From Budapest to Vienna

Beautiful Budapest

Just an update to say that having spent four glorious days in Budapest, we are now on our way to Vienna.We have really enjoyed doing a few walking tours around the city including: a General Tour, the Communism Tour and the Jewish Quarter walking tour. We have also visited the traditional Hungarian baths, seen the House of Terror and the Heroes' Square.


Quite naiveley, I had always pictured Budapest to be a somewhat under-developed city. I thought that it might not be too safe and imagined it to be more like Albania than London. In fact it is really developed with Louis Vuitton shops next to Nespresso shops next to Costa Coffee. I felt safe at all times here and found it to be really clean also. It was a very pleasant surprise and a really lovely city to visit. The views from the Buda hills over the Danube to the Pest side are glorious, and the architecture is also spectacular.

Of course we have eaten the inherently Hungarian Goulash (pronounced Goulyash) soup. We had the beef one, which came with little dumplings. It was an interesting experience to try it and, although I am glad that I did, it is definitely not a Summer food. It was really heavy and hearty and I came away from the meal feeling a bit ill... just wayyyy too much meat. Still, in icy cold blizzardy Winter I can imagine it would be the perfect dish.

Szimpla Ruin Bar

We were introduced to the world of Ruin Bars - a bar that has been established in what used to be dilapidated old houses with run-down furniture and interiors. They have now been refurbished and all of the small rooms that remain make drinking in them a really unique experience. Each room is furnished differently - some with quirky features such as wallpaper made out of sheet music. Other ruin bars, like Szimpla, which we visited, sold shisha and cheap beers. I really liked Szimpla because it had walls covered in books that were available to read (despite the fact that they were in Hungarian and resembled the Bible), they added to that homely feel. Another unique touch to Szimpla were the waitresses that came around with bowls of carrots - yes, carrots- in the event that you wanted a snack. How very nutritious.

With only 11 more days left of our backpacking adventure we are now off on a 2.5 hour bus ride to find some Wiener Schnitzel and Apple Strudel in Vienna, and hoping to see a classical music concert also!

And our Eastern European adventure begins... with Greece!

Today is the beginning of an exciting six-week journey through Eastern Europe with my two wonderful Australian friends Sarah-Jane and Sarah B. We will be meeting in Athens Airport to begin our Greek island-hopping adventure.

After spending tonight in Athens Airport - we're only there for about seven hours so it doesn't make sense to get all the way to a hostel for a few hours' sleep- we will catch a ferry from the port in Athens to Ios for a few days, before taking another ferry from Ios to Santorini.

Santorini is quite special to me. Actually, I probably would not be alive without it. Why? you ask. Well, my parents met while backpacking in Santorini and my name is also Greek. If they had not met one evening on the cliffs of Santorini (think Mamma Mia) , who knows where or what I would be. Anyway, we are staying in Santorini for five days, and unfortunately during that time Sarah B will be returning back to Australia for university. Sarah-Jane and I will catch a flight from Santorini to Corfu, with another overnight stay in a Greek airport I can't pronounce.

I don't honestly know anything about Corfu, only that it is apparently a pretty big party island - hopefully that will be fun! After all of that island-hopping, Sarah-Jane and I are taking a Balkan roadtrip from Corfu to Dubrovnik. Here is the link in case you're interested.

Will keep the blog updated as we travel through Eastern Europe!