First, a note: we did end up going into the Museo Del Prado before we left madrid, and Leeor was very impressed with the Goyas.
Our short trip to Spain was over and a new journey began to a place I've never been. We landed in Budapest late at night and took a minibus to our "four star" hotel by the castle. We got a nice glimpse of the Danube at night, lined with lighted castles, on our way to the hotel. While not four stars by our standards, the room was much cleaner than dusty old Maktub, which made up for its dinginess with its character. We were pleased, however, to have a shower not being shared by aforementioned dirty backpackers. This was especially good for Leeor, as this Europe trip has brought us to the realization that Leeor refuses to use communal showers. This has been an interesting revelation and quite problematic as European hostiles are nearly devoid of private bathrooms.
The next day, we indulged ourselves and enjoyed one of Budapest's many baths. We steamed and roasted and boiled in therapeutic waters and even got a massage! It was fabulous and delightfully inexpensive. Although this was much bigger, I still prefer the Russian Turkish baths in Miami. The rest of our Hungary experience went like this: We walked around town, around the castle (where I saw my first FALCON(!!!). The enormous bird was perched by a fountain with his owner, who was dressed in what I think is a jousting outfit or a regular dark ages outfit, and the giant bird who is capable of eating children was wearing a medieval leather cap which Leeor said blinded him so that he would not actually eat the children innocently frolicking around the fountain) and along the Danube, and ate some yummy goulash soup. My favorite thing about Budapest was definitely the art nouveau style present in a lot of the architecture and interior design.
Nothing more interesting happened except we got a five star room that was more like a beautiful apartment for our second night for about 60 euro. We went out to the sitting outside in the street area and had some disappointing local beer. The next day, we took the quick as lightening Budapest metro to the train station and hopped on a six hour train to Zagreb, Croatia.
After we finally found nice seats in the old soviet train with cramped little compartments packed with Hungarians and luggage, we were told that we had to move to first class to go to Zagreb. The ride was uneventful except for a couple of fun moments. The first was only fun because it was the first border crossing of the trip. We were checked first by Croatian border control and then Slovenian.
Border Patrol
Second, I'm not sure how this happened, but we lost our tickets during that transition. We were fine until a few stop away when we were asked for our tickets. At that point we were sharing our compartment with a dark, skinny, and exuberantly talkative man with an eastern european mullet. I remember him as the guy from The Full Monty. He began explaining to us excitedly in Croatian or possible a different language and using elaborate hand gestures how his phone is dying and that he needs to find an outlet somewhere. Next to him was a light, pudgy, quiet - overall more German looking man. They may have been companions but I really couldn't tell. If they were, they made a very odd couple. We all laughed together/ looked concerned about the skinny man's dilemma. Anyway, while the Slavic ticket checking man left me to look for my ticket, I explained to the skinny man using gestures that it may have fallen on the part of the train that did not make it to Zagreb. When the ticket man came back he repeated my gesture of the trains separating so perhaps he explained for me. Ticket man left again and I decided that these men would be my advocates so I gave them some chocolate to firm up the alliance. They said danke and I said bitte and we smiled together. Ticket man came back, skinny excited man talked to him, I showed him my receipt from Hungary, pointed to the amount paid and said "Look! A lot of money!" and made a sorry face and we were allowed to remain on the train! Ticket man gave us a dirty look made a "the hell with you" gesture at us, but then he laughed with the skinny man, maybe about how stupid we are, so I assumed we wouldn't be arrested.
We got off the train and went to the station to find a map, which did not exist obviously. We joined about five other backpackers in the search for a city map. I finally managed to get something that could work and we shared it with two other travelers who were going to a hostel close to ours. We walked together and found out that Katie and Chase were American (not the Canadian kind) and just finished undergrad in engineering, aeronautical and computer, respectively (so they have jobs). They told us that their plan was to go to Plitvice Lakes, a really famously beautiful national park a couple hours bus ride away. We decided to join them the next morning. We walked around a bit to get a feel for the city, which is incredibly charming and surprisingly lively. Its actually a really great little place. Young people were out and about smoking, drinking, and talking. We had a beer and a mediocre Italian meal (they have a lot of meh Italian food in Croatia) together and went to our hostels. The next morning at 7 am we bought some impossibly perfect strawberries and cherries at the beautiful open air fruit and vegetable market, and got some bread, amazing ham, and cheese at a little store. I also bought some carrots because I was already feeling deprived of fresh vegetables at this point (everyone made fun of me but we all ended up eating them). We found our bus and were on our way to Plitvice.
It was really one of the most beautiful parks we have ever seen. Dozens of waterfalls and pools of perfectly clear, bright green waters. The walkways are built so that you often walk right over the waterfalls, which was really nice. I think the walkways, just simple raw-ish slabs of wood nailed down, actually added to the beauty. We stopped and ate the best lunch right by a waterfall ("slap" in Croatian). Together with Chase and Katie, we hiked through the falls and around the pristine lakes surrounded with dark green, forested hills, occasionally sticking our feet in the impossibly clear, cold cold water until the late afternoon.
Not an exciting photo. We took all of the photos with the real camera. But you can see the color and clarity of the water.
We returned to Zagreb sleepy but made our way to a Croatian restaurant and ate delicious goulash and a delicate lamb soup.
We decided to continue to travel with Katie and chase and agreed to go together to Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia the next day.
Next stop, Ljubljana!
