I have gained more appreciation for certain aspects of my life since going abroad, one of which is the multitude of friends I am lucky enough to have. That being said, I couldn't have been more excited to travel with my best friend in Europe.
We began our ten-day journey in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday, May 23rd. After traveling for around 24 hours, Jess met me in the Hungarian airport where we took a metro to the city center and found our hostel. The hostel was welcoming, warm and full of happy students. We stayed at Hi-5 Partyish Hostel which I highly recommend. After a good nights sleep, we headed out to explore the city the next morning. We visited many places, including Andrassy Ut (essentially Budapest's Champs-Elysees), Heroes' Square, and Mathias Church- a picture of the diamond shaped colored tiles is below! Our last stop was one of the most popular tourist destinations in Budapest- the public baths. The Szechenyi Baths have three large pools with different temperatures, numerous other smaller pools and various facilities. We spent a large portion of the afternoon lounging in the baths before getting traditional Czech food at Kek Rozsa and feeling out the nightlife.
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| Szechenyi Baths |
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| Mathias Church |
That night the hostel organized a Ruins Bar Crawl, which was awesome. Quite a few bars in Budapest have been set up inside old, run-down buildings that used to function as tenement houses and factories. Many of the "Ruinpubs" move locations after a few years, and some are only open during the summer because there is no indoor space. Szimpla Kert (Simple Garden), one of the pubs we visited, was adorned with hundreds of plants and old furniture. One of the tables is made from an old Trabant car and a movie projector played old black-and-white films all night long.
While eating breakfast the next morning, Jess and I met two students from Iowa, Jay and Tyler ("Fox") who were studying in Germany but had traveled to Budapest for the weekend. After short introductions over coffee and cereal, the four of us headed to explore more of the city. We went to the largest market I had been to yet, walked around Buda Castle on Castle Hill and visited the House of Terror museum in Budapest (apparently not worth going to unless you utilize the audio tour- which we did not). Afterwards, our small group had dinner at the Hummus Bar (DELICIOUS) and headed back to the hostel to nap and freshen up.
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| View of Budapest from Castle Hill |
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| Jay, Jess and I at the Grand Market Hall |
Thanks to the hostel's organization, Jess, Jay, Fox and I went with a large group of students to a party in the baths. There is no way to fully, and vividly, describe a huge, steaming, roofless bath with hundreds of other people. Colored lights gently illuminated the whole pool and house music bounced off the walls. Drinks were allowed in the water and everyone just floated around the pool making friends and enjoying the atmosphere.
The next morning, circa 6 a.m., Jess and I hopped on a bus to Vienna. We locked our luggage at the train station and walked around the city before getting on a night train to Venice. Although exhaustion certainly had the best of us that day, Vienna was beautiful and worth visiting. Somewhere between our stop in the Vienna train station and arriving in Venice, I misplaced my camera. So, all the pictures I have on this blog post are Jess'.
Venice is probably my favorite city in Europe. The city abounds with short, winding roads that end and begin with canals. We explored Venice and went to Murano and Burano -- two islands off the main city. Murano has been the center of Venetian glass-making since the 13th century, and Burano is known for lace, brightly colored buildings and the fishing industry. According to legend, Burano fisherman painted their houses bright colors in order to easily identify them when returning home.
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| A view of Venice from the Rialto Bridge |
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| Burano |
After Venice, our next stop was Capri, Italy. We flew from Venice to Naples, took a bus from Naples to the Molo Beverello port, and hopped on a ferry which took us to Capri. The island was magnificent. We got lost getting to our B&B, which was much easier to find than we thought but at least we got a workout hiking our suitcases up a mountain (literally). We only had one full day in Capri, and we spent most of it enjoying the beach and Italian sun. The water was crystal clear and a bit chilly, but we didn't stay in it too long after spotting a few jellyfish. The island is famous for lemons, which was evident immediately. Lemons (fake and real) lined the entrance to stores and lemon decorated clothing, souvenirs and limoncello were available everywhere. Our last night at dinner the waiter gave Jess and I shots of limoncello made with fruit from his garden. Boy, that stuff was like candy.
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| Caprese Salad! |
The next stop was Rome, which we also managed to squeeze into one day. I know that seems impossible, but if you don't have the desire to stare at old buildings for hours, seeing the majority of Rome in one day isn't all that difficult. We bought a 24 hour metro pass to save time walking, and metro-hopped to all the major sites. At the end of the day, we visited the Vatican where we happened upon a sort-of mass. I don't think it was a traditional mass, because I have been to many, but the service was in Italian so I could be mistaken. Hundreds of people, including Jess and I, lit colored candles and repeated prayers. Pope Francis was seated about 20 rows in front of us, which made the ceremony even more exciting.
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| The Colosseum |
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| The Vatican |
We slept in the airport Friday night, and took an early flight to Amsterdam.
After walking around for a few hours and venturing through the red light district, we ended our day in Amsterdam early and arrived in Nijmegen Saturday evening. Jess and I toured Nijmegen before she left for Ireland on Tuesday to visit one of her childhood friends. Jay (who we met in Budapest) came to visit later that week, and Jess returned to Nijmegen on Thursday before she and Jay both left Friday- Jess to the US and Jay back to Germany. The trip with Jess was a success, minus my camera mishap. But since the only real damage in that sense was to my wallet, everything turned out okay.
