City Review

By Jen Hawse on City Review, Europe tagged City review, Culture, Europe, Heritage, Ireland, love, travel

Spin Again! — Traveling from Ireland to Back Home

Let’s continue on our journey through Western Europe. You are now arriving in Dublin, Ireland! Please keep your seatbelts fastened until the aircraft has come to a complete stop. We hope you enjoyed your flight. Welcome to Ireland!

Ireland, every inch of Ireland, is an overflowing flower pot.

All the streets, in all the towns we went in Ireland, embrace the rains and plant vibrantly colored flowers on buildings, sidewalks, and in every nook and cranny they can, just to brighten up your day. But, no matter how vibrant, all the beautiful flowers in the world couldn’t compare to seeing my mom and Aunt Monica for the first time in 10 months! Before Jason and I left we made a plan to meet with my mom in Ireland sometime in 2017. In February, it was decided we’d do a week long tour from Dublin to Shannon with Aunt Monica, our resident photographer and ever cheerful compadre. Ireland, unlike Germany, is a place where I really do hold heritage and it was fun to see my mom’s maiden name in various locations throughout the country.

The tour was jam packed and we always felt like we were on the move, so I’m very grateful we schedule a day before and after to chill out together before moving on. Seeing the Cliffs of Moher was a check off the old bucket list, as was having a Guinness and listening to Irish music in a poorly lit pub. Dirty old town. It’s amazing how much of one country you can see in a little more than a week. Next time, we’ll move at our own pace, and revisit all little spots we fell in love with.

Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is home.

Before leaving Ireland I was feeling pretty stressed out. We’d been traveling for so bloody long and felt drained, lonely, and done. In December of 2016, a women in Scotland reached out to us on WorkAway and asked if we’d like to stay with them over the summer of 2017. We were in the process of looking for a place to work/live in Australia, so work-trade was already top of mind. I reviewed the profile and thought it felt like a great fit for us, so I said yes and we planned the entirety of our time in Europe around being in Scotland for mid-July through early August. As the time approached to do our WorkAway I felt very resistant to going, but we’d made a commitment so go we went.

After spending two days in Glasgow, mostly getting Jason a raincoat, we took a bus up the Scottish countryside all the way to the tip top of the country, by the North Sea. There, we were greeted by Mike, one of our hosts for the next three weeks. Him and Rosie have a smallholding operation with a variety of animals, garden products, and lots of land to manage. They share the property with Rosie’s dad, a charming and energetic 90 something year old man with early stages Alzheimer’s, and their four dogs: Jasper, Maddie, Sprout, and Ruby. There’s also Raffles and Harry, the donkeys, Tino and Emily, the unique sheep, and Huey, Dewy, and Lewy, the more common sheep, plus a boatload of chickens.

Top Left: went to a county fair that had a car show as part of it. Top right: Took Jason to a scotch distillery for his birthday and this is the view from the distillery door. Bottom left: squinty selfie on the beach of the North Sea. Bottom right: well groomed horse from the fair.

Rosie and Mike provided more than just a place to stay and meals to eat during our Scottish days — they became lifelong friends of Jason and myself. They love having a big group of people around their table for meals, sharing stories and jokes. They love to joke and Mike has the best sense of humor. Generally, they have four WorkAways at a time living in their home. This meant, for Jason and I, that we met four new friends from the world over in addition to our hosts. Jodie is an early 50’s “retired” dentist from Colorado, traveling with a mission to care for animals and see the world. Vicki is a nurse from Australia who had been living in the UK for years, and decided she needed a break, so she quit her job and started working on the farm. Laura is training to be a vet and is a spunky Spaniard. She was looking to improve her English skills and so was Steffi, a German economist turned school teacher. These last two came at the same time and formed a tight bond, which Jason and I enjoyed being part of as well.

Left: Jazzy J the terrier standing guard. Top Right: My poor cake. Bottom Right: A walk in the woods.

Jason celebrated his birthday while we were in Scotland and I made him a terrible cake. Now that I’m obsessed with the Great British Bake Off I’m even more embarrassed with myself! No one seemed to mind though and the tacos Jason and I made together were a smashing hit! Rosie and I formed a tight bond. We have some unique similarities and she is so exceptional at being a great listener and asker of important questions. I miss her very much.

While I’d love to tell you more about our time in Scotland, I’ll wrap it up with a little musing that sums up how it felt to go:

It’s a great honor to be heartbroken
It’s a privilege to give your heart away
To love without limits
To give while knowing it’s over too soon
A blessing and a curse

We were so lucky to have so many rainbows

Barcelona, Spain, is architecture alive.

The details that lace the building take my breath away. While I have no religion, being here makes me want to run my hands along the doorways and pray.

Barcelona is a stamped out grid shaped city, which you can clearly see from above, but in the streets it doesn’t feel as sterile as that sounds. In fact, one particular architect helped shape much of Barcelona’s unique structure, Gaudi. Inspired by both God and nature, Gaudi’s work is still under construction today at La Sagrada Familia, a church that will take 145 years in total to construct. We didn’t think we’d be able to visit after stopping by on Thursday and being told tickets weren’t available till Sunday, but we were able to grab two and step inside this masterpiece.

Tapas — every meal should be tapas. Small, sharable, bite-sized snacks eaten with an alcoholic beverage. They’re everywhere in Barcelona. Other enviable cultural traits include relaxed work and sleeping schedules. Siestas are real and alive in Spain, making for a happier populous. Having a beach in the city isn’t too shabby either. It was Jason and my first topless beach experience and, my goodness, was it eye-opening!

Top Left: gothic church. Bottom Left: meat snack! Top Right: leg of ham. There’s a ham museum in Barcelona, so they take this very seriously. Top Middle: Auto garage door. Most garage doors are painted with murals, so this is a common sight. Bottom Right: dragon in a church

Barcelona has the world’s greatest street art, in my humble opinion. As you have most likely noticed, it’s a hobby of mine to photograph street art in every city I go. The caliber and abundance of Barcelona’s street art is rivaled by none other.

I could do a post completely dedicated to street art.

As most of you know, Barcelona suffered a tragic terrorist attack four days after we left. What you most likely didn’t know is the day after the attacks La Rambla, where the attacker plowed his car into a group of people, overflowed with even more individuals that ever thought possible. La Rambla is the main tourist street in Barcelona and they did not let terrorism win after the deadly attack took place. My heart goes out to Spain.

Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona (not Paris)

Bordeaux, France, is rosé.

Top Left: Beautiful lighting at night. Top Right: Grapes are a way of life and a clothing choice. Bottom Left: narrow alleyways. Bottom Right: French dining is the best dining

Bordeaux is a place I felt necessary to visit so that I could learn to better appreciate wine. I realize saying this is akin to saying, “I went to the bakery to appreciate cookies and cakes.” Unless you’re broken, you should appreciate some cookies and cakes and, unless my tastebuds don’t work, I’ll appreciate wine in Bordeaux. While red wine isn’t my thing, rosé is! In the states, rosé seems to be a lesser wine, but not so in most of Europe and especially not in France. God bless the French, for all of their wines range from perfectly palatable to downright mind blowing.

Bordeaux isn’t solely about wine, it’s also about food. French food. Do you know who created fine dining? The French. Hate them for whatever jealous reasons you may have, but the French know how to eat, drink, and be alive. While not every meal was the greatest, we did have some unbelievable food throughout France. Like mussels and escargot and pork belly and steak tartar… Sadly, because we went in August, the best restaurants were closed so their chefs could go on vacation. Good for them, poor for us, but that just gives us yet another reason to return.

Top: Who doesn’t love a carousel? Bottom left: these naked man statues were all over the place. Bottom Right: Our first two bottles of vino

We found a great cooperative space in Bordeaux. It had workspaces for various professions, from offices to auto mechanics, and included a restaurant and art space. There was an art installation about cruelty to animals that really hit home. All of the street art here was strikingly well done! Heaven!

Paris, France, is pure romance.

A postcard from Paris. To you, with love, from me.

Ending our trip in Paris always felt like the right decision. Cities the entire world over want to be Paris. They sell memorabilia that resembles Paris. People wear hats and shirts with Paris sparkled all over them, with no regard to whether the wearer has visited or not. Nowhere comes close to the fan fair Paris gets. It’s the most iconic city in the world, with NYC following close behind. We had to visit. Plus, Paris had the best flight deal home, so it won by default.

Paris is a city you have to cram everything into because there are endless possibilities. While we were only in Paris four days, one of which was our travel day back to the US so we did nothing but get lunch, we kept busy. We visited the Louvre, the Catacombs, Notre-Dame, Moulin Rouge, Père Lachaise, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysee, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. All in three days.

Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die… But instead of saying all of your goodbyes…

My one request for Paris was the Catacombs. Paris has miles of hidden underground tunnels connecting the streets of the ancient city. A portion of these tunnels are home to millions of skeletal remains. These skeletons are arranged in delicate patterns, honoring the dead, and serving as a tour of a different time. The walls of the catacombs are lined with bible verses and French phrases and poetry, which I couldn’t read very well but could feel their sentiments of mourning and revere. In a similar vein, Jason wanted to see Jim Morrison’s grave at Père Lachaise cemetery, since it has that rockstar appeal. In fact, several famous people are buried here and many of the gravesites are intricately decorated, making for a great walking spot.

Various tombs at Père Lachaise. The Egyptian looking one is Oscar Wilde’s.

We spent seven hours in total in the Louvre, a museum I was ambivalent about going to at first. Who doesn’t want to go to the Louvre?! My main concern is I didn’t care about the Mona Lisa (Ah. Shocking!). It’s fine, but it’s a great deal of hype. Jason put it best, “It’s a nice painting.” In reality, the Louvre is far more than a single painting. It’s art from all over the world and in our seven hours we only saw about 20% of the museum. 10/10 would go again and try to see another 20% or so.

While it seems like we couldn’t fit anything else into our time in Paris, we were able to check one more box off of our collective bucket lists. After visiting the Eiffel tower, Jason insisted we head to Champs-Elysee, the main shopping street of Paris. As we walked, his palms were very sweaty. We were trying to check in for our flight back home and I wasn’t sure if he was nervous about that or something else… After a few moments Jason tells me we’re going ring shopping. OK, let’s do this!

How beautiful is that tower? Never gets old.

When you’ve been with someone for 4.5 years, you don’t just get engaged on a whim. At least, Jason and I don’t. We spend months/years talking about it, deciding what our lives will look like, and ensuring we both have a place in our hearts and homes for one another. So, after about an hour of completely unsuccessful ring shopping, something we’d actually never done before, I told him let’s try at home. Ring shopping is something that I now see often happens over weeks, not minutes. We’re both loathful shoppers, so the whole process drained us, but we gave it the old college try.

Locks. None is Jason and mine. That’s OK by us.

Later that night, after drinking my first real glass of champagne and dining on French bread paired with cured meats and cheeses, we were walking along the waterfront gazing up at the Eiffel Tower as it brilliantly sparkled. Jason takes the ring I wear everyday from my finger, ensures he sets the lighting just right, drops to one knee, and asks me to marry him. I said yes.

The next day we headed home. Home to America at least. We flew into NYC first and met up with Jason’s parents. These two adorable people rented us a hotel room, brought us celebratory bubbly, fully equipped with glasses and ice, and bought us pizza. While we were away, Jason’s mother made a chainlink out of paper that marked the date and number of days we were away. It has 342 links in total, one for each day we were gone. They’re some of the most kind and thoughtful people in the world.

That’s it. I have one more final recap to post, then the blog comes to a close. I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did!

When one door closes, you know what they say…. Take a picture if it’s a nice looking door!

29 Sep

By Jen Hawse on City Review, Europe tagged beer, Europe, love, reflection, travel

Spinning the Globe — Going from Vienna to Amsterdam

Hello followers! Last I left you we were in Hungary, sharing how Budapest wasn’t exactly as we’d expected. I don’t want to skip any of our journey, so let me share a word or two about each of the other European countries we spent time in during the past few months.

Vienna, Austria, is a sculpted masterpiece.

It’s in the top 5 most beautiful cities in the world for me

It’s as if the city streets themselves are a museum in Vienna. Details on the sculptures around the city are vibrant and create a story in your mind, capturing more than a stagnant moment. While here, Jason and I indulged in currywurst from street carts and ate apple strudel in memory of my dad. Viennese coffee has whipped cream on top, in case you wanted to know what indulgence tastes like. Nearly next to our hotel was a 50 tap craft beer bar that almost featured Flying Dog (they were out when we were there). While hanging by the bar we saw a guy wearing a Capitals sports team hat. Jason asked which sport the Capitals are and he said hockey. Fun! The US and Czech Republic seem to have the same idea for great team names. Ha! Travel magic.

One of the world’s oldest amusement parks

Vienna has one of the oldest amusement parks in the world and, while we didn’t ride any rides or play any games, it was a treat just to walk through this treasure. It was made in the days of World’s Fairs. Why don’t we do those anymore? Le Sigh.

Other Viennese activities including strolling by Freud and Mozart’s homes and going to a museum completely dedicated to globes of the world. It We only stayed a few days, with an entire evening spent mulling over whether we leave our shitty Airbnb or not, but that just meant we got to have a beer at an adorable bar and played “Let’s learn English!” with our bartender. She said/motioned that she had something that would make us more comfortable. What it was, we weren’t sure, but when she finally brought it out for us we told her it was a “seat cushion”. She laughed, waved her hand, and said that wasn’t a word she’d be remembering. I don’t blame her, how often do you use the words “seat cushion”? She was adorable and the bar was Native American themed, so all was right in the world.

Fried and fatty food delights! Apple streusel, pork schnitzel, and chicken cordon blue.

Krakow, Poland, is a craft beer lover’s haven.

Krakow is a city we weren’t sure about. We thought we’d have to choose between here and Vienna, but the stars aligned and we were able to go to both! Krakow has a booming craft beer scene that we absolutely did not expect. They love the microbrew culture far more than any other country we went to, minus possibly Belgium, but the feel here is different than there regardless. The town square in Krakow is the largest in Europe and, my goodness, if you want to feel like you’re in an old European city you get that fully there. We made it a point to have pierogies several times, but we never drank any Polish vodka. Probably better that way!

We met up a friend from home and had an amazing night with Craig while he was on his Eastern European tour. It was so nice to see a familiar face. Most people think you come to Krakow to jump off and go to Auschwitz. There’s so much more here than a concentration camp. It has multiple layers of history and beauty. Krakow is an underrated destination that I’d love to visit again.

Prague, Czech Republic, lives up to the hype.

This artsy, busy, quirky city still manages to be fairly affordable. Our Airbnb was the pinnacle of charming, although getting in the right room was an adventure! After a 6 hour train from Krakow we made our way through downtown to a tram that we just could not figure out how to purchase tickets for. That left us walking with our packs in the heat up a tall hill for miles until we found our apartment building. When we walked up a women who spoke only a few English words said, “Where are you from?” We said, “We have an Airbnb.” She said, “Follow” and took us to an indescribably small apartment that didn’t remind me of any reservation we’d made. After a few minutes I said to Jason, “This isn’t right! We have to find our host!” We connected to the apartment’s wifi and sent a quick message to our host who told me she was waiting outside. Great! We found her right away and checked into our perfect little abode. After learning the basics we devised a plan to get the keys to the other couple who must be wondering where their Airbnb host is. We walked out to the drive and, with perfect timing, a young British couple walks up looking for their apartment. I yelped, “Have we got a story for you!” and promptly showed them to their room. Jason and I were both a flutter with excitement, but neither of these two seemed to find the situation nearly as funny or entertaining as we did. Their loss! In the end everyone had what they paid for and we got a great travel story to share.

The thing I love most about Prague is it’s a tied layer cake. With the coming of every historical era, Prague stacked building after building firmly on top of itself, giving a literal depth to this city. Our Airbnb was situated very closely to a large park with beautiful vistas, a weird art museum, and a woodland gay bar. Looking back on places like this, it’s hard to believe they exist, that I got to see them, and that I’m not still there still today!

That look when you find a random craft beer festival. We were just going to the farmer’s market! Thanks, Prague!

Berlin, Germany, is fresh.

Green beer! Berliner weisse and burgers.

Berlin is newer than many European cities and even newer than some in America. The sad truth is it was basically bombed to the ground during WWII. This tragedy laid the fodder for a progressive outcry and vibrant art scene. This was my second time in Germany, having went to Munich years ago, but first time in Berlin. Being in these places feels like going to separate countries. The contrast is like time traveling in some ways, as Munich wants to preserve that old world feel and Berlin couldn’t even if it tried. Even though it’s been proven wrong through ancestry reports, I grew up believing I had a deep German heritage. You can’t erase that thought from your childhood, or the memory of all those beer steins that lined your kitchen counters. Germany, now as much as ever, holds a special place in my heart. (We’re Norwegian, by the way!)

Being beer people, we did enjoy sampling the more traditional varieties of brews. German beer purity laws, Reinheitsgebot, are to be taken very seriously and have been existence since 1519. The law states that only water, barley and hops may be used to brew beer. How Berliner weiss (green beer above) came to be is another story. We didn’t find any big Munich style beer halls in Berlin, but we did find a few artsy spots and smaller breweries that tickled our fancy. Beer and BBQ, yes please!

Various works of art in Berlin. Top Left: from German Museum of Industry, Bottom Left: Native American nuclear street art. Top Right: punk JFK street art. Middle Right: artistic co-op. Bottom Right: Das Monsterkabinett

Brussels, Belgium, means business.

Brussels is where the European Union is headquartered and the whole city seems to have an aura of seriousness. Stupidly, Belgium wasn’t originally on our list, but after mapping out our European route we thought we had to go and drink some of the world’s greatest beers. So, we split our time between here and the Netherlands and dug into Belgium brews, chocolate, waffles, and fries. We didn’t realize how many of our favorite foods originated from Belgium until we were there! The Belgium waffles, made on the street, available for 1 Euro with powered sugar, was one of the best desserts I will ever eat. Gooey on the inside, but perfectly crispy on the outside and just the right amount of sweetness. Belgium beers are known for their high alcohol content, so it’s good to stuff yourself with bread products before copious amounts of sampling. While in Belgium it rained and rained and so we rested up, ate frozen pizza, and enjoyed our quiet Airbnb, knowing we had days and days of nonstop travels ahead of us.

Cantillon, an old lambic style brewery, located in a sketchy neighborhood, but producing some of the tastiest gueuze beer we’ve ever had.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is the best of Europe.

Friendly, free, liberal, artistic, stunning architecture, people powered transportation, quirky, green, vibrant… I could do this all day. I’m in love with Amsterdam. The first time I went to Amsterdam it was a fucking disaster. I will not share details, but I was not in a good headspace and I it resulted in me having a terrible time. Truthfully though, I knew Amsterdam was, for me, an oyster with a pearl waiting to be cracked open and revealed. It was the absolute must see place on Jason’s list for Europe and, honestly, it was on mine too. Cheers to the power of second chances!

Amsterdam doesn’t judge what you do. If you choose to spend your day relaxing in Vondelpark, watching the people go by and admiring an array of birds and peoples, you surely can. If you fancy finding a sex worker and doing drugs all day, no problem, that’s your choice. If you want to take a canal boat ride and skip the sinfulness entirely, than by all means, right this way. Engaging in professional business transactions? Carry on. The Dutch are a glorious folk who embody a live and let live mentality. We felt we could find a home here and craved more time in this enchanting place. But, just around the bend was an even more fulfilling place for a whole other reason…. Read about it in the next blog post; coming soon!

20 Jun

By Jen Hawse on Budget, City Review, Europe tagged Bulgaria, Eastern Europe, Europe, Hungary, Journey, Romania, Route, Trip planning

Europe Part II: Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary

Eastern Europe. I write these words and you think…? Burley men drinking copious amounts of beer? Little old ladies hunched over in babushkas? Communism ? Freezing cold temperatures? People eating goulash in Adidas track suits? Well, you’re not wrong, but there’s more to the story than those the old tropes.

We decided to visit Eastern Europe for a few reasons. Chiefly among them was cost of living and value for our dollars, of course. That’s been a driving factor this entire trip and, for the most part, it’s working out well. We also wanted to see the countryside and do some outdoors activities instead of solely being cooped up in city after city. Lastly, Eastern Europe isn’t the top of most people’s bucket lists (name one country Bulgaria borders without looking at the map below!) but it offers so much and we wanted to take advantage of going somewhere slightly off the beaten path. Here’s a map of what’s considered Eastern Europe, although there is debate about which countries exactly fit the definition.

https://www.mapsofworld.com/europe/country-groupings/map-of-eastern-europe.jpg — Courtesy of Maps of the World

In total, we’re going to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Originally, I agreed to do this trip if we could visit Turkey and Croatia and thought we could plug them into an Eastern Europe itinerary. Those were my top picks in the world and the only places I insisted upon going. We’re seeing neither of those two countries. Why? Turkey is in a difficult spot right now with Erdogan, their President. There’s potential for civil unrest in Istanbul, even if it hasn’t happened in a few months. Croatia just didn’t fit neatly into the route, as you can see below.

Still, we’re covering a solid amount of ground and now doing it mostly via trains and buses. This is perfect, because the less we fly the better. Flying is a necessary evil. A casual traveler is going to have a different experience, but for us it’s now a chore. If you care to read a long rant about my flight experiences I can share that at another time.

After finishing our Romantic Roman experience, we landed in Sofia, Bulgaria. It’s pronounced Soh-fee-ah, not like the girl’s name So-fia. When we told our AirBnB host where we were coming from she actually apologized to us on behalf of Bulgaria. I laughed and tried to find something comforting to say, but I think I messed up when I said, “Oh no, we were in India not long before this, so honestly Bulgaria is going to be great!” First off, that’s insulting to India and second off, that’s insulting to Bulgaria. Somehow I insulted two nations at once by trying to say I am happy to be here. Great start!

Speaking of great starts, this was the first meal we had in Bulgaria, although they claimed it was in Czech style we found similar foods throughout the country.

Jason and I had wondered to ourselves if there are any nations that don’t have “proud people”. As they say, “America is a proud nation!” and I think Bulgaria (and other parts of the still recovering from communism Eastern Europe) might not be so proud just yet. “What economic crisis?! We’re always 15 years behind!” our tour guide quipped during our free city tour. At least they have a sense of humor about their perceived position in the world.

Old, but not outdated and still beautiful.

Bulgaria may be “behind”, in a few ways, but that can have its advantages. Sofia has a huge number of public parks that people enjoy spending the warm spring days, drinking insanely inexpensive beers and listening to street performers play for the cost of your spare change. Their culture is far more arts focused than I had imagined and the theater scene is thriving there. Public transit is modern enough and worked perfectly well for our needs. It wasn’t the prettiest system we’ve been on (that honor goes to Budapest thus far) but it was sufficient to get us from airport to our AirBnB, to the trailhead of a mountain hike, and to the train station as needed. Overall, what’s left behind is simply the less attractive parts of a busy world.

Google created a postcard picture of Sofia for me. Isn’t it like a movie?

An aspect of travel Jason and I take into consideration more than someone on vacation is the, “Could we live here?” factor. In Asia, we felt we could certainly live in Korea. While the language barrier would be difficult, the standard of living in Seoul is so high it would be easy to adjust. Krabi, Thailand, lulls you into wanting to stay and live on the beach for months. It’s endless summer with a laid back attitude in tropical paradise. Athens was our first European city that we imagined what it would be like to live in and the dream was a comfortable one. It’s an interesting place both historically and in its modern form, and very well priced, it’s just lacking those pesky jobs one needs to survive. Sofia, on the other hand, felt like a place we could really thrive. The weather probably had a far bigger impact than I can give it credit for, with warm sunny days during our stay, but the atmosphere is best described as pleasant. Yes, we’d need to learn Bulgarian, but these little details are easy to get past in the long run, right?

Beer and food are highly affordable in Sofia. This is the place Jason found the 2.5 litre bottles of beer for about $2 a bottle (at least the alcohol % on those is low!). If you want, you can experience the high society and drink an old fashioned in a bar in the park or opt for a divey place with big steins of beer and grilled meats (as I’ve lovingly featured above). Our AirBnB was so comfortable that we wanted to move in based on that alone. Sofia has some tourists, but it’s not so touristy that it feels like it’s catered to for tourists alone. Here, you’ll get a far more authentic experience than you will in Athens or Rome. That said, plenty of English language translations are available, so you can navigate and eat easily. Most young people are fairly fluent so you’re never that from being able to get what you need. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Sofia to everyone, it was exactly what we needed when we went.

Two days before we headed out of Sofia we took a grueling hike up a mountain in search of a waterfall. We opted to fully go public transit mode, so we took a tram car to the base of a hill, walked up the hill into this little town called Boyana where an ancient 10th century church resides, and then through the woods for two hours going nearly completely uphill. It was intense, but at the end we found the waterfall. We quickly realized at the top that we had taken the quicker, yet steeper and less marked route. On the way back down we opted for more switchbacks and less crawling. It was an intense walking day and our legs ached afterward, but it was worth it completely.

After Sofia we spent two days in Ruse, Bulgaria. We had to transfer trains here anyway, so we figured why not spend a day or two while we’re at it. Ruse had an interesting character to it. Called “Little Vienna”, it has a plethora of 19th- and 20th-century architecture, but much of it is falling down. It was a fairly unpleasant time: our hotel charged us more than we expected, Jason and I weren’t getting along very well, the town was weird, it rained, and we didn’t eat any good food! At least it was only two days.

We opted to spend ten days in Romania, split between two cities, Bucharest and Brașov, although I really was hoping to add in Sibiu also. Not this time! Our train from Ruse to Bucharest, the Romanian capital, only took a few hours; although it seemed to meander through the countryside in such odd ways. It didn’t matter, I can’t help but love a train trip.

Bucharest is cosmopolitan. It’s not something I expected from this capital city, but it embodied a worldliness and cultural sophistication that I admired. Admired, but didn’t love. The city almost seemed snobbishly nice, which wasn’t what we were expecting in Eastern Europe. We wanted a little grit with the glory. That’s not to say there weren’t gritty parts, of course the train station was scary and we took one walk where I insisted we turn right back around after we didn’t find the restaurant we were searching for to be full of diners, but overall it feels more like an ivy league college city than what I pictured as the Romanian capital. Shame on me for forcing an expectation.

Romania has the best internet in all of Europe (fun fact, S. Korea has the best in the world). They also have hot water that’s publically pumped into your home, so you don’t have to install a hot water heater (you still pay for water). These two big advantages are due to a communist history that created underlying infrastructure that survived through its ultimate defeat. Communism is all over Eastern Europe. Every country has been touched and harmed by it. Every country has had to come to terms with finding their own way to freedom and fighting for it in the past few decades. Every country in Europe that we’ve visited has found democracy, even though some are corrupt democracies. Better than a communist dictatorship.

Bucharest offered a few eclectic opportunities for us. After our free walking tour, our guide told us about a crazy industrial bar and a maze of a bookstore. The bookstore maze we sought out right away in the hopes that we could find a restaurant nearby. While that didn’t happen we were able to go from room to room in this mansion that was completely covered in books! Who doesn’t love getting lost in a bookstore sea? Across from the bookstore was a great street art alleyway where I snapped pictures in the fading light.

The other strangely Romanian thing we found here was have a drink at an old factory turned bar/nightclub. We didn’t stay for the nightclub portion of the bar, but we did enjoy the outdoor seating and the pleasant walk through the park that lead us to this funky spot.

After Bucharest, we spent five days in the Transylvanian city of Brașov (it’s pronounced brash-hov, not brass-hov). When I say Transylvania, you think Dracula, vampires, blood sucking monsters, and spooky castles! That’s understandable, Bram Stoker based his book Dracula in this area, conveniently named Bran’s Castle. But, there are no vampires in Romanian folklore. In fact, Bram Stoker never even visited Romania. There are ghost stories here, as most cultures have, but what Romanian’s really contributed to Halloween are Werewolfs! Being there, I can absolutely understand how you could fear a shape-shifting wolf man beast coming down from the mountains to eat your children at night. To be clear, Romanians didn’t invent werewolves, there is evidence of a belief in these types of creatures before the common era in the Indo-European period, they just took part in shaping the myth.

Brașov was founded in 1234, but people have lived here since 9,500 BCE. The Transylvanian region of Romania, translated to “The Land Beyond the Forest”, is one of three total regions that now form the country. The Moldovan region to the West is now split between Romania and the country of Moldova. The lower portion of Romania is Wallachia, where Bucharest is. The lower portion is flat, but Transylvania is set in the Southern Carpathians mountains so it’s ideal for outdoor activities. We originally planned on two distinct hikes while visiting Brașov, but we were only able to get in one due to rain.

Hikes are great because they’re freeeeeee!

What I’ve found on this trip is the bigger European cities don’t appeal to me as much as the smaller, quainter ones. Brașov fits that with a population of about 250,000. Still, the town square is thriving with activity and historic buildings. There’s a heavy German influence here, with a history I won’t bore you through, but you can see it in all the architecture and much of the foods. We didn’t seem to mind much!

We skipped town just five days after getting into Brașov to head for Budapest! This was a city I really looked forward to because I’d heard how bohemian it was (Bohemia is the old name for the Czech kingdom… so while it is a bit bohemian, it isn’t classically so). Budapest is the capital of Hungary and one of the largest cities in the EU. Prior to WWI, the Austro-Hungarian Empire dominated much of the region, taking territories from the neighboring countries Romania, Poland, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovakia, Slovenia (two different countries!), the Czech Republic, and the Ukraine. It was a world superpower and because of that Budapest is still a large and domineering city, even though the empire fell as the result of WWI (because, after all, they started the war. See: Franz Ferdinand, not the band.).

We took another night train from Brașov to Budapest and were really elated to have the cabin again to ourselves! We keep booking these six person sleeper cars and we keep getting to sleep in them all alone. It’s the third time this has happened. So grateful for that!!

Budapest is best seen after the sun goes down, which is late around here now in that it’s summertime! They just really know how to light up the city. The buildings in Budapest are much bigger than I expected, it has more modern structures than many places we’ve been, especially in the downtown area. 3.3 million people live in Budapest, which is just under the number of people living in LA and over double the size of Philly. Until 1873, there was actually Buda and Pest, two distinct cities on each side of the Danube. When you’re there they still use these distinctions for which neighborhood you’re in at the time, but I personally think Budapest is a much more cohesive name than either independently.

We never got to see Budapest in the absolute darkness because we didn’t stay out late enough. Old folks!

Budapest is known for it’s public baths. The city insists that each neighborhood has it’s own. We went to one of the oldest Turkish baths. It was a bit of a beautiful disaster. We didn’t realize there were time limits on the baths, we thought we could be there all day, we had to rent suits and the price on the website was lower than what we had to pay, the lockers were full when we got there, so we had to wait in line and the attendants told us, “This has literally never happened before.” Once we were in and settled though it was fun. We ran from outdoor pools to saunas to indoor pools of varying temperatures, all in the name of health! It was a warm day, so it was nice to be outside in our suits, rented or otherwise.

While we enjoyed the city, it was more expensive than we were originally bargaining for. We didn’t want to pay $16 per person to see a castle or a church. We didn’t feel the museums were worth the cost. We just didn’t do as much of the touristy stuff as we could have because it seemed overpriced compared to other places we’ve been. I respect Budapest’s history, but I’ve been to enough places to know I don’t need to see another history museum. We did, however, enjoy going to two communism themed bar/restaurants.

Budapest is known for their “ruin bars”, or old buildings turned into bar complexes. As I’d mentioned, we found something similar in Bucharest, but this is where they began. We went to the original, Szimpla Kert, and had a nice journey meandering through the labyrinth of rooms. We didn’t stay for too many drinks, because they’re a little pricey. We did find plenty of craft beer in the neighborhood, the Old Jewish Quarter.

Last thing to mention, which I have no picture of, is I had a great lunch with a former Relay colleague in Budapest, Carolynn. She’s been teaching art in the city now for two years. She’s spunky, happy, and thoughtful. We had a great conversation for several hours, catching up and talking about where life has taken us. She’s going to start year three in Budapest in the fall and just loves it there. It’s amazing to find people you know who are living and moving throughout the world and connect with them. She was the fifth person we’d known from home that we were able to see on this trip and it really refreshed my spirits.

Budapest is a city of great outdoor spaces, rich history, lively people, and enough breathtaking scenery to keep you satisfied for a long time. Very grateful we were able to spend a week in this place.

Skatepark tricks. This concerned mom was watching over her two kids.

Next blog I’ll talk about our time in Vienna, Krakow, and Prague. Tomorrow, we’re heading to Berlin, so I’m already overdue in writing about these places, but I promise to spin you a few tales and keep you updated on our journey as best I can.