4.8.2011 - The trip to Budapest and Day 1 in Budapest

So, we are off. We took the train to Budapest today — a direct train from Zurich over Vienna to Budapest. This is a night train, so we tried to sleep in it, but found it rather hard because there were some girls from a handball team that were making one hell of a racket. When we finally could go to sleep, I was rudely awoken in the middle of the night by some guy with a baseball hat coming into our compartment. It seems he was looking for someone or something, but when he saw that I was awake, we went away again.

In the morning, we found out, that the people from the handball team were missing their things. I was wondering if it has something to do with the person coming in at night...

Something else happened, too. One of the Japanese people in our compartment was missing his ticket. The guy checking for our tickets seemed to be a rather gruff Hungarian type and was very suspicious and the Japanese guy got more and more flustered. After we all helped him search though, he finally found it.

Once we arrived in Budapest (about an hour late), we went pretty much to the Budapest Bubble straight away. Since it said in the guide to it that it was very inconspicuous we didn't really know if we would find it or not — but all of this was taken out of our hands when some random guy just talked to us. He said that he was one of the guys running the hostel and that he was worried that he hadn't heard from us. He thought that we would arrive much earlier (he was right, of course, since our train was late). It was really sweet that he had picked us up like that (the entrance to the hostel was secured by two looked doors and a number pad — talk about security) .Our room wasn't ready straight away, so the guy told us where we could find a really good restaurant, called “Rubens Restaurant”, with traditional Hungarian food. It's really recommendable.

After we got installed into our room we took a stroll down south to the Market Hall, just south of the Jewish District — a beautiful art nouveau building. Then we just walked around further north, visiting the Stefan's church with its dead hand of Saint Stefan displayed on a cushion behind glass, and its rather gorgeous view over the city. We walked to the house of Parliament with its red domes and towers; we strolled by shops and found a large, very crowded street with a lot of cars going through. It has to be said that the buildings were really impressive, and the whole character of the city very much reminded me of Vienna, but you could also see that WWII left it's marks. Most of them had some bomb marks and one building opposite the House of Parliament had a turned it's bullet holes into a memorial sculpture by making iron balls protruding from them.

By this time we were so far north that we wanted to take the tram back south, but there was no ticket machine to be found. A local told us that they are usually bought at the local kiosks, but somehow the kiosk seemed to be closed up. We asked some youths and they said that usually just about everyone took the tram without a ticket.

We took the tram until we arrived at a station with some restaurant ships docking at the border of the Danube. Since it was evening and we were starting to get hungry, we ate at what was called the “Columbus Etterem” (Etterem meaning restaurant). I found out that Hungarian food is really good, but mostly very salty. There is a lot of meat in Hungarian cuisine, but also cheese packed in breadcrumbs and filled paprika. When we left the boat (we had been dining on the after deck), we found that just after bar in the bowels of the ship there was a dance floor where a Milonga took place. Since Luke and I are both Tango dancers, we had to participate, of course.

After we came home, we were too tired to go out again, even though some of the people from the hostel went out for drinking.

5.8.2011 - Day 2 in Budapest: Gellert Hill, Nazis, Castles and some art

Today we climbed up Gellert Hill to visit Buda. The first thing we stumbled upon was a statue and Nazi Bunker turned into a museum. It had some very garish WWII photos and wax figures in Nazi uniforms to make it all more believable. That, together with the rather sombre and a tad mouldy rooms, was more than a little unsettling.

Back in the daylight we continued on to walk into Buda's castle area. A really beautiful, almost Disneyland-like setting with a lot of shops and stands selling that strange kind of sweetbread that is rolled up and covered with some random topping. The architecture there was a strange mixture between 70's buildings and old castle, all moulded into one. We walked past a woman playing the flute and visited a beautiful, almost fully restored church. We also managed to loose our city guide.

After a short stroll to through the old town, we walked downhill and took the tram to 'Andrassy Utca' ('utca' meaning street). Walking all the way down it, we arrived at a nice park with a big lake. There was some sort of art installation there (we came across adverts for it all across the city, so it was obviously a big deal). There about 15 or so different things on the lake. A house, a bench with a lantern you could sit on, a painted taxi, and empty swimming pool etc. You could rent boats to see the works up close, but there were so many people, that the wait would have taken too long. We walked on, through the park, through a set of nice buildings in the park which we found out were the Museum of Agriculture.

We also found out that the most famous Budapest bath house was at his park, but due to a misunderstanding we thought that it was already closed (later we would find out, that it's actually open till ten, if you know where the back entrance is — it is all very complicated, trust me). So, we returned to Andrassy street, and went to a book store or two to check if there were some good city guides, but I somehow couldn't decide on one. Finally ended up eating dinner at the most humongous shopping mall I have ever seen, the West End City Center (I actually found out later that it's the second biggest shopping mall in Europe — the biggest one being the Arena Plaza which is also in Budapest! This beckons the question: what do they need all those shops for? Especially since there are already plenty other shops, and other huge malls for that matter, in the city.). I ate something that was called 'Mákos guba' (Poppy seed bread pudding), a dish with soaked bread, a lot of poppy seeds, cherry sauce and vanilla cream. Delicious.

In the evening I went out with the people from the hostel. Overall a nice bunch of people. I mostly talked with James, an American from Tennessee, Jamie an Australian, Giles, a London game designer, travelling between jobs, and Michael, an American film maker. We were lead around by Dani, another Australian girl, living in London and working in this hostel for a month. Late in the evening, Michael had this rather insane idea to go and watch Transformers 3, in Hungarian, and drunk the next day. I have no idea why, but I agreed to go along.

6.8.2011 - Day 3 in Budapest

We decided to take a stroll over Margaret island, a large recreational park area, so large in fact, that you could rent a golf car like vehicle to get from one end to the other. We just decided to walk. The day was sweltering hot, so it was good to be under the trees. After the park we walked on to the Vazárely museum, an artist that Luke really liked. Interesting about this, was that apart from a normal ticket, you could also have a photo ticket, allowing you to make pictures of the paintings without a flash. I thought this was an interesting way of solving the whole “no photos allowed and I have a bad conscience if I take photos anyway” issue.

Then we took the green metro line to the Roman ruins, all the way in the north of the city. A dug out civil town made into a museum with two parts, one, rather modern and refurbished indoors part with jars and all manner of household objects, the other in the open with the ruins of the original city. It was rather huge, but the overall atmosphere was rather strange. Not only because we were just about the only guests there, but also because the parts of it still seemed to be under construction, the museum obviously waiting for fund money to refurbish the outdoor part. Some of the old museum buildings were there, but it had signs on them, telling you that they were closed and that if you entered you did it at your own peril.

After the museum, we took the green metro back to the hostel and then took the yellow line to the Széchenyi thermal bath. What's interesting about this line is that it's the oldest main land metro of Europe (and second oldest metro, apart from the tube of London). The first carts were actually pulled through the ducts by horses. At the bath in itself is an interesting experience. Finding the right entrance for evening bathing is hard in itself. And then, the thing is frigging huge! We were told that there were over 40 different pools of all water temperatures. So we just moved from pool to pool trying everything out. Also, the thing was old. It had iron doors that seemed to come right out of a submarine or a before 1900 asylum. Most of the metallic parts near the pools were heavily corroded because of the sulphur vapours. All in all, we had good fun, but since the bath closed only at 10pm we finally stayed rather long.

After the bath I was wondering if the others were now really going to watch Transformers 3 and if it wasn't already too late to join them. When we got back, we actually met them right on the street to the hostel and since I was still interested in trying something crazy like that, I hurried to get changed back in my room. Luke didn't want to come along, since there was alcohol involved, and, let's be honest, this movie is just unbearable without alcohol, so I went on my own. Since it had taken me quite a while to change (woman that I was), I was surprised to find the others at the local metro station. They had missed the metro and were now waiting for it. That meant we arrived at the cinema way too late and because we were still buying vodka at the kiosk near the Mammut shopping mall where the cinema was at. We also first went into the wrong hall, before we finally sat down into Transformers 3, before everyone else. My recollection of this film is a bit hazy, since we played a drinking game where you took one swallow of vodka every time a transformer transformed. After a while I just had to stop, and the bottle was empty all too quickly. After the movie we went to the same bar we had been previously and we talked until 4am, about movies and books, Hollywood and the game industry. Luke would have liked that...

7.8.2011 - Day 4 in Budapest and the trip to Belgrade

Today was the day where we left for Belgrade by train, but since it only left in the afternoon, we still wanted to do something in the morning. Since I had drunk a lot of water, I wasn't really hung over, even though I was a bit tired. We wanted to go and see the synagogue (the biggest one in Europe), but the queue was so long, we decided there wasn't enough time, and instead just walked around the Jewish quarter and had some humus for lunch.

We took the train ad midday, after a sad farewell at the Budapest Bubble. The train ride was strange. From time to time we saw smoke rising from the fields and wondered whether the farmers were burning their crops. The landscape very much reminded me of Greece or Italy.

We arrived late at the station. But even though it was dark, there were a lot of people about. We were greeted by a lot of taxi drivers, people who offered hostels and other services for trampers, but since we already had a hostel, and since it was very close, we just passed them by. Even outside the train station the streets were full of people — I guess it was true what the guide said, Belgrade was a city that came alive at night.

After dinner at McDonalds, we came to our hostel, which was really quiet and nice, even though we were right at the Brankova, a broad street with a lot of traffic. The landlord was a quiet, closed man. Since you couldn't hear a sound from the street, and since it was really hot, we decided to leave the window open — this proved to be a mistake, since there still were a lot of nightly sounds including chickadees, dogs and lovesick cats. So sleep was hard to come by.

8.8.2011 - Day 1 in Belgrade

We were greeted by the joyful landlady, which sat down with us at table and explained all the sights of Belgrade to us over tea. It really became clear that she loved this city and the people in it. She showed us everything on a map that we could keep and we went off with fresh start. However, she also explained to us, that there would be no breakfast — she stopped serving breakfast, since some English guys set her kitchen on fire and she had to renovate everything. Something I could understand.

Brankova was noisy as always as we made our way to the first fruit market we could find for some food. The stalls were trod down with use, and the people a little distant, but we didn't really care. We packed a lot of water, since it was going to be a hot day (at least 37°C or more). Seeing Belgrade for the first time by daylight, we saw that the streets were dirtier than in Budapest. There were homeless dogs sometimes walking the streets and when you walked on the side walks you had to pay attention that the air conditioners hanging outside the windows didn't drip on you. A lot of the houses were run down, but in most areas you could also see a lot of street art, sometimes filling whole walls. We would later find out that the street art is something of a tourist attraction of this city itself.

We took a bus up north on the other side of the Danube to Zemun through Novi Belgrade (mostly a sad complex of multi-storey apartment buildings). Near Zemun we walked through a few tidy streets of shops and apartment buildings, which was somehow surreal, since just about everything else outside this area was so dirty. We assumed that this was a tourist area. Zemun itself is on a hill and mostly domestic small houses and cobble stone streets. We walked all the way to the top of the hill to the tower there, but it was closed. When we took the bus back to the centre we realized where you bought tickets for it — at the small kiosk-like stands on the streets. And then you also have to stamp it, too, to make it valid. But apparently not having a ticket doesn't make you have to pay a fine, but just sends you off the bus.

Our next goal was St. Sava's cathedral and from the city centre we attempted to reach it by foot again, to see more of the city. Something that was quite impressive, since we walked by some houses that were bombarded by the NATO ten years ago and that hadn't been restored yet. St. Sava's cathedral itself is pretty impressive from the outside, but when we went in, we saw that it was actually not even finished yet. It was also interesting to find out that it was made from concrete and not stone.

Then we took the bus again, but since the bus network is so confusing, we went too far east and had to walk quite a bit to get back on track to your next goal — the Knetz Mihailova, the long pedestrian shopping street. Since we were not interested in shopping, we just walked down it to Kalemegdan Park and Belgrade Fortress.

We ate dinner at the Skadarlija, like every good tourist, which is part of the Bohemian part of the city, with lots of bands for every restaurant trying to outplay each other and stray cats begging for food.

9.8.2011 - Day 2 in Belgrade

We slept in.

From our hostel we walked north through an older part of Belgrade, visiting a small orthodox church. We ate lunch at the famous “?” pub. The food was good, but the only downside was that we were right under a window where we heard a woman scream at and hit her kid. So that was a little uncomfortable, to day the least. Then we walked through the city some more, along a street with a lot of traffic, but some nice parks and another orthodox church. I thought that it was good that the weather wasn't all that good on this day, since most orthodox churches have signs that you shouldn't wear skirts, short trousers and sleeveless shirts, since this is thought to be, well, unorthodox wear in such a place.

Next we went to the Nikolai Tesla museum, which was in an urban area of the city that looked really wealthy. Since you could only get into the museum as part of a tour and the next tour only started in 45 minutes, we strolled around a bit. The Nikolai Tesla museum was very interesting. A nice woman gave us a presentation of the various inventions Tesla made and a lot of special effects and fancy flashes were involved showing them off. What really surprised me, though, was that not only his models and some of his belongings like pocket watches and clothing were kept and exhibited in the museum but that the museum also displayed and urn with his ashes. Somehow that struck me as a bit morbid.

After that we wanted to go to the shopping mall (just because I love shopping malls, I guess).

10.8.2011 - Leaving Belgrade and travelling to Istanbul

Today was the day when we left Belgrade to take our train to Istanbul. This was to be our longest train ride yet: over 24 hours, and we didn't even expect our train to be on time. The landscape was again beautiful. A lot of green pastures and small houses and sometimes no people for miles. The land didn't look very wealthy, and I can't make any assumptions about the people and about what they think, of course, but I think that Serbians are lucky to have such a beautiful country.

There were two interesting things about this train: first whenever you entered a tunnel, it would not turn on any lights. This was both interesting and scary and a bit annoying, since I was trying to read. The other things, which was more of a problem was that there was no food. For us this was not so much of a problem, since we always bring sandwiches and other food stuff, but we had an American couple in the same compartment with us and they didn't bring anything at all. The only thing that there was on this train was a man in the very last cart in his own compartment that would sell you small bottles of water. However, it was communicated to us, that there was to be a stop at Niš, when people could buy food at the train station.

When it came to that, a rather funny and scary episode happened. We stayed in the train, but the two Americans got out, to buy food. And then the train suddenly started to move, even though they said that we would stop in Niš for at least half an hour. We found out that they were just moving the train to anther track for logistical reasons – but we were on the verge of throwing the backpack of our American travel companions out the window. Luckily all was well in the end, and they even got some food. But some were so stressed out by the event, that they didn't.

Another thing that happened, was that when we crossed the border from Serbia to Bulgaria we were woken up for passport control. There was also rigorous passport control when we crossed to the Turkish border, and we even saw that some people were retained.

11.8.2011 - Arriving in Istanbul

We arrived at the famous Sirkeci train station of the Orient Express line in the late afternoon, our train was about four or five hours late. But what did you expect from a train ride over such a distance. I was just happy that we had arrived at all.

After our arrival at the station, we made our way from the train station to our hostel in the Sultanahmet area. Again, the hostel was very good. The only problem about it was that it was right at the main tourist street, which was full of bars with loud music, something that would not be very good for our night's sleep in the end.

12.8.2011 - Day 1 in Istanbul

Our first day in Istanbul was all about sightseeing. We first went to the Hagia Sofia, and the church live up to its name. It still is the church with the biggest dome ever constructed, and even though most of the mosques in Istanbul tried to surpass it's greatness, none of them succeeded, this in turn lead to the fact that all mosques in Istanbul have more or less the same layout and are basically smaller version of the Hagia Sofia in different shapes and colours. All, of course, preceded by the Blue Mosque which we went to see right after the Hagia Sofia. The most impressive thing about the Hagia Sofia, however, is not, to me, the great dome, but that it's the first church where you can actually feel the age and the history, literally pressing down on you. It's in the half-destroyed mosaics, the the wall that were once over-painted and ravaged, not, the paint scratched away, restored to their previous glory. This church was heavier with history than any Roman town or Greek temple I have previously seen ever was.

After the experience of the Hagia Sofia, we walked up Divan Yolu Street, as many streets it was filled with stores on either side, selling lamps, salt and pepper mills, clothes, cloth, scarves, lacquered boxes, spices, kitschy calligraphy and much, much more. From there we walked through the Great Basaar, set of roofed over streets, which sell a lot of cheaply produced stuff for tourists. We played with the thought of buying something at some point, but finally didn't. The more interesting part of that area lay behind the Great Bazaar area anyway, namely a veritable maze of streets with stores which were much more run down, but at the same time much more seemed to be the place where the locals bought their things. There you found more of the everyday things like underwears and socks and cutlery. As in all cities with Islamic influences, these Bazaars were sorted into guilds. So you mostly had a street with clothes, another with lamps and again another with food. Another thing you found around and at the entrances of the bazaars where people selling small things, like spinning tops or perfumes. These are mostly people from the poor country areas that had to flee and try and make a living in the city. Since begging is out of the question they mostly are around tourist areas and sell petty things to make at least a little money. These sellers are also organized into guilds, mostly people who know each other from their home towns. So you find people selling bags of nuts in one area, and those selling small toys in another.

After the Great Bazaar we went to the Blue Mosque through the Sultan Ahmet Park, that had a huge plaza set in front with a separate little bazaar set up for the currently ongoing Ramadan. Women entering the Blue Mosque had to cover their heads out of respect and because the interior was carpeted, you had to go in bare foot, with your shoes in a bag. I was actually shocked to see how many people behaved most disrespectfully in the mosque. Taking off their towels, speaking out loud while other people were praying etc.

Back outside, Luke had an ice cream, which is a little funny, since ice cream vendors always try to make a fool of you. Then we went back up to our street to have some dinner in a restaurant. The choice was a hard one; in front of very restaurant there was a guy who tried to draw you in and who shouted out to you to come eat at his place. When we came to know this street and the people working there a bit better over the course of our stay, I talked to one of the guys for a longer time and found out that most of them were students, working there when they didn't have a lot to do to earn extra money. We finally chose a restaurant on the roof with a view of the ocean and in the course of our dinner, we even saw dolphins, swimming there.

13.8.2011 - Day 2 in Istanbul

On our second day in Istanbul we visited Gülhane Park and the Topkapı Palace or Topkapı Sarayı, the residence of the Ottoman Sultans for over 400 years, a huge structure, which we wandered through pretty much all day until we really had enough. Topkapı Palace is one of these things that you just have to see for yourself in all its splendour. There are kitchens, congress rooms, small museums, living areas of the royalty, al really well preserved. The harem area and a small area with royal clothes, weapons and jewellery costs extra, but are worth it, even though you can't take pictures.

After the palace, we took the tram to Eminönü and then walked around a bit until we found the Egyptian or Spice Bazaar. Then we walked all the way South towards the sea shore. It was full of fishermen, people selling packets of pistachio nuts, people sitting around and (as everywhere) cats. And lots of them.

In the evening we ate dinner at another of those restaurants close by again.

14.8.2011 - Day 3 in Istanbul

Today we took the tram, crossing the Galata Bridge to Beyoğlu. The south was quite deserted and we just wandered through the narrow and winding streets up the hill towards Galata tower. From there we had a nice view over the city. To our surprise we found a Migros when we came back down and went shopping for food there.

After that we took the Tünel train to the Istiklal, the main shopping street for the locals and lost ourselves in an electronics store of at least five stories. There was a strange incident with smoke coming from a sewer lid in the middle of the street and we decided to flee that area as quickly as possible. Wandering further north we came to a park with a cable car and a lot of expensive looking hotels in it, then a bunch of streets that looked like business areas and finally we landed at the Cevahir Mall, another of those huge shopping malls. As we had walked so much today we decided to take the metro back home.

In the evening we took another walk through Sultan Ahmet Park. A great experience, since it was Ramadan and so it was chuck full of people eating there at night.

15.8.2011 - Day 4 in Istanbul

Our plan today was first to go east towards Aksaray and look at the aqueduct there. But we soon found out that there was not much more than that to see, so we wandered north towards the Golder Horn again and took the ferry from Galata bridge over the Bosphorus towards Üsküdar.

Now, Üsküdar is mainly residential areas and areas that are not for tourists at all, which was a nice break of all the shouts of people who wanted to sell you something or constantly asked you if you wanted to eat at their restaurant or if you were lost. In the sweltering heat we also found a cemetery with a nice and shady spot where we could eat something. I found it interesting to see that people in the cemetery where not buried were still nearly the same as with our cemeteries. When we came back to the shore that evening after a long walk, we emerged down at the harbour of Harem and took the ferry back to Sirkeci from there.

16.8.2011 - Day 5 in Istanbul

This was to be the day when we would finally take a boat ride through the Bosporos, up to the very north and then back to the south again. Along the way we saw all kinds of things.

Our first stop was Ortaköy and the mosque there. We were allowed to take a quick gander through the village and then we moved on, under the first Bosporos bridge, the Boğazıçı Köprüsü, that connects the residential areas with the business areas and thus always has a lot of commuting traffic over it in the mornings and evenings. Next was the Küçüksu Sarayı, a palace much younger than the Topkapı Sarayı, where the Sultans of the end of the 19th century showed riches that their kingdom actually no longer possessed. It was very luxurious and I'm a bit sad that we couldn't take pictures.

Next stop was the Rumelian Castle or Rumelihisarı, a fortress built in the 15th century. İt Was built at the narrowest part of the Bosphorus opposite another fortress to control sea traffic and at some point during a battle, a chain was spanned a across the ocean to prevent ships from entering Istanbul — as a counter measure the then attacker moved the ships over land and attacked the city with a fleet anyway.

After that there was food on the ship, while we moved further up north along the coast, passing the second Bosphorus bridge. The houses there are among the most expensive in Turkey. They are right at the coast and look extraordinarily beautiful, made from wood as they are.

In the late afternoon, when we almost reached the opening towards the Black Sea, we could take a bath. After that everyone was mostly too tired to do anything any more and the boat returned downstream to Istanbul at a much quicker pace. I took the time to have a long and nice conversation with a few German ladies on board, Luke took the time to sleep.

In the evening we selected another restaurant from the ones on “our” street.

17.8.2011 - Day 6 in Istanbul

Today was a break day, we just stayed in and around our hotel room to read and do nothing for a change.

18.8.2011 - Day 7 in Istanbul

Since we had seen most of the city by now, we wanted to take these last few days to venture to areas further outside of Istanbul. Our first such destination was the Adalar or Prince's Islands, a small set of islands in the Sea of Marmara. We took a ferry there in the early in morning, since it takes a few hours to get there. We got off at Büyükada, the biggest of the islands, and our plan was to find the monastery there, but we finally didn't find it. What did find, however, was a measure of peace. The special thing about those islands is that apart from horse carriages and bikes, vehicles are not permitted and so you have no traffic to speak of — and as soon as you get out of the harbour area and the few streets of residential houses, you get pine forests and only from time to time a house. And no people. All in all it would be a great place to live, I would think.

In the afternoon we were also trying to find a beach, but the only thing that only resembled one remotely was a small concrete and cobble stone strip with chairs – and people even charged about 10 Euros for even that. A bit disappointed we took a hourse carriage back to the harbour. There we had ice cream to console our spirits.

The trip with the ferry home held a nice surprise for us. Knowing the tourist boats, hundreds of sea gulls were following us and, of course, since people liked them so much, they were fed bread and all other kinds of things.

19.8.2011 - Day 8 in Istanbul

Our final whole day in Istanbul was again under the theme of relaxation. We finally wanted to find a nice kind of beach and since they could only be found on the Black Sea, we took a bus and later a dolmuş (a sort of bus where you can get in any time if you just wave and you pay a fixed price fee) to a beach all the way in the north. The journey was actually longer than our stay there, but the to travel there was an interesting experience.

20.8.2011 - Day 9 in Istanbul

On our final day we didn't do much else but pack and get to the airport by train. The problem was we missed our plain because we missed check in – so we had to rebook to another one.