"It's hello, not goodbye"

On Wednesday after arriving early into Istanbul, I had breakfast at the hostel, which gave me a chance to meet and talk to a bunch of the other guests. I didn't have many laid out plans for my days in Istanbul, so I figured I would just wander the old city the first day, but one of my roommates, Kathryn, said she was going to the Prince's Islands for the day and invited me along. I decided to go with her, so we walked up to the harbor through street vendors selling kebab, fish sandwiches, roasted chestnuts, etc. We took the ferry down to the Marmara Sea. It made a few stops, and as we didn't know anything about any of the specific islands, we figured we'd just get off wherever looked cool. The view on the water was incredible: the skyline of the city, dotted here and there with mosques, is massive and never ending, and because it was a bit foggy that first day, islands kept appearing suddenly out of the haze. We ended up getting off the ferry at Heybeliada, for no particular reason. We walked on the shore for a bit and then headed inland, essentially up a hill. No cars are allowed on the islands, so we had to dodge the horse-and-buggies that kept running us off the road. The walk up was cool; the view out over the water became more and more beautiful the further up we went, and we were walking through a pine and palm tree forest, which are two trees I don't picture together.

We got back down to the shore, had a Turkish kebab for lunch, and decided to head back to the old city to do some exploring. Unfortunately we got on the wrong ferry and wound up in New Town, but this wasn't a huge issue. We took the funicular up to Taksim Square, where there is a huge monument to (possibly) independence, and a flag, surrounded by shops and restaurants and bars. We made our way down Istiklal Street, the major shopping area of New Town, which leads to Galata Tower and the bridge back to the old city. We browsed in the shops (Istanbul being my last stop means no need to worry about carrying anything so I can finally buy some things!) and looked through things on the streets, like these owl hats:

and this terrifying car scratching post:

and finally got down to the bridge, which we crossed amid a mass of people, to the point that moving independently was impossible, we were mostly just carried by the crowd. It was Eid, so everyone was off work and school, and celebrating. We decided to walk down below the bridge, where there are lots of restaurants and bars (and servers begging passersby to eat this fish, or this one), and it was cool to see all the lines dropping down from the top of the bridge where people were fishing- every now and then someone would catch one and we'd see the fish go wriggling up past us as he was reeled in. Back in our neighborhood, we stopped at a place we'd been told has the best baklava in Istnabul, Said's. Said, or Mr. Delcious, as he introduced himself, and I became great friends over the next few days. Here we are:

We bought baklava to share with our hostelmates after dinner, and went back to drop it off before going in search of a restaurant. I had a mushroom casserole thing that might have been made with pizza sauce, and Kathryn had stuffed chicken, which I think she decided was stuffed with hot dog pieces. So not the best food in Istnabul, but the fresh pomegrate juice and the baklava waiting at home more than made up for it.

The next day I had to be up early early to be picked up at 6:30 for my trip to Troy. It was a long, long ride - about 5 hours each way - but as it was pouring rain in Istanbul but we had sun, and as it was Troy, it was worth the drive. We drove southwest along the European coast to the town of Eceabat, where I was fed an entire fish for lunch, and then took the ferry across to Canakkale, on the Asian side, just 30 minutes away from the Troy site. There's not much left there: unfortunately most of it has been destroyed or stolen or sold, but with a guide who could describe just what we were looking at, and with the island of Tenedos, where the Greeks (supposedly) hid until the horse was brought into the city, and with a great fake wooden horse to climb inside and take great tourist pictures, it was a really good day, and a very cool place to visit. I wish I had had more time in Turkey, though, the little bit of Canakkale that I saw made it seem like it would have been a cool place to spend a night. Unfortunately, with only a couple days in Istanbul, I only wanted to spend one away from the city, so I was shuttled back and arrived at the hostel around 11 pm. I was the last to be dropped off though, so I got a small tour of the old city as we went to all the other hotels, and that was kind of cool.

Friday Kathryn and I finally go exploring in the old city. She'd been in Istanbul a few days more than me, so she had seen a lot of it, but she was happy to tour with me, even though the weather was rainy and gloomy. We went to the Hagia Sofia first.

It was originally built in the Byzantine empire as a church, and converted into a mosque in the Ottoman Empire, so there's a really interesting mix of imagery; for example, crosses overlaid with moons and Islamic inscriptions surrounding a fresco of Mary and Jesus. After looking around in there for a while, we went across the square to the blue mosque, but found that it was closed until the afternoon for Friday prayer. We decided to go over to the Grand Bazaar and then visit on the way back. Unfortunately , when we got to the Bazaar, we found that it was all quiet, and we overheard someone telling some other lost tourists that it was closed for Eid, but would reopen the following day. Twice defeated by Istanbul tourism, I decided I needed some pomegranate juice, so we went to a cafe and sat for a while to decide what to do next. The weather was horrible so we were just not having any fun wandering anymore, so we decided to go to Topkapi Palace, so we'd at least be somewhat indoors. We decided to also pay to see the Harem, which ended up being the coolest part. The walls were all intricately tiled with beautiful mosaics in the brightest colors, and the ceilings were all painted, and even the floors were decorative. There was also a lot of information in there about the life of the sultans and their wives and concubines, which was interesting and much different from the information in the other palaces I've been in on this trip. The other buildings of the palace were beautiful too, particularly the council chambers:

After the palace, we decided to get some lunch and go back to the hostel to eat it, since we were so close, and to give us a chance to regroup and figure out our game plan. Also my camera was dead so I wanted to charge it. For lunch we had borek, a kind of fast food that is maybe a step up from kebab. It's something of a pastry with cheese, meat, potato, spinach, etc. It was very good, especially served with the baked pita with cheese that I had. Yum. Then Kathryn decided to call it a day so I explored a little. I ended up near the Spice Bazaar, which, though also closed for the holiday, was surrounded by stands selling more pomegranate juice, clothes, dried fruits and nuts, and just about anything you could want. Walking back to the hostel was a little tricky, because the roads are rarely marked and never straight, but I made it eventually, passing an essential sock store on my way:

When I got back, Kathryn and I tried again for the Blue mosque, but found that it wouldnt open again until the next day. The worst luck. In the evening Kathryn and I, and a big group of American students studying in Spain, as well as one or two other guests, went to a restaurant/bar/hookah bar under the bridge where we sat on the water watching the fishermen's lines again.

Saturday, Kathryn, Dan (another guest), and I all headed to the Grans Bazaar together, with all thirty of our fingers crossed that it would be open. It was, and we wandered around there for a while. It was nowhere near as wild as I expected - I guess I was thinking it would be like the markets in Nairobi or Tajikistan with very little structure and very much pushing, but actually it was a bit more like a shopping mall, with upscale jewelry stores and tea shops. From the Grand Bazaar, though, we went to the Spice Bazaar, which was a lot more fun, and had a lot more olives:

When we were finished playing in the spices, we bought some sandwich makings for lunch, and some olives, and then headed back to the blue mosque to eat and stake it out, determined to get inside. We found that we had an hour until it would open after midday prayer, so Dan went back to the hostel, because he had a friend he was meeting, but Kathryn and I went to an information session on the mosque and Islamic culture in Turkey as a way of spending the hour productively, and then we were some of the first in line when it opened. It was incredible, and massive, and so, so blue. I love the blue tile; that's not really a color you get much in the European cathedrals. After the mosque, we went back to the hostel, then I set out to see a little more of the city. I walked up to the Suleyman mosque, which is enormous and in a beautiful courtyard, and sits high above the city so you can see down to the water. Then I walked over the the aqueduct, which was cool, but nothing too special, although it was beautiful as the sun was setting and shining through the arches. From there I walked down the main road through what may have been a sort of informal Iranian district, as there were suddenly a lot of signs in Farsi and Persian restaurants. I walked down to the sea, but it ended up not being a very nice walk - I was mostly on the side of the highway. I found my way back I the hostel via the blue mosque and the Hagia Sofia, which was beautiful at sunset.

Sunday was my last day in Istanbul and also (I can't believe it!) the last day of my trip. It also happened to be Kathryn's last day, so we decided to go all out. We ferried over to Asia in the morning, and, since we've heard there isn't much to see, decided to just wander. We stopped at a cafe, where we had some delicious cookie/pastry things, and a beautifully laid out Turkish coffee:

See that tiny covered platter in the front? There's a minuscule Turkish delight under there. So good. Then we walked on, just kind of meandering in the direction of the Bosphorous Bridge, which would take us to New Town, but not really making a beeline: we were not just walking through the streets to see what the Asian side looked like. It's a lot quieter and less touristy than the old city, particularly away from the shore. When it was around lunchtime, we saw a guy come out of a restaurant with a plate of chicken wings and feed them to a stray cat. I thought this was so nice that I suggested we support the business and eat there, so we went inside. It was a little hole in the wall cafeteria place, where one older Turkish man was eating, and no one spoke English. It felt so much more authentic than the restaurants in New Town, and the food was so, so good.

I had stuffed eggplant, and she had collared greens, and we both had rice dishes, and it came to about 3 dollars each. The food was pretty spicy, and also, that's a box of bread. There was one on every table. I just thought that was great.

After lunch, we continued walking, but with a bit more direction than before, as we wanted to be able to do some last minute Istiklal shopping. We made it to the bridge, but discovered, unfortunately, that there is no pedestrian crossing, so we had to get a bus to take us across. Once we got off, we were headed back to Taksim, but New Town is extremely hilly and an hour into our tour, we were exhausted. Kathryn asked someone on the street what the best path there was, and a woman who overheard is offered to take us there in the cab she was taking, because they would pass by anyway. We agreed when she told us about all the hills remaining between us and Taksim, and so I took my only cab ride of the trip. I was so proud at having managed without any taxis, and ten hours before I was going to the airport, I took one. But Kathryn and I decided that since we didn't hail it, and the woman refused to take any money from us, it was more like hitchhiking and my record is still clean. Agreed? We got to Taksim and went back to buy some things we'd seen a few days earlier, and then made our way back to the hostel, via the bridge which was much less crazy not in the middle of eid, but still pretty crazy. At the hostel, I played Tetris with my backpack, but got it all to fit with plenty of room, and then we went out to dinner. We'd been planning to treat ourselves for our last meal, so we went to a restaurant recommended by another roommate. It was a little pricey, but the atmosphere was cool: we sat on low couches with great cushions, in a room with carpets hanging from the walls and covering the floor.

Since I opened the menu and wanted one of everything, we decided to get a couple things and share . We started with an appetizer platter of all kinds of different spreads: hummus, yogurt, sour and weirdly pink but delicious yogurt, harissa; eggplant, feta, and a couple others. Then we had Turkish dumplings: tiny tortellini in a yogurt sauce with a lot of delicious spices, and chicken with some kind of delicious curry-like sauce.

It was so amazing, and we came pretty close to finishing everything, so it was a great last day. And the perfect end to the trip: there was an older couple sitting next to us - I'm pretty sure they weren't Turkish but they weren't English speakers - and when they sat down, she said "goodbye" and I said "err... Goodbye" and her husband nudged her and said "it's hello, not goodbye". And on that note, I am in the airport in Sofia, ready for 14 more hours of travel, and I will be back in the United States tonight. Hello.

Cyrillic Again

After a couple days in Bucharest had convinced me that there wasn't too much to do there, I was feeling really ready to move on. So at 11 pm on Friday I boarded a train heading to Sofia, Bulgaria. There were no sleeping cars available (they had been reserved for passengers traveling the length of the route from Moscow to Sofia, and as that can't have been a pleasant ride (it took me 2 months to do that!) I wasn't that grumpy. But it was an uncomfortable Russian train, so I was grateful to meet Chris, a guy from Seattle who was also traveling from Bucharest to Sofia, and staying in the same hostel in Sofia as I was, and had had the good sense to shell out the extra money for a first class ticket, and also bring beer, the benefits of both of which he was willing to share. I guess no one cared, really, if I sat up in the first class (there was no one else sitting there anyway) so it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable ride after all, despite the fact that Russian first class was not quite up to my standards.

When we got to the Bulgarian border, a grumpy guard held out his hand and said "pass". Perhaps because I have mostly stayed in the Schengen region and so haven't been asked for my passport very much, or because it was 1 in the morning, I assumed he only needed my ticket. This made him even grumpier and while we dug around for our passports, Chris asked him how his night was going and he growled "fine and I don't have time". So not really the kind of guy I wanted to hand over my passport to and then watch him walk off the train. About twenty minutes and a few stolen passport stories (which did nothing to calm my nerves) he brought them back, freshly stamped. An hour or so later at the first stop in Bulgaria, some much cheerier guards got on, stamped them again, then radioed in every detail listed in them. This took a while, as the guy transliterated and spelled out in Cyrilic our names and addresses. Then a little while later, another guard got on and wrote down all those details. So it doesn't really seem like Bulgarian bureaucracy is especially efficient.

I woke up to beautiful sunrise over beautiful mountains, and the rest of the ride into the city was breathtaking.

Arriving in Sofia around 10, we headed to the hostel. It was a bit of a walk down there from the train station so we got a good look at the city. I thought it was pretty nice - certainly nicer than Bucharest - and it was a bit like Moscow, but maybe that was just the Cyrillic in all the shops and road signs. Like Moscow, the buildings weren't beautiful, but they weren't crumbling like in Bucharest, and I just got a good feeling from the city in general. When we got to the hostel,  we were told it was too early to check in, but we were offered coffee as condolence, so after downing that, I headed into town to join a walking tour. The guide was fun, but the group was enormous, so it wasn't my favorite of the tours I've done. I was also having trouble staying awake. By the time the tour was done it was late enough to check in, so I did, and took a shower, which was desperately needed after the train ride and Sofia's 81 degree autumn weather. The rest of the day I spent doing my own walking tour, and going into some of the cathedrals I had only seen the outsides of. The Aya Sofia (the city's namesake) especially was beautiful. On my way back to the hostel, I walked by some kind of performance of traditional Bulgarian dancing, so I watched that for a while, which was really fun and exciting.

Then for dinner, a couple other guests and I went to a restaurant pretty close to the hostel, where I had their soup, which came in bread and was so delicious and cheap (with beer it came to about 3 dollars) that I went back again two days later.

After dinner I was literally falling asleep at the table, so we went back to the hostel where I had the best nights' sleep I have had in two months.

The next day once I had dragged myself out of bed, I set out for Boyana, a suburb close to Sofia where there is a famous church and some hills for hiking. I managed to navigate a tram and a public bus, and got to Boyana a little before 1. I was following signs to the church but somehow missed it and before I knew it I wa headed up a mountain, so I figured I'd hike a bit and see the church on my way back. It was such a beautiful day: weather around 80 degrees and sunny, but nice and breezy as I went up, and the leaves were all changing and falling so walking through the woods was perfect.

I was following a trail for a while, but then I noticed that the markers had stopped, and then the path disappeared. Not wanting to get totally lost in the woods in Bulgaria with no phone and no one around, I turned back, and returned to a clearing that I had passed. Once there, I noticed a different path leading away than the one I had taken, so I followed it and there rediscovered the trail. I followed it back out to the road, past some cool views over the city, and thn made my way back down to the town. Still looking for the church, I walked around a bit, and eventually saw a tour bus so followed the group to the church. It's famous for its frescoes, which are incredibly well preserved and really interesting: the backgrounds are dark, dark blue, which is much different from the white and gold themes I usually see. Leaving the church, I went back to the bus stop and made it home with no trouble. I spent the evening at the hostel, where everyone brought some drinks and snacks to share, and we had a great evening just chilling at home.

My third day in Sofia, I decided to go up to Rila Monastery. There is only one public bus there and back every day, which takes about 2 hours each way, with only two hours between to look around. Though it seemed a little silly to make such a long trip for just 2 hours, it is supposed to be a really cool place to see, and I figured the drive up into the mountains would be pretty anyway. I was right: we drove along winding roads climbing the hills, with gorgeous autumn scenery and eventually came to the monastery. It is enormous, and the church itself is surrounded by living quarters, which are now mostly used for guests to spend the night. Both buildings are beautiful, and set in a valley between cliffs and hills.

Inside the church were incredible chandeliers and beautiful silver, in addition to the frescoes and icons inside.

The view out the window of the church:

Two hours was enough time to see the church and walk around a little bit, but I did have to skip the museum (frankly I didn't really care about the museum anyway) before heading back down the mountain to the city. At one of the stops on the way down, we were serenaded by these guys:

The next morning I got up, checked out, and spent the morning wandering around Sofia one more time. I didn't really see anything new, I just wasn't quite done with the city yet.

For the afternoon, I took the train to Plovdiv, a city a few hours south of Sofia. The train from Sofia to Istanbul stops there, so I decided to spend the day there on my way. It was a really cool city, actually, although the walk to the center from the train station made it seem a little crummy and grim.

It's a really old town (I think I read that it's the oldest continuously populated city in Europe, but that seems crazy so don't quote me on that) and the center has some great Roman ruins, including an enormous amphitheater that I was able to clamber around in for an hour or so, some columns, and a lot of really beautiful churches. Had I known how much there was to see there, I might have left Sofia on an earlier train, or spent a night in Plovdiv before moving south, but there's a lot more to do in Bulgaria than I ever gave it credit for, so I'm thinking there will be another trip there in my future. While I was wandering down toward the river, I found a church and thought "hey, why not?" even though it wasn't officially on my list of things to do in Plovdiv, and went inside. I ended up running into two people I had met at the hostel in Sofia, who'd left the day before to move on to Plovdiv. It was nice to have someone to walk around with (especially since they knew the layout of the old town) and so we walked up to the river (read: muddy creek) and then back to the main square, down a road literally packed with shoppers and diners. We decided to get dinner from a restaurant they had been told about at their hostel, so we headed over there. It was good food (I had mushrooms baked with cheese) and a cool atmosphere, and better than grabbing something by myself would have been!

Around 7:30 I started back to the train station. It was a little too early as my train wasn't leaving until after 9, but I had left my backpack in a storage room there and wasn't sure how that would go. It was easy enough to pick them up (even though I had lost my ticket, but they had my passport number so I guess they believed it was me) and then I had to wander around the station for about an hour. When it got to be 10 minutes before the train was leaving, I decided to find the platform. I found what I thought was the right one, but as there were no signs or even numbers, I really couldn't be sure. I must have looked like a sad, lost tourist because a conductor said to me "Istanbul?" and I said "yes" and he asked for my ticket, and then gave me some (probably) good directions in Bulgarian, which I am pretty sure amounted to "you are in the right place, the train will come soon, tuliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia" so I just stayed where I was. The train showed up and I got on. Another conductor took my ticket, promised to give in back in the morning, and sent me to my compartment. There was no one else in there, which was a little weird, but mostly wonderful. I was a little worried about the trip, though, because I had heard and read from multiple sources that the train wasn't running all the way to Istanbul and I'd have to change to a bus somewhere along the way, but no one at the ticket office or on the train had said anything like that, so I didn't know. Being alone made me a little concerned that I'd be left on the train and wake up back in Sofia, so I slept with the light on, just to draw some attention to my presence.

At the last station in Bulgaria, I was woken up to have my passport stamped. At the first station in Turkey, I had to get off the train and walk over to the customs office (not very far, but it was 3:00 in the morning) and then get back on the train. After that, we started moving again and a guard came and asked for my passport. He took it, and when he brought it back, I noticed it wasn't mine, so I had to chase him down the hall. That was ridiculous. My own passport in hand eventually, though, I went back to sleep until I was woken up at 6:30 to get on a bus. I was able to sleep the last hour or so, but it was not as comfortable as my private compartment on the train. I was, however, rewarded for my trouble with this Istanbul sunrise:

Worth it.

Now here's the Eastern Europe I've been looking for

My first stop in Romania was supposed to have been Timisoara, a smallish town near in Transylvania near the Hungarian border. Unfortunately, I couldn't tear myself away from Budapest soon enough to make it there, so I skipped it and headed straight to Brasov via 15 hour overnight train on Saturday night. When I got to the hostel on Sunday, I checked in and then set off to explore the town. It was pretty small, and I was easily able to see the entirety of the old town in a few hours. I started at the main square, where i found a huge festival going on, with food, handicrafts, and clothes from a few nearby countries (mostly Hungary and Moldova). There were a ton of people there, and mostly, from what I could tell, not tourists. Unfortunately, the town hall was under construction, so i couldn't really get a good idea of how the square ordinarily looks. Then I sneaked behind a school group to get into the Black Church, which is the focal point of the old city. It was gigantic, and very impressive, but really, I'm over churches, so I'm glad I didn't have to pay to get in. I headed up to the Black Tower, which was underwhelming, given that it's one of  only a couple well known (somewhat) sights in Brasov, and also not really black. Still, the view from the hill was incredible, and there were a couple sunny benches from which to admire it for a while.

Then I moved on to the White Tower, which was much larger, prettier, and more aptly named, as it was actually white. Then I just spent a few hours in the old town, wandering the (very few) streets until it started getting cold and darkish, when I made my way back up to the hostel.

Monday, I took a bus to Bran Castle, aka Dracula's castle, although Vlad actually only spent a few nights there as a prisoner - Bram Stoker apparently thought it a suitable lair for his vampire. The walk to the bus station was a little... rough. The buildings I passed were not the beautiful old European buildings I've seen so many of in the last few cities: these were crumbling around their inhabitants, or yet were deserted altogether. The bus station wasn't even marked. I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't been curiously peering into the gates I passed. I did find it, though, and found a bus that said "Bran" on it. It wasn't until we started moving that I realized I didn't really know what landmarks I should be looking for to know when to get off, and the bus driver wasn't really making any effort to announce the stops. It was a little like being on a Nairobi matatu, except most people had their own seats, and the driver mostly stayed in his own lane. Luckily, the Romanian woman sitting next to me took pity on me and pointed out where I should get off, which I did with many thanks. As soon as I got off the bus I could see the castle, but when I walked through the gate I was kindly escorted back out and pointed down a row of souvenir shops selling mugs and t shirts with Dracula's face on them. Lest the tourists pass those by, you have to walk through them all to get to the castle. The castle itself was pretty compact, but it was attractive.

Not quite the place where I would put my famous vampire, but I guess it worked for Mr. Stoker (I learned, among other things, that Dracula is the second-most published book of all time, after only the Bible! Can this be true?!). The exhibits inside were interesting: all the furniture was original and all the descriptions were written in English alongside the Romanian. There was also a good deal of information on what everyone there really cared about: Vlad and vampires.

I don't know that you can really say "in reality" when talking about vampires' immortality but there you go. Once I finished my tour of the castle, I wandered a bit in Bran, where there was still snow on the ground from the week before, despite the sun and the rather warm temperatures. That, and especially the wooden architecture and mountains, made the whole town look like a cozy ski resort, which I think it is, in the winter.

Then I hopped on a bus back to Brasov for the night. The bus driver had curiously chosen to hang as many air fresheners as possible from the ceiling.

Tuesday, I got a morning train to Bucharest, about 3 hours south of Brasov. I arrived around noon, and found the hostel close to the train station. i went first to the market that the receptionist had pointed out for me, and bought mushrooms, peppers, grapes, and bread, to last me a few days. I had a couple days set aside for a city relatively in tourist attractions, I spent that first afternoon wandering up to a park in the north, but didn't really rush to see anything specific. At the entrance to the park is Bucharest's Arc de Triomphe.

Ceausescu had a France thing (there's also a Romanian answer to the Champs Élysées, but Bulevardul Unirii is just a bit longer... He also had a size thing). I did manage to follow most of the major streets and hit most of the major squares, and I found that Bucharest is not like other European cities (hence the title of the post). The buildings are clearly communist and not gothic. There are a few "palaces" in the city, but they are austere and not pretty. Nearly all the signs advertising non-stop shops hang outside abandoned buildings, and the nighttime walk I took after dinner on Tuesday was creepy and dark. Which isn't to say the city isn't interesting. It certainly has a lot of character, and, if we remember back to the Moscow vs. St. Petersburg debate, I came on this trip looking for "gritty" cities anyway. Romania looks like communism, and that's just what I was expecting from most of these cities.

On Wednesday, I explored the old town. It's not very compact or easy to get around. There isn't a central square like classic European cities have- there's no town hall or market square. Instead, there are a few places where major roads come together and traffic backs up. I walked past the Parliament Building, which is the 3rd largest building in the world (after the Pentagon and a shopping mall in China) and is incredible. Like the rest of Bucharest's buildings, it's not overly attractive, but its sheer size is impressive.

You can see, both in the Parliament, and in the apartment buildings around it, the communist architecture. It looks like Dushanbe, but the side across the river, where everything is made of concrete.

The rest of the old town is similar, though with one or two rather prettier buildings that were somehow spared by the war, and a few churches that the communists forgot to tear down.

Wednesday evening I took a walking tour, where I basically saw all that I had seen on my own earlier in the day, but also learned a bit about what I was looking at, and heard a lot about the 1989 revolution and execution of Ceausescu. After the tour, I went out to dinner where I had polenta (I guess famous in Romania) with mushrooms and chicken.

Then, unfortunately, I had to walk all the way back to the hostel in the dark, down some pretty deserted streets. Again, creepy.

On Thursday, on the recommendation of  a receptionist, I took a trip with one of my roommates to Mogoshoaia Palace, just a few kilometers outside of Bucharest. Although the palace was small, and even though it was so close to the city, it was situated on a beautiful lake, and it was lovely to sit in the sun and hear only birds and no traffic. I hadn't realized how noisy and busy and city-like Bucharest is, until I got out of it, but it was so nice and much needed. Coming back to the city felt like returning to Nairobi after rural week, except not so welcome.

Today (Friday) was my last day in Romania, so I took advantage of it and walked back into the Old Town to see a few things again (specifically the princely court which was the actual ruling place of Dracula, but which is completely in ruins now). Then I walked back up to the park in the north of the city and spent a good couple hours walking around the lake (it turned out to be much bigger than I thought!). It was a good last day, and I enjoyed the time in Romania, but I feel like I have seen (more than once) everything in Bucharest. I'm excited to be moving on, and I am now just killing time until my train to Sofia leaves at 11 pm.

Tales of palaces, ruin bars, and 100 year old baths

I arrived in Budapest around 2:00 on Monday afternoon, went to the hostel, and then joined a walking tour of the Jewish district, where we saw some old buildings, some newly renovated buildings (although with new UNESCO world heritage status, renovation are now nearly impossible, so most of the area is just falling down), several synagogues (one designed to look like a cathedral and one like a mosque, so a bit weird), and part of the old ghetto wall. The tour lasted nearly four hours, so afterwards I just went back to the hostel, where a bunch of people were just hanging out for the evening.

The next morning I did a city tour, which was very cool, and covered both the Buda and Pest sides of the city. We saw the outsides of a lot of buildings: the royal palace and St. Stephen's Basilica and St. Matthias' Cathedral in particular.

Bridge from Buda to Pest

After the tour, the guide invited anyone who was interested to get lunch at a Hungarian cafeteria style restaurant, so a bunch of us followed her and ate huge plates of delicious food (potatoes, sausage, cheese and A LOT of paprika). After lunch I went back to the Basilica to look around inside. It was enormous:

Then I just walked around the Pest side for the rest of the day, loving the city. Someone told me that Budapest would be like a smaller Prague, but they were wrong. Budapest is huge, and (in my opinion) a much nicer city than Prague, with a lot to see. I walked up to the City Park, and wandered around there for a bit, then came back to the hostel, where the staff made Hungarian food (sausage, cheese, and paprika on bread) and served us Hungarian peach brandy, and then we moved on to Hungarian wine.

Wednesday I had reserved for Buda, so I walked across the bridge and spent the day climbing hills. Beautiful views, but a lot of walking! I started with Gellert Hill, where there is a monument, and an old citadel. 

The citadel now houses a military museum, which didn't grab my attention so much, so I just poked around, and then went back down the hill, and up another one to the royal palace and St. Matthias'. I went into the cathedral first. The colors on the walls and ceiling were incredible; it reminded me a lot of St. Basil's actually.

Right outside the cathedral is the Fisherman's Bastion, so I strolled around there for a bit. Not too much to see or do, but pretty towers:

and nice views over the river back to the Pest side:

(That big complex you can see across the river, with the dome roof, is the Parliament building. It was designed to look like Westminster Abbey, but the architect made it just a teeny bit longer.)

Then I went back to the royal palace, where I walked around the grounds for a while, admiring the building.

Inside there is a museum about the history of Budapest, so I figured that was worth checking out. Unfortunately, it was all under construction, so almost all the exhibits were closed. The only ones that were open were about Turkey and Slovakia. I did get to go into the medieval castle, though, so I guess it was worth it.

By the time I got out of the palace, I was exhausted anyway, so I returned to the hostel to nap before going to the ballet with a few other people staying there, for approximately own euro. The seats were terrible, but it was basically free and there was a screen we could see. Plus the opera house was beautiful, and it was cheaper to buy a ticket than to take the tour.

Afterwards, we decided to check out the ruin bars that Budapest is famous for. They're essentially abandoned buildings (mostly concentrated in the Jewish district) that people have turned into bars. The first one we went in, Szimpla, is Lonely Planet's number 3 bar in the world, and it was incredible. It was gigantic, with lots of different rooms and a couple clubs inside. It was more fun to wander around than to drink. Lots of weird stuff on the walls: one room is covered in old electronics. I think the people who work there must just come in every day and say "hey guys look what I found! Lets put it on the wall!"

We also went to Instant, another pretty popular one, that is decorated as an enchanted forest, with a big fake tree in the middle of one of the tables, and a huge creepy owl on the wall, and a chain of flying rabbits leading up to the ceiling.

Two was enough insane bars for my night, so we made our way back home.

Thursday, I spent the day strolling with one of the girls I had gone out with Wednesday night. It had taken me about five minutes after arriving in Budapest to decide I didn't want to leave on Friday morning like I'd planned, and I extended my stay until Saturday night, so with two extra days I was perfectly happy to wander and enjoy. We walked down to the central market hall, which was enormous and so well organized. The colors of the fruits and veggies were awesome, and there were peppers everywhere! I guess Hungary is famous for its paprika (clearly, judging by the food I was eating there) so red peppers hung from just about every stall. From there we were making our way to Margaret Island, in the north of the city in the middle of the Danube, about halfway between Buda and Pest. On our way, we decided to grab something quick and cheap and not kebab for lunch, so when we passed a stand selling langos, a Hungarian street food dish I had heard about, we stopped there. Langos: essentially an enormous piece of deep fried dough with garlic sauce and sour cream, and sometimes sausage, ham, cheese, cabbage and/or whatever you can imagine piled on top. I had mine with cabbage. It was declicious and greasy and wildly unhealthy. To top it off, we couldn't pass up a gelato place where they made this: 

(Lavender-white chocolate and caramelized banana)

We got to Margaret Island where there is a beautiful park, and not much else, and, after walking along the shore for a whole, we sat in the park and napped off all our lunch calories. Then we wandered just an hour or so more. She was heading to Oktoberfest coatless, so we thrift shopped a bit to find something to keep her warm, and then we made our way back to the hostel, for traditional Hungarian dinner night: potato pasta with cheese and bacon, a lot like what I had in Slovakia, except with cottage cheese and not sheep cheese. A lot of people had arrived that day, so I suggested we all go back to Szimpla, because it was just too cool not to show it off.

On Friday I took the train to Szentendre, a town about 40 minutes away along the Danube. There wasn't much to do, but it was a cute, quiet town, with a few beautiful churches and a nice walk along the river. I went into the Serbian Orthodox Church, which was beautiful: the altar was just a bunch of painted portraits at the front of the church. Mostly, though, I just had a good time getting lost in the winding streets of the old town, and people watching in the main square. Then I headed back to Budapest, and spent my last night wandering the city at night, showing around some new guests. I was thrilled to have become an expert on the city (although I did get us a bit lost on our way back). I feel like it's been a while since I stayed long enough anywhere to really get to know it, and I loved Budapest, so I'm glad I got enough time to feel comfortable walking around.

Saturday, my train was leaving at 7:00 pm, so I had most of the day, and decided to spend my last day enjoying one of Budapest's thermal baths. The one I decided to go to (there are quite a few) is definitely the oldest and the biggest, and I think that it's the most famous too. It opened in 1913, but the springs have been used here as a bath place since roman times. The building is beautiful too:

I ended up staying about 5 hours, just moving between the pools and the saunas. The pools ranged from 16-40 degrees Celsius, including 3 outdoor pools (they were heated, but the air around the pools was not, and it was a cold dash in only a bathing suit and a soaking towel from one pool to the next, and from the last pool back inside. Some of the pools were clear, and some were not, and a few were so small that only one or two people could sit in them at the same time. The saunas too were all different: the hottest one was 100 degrees Celsius (it was right next to the 16 degree pool, as well as a basin of ice, both of which were much needed after the sauna) and the coolest one was 50. One had color changing lights, and a few were aromatic. Two were wet steam saunas, and one was so steamy that you literally could not see anything. After a few hours of playing with the different pools, and being the most relaxed I think I have ever been, I walked back to the hostel to pack up a few last minute things, and catch the train to Brasov, Romania.

The train was one of the most fun of the trip. It was supposed to be 13 hours but ended up being nearly 15. When I got on, two people in my compartment had already set up their beds. Since I was on the top bunk, I had nowhere to sit down, and since it was only 7:00, and I didn't feel like lying down yet, I lingered in the hallway, and started talking to two German guys who were at the beginning of a 50+ hour trip from Vienna to Istanbul, on their way to Armenia. For a couple of Germans, they weren't really on top of things. They hadn't bought a ticket yet, and ended up not being able to buy a sleeping car reservation, so they had to sit in the seats. They invited me to sit and eat with them for a while, so we had a dinner of Viennese sausages, cheese, bread, beer, and the apples and dried bananas I had bought at the market in Budapest. Our assortment of food attracted a couple other friends, in particular a pug named Nero, who desperately wanted a sausage, but also a few humans. I ended up staying back there with them for several hours, and then I made my way back to my own compartment for the night.

I am now in Romania, for a little less time than I expected because it took me so long to get out of Budapest. Possibly my favorite city of the trip, it was big enough to have a lot of culture (those ruin bars are some of the coolest places I've spent my evenings) but not so big as to be crowded or packed with tourists (I'm looking at you, Czech Republic). I hope Romania can fill those shoes!