A blog about Sweeney and I backpacking around Costa Rica...but we're not doing that anymore...so now it's a blog about me studying abroad in Hungary...actually I'm not doing that anymore but I'm backpacking around Peru for a month before I start work
The first place we went this morning was to a flea market that Sarah had heard was really cool. It was pretty awesome. I still can’t believe some of the things you could buy!
Quite an awesome place. I only bought one thing. It is a portable fork, spoon and knife set. This is nice for when you are traveling and you need utensils.
Lazy Day
Today was kind of a lazy day. We were still tired from the biking and just wanted to enjoy the nice weather. We grabbed some coffee from the McCafe at McDonalds and lay around in the city square. We eventually got up and walked around the rest of the city. Later, we just got ice cream and hung out outside until it was time to take the train back to Budapest.
An awesome weekend!
This weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to see the countryside and Hungary outside of Budapest. Lake Balaton is beautiful and Sarah and Elin are awesome girls who are always fun to be around!
Jannick knows a lot about about bikes and this morning we were able to fix Elin’s bike tire. It has kind of weird road bike-like tires and it turns out that you are don’t take the tread off when replace the inner-tube.
Hévíz
Jannick and Tiffany brought bikes with them (they are planning on riding back part of the route we took down to Keszthely later today) so we all rode together to Hévíz, a thermal lake a couple of miles out of Keszthely. Hévíz was pretty cool. The lake isn’t hot but the water is comfortably warm. It did smell a little weird but I don’t think that it was because of being unclean or anything. Supposed the water is totally replaced every by the natural springs every 85 hours. Hévíz is also supposed to have medicinal benefits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hévíz_Spa
Back in Keszthely we picnicked again near Balaton.
Tiffany and Jannick had to leave to start biking so Elin, Sarah and I went and hung out down by the lake until our train left at 5.
Train to Pécs
The train ride to Pécs was really pretty.
Pécs
We got into Pécs around 10 and went to the hostel which was on one of the main streets (Kíraly Utca). It was a very fun and happening area with a lot of outdoor restaurants. Since it was kind of late we just went to get some food, took some pictures and then went back to the hostel.
Today started out with me missing the train. I got there as it was leaving. I rode after it on the path next to the tracks but was stopped by some guy working on the tracks and yelled at in Hungarian. I kept riding until a loudspeaker came out of nowhere and started yelling at me again in Hungarian. I went back to the station and got a ticket for an indirect train through Székesfehérvár that left in an hour and would get me to Balatonfüred one hour after Sarah and Elin.
I don’t have an excuse. I have a problem. I am sick of being late for everything. It’s not fair to everyone who is a victim of my tardiness. It’s personally embarrassing and obscures my better qualities from people who don’t know me well. I can’t tell you how stupid I felt watching the train leaving with Sarah and Elin and without me. So I am saying it here-this is the end. I’m done with my “show up late for things” lifestyle. It would be ridiculous to say that I will never ever be late for something again in my life. I know that it will happen. But I am done with being a “late person.” I know that I have said this before but I mean it this time. I’m actually a little glad I missed the train because I know that this will be the catalyst for a change in my life. Though Sarah and Elin weren’t really mad at me, I was furious at myself and was quite embarrassed. Seriously, it will be different from now on.
Biking to Keszthely
When I got in at 10 we started biking toward Keszthely. One of the early stops we made was in Tihany. The view there was beautiful.
At first the trail was pretty close to Lake Balaton but after a while it went way out into the country. It was a little hilly but not too bad. Plus the weather was great so we had a picnic.
Most of the day was spent just riding bike. It was a really long but fun ride and the countryside was absolutely gorgeous.
About 6 or 7 miles outside of Keszthely Elin’s front tire went flat. I tried fixing it but couldn’t get the tread off. Ya, I know, I wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders this weekend...maybe it is time for a little break from so much traveling (this being the 7th weekend in a row). Anyway, luckily there was a family nearby that had a truck and was able to fit the bike in it. They drove both Sarah and Elin’s bike to Keszthely. Very nice people! Elin and I rode to Keszthely and got in around sunset. After riding all over the whole town trying to find the hostel (and getting directions from several people pointing in several directions) we all met up again. Jannick and Tiffany took the train to Keszthely and met us at the hostel.
After cleaning up and relaxing a little (we probably rode around 45 miles or so) we went to an outdoor pizza/bar place. Lake Balaton is mainly a summer vacation place for Hungarians and Germans so there are a lot of outdoor areas to eat and drink. Also, many of the people who live there speak German because of all the German tourists in the summer. I think that, without really thinking too much about it, we came at the perfect time. It wasn’t that crowed since it was just April but the weather was still great (70-75 degrees).
The Brazilians went to bed early last night since they had to catch the bus at 8 from Centraal Station to Eindhoven Airport. I decided that I would wake up at the same time and go see some other parts of the Netherlands, most specifically the tulip fields the guy had told me about at the hostel the day before. I went to bed early too but couldn’t fall asleep because I was so excited about the next day. I really love those days where you are always moving and see a bunch of things and I knew that today would be one.
The Plan
The plan for today was to take the train to Haarlem. The guy at Bob’s Hostel who told me about the flower fields said that from here I could take a bus to get out to the flower fields. However, someone else told me about renting a bike and riding there (maybe 15km). This is what I was planning on doing. After visiting the fields I was planning on riding back to Haarlem and maybe taking the train to Rotterdam (or some other Dutch city) to see what the Netherlands are like outside of Amsterdam.
Haarlem
After a large breakfast (how big days begin) I took the train to Haarlem (about 15 minutes from Amsterdam). I planned on just renting a bike in Haarlem and biking to the tulip fields but Haarlem was actually a really pretty town and I spent a while roaming around checking out some of the cool buildings and such.
Off to Lisse
The town that the Keukenhof Gardens are in/near is called Lisse so I started biking in that direction. Biking is really popular and easy in the Netherlands. There are a lot of bike lanes and people bike everywhere. Also, almost everyone speaks English (usually pretty well) and there are a lot of friendly people so it is easy to get directions.
The Dutch countryside is beautiful. It is very green, which reminded me of Ireland.
Planning on just grabbing some food and leaving, I stopped in a restaurant Hillegom (a small town on the way to Lisse). The only people in the restaurant were the person working there (Tinakay...I don’t know about that spelling) and a guy who was sitting by the gambling machine named George who was either her husband, a regular or both. I never asked. They were really friendly. When I ordered a second coke (I couldn’t resist, it was from a glass bottle!) George bought it for me. I stayed and talked with them for a hour (or two? I don’t know; time flies). George told me some intersting things; one is the words in Dutch and German are the same (spelling and pronounciation) but have different meanings. Also, he told me that he thinks more Americans should learn foreign languages so that they can be more accomodating to tourists who visit. He said that in the Netherlands they learn English and try to accommodate for English-speaking visitors. In America they do not. I agree with him that it would be good for more Americans to learn foreign languages but not for that reason. The chance that you can use a foreign language other than Spanish in the U.S. is very low. It just doesn’t make sense to learn Dutch and sit around waiting for some Dutch tourists to come so you can use skills. Also, so much of the world speaks English and tourists who come to the U.S. will probably come speaking English. It’s rare that you will be walking down the street and hear a little Dutch and be able to jump in. Also, I think that George has a huge economic benefit in learning English and that this is probably the main reason he learned it. Either way, nice guy. Keukenhof Tulip Gardens
The tulip gardens were really beautiful.
I don’t really know if it is worth it to pay the 13.50 or whatever it is to go in the gardens. Inside, it is just a bunch of different flowers. I was all about seeing the big rows of tulips (like you see above). These are outside of the gates so you don’t have to pay for this part. Inside is this kind of stuff:
Probably worth it for people who are really hardcore about flowers. Rotterdam
When I got back to Haarlem it was maybe 7:30 and after I turned my bike in I went to the ticket counter at the train station. Rotterdam was about an hour away from Haarlem and a little more from Amsterdam. Going to Rotterdam would cost at least 15 more Euros and I would only be able to spend a couple of hours there if I wanted to come back at a reasonable hour, which I determined was 1am since I had to wake up early the next morning. I walked around and debated it for a few minutes but finally just said, “What the hell!” You only live once, right?
Rotterdam wasn’t that exciting and I only ended up staying for maybe an hour and a half.
Rotterdam is a very nice, new and modern city but the downtown was kind of dead. Either way I am glad that I went because it was totally different than Amsterdam. Actually, out of all of the places I have visited I think it felt the most like a U.S. city. I don’t know why but it just felt that way.
Two interesting things did happen:
-I met a Hungarian working at McDonald’s who, when I told him that I lived in the Astoria area of Budapest, said, “oh man, that isn’t such a great area.” He also said that he hasn’t been back in so long that he “doesn’t know his country anymore.” Wow, things must really change around here because I have to say Astoria is definitely considered a pretty decent area here. Nothing fancy but pretty fun and safe. It’s interesting because it kind of reminded me that we are living in an area of the world that is still rapidly changing. It couldn’t have been that long ago that he was here since he didn’t look very much older than maybe 25 or 30 and he grew up in Hungary.
-I met some Greek girls by the statues in the above picture. They were studying abroad in Rotterdam and asked where I was from. I told them to guess. I gave it to them after four guesses because they were getting close with Great Britain. I still can’t believe the guesses they made:
1) The Netherlands 2) Germany 3) Sweden 4) The UK
For a guy who always sticks out as American this was pretty funny :)
Back to the Hostel
Tired and ready to get a goodnight sleep. As I am about to get ready for bed, one of the three Spanish guys staying in the room asked me what kind of music I like. I told I really like just about everything except really dramatic, middle-schoolish R&B. He then randomly asked me, “do you listen to the Killers?” This was the end of my chances of getting to bed early. These three Spanish guys were obsessed with the Killers and we spent almost an hour and a half talking about exclusively about the Killers (we talked about Green Day for a couple of minutes). They went to a Killers concert in Spain and showed me some video of it. Too bad they are playing in the U.S. right now and will be in Europe when I am back in the U.S.
We woke up today at about 9:30 so I ended up getting around 9 and half hours of sleep! Wow do I feel great!
There was a Mexican guy staying in our room who was pretty cool and he told me about a place with some awesome tulip fields. He said that him and his girlfriend (she’s Italian but they both are currenlty living in Spain) went there and it was pretty nice. He told me basically how to get there and I think that maybe tomorrow, when all the others fly back, I will go there.
At breakfast I talked with a German guy and he seemed surprised when I said I think it is interesting how Europe is such an old place but Germany is kind of new as a country (have been fragmented until the late 1800s). He said that he thought that Americans don’t know anything about history (or anything for that matter). Sure there are some Americans who don’t know anything about history and such. Is that sad? Sure it is. It’s almost as sad as when someone from Europe thinks that the American tourists they meet and the actors they see on t.v. are what all 300 million of us are like. Seriously, there are so many great people in America. How come more of them don’t go and visit Europe?
We had to check out of Bob’s Hostel because we had a place booked for tonight. I didn’t want to leave. That bed was amazingly comfortable and more importantly, warm! Supposedly we were supposed to leave our mark in our room:
Shelter City Hostel
Next we made our way to Shelter City, which was one stop out of the city center on the subway. It looks like a pretty nice hostel. Here’s a view out of the window:
Another hot shower...finally...I am warm!
I need to find the name of this park
Next we went to a big park in Amsterdam that some people told us was cool. It was a pretty large park and so we just walked around for a while and relaxed.
Nemo Science Museum
We then walked through the Waterloo District (people told us this was supposed to be cool but actually it didn’t seem so special) to Nemo Science Museum.
It was pretty cool but it was mainly a kids museum. I wouldn’t pay 15 Euros or whatever to go there. More Pictures
We walked around for a few more hours taking pictures. Here are some of the best:
Last night was awful. Though the day was really warm, the night cooled off very quickly. Outside of the city where we were was even colder. We weren’t really prepared to camp, we just saw the weather was supposed to be warm and that we were going to sleep in a hut-like thing and figured we would be fine. Man, were we wrong. Here is what are beds were like:
No blankets...also there was no heater in the hut. The insulation wasn’t very good either because it was pretty much the same temperature as the outside...which probably got down to 40 or 50 degrees. I ended up sleeping (or at least trying to) with two t-shirts, a long-sleeved jean shirt, a polo and my fleece curled up in a ball. We didn’t bring coats because it was supposed to be warm! I know this is all our fault but man, it was pretty rough.
We all woke up still shivering and exhausted since we barely slept. We then all took warm showers which interestingly enough you had to buy special coins to use! Ya, I know what luck...otherwise I would have stayed in there for hours.
Finding another hostel
We got up early not just because we couldn’t really sleep but also because we needed to find a hostel for the next night since every place we checked beforehand for Saturday night was either full or full for reservations (but had a little space left for walk-ins). We were planning on asking the if the Bostel had open spaces but changed our minds based on how the previous night went! Once we were downtown again, we went straight to Bob’s Youth Hostel since we called them a few days before to put in a reservation there but they were full except for some places for walk-ins. We were able to get five spots. They were in three different rooms but didn’t matter to us all...we were just glad to find a warm bed! I then took another shower...a long, hot one! It was great because afterward I was so warm that I started wearing only two shirts and a fleece!
Marijuana Museum
Gabriel and I went to the Marijuana Museum (the others didn’t want to go). I don’t really know much about drugs so it was pretty interesting. They had a display about smuggling that was pretty cool. It showed some of the things that people have done to smuggle drugs (and probably still do). Here are some pictures of their methods!
There was also stuff about medical marijuana and drug policy (mainly comparing the Netherlands with the U.S.) which I found the most interesting.
I don’t know if these stats are legit but they are disturbing!
One thing that was really confusing was this:
I’m not really sure how you tax something that is illegal...
They also had marijuana growing in the back. After long and hard consideration I decided to not put the picture of me standing in front of the glass outside the room (you couldn’t go in but could take pictures). I thought about putting a disclaimer on the picture that said, “THIS PHOTO IS FROM THE MARIJUANA MUSEUM IN AMSTERDAM” but decided that not much good can come from a picture of me standing in front of a room full of weed being on the internet.
Walking around/Taking pictures
We all met up back at the hostel and then walked through the red light district. I don’t have pictures of what this is like (out of respect for the prostitutes they ask you to not take pictures) but it is quite a different experience. The girls work behind a door with a glass window facing the street wearing only a bra and panties. They are sometimes dancing and winking at guys who walk by. When a man is interested, he simply walks up to the door and the girl opens it. They talk for a little bit. The guy steps in. The girl closes the curtains and ya... Seeing this is just kind of crazy. Prostitution is so taboo in the U.S. so it was interesting to see it happening right in front of you! It was also interesting to be with four Brazilians because prostitution is much more accepted (and some cases encouraged) in Brazil though it is still illegal.
Next, Victor and Gabriel went to the Heineken Museum. I wasn’t really interested...part of the cost was for the two drinks you got with admission and I wasn’t feeling so great. Drinking was the last thing that I wanted to do. Also, I already saw the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
Samir, Maurício and I walked around and took pictures. We all really like taking pictures so this was fun for us. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city.
We went over to check out the Nemo Science Museum but it was closed. Luckily, we found out it was FREE tomorrow (instead of 15 Euros or so) so we will probably go then.
Red Light District tour
We were all pretty tired so we went back to the hostel to take a nap. I’m not sure what happened but somehow my alarm on my phone got turned off and I woke up at 8pm. That wouldn’t be a big deal except for the fact that I had a tour of the red light district booked for 8pm! I jumped out of bed and ran there. Luckily, I was able to find the tour group down the street and didn’t really miss anything.
The tour was really interesting. It was expensive (21 Euros) so no one else wanted to go on it. I went because I was interested in learning about how all of this worked. Here were some of the things that I learned:
No safety rules (concerning condoms, kissing, etc...). This is all up to the prostitute.
Prostitutes can rent one of the windows for around 150 Euros for an 8-12 hour shift
Along with this rental fee comes security services from the landlord. The prostitutes have a panic button that sets off an alarm on the street in front of the window.
The going rate is about 50 Euros for 15 minutes
Part of the tour was visiting a Red Light district visitor center run by a former prostitute who answered our questions and such.
After the tour we all met up back at the hostel. Gabriel, Victor and Maurício went out but Samir and I were tired so we both went to bed.
This morning at 10am we flew from Budapest to Eindhoven, Netherlands. I pretty much just fell asleep right after the plane took off and woke up in Eindhoven. I was pretty tired. Last night someone ended up convincing me to go to a bar instead of going to bed early. Oh well, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I went but I really need to start getting a little more consistent sleep. This is my six weekend in a row of traveling and almost every one of these weekends I have pulled at least one almost all-nighter with less than four hours of sleep.
When we got into Eindhoven we immediately got on the AirExpress bus to Amsterdam (about 40 Euros for round trip). This was around a two hour ride. I sleep a little more during this ride.
When we first got into Amsterdam (around 3 or so) we were all very hungry so we stopped at McDonald’s. Not my choice but it seems that people outside America aren’t as disgusted with American fast food as us Americans are. McDonald’s is pretty interesting in other countries though...
Ya, I also have no idea what a “bitterballen” is...google translate says they are “croquette balls” and the dictionary says that croquette is like mashed potatoes and minced meat and stuff....interesting!
After grabbing some food we headed to the hostel. It was called the Bostel Amsterdamse Bos Youth Hostel. It was about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam. It was hard to find a place that we could get a reservation for five only a couple of days beforehand. We stayed in a bungalow...more about this later!
We pretty much just dropped our stuff off at the hostel and then headed back downtown. We grabbed some food at this really cheap pasta place. It’s called Spagi in case you go to Amsterdam.
We spent most of the night just walking around looking into stuff to do the next day and checking out some shops and stuff in town. We headed back to the hostel pretty early to get a good night of sleep because we all were tired.
