It has been quite a while since my last post here … much has happened, and little time has been spent online. I will try to give a brief summary, though I have to note that I cannot use an apostrophe, and my z and y keys are messed up on the keyboard. Bear with me.
Split, our final destination in Croatia was disappointing. The scenery that we took in on the 4 hour drive there was amazing, but, the city itself was disappointing. Our accommodation was comical … we were given the shaft by our first choice, and got farmed off to his friends sisters house. Crappy overpriced place, but, at least for 40 dollars, she gave us a ride to the airport in her 18 year old Yugo. The saving grace for Split was that we tried Cevapi and Burek, two local foods that Wes suggested … well worth it. Cheap and filling, which makes for ideal travel food. That was Split.
We flew on Wizz Air, Eastern Europes leading discount airline, or at least so they told us. The plane was pink, the service was decent, at least for cheapo airlines, and the landing was … well, we landed, so, in Budapest we were. Before long, we were being given the shaft again … we had booked online with a hostel, who ended up stuffing us into a nice apartment a little out of the way, on our own, without any contact with people who could help us out. Why did we need help? Because we were dumb enough to fly into Budapest on a Saturday afternoon … practically the entire city closes down for the weekend after noon on Saturday … who knew? To add to the fun, it rained like mad all afternoon. Dumb tourists were stuck in their apartment, without food, without knowing if we could drink the water, and generally speaking, without a clue. This rough start to Budapest did not set us in the best frame of mind for the rest of our time there. In the end, we saw a few sites, and were happy with the infrastructure of the city, but, ended up with less than we were hoping for. Such is life.
An easy, comfortable train ride took us to Vienna, Austria. This was a bit of a late entry into the travel plans … happened more because it was close to other things than because of any strong desire to go there. For the first time in a while, we found that our booked accommodations were as promised … the location was good, the room was clean … all we really wanted. Two days of exploring left us wanting more … it is a beautiful city, and one that we will surely visit again when we have more time to enjoy it fully.
To the present, in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. It took pretty much a full day of travel … three trains and 8 hours to get from A to B. Not the most exciting day of the trip so far, but, the scenery was decent and the rides uneventful. Cesky Krumlov was another late entry into the trip … our guide book recommended it, describing it as the most picturesque town in all of Europe. Big praise. We arrived late yesterday afternoon in the rain, and it has rained off and on since. It seems like a nice enough little town, though the less than ideal weather and countless thousands of tourists take a little of the joy away. On the bright side, we did see a full tour group of Chinese tourists marching about the streets last night in full Medieval wardrobe. No idea what the story behind that was, but, it was funny to see.
Off tomorrow afternoon for Prague, and in a few short days we will be making the return trip to Scotland, and within a week, we will be back on North American soil. Kind of mixed feelings about that of course, but, it will be nice to take a break for a little bit. As funny as it sounds, I think that we will take some sort of a vacation once we get home, to unwind from the wear and tear of travel.