This is the first half of the Budapest and Bratislava adventure. The rest will be written in a couple of days because I will be late for school if I don't stop now.
Last week was short even by current standards. The school half-year officially finished after third lesson on Wednesday. The pupils have been given their reports and the teachers yet a whole two days of Winterferien to recover. My half-year finished with cake for breakfast (organised by a class for their teachers birthday) and going to a maths prizegiving... not too bad really.
I then set off to Dortmund. This should not have been a difficult journey, but the train from Bad Salzdetfurth was 35 minutes late. I couldn't even feel my feet when the train finally arrived. To make matters worse, I had missed my connection so only just made it to the bus to Dortmund. But I did it. A couple of hours later I met Matt (a friend from uni) who took me on a mini tour of Dortmund. It is not the most beautiful or extensive German city, known for its football team and not much else. In any case, it was lovely to have a catchup.
The following day I met Katherine in Dortmund Hbf. Yes this is the same Katherine that I went to Denmark, Sweden and Belgium with. Unsurprisingly the plan for the weekend was not to stay in Germany.
A few hours later we landed in... BUDAPEST. Landed. We got all carried away and went by plane... WizzAir is defo my new favourite airline. We even got the opportunity to show-off our newfound skills at queuing German style, managing to push to the front of the queue so we could sit next to each other on the plane. Our first impression of Budapest was something along the lines of unexpectedly snowy. We also had a slightly concerning conversation in the airport when arranging transfer to our accommodation (we had just shown him our address):
Minibus-organiser-man: "Are you sure, there's nothing there unless you're staying on a boat or something".
Lucy-and-Katherine: "We're staying on a boat".
Oh. Sounds really hopeful huh?!
The boat-hotel or botel was alarmingly boat like. It rocked and everything. We made the most of our riverside (or should that be river) location and went for a wander over Margit híd/Margaret Bridge as darkness fell. The view over towards Parliament was stunning. We also made the most of actually being able to afford things here. Tea was at a rather nice restaurant that would have have cost an absolute fortune in the UK. Here is was about £5.
***
Last week was short even by current standards. The school half-year officially finished after third lesson on Wednesday. The pupils have been given their reports and the teachers yet a whole two days of Winterferien to recover. My half-year finished with cake for breakfast (organised by a class for their teachers birthday) and going to a maths prizegiving... not too bad really.
I then set off to Dortmund. This should not have been a difficult journey, but the train from Bad Salzdetfurth was 35 minutes late. I couldn't even feel my feet when the train finally arrived. To make matters worse, I had missed my connection so only just made it to the bus to Dortmund. But I did it. A couple of hours later I met Matt (a friend from uni) who took me on a mini tour of Dortmund. It is not the most beautiful or extensive German city, known for its football team and not much else. In any case, it was lovely to have a catchup.
The following day I met Katherine in Dortmund Hbf. Yes this is the same Katherine that I went to Denmark, Sweden and Belgium with. Unsurprisingly the plan for the weekend was not to stay in Germany.
A few hours later we landed in... BUDAPEST. Landed. We got all carried away and went by plane... WizzAir is defo my new favourite airline. We even got the opportunity to show-off our newfound skills at queuing German style, managing to push to the front of the queue so we could sit next to each other on the plane. Our first impression of Budapest was something along the lines of unexpectedly snowy. We also had a slightly concerning conversation in the airport when arranging transfer to our accommodation (we had just shown him our address):
Minibus-organiser-man: "Are you sure, there's nothing there unless you're staying on a boat or something".
Lucy-and-Katherine: "We're staying on a boat".
Oh. Sounds really hopeful huh?!
 |
| Parliament |
We exited Budapest as swiftly as we had entered it. The next morning we located the station and got a train to Bratislava. Hungarian 'scenery' and Slovakian 'scenery' are very similar, but Slovakia looks more devoid of life. The country is actually a large, brown field. Worryingly, 5 minutes from the CAPITAL CITY there was still no sign of civilisation. Fortunately Bratislava did exist, as we found out by leaving the main station, panicking and going back inside. The Slovak stills were distinctly lacking and it was cold. The first impression was something along the lines of "&%*& what have we done?!" The walk to the hostel didn't improve this much. A little on the bleak side of life. After wandering in a circle we found the hostel and life improved.
Backpack-less, we headed towards the old town, through St. Michael's Gate, which was actually lovely. A world away from the rest of the city. And we found an amazing coffee shop. Admittedly there were quite a few amazing-looking coffee shops but we only actually went to one. The hot chocolate was the thickest hot chocolate ever, literally like drinking melted chocolate. Sitting at the table next door was 'us' in 15 years time. And we had cake.
The main square was not instantly recognisable as a main square, more a square. Still, it had a couple of pretty buildings and a (frozen) fountain. As darkness fell we wondered what to do next. Sensibly we settled on climbing up the icy path towards the icy castle. Genius. It was unclear whether we were allowed in the castle but no one stopped up (probably because they were scared to fall over on the ice). Bratislava looks rather nice in the dark. A backhanded compliment, but a compliment nonetheless. And completely true. The descent was even worse but we survived.
Tea was found in a really cute cafe. But the menu was only in Slovak. As previously mentioned, Slovak is not our strongpoint. Miraculously successful.
Bratislava was cold. Very cold. Little did we know it was about to get a whole lot colder. We took a walk down to the Danube, and saw this:
Given the disappointing lack of tower climbing on the trip so far, it was a must. The first set of stairs to the tower entrance were icy and slipping would have resulted in a dip in the Danube. The other set of stairs were less icy and less likely to result in a swim. The tower climb was back on track. An elevator took us most of the way up, where we were informed that there were bars on either side up the stairs. So we climbed the stairs, daydreaming of a classy bar with stunning city views. What we in fact discovered at the top of the stairs was a platform. There were railings on both sides. Not the bars we imagined, but bars to cling onto for dear life.
To be fair, the view was impressive and worth the 'excitement'. It was cold.
Upon our descent, Bratislava felt positively tropical. It really must have been cold up the tower. The quest for the Blue Church. It was genuinely a quest, through what may have been a less beautiful area of Brat'. The Blue Church deserved its name. It was indeed very blue. The outside was blue, the windows were blue, the pews were blue... In a desperate bid to not turn as blue as the church we went to McDonalds and regained feeling in fingers/toes/shins/thighs/arms/face/etc.
Our final Bratislavian destination was the Presidential Palace. If ever you get to choose a presidential palace to live in, don't go for Bratislava. It was desolate.
Bratislava is well worth a visit. The old town is lovely but not extensive, but it is a varied city. In one view you can capture the history: the old town, the Eastern Bloc, the modern European capital city.
Back to Buda.
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