There were lots more rooms each with a different theme, talking about the 2 occupations in 44-45 by the Nazis and the Russians, about the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis and of the middle class by the Russians, about the gulags in Russia, the arrow cross political movement who were the Hungarian Nazi party. The last section of the museum was the basement, where they had re-created some of the cells that used to be there, the museum is in the building that used to be the headquarters of both the arrow cross and the Soviet secret police so it was the site of many people being held prisoner, tortured or even beaten to death! This gave the whole place a really eerie feeling!

Needing something more cheerful after the museum we headed up the Heroes square the nearby Turkish style bath house. Heroes square was amazing with heaps of statues represent 10 warrior looking Kings of Hungary and four horseman for the four tribes that originally settled Hungary I loved these statues and I think it’s probably my favorite monument so far.

Next to the baths, there are heaps of them all over Budapest; I think they started when the Turks invaded at some point. The place was HUGE with so many different pools of different temperatures from a chilling plunge pool at 18c to a almost to hot to get into 40c we stayed there for about 3 hours trying out lots of different baths but my fav part was whirlpool in one of the outside pools, they had strong jets sending the water around in circles and you could ride the current (with about 40 other people) for ages it was lots of fun!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 24, 2009 from Budapest, Hungary
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We stopped for a quick yummy lunch, Hungarian salad and omelets and then joined the free walking tour. The tour was very good and very informative we learnt all about the history of Hungary, about how the country was formed, many invasions over the years and the most interesting and depressing history of 20th century Hungary I didn’t know that before the end of the first world war Hungary was much bigger and included parts of Austria, Romania and the Czech republic but after Hungary picked the wrong side in WW1 they were forced to give up a lot of territory. Then they picked the wrong side again in the Second World War after Hitler promised that they would get some of their lost land back. Once the Nazi’s started to round up all the Hungarian Jews and either through them into the Danube river that runs through Budapest or send them to Nazi death camps in Germany they tried to split from the Nazis and where promptly invaded and occupied by Hitler then in 1945 the Russians “liberated” them from the Nazi’s and of course occupied the country for themselves Hungary struggled under Russian cold war communism until 1990 suffering millions of it’s citizens being sent to Russian GULAGS and plunging the country into near bankruptcy a couple of times. So all in all a fairy depressing history lesson. The tour took us back across the chain bridge and back up to the castle so a hell of a lot of walking was achieved today!

After the tour finished we took Carlos who we knew from the hostel and was also doing the walking tour to see the parliament building a look for a memorial to the Jews that were drowned in the Denude in the form of lots of iron shoes by the riverbank. The Parliament was impressive and kind of like Westminster in a way with its Gothic jaggared towers. I thought it seems far too big for a country the size of Hungary but I guess Hungary used to be a lot bigger.

We went back to the hostel and I had a little bit of a snooze (Chris here by the way, we are on a train to Prague and I am catching up on the blog as Em is too tired) then decided at about 9 to go get some food. We ended up at a Chinese place and none of the staff spoke any more English than the word “chicken” so as you can imagine a great game of charades was carried out to work out what we wanted, this was followed by a dash through the rain back to the hostel and some well deserved sleep.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 23, 2009 from Budapest, Hungary
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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At 3am we woke with a start as our carriage door was knocked upon quite harshly and a gruff voice saying “passports” We sat up groggily and fumbled for these in the dark. A very serious, stern looking man watched on as we did this and then, upon receiving them checked them very carefully, before handing them back just as gruffly. We had entered Slovenia on our way through. We began to settle ourselves back down but there was a commotion happening next door to us. Being slightly nosy and curious I peeked out our door. The carriage of Columbians next to us were being told by a VERY stern looking woman “luggage, you get off train” (to be said in your best Russian accent) The passengers were asking why, but the passport checker could not tell them, so the carriage attendant went to talk to them, and he was just as unforgiving/unsympathetic and said very simply “you do not have the right visa, you must take your luggage and get off at the next station” Well, there was a bit of a kafuffle, which is understandable, but they got off at the next station, some god forsaken small station in the middle of nowhere with their luggage at 3.30 in the morning. Not a nice time for them I imagine. This of course, caused for me to go “oh god, oh god, oh god, PLEASE let us have everything right… did we need visas?!?!” After a time we settled ourselves back down for the night, or so we thought. 4am comes and we are now visited by customs, with huge bloody great big Alsatians asking us if we have anything to declare. “No” we shake our heads, they ask for our passports, then leave. 5am, we are now entering Croatia, “Passports” says one, we hand them to them once more, they scan it, leave. 6am we are entering Hungary and once more it is “passports” but this time the man smiles and is pleasant saying “good morning” I wasn’t convinced that the day was off to a flying start, but I smiled none the less and agreed with him “good morning” then there was just one more passport check, where we were, what it was for, I’m not sure, but a lot of people saw our not so becoming passport photos that day. I think they identified with me and thought me as one of their own there for abit as my passport picture is horrendous! I look like a very stern prison escapee. My stern face in that shot would fit right in with their team of passport checkers; they couldn’t crack a smile if there life depended on it! The first lot of passport checkers had no sense of humor either. After sitting bolt up right and handing the man my passport I commented “well, I look nothing like that photo now” as my hair was everywhere, my face crinkled with bed creases, my eyes all blurry and puffy… actually, it was probably a far better look than my actual passport photo…

Tired and feeling disorientated we got off the train in Budapest and made our way to our hostel where we fell onto the beds thankful to have made it finally. We lay there for a time, Chris falling into a deep nap, omitting small snores from time to time (he only snores when very tired, it had been a long night) I played about on the p.c for a time before we made our way into the city centre which is all of a 5 min walk away to check out the city and see what was about.

There are many beautiful old buildings and bridges surrounding the city centre, and it seems quite open and spacious, you don’t get that horrible feel that screams “TOURIST TRAP!” here, it’s very pleasant. As we hadn’t planned to come here at all during our travels we didn’t know what to expect, but we have both been pleasantly surprised by the area. The city is actually divided into two sections due to the river. One side is called “Buda” and the other “Pest” in typical fashion; we are staying in the pest side, which is nice despite its name!

After a quick look about, a hit of caffeine we made our way back to the hostel where we got talking to a lovely Canadian called Janene, who is travelling about by herself for a time, we chatted for a long time and were surprised when we looked at the time and saw it was 12am, we then called it a night and went to bed FINALLY!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 22, 2009 from Budapest, Hungary
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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Before checking out though we brought an international phone card so that we could both call home quickly, it all seemed quite straight forward, swipe your card, dial the number, talk. Easy. Well, it wasn’t. I swiped the card, I waited for the dial tone, nothing. I tried again and again and again, I tried phone after phone after phone, none of which worked. I finally got a phone to work but ended up speaking to some Italian person who sounded just as confused as I was. Finally, after 20 minutes of trying I was able to get through to my parents for a very very quick chat to say that we were alive and well and where we were next headed, before ringing off and RUNNING to the bus that was waiting for us.

We found that the train station had luggage hold, so we dumped our bags here for a small fortune before heading off to see the city of Venice for the last time. We spent hours just walking, looking, observing, and sitting. It was nice and as it wasn’t toooooo hot it was bearable for us.

We hopped on our train at 9.30pm, another sleeper train that was meant to hold 6 in our cabin but we were pleasantly surprised to find it only contained ourselves and one other (a single New Yorker who was travelling by herself) we chatted for a small time before becoming so exhausted we fell into what we thought would be a deep sleep…

written by  Chris and Emily on June 21, 2009 from Venice, Italy
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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They say you should be careful what you wish for and now I know that that saying is really really true. I was woken by Chris grabbing me by the shoulders in order to wake me, this really really startled me, I awoke breathing crazily in shock/fear (it wasn’t the nicest way to be woken) and all I could hear was this crazy wind/rain/thunder and it was all so loud. Chris apologized for waking me in such a rude manner but said that he was going out to close up our window flap as the rain was beating in on us (I was sleeping through this) I said in a very groggy, confused manner “okay” and tried to get my head around what was going on. We were in the middle of the craziest, wildest, scariest storm I’ve ever be in.

The wind was blowing in this crazy way, there was rain just lashing down, thunder rumbling and cracking just above us and the lightening! Oh my goodness, it was so crazy, beautiful, terrifying! Normally I’m one of the first ones to be ripping open the curtains, standing on the verandah loving every moment of the storm and being disappointed when it’s over… but this one had me curled up in a little ball in Chris’ bed, wearing my thongs and actually whimpering and gripping Chris when the thunder rolled and lightening cracked. Every thing was a hundred times worse in a tent though, I felt so vulnerable and little and a ‘target’ in the tent. Then we looked down and noticed that it had begun to flood our tent. Now I was getting a little panicky, all our stuff was on the ground, our backpacks, our electrics, every thing. Luckily we had a few little bricks propping up our wooden floor so it ran under us, but I was watching it rise a bit by bit by bit, making me more and more nervous. Finally exhaustion caught up with me and I feel asleep (Chris was by now snoring away with his ear plugs in, bless him, dead to the world) however, I was awoken again when the storm started up again, just as crazy and mad.

This time I wasn’t able to fall asleep nice and easy as the tent opposite us, which was occupied by a single girl, decided to have a ‘party’ all night she had had an English man in her tent, they’d been talking, and judging by their conversation, were young, but they were harmless. But THEN. Two more INCREDIBLY annoying, drunk American guys joined their ‘party’ and began talking VERY VERY loudly, and about complete crap. I tossed, I turned, I realized I had a full bladder and had to face the storm, I found our rain coats and ran to the loo, I could hear this silly American talking his crap even 100meters away and over the incredibly loud rain, I went back to the tent and heard the next tent over, some girls who couldn’t speak English (bless them) going “SHHHHHH” loudly, but this American was oblivious to this. He wasn’t only loud, he loved to use the F word, Gordon Ramsey style, and his conversation was crap. I kid you not, these are just some of them: “Justin Timberlake is like the f-ing bomb. He can do f-ing everything. F-ing singing, f-ing dancing, f-ing acting, f-ing dating the hottest f-ing women, he is seriously like the hottest male f-ing bomb man” and “I look like f-ing John Belushi, I look like f-ing Sam wise f-ing gamgy from the f-ing Lord of the rings man” and my favorite “toy story is the f-ing best, it’s like a f-ing kid story but adults get it you know man? And honey I shrunk the kids, what’s up with that? That’s the f-ing bomb, I f-ing love love love that movie” This is the point where I got up and shined my torch into their tent and said in a very p-off voice “could you PLEASE try to keep it down, you are keeping people awake” There was dead silence before a very quiet “yes” and to their credit they were much much quieter, but I was still unable to fall asleep after this.. And then the rooster started. The bloody rooster. Then the planes started, and then I got up. Crabby.

So, after this we hung around the camp site for the morning, just taking it easy, having a lazy breakfast, and just trying to wake up. We caught one of the later buses into Venice where we wondered about, just taking in the sights, sounds and smells and relaxing by the grand canal in a little quiet spot and did some people watching (my favorite past time)

written by  Chris and Emily on June 20, 2009 from Venice, Italy
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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Our first nights sleep was… interesting. We fell into a deep sleep to start with, it was so good…but then, 5am a rooster decided it was time to start the day, and then not to be outdone another joined in, louder and more determined to announce the arrival of the new day to all. We tossed and turned and thought up all the interesting and yummy recipes we could use the roosters for, and then we came to learn that 7am is a very busy time for the Venice airport. How do we know this? Well, our camp site was RIGHT next to the airport and there were planes taking off every five minutes or so. It really did sound as if they were about to run over you, or land on you. It was rather off putting. So, our day began.

A bus took us into Venice where we head off towards San Marco, along the way stopping to take in the sights of all the little canals and the tourist shops that primarily sell one of two things: glass or masks. These stores are every where!

San Marco is an amazing big square which the basilica (a big catholic church in layman’s terms) is located. We waited in the sweltering heat to get into this church; it’s free so it’s worth it. While standing in this line we noticed that you were not allowed in if you were wearing shorts or a singlet, so as Chris was wearing shorts we were worried that he may not get in, but we needn’t have been, for it was me they targeted. Apparently the dress I was wearing was showing too much skin and was inappropriate. Of course. It’s the first time I’ve worn a dress in years and I’m told I’m inappropriate. They didn’t turn us away though; instead we had to pay a euro for a huge paper napkin to cover my shoulders. Very appealing. We weren’t meant to take photos in here, but we tempted fate and did so, taking some blurry pics in secret.

We then ventured into the square where we both tried a new profession as “pigeon whispering” We stood in the middle of the square with our arms outstretched and pigeons from all around the area would fly in and settle around you, and some of the more gutsy, ballsy ones would perch themselves on your arms. We had a bit of fun doing this for awhile, despite the fact that pigeons are referred to as ‘flying rats’ here in UK/Europe.

It was getting warm now but we trudged on to visit the Rialto Bridge, which gives you great views of the Grand Canal. It is LOADED with tourists here, so packed that you can’t bring yourself to stay too long, other wise you go a bit crazy with the pushing and shoving that goes on, all the tourists vying for the ‘top spot’ for a shot.

After all this we couldn’t take the heat/tourists much longer and made our way back to the camp site for a swim. The water was sooooo good, it was so refreshing to just leap into the cool water, we spent awhile just bobbing about, relaxing before leaping into the spa for a while, then hop out and read by the pool before heading to the camp site restaurant that do really nice meals. A nice way to end a very busy, full on day!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 19, 2009 from Venice, Italy
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We hopped back on a train and made our way past the amazing sea side cities of Cannes (where all the stars go once a year for the film festival that is held there) and through the beautiful Monte Carlo scenery, it was gorgeous, clear blue sky, crystal blue water that sparkled like diamonds and houses tucked into the cliffs over looking the ocean, just gorgeous. I wanted to hop off there and stay for a week or so, but somehow I get the distinct feeling that we would NOT be able to afford this!

We shared our carriage with two other people who were a lovely elderly Italian couple who did not speak a word of English, and seeing as we don’t speak a word of Italian it made our journey a rather quiet one. Towards the end of the train travel however we all sort of thought “blow it” and tried to “chat” It was a huge game of charades and was rather funny in the end! The lady, who’s name was Maria, became VERY VERY excited as I mentioned my name was Emily. She clutched her chest and sort of made this gasping noise that for a second I mistook for a heart attack but then she started frantically pointing at herself repeating “Maria Emily! Maria Emily!!” She said this so frantically/excitedly that I had to nod and try to calm her by saying “Ci, Emily!” from then on it was like we were long lost twin sisters, she offered me orange and then made an extra effort to ‘talk’ to me, which was sweet but rather tiring, bless her.

When we booked our train tickets the agent gave us a 15 minute time frame to get from one train to the connecting one in Milan, we thought it was cutting it fine, but trusted the agent… silly silly us! We got in at 3.04pm, our connecting one was at 3.05pm… we looked at the board, we got in at gate 12, we had to connect at gate 3… we ran and ran, pushing through the crowd, our thongs flip-flop echoing as we ran along the smooth polished, may I add SLIPPERY floor tiles, our back packs jiggling on our backs… and we made it to gate 3… to see our train pulling away. We screamed, we yelled, we ran beside it banging on the side, we ran up to the door and tried to pull it open but it was locked… we watched in dismay as the train picked up speed and took off faster than we could run… we let out yells of frustration. As we turned around we saw that we were not alone, there were at least 15 people in the same boat as us, all swearing and looking mightily annoyed. We found an innocent train man and we all bombarded him with questions, the poor thing looked so over whelmed and confused, but bless him, answered all our questions. It wasn’t a big deal in the end, we just had to show our pass at the next train going to Venice and hop on, easy we thought, and there was one in just over an hour, so it was okay… Well, the next train came and we went to carriage 3 like we were told, apparently there would be a conductor there to help us with our questions and we could sit, which was such a load of crock! The conductor was not at all interested in helping us and our seats did not exist, instead, we had to sit on the very dirty floor of a carriage for 1.5 hours before the conductor came through looking disgusted and said “seat, there, sit” pointing towards a carriage. Thanks mate. So we moved and had a seat for all of half an hour before arriving into Venice.

First thought of Venice was “industrial” There were many cranes, large industrial buildings about, shipping buildings etc, but when you get into the heart of the city you can’t help but we in awe. It’s very impressive and grand.

We were very hungry by now so we stopped a little pizzeria and had a pizza each (very yummy I must say!) and a slice of Tiramisu to share, it was a nice way to start our Italian visit. After this we made tracks to our accommodation which is actually half an hour out of the city, but the place have a shuttle bus that goes every hour, so that’s great. We arrived to find that our “two person dorm, with tent roof” was in actual fact, a two person tent. I was so tired by now, so hot, so over it all that I sat on my wee little camp bed and cried. At that moment I wanted to go home. 28 hours on a train, missing our connection by seconds, being ogled by an Italian man (he really liked my boobs and made gasping, whistling, impressed noises as he passed me, I was alone as I was checking the departure board and Chris watched the bags, it wasn’t nice and I hurried back to Chris) sitting on the floor of a dirty train, sweaty and hot from the beating sun and now… a tent… was all too much for me, particularly when we had to then try and find the head torch so that we could see, that did it for me. I just wanted home. But then, a shower and my P.Js cheered me up and after half heartedly making my bed and then Chris’ as I’m a good wife, we fell into a deep deep sleep, so it was all forgotten and okay.

We drove around the island for some time, looking at old salt mills, sea salt farms, forts etc before making our way to the light house which was quite impressive. Here we decided to stop and have our picnic lunch, baguettes, pate, cheese, salami, gherkins, and tomatoes, all very very yummy to say the least! The Salami I could eat forever, it is so good!! We also brought some cider to share and it was quite refreshing on such a HOT day. We moved into the shade as the sun was just toooooo hot for us and after a while, moved on to have a look (a proper one) at the light house.

One ice-cream and many photos later we moved on to a little sea salt stand by the road where you can pick this gourmet, high quality salt up for around $3-$5, however, if you were to buy the same amount in Australia it can cost $50-$100, so we brought a bag or two here! After this, the sun had taken it out of us in a big way. Kris, Chris, Zoe and I all fell asleep in the car as poor old Paul drove us back to La Rochelle, I’m just thankful that he didn’t fall asleep too!

To cool down we decided to go to the Aquarium, which I have to say, was wonderful! All sorts of amazing fish, sharks, jelly fish, sea horses etc, and it was set up in a very friendly, nice way with a great atmosphere. Chris and I really enjoyed ourselves here, plus it had air conditioning so we were very happy!

Dinner was in order after our exit from here so we decided to have crepes, another French cuisine, sort of like very thin pancakes that are filled with yummy bits and bobs. Ham, cheese or egg, or pear, blue cheese, nuts etc or something more interesting like intestines (not for me thank you) It was a light yummy meal that went well with our earlier picnic. A few drinks and a dessert later we were ready to head ‘home’ to relax, shower and sleep. The sun can really take it out of you here!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 16, 2009 from La Rochelle, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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The train ride down to La Rochelle was quiet and uneventful, though we were well impressed with our first class seating (thank you Eurail) we read, wrote and slept away the 3 hours until we arrived in La Rochelle and met up with the guys, it was lovely to see them once more.

Chris and Paul then decided to drive the car load of bags and luggage back to the hotel while Kris, Zoe and I would walk around the port area in search of a nice café/place to have dinner. It was said that we would meet up again in 20 minutes, however an hour and a half later we were still waiting, and we finally did see the boys again it transpired that the hotel reception was not open, but said that it would open in half an hour, so they had waited, and waited, and waited, eventually giving in and coming to see us instead. During all this Kris and I had had a chance to walk about the wharf area and check it out a bit; it is very pretty I must say.

The boys eventually returned to us and we sat down to a 3 course meal that only cost 14 Euro, it has to be said that this is a bloody good deal here in France! It was so nice to be with friends, to chat and laugh and experience real French food (Paul is French so he was able to lead us in the right direction food wise) it was a lovely chilled out night of catch ups and stories before heading back to the hotel for a quick game of “toss the pig” and bed ready for our big day tomorrow.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 15, 2009 from La Rochelle, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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