The HUF

We opted for a 13 hour overnight train from Venice to Budapest. It was the quickest, the cheapest, and we wouldn’t have to pay for a hostel that night. The train itself looked to be from the 1970’s, but it was comfy and we each got our own 2^nd class double seat on which to sprawl out. Yeeeah, I said seat. We were too cheap to get the 1^st class sleeper beds. All in all it was a good trip. Much better then I thought it would be. We even got in on time, after a short delay where we all thought the train broke down because it was making some crazy noises. The only qualm I had with the trip is that because we passed through Slovenia & Croatia, we were woken up four times by “Passport Control” to check & stamp passports (yes, they stamped us four times), and numerous other times by police to check our tickets. As Kristen said, “It feels like we‘re heading to Commie-town man“…

Alas, we made it.

We are finally done with the Euro, for now. And, thank gawd for that because it destroyed my bank account. According to books, specifically Rick Steves, we are now on the HUF, or forint. Therefore, prices are listed in HUF or ft. Assuming they meant the same thing, and not knowing what a HUF was, when we asked how much something was, we’d ask, “How many “huffs”?” Sometimes we’d get an answer, but mostly we’d get strange looks. The kicker was when we were paying for our hostel, and Kristen asked how many “huffs” it was. The girl was so confused, so Kristen repeated herself. The girl had no idea what she was saying; “Hoof? Hoff?” Kristen tried saying, “forint”, and the girl understood. Kris thought maybe her pronunciation was off, and didn’t think twice about using “HUF”.

I’m not going to lie, we would giggle every time we’d say the word because a.) it sounds funny, and b.) we had no clue what it stood for. Apparently one night at dinner I jokingly said to Kristen, “I wonder what “huff” is short for, maybe huffington?” Again, we laughed reeeeal hard because obviously I just made that word up. Even spell check is trying to get me to fix it right now. Anyway, by day three we were still calling it that, and later found ourselves on a free walking tour of the city. About 2/3rds of the way through, our tour guide was telling a story and says something about something costing x-amount of “Hungarian Forints.” It clicked. I looked at Kristen and said, “Oh my god… HUF. Hungarian. Forint.” We stared at each other like we were nuts then laughed harder right then and there than we have this entire trip. I’m pretty sure the entire tour group thought we were insane. All I kept thinking after that was what I would think of a foreigner calling the USD (US Dollar) an: oo’-said.

Budapest was fantastic. We liked it enough that we ended up spending an extra two days there. We saw most of the main sights while on our walking tour. We spent one evening at the Opera - for $2.50. Even though it was sung in German, had Hungarian subtitles, and we had to look on Wikipedia when we got home to see what it was actually about; it was pretty to listen to. The next day was spent at the Szechenyi Baths - basically pools that are naturally heated from thermal springs. It was pretty amazing. It was so cold out, but the water was so warm, and there were waterfalls & jets, and, it was just fantastic…minus the large, burly, extremely hairy, Hungarian men wearing speedos.

Of course we had fantastic Hungarian food. There was a huge Market super close to our place that sold lots of authentic goodies. We had some amazing goulash, stuffed cabbage, some sort of cauliflower lasagna, this fried doughy thing that I don’t know the name of. I don’t even remember what else, but it was all tasty. Hungarians are big into hot wine. They just heat up red wine and add some spices - usually cinnamon & cloves - and serve it. Perfect for cold weather. Their beer wasn’t too bad. It just made for a crappy hangover. I’m more excited for the Czech beers in a few days.

Our hostel & the people were what made this city though. Our hostel was small - only slept 25 - but it felt like home. The employees were fantastic. They karaoked with us, (at a cowboy and Indian “exclusive dress up” karaoke party ), cooked us breakfast, & gave us superb recommendations - for Budapest and cities beyond. The people staying there were pretty darn cool too. Without sounding too dorky, it was a little sad leaving them.

Capisce?

We took the train from Florence on the 14th - a quick three hour ride - and spent a day and a half in Venice. We sat by these cute little Italian kids on the train who were apparently just learning how to speak English, because they kept asking us questions like: What's your name?  How old are you? What's your favorite color? Do you have pets? etc.  It was pretty fun-slash-interesting trying to talk to them, being that we didn't know a lick of Itailan.  We had to refer to my Italian Phrasebook which wasn't all that helpful.  The little 4 year old kept saying things in Italian, then looking at me like I was nuts because I wasn't answering, and just couldn't comprehend the fact that I did not capisce.

We stayed in a cute hostel about five minutes from the train station right in the middle of the city.  We had our own room there which was a nice change.  There wasn't a whole lot to do in Venice, but we saw a few sights and ended up taking a gondola ride, which was actually kind of fun!

It Don't Get No Better Than This Right Here

Yup. "It don't get no better than this right here."  Those words came out of some hick-American's mouth while looking at some sub-par church in Siena.  While I was laughing so hard I almost pee'd my pants, all I kept thinking was gawd dangit, he's gottabe from Texas, and he is probably the reason why these Europeans think Americans are all cowboys. (Refer to previous post.)

In his defense, Florence was gorgeous.  Definitely better than Rome.  We spent three days there then took a bus up to Siena & the Chianti region for a day.

The most amazing meal of our trip so far was on our first night in Florence at Il Latini.  It was recommended by two of Kristen's friends, Rachel Ray & the Food Network.  Apparently they only have two seatings a night, and we just happened to get there at the right time.  We sat at a table of six - it was family style seating - they just kept bringing food out - in huge portions.  First was prosciutto. Then salami. Then a caprese salad. Then sun dried tomatoes. Then pate. Those were just the appetizers. Then we had bowls of ravioli and a wild boar pasta.  The main course was beef & lamb, with spinach & the most amazing potatoes I've ever had.  Dessert was panna cotta, some sort of cream puff thingy, and moscato.   They then brought little biscottis with brandy.  Oh, and this all came with unlimited wine. Yuuuuummmm.  I'd post pictures, but they don't do the meal justice.  All I can say is if you are ever in Florence, eat there.

That meal pretty much consumed our entire budget for Florence, so from then on it was grocery store meals for us... which brings us to our evening(s) at the Duomo.  

On our walk home from Il Latini, we turned a corner and bam, there was the Duomo.

That was a nice little surprise.  It was amazing.  We just sat there, stared at it, and took pictures of it. 

With our now limited budget, the next night in Florence was spent on a bench in front of the Duomo with a box of wine (1.60 euro) & a picnic of bread, salami & cheese, and our new plastic silverware & cups from the Euro Store (Dollar Store).  Not sure if it was legal or not, but we did it anyway and made friends.  Later that evening, they blocked off the plaza with fences and started laying sod.  Turns out there was going to be a Benediction there tomorrow and someone was about to become a saint.  (Or at least that's what we were told.)

We wanted to spend one of our days in the pretty-winery-esque-rolling-hills of Italy, so the last day we took a bus to Siena, a little over an hour away.  Even though the bus ride up was pretty, it turns out Siena is just a little town to walk around in.  A little disappointed, we boarded another bus to Castellina, a town in the Chianti wine region that was recommended by the bus station worker as the most popular town, with lots to do, and that was easy to navigate without a car.  It was supposed to be about 40 minutes away, but it took an hour.  No complaints here though because the view were absolutely stunnnnnning.

We ate. We drank. We took lots of pretty pictures, then decided to catch the bus back early because there really wasn't a whole lot to do.  Having difficulties finding the bus stop, we went to the tourist info booth only to find out that we just missed the bus. It leaves every three hours. Extremely confused, because we should have had 15 minutes to catch it, we come to find out that we were not even in Castellina. We were 20 minutes past it in a town called Radda.  Whooopsie.  Having time to kill, we did what we are becoming good at - eating & drinking on park benches. 

We eventually found the bus stop and made it home safely.  Now, off to Venice!

I Feel Like All This Shit Is Real Old

We made it to Rome.

We've been pretty spoiled in the lodging department up until this point, and now it's hostel time. Kristen summed it up in one word: downgrade. After staying in apartments, it was a bit of an adjustment moving to a seven-person, co-ed room with bunk beds and having to share a bathroom with the entire floor. That all being said, it was a super nice hostel called The Yellow. Great location, bar downstairs, served cheap breakfast, friendly/helpful staff. Our roommates turned out to be cool and gave us great advice and hostel recommendations for the next few cities we're planning to visit.

Rome was all about the walking and sightseeing. As Kristen put it, "I feel like all this shit is reeeeeal old." That's true. Among other things, we saw the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, The Vatican, St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, and the Spanish Steps. We ate lots of pasta, pizza, tiramisu & gelato, and of course loved us some wine.

By the last night in Rome we were exhausted. We have constantly been on the go since this trip began. Not wanting to do much of anything we decided to go see a movie. We found a theater not to far from us that showed movies in English and saw the Wall Street movie with Michael Douglas. I knew that Europe would wear us out, but it's hard to justify taking a day to do nothing when you are only spending three or so days in each city.  I do have to say that it was nice to take a break from looking at museums & cathedrals for an evening. 

Ryanair

A fantastic airline if you are looking to travel on the cheap.  We took it from London to Dublin to Barcelona to Rome. The first two flights were great.  No major problems, but we were also drunk for those so I'm not sure if that's why they seemed so fantastic. 

I wanted to kill them on this third flight.  We had to stand in 47 different lines to get our passports checked, to checked in, & to check our bags.  The actual plane is not comfortable. The seats don't recline and man they're flight attendants are nuts.  I realize it's their policy, but they were Nazis about the size of your carry on.  Now, we knew ahead of time that our bags were too big and that we'd have to check them, but we witnessed one get all crazy telling a passenger that she couldn't carry on her bag, even though it clearly fit in  to the carry-on-checker-cardboard-box-thingy that she was using to do the carry-on-size-check.  Oh, and they try to sell you stuff the entire flight.  I would hear an announcement and turn off my iPod thinking it was important, just to listen to yet another sales pitch.  Don't get me wrong I like cheap, so I'll take it again in a heartbeat. I just had to vent.

Ma Gutha Barthalona

High school Spanish classes did not properly prepare me for the Barcelona accent.  They sound like they have a lisp.  Let's be honest, I don't remember that much anyway, but now I don't feel so bad for forgetting about my Spanish lessons that I signed up for before I left.  I wouldn't have been able to understand it anyway.

Barcelona was beautiful.  We were so lucky to have been able to stay with my friend Allison's friends, Missy & Christian.  They had such a cute apartment in El Raval, not far from Las Ramblas. We were able to walk to pretty much everything, and walk we did.  We saw the Barcelona Cathedral, Segrada Familia (Gaudi’s masterpiece), many other churches, and the Picasso Museum. We grabbed food and ate at the beach on the Mediterranean Sea one day and took a lift up to Montjuic, which had stunning views of the city, another. We ate lots of paella and tapas - the Patatas Bravas from Bar Tomas were to die for.

"I Thought All Americans Were Cowboys..."

I'm not sure where these people are getting their opinions of Americans, but yes, people actually said this.
1.) We met our new friend David the first night. He was a Barcelonian who spoke little English, but enough to hold a conversation. He later says that it was fun meeting us, and that up until that night he thought all American’s were ditzy, loud girls from Texas. (He even pretended to fluff his hair and talk with a drawl.)

2.) The second night we met an English Rugby team at an Irish Pub. They were hilarious...drunks who liked to take their shirts off.  One of them said that hey thought all Americans were cowboys like John Wayne, and all of his friends agreed.

3). The next day, Kristen told me a story about her foreign friend's impression of Americans, which was that we were all cowboys on horses who like to throw money in the air.

I'm not sure why, but I thought this was all hilarious.

Guinness, Jameson & Car Bombs

November 4 -

Those are the only words that can sum up Dublin.

Kristen and I didn’t go to bed Sunday night, opting to go straight from the bars to the airport which seemed like a good idea at the time.  We barely made our bus to the airport that left at 5:50am, and thankfully we made our flight.  Now here is where it gets funny.  We never got the address of the place we were staying in Dublin, so we got off the plane, had no idea where to go, and didn’t have a phone number to get a hold of anyone.  Kristen somehow remembered the name of the apartment company, so we asked the airport info people if they could look up the number for us.  The guy who answered figured out where we were staying and gave us the address.  We then were told to take the bus, then walk a bit.  Well, the address he gave us didn’t exist.  We asked tons of passerbys, no one knew.  Finally a guy used his iPhone to map it, then led us on a ten minute walk around the city before realizing he was lookin at a map of Dublin, Australia. Waaaaaat the F?!  So that happened, then we got in a cab.  The cab didn’t know the address either but graciously used his cell to call the number.  Turns out the ass on the phone gave us the wrong address! So we spent an hour walking to nowhere.  Cabbie saved the day.  To make this funnier, our friend, who’s flight wasn’t until 10am, beat us there.  He was waiting at the hotel when we arrived.  All I could do was shrug my shoulders and laugh.

After that Ireland was great. We spent two days in Dublin & one in Galway.  We  toured the Guinness Brewery and saw Dublin Castle &  St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Stopped in quite a few Irish pubs and spent quality time drinking the (American) Irish way: Guinness, Jameson & Irish Car Bombs.  We saw lots of live Irish music and ate tasty food.  We even watched the Giants win the World Serieswith other SF fans  - in a bar that stayed open late just for us.
*Side note about Car Bombs:  Apparently it is okay to call them that in Ireland, just not on the north side of the country.  

"You Are Ruining the Pleasures of Other Guests"

Those were the exact words from our waitress on our first day, which pretty much sums up London. Take the first coffee shop for example: Kristen, our friend Josh and I were in a café having a chat. It was early - we had not been drinking - and apparently we were already too loud. We received lots of stares from the locals.

This same day (after a few cocktails) we end up at a bar near our apartment that was recommended by a couple we met on the street - who wound up coming in with us for a drink. We were having a grand time and apparently got a bit loud. Now, not only were we American loud, but Kristen and I picked up British accents as soon as we stepped off the plane. You can imagine how that turned out… Anyway, apparently our server came over and asked us to leave because, as the title of this blog states, we were “ruining the pleasures of the other guests.” Oooopsie.

Then there was the second night. It was the first of a few nights at O’Neill’s - our favorite late night bar. After closing, we ended up at Hung’s - a fantastic Chinese restaurant that is open super late, conveniently located next door to O’Neill’s. I’m sure there are different versions of the story, but this is mine: Right after getting seated I was playing with my chopsticks and one of them snapped and flew across the room and into a plate of some customer’s food. The guy jumped up and started yelling saying that we were ruining everyone’s meal. So I get up and go over and apologize to these Londoners, but apparently I do so in my British accent which didn’t go over so well. This was all before we even ordered our food -haha. Thankfully we were allowed to stay, even though I was grounded from talking. But that was fine because the food was real gooood, well what I ate of it anyway.

Although we did do quite a bit of partying in London, we did go see the sights as well.  We did lots o’ walking, lots o’ Tube riding, lots of eating, and among other things saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye, London Bridge, Tower of London, the houses where Oscar Wilde & Mark Twain lived, Harrods, Trafalgar Square, & Tate Modern. We ate a lot of Fish & Chips, tried a few (not good) English beers, and went to the 49ers/Broncos game on Halloween which was a blast.  We had so much fun and this was such a great way to start off our trip! 

October 27th - We made it!

We left Chicago Tuesday afternoon, had a stopover in Charlotte, took our transatlantic flight to London, and arrived Wednesday morning at 7. That was the longest flight I’ve taken to date - I'm not looking forward to some of our longer ones. It wasn’t too bad though. I was hoping to sleep the entire time so I’d arrive well rested, but ended up watching movies most of the time. They gave us dinner shortly after taking off and breakfast right before landing. We landed on time. From there took a bus into the city, figured out how to ride the Tube, and made our way to the apartment which was a gorgeous place in Chelsea.  This is where the stories begin....