Over 2 weeks without an update, but I am sure you have not been checking this blog everyday for an update, so it is all good!
So, where was I? Oh yes, I was going to Cluj-Napoca from Budapest, and got there in the early afternoon, that gave me time to find my second hostel of the entire trip to put my bags away and explore the city. I asked the super-friendly hostel host, Diana, about a traditional Romanian restaurant, and Diana pointed out Cafe Andaluca on the map, and so I went there.
My first reaction to the resturant, it was very cheap! 1 euro equals 4 lei in Romania. A bottle of Romanian brew was 4 lei, I had a huge three'course meal with rice meatloaf type of thing, potatoes with onions and a dessert that was similar to a donut with sour cream and fruits all for 35 lei which added up to only 7 euros... champs!
Cluj was a different town. it wasnt tiny enough to get bored of it, but not too big to get lost in it. Just sized right, and two days was enough to see the citadel on a hill, Botanical gardens, the usual churches, plazas and a meal at a restaurant. That evening, I found my way to the Deaf Club which was only 10 minutes away from my hostel.
Nobody knew me, and I knew nobody, they were surprised to see a stranger come in their Deaf Club, I told them that I was traveling from America and found the address of the Deaf club from the internet, so here I was! They welcomed me in, and I had fun chatting for 3 hours.
I also met an old-timer who lived in America for 25-30 years when he immigrated from Romania and worked as a tailor. He moved back and lives in Romania now. He was glad to see someone (me) signing ASL again - it has been awhile for him - and told me that ASL is the most beautiful and best language in the world he has seen. Hey, those were his words!
It was time to catch my night train to the capital of Romania, Bucharest. Then began the most worst experience of the entire trip.
Basically, I slept all the way, and when I woke up, my wallet was gone. Usually when I get on the train, I move my wallet to the money belt and end my worries. That night, I did not do that, and that was a quick lesson learned!
So I was stuck in Bucharest without my wallet. Luckily, I always carried 100 euros in emergency money, and that was enough to last me for awhile. I went to the US embassy to request assistance on cancelling my credit card, it took a couple of hours but it was done. It also marked my first visit to an US embassy.
I lost all motivation to stay in Bucharest, and did not feel the good karma here, so I decided to move on to a new country. I did not have any desire to visit Bulgaria, which was south of Romania, and inquired the information booth about a connecting train to Greece.
Just my luck, apparently, Greece has closed its border to ANY international trains or buses from Bulgaria, so It was impossible to use my Eurail Pass to go to Greece. I asked how do people go to greece? The information attendant shrugged and guessed "by air?"
some things in the world just dont make sense. This was one of them.
So I decided to change directions and go back west to Vienna, Austria which had a connecting train to Munich, Germany.
So, when I update my next entry, it will be about my first trip to Germany in Mannheim, Heidelberg & Berlin (Including the Frontrunners Turquoise Party) and the second trip to Germany in Munich.
And no worries, many thanks to my parents who Western Unioned me money so I am able to continue my trip in Europe!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Hungary
After a long night of catching up with Brittany the last night at Austria, we continued chatting as she went to the train station to see me off then explore Wien afterwards.
The train ride to Budapest went well, and I made my way to my next CS host, Sara, who instructed me to arrive between 18:00 to 18:30, if I was late, I would have to wait until after 20:00. The reason for that was because she had a yoga instructor come to her house along with 4 people taking Yoga together, and I was welcome to join!
When she was teaching english in India, Sara met Deaf people and learned some India sign language. Even though her signing was shitty (Her words!) She was still a pleasure to chat with, and very good with gestures!
So, performing yoga with Francois, the French Yoga instructor was good for the traveling body. I never really gave my body a good stretch, and yoga was just what I needed! After it was done, my stomach was growling, so I went ahead and ate at a Doner Kebab place (always delicious, never disappoints) with two other Yoga partipicants Billy and Zoltan.
We burned through several pages of the notebook writing back and forth, and decided to continue it at a nearby local bar - Szimpla - which became my favorite bar I have went to in Europe! It was a cool, hip ruins type of bar with a great environment. I later found out it was also recommended in my Lonely Planet book, so tally up another one for LP!
Upon returning back to Sara's home, we chatted sipping wine and before we knew it, it was 2 in the morning! Sara had errands to do at eight in the morning, and she had no spare keys so I had to get out of the house at 8, which meant waking up at 7... I told Sara no worries, college has prepared me very well for situations like this! THANK YOU GALLAUDET!
As I got out, I went to Printa coffeshop gallery based on Sara's reccommendation, it had good coffee and a cool gallery, lots of interesting art and purses made out of seat belts. lots of recycled stuff like that but I don't remember much else but the seat belt purses stood out to me.
Printa was right near the Jewish Quarter, so I went to two small synagouges and made my way to the Great Synagouge - the biggest Synagouge in Europe - which included a museum but the museum was closed! So I would have to wait to visit the Synagouge on Sunday since it was closed on Saturdays. It turned out to be a good thing anyways.
From there, I went to the gigantic Nagy Vasarcsarnok - Central Market - and sampled Goulash Soup. very nice! filled with food, I climbed the Citadella (A lovely hike) with the Liberation mounment atop the hill with a great view of the city! It was at that moment where I realized I enjoyed taking hikes up hills/mountains and taking in the view a lot. It just never came to me, so i will start putting that on my facebook, CouchSurfing profiles and stuff like that. It is also rewarding when it is free hiking up by my two legs and not taking the easy way riding the funicular.
Saw some more sights at the Castle Hill and walked alongside the Danue River back to Sara's house and called it a night, but Sara also had another CS coming over, so we shared the sleeping room which was a big room which also was the kitchen, dining room, yoga room, basically a multi-purpose room so it was cool.
The other CSer was Mist from Iceland, we chatted a bit and she was taking a break from her studies to travel Europe, which was cool. SPOILER ALERT: Mist will also make an appearance in a future blog entry. Just Saying.
Originally, I was supposed to stay with Tamas from CS, but he was busy during the week and was available only after saturday, so Sara was willing to host me on such a short notice which was very much appreciated! After two fun days, I went to meet the energetic man who knew Hungarian Sign Language. When looking for him at the metro station, he simply had an "ILY" handshape so yeah, I knew it was him.
Apparently, Tamas had a secret job as a tour guide, because he really knows Budapest well, and told me stories, history and took me to some sights at Pest. I saw most of Buda the previous day.
In case you are confused, Budapest is split in two - Buda and Pest, split in half by the Danube River.
Then we met up with a friend of his - Katrina - who also knew sign language, so it was fun meeting them. Katrina was Jewish also, and she knew a Deaf Hungarian man who would be happy to meet me and take me to the Great Synagouge, Jewish Museum and the Holocaust museum, so it was a great plan!
So we agreed to meet at 13 the next day, and so we did. Remember, I don't have a phone, but the old fashioned way still works well!
After parting ways with Katrina, that evening Tamas had plans of going to a birthday party and it was open, so I tagged along to the Silenca bar at the ground floor and dance club on the first floor. Before, Tamas was not sure about how Deaf people would think hearing people look funny while dancing because they could not hear music. I explained to him that we could feel the vibrations, and dance along with it, but we do not need to hear the music to see if a person dances well or not :) No worries, Tamas was an excellent dancer though. Dancing With the Stars awaits him!
The next day Tamas took me to the Hungary Parliament Palace which was the third-biggest in the world. It was a nice tour, and Tamas was great trying to interpret the tour guide for me. The building had a lot of gold inside, and it was nice to see. One cool spot was the waiting room with the row of cigars! When I post up pictures eventually, you will see what I am talking about.
Tamas had to leave to meet up with his family, so before meeting with Katrina at 13, I went to the Terror Museum, where it formerly was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party. Very Communist and it was an educational tour throughout the museum.
After meeting up with Katrina and lunch together, we met Gyar, the old Deaf Hungarian man who was wonderful and told good historical stories about the Great Synagouge.
Afterwards, Gyar and I went to the Holocaust museum by metro, and I didn't have to pay for it. In Hungary (And most of europe) the Deaf - and the disabled too - has a card that enables them free public transportation including trams, metros, buses and sometimes trains, AND it includes a "plus-one" passenger too which was ::drumroll:: me. The card also includes free admissions to museums too... I should had met Gyar a long time ago!
It was fun chatting with Gyar, and we parted ways, as I went ahead to reward myself with a visit to a well known Hungarian attraction: Thermal Baths! Lonely Planet said Gellert Baths was one of the best and most popular, so yeah that was where I went. It was worth it and I came out feeling like a new man!
Keeping up with the "new" feeling, the next day, it was on to a new country: Romania! I caught the morning train to Cluj-Napoca and...
The train ride to Budapest went well, and I made my way to my next CS host, Sara, who instructed me to arrive between 18:00 to 18:30, if I was late, I would have to wait until after 20:00. The reason for that was because she had a yoga instructor come to her house along with 4 people taking Yoga together, and I was welcome to join!
When she was teaching english in India, Sara met Deaf people and learned some India sign language. Even though her signing was shitty (Her words!) She was still a pleasure to chat with, and very good with gestures!
So, performing yoga with Francois, the French Yoga instructor was good for the traveling body. I never really gave my body a good stretch, and yoga was just what I needed! After it was done, my stomach was growling, so I went ahead and ate at a Doner Kebab place (always delicious, never disappoints) with two other Yoga partipicants Billy and Zoltan.
We burned through several pages of the notebook writing back and forth, and decided to continue it at a nearby local bar - Szimpla - which became my favorite bar I have went to in Europe! It was a cool, hip ruins type of bar with a great environment. I later found out it was also recommended in my Lonely Planet book, so tally up another one for LP!
Upon returning back to Sara's home, we chatted sipping wine and before we knew it, it was 2 in the morning! Sara had errands to do at eight in the morning, and she had no spare keys so I had to get out of the house at 8, which meant waking up at 7... I told Sara no worries, college has prepared me very well for situations like this! THANK YOU GALLAUDET!
As I got out, I went to Printa coffeshop gallery based on Sara's reccommendation, it had good coffee and a cool gallery, lots of interesting art and purses made out of seat belts. lots of recycled stuff like that but I don't remember much else but the seat belt purses stood out to me.
Printa was right near the Jewish Quarter, so I went to two small synagouges and made my way to the Great Synagouge - the biggest Synagouge in Europe - which included a museum but the museum was closed! So I would have to wait to visit the Synagouge on Sunday since it was closed on Saturdays. It turned out to be a good thing anyways.
From there, I went to the gigantic Nagy Vasarcsarnok - Central Market - and sampled Goulash Soup. very nice! filled with food, I climbed the Citadella (A lovely hike) with the Liberation mounment atop the hill with a great view of the city! It was at that moment where I realized I enjoyed taking hikes up hills/mountains and taking in the view a lot. It just never came to me, so i will start putting that on my facebook, CouchSurfing profiles and stuff like that. It is also rewarding when it is free hiking up by my two legs and not taking the easy way riding the funicular.
Saw some more sights at the Castle Hill and walked alongside the Danue River back to Sara's house and called it a night, but Sara also had another CS coming over, so we shared the sleeping room which was a big room which also was the kitchen, dining room, yoga room, basically a multi-purpose room so it was cool.
The other CSer was Mist from Iceland, we chatted a bit and she was taking a break from her studies to travel Europe, which was cool. SPOILER ALERT: Mist will also make an appearance in a future blog entry. Just Saying.
Originally, I was supposed to stay with Tamas from CS, but he was busy during the week and was available only after saturday, so Sara was willing to host me on such a short notice which was very much appreciated! After two fun days, I went to meet the energetic man who knew Hungarian Sign Language. When looking for him at the metro station, he simply had an "ILY" handshape so yeah, I knew it was him.
Apparently, Tamas had a secret job as a tour guide, because he really knows Budapest well, and told me stories, history and took me to some sights at Pest. I saw most of Buda the previous day.
In case you are confused, Budapest is split in two - Buda and Pest, split in half by the Danube River.
Then we met up with a friend of his - Katrina - who also knew sign language, so it was fun meeting them. Katrina was Jewish also, and she knew a Deaf Hungarian man who would be happy to meet me and take me to the Great Synagouge, Jewish Museum and the Holocaust museum, so it was a great plan!
So we agreed to meet at 13 the next day, and so we did. Remember, I don't have a phone, but the old fashioned way still works well!
After parting ways with Katrina, that evening Tamas had plans of going to a birthday party and it was open, so I tagged along to the Silenca bar at the ground floor and dance club on the first floor. Before, Tamas was not sure about how Deaf people would think hearing people look funny while dancing because they could not hear music. I explained to him that we could feel the vibrations, and dance along with it, but we do not need to hear the music to see if a person dances well or not :) No worries, Tamas was an excellent dancer though. Dancing With the Stars awaits him!
The next day Tamas took me to the Hungary Parliament Palace which was the third-biggest in the world. It was a nice tour, and Tamas was great trying to interpret the tour guide for me. The building had a lot of gold inside, and it was nice to see. One cool spot was the waiting room with the row of cigars! When I post up pictures eventually, you will see what I am talking about.
Tamas had to leave to meet up with his family, so before meeting with Katrina at 13, I went to the Terror Museum, where it formerly was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party. Very Communist and it was an educational tour throughout the museum.
After meeting up with Katrina and lunch together, we met Gyar, the old Deaf Hungarian man who was wonderful and told good historical stories about the Great Synagouge.
Afterwards, Gyar and I went to the Holocaust museum by metro, and I didn't have to pay for it. In Hungary (And most of europe) the Deaf - and the disabled too - has a card that enables them free public transportation including trams, metros, buses and sometimes trains, AND it includes a "plus-one" passenger too which was ::drumroll:: me. The card also includes free admissions to museums too... I should had met Gyar a long time ago!
It was fun chatting with Gyar, and we parted ways, as I went ahead to reward myself with a visit to a well known Hungarian attraction: Thermal Baths! Lonely Planet said Gellert Baths was one of the best and most popular, so yeah that was where I went. It was worth it and I came out feeling like a new man!
Keeping up with the "new" feeling, the next day, it was on to a new country: Romania! I caught the morning train to Cluj-Napoca and...
Austria
After receiving a rainy farewell from Czech, I made my way to Vienna, Austria where I met up with Brianne, who I knew from college, and her boyfriend Clement.
Before leaving, I was told to not eat anything heavy as we would have dinner at !!!16!!! in the evening. It was such a big change from Spain where dinner was at 22 was considered early. But a dinner is still a dinner, after a filling dinner and chatting/catching up, we went out to the inner city ring for an post-dinner walk at 17. I still cannot believe I am saying that.
Fact about Vienna: Wien is made of districts, 1 is the inner city and goes up to 23 around the 1. Interesting way of coding around the city though.
Walking there, we saw the usual European sights of cathedral, plazas and memorials. It was sunday so most of the stores were closed but roads were packed, people were window shopping, it is pretty fun to do apparently.
My grandomther used to live in Vienna - she immigrated to the US in 1940 due to the nazi and WWII - and she gave me her old address. Thanks to GPS and technology, we were able to find the place (hopefully it was the right one too) and it was cool to go back to my roots in Vienna at district 2.
The next day included some more sightseeing at the Schonnbrunn - a 1,441 room mansion for two people, the King and the Queen! Schonnbrunn was huge and included a lovely garden in the backyard. It was more of a park that had a zoo too than just a garden, but still a garden. We also visited the famous old-style Risenrad Ferris Wheel and the surrounding amusement park.
The evenings were usually spent chatting all night long and I enjoyed them. One topic that was brought up with Clement and I discussing - If you were broke and homeless, would you rather live in the city or move out to the country side?
Another common discussion (With many other europeans) was comparing and contrasting the lifestyles of America and Europe. Clement travelled to India and it opened his mind in so many ways, and suggested that I should visit Asia, as it is way different than Europe that is for sure. I told him I would make another travels one day, no worries!
On May 3rd I made a day trip to Salzburg, it had a lovely old town centre...yeah that was all it had. It was a REALLY lovely old town though, climbing up the old Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) atop a hill and a good view of the alps although the day was a bit cloudy/foggy/rainy. The town was famous for its involvement in the Sound of Music movie, and kept pimping the movie all across the touristy places... which I didn't really care much for as I never saw the movie (as usual).
My last day of Austria was spent at the Jewish Museum in Wien where there was an excellent exhibit on Jewish Identity. Afterwards, I explored the city bit and came to the Sigmund Freud house/museum where the history of the brilliant mind was shown. I enjoyed seeing the stories of his past. One story I enjoyed:
He had a conversation with Einstein once, Einstein had no clue about Psychology and Freud knew nothing about Physics. So two of the greatest minds of their fields sat there and shared their thoughts and works with each other in the most epic mind-blowing conversation (I wasn´t there, but I am sure it was epic) ever. It also included cigars. Freud loved to smoke a good cigar while going on his infamous walks. It was cool to see the original "shrink" couch, it looked uncomfortable and not a couch at all, but that was what they used in the 1900s.
After exploring museums, I felt quite hungry, so it was only approrpriate I went to Der Wiener Deewan as advised by my Lonely Planet book. DWD is a pakistan place where you can eat all you want and pay as much as you want! It is kind of a jedi mind trick seeing if you will pay 2 euros for 15 euros worth of food and how generous your heart really is. But this place does not care just pay as much as you would like no big deal. Of course, I ate two good plates (It was delicious too) and paid 5 euros. HEY im on a traveller's budget.
Wandering with a full stomach, I stumbled into the original Manner's store, and bought some wafers, they're so delicious! If you do not know what i am talking about just google it. Same goes with the other stuff I mentioned above don't just nod and read on :)
That evening, Clement and I went to the Wien Deaf Club where we met several deaf people our age and double the number of old deaf folks there. It was a good time chatting with new people and drinking a glass of Austrian beer. This makes me wish we still had Deaf Clubs in existence back all over in America.
Of course, drinking good beer late at night leads to feeling hungry at 23. So not much was open except for... good ol' mcdonalds. Yeah, i collapsed and had my first cheeseburger in Europe, but it was delicious!
When we got back home, we met the love of my life, Brittany, another fellow USA traveller who was staying with us, she had just arrived from Denmark... or Italy? I forgot :( But we had a good chat catching up all night about her lovely over protective Italian family and our travels.
Eventually, our eyes could not stay open, and we went to sleep as I had to catch a train to Budapest, Hungary the next day... now Budapest, that is for another blog entry!
Before leaving, I was told to not eat anything heavy as we would have dinner at !!!16!!! in the evening. It was such a big change from Spain where dinner was at 22 was considered early. But a dinner is still a dinner, after a filling dinner and chatting/catching up, we went out to the inner city ring for an post-dinner walk at 17. I still cannot believe I am saying that.
Fact about Vienna: Wien is made of districts, 1 is the inner city and goes up to 23 around the 1. Interesting way of coding around the city though.
Walking there, we saw the usual European sights of cathedral, plazas and memorials. It was sunday so most of the stores were closed but roads were packed, people were window shopping, it is pretty fun to do apparently.
My grandomther used to live in Vienna - she immigrated to the US in 1940 due to the nazi and WWII - and she gave me her old address. Thanks to GPS and technology, we were able to find the place (hopefully it was the right one too) and it was cool to go back to my roots in Vienna at district 2.
The next day included some more sightseeing at the Schonnbrunn - a 1,441 room mansion for two people, the King and the Queen! Schonnbrunn was huge and included a lovely garden in the backyard. It was more of a park that had a zoo too than just a garden, but still a garden. We also visited the famous old-style Risenrad Ferris Wheel and the surrounding amusement park.
The evenings were usually spent chatting all night long and I enjoyed them. One topic that was brought up with Clement and I discussing - If you were broke and homeless, would you rather live in the city or move out to the country side?
Another common discussion (With many other europeans) was comparing and contrasting the lifestyles of America and Europe. Clement travelled to India and it opened his mind in so many ways, and suggested that I should visit Asia, as it is way different than Europe that is for sure. I told him I would make another travels one day, no worries!
On May 3rd I made a day trip to Salzburg, it had a lovely old town centre...yeah that was all it had. It was a REALLY lovely old town though, climbing up the old Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) atop a hill and a good view of the alps although the day was a bit cloudy/foggy/rainy. The town was famous for its involvement in the Sound of Music movie, and kept pimping the movie all across the touristy places... which I didn't really care much for as I never saw the movie (as usual).
My last day of Austria was spent at the Jewish Museum in Wien where there was an excellent exhibit on Jewish Identity. Afterwards, I explored the city bit and came to the Sigmund Freud house/museum where the history of the brilliant mind was shown. I enjoyed seeing the stories of his past. One story I enjoyed:
He had a conversation with Einstein once, Einstein had no clue about Psychology and Freud knew nothing about Physics. So two of the greatest minds of their fields sat there and shared their thoughts and works with each other in the most epic mind-blowing conversation (I wasn´t there, but I am sure it was epic) ever. It also included cigars. Freud loved to smoke a good cigar while going on his infamous walks. It was cool to see the original "shrink" couch, it looked uncomfortable and not a couch at all, but that was what they used in the 1900s.
After exploring museums, I felt quite hungry, so it was only approrpriate I went to Der Wiener Deewan as advised by my Lonely Planet book. DWD is a pakistan place where you can eat all you want and pay as much as you want! It is kind of a jedi mind trick seeing if you will pay 2 euros for 15 euros worth of food and how generous your heart really is. But this place does not care just pay as much as you would like no big deal. Of course, I ate two good plates (It was delicious too) and paid 5 euros. HEY im on a traveller's budget.
Wandering with a full stomach, I stumbled into the original Manner's store, and bought some wafers, they're so delicious! If you do not know what i am talking about just google it. Same goes with the other stuff I mentioned above don't just nod and read on :)
That evening, Clement and I went to the Wien Deaf Club where we met several deaf people our age and double the number of old deaf folks there. It was a good time chatting with new people and drinking a glass of Austrian beer. This makes me wish we still had Deaf Clubs in existence back all over in America.
Of course, drinking good beer late at night leads to feeling hungry at 23. So not much was open except for... good ol' mcdonalds. Yeah, i collapsed and had my first cheeseburger in Europe, but it was delicious!
When we got back home, we met the love of my life, Brittany, another fellow USA traveller who was staying with us, she had just arrived from Denmark... or Italy? I forgot :( But we had a good chat catching up all night about her lovely over protective Italian family and our travels.
Eventually, our eyes could not stay open, and we went to sleep as I had to catch a train to Budapest, Hungary the next day... now Budapest, that is for another blog entry!
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