Europe - Hungary

Ljubljana to Budapest takes eight looooong hours on the train. Made even longer when you're working on a Math for Business prep course :( But the train was on time and brought us into the city comfortably.

We had three full days and four nights to experience the city. Budapest has a much more "big city" vibe than Zagreb and Ljubljana. The architecture throughout the city is very well preserved and striking. It is different from the previous two cities we visited and way more diverse. And the food definitely improved (*cough* for Europe) :) Doner kebabs were actually crispy and spicy/on every block, the falafel tasted good, sandwiches very delicious (and cheap!), and we even found bubble tea. It was no Sweethut but the tapioca was a welcome and familiar sight.

Here's a summary of what we did, some advice if you visit, fun facts, and some of our favorite pictures.

Day 1

• Walk Andrassy ut
• Heroes Square
• Szechnyi Thermal Bath (just viewing, couldn't stand the sulfur smell)
• Vajdahunyad Vara castle

Day 2

• St. Stephen's Basilica climb
• Great Market Hall
• Nighttime view of the Parliament
• Walk Chain Bridge
• Szimpla Kert ("ruin bar")

Day 3

• Fisherman's Bastion
• Buda Castle
• Citadella

Advice if you visit

• The metro is really great and affordable. About $1.25 per ride and it connects the city well. No need to rent a car if you're just looking to see the city. And staying in a more affordable hotel a bit outside of city center is fine as well as long as its near a metro station.
• Food recommendations: Bors Gasztrobar for great sandwiches priced at ~$2.5 each, Ramenka for noodle soups (this is not ramen, no matter what the restaurants claims... but it is good noodle soup), Kádár Etkezde for traditional Hungarian, and kürtőskalács (cylindrical bread desert) from any street vendor.
• Definitely visit some "ruin pubs". They're themed bars using junk items like old TVs, radios, etc. to create a different vibe. Pretty reasonably priced for drinks surprisingly.
• Make sure to specify at train stations if you're buying a one-way ticket. We ended up with a round trip to/from Vienna because Mohit failed to specify we wanted a one-way :( 

Fun facts

• There's a ton of Thai massage places in Budapest... we didn't try it since we'd recently gotten them in Bangkok for very cheap and they were quite painful, but hey if you can't make it to Thailand, its an option.
• American rap is big in Budapest bars and smaller restaurants. 
• A nice Hungarian waitress rapidly explained the menu to us and kept calling her favorite dishes "good good".
• If a drunk Hungarian girl yells "Hallooo" to you, the appropriate response is to mockingly yell "Hallooo" right back in her face as Fate did.
• Europeans are definitely more posey (at least 3 face angles per shot) in pictures than Americans and maybe even Asians. 
• The number one tourist group in Budapest is the British. They're here mainly for the great money conversion rate(we heard a group say 'let's go all out' at a restaurant) and to be obnoxiously loud at bars.

Summary of Pictures

St. Stephen's Basilica where we did not enter because of the forced donation/entry fee. We did pay to climb the 300 steps up for a view, priorities. 

Heroe's Square, we had quite the gloomy day. This is to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the Magyar conquest of Hungary in 895 but all that was said to Mohit was "something about the tribes, you know the tribes."  

The police car was very busy 

Rain or shine, gotta keep staring at historical buildings

Ghetto Hogwarts in the back/castles/Gothic architecture  

Szechenyi thermal baths! Still located in the same area as the last 4 pictures

Decorations of a ruin bar

Great Market Hall, do you need paprika, sausages, and tablecloths from 120 shops? Definitely come here.

The Parliament is awesome to see at night!

Chain link bridge, the first one to connect Buda and Pest.  

Ladies and gentlemen we present you goulash  and pasta. 

Kurtoskalac bread was Mohit's favorite street treat.

The area right by our hotel

The colors of the roof was the best part

Buda Castle, we felt way too tired to actually go in.

Final view point location, the Citadel. We climbed a giant hill to a fortress and this is the monument.

That striking architecture we were talking about.

A great street to walk around.

Europe - Slovenia

We reached Ljubljana, Slovenia by train from Zagreb. On the way, we shared a compartment with a French guy who beat all stereotypes by: being super chatty and nice (offered us strawberries)!

Ljubljana is a fantastic city. Though slightly more expensive than Zagreb, its still much cheaper than Western Europe and has a more friendly vibe. The town center area is closed to cars in June and July, making wandering the city by foot very fun. And the countryside of Slovenia is gorgeous, easy to drive through, and offers tons of outdoor activities. Here's a summary of what we did over two days (three nights), some advice if you visit, fun facts, and a summary of our favorite pictures.

• Stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Ljubljana Mons
• Ljubljana city center wandering
• Lake Bled Castle
• Piran (old coastal city)
• Julian Alps Drive through Vrsic Pass with town stops at Bovec, Kobarid, and Tolmin
• Triglav National Park (Kojzak Waterfall walk & Tolmin Gorge hike)
• Gugala Cheese House in Tolmin
• Favorite food: Falafel in Ljublana city center and Fritolein in Piran.

Advice if you visit

• Triglav National Park is fantastic, must see area. If you end up doing the drive from Ljubjlana to Tolmin Gorge, drive through Nova Gorica instead of the inner roads. Its a longer distance but much faster because of the lack of traffic lights.
• Bovec and Kobarid, towns in the Julian Alps, offer some great activities like river rafting and para sailing. If you want to partake, its worth spending a night in the mountains. The prices seemed affordable (~60 euro for a day of rafting).
• We rented a car arranged by our hotel from Avantcar. We reserved an automatic in their smallest class for 104 euro for 2 days, including full insurance. They ran out of the autos in our class so they had to upgrade us to a new (only had 14km on it) Mercedes A200. Its worth going through your hotel so that they can ensure you get the transmission you asked for, and arrange hotel pickup/drop off for free.
• Make sure your rental company gives you a "vingette". It's a sticker that allows you to go on the freeways. If they want to charge a ridiculous fee, then go to a petrol station and buy the weekly sticker for around $20.
• Get some cheese in Tolmin. We went to Gugala, which is a family owned and operated farm where they make cheese in the basement. Rich, delicious, and affordable cheese!

Fun facts

• The Chinese tour buses have discovered Lake Bled of course but Kojzak and Tolmin seem to be clear for now!
• Who says Arabs are the only ones obsessed with cologne? We walked by a few Slovenian ladies on our Kojzak waterfalls hike that we were wearing wedges and a boat load of perfume.
• You can get fresh, unpasteurized, raw (whatever raw means...), whole cow's milk from a vending machine in Ljubljana city center for just 1 euro a liter! It is delicious.
• Slovenians believe buffalo wings means: breaded and bland chicken wings with a side of salsa. We've never been so outraged at a food interpretation. Also because we were starving at 9pm and waited 20 minutes for these to arrive. Just eat sausages and potatoes here (quite good actually.)

Summary of Pictures

Ljubljana old town rates high on the Cuteness of Europe scale!

Open (milk) container. The city sold unpasteurized raw milk in the square from a vending machine and we bought some. It was tasty and only 1 euro. 

Dream destination, Bled Lake. 

Because it was raining at the lake, last minute decision to visit the coastal town Piran. 

Drying laundry and Mohit

You climb some fort walls and get this view. Good thing they coordinated the roofs. 

This art installation on the fort wall was used to thwart barbarians away 

The Adriatic coast 

Driving around and looking to the left/making Mohit drive down this road for this shot

Time to explore the Soca River Valley/Julian Alps. Already sold 

Mohit got very lucky with the rental and loved driving his hatchback Merc that shut off at red lights

You climb this ledge to view the waterfall below

This fall is 45' tall! This picture doesn't do the area justice

The Soca river color is so damn turquoise

Driving through the little towns in the mountains

This is where we got the cheese in Tolmin and met Mr. Gugala, the friendly cat!

Tolmin Gorge hike. The stream color was phenomenal 

The town church at every reasonably sized town