Good Grief, 5:25 am is EARLY

We got up at 4:45 am and hustled around in order to get down to the shuttle at 5:25 am. There were no other passengers and no traffic, so we were at the airport just after 6 am for our 8:25 am flight. Argh, we could have slept in a little longer!

The flight to London was not quite full, so Bridget and I had an empty seat between us, making it more comfortable. Except for shoving down the breakfast, we both slept the entire flight.

The layover in Heathrow passed quickly, what with bussing between terminals, getting boarding passes, and eating lunch. In no time we were in the air and on the way to O'Hare.... and 18 hours after walking out of Robin's apartment, I was in my own apartment with a very happy (and very hoarse!) cat.

Now - to unpack and post pictures!!!!

The Final, Action-Packed Day

By 10 am we were out the door of our Pension, having said "Tschuss!" to the owner. We dropped our bags in a locker at the train station and went to the Naschmarkt, which is a combination of farmers market, food stores, and restaurants. The herb plants for sale were lush and beautiful; I'm sure that it would take me longer to kill one of them than the ones I get in Chicago! And the cheese stalls made me salivate, there was such a beautiful variety. But I had pigged out on salami & bread for breakfast, so wasn't hungry. Bridget, on the other hand, was, so we stopped at a seafood restaurant (Nautilus) where she had shrimp on pasta with pesto. Even I had to admit that the shrimp looked gorgeous!

After eating, we headed for the Leopold Museum, getting distracted by stores only twice along the way. :-) I had a bit of trouble with my purchase, as the shopowner couldn't get either credit card to work at first. I thought it was her, until we got to the museum and discovered that the MasterCard network was down. Bridget was out of Euros, so we decided to skip the museum and head back to the train station so I could have lunch.

We walked out onto the main road by the train station and found a little restaurant. I ordered a beer I had never seen before, and Bridget ordered a glass of wine. When our drinks came, I discovered that the beer had a fruity flavor (according to the brewer's website, "Almradler is a cosy refreshment made out of 50% Puntigamer Beer and 50% Almdudler herbal juice.") so I suggested that Bridget taste it - and she liked it! So we shared it. The second beer Bridget drank on this trip! I also had frankfurters and apfelstrudel, both of which were delicious and a perfect note on which to leave Vienna.

The train back to Budapest was packed - we grabbed 2 seats in a compartment with 3 guys in their 20s. They turned out to be from Rotterdam, and we had a nice time chatting with them on the way, which helped to make the 3 hour ride pass more quickly.

When we arrived in Budapest, it took a moment to remember our few words of Hungarian and the right stop to get off the metro! We filled Robin in on our doings in Vienna since she had left us, then took a few final pictures before heading out for our last dinner together. The food was absolutely delicious, even the hamburger that Bridget dared to order!

I headed back to the apartment to pack while Bridget & Robin went for one last drink. It was after midnight before we all got to sleep - our pickup time of 5:25 am was going to come quickly!

Exploring Vienna

Having gotten a good night's sleep in our completely dark (no windows!) room, we set off at 10 am to climb the bell tower of the Stephansdom. We had mentally prepared for 343 steps and were a little let down to discover there is actually an elevator - but quickly got over it! The view from the top was very beautiful and we took a lot of pictures.

We then set off for the Freud Museum. Having looked at the map, we decided to take the tram there. We neglected to notice that we had to get off at the Rathaus, though, and rode quite some way off the beaten path before realizinfg our mistake. As it dawned on us that we needed to retrace our steps, we noticed a cute little restaurant and decided to regroup over lunch & drinks. The staff didn't speak English, so I got to practice my German some more, and the owner gave us a visual explanation of the fried egg special by bringing out an egg and a jar of olive oil, and pretending to smash the egg. After that, I had to order the special of friend egg, pureed spinach and potatoes - it was yummy!

After discussion with the restaurant staff and then the tram driver, we hopped back onto the tram and headed back where we came from, getting off at the right place this time. As we walked to the Freud Museum, we took a detour into an eyeglass shop, where the owner was delighted that Bridget called one pair of glasses "hot." He was very enthusiastic in talking about the different styles and we had a lot of fun trying some on.

Eventually we focused on our goal again and made it to the Freud Museum. It was nicely done, with a looong written guide to the exhibits, which consisted mostly of photos and some small objects. There were two rooms that had been restored to the way they appeared when Freud lived there.

Next, we headed to the Hundertwasser Haus. When we got off the stop, there was a little food market so we got some food; Robin and I got sausages - a cheese sausage for her and a Debreziner for me. Both were yummy and reenergized us for the walk over to the building. It was as crazy and amazing to see in person as the pictures I had seen online. We also went to the Kunsthaus nearby, where you could actually go in the first floor and walk on his wavy floors. Crazy!

Robin then headed back to Budapest, and Bridget and I decided to get dinner. We went to Wieden Brau, which brews its own beers. Since this was my 4th meal of the day, I decided to get something light and ordered the potato pancakes (!). I also had two types of their beer, both of which were very good. Bridget orded the sausages which, as you can see in the picture, were wrapped in bacon - mmmm, yummy!!! We were very full and content after our meal, and headed to the Pension to rest up for our last full day.

Wir sind in Vien!

A sigh of relief at last - back in a country where, although I am not fluent, I do speak the language. Which was tested almost immediately at the train station information booth - I started in German and asked the guy if he spoke English, to which he replied in German, "Yes, but you speak German." LOL!

Checking in to our pension also was a challenge, as our hostess did not speak English and her German was a dialect that was tough for me to understand. But we managed to get across all of the information we needed. Once R joined us, we headed off down the main street... where I bought a pair of eyeglass frames! They are very cool and I can't wait to get lenses put in them at home.

We continued down the street and ended up at a restaurant with lots of outdoor seating. The beer was delicious, as was my wienerschnitzel.

After dinner, we hopped on the U-Bahn and wandered around the Innere Stadt (inner city), where the Stephansdom, Opera House, and many other wonderful sights are located. We saw the former winter palace/current Spanish Riding School. All of the buildings were very beautifully lit, and it looked like a fairy tale.

We went back to our room and giggled for quite some time, as the shower stall was in the room, which was a bit odd. Also - there were no windows and abosultely no light - very weird! Eventually, we settled down to get a good sleep for our full day of Vienna adventure.

Bratislava

We spent 24 hours in Bratislava, which is a gorgeous city architecturally. Unfortunately we ran in to quite a number of rude people there, which dampened our spirits a bit. On the upside, we also ran into several very kind and helpful people, so on balance it was okay.

The old town is all pedestrianized and very beautiful. We wandered around looking at the buildings for quite some time. We had a great Slovak lunch of dumplings, pierogi, and Slovak pierogi which is deep fried. For dinner we had a light snack at a bar: crepes with duck liver and chicken wings, both of which were very tasty.

Getting out of Bratilava was a challenge, as we had no idea we needed to go to a different train station from the one at which we arrived. After a conversation with a lot of miming, we worked it out and got on a bus to the other station, making it just in time to get on the train that was about to pull out. One hour later, we arrived in Vienna!

Last Day in Budapest

Today was the last full day in Budapest.

I started the day with.... WORK. Yes, it's true! I met with a gentleman from the PILI here in Budapest for about an hour. It was a really great meeting and I'm glad I took the time to fit it in.

After my meeting, I did a little shopping for souvenirs. I found a little wine shop in a courtyard basement, and the guiy there was really nice and informative. He told me about a restaurant that the wine shop owned, and it sounded very tasty. As did the 2 bottles of wine I bought. :-)

I called R after that and discovered that she & Bridget were VERY hungry and wanted out of the apartment (the outer gate was locked). So, I took pity & headed back. I filled them in on the restaurant, and we decided to go there for lunch.

WOW. The wine was awesome, the food was awesome, the service was awesome. We were all completely happy. The waiter took a picture of us behind the bar after we ate, and encouraged us to grab bottles to hold for our picture.

After lunch, we hit the streets for more souvenir shopping. I think I bought 3 scarves in the space of 5 minutes! We went back to the wine shop; I was pleased to give them more business. We wandered around until it was time to go home and pack up for tomorrow - off to Bratislava!

"Where There is Love, There is Herb"

Bought our train tix to Bratislava yesterday - I feel much better now that's done. And we had to go to the train station we leave from to buy them, so I got in a dry run to the station.

The first big activity of the day was the Terror House, a museum dedicated to the terrors inflicted by the Nazis, post-Nazi government, and the Communists. The museum had a special exhibit on Katyn, a massacre of Poles by the USSR in WWII, that was VERY wordy but well put together. We spent at least an hour in that. The main exhibits were also well done - it's really sad what people will inflict on each other. The most shocking piece, though, was the list - with pictures! - of the victimizers at the end. Some of the people on the list are still alive; I can't imagine they are too pleased about being included.

Next, we started toward the City Park & the baths. We found out the subway was closed, though, apparently due to a big demonstration at Heroes Square. We made our way through the crowd on foot, and some things seem to be the same in every culture: we witnessed a guy peeing under a bridge, and another guy (with a Bob Marley t-shirt) smoking a joint. The Bob Marley guy was kind enough to take a picture of the three of us, and when R asked where to find ganja in Budapest, he said "It is everywhere. Where there is love, there is herb." Too funny!

By the time we reached the park, were starved. So we had lunch at what was probably the nicest restaurant so far, and where all of the employees are women!

After lunch we headed to the baths. The waitress had told us they are open until 10 pm, which made us happy as we wanted to soak under the stars. The thermal baths were very cool, although there are so many pools we had a hard time finding them all! The indoor mineral pools were very nice, but steamy, so we couldn't tolerate them as long. We ended up sitting in the warmest outdoor pool for most of the time. Afterwards, we all felt refreshed and ready to take on our last day in Budapest.