Mar
17
I like the architecture of the outside of the parliament building better than the inside. A sort of copy of British Parliament. The inside was okay. The outside is spectacular. I love the purple color. The dome was neat from the inside though, the best part of the inside. The rest, meh. And I had to pay full price admission of 10 dollars. I hate paying for this kind of stuff. Yesterday pretending like I was a student worked, but this time they asked for ID which I didn’t have. I really need a fake student ID card, or my old one. Can someone please make me one? Thanks.
Mar
16
There are quite a few cafes here in Budapest that are named after some famous artist or musician or something. See below: Chagall, Picasso, Piaf
Mar
16
My Sunday was mostly lazy. I’ve been kind of sick. I emailed Kyle about meeting up on Monday and we had a plan arranged. Sunday evening I met up with Martin and Dora to watch Milk in the cinemas. I enjoyed the movie… After the movie we had a drink at some place in this weird building, like on the 5th floor and you gotta walk up all the stairs to get there. Interesting place. Good cheap wine all around Europe. Went home, slept, etc.
Monday I met up with Kyle and we explored the “Buda” side of the city (or the west side, we were both staying in Pest, or the east side). We went to the top of the fortress, chilled out, and visited the Labyrinth under the Buda Castle… it kind of reminded me of some Disneyland thing. There was like creepy music playing and one part of it was barely lit and Kyle had to hold my hand to help lead me through. We left the Labyrinth and finally realized where the main castle part was. My camera died when we got to the really pretty part with the great view. OH WELL.
Funny story: Kyle says that he found a wallet in his luggage that was not his, but there was no money or anything at all in it. But the wallet has something to do with Manchester, like our British friend we met on the train who lost his wallet? But how did this empty wallet end up in Kyle’s luggage? We are thinking someone might have gotten to it when we were all trying to sleep and then stuck it back in Kyle’s things. Mystery wallet. None of us got Shaun’s information so unless he finds this we will never know.
Mar
14
After visiting the Vasarely museum, Martin, Dora and I walked to Margaret Island, which was pretty close. The island is mostly a park. There is a kind of zoo in the island too with mostly birds. Peacocks were squawking about. We all ate at Hummus Bar for dinner. My third time there. No more…
Mar
13
So I took the overnight train to Budapest and on the train I met two other travelers. One was this British guy, named Shaun, and the other was this Canadian guy, named Kyle. We all shared a cabin together and chatted. Shaun had been traveling in India and then he lost his bankcard, so he was taking the train back to London to get a new bankcard so he could resume his travels. Kyle had been away from Canada for a few years, and he was last living and working in South Korea, but now traveling to make his way home. We were all tired and so we converted the couchettes and tried to sleep. It was quite cold though. I think I managed to get maybe one hour of half-sleep. We all arrived in Budapest around 5am, where Shaun realizes his wallet is missing. Kyle tries to help him look for it, but no luck… I exchange information with Kyle since we are both staying in Budapest for a few days and then I guess Shaun is heading back to London, on the train, with no wallet, meaning no Inter Rail pass he was using to get to London? I’ll never know what happened with that guy. Hope he found his wallet.
After I slept, the first thing I did was eat at this falafel/hummus place called “Hummus Bar.” Mmmm, some of the best falafel I’ve had (no picture of falafel, sorry, but there’s a picture of the sign leading to the bar). I did a little bit of wandering (very little) then I became tired so I returned to the hostel for a nap. During the night I went to this place called Szimpla with these Brazilian girls I met at my hostel (with like a group of 10 people, they met up with some euro travelers that they’d met in Berlin).
Mar
12
I just had one day to see Novi Sad. After the fortress, I explore a little bit more, went to a park, used the internet on my laptop (in the park), went to a cafe and waited around until it was time to meet with my two Portuguese friends I met in Sarajevo. I met them in front of the cathedral and then we had dinner (pizza, not pictured). After that we went to a cafe and hung out until it was time for me to take an overnight train to Budapest.
Mar
12
I got to Novi Sad last night and just kind of chilled out. Today I visited the Petrovaradin Fortress, which was quite nice — there was barely anyone there. I enjoyed the cloudy sky. When I was walking to the fortress, I crossed the bridge and the clouds were gray and it was kind of rainy. As soon as I got to the fortress the skies were blue, clouds were white. The walk back across the bridge was really peaceful, sun shining on my smiling face.
Mar
11
My favorite thing about Belgrade was definitely Kalemegdan Park and the Belgrade Fortress, which sort of co-exist on the same plot of land. I spent most of my last day here, before having to catch a bus to Novi Sad.
Mar
10
It seems like almost every city I go to, there exists one vegetarian restaurant that has cafeteria style food, where they make a different set of things each day. This one was really tasty and somewhat cheap compared to regular food in Belgrade. I paid about 6 dollars for this plate of food below (including that muffin!). It’s located at Palmoticeva 5, right behind Parliament. Supposedly its a brand new place to eat, but I think there used to be some other veggie place at this same address.
Mar
10
Since my suitcase handlebar broke, I decided to become a real traveler and purchase a backpack. I got the largest one at the store — 95 liters. Soon I will have to post a picture of how ridiculous I look carrying this backpack. I had to mail a bunch of shit back home because it would not fit in my new piece of luggage. Hopefully this thing lasts me my entire trip…
I partook in some more wandering around the city of Belgrade (which translates to “the white city”). Belgrade is a beautiful and easy going city, there are nice parks scattered around everywhere and things generally seem very clean.
