, but still kept staring at us. Eventually, they left and we went to find a table outside. We made sure to sit out of their view, but that did not stop them from joining us. Ralph and Adam were their names, and they shamelessly pulled up two chairs as Pia and I ate our pizza. They tried so hard to speak to us in English, but we spent the next half hour learning some Deutsche phrases.

The next day, we went to the city center and took a tour of the Vienna State Opera House, which was beautiful. Then Pia went to an art museum and I went to see Mozart's house. Pia and I met up at Stadt Park, where we ate Veinnese brats from a wurstel stand nearby. On the way back to the hostel, we picked up a piece of Sachertorte cake, a well-known Viennese dessert.

Sachertorte Cake

That night, we decided to cook meat, potatoes, and carrots for dinner in the hostel. We bought what we thought was butter from the store down the street and when we went to put it in the pan with the potatoes, we saw that it was NOT butter. We had no idea what it was, but it smelled badly. We asked one of the hostel workers to translate it for us, and he told us it was yeast. The whole not understanding the German language thing was starting to get annoying at that point. So if you're ever in a grocery store in Austria/Germany, and you see a package of what looks like butter, but says "GERM" on it, it's not butter.

The next day in Vienna, we went to Danube Island (not as cool as it sounds), which was completely deserted. For lunch, we went to the outdoor food market, which was a success! We found very cheap food - Donor kebabs and fruit. After eating and people-watching, we went back to the hostel to get our backpacks, and headed for the train station. Next stop: Budapest.

Budapest
We arrived in Budapest about 3 hours later and as soon as we got of the train, everything was weird. The train station was sketchy, a man asked us if we needed a place to stay, and there were men hanging out in the women's restroom. When we walked out of the station, it was raining (of course), so we decided to take the metro to our hostel. Even the metro was sketchier than usual. We found out the next day, that Budapest has the second oldest electrified underground railway system in the world (London being the first). And let me tell you, it hasn't changed a bit since it began in 1896.

sketchy-looking metro

more metro sketchiness

We got off at our stop, which consisted of very dim lights and lots of homeless people. After some trouble with finding our hostel, we made it. When we were checking in, the receptionist (who spoke zero English) told us we only owed 23 euros, when in fact, I knew we owed 46. So we questioned him and he said, no just 23 euros. Then he showed us the hostel and our room and Pia and I began unpacking. We thought we had hit the jackpot; a super cheap hostel (approx. 4 euros per person/per night), free laundry (that NEVER happens), computers, wifi, a kitchen, and free beer. FREE BEER. A few minutes later, he came back into our room and asked how many nights we were staying. We said three and he looked reeeaally confused and said "one moment" and went back to the desk. He came back and said "I'm so sorry, but I have to take you to our other hostel." Apparently, their calendar wasn't working and they didn't have our reservation. So we said that was fine and he said he would walk us to the other "hostel".

welcome to the "Pinky Puppy"

We walk down the street, turn into an apartment building that says "Pinky Puppy" on the outside and walk in. Then he leads us through that building, out the backdoor, to a dark, deserted alleyway, and up three flights on a spiral staircase. Then he opens an unlocked door to an abandoned apartment and says, "this okay?" Pia and I looked at each other and were speechless. He left and Pia and I just stood there in complete silence, not knowing what to do or say. The Pia says what we were both thinking, "we're gonna get killed." So we decided to go get food because it was already 10pm and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. On our way out of the apartment building, we could not for the life of us, figure out how to open the gate. We tried all of our keys, pressed buttons, everything. At this point, I was looking up in the corners thinking there were hidden cameras with people watching us on this setup for Taken 3. We were literally locked in this apartment complex! And conveniently, there was no WiFi at this other "hostel". We finally found the button to open the gate (which was not in a logical place at all) and headed towards the first cheap restaurant we saw... and behold, KFC was right in front of us. After devouring what we thought would be our last meal ever, we made a plan to go back to the original hostel, use their wifi, book another hotel, get our money back, and SAVE OURSELVES. Which is exactly what we did. So now we are staying at a 3 star hotel down the street, and we are loving every second of it.

After some much-needed sleep, we woke up yesterday ready to take on Budapest. We took a 3 hour free walking tour (where we met a guy from Waterloo, IA!) and learned a lot about the history of Buda and Pest. After the tour, we came back to eat dinner at a pub right below our hotel. How convenient, right? We tried Hungary's famous Goulash Soup, some Hungarian beer, and shared some nachos.

enjoying some Hungarian Goulash!

loving our big windows

We went back upstairs after dinner and sat in our three big beautiful windows in our hotel room. We spent the next hour drinking wine and taking pictures. Then we started acting like 12 year old girls and saying "hello" to the people walking by on the sidewalk below us and cracking up when they would turn behind them, only to find no one was there. Yes, we were being those girls. Then one guy saw us and started asking us for directions to a club. Well, that conversation turned into Pia and I joining him and his 7 other friends from England downstairs at the pub for his friend's bachelor party. The night was full of "jumping rope" to live music, singing/karaoke, dancing with the bachelor, Palinka, and Hungarian beer. And we are now invited to a wedding in the UK in October.

the only photo I got of the night... Pia and the bachelor boys

Today, Pia and I walked to Heroes' Square, then Pia went to an art gallery and I went to the park. When we met back up, we walked to find some "Hungarian pancakes" (aka crepes) and ice cream coffee, then went to see the inside of the Basilica. Afterwards, we walked along the Danube river and saw the "Shoes on the Danube". On our way back to our hostel tonight, we stopped by to listen to some live music and eat some corn on the cob (I guess part of me is missing Iowa).

Even though Budapest had a strange beginning to it, we ended up really enjoying this city! The sites are amazing along the Danube - the Basilica, the Parliament, the Buda hills. But tomorrow we are taking a 6 hour train to Salzburg - where I will fulfill my dream of being Julie Andrews and falling in love with Captain Von Trapp.

this will be me tomorrow