Day 17: Ljubljana/Lake Bled

After a sound nights sleep, we were ready to go to Bled, a place of natural beauty that was just rating to be spoilt by my ugly mug. Anyway, we got up, and enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the guesthouse, before showering, and heading out, as we were still lacking a higher spf sun cream and a good after sun, which we though we play as well get sooner rather than later. So with fanta in hand, we slid into DM, and then quickly back out again. And then it was station time.

Soon we were on the heavily graffitied train to Lesce, the nearest train station to the lake. It's only a short trip, but the scenery is stunning, and is worth the 5€ fee alone. Once at Lesce we got a bus to Bled, where our host picked us up, and took us to our apartment. After a quick guide to the area we were off, and we walked through the hills to the lake, which was beautiful (you're going to hear that word a lot over the next few posts). The water is crystal clear, there's a cute church on an island in the centre, and on a hill opposite you can see the castle, wait for the photos and you'll realise.

Next we went to the town, to grab some dinner. We ended up in a small Vegan Burger bar, and it was eye opening, so so delicious, although I haven't a clue what was in it. It was also well cheap, so shout out to ZaZiv Vegan Bar, if for whatever reason you read this, good job guys, I'll still eat meat, but vegan food can be tasty!

We then headed back, and picked up our swim stuff, before walking back to the lake. What followed was nothing short of hilarious. I was soon in the water, paddling happily, and the water was a lovely temperature. Mollie however, was stood ankle deep, claiming she'd forgotten to swim, whilst watching out for scary fish. Eventually she was coaxed in, through a koala back ride, which led to a little bit of swimming (only a little bit). Anyway, we swam for about half an hour, before watching the sun set, and the fish swim.

After this it was back to the room, where we relaxed, ready for a big day of walking, and more amazing sights.

Day 16: Budapest/Ljubljana

The dreaded day was upon us. The 8 hour train journey. Budapest to Ljubljana. The Citadella. This would need snacks, charged electronics and a lot of patience/activities to keep Mollie entertained.

We started early, and by early I mean actually early, as we got up at 5:30, so we could pack up our apartment in Budapest, clean up and get out. And by 7, that's what we were, up and away, early risers much! We then went into Tesco, for the aforementioned snacks. Bread, crisps and sparkling water in hand, we were then ready. We boarded the tube, first to Budapest Keleti, then to Budapest Deli, where it was surprisingly lacking in food, given its name. As we sat on the cold concrete, we watched the board, waiting for Ljubljana to come up. It didn't. We were confused, scared, unsure of how to act. Then we realised, they call it the Citadella line. Clearly we weren't the only confused people, soon other interrailers were asking us whether it was the right train. With a shrug of the shoulders, and a nonchalant 'eh we think so', we ended up telling half the station the potentially wrong train. 

Luckily however, we were right, and when the platform was announced, we hopped on. Surprisingly, it was the busiest train yet, and people ended up standing. But not us. We were triumphant and had claimed seats early, gleefully watching on as people struggled to find space. However, soon our smiles would turn upside down. The air conditioning was weaker than an arthritic mole, and the windows were inoperable. The carriage was soon hotter than the saunas in Budapest. Everyone, and I mean everyone was huffing and puffing and sweating, and it was thoroughly unpleasant. 

Step in Harvey, aka Mr Lifehack (okay maybe that's a step too far). I recalled another carriage, with open bike areas and open windows. I headed in that direction, praying I hadn't been hallucinating, like a man stranded in the desert seeing an oasis. Then, I was there. The windows were open, and like Roger, my head was out the window, lying in the cool breeze. Soon, others were discovering my hidey hole, and the carriage was full, but I didn't care, I was cool as a cucumber.

Eventually we arrived, and Ljubljana was a cool 24 degrees, which felt thoroughly wintery after Budapest, and it was weird being in a city only a little bigger than Bournemouth. We hopped on the bus to our guesthouse, and then headed to the disappointing BTC City. It promised the largest shopping centre in Eastern Europe, but it ended up being annoyingly concretey, and lacking in recognisable shops. #letdown.

Our final order of business was to visit the cute city centre for dinner. It truly is a lovely quaint place, with a beautiful river, and lots of pastel buildings. An amazing tapas dinner later, and we were heading back, hunger sated, and tired. We dropped into bed and collapsed to sleep. Day complete.

Day 15: Budapest

A well earnt day of relaxation was on the cards for today, and so we decided to head over to the Szechenyi Baths (I hope I spelt that right). Basically, these are big thermal spring baths in Budapest, where you can spend the day catching the sun, swimming and relaxing in a range of pools from 15 to 50 degrees Celsius, depending on how you're feeling. So, we grabbed the bus, and walked in. We had booked massages for 2:00, and were ready to relax.

First we had to get changed, and so we went to our cabins (glorified changing rooms) before trying to find sun beds. On the first tour, we found none, so hopped in the largest pool, eh in was a lovely 37 degrees, surrounded by statues. It was like being in a warm bath, and it was sooooo relaxing, and what was even better is that it made the 32 degree sunshine seem cool, which is truly luxurious! Anyway, I spotted some people leaving their sun beds, and like ravenous hyenas, we poached them, quickly lying down to sunbathe. However, we forgot one small thing, reapplying sun cream after leaving the water. I don't think I need to explain what happened next, but I will tell you it involved pain, anguish and redness.

Anyway, thoroughly steamed, we were ready for our massages. We headed into the right area of the building, scanned our passes and waited. Soon we were being massaged. I cannot vouch for Mollie, but I thought it was a little overhyped, my masseuse wore a horrifying crocs and socks combination and had some weird psychedelic music playing. But I guess other than that it was pretty good, although those shoes may have permanently scarred me. After the massage it was back outside, where we decided to move our loungers to the shade, before we jumped in the pool again. 

There's not really much more to say about the baths, they're really beautiful and worth a visit, but make sure to heed Baz Luhrmanns advice, and wear sunscreen, especially if it's hot hot hot.

After bathing, we headed to the apartment, to after sun up, and order takeaway, as we were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves and didn't feel like showing off our lovely red faces. So after navigating a completely Hungarian takeout website, we managed to order pizza and fries and Hungarian dessert dumplings, which we enjoyed whilst watching Karl Pilkingtons adventures in Thailand on Netflix. All in all, a decent day (minus the horrifying injuries we suffered!).

Day 14: Budapest

Due to the joys of air conditioning, we had an excellent nights sleep, and when we woke up we were raring to go. It was hot (32 degrees at 10), sunny and we were ready to go. We were out quickly, and we grabbed the metro into the new town. We started by grabbing a sandwich at the Star Wars themed Bors Gaztrobar, where I can say I had, arguably, the best sandwich of my entire life - and I eat a lot of sandwiches! With these in hand we headed into the town, walking past amazing pastel buildings, and even finding a cool water park where the jets turned on and off randomly, so you would never know if you would get sprayed. Luckily we escaped unscathed. 

Without realising, we had been walking for two hours, and we hadn't even seen the major sights yet. They were in fact on the hill opposite us, stunning Budapest Castle and the Fishermans Bastion, as well as the Matthias Church, something I didn't even realise was a sight until I saw it! But to get there we first had to cross the river. The Danube. And to do this, we crossed the Chain Bridge, only the most famous bridge in Budapest, which was equally beautiful.

A short climb later, we were there, first the castle, not quite as pretty as Prague's, but pretty stunning views, then to the Bastion, with its fairytale spires, and the best views of the City. Right behind this was the Matthias Church, which boasts an amazing patterned roof. Overall, we rated it as pretty damn nice, and we'd burnt another few hours up there. I know I'm underselling it, but that's only because it's so hard to put into words how beautiful Budapest is

The final thing we decided to do with our day was to visit the Margaret Island. Now this was something Mollie and I hadn't heard of before going, and to be completely honest, I only suggested it because I saw there was a bridge that connected it handily. So we hopped on the Metro and headed over. It was amazing. There was a huge park and forest, and right in the middle there was a huge musical fountain, which you could dip your feet into and relax in the sun. It was probably the best thing we did all day, and we did it by accident! 

At about 7, we headed home, exhausted from all the walking. We stopped off in tesco, and we bought some ingredients for Harvey's home cooked Bolognese (surprisingly I can cook, mum you better be proud of me!). We were shattered, and after dinner we collapsed into bed, ready for a day of relaxation.

Day 13: Vienna/Budapest

Long time no see! After many days of not posting (we've been very busy and this website is a pain on an iPad) you're going to get a bulk upload! No pictures as of yet but hopefully they'll come later. We've just made it to Zagreb, just in case you were interested, so you'll have posts up to them by the end of the night (if all goes to plan).

An early start on the unluckiest day of our trip (as it's the 13th day, don't worry we weren't actually unlucky!), as we sadly prepared to say goodbye to Vienna, but gleefully anticipated Budapest. Of course, there was the boring old packing to be done, but that, along with the usual getting ready routines were quickly completed. We decided to utilise our last few hours in Vienna by getting a few things done, namely buying some makeup and eating some food.

First up was food, and it was a return to the BlueOrange Bagelry, since we had forgotten to take photos the first time, not to mention the supreme bagel quality we were provided with. Mollie wasn't feeling adventurous, and so opted for the same choice - and by the same, I mean exactly the same, down to the drink - whilst I opted for an 'American' bagel, significantly more unhealthy than my first choice, although equally delicious.

Now you might be thinking, here comes that makeup bit again, skip. But please, read on, as this arose through necessity after a minor disaster. The disaster was... Wait for it... A snapped eyebrow pencil! How was Mollie supposed to keep her eyebrows on fleek?! So we headed to Douglas. Back in Cosmetic Paradise, Mollie flitted around, picking up a Mac eyebrow pencil, as well as a few cheeky Zoeva brushes, just because. 

Then it was time to head to the station. We picked up our bags and rode the overground to the Hauptbahnhof. A short 2 hour wait later and we were on our way to Budapest. The train journey was, as per usual, uneventful, and before we knew it were there. It was hot, hotter than Vienna, and we trudged our heavy backpacks to the apartment. Once there, we were set, it was a night in, and I was going to cook (scary).

For dinner, I set out to tesco, letting Mollie relax a little, where I picked up the ingredients for the dinner, Spanish Meatball Stew. I've already forgotten the recipe, but the end result wasn't bad, as Mollie will testify, especially with a glass of wine. After this, there wasn't much happening, we were to tired to explore, and so we sat on the balcony and admired the view, before heading to our lovely big bed. Day 14 next...

Day 12: Vienna

Now if you didn't know, Mollie (and I) really like animals, and we always try to make a point of visiting a zoo when we can. Of course, when we learnt Vienna has one of the best zoos in the world, we knew we had to visit.

The zoo itself makes up about a quarter of the Schönbrunn Palace Gardens, a huge complex that holds one of Austrias most beautiful palaces. It was therefore a pleasure to walk through these gardens on the way in and out of the zoo, and in particular, the view from the Gloriette is a must see, much like the one from Prague Castle, offering sweeping views across the city.

But of course, that isn't the focus here. No. The focus is the zoo, and the fluffy animals within it. 

The first creatures you witness as you enter are the koalas and the kangaroos, both sweet Australian animals, that probably, like most things from Australia, could kill you or I with ease. However these were soon overshadowed by one of the stars of the show, the Giant Pandas. Although smaller than expected, they made up for this with their sheer glory and laziness, one even making the effort to flop over onto its side like an exhausted Mollie after a long day at Sainsburys. 

Now, to save myself a lot of writing (I swear I'm doing more than just write this blog, swearsies) I'm going to give a quick summary of some of the animals we saw:

-Red Panda, elusive and cute

-Rabbits, floppy, lazy and cute

-Guinea Pigs, scurried a lot, also cute (notice a theme?)

-Goats, 'precious', dumb and funny

-Leopard, surprisingly tame, looked fluffy, but wouldn't stroke

-Orangutang, angry, potentially because of the children screaming in the nearby cafe

-Lizards, scaly and scary

-Lion, chilled out

-Tiger, regal, fluffy and magnificent

-Polar Bears, liked to tussle, very fluffy

-Black Bear, cute and lazy and looked like it was having the time of its life in a swing

Right, with that done, I can move on to arguably the best part of the day, if not the holiday so far. This was the sea lion feeding. When we arrived, we immediately noticed something, namely the sea lion that seemed 3 times as big as the others. We called this one Big Poppa. We then noticed the overhanging rock, where the trainer was standing. Then, we saw Big Poppa climbing. Then, a fish was thrown. Splash, Big Poppa had jumped, more gracefully than Tom Daley off the 10m board, catching the fish in mid air, before landing, drowning approximately 7 children unfortunate enough to be in the splash zone. We were shocked, horrified even, was this 1 ton mound of blubber going to be okay? We watched in awe as he hauled himself from the water, like an Olympic swimmer might after winning the gold medal. We stood, jaws on the floor, as he once again hopped up the stairs, to the fish platform. We froze, as time may have, as the trainer threw another fish. As if in slow motion, it tumbled end over end, and he was in the air once more, breeze whistling through his whiskers, travelling at speed unparalleled by modern vehicles, majestically floating, as if on a cloud, or in a bubble before the illusion shattered. An earth booming splash erupted outwards, although the children were more wary, the only victim this time being a poor defenceless pram. And it was over. Big Poppa was full and it was time to go home.

Now nothing I write about the rest of the day can match that masterpiece, and so I'll wrap up briefly. We grabbed falafel, and watched arrested development in the apartment, forever changed by the beauty of Big Poppa and his aerial acrobatics.

Fin.

Day 11: Vienna

Let's mix things up, and start with a fun fact. Did you know that Danish Pastries are actually Viennese, and only became Danish when a strike by Danish bakery workers led to the Copenhagen Bakeries bringing in Austrian ones, who introduced the now famous pastry to their colder climes? 

There we go, I've successfully thrown you off, so I can get started! We started by heading for brunch (food dictates our lives in case you haven't noticed) at BlueOrange Bagelry, where we had a delicious healthy brunch, complemented perfectly with a Raspberry Soda. After this amazing start, we were ready to hit Vienna properly, but once we were outside, we were taken aback. It was so damn hot, to the point it was hard to function. However, unfazed we went to the Stephanplatz, and walked up to the Opera House, a beautiful old building with a beautiful fountain (with my beautiful girlfriend #cringe). 

By this point, the heat was starting to take its toll, and so we headed back to grab a quick rest, before we headed to the Donaupark, near the Vienna UN buildings. Now to challenge the Vondelpark as our favourite park is impressive, to potentially usurp it is unheard of. But the Donaupark really was amazing, like most of Vienna, it was clean cut, with the spongiest grass you've ever laid on, surrounded by trees, and just the ultimate sun trap, perfect to enjoy a Radler or two. Sitting and chatting was a really nice change of pace, and definitely well earnt, and we managed to wile away many hours, before we realised it was getting dark and we still hadn't eaten dinner (shock horror!)

Hence, we headed to dinner, a place called Mozarts, where they served hearty Austrian food from 6pm till 6am daily. And it seems like a recurring theme, but it was delicious, especially dessert, a sweet dumpling with ice cream and a frozen apricot inside, perfect. By now it was late, and the trams infrequent, and so we walked back from our station. Little did we realise that two of the innocent looking cafes on the walk to our apartment were actually Strip Clubs! We hurried home, trying to ignore this revelation, and soon we were back, tucked into bed, innocence intact. And with that, our day was complete.