Summer Continued in Budapest and in Slovakia!

And so, after Warsaw we flew in to Budapest. I can't say that I can tell you much about it though. We honestly didn't have that much time, and we spent most of it just taking the tours around the city. They're free, and quite worth taking.

The morning tour, would be the Peace, Democracy (and something) walk. Basically taking you through history in terms of Hungary being ruled by the Soviet Union, the Nazis.. etc. The afternoon tour is about Budapest in general.

I would say that I did enjoy learning about the history of Budapest. And this is one society, I realised, that draws a lot upon the symbolism of things. Each statue is symbolic, and each act is too.

Take this fountain for example. It symbolises the democracy of the country. If you're far away from it, the fountain is up high (see the water level on the right of the picture). Come near it, the fountain disappears and you can walk inside it. Once inside, it will rise again, and it represents bars (like a prison cell).

But then the beauty of it is that, in a democratic society, people are free to come and go as they see fit, unchained by the political realities of the day, because the people ARE the backbone of society. So as easily as you can imprison yourself, you can also walk out of the prison by walking near it (the level will go down) and step out.

Another (cheesy) example. The locals here believe that if you take a lock, and lock it to the bridge (they have multiple) and throw the key into the river, your love will last forever. And so they write their names on the locks as well. It's rather sweet, if you think about it.

Those, among other things. It's really a beautiful city. A must go. Would have loved to spend more time there. Go to the hot baths and all. But there was no time!

However, a VERY good eat was at this restaurant called Ruben. Do go there if you're in Budapest.

And as for Slovakia (we went to Bratislava).. I must say that there is nothing much to see there. It's pretty though! Some historical sights here and there... But yeap. The interesting place was this church. It's really different and it looks like a place out of Alice in Wonderland.

Yeah. It's a marshmallow blue. Kids were playing Hogwarts outside it! And as for the good eats (and trust me, they're REALLY good)

The Slovak Pub

Verne

So well, for Slovakia, it's a slow-paced place. Nothing much to see (it's so tiny!) but the food is good. Budapest though, is a place to go. Slovakia? 5 out of 10. Budapest, 8. :)

P.s. I don't know why the pictures turned out weird (for the marshmallow church).

Summer Begins, with a little bit of Warsaw

The first installation of my travelling begins in Warsaw, Poland! I didn't have much time to do anything else but pack after my exams before I got on a plane with my travel buddies and jet-set off to holiday fun. We got there rather early and began to explore the place. If you happen to be a traveller in Europe, do check out this site: http://www.use-it.be/europe/ . It has the locals' input on things to see and to explore in a particular place. With that map in hand, we began to walk the old town. 

It looks a little small, but actually, it really is quite small. You can probably walk and see almost everything in the old town within a day as everything is actually quite close to one another.

Another curious thing was the number of churches that were there. What's so special about churches you say? Well, maybe it was the fact that we passed by so many, and in every single one of them, a wedding procession was taking place. One in the morning/afternoon when we walk past it, and another in the evening when we return to the place we had rented out.

After a bit of walking, we happened to chance upon the filming of a movie. It should be a local film, and a rather small production, but it was exciting to see nonetheless. The 'shooting of guns' and 'dying people' and all the old vehicles. We stood on top of a short wall to see what was going on. 

I must say that while the old town is rather beautiful and easily covered within a day, the other attractions in this city aren't exactly very near one another. Once you move out of the old town, the exciting bits are far away from one another, and it can be quite a hassle to walk there. We took half an hour to walk to the Chopin museum (we stayed in the old town), and an hour to walk to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Not very pleasant if you happen to be unfit.

This is the picture of the Jewish Ghetto. When they were still prosecuting the Jews, the idea was that they should cram thousands of Jews into just two building blocks, so as to isolate them from the rest of the community before transporting them to Auschwitz. Many died, and the pictures that you can see are of some of the people who had lived and died there.

Here are some of the places that we visited that were definitely worth going/doing:

- The Jewish Ghetto

It is a part of history that we should never forget. I wish we had a guide with us to explain a little about the history of the place, butttttttttttttt, fortunately, we had our history buff (she happens to do International History at my University, and she does particularly take an interest in Jewish history) there to tell us a bit of what she knew and to explain the time line and other things.

- The old town

Walk around, take in the sites. There happened to be a little flea market sort of thing going on at the main square when we were there

- The Chopin Museum

It has a certain charm to it. This is one place which I feel only people who appreciate classical music should go to, or, if you are one of those people who takes a particular interest in Chopin himself. It really is a story about his life, his friends, his music... everything. You can sit there and listen to his music and not budge for a really long time at certain stations in the museum. Well worth the visit. And here's a little spoiler: Bet you didn't know that Chopin was a bit of a ladies' man. He had lots of lovers, but was passionate and torn inside, not being able to feel like he could live after a woman has left him. 

- The Warsaw Uprising Museum

Historical, interesting. I don't know how to describe this place, but it is a must go. I suppose it's not a place you would take young children to. I just don't think that young children can appreciate this sort of thing, and it's not very interactive to stimulate their minds. Lots of facts and artefacts and short films to see, but I can hardly imagine how it would keep a young child entertained. 

- FOOD

You absolutely HAVE to go to this place called Podwale Restaurant. The food there is fantastic, and value for money. My pork knuckles didn't even cost me 10 Euros! Everything that my friends and I ordered came out absolutely delicious, and we liked it so much that we came back the next night to have dinner there again! It's great how the waiter understood English and everything. 

If you want to take a trip down history, you could also visit one of the few milkbars (I have no idea why they call it that) too. They are communist canteens. Well, I meant it in a way that they used to be canteens where people could come and buy food while Poland was still under the communist regime. Can't say that I like the food very much in those milkbars, but it's worth a try!

OH, and for some reason, there seems to be a national love for ice-cream. Everyone is practically walking around with a cone in hand. Ice-cream shops at every turn and corner!

Here are some things you either don't want to do, or would want to spend very little time doing:

- Stalin's Empire State Building

It's just a landmark. Nothing special here. Just take a picture of the place and go. It's quite pretty though, but rather underwhelming. 

- FOOD

DO NOT go to this restaurant called Restaurant Boruta. Service is horrible, and we waited a good hour to get our food. Let's not mention that it took half an hour for my drink to come. The food wasn't even good. Measley portions (I could feed a goldfish with that). And it was expensive. Tourist trap for sure. 

That pretty much sums up our trip at Warsaw. We also visited 3 other cities; Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna. More about those later. 

If you're travelling and looking for a place to stay in Warsaw, I really recommend this place that we stayed at. It's called Design City Apartments (you can google this online to check it out). 50/5 Freta. Comfortable, pretty, well-furnished.. the works. The couple who owns the apartment is really friendly. There is a kitchen, fully equipped with the stove and cooking appliances.. They even give you coffee and tea! Bargain? Yup. Definitely. 

Warsaw as a destination?

Well, we were only there for 2 days. It didn't impress me much on the first day, but on the second day it kind of grew on me. I do like this place, but it wouldn't occur to me to come back a second time. If this is your travel destination then I'd say that a traveller should only spend about 2 days at this place.

P.s. Taking cabs are kind of pricey (they know you're a tourist who can't speak their language and they can't speak English either, and hence.. you get the idea). Be prepared to walk, and be prepared to walk far. 

On a scale of 10 (1 being bad and 10 being great), I'd rate Warsaw as a 6.5

Hiatus

Just one more exam until I'm free to do get out there and have fun again. But til that time next week, it'll just be me, my books, and coffee. Bring it on! So much of the world out there to see, but for the moment I'm stuck here in my room. Ah well. 

Who would have thought that we'd live to see the end?

Oh, and my friends and I have taken to drawing on coffee cups during this exam period. You might see more of them coming up. Coffee cup doodling. Hehe.