Ljubljana, the city of dragons

We took a 6 am bus from Budapest to Ljubljana, Slovenia, via www.orangeways.com. We met a friendly but drunk Swedish gentleman who continued to drink and spill beer on the bus, much to the driver’s dismay. The bus stopped in Zagreb, Croatia. We may or may not have left someone behind; the bus left but returned to the station honking and looking for a rider, but we never found out for sure if someone got stranded. Not surprisingly, at subsequent stops no one wandered too far from the bus!

 

The first thing we noticed about Ljubljana was graffiti and interesting statues line the streets and random and abstract structures litter the skyline. Including a building our Googling skills suggest is a series of condos but we thought it looked more like half a sandwich. Our hotel, the Emonec, was right off the main street up from the Triple Bridges. We dropped our bags and headed back to the bus/train station to book our trip to Florence. A train to Florence was approximately 9 hours.  The information guy told us our best bet was to book a bus to Venice as trains to Florence run every hour from there. 

 

 

 

Next, Jason grabbed a burek, a croissant-like pastry stuffed with mince meat, on our way to Metelkova. Metelkova is an “autonomous social center” and cultural art spot located in former military barracks in Ljubljana. It was pretty empty, sans some teenagers/hooligans drinking in the park area. The art work on the buildings was incredible but the graffiti was even more intriguing. Allegedly the area has (or at one time had) a happening night life with clubs and cheap drinks but we didn’t make it back to find out. Next door is the popular Celica hotel, built out of an old prison. It had no vacancies during our stay.

 

 

 

Friday night there was a street fair packed with vendors with tastes from around the world. Jason settled on octopus risotto and a glass of sambuca juice. We walked along the river, which is lined with restaurants and bars. We settled on a pub blocks away where we got drinks and played cribbage. An older gentleman stopped and watched us play for a while, and we explained some of the rules.

 

 

The next morning I was eager to hike another hill to another castle – unfortunately the rain was nearly as bad as San Sebastian so I gave in and we rode the funicular up the mountain. For 8 Euros a person, you get a round trip (or “return”) on the funicular and entry to the Ljubljana castle. It was my favorite castle, mostly because of the architecture (with parts built deep into the rocks) and the prison. There are also several busy event centers; we saw two wedding parties cross each other in the courtyard.

 

 

 

Back down the mountain, we visited the Saturday market, which is mostly produce and flowers. For lunch, we stopped at Vodnikov Hram. I had the vegetarian medallions, and Jason had a small farm. I mean, he had a plate with pork, turkey and beef lung. For dessert, we went to Cacao, the #1 rated restaurant in Ljubljana on Tripadvisor, for Twix and Tiramisu ice cream. For just 1.4 Euros per delicious cone, it’s not bad for the budget.

 

 

After the rain stopped, we ended the night at a pub. Or a pub/night club it seemed - sometime during the evening the club lights and Latin beats started bumping. On the late-night walk home, we hit Nobel Burek, a 24-hour kebab place. There was a line, which is always a good sign. Kebabs run 2.3 Euro in Ljubljana.  Not quite as cheap as Budapest but definitely the cheapest Euro currency country we visited.

Had we had more time (and less rain), we would have liked to have seen the Škocjan Caves Park, the Predjama Castle built into a cliff, and the city of Bled – these came highly recommended to us. Unfortunately, now it’s time to board the bus for the last leg of our tour. Onward to Florence, Italy!

Busy in Budapest

We had planned on taking a night train from Munich to Budapest but the option was much more expensive so we decided to leave Munich earlier on the daytime train.

Our accommodations in Budapest were slightly different.  We booked a room from City Square Apartments that included a kitchen and a washing machine.  Maren noticed that the reservation said something about calling about your time of arrival and it is really good that she did because there was no front desk, just a guy with a tupperware container full of apartment keys who met you and led you a couple blocks away and took your money.

The apartment was in a building with a small old church in its courtyard. We got keys to the apartment and to the huge heavy wooden double doors at the front of the building.  The windows from the apartment opened right onto the main pedestrian thoroughfare that led right to the Central Market.

Once we dumped our stuff we went out to wander.  We found an upscale cheeseburger bar, Good Bar Good Burger, where we got top notch mini-cheeseburgers (and veggie burger).  We next found a Tesco-Express to stock up on supplies.  Most important lesson learned is that when you are trying to pick out beer and you don’t speak the language, choose which ever one has Demon in the title.

The next day we hiked up to the old Buda Castle and sat in the café in the courtyard. (There was construction going on which was Maren’s favorite part.) There were archery and spear-throwing activities – an interesting tourist trap we hadn’t seen elsewhere. We climbed a huge hill to the Citadella, an old fort built during rule by the Habsburgs that was a site of serious fighting during World War II.  There was a series of paved trails that crisscrossed the whole mountain.

We took the subway (350 HUF [~1.5USD] per single ticket) to a little out of way the traditional Hungarian restaurant, Pozsonyi Kisvendeglo, which a couple people on Tripadvisor suggested.  The food was fantastic and immensely cheap. We enjoyed goulash, a starter, fried pork and mini dumplings covered with sour cream and cheese, plus (several) drinks for $27.

To finish the evening, we took a nighttime cruise up and down the Danube.  Budapest is especially beautiful at night! The river is lined with cruise vendors and it was easy to walk up and make a reservation.

Our last day in Budapest we started at the Szechenyi public baths.  It is a big complex of huge heated pools and saunas. There are several in Budapest but this had the best reviews. It was 8700 HUF ($39USD)  for the two of us, including a locked changing cabin. You get a waterproof wristband that unlocks the cabin or your locker. It's a pretty simple but efficient electronic system.

For lunch, we went to Budapest’s huge central market and got some grub.  The food places line one side of the second story, and each has delicious food out on the counter.  Almost everywhere you go in Budapest there are amazing food smells. (Except the lower level of the market, which is for the fish and pickled things.)

After that we stopped by the New York Café, a famous restaurant on the bottom floor of a huge historic building built for an American insurance company in the late 1800s.  The interior of the building was crazy ornate, and we got a crunchy peanut cake that was to die for.

We finished out the night at Szimpla Kert, the most famous of the Budapest ‘Ruin Pubs’.  District VII is apparently has a number of bars in old abandoned buildings.  Szimpla Kert was the first of these and is in an old factory with a big interior courtyard. We caught the live performance and enjoyed some beer and Strong Bow cider in one of their car booths.

On the way home, the ticket dispenser at the metro was broken, which seemed a chaotic thing to have happen at midnight but the metro guys just said “No tickets” cryptically and we rode until we found a station with tickets. Well, it was some random dude selling tickets; Maren was not pleased but we made it home without any trouble. 

Budapest was a great stop not just for the sights and the people, but also the cost. The exchange rate was approximately $1USD = 220 HUF (Hungarian Forint). So, a beer never ran more than about 600 HUF or less than $3. In some places we could get 2 drinks for $3. Or our favorite economic measurement is kebabs – everywhere so far had been 1 kebab for 5 Euros ($7USD). In Budapest we stopped for kebab takeaway and got a chicken and a falafel kebab for 1100HUF ($5USD).

Next up: Bus ride to Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

Much to do in Munich

Our hotel was quite nice and very close to the heart of the city.  A quick walk took us through streets crowded with people down to the Marienplatz where we wandered around endlessly looking for a restaurant that I had read about on Yelp.  Later we found out that it has been closed for some time but apparently Yelp was not aware of this.  We ended up going to the Ratskeller where I got pork schnitzel that came with a strange but tasty cucumber and potato salad.  Maren got spaetzle with cheese that was incredible.

On the walk back we spotted one tram that was blaring Britney Spears and packed with people dancing.  We could only assume it was some sort of party tram.

We stopped at a bar called Shakespeare next door to our hotel.  They had pints for 3 Euros and a couple of different shots for 2 Euros (one was Sambuca and Jaeger and the other was Apfle (apple liquor) with cinnamon on top.  We ended up stopping in at this place every night we were in Munich. They play great music while showing a mashup of unrelated music videos.

The next day we took the S-Bahn to Herrsching, which took about 45 min.  The town is on Lake Amersee.  The weather was wonderful, and there were lots of people sunbathing or walking along the lakefront or sitting at cafes, including some street musicians with a guitar made out of a pitchfork.

From there we hiked through the forest to the Andechs Monastery, the real reason for our trip.  The hike is about 3 miles, so by the end of it we were quite thirsty for beer.  The Monastery has a big Beer Hall with a patio that can seat 1,500 thirsty pilgrims.  I wanted to try their doppelbock, but thought that might not be the most refreshing of their options so I settled on their weissbier while Maren got their radler (of course).

We had worked up quite an appetite too so I ordered a massive deep fried pork knuckle and a big Bavarian pretzel.

When we finished our food and drink we thought we might as well peek our heads into the cathedral which, as it turns out, is pretty amazing.

We met a group of young German guys in lederhosen sitting in the grass outside the cathedral that wanted me to take their picture and talk with us.  Apparently they are touring the West Coast in August.  Also there was some hugging.  Like these guys, we found Germans for the most part to be drunk and friendly.

The next day we toured the Munich Residenz, which was the palace where all the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings lived until they were kicked out in the early 20^th century.  You could tour through an enormous amount of rooms, though almost all of them had been reconstructed because it was pretty much blown to smithereens during World War II.  On the whole it wasn't as awesome as the Royal Palace in Madrid.

In the same complex they exhibit the royal treasury, which has all kinds of crazy jewel swords and ornate reliquaries and stuff.  The number of items and the caliber of the craftsmanship were astounding.  I really can’t recommend the treasury highly enough.  If you are in Munich don’t miss it. It is 11 Euros per person for both the museum and the treasury.

Then it was time for lunch (i.e., time for beer and pretzels again). We walked to the Englisch Garden, a giant park with a beer garden. We hiked up to a gazebo atop a hill to check out the view. What we found was a man with a loudspeaker playing hip beats while he occasionally blew a few notes on the saxophone.  Clearly not an actual saxophone player. But a nearby dog was clearly interested.

Randomly, 0n the way home we stumbled upon a statue covered in Michael Jackson memorial at the Promenadeplatz.

We ended our German day at Andy’s Krablergarten for cordon bleu schnitzel and spaezel. The next morning we snagged a mass amount of breakfast goodies from the hotel for our 8-hour train ride to Budapest.

See you in Hungary!