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Day 548
We didn't have a lot of time so we packed quickly and put our things in storage before heading out for breakfast. We went to a bagel place that we had found the day before. I miss bagels. They are just so good in NYC.
It was really sad saying goodbye, but at least I know that it won't be long until I am in London. I was re ally surprised at how fast the weekend had gone.
When Edward got in the cab I walked to the train station. It took 30 minutes for my number to be called and I became worried that I would miss my train. When I finally had a ticket I bought some food and then changed the rest of the money. I slept most of the way to Vienna. Once in Vienna I bought an onward ticket to Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The first train was about 5 hours long and I had to stay awake to get off at Saltzburg. It was freezing, even inside when I was waiting for my next train. Almost a soon as I sat down I fell into a restless sleep. Sitting is never comfortable. About two hours before the train arrived I got the compartment to myself and could stretch out. For unknown reasons I never managed to fall asleep.
Day 547
Today we slept in later, but it didn't make my feet feel any better and I think Edward felt the same. Instead of walking we took the metro the same same place we had found it the night before. It had looked like a nice area and we soon found a place for breakfast.
We then sat down at a near by cafe and had some beers before heading back to the hotel. We both knew that if we stayed out all day again that we wouldn't go out at night.
After a bit of a rest we went out for a really nice dinner complimented with fireworks. I have no idea why. We then headed to the Marxism Cafe, a place that I had gone to last time. It's decorated with a communist motif. That might have been obvious though. We did get pretty lost finding it though. Edward had been joking that my clumsiness has worn off on him and I think that his inability to read a map has worn off on me! After a few drinks we had the bartender call us a cab as it was too late for the metro and went back to the hotel.
Day 546
We were up early and set out to find some breakfast. This was a lot more difficult than you would think. We ended up in a very touristy area with omelets that were advertised as English breakfasts.
We then headed across the river and up a funicular to the caste area. By the time we got to the top we had been walking for about 3 hours and needed a break. We sat down for water but beer was cheaper, so we had some beers instead.
I was here six years ago and did the Castle Labyrinth. I remember being absolutely scared out of my mind and wanted to see if it was still that bad. Edward seemed surprised that I had done it alone before and so was I. Even with two of us it was still scary. There were weird statues spread around and creepy music. At one point there is a completely dark room. We didn't read the directions so we didn't know that we were meant to follow a string around the edge. Instead we just sort of bumped into things in the dark until Edward turned on his phone light. It really didn't help that we kept trying to make each other jump as well.
We then headed to the History Museum and stumbled on a wine festival. We bought wrist bands and tickets and tried a few different wines before going into the Art Museum. The museum wasn't that great, we never even made it to the History Museum. There was a huge number of booths to choose from and we took turns picking different kinds of wine. I meant to get some bulls blood wine but forgot to. I really should have written down what I tried as well, I doubt that much of it is exported.
As it grew later we decided to head back to the hotel. We walked and walked and right when we thought we must be very close. We checked the map. Neither of us could figure out how in the world we ended up where we did. That always worries me. Luckily we were right next to the metro line we needed and were able to get back to the hotel quickly. My feet were killing me from all the walking and I walk a lot, every day. I can't imagine how sore Edward must have been.
By the time we got back we had been out for about 12 hours. We decided to watch the only thing on tv, the BBC and drink the wine I had bought in Vac the day before.
Day 545
I woke up around 6 am needing to use the toilet I was in shock when I looked over and saw that the guy in the bunk bed next to mine had, um, fallen out of his underwear if you catch my drift. I had problems sleeping after that and had to be out by 9 am anyway so I just packed and showered and put my things in storage.
After picking up some info I headed to the White Friars Church crypt, my reason for coming here. In 1995 during renovations a forgotten crypt was untethered. There were 262 coffins, mostly form the mid 18th century. They were opened and it turned out that the bodies had been naturally preserved. The exhibition is called Memento Mori. I thought that I would see all the coffins and several mummies, but only about 12 coffins were on display and 3 mummies. The coffins were very brightly painted. One of the mummies was male, the other female. There was also a child whose hands were amazing well preserved. The rest of the exhibit was about 18th century funerals and things that had been found with the bodies.
After popping my head into the church I found that the next museum I wanted to visit didn't open for a few hours. I grabbed some lunch and then went to the internet cafe to do some work.
I then went to the Wine Museum. This is basically a restaurant with a lot of old, never opened, wine bottles on display. It would have been a nice place to have dinner at. The kind woman working there let me try a handful of wines and I ended buying a bottle, I sort of felt obliged after how nice she had been.
When I was done I headed back to Budapest. This time I couldn't keep my eyes opened and only woke up because an elderly woman tapped me on the shoulder and told me that we had arrived. Well, I think that's what she said, I don't speak Hungarian. After some dinner I went to the other train station to try and figure out how to get to my next destination. The information woman was very unhelpful, even for Eastern Europe, and just told me to go to Vienna. I guess she felt that I would be Austria's problem then.
I had several more hours to kill until Edward arrived from London. I found a great internet cafe and watched movies. I was too excited to do any work. When I knew that his plane had landed I headed back to the hostel to pick up my things. I had planned on sitting there for another half hour but the girl at reception wanted to sleep so I would have had to sit in the dark. I just asked her to call me a cab and went to the hotel that we were meeting at.
I really can imagine what I looked like to those people. I'd been out all day and although it wasn't hot it wasn't cool either so I must of just looked messy. On top of that I'm lugging around a rather worn looking bag, I am definitely the definition of a ratty backpacker at this point. Knowing this I ignored the looks I got from the guys at reception as I asked if Edward had arrived yet. I knew that he hadn't, I just wanted them to know why I was waiting there. Despite them knowing this security still came over and made me confirm that I was staying at the hotel and not just trying to sleep there for the night.
When Edward walked in about 15 minutes later he came over and gave me a big hug and kiss before even checking in. When he went to check in the guys at reception apparently said asked "if the woman was with him." I know that I'm a backpacker but I have feelings too! Most of the time I don't even smell and I don't look like my address is 1234 brown cardboard box, corner of destitute and hopeless. Plus I used to stay at really nice places when I traveled for work.
Even though it hadn't been that long it was so nice to see a familiar face. It was nice to not be traveling alone, even if it was just for a few days.
Day 544
My train wasn't until 3 pm so I puttered about the hostel doing a lot of nothing before heading out.
Around 3 I got my act together and took a train to Budapest. Due to massive amounts of construction I couldn't see the metro and ended up walking to my hostel, it wasn't far. After dropping off my things I went to check my email and took the stairs down instead of the elevator. A guy called out to me and asked if I had any cigarettes. He seemed surprised when I said that I don't smoke. Apparently had had made his wife angry and she had locked him in the apartment!
After checking my email I picked up some dinner and spent the evening at the hostel watching movies on my ipod. It wasn't a busy or sociable place so there wasn't anyone else to chat with.
Day 543
I let myself waste time before getting up and showering. Once breakfast was over I went out to get some pictures of the last few things I hadn't seen yet. Pecs is really a lovely place. I'm really glad that I decided to hang out here longer than intended. I'm skipping a few places, but I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
When I was done wandering I headed to the internet cafe to type.
I ended up eating dinner at the same time as an Aussie couple and a Canadian. Suddenly the guy who worked at the hostel, and maybe owned it, came in. He had been missing all day. It turned out that his wife had had twins. We all congratulated him, but couldn't really figure out why he was even at work. Then we headed to a bar and ran into him having drinks with his friends, very strange.
Day 542
Today was Monday which meant that nothing was open. The closed museums didn't really help the situation either.
I eventually ended up at the mall for lunch and for more journal updating. I really want to get to the point that I'm up to date before heading to London. I just don't think that I'll want to do a whole lot of work on it while I'm there and I know that I'll have real issues when I get back to the States. The other journals I've kept were never finished until my next trip began! Maybe this time is different though because I feel like I'm ready to stop traveling and I always just wanted to keep going before. The trips were much shorter.
After a few hours of writing and went and did some typing and photo organizing. That evening I did the same things as the previous nights. As today was rather boring I thought that I should show you how big my bag has gotten in the last 18 months!
Day 541
After some breakfast I headed out to explore the town. Pecs is by far the cutest place and most unique city I've been to in some time. I soon decided to stay here longer than I had originally planned.
I decided to spend the day visiting several early Christian burial grounds spread around the city. The first was called Cella Septichora and was the largest. A lot of it was just the remains of walls and empty graves. However, there were a handful of well preserved fresco's to check out. The second site was called Okereszteny Mausoleum and was quite small. It was all murals though and really cool. At the third and fourth places there was only one ticket checker and one of the sites was down the street. It was kinda cool to get a private tour. There wasn't much to see though. One of the sites had two sets of skeletal remains, one was a child, and the other some simple paintings.
Next up was the cathedral. It was quite pretty and I enjoyed the baroque carvings. There was a odd newness about it. In fact, as much as I like Pecs there is a odd newness to it all. They are redoing the whole town because next year it will be Europe's capital of culture. This means that half of the museums are shut and that the main square is all dug up. It's going to look beautiful though!
While I had been waiting for my lunch the day before I had done a lot of writing in my journal. I sat down and typed a lot of it up at an internet cafe before heading back and making myself dinner.
I spent the evening drinking wine and hanging out with the other people in the hostel.
Day 540
When the train pulled into Budapest at 6 am I had a lot of thinking to do. I was also very hungry as I didn't get dinner the night before. But that would have to wait.
Once arriving to Pecs I took the bus but still had to walk quite a ways to the hostel. By the time I found it I was drenched again. Luckily the guy who worked there understood that I needed a shower before checking in and getting a tour. Its really amazing how wonderful a shower can make you feel sometimes.
I was famished, that danish hadn't been very filling. I went to a nearby restaurant and got a lot of food. It was really yummy, but the service was a bit slow. I ended up getting a lot of writing done. Afterwords I tried to wander around the town but I was really beat. I ended up back at the hostel to take a nap.
When I woke up I went to the supermarket and got some food and wine. After dinner I was watching movies on my ipod waiting for my clothes to finish in the dryer when I met two nice German girls. The three of us ended up going out for beers at a nearby bar. We came back to the hostel a bit late, but we had a good time so it was worth it.
Day 507
I had to check out early, but the German guys were so loud at 6 am that I didn't need to set my alarm. This hostel actually had a coed communal shower, one room with lots of shower heads. What a nightmare! Luckily the door to th whole room locked. I just moved very quickly to not tie it up.
After breakfast I went in search of an internet cafe. It took some time to find a cheap one but I did. I spend a few hours just kinda messing around. Not only have I been to Budapest already, but I'm meeting Edwad here in September and I wanted to wait on site seeing.
When I couldn't come up with anything else to do online I went back to the hostel to write in my journal.
As I had gotten a ride here I had no idea how to get back to the train station. The directions I was given were not very good, no one mention that I would have to go up a bridge. One of my worst fears came true, I tripped with my pack on. I read a short story were a girl broke her arm that way. Luckily I just jammed my wrist. The trams were confusing because the ticket machines didn't work. I had to just jump on. Luckily I didn't get caught.
Once at the train station I waited for the train and was very happy to get on it this time. Soon I was asleep.
Day 506
I was up early and packed. I ran into Sam. We grabbed some breakfast and then went to the main square. Sam wanted to shop and marveled over every tacky item that you see all over the world. I eventually said that I needed to move on to the supermarket and he got the hint.
As you can imagine my train was late and I missed my connection to Lviv by about 2 minutes. I actually saw the damned thing pulling out as we pulled in. I then had a highly annoying 45 minute wait to change my reservation and spend an extra $25 on a new one. After that I got a hostel thru the tourist office and a van took me there.
The hostel was actually a college dormitory that rented beds during the summer Here I met Welsh Tom and we headed out for drinks. Not only was I in the w wrong city, but the wrong freaking country. A few beers felt justified.
When we went back to the hostel room 3 Germans from Leipzig were there. They traveled around Europe to support the Leipzig soccer team. In each city they would graffiti the teams name somewhere. Why can't I ever have normal roommates?
It had been a long day and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
