Guten Tag, Ahoy, helló!
Just a kiwi here now, checking in with an update on my first week in Europe! It has been a positive culture shock from our travel life in SE Asia and it’s a dream come true to be here in Europe. I have been slightly overwhelmed with the dense history, modern infrastructure, incredible (but not really healthy) food and variety of cultures during my first whirlwind week. In the past 7 days, I have ticked off Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest and while the amount of travel might be catching up on me, the excitement of being here has kept me going!
I was really interested in taking the trains as my main transportation method in Europe and spent a lot of time researching my route (which was only decided 2 weeks in advance) and conducted a brief cost analysis of the different modes of transport, mostly using an online tool goeuro.com . While I could have purchased a Eurail pass and it seems like a fantastic option for many travelers, it wasn’t the cheapest or even the most time efficient option for my personal itinerary.
Instead of feeling like a bus wanker (Inbetweeners quote, sorry fam), I have surprisingly really enjoyed it. Free wifi, charging points at every seat, comfortable, toilet on board .. these buses have everything you need and more! My Regiojet bus from Berlin – Prague even had an entertainment system at every seat and a stewardess who served free hot chocolate and coffee throughout! This bus journey only cost €15 and I had 2 seats to myself .. what a steal! The cheapest train for this route at the time I booked was around €80 and took a similar amount of time, so there was no real competition there. I’m hoping to try out the trains at another point of my journey in Europe and can’t wait to compare the differences.
While my overall experience on buses was great, as with all aspects of travel things did go wrong. After my 13 hour flight from Singapore – Frankfurt, my FlixBus was delayed an hour for pickup. Our driver was slow, grumpy and, traveling on a Friday before a long weekend, there was a lot of traffic. We were scheduled to arrive at 430pm – it was 645pm and we were only 15mins from the terminal when the driver announced he needed to make another 45 minute stop as per law. Arriving in Berlin 4 hours late, around 8pm, I had been traveling for nearly 30 hours. Apparently there is an EU law which entitles a refund for delays over 120mins but it remains unknown if this will ever come through.
Berlin in a day .. kind of! After a delayed start to the journey, I was stoked to arrive in Berlin at the not-so-central Central Bus Station and see Anna, a friend from NZ who has lived in Luxembourg for 8 months! She’d been waiting around the bus station for around 4 hours and we were both keen to get into town.
The transport system within Berlin is excellent – very easy to navigate and the underground or trains can take you almost everywhere! Our hostel in a good location close to Alexanderplatz with plenty in the surrounding area to explore. We ordered a beer at the bar when Nicole Patricia, my old flatmate and great friend from NZ who moved to London 1 year ago, walked in and surprised me!! It turned out to be a weekend of surprises and reunions, with Laura joining the next morning also from London, and Franzi (an exchange student who lived nearby me in Nebraska in 2010) traveling to Berlin to catch up too! It was so awesome to share the weekend with friends, especially after leaving Luke in Singapore and preparing to travel alone for a little while.
We began the weekend with a free walking tour, probably the best way to start a visit to any new city in Europe! It is a great opportunity to get your bearings, understand a bit more of the history and culture and figure it what else you want to do there. While not technically free as you’re expected to tip, it allows for flexibility in how much you spend and what you think the guide is worth. Unfortunately for us in Berlin, it was bucketing down with rain, but we were having so much fun catching up that this didn’t dampen the experience too much. Our guide was an Aussie who has made Berlin home and the accent was understandably easy for us to take in. The amount of history and general knowledge he knew was impressive, if a little much at times, but it was well worthwhile.
After escape from the rain for a beer and food, we ventured down to the Bradenberg Gate to meet Franzi, checked out the parliament and then went to the Terror Topography memorial. It is quite a modern memorial and maybe not as well known as others in the city, but it was an educational exhibition neatly located next to a large stretch of the Berlin Wall showing the original small wall and larger wall behind.
There were a couple of other places in Berlin I had hope to visit on this trip, including the East Side Gallery and Holocaust Museum, however due to a combination of the wet weather, extreme hangover on Sunday morning and bus leaving an hour earlier than I thought, unfortunately these will have to wait for next time. Saturday night was spent on an epic pub crawl which was a blast from the past partying with the girls from home and new friends we made throughout the night! Berlin has a reputation for its nightlife and our Saturday night definitely lived up to expectations!
My time in Berlin taught me that I really need to return to Germany and discover more of this diverse county! Hopefully for the next visit I can be a little more organized in my timing to visit friends in other parts of the country (not at exam time) and I would especially love to explore Bavaria (Anna and Lea!!) then head north to Hamburg and discover more of the smaller towns throughout. My bus from Berlin – Prague made a short stop in Dresden on the way and this town alone was so beautiful!
Prague, Czech Republic, was the next destination on the list and it was just a 4 hour bus ride from Berlin. As I emerged from the underground station, I was greeted with blue skies and sunshine, the first I had seen in Europe! My first impression as I navigated the streets with my 14kg pack was of the amazing architecture and beautiful buildings surrounding me, and I wasn’t even in the Old Town area of the city! Post Hostel Prague was possibly the best hostel I have ever stayed in! It had the most comfortable beds and duvets, free breakfast, wifi good enough for skype, a great common area and fun staff. It was an excellent place to call home for 2 nights and the first night was spent with a crew from the hostel at Riegrovy Sady Park taking in the sunset before a visit to a bier garden. I was determined not to have a rowdy night so I could make the most of this intriguing city in the morning, so called it a night around midnight. Of course with hostel life our room was woken by drunks at 3am .. but nowhere is perfect right?
With a full day in Prague ahead, I signed up to another free walking tour of the Old Town. Honestly, I had very limited knowledge of the Czech Republic before visiting, but I could now potentially recite every entertaining and important characters of its varied history! The tour was fantastic and we got to experience Europe’s 2nd most disappointing tourist attraction (after the Mona Lisa), the hourly puppet show at the astronomical tower. The astronomical clock itself was fascinating, how they could create an instrument so sophisticated 600 years ago is beyond me!
I went down to a traditional Czech restaurant with a few others from the tour afterwards and tried a beef goulash for lunch, of course accompanied by a local beer. It was so hearty and delicious and reminded me of a homecooked meal – I probably haven’t had real beef since I left New Zealand!
I continued to self-tour the city after, taking in a view at Letenske Park and wandered through the grounds of Prague Castle, a unique piece of architecture built in a variety of styles over many different stages of Czech’s history.
After a long day on my feet, I was delighted to be met by a local of Prague Honza, who is a great new friend! Luke and Honza met in Bali a few years ago, and Honza spoke so highly of his working holiday experience in New Zealand that Luke was convinced to apply then and there. It was so great to meet Honza and talk about life in NZ, life in Prague, his interesting career aspirations that may lead him back there and traveling the world!
We climbed up Petrinske Park to be great by a structure that was designed based on the Eiffel Tower as a viewpoint of the city. The panoramic views of beautiful Praha were worth the 300 steps up!
For dinner, Honza convinced me to try the local meal, Svickova. I was a little skeptical when I heard the ingredients (dumplings/white bread, vegetable sauce, beef sirloin, whipped cream, cranberries and lemon) but it was truly the most delicious food I have tried in Europe so far. The Svickova melted in my mouth and was perfectly accompanied by a local beer.
Although it was a Monday night, we joined the locals and got a couple of Czech beers from the many boats docked as bars along the riverfront and rediscovered the Old Town of Prague by night- with the yellow lights illuminating these beautiful buildings, it almost felt like another city. I experienced amazing hospitality from Honza and hope we can repay the favor back in New Zealand in the future!
Vienna was a whirlwind destination and really a stopover on the journey through to Budapest. I had less than 24 hours in the city and was keen to make the most of it. I had heard that the Vienna State Opera offers 3€ standing tickets to its performances, and it was the top of my list! Rocking up at the hostel at 6pm with the performance of Rigoletto beginning at 7pm, it was a bit of a rush to make it down to the theatre but I arrived with enough time to explore the different levels of the theatre before entering. 3€ is such a good deal for tickets to a world class opera performance .. however being so cheap the experience does come with its limitations! The standing area was crammed with people, no ventilation and a very obstructed view of the stage. I struggled to see any of the action and in the beginning was wondering why I came. 10 minutes in and I was hooked – with small screens showing the subtitles in English as the performers sung in Italian, the storyline was addictive and I really enjoyed the experience.
Unfortunately due to the discomfort of the heat and standing, I left at intermission and will never really know what happened to the cursed man’s daughter, but it was a great experience none the less.
I passed on the walking tour in Vienna .. history overload and sleep deprivation don’t mix too well, I’m definitely feeling old! Vienna was meant to be a rest stop before Budapest antics but when I meet a group of Brazilians in a bar, it will never really be an early night.
After studying music and theory throughout school, I wished I had the chance to spend more time in this classic city and could easily have spent days wandering through the endless museums and palaces!
I thought I would be alone on this stop, but that morning another exchange student from NE, Melanie, got in touch and offered to meet for lunch in her home city! Although we had lived on opposite sides of the corn state and only met once 6 years ago, it was so great to hear about her life in Vienna and inspiring travels, and compare our experiences from Nebraska. After I spent the morning wandering around the city, Melanie then took me to another area including her university, where the amazing buildings where students still learn today blew me away, especially the library which looked like a scene from Harry Potter!
Vienna is a cycle-friendly city, dotted with l quaint street markets selling beautiful pastries and sprawling with historic buildings and palaces. It was a beautiful stop between Eastern Europe cities, and I can see why Melanie is proud to call it home! I left that night for Budapest, the last city on my whirlwind first week here. As I have travelled this week ‘alone’, I have come to realize that I am never really alone here in Europe!! Travel experiences are always amplified when shared with those you love, and I wish I could continue sharing this journey with Luke, but for now, we are both having incredible experiences in incredible places and technology has been a wonderful thing to keep in contact. I am blessed to have friends in nearly every city I have visited here, both new and old. I am so thankful to be sharing their hometowns with them and catching up as if it were yesterday I had seen them, whereas in reality it has been 6 years and some I have never met in person before!
Along with the amazing local hospitality I have been experiencing here, I carry with me the thoughts and inspiration of friends and family from around the globe, through their recommendations, shared experiences, and contacts. Every day here I walk down the street with a spring in my step feeling exceptionally lucky, and any sense of loneliness is then overwhelmed with immense gratitude for this experience I am lucky enough to share with friends and family.
I was contacted Lea before traveling to meet in her home in Germany, however she had since moved to Budapest and was kind enough to meet me at the bus station! Having a break from navigating public transport in another language was a welcome change and it was so great to catch up with yet another friend. Lea is so close with my host family in NE and it was fantastic to see her again! After checking into Wombats, we wandered around the ‘Pest’ side of Budapest before enjoying a beautiful dinner. It was so great to catch up after all of this time and I’m so stoked she could take time from her busy vet school schedule to meet with me!
Luke’s one recommendation from his time in Budapest was to visit a ruins bar and the city is filled with them! I joined a Dutch crew from the hostel and visited Szimpla, a popular bar which has been converted from war ruins to an eclectic collection of more than 10 different bars with different themes. Szimpla was unlike anywhere I have experienced before and it was awesome to see just a small part of Budapest’s well known nightlife scene.
Determined to make the most of my limited time in this amazing city (seems to be becoming a theme here!) I set out on foot to travel from ‘Pest’ to ‘Buda’ across the Chain Bridge. I took the funicular, similar to a cable car, up to the Budapest Castle and was treated with stunning views across the Danube River and city. The Budapest Castle is beautifully situated on the hill with panoramic views around the city, and while some parts of the surrounding area were heavily bombed in WW2, careful restoration has been undertaken in recent years and it is a really great area to explore.
One thing Budapest is famous for, other than its history and beautiful river is the Budapest Baths. After 5 days of walking on blistered feet, an afternoon in naturally heated pools sounded like the perfect therapy! With 3 bath complexes to choose from throughout the main city, I decided on Gellert Thermal Baths , mostly due to its proximity to the castle and a misunderstanding about male-only days at the neighboring Rudas baths. It was so nice to escape from the bustle of cities and tourists and relax in the different hot and cold pools in a beautiful setting. I seem to attract Californians and spent the afternoon with Marissa from the Central Valley who was also on her first trip to Europe and it was great to have someone to share this cool experience with.
I had one more friend to meet before the week was over, and David from Budapest took us for some traditional Hungarian food (yum, beef goulash!!) and a little tour of the city by night. Beef goulash originated in Hungary, and is very different from the beef goulash I had in Prague. The Hungarian version is more similar to a soup and packed with vegetables, whereas the Czech version is more like a heavy stew with bread and potatoes. Both are amazing.
David spent 2016 on a working holiday in NZ and worked with Luke up in Tauranga a year ago before we all met in Christchurch. It was super cool to share dinner and get his get a local perspective on life in Budapest!
Although I have loved every city and moment of my time here so far, Budapest has taken me under its spell and is my favourite of them all so far! Its magic by day and night, beautiful architecture and of course the enchanting Danube River inspired me, and I would love to return again on a future trip. This week was the only week of its kind during my time in Europe – spending only 1-2 nights in each city on limited sleep and tying to pack as much in (day and night) as possible. It was a conscious choice to travel this way at the beginning and has been a great way to cover a lot of ground in a very short space of time, but it is generally not my favourite style of travel!My best friend jetlag caught up with me in Prague and I developed a niggly cold that kept me company for the rest of the week, and on the tight schedule I just had to truck on! I prefer to base myself in one area or country for a longer period of time to explore it more thoroughly and have a healthier travel/life balance, and I am now reverting back to that travel style. I am currently in transit from Budapest-Basel and can’t wait meet Marina for 9 days in Switzerland!
An update from the Cali – nowhere near as long as my novel! Luke has been home in the Bay Area for the past week and dealing with a little bit of reverse culture shock – it is his first visit to the USA in over a year! He has been having an awesome time eating Taco Bell, drinking beer, catching up with family and childhood friends, attending a wedding, baseball game and Golden State Warriors basketball viewing (so American!) and has been preparing for his upcoming cycle trip!! Today he is flying across to Maine where the adventure really begins, to meet Zach, Jackson & Phil, and will hopefully buy a bicycle before their epic 2 month journey from Maine – Florida gets underway. He’s super excited to get on the road and test out whether the the past week’s diet of beer and Taco Bell really has been the ideal training plan for 50-60 miles of cycling per day.
I can’t wait to get the updates and photos along the way of what will be an amazing experience and look forward to sharing them on the next post! Until then,
Just A Kiwi xo
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