Day 10 - Mike and Jessica left this morning :(. We will miss you guys. Thank you for sharing in this wonderful time. It's a bittersweet day since it's the last one for Budapest and the group is no longer complete. Olichka and I decided to go on the 4.5 bike tour of both Buda and Pest and made it there by the skin of our teeth.
The tour is one of my favorite things about Budapest. I wish we did it sooner and I wish I had more time here. Our tour group consisted of me, Olichka, another girl and the tour guide. it was very well paced and we stopped at monuments and got a little of the history. Our guide was very nice and very knowledgeable about all things Budapest. He even took us back to Szechenyi and had us drink the sulphurous water. We had a choice of hot or cold(lukewarm) and Olichka was a hero and asked for hot. You are a better woman than I am, miss Balbekova. There is nothing like drinking warm water that tastes like a rotten egg. After this form of torture and biking around for a little bit more we stopped off at a local restaurant and had amazing goulash. five stars for the goulash and the paprika spread that it comes with. I will remember this soup on cold winter nights and sigh to myself.
Fueled up by the soup we made the somewhat challenging trip up to Castle hill on our bikes. I don't think I will be able to sit down for a couple of days. Cobblestone roads for 4 hours + biking uphill = pain. All the pain is completely worth it for the view of Buda and Pest that you get once you are up there. Breathtaking. The ride down is pretty fun too and really really fast. Just a quick stop at the Market and we are done with our tour. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Budapest. Our guide's name was Matte, but I doubt you will get him since he is moving to Amsterdam for 2 years while he is getting his graduate degree. He is responsible for a lot of the love I feel towards Budapest. Thank you Matte.
After having some coffee one last time in Budapest Olichka and I met up with Yan and Smazo and we shared a ride to the airport. Yan forgot his I phone on the plane, but otherwise we flew without incident. (things lost = 4). Goodbye Budapest, Hello Helsinki.
By the time we arrived to City Center is was about 12:30 am and the place looked deserted. we opted to walk to Olichka's hostel and at least leave our bags there. Our original plan was to party at night but walking through the city it didn't look like there were a lot of places that we could do that. Thankfully the hostel had a triple room available which we happily booked. We were checked in by 1:10 and the bars in Helsinki close at 2. It just wasn't worth going somewhere for 20 minutes when we were all exhausted.
Day 11 - the weather was cloudy and gloomy and maybe this is why I hated Helsinki so much. We had a couple of hours to kill co we went to Callio which is supposed to be the happening place to be. Everything was closed. and the buildings are gloomy and uninteresting. Even the parks have gravel instead of grass. The couple of monuments and ornamental buildings that we did see were only remarkable due to how huge they were in comparison to the other buildings. They are build on a disproportionate scale. Other than that, I have nothing to really say. I am glad that we didn't have more time here, but our trip was so packed with fun and goodness the rest of the time that I don't really mind.
Yanik and I said our goodbyes to Olichka and flew back to Chicago. I found out this morning that Finnair recovered Yan's cellphone (things lost = 3) so he will get it back once she's in the states. Thank you to Mike Livschiz, Yan Pritzker, Jessica Ogulnik, Olya Balbekova, and Stan Mazo for a great vacation. It's been amazing.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Do you smell eggs?
Day 8 - Nothing super exciting really happened today. We had a breakfast where Yan proceeded to inform us that he lost the umbrella that he bought the day before (things lost = 2) and then immediately left a whole bag of vitamins and supplements at the table when we left Ljubljana (things lost = 3). The drive was looooooong and uneventful and once in Buda we got back into our amazing apartment again. Smazo was still in the area so he met us for a super fancy meal and crashed at our place. Everyone was pretty much exhausted so that's really it for today.
Day 9 - We slept in since we have been feeling like zombies and rolled out of bed around noon. Jessica made us an awesome and might I add meat eater friendly breakfast of eggs and sausage along with different rolls, butter, cheese, nuttella, and sliced bananas. Much love Ogulnik. Much love.
Yanik and Stan separated from us to walk around more slummy areas and take pictures, but the girls and Mike went to the Szechenyi Baths. The building is a little old but very nice and the baths consist of a few outdoor pools, some dry saunas and inside pools of all different temperatures. Some of the pools are filled with the sulphurous water from the hot springs that are under Budapest, smelly but good for you. It's great fun and great people watching. Guys - if you feel the need to buy a white Speedo, don't, I've seen what it looks like and it's just not right. Some things really should be left up to the imagination.
We spend several hours at the baths ditching the bike tour we were originally going to go on. Jessya even managed to get the massage she wanted while we were there. I was a little sad for Mike since it was his last day and I wanted him to see the city, but what are you gonna do, we just took too long in the morning. We had a Dinner cruise on the river booked, but the weather was against us and the ships windows fogged up. Rain and fog do not make a great sunset dinner cruise weather. In terms of the whole dinner cruise concept, I would avoid it all together. just walk around the city and eat at a regular cafe outside. The cruise has buffet style food - pretty good, but not worth $50 a person, and live music of not the greatest caliber. Kind of a tourist trap all in all. We toasted to our last meal as the 5 of us and enjoyed it anyway.
Once the cruise was over the sky cleared up a little bit and we froze taking pictures from the bridge. A quick metro ride and a not so quick change of clothes and we were ready for our last ruin pub. This one was called "Instant" and had a grotesque creepy theme and a good DJ. Smazo joined us again and we had a great time on our last night. As it was his last night, Mike walked the streets till about 5am, but I did not join him because he is insane.
Day 9 - We slept in since we have been feeling like zombies and rolled out of bed around noon. Jessica made us an awesome and might I add meat eater friendly breakfast of eggs and sausage along with different rolls, butter, cheese, nuttella, and sliced bananas. Much love Ogulnik. Much love.
Yanik and Stan separated from us to walk around more slummy areas and take pictures, but the girls and Mike went to the Szechenyi Baths. The building is a little old but very nice and the baths consist of a few outdoor pools, some dry saunas and inside pools of all different temperatures. Some of the pools are filled with the sulphurous water from the hot springs that are under Budapest, smelly but good for you. It's great fun and great people watching. Guys - if you feel the need to buy a white Speedo, don't, I've seen what it looks like and it's just not right. Some things really should be left up to the imagination.
We spend several hours at the baths ditching the bike tour we were originally going to go on. Jessya even managed to get the massage she wanted while we were there. I was a little sad for Mike since it was his last day and I wanted him to see the city, but what are you gonna do, we just took too long in the morning. We had a Dinner cruise on the river booked, but the weather was against us and the ships windows fogged up. Rain and fog do not make a great sunset dinner cruise weather. In terms of the whole dinner cruise concept, I would avoid it all together. just walk around the city and eat at a regular cafe outside. The cruise has buffet style food - pretty good, but not worth $50 a person, and live music of not the greatest caliber. Kind of a tourist trap all in all. We toasted to our last meal as the 5 of us and enjoyed it anyway.
Once the cruise was over the sky cleared up a little bit and we froze taking pictures from the bridge. A quick metro ride and a not so quick change of clothes and we were ready for our last ruin pub. This one was called "Instant" and had a grotesque creepy theme and a good DJ. Smazo joined us again and we had a great time on our last night. As it was his last night, Mike walked the streets till about 5am, but I did not join him because he is insane.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Food Orgasms and Reality TV
Day 6 - There is something magical about Ljubljana. It's not really anything you can put your finger on exactly, but something in the air. I know what you're gonna say, "that's very very lame", but it's also true. Waking up in a supper shitty yet at the same time super awesome hostel room and going to have breakfast in a cafe on the river is ridiculous. I love it. We immediately realized that we needed more time here, so I pushed out our Budapest apt. reservation one more day.
After walking around the city for a bit we went on a boat tour where the driver went on a beer run prior to departure. The ride was very fun and very relaxing, but then again it might be the beer talking. we passed by an otter swimming in the river and the boat driver told us that there used to be an otter farm by Ljubljana and a couple of the otters escaped and now there are thousands of them around the city. I thought that was really cute :)
As we walked around the city for a bit after the boat ride we saw a guy selling one of those wooden puzzles that you need to figure out how to take apart and then put back together again. Girls 3, Boys 0. MVP for the girls team = Olichka for doing both of those things first. I am putting this to paper so I have documented proof. Feel free to argue later about who is smarter Mike Livschiz and I will whip this baby out in three seconds or less. Just saying.
One of the things that we had booked for Ljubljana was dinner at an underground restaurant. The basic concept is that someone cooks for you in their house and you give them "donations" in return, but there is no zoning, no liquor license, no rules, just food. The meal was ridiculous - 5 courses of pure awesome. The dessert was so decadent that if I write about it I would have to make this blog rated XXX. AAAAHHHHHHHH
We capped our night by going to Metelkova, which is the area in Ljubljana where the cool crowd hangs out at night. You will have to check out some of Yan's pictures of this, but here is a sampler from google. For some reason a lot of the bars were closed but we did meet a Russian chick who had lived there for 18 years, but who was really excited about meeting us. We broke it down for us in terms of what to expect here. It's a really cool place with guitar playing and people singing in the courtyard and bars that all play different music to suit any taste around. The buildings and walls are decorated in weird graffiti and sculptures and the whole place has a really nice vibe to it.
Day 7 - We decided that this will be a day when we separate and just meet up for dinner and night activities. Because we originally didn't book our hostel for this day we had to check out and find other accommodations. Mike and I ended up staying at Hotel Center, which was very reasonable, clean, comfortable and very reasonably priced. We started off our trip by checking out the hotel and then walking up to the Castle. The walk exposes amazing views of Ljubljana, and you can really see all of it once you get to the castle. I found the castle itself to be underwhelming, as there is a lot of new pieces to it done in a modern style. It houses art galleries of a grotesque and creepy nature, an old chapel, and not much else of historical value.
While we were there, we saw people with microphones and cameras and Mike asked what was going on. Apparently there was an episode of Coach Trip being filmed in the castle that day. Coach trip is a UK reality TV show where contestants get voted on and off and have challenges that they do in teams of two. The challenge for today was having the contestants practice with professional clowns and putting on a clown show. The clown theme was due to a Clown festival that just ended in Ljubljana. Mike and I decided to grab a bite and watch them for a bit. When we sat down we asked about portion sizes since the restaurant served large and small portions. The waiters reply: "The small portions are tiny, and the large are still not big enough". Love it.
After coming down from the castle, we decided to grab our bags, walk them over to our hotel, and maybe take a nap, but we got a little lost and the nap was no longer an option. We met everyone at Foculus for some pizza and were shocked when we learned that they saw EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS AS WE DID. This group is so in tune that even on our day apart we did exactly the same sight seeing. I can't believe we didn't run into each other.
The pizza was alright and I did go back to the hotel for an hour long nap while the rest of the group had coffee in a nearby cafe so that I could enjoy the rest of the night. The one thing that has been missing from this trip for sure is sleep, and all fun and no sleep makes Kathy a mean girl. There was an art festival going on in Ljubljana that night so we went and saw a fire show that was put on in a park area. We were a little worried since it was raining, and even bought umbrellas, but the show just started at 10:30 rather then 10pm and was fine. It was industrially themed and amazingly cool. Firemen were standing by in case they were needed, but all went off without a hitch. Once we were put in the right frame of mind we went back to Metelkova and this time the bars were open and hopping. We went in to one of the bars and partied for a while, but it was really smokey so we eventually escaped into some fresh air.
To cap off the night Mike, Olichka, and I found a 24 hour food place that served AMAZING kebabs at 3am as well as highly decent pizza and gorged ourselves prior to calling it a night. I was apparently enjoying our Kebab so much that I was stopped on the street and asked where I got such deliciousness. Foodie or no foodie, sometimes a 3am kebab is all a girl needs.
After walking around the city for a bit we went on a boat tour where the driver went on a beer run prior to departure. The ride was very fun and very relaxing, but then again it might be the beer talking. we passed by an otter swimming in the river and the boat driver told us that there used to be an otter farm by Ljubljana and a couple of the otters escaped and now there are thousands of them around the city. I thought that was really cute :)
As we walked around the city for a bit after the boat ride we saw a guy selling one of those wooden puzzles that you need to figure out how to take apart and then put back together again. Girls 3, Boys 0. MVP for the girls team = Olichka for doing both of those things first. I am putting this to paper so I have documented proof. Feel free to argue later about who is smarter Mike Livschiz and I will whip this baby out in three seconds or less. Just saying.
One of the things that we had booked for Ljubljana was dinner at an underground restaurant. The basic concept is that someone cooks for you in their house and you give them "donations" in return, but there is no zoning, no liquor license, no rules, just food. The meal was ridiculous - 5 courses of pure awesome. The dessert was so decadent that if I write about it I would have to make this blog rated XXX. AAAAHHHHHHHH
We capped our night by going to Metelkova, which is the area in Ljubljana where the cool crowd hangs out at night. You will have to check out some of Yan's pictures of this, but here is a sampler from google. For some reason a lot of the bars were closed but we did meet a Russian chick who had lived there for 18 years, but who was really excited about meeting us. We broke it down for us in terms of what to expect here. It's a really cool place with guitar playing and people singing in the courtyard and bars that all play different music to suit any taste around. The buildings and walls are decorated in weird graffiti and sculptures and the whole place has a really nice vibe to it.
Day 7 - We decided that this will be a day when we separate and just meet up for dinner and night activities. Because we originally didn't book our hostel for this day we had to check out and find other accommodations. Mike and I ended up staying at Hotel Center, which was very reasonable, clean, comfortable and very reasonably priced. We started off our trip by checking out the hotel and then walking up to the Castle. The walk exposes amazing views of Ljubljana, and you can really see all of it once you get to the castle. I found the castle itself to be underwhelming, as there is a lot of new pieces to it done in a modern style. It houses art galleries of a grotesque and creepy nature, an old chapel, and not much else of historical value.
While we were there, we saw people with microphones and cameras and Mike asked what was going on. Apparently there was an episode of Coach Trip being filmed in the castle that day. Coach trip is a UK reality TV show where contestants get voted on and off and have challenges that they do in teams of two. The challenge for today was having the contestants practice with professional clowns and putting on a clown show. The clown theme was due to a Clown festival that just ended in Ljubljana. Mike and I decided to grab a bite and watch them for a bit. When we sat down we asked about portion sizes since the restaurant served large and small portions. The waiters reply: "The small portions are tiny, and the large are still not big enough". Love it.
After coming down from the castle, we decided to grab our bags, walk them over to our hotel, and maybe take a nap, but we got a little lost and the nap was no longer an option. We met everyone at Foculus for some pizza and were shocked when we learned that they saw EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS AS WE DID. This group is so in tune that even on our day apart we did exactly the same sight seeing. I can't believe we didn't run into each other.
The pizza was alright and I did go back to the hotel for an hour long nap while the rest of the group had coffee in a nearby cafe so that I could enjoy the rest of the night. The one thing that has been missing from this trip for sure is sleep, and all fun and no sleep makes Kathy a mean girl. There was an art festival going on in Ljubljana that night so we went and saw a fire show that was put on in a park area. We were a little worried since it was raining, and even bought umbrellas, but the show just started at 10:30 rather then 10pm and was fine. It was industrially themed and amazingly cool. Firemen were standing by in case they were needed, but all went off without a hitch. Once we were put in the right frame of mind we went back to Metelkova and this time the bars were open and hopping. We went in to one of the bars and partied for a while, but it was really smokey so we eventually escaped into some fresh air.
To cap off the night Mike, Olichka, and I found a 24 hour food place that served AMAZING kebabs at 3am as well as highly decent pizza and gorged ourselves prior to calling it a night. I was apparently enjoying our Kebab so much that I was stopped on the street and asked where I got such deliciousness. Foodie or no foodie, sometimes a 3am kebab is all a girl needs.
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