Goboogo

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Arriving in Budapest

HDR - From Buda, looking out at Pest

We finally arrived in Budapest after an uneventful drive from Slovakia. Truth be told, I do not even remember it. We scooped up my grandparents at the airport and headed for our hotel in Pest - Hotel Palazzo Zichy.

We landed in Vienna and picked up our wheels at Sixt. Blazing across Austria at 95mph while listening to Old Dirty Bastard, we approached Bratislava. What is Bratislava? I really had not thought about it much before.

It ended up being one of the coolest cities we have ever visited. It is a very quirky place with bizarre statues and people dressed in odd costumes amidst an old town center that fells perfectly preserved. Several partiers lined the streets of old town. The town was well stocked in bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and drunk goons watching Dortmund-Bayern square off in the Champions League final - on fact, it was as though all of old town was one big party.

This Guy - Slovak edition

I was trying to take a picture of this weird old modern thing, and this guy waked into the frame, slipped a hand into his pocket, and smirked a great Slovak smirk - great photobomb buddy! He even winked at me afterwards.

Bratislava castle and the best chicken ever

The gates

Passed out in the park after a rough night

Friday, May 31, 2013

The old Slovakian mining town of Banská Štiavnica

The past whispers of grandeur have faded on the streets of Banska Stiavnica. Heavily mined since the 3rd century BC, the Slovakian town of was once a hotbed for innovation and mineral wealth. A massive source of gold and silver for Europe in the middle ages, the mining town was home to a number of firsts. It was the first mine to use gunpowder and the town housed the first technical school in the world. Today, the old town is mined out and exists simply as a perfectly preserved medieval town, left as it was in its heyday.

Granted Unesco status in the early 90's, the old city square surrounds a gigantic plague column that looks like a strange art deco version of the eye of Sauron. So what to do in such a place? Wander. Aimlessly.

We loved exploring this strange town and its surroundings, and, we had some bad pizza while watching 30 seconds to Mars videos in a little pastry/pizza shop.

Cumil the watcher, the missing paparazzi, and other weird statues in Bratislava

Bratislava has a number of strange statues. There is this guy peeking out a manhole. Another is a French soldier resembling Napoleon on a park bench. There is also a guy tipping his hat commemorating an old Bratislava resident. One of the most famous statues - The Paparazzi - was missing when we visited. After looking for about an hour, we found some evidence of where he once stood, but we never figured out where he went.

The road was too wet, the winds too strong, and the rains too hard. As we ascended Mt. Lovcen in a beat down Skoda with our great driver "John" aka Cizmovik aka Clutchmaster Supreme, we decided to head back down, failing to reach our summit where the old prince bishop of Montenegro was put to rest - Petar II Petrovic-Njegos aka the Shakespeare of Montenegro. We gave up halfway up the mountain.

As we went around the mountain, our driver stewed, feeling more guilty with each km. He wanted us to see the top sight in Montenegro, so he made another run at the mountain from the other side. He assured us that we would not miss our flight later that day and tossed the taxi meter out the window.

Budva held like a cup by the Montenegros

After waiting small eternities for the skies to clear so we could climb the fortifications behind teh ancient city of Kotor, we found a few hour window to make the climb amidst cloudy skies and a tough beginning to the day. While I did my morning routine just fine, Kristin was really dragging. She managed to spill Cheerios all over our sink and accidentally put her pants on backwards. I remember thinking, "yup, that's my climbing partner."

Of course, it was more of a pace up a few thousand steps than a true climb. The weather was less than ideal, but the views were dizzying.

Kotor at Night

The Kotor waterfront with the black mountains behind it - the black walls mark the sea gate wall

Galion is the best restaurant in Kotor, so we had to eat there. The main dining room is built over the bay of Kotor surrounded by Mediterranean fjords (above). It is dramatic and the food is absolutely perfect. The meal blew our minds.

We liked it so much that we asked for a reservation the following night, and they declined us because we were dressed like slobs. Our server was gracious the entire night, but we were dressed like we had been exploring in the rain all day, which we had been. He said in broken English, tomorrow is very busy., maybe not come.

That said, I would eat there again - it was that good.