St Patrick's Day

This was my first year celebrating Patty’s Day in Boston-- it did not disappoint.

I spent the night of the 16th with Rachel in Watertown-- we had a boiled dinner, a Jameson float, and green drinks! We adventured a bit to meet up with some Wheaton folks. It was a relatively low key night out for us, but a lot of fun.

 

I woke up early on the morning of the 17th to meet up with family to head into South Boston. We arrived far too early, but easily filled up our spare time with drinks and laughs. The house we were at was right on the parade route, by the time the parade finally ran by us it was mid-afternoon and everyone was a bit silly. Shane Lea and I enjoyed the parade, getting free candy and taking every free give away we could get our hands on.

After the parade we headed back to Brighton for some libations at a local bar. It was a fun day, that ended with lots of greasy food and bagpipers walking in and performing at the bar. That’s what Saint Patrick’s Day is all about, right?

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Europe in Summary.

One month of travel in 10 blog posts:

Istanbul
Sliven
Sofia
Amsterdam
Berlin
Prague
Munich
Salzburg
Vienna
Budapest

Oh, and also: The Things I've Learned

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The things I've learned

I've been struggling with how to sum up a life changing month of travel, and I don't think I will ever be able to fully articulate all of my thoughts.

I am fortunate beyond belief to have had the opportunity to enjoy seven different countries with such different cultures and histories. 

While I’d love to be able to list all the things this trip has taught me, it would be quite impossible to encapsulate all the things I learned about the world and myself during my month is Europe. Mostly because a lot of what I've learned is abstract, or haven’t even hit me yet. 

After some thought I have created a small list of concrete items that I have learned that I will carry with me in all of my future travels:

1. Some cities have more than one train station. Always look into that before getting off at a random train station in an unfamiliar city after dark where no one speaks English.

2. Going off of #1, if you know you're going to be arriving into a city after dark or on a weekend when things may not be open, be sure to be prepared and exchange some money into your destinations currency beforehand. You may not be lucky enough to have a Mcdonald's convert Euros into Czech Crowns for you. Also, a map wouldn't hurt either.

3. A lot of cities have companies that offer free tours! While there is no up front cost, it is recommended that you tip the tour guide, but it is still cheaper than most other big fancy tours-- especially if you're on a budget.

4. If you're traveling in the winter months bring a hat and gloves. Seriously, no matter how tough you think you are.

5. Staying in different areas of a city is a nice way to experience all the different sub-cultures without having to trek from one side of the city to the other every day.

6. Staying in a hostel? Headlamp, ear plugs, and eye mask. Waking up well rested ready for a new day of adventure is worth every ounce of embarrassment you may feel from those three very important accessories.

7. Eastern Europe? Be sure to bring travel toilet paper in your bag. I promise.

8. Staying in a party hostel the first night you arrive after an international flight is not a good idea. As much energy as you may think you're going to have, you will be jet lagged and want a clean shower.

9. Get to the train station early, always, no excuses. No one speaks English and trying to communicate always includes charades, and you still don't always get an answer. Leave yourself plenty of time or you'll be sprinting through a train station with a 30 lbs backpack weighing you down.

10. A Therm-a-Rest Compressible Pillow can get you through anything. 10 hour overnight bus? 24 hours of travel? Dirty hostel? Train ride? No problem. I will never travel with out this puppy.

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Budapest.

Budapest by far was my favorite city that we visited. I’m going to try to contain myself from the endless blabbering that I could do about this awesome city.

We stayed in the Hi 5 Hostel, it was the best. If you’re going to Budapest you can’t stay anywhere else, seriously. Everyone was super friendly; there was something to do every night. Our room had a balcony that looked over the busy street. Clearly, we loved this place.

Our first night we went to this really cheap all you can eat buffet, stopped and got some really cheap beers on our way home, and then met up with the hostel for a free pub crawl, which went to all of the best ruin bars. Ruin bars are located in formerly abandoned buildings that local artists have gone in and decorated, recycling the old buildings into popular bars with an interesting flair.

Our first full day we spent meandering the PESCA Flea Market in City Park before going on a free tour of the city, which took us to both sides of the Danube River. The flat side is referred to a Pest, and the hilly side is Buda.

Heroes' Square, the entrance of City park

the market

View from the Buda side on our tour

Our second day we walked back over to the Buda side of the city to explore some more. We hiked up to the Liberty Statue, which was left behind from the Soviets. Keelin found 2 guard stations, and we tried to find this cool labyrinth we read about, but it turned out to be a total tourist trap.

View from the Liberty Statue

The Halászbástya or Fisherman's Bastion

Our evening, my favorite part of the entire trip, was spent at Szechenyi Baths, the thermal baths. Built in 1908 there are more than 12 thermal baths and five swimming pools.The water was over 100 degrees. There were interactive bubblers, a huge fountain, even lounging areas to sit in the water.

We spent our last day meandering the Central Market, sampling some local food, and drinking in the park.

For our last night our plan was to get dinner, have a few drinks, sober up early, pack and go to bed. That idea didn’t fly. We ending up getting dinner and a few drinks, and then a few more drinks, and then a few more. Keelin and I both got about an hour of sleep before getting up at 6am to get ready to catch our flight. We handed the airline attendant our passports to check in, oh what’s that? Our flight has been cancelled due to snow in Frankfurt? We could have slept an extra five hours? Wonderful. They rerouted us through Munich and we ended up getting home two hours  earlier than we were originally supposed to. Although we had a long wait at the airport, everything worked out just fine.

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Vienna.

After the hills of Salzburg, the city streets of Vienna were a rude awakening. Our first night was spent in a less than ideal hostel, Jack’s Hostel, not recommended. Jack's was full of unfriendly, smelly people, who appeared to be living in the hostel, not just young travelers like us that we were running into at every other city.

After one night we were out of there and spent our next night at the Meininger Hostel, closer to town and in a nicer area. We started with a morning at the Oberes Belvedere to see Gustav Klimt's The Kiss painting.

We went to see the opera house, Wiener Staatsoper, and then spent our afternoon at the Frued Museum. 

We split up after, Keelin headed to the Snowglobe Museum and I went to the Das Wiener Riesenrad, a ferris wheel in the city amusement park. My trip wasn’t without some adventure. I had a little bit of a run in with the authorities. There was a debacle with the metro police-- I didn’t have the right metro ticket, they told me I had to pay a 100 Euro fine on the spot, I didn’t have the money, they threatened to call the police and arrest me. Eventually, the metro police just let me go and I got to ride my ferris wheel, but there were a couple minutes where it was pretty scary.

The next day we spent the morning at the Zentralfriedhof, one of the largest cemeteries in the world. It has more than 3 million people buried within its walls. Within the cemetery there are memorials for both Beethoven and Mozart.

The rest of our day was spent generally meandering the ring roads around the city. We got weiners on the street, Keelin got herself a beer, which is legal to drink in public. We had fun with that. 

Vienna was very big and had beautiful buildings, but not one of my favorites.

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