The next day we got up sort of medium-ish early, I had enough time to grab some cornflakes, and then we set out to explore. We started out by crossing the nearby bridge (god fucking damn the water is dirty in that place), then we ascended a big hill to reach a castle thingy at the top. On the way there was some church/cave place, which was pretty interesting. It was sometime around here that the idea of the “purple dress conspiracy” occurred to me. You see, I had been noticing many girls wearing purple lately, and 90% of them extremely attractive. So me and Nico formulated this conspiracy theory that there was this secret union of attractive girls wearing purple, who secretly met every month at the stroke of midnight
Anyways, moving on: we kept on moving upwards, pausing every 5 minutes or so because it was so warm. At last we reached the top, where both of us raced towards the monument standing there. My flip flops ended up falling off, but I still managed to beat Nico by a fraction of a second. After that, we visited a really cool looking palace, regrettably I cant remember what its called :s on the way back we grabbed a pizza, and then had a second chill evening watching movies and chatting with people.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Day 8 – Vienna/Budapest
Day 8 – Vienna/Budapest
The next morning, we waved goodbye mournfully to the local strip clubs and sex toy shops, and set off to Budapest. At the Vienna station I bought a Dilbert book about office life, which described corporate America in all its hypocracy and hilarity. The book kept me entertained until we reached Budapest.
When we arrived at Budapest, we were immediately shocked by the currency. Rather funny actually, 1 euro is 200 florents, meaning that 1 Hungarian florent is worth less than Russian Rubles, which I thought was the smallest European currency. Since our hostel was not too far away from the station, we decided to walk. Along the way we got our first impression of Budapest as a city. It looked quite nice, although due to the 30+ heat and high humidity we were not in the mood to appreciate beauty. Some 20 minutes later we reached the approximate location of our Hostel, and spent ages trying to find it from there. Ended up finding it: a dark, huge heavy wooden door. The air inside was refreshingly cool, and the hostel had a great homie feel to it. For only 14 euro’s per night, the “Goat Hostel” (yeah, you didn’t misread, GOAT) provided us with breakfast, free DvDRips of loads of movies (just don’t ask where they came from ) and very comfy beds. On that first day, after a cool shower, we walked around trying to find somewhere to eat, and I’m ashamed to admit that we ended up at the local Burger King. At least it beats Mcdonalds every time .
That evening we decided to stay in, and watched “In Bruges”, which was the most FUCKED up, but funny movie I have ever seen. The drug addict midget.. fucking bruges ... anyways just watch the movie . Talked to a lot of people that evening, some girls from Holland, some American girls.. Discussed American politics and Obama’s validity as president. Was great fun
The next morning, we waved goodbye mournfully to the local strip clubs and sex toy shops, and set off to Budapest. At the Vienna station I bought a Dilbert book about office life, which described corporate America in all its hypocracy and hilarity. The book kept me entertained until we reached Budapest.
When we arrived at Budapest, we were immediately shocked by the currency. Rather funny actually, 1 euro is 200 florents, meaning that 1 Hungarian florent is worth less than Russian Rubles, which I thought was the smallest European currency. Since our hostel was not too far away from the station, we decided to walk. Along the way we got our first impression of Budapest as a city. It looked quite nice, although due to the 30+ heat and high humidity we were not in the mood to appreciate beauty. Some 20 minutes later we reached the approximate location of our Hostel, and spent ages trying to find it from there. Ended up finding it: a dark, huge heavy wooden door. The air inside was refreshingly cool, and the hostel had a great homie feel to it. For only 14 euro’s per night, the “Goat Hostel” (yeah, you didn’t misread, GOAT) provided us with breakfast, free DvDRips of loads of movies (just don’t ask where they came from ) and very comfy beds. On that first day, after a cool shower, we walked around trying to find somewhere to eat, and I’m ashamed to admit that we ended up at the local Burger King. At least it beats Mcdonalds every time .
That evening we decided to stay in, and watched “In Bruges”, which was the most FUCKED up, but funny movie I have ever seen. The drug addict midget.. fucking bruges ... anyways just watch the movie . Talked to a lot of people that evening, some girls from Holland, some American girls.. Discussed American politics and Obama’s validity as president. Was great fun
Day 7 - Vienna
The next morning, we set off to the “old” part of town. Although quite interesting, the experience proved to be a not particularly exciting one, especially since the whole exciting region of Vienna could be visited within the space of two hours, and to me was a wannabe Prague.
Felt SO depressed that day, for obvious reasons.
During our trip around the city, we were approached by two guys who both looked, and smelled medieval. They were both students promoting a classical concert. After some 5 minutes of talk they had us convinced, so in the evening we went to this concert, which was located in a huge park on the outskirts of Vienna.
The concert was great, a combination of classical music, opera, and balet, a sort of all-in-one. The refined classical music audiophile might recoil in disgust, but to us it was great :).
Felt SO depressed that day, for obvious reasons.
During our trip around the city, we were approached by two guys who both looked, and smelled medieval. They were both students promoting a classical concert. After some 5 minutes of talk they had us convinced, so in the evening we went to this concert, which was located in a huge park on the outskirts of Vienna.
The concert was great, a combination of classical music, opera, and balet, a sort of all-in-one. The refined classical music audiophile might recoil in disgust, but to us it was great :).
Day 6 – Prague/Vienna
In the morning, after some friendly farewells, we went to the station and took the train to Vienna.
The emo onslaught started as soon as we arrived in Vienna, since it seemed simply so crap compared to prague, and I was constantly dying inside at the thought of the opportunity I had missed, and wished fervently and repeatedly that we had stayed in Prague for another day.
The hostel we checked into was kind of crap;
We were in the same room as 4 danes, which was somewhat amusing, however not too interesting.
The first day in Vienna we were rather thoroughly exhausted, so upon arriving at our hostel we promptly went to bed early. The location of our hostel was rather funny; in the “crap” part of town, surrounded by sex clubs and other shady places.
The emo onslaught started as soon as we arrived in Vienna, since it seemed simply so crap compared to prague, and I was constantly dying inside at the thought of the opportunity I had missed, and wished fervently and repeatedly that we had stayed in Prague for another day.
The hostel we checked into was kind of crap;
We were in the same room as 4 danes, which was somewhat amusing, however not too interesting.
The first day in Vienna we were rather thoroughly exhausted, so upon arriving at our hostel we promptly went to bed early. The location of our hostel was rather funny; in the “crap” part of town, surrounded by sex clubs and other shady places.
Day 5 - Prague
When we woke up, at around 2p.m., 2 new girls had already arrived.
They sat on the high up double bed of the room, and spoke to each other silently. Not seeing them properly without my contact lenses on, I asked Nicolas in Danish: “Karakter?”, referring to the 1-10 scale which we both used to quantify the attractiveness of girls. HE replied, also in Danish, saying that they wer both very attractive, and giving them an 8, which is obviously a high mark. Hilarity ensued: because although both girls lived in Thailand, one of them, Wenja, spoke fluent Danish. You could imagine the extent of our embaressment when I, upon tentatively engaging them in a conversation, discovered this fact. Although no word was exchanged upon this topic, we had not been too discrete when discussing their grades in terms of volume, so they probably heard. After some light conversation, I discovered that both our groups were planning to visit a medieval castle on the other side of the river.
Without giving it much thought, I suggested that we all go together. Upon further reflection, my suggestion must have seemed rather awkward, however, the girls agreed, so we all ended up setting out together. Our excursion was lengthy, and although initially somewhat awkward, we ended up having a great time together with Valaya and Wenja (for the sake of simplicity later dubbed by me as the “Volswagen Girls” =) )
We separated at around 6:00pm, when me and Nico stayed to listen to a classical concert, while the VW girls went back to the Hostel to get dressed up for the Pub Crawl (we were too tired to do another one in a row)
When we got back to our side of the river, we walked down a large tourists street, where we found a great traditional Czech restaurant.
Nicolas ate a 300g pig knee, which, although according to Nico was good, looked rather intimidating.
After an extraordinarily filling dinner, we went to the old port of the city, to find “Molly Malones” and pick up our Pub Crawl T-shirts (t-shirts were part of the offer )
However, since we proudly pledged not to ask for directions a single time during our trip, we spent around 2 hours in search of the pub.
When we finally arrived, the Pub Crawl crew had left, and only two Irish guys and the Barman were left. Although we had only planned to have one drink and then leave, the diverse and slightly crazy speeches declared with an Irish accent, the good Czech beer, and “Jager-bomb”, “The strokes” playing in the background; all this created an atmosphere so compelling, that we ended up staying for much longer than initially planned.
When we finally got back to our hostel, it was almost 2am. Nico went to bed more or less immediately, while I decided to finish one of the books I had been reading on the train.
It was quite a surprise when I heard the sound of a not-so-sober attempt at unlocking the front door. After some 30 seconds of failure, I sort of ran out of patience and opened up the door myself; and lo, behold, there were the VW girls, shit faced out of their mind, one of them proudly presenting me with a bag of semi-digested organic matter, which I politely declined. Nico was awakened by the ensuing noise of the girls recounting their adventures, and we both helped them clean up and get to bed in one piece. Funnily enough, Valaya ended up sitting on my lap for the whole duration of the procedure, and when Nico left us, to put the only semi-conscious Wenja to bed, and sleep himself, there was definitely some sexual tension in the air. However, nothing happened. I would like to think that it was my gentenmanly code of honor that prevented me from taking advantage of the situation, since Valaya was, although not excessively, still quite drunk.
But I don’t think it was that. The root of the problem was probably my hesitation in the face of the necessity of showing initiative.
Anyway, after some 15 minutes or so of sitting alone with Valaya, she went to bed.
I read the rest of my book (LOL!), and went to bed shortly afterwards.
They sat on the high up double bed of the room, and spoke to each other silently. Not seeing them properly without my contact lenses on, I asked Nicolas in Danish: “Karakter?”, referring to the 1-10 scale which we both used to quantify the attractiveness of girls. HE replied, also in Danish, saying that they wer both very attractive, and giving them an 8, which is obviously a high mark. Hilarity ensued: because although both girls lived in Thailand, one of them, Wenja, spoke fluent Danish. You could imagine the extent of our embaressment when I, upon tentatively engaging them in a conversation, discovered this fact. Although no word was exchanged upon this topic, we had not been too discrete when discussing their grades in terms of volume, so they probably heard. After some light conversation, I discovered that both our groups were planning to visit a medieval castle on the other side of the river.
Without giving it much thought, I suggested that we all go together. Upon further reflection, my suggestion must have seemed rather awkward, however, the girls agreed, so we all ended up setting out together. Our excursion was lengthy, and although initially somewhat awkward, we ended up having a great time together with Valaya and Wenja (for the sake of simplicity later dubbed by me as the “Volswagen Girls” =) )
We separated at around 6:00pm, when me and Nico stayed to listen to a classical concert, while the VW girls went back to the Hostel to get dressed up for the Pub Crawl (we were too tired to do another one in a row)
When we got back to our side of the river, we walked down a large tourists street, where we found a great traditional Czech restaurant.
Nicolas ate a 300g pig knee, which, although according to Nico was good, looked rather intimidating.
After an extraordinarily filling dinner, we went to the old port of the city, to find “Molly Malones” and pick up our Pub Crawl T-shirts (t-shirts were part of the offer )
However, since we proudly pledged not to ask for directions a single time during our trip, we spent around 2 hours in search of the pub.
When we finally arrived, the Pub Crawl crew had left, and only two Irish guys and the Barman were left. Although we had only planned to have one drink and then leave, the diverse and slightly crazy speeches declared with an Irish accent, the good Czech beer, and “Jager-bomb”, “The strokes” playing in the background; all this created an atmosphere so compelling, that we ended up staying for much longer than initially planned.
When we finally got back to our hostel, it was almost 2am. Nico went to bed more or less immediately, while I decided to finish one of the books I had been reading on the train.
It was quite a surprise when I heard the sound of a not-so-sober attempt at unlocking the front door. After some 30 seconds of failure, I sort of ran out of patience and opened up the door myself; and lo, behold, there were the VW girls, shit faced out of their mind, one of them proudly presenting me with a bag of semi-digested organic matter, which I politely declined. Nico was awakened by the ensuing noise of the girls recounting their adventures, and we both helped them clean up and get to bed in one piece. Funnily enough, Valaya ended up sitting on my lap for the whole duration of the procedure, and when Nico left us, to put the only semi-conscious Wenja to bed, and sleep himself, there was definitely some sexual tension in the air. However, nothing happened. I would like to think that it was my gentenmanly code of honor that prevented me from taking advantage of the situation, since Valaya was, although not excessively, still quite drunk.
But I don’t think it was that. The root of the problem was probably my hesitation in the face of the necessity of showing initiative.
Anyway, after some 15 minutes or so of sitting alone with Valaya, she went to bed.
I read the rest of my book (LOL!), and went to bed shortly afterwards.
Day 4 - Prague
The next day, we took the train, in order to reach the “Free tour guide”, a free 3-hour walking guide. We had to walk a small segment of the way, which was really cool: narrow streets, old buildings, the clear blue sky.
We “tanked up” at the Starbucks before going to the starting area. I had a dark berry mocca: it sucked.
When we finally arrived at the beginning of the tour, we were subdivided into several groups.
Our tour guide was a woman in her 20’s from Essex (!) named Stef, who, despite being so hyperactive that we feared for her well-being, was great fun, and interesting to listen to. She showed us around the old part of prague, the new, and the jewish quarter. One of the more memorable elements of the tour to me was the statue of a headless giant with a child upon his shoulders, which had been inspired by the surrealistic dreams of Kafka. After the tour, we were informed about the local Pub Crawl.
When we got back to our hostel, we were rather tired, so we showered, and chilled to the immortal genius of MGMT (Electric feel)
When it was time to depart, we headed towards the train station together with our two American “roommates”, who were attending the event as well. Our first destination was an irish pub called “Molley Malone”. For one whole hour, we were served free beer, absinthe, and fanta+vodka shots.
Me, nico, and a group of Americans from Connecticut (goddamn they laughed when I pronounced it with all the C’s), together with some Frenchies who kept saying “Ching Ching!” sat together in the upstairs “VIP” area, and talked.
The rest of the Pub Crawl was a bit of a haze in my head. What I remember is buying 10 Vodka shots together with another dude, speaking with a Costa Rican girl named Paola, whom I really liked, and grinding and making out with some random girl, the funny thing being that I could not at all remember what she looked like (thats probably a good thing :S), or even how I ended up dancing with her. We left the pub crawl rather late, and got back to the hostel at only 6 a.m.
Me and Nico agreed to book for another day, since we were simply too exhausted to check out at 11a.m.
We “tanked up” at the Starbucks before going to the starting area. I had a dark berry mocca: it sucked.
When we finally arrived at the beginning of the tour, we were subdivided into several groups.
Our tour guide was a woman in her 20’s from Essex (!) named Stef, who, despite being so hyperactive that we feared for her well-being, was great fun, and interesting to listen to. She showed us around the old part of prague, the new, and the jewish quarter. One of the more memorable elements of the tour to me was the statue of a headless giant with a child upon his shoulders, which had been inspired by the surrealistic dreams of Kafka. After the tour, we were informed about the local Pub Crawl.
When we got back to our hostel, we were rather tired, so we showered, and chilled to the immortal genius of MGMT (Electric feel)
When it was time to depart, we headed towards the train station together with our two American “roommates”, who were attending the event as well. Our first destination was an irish pub called “Molley Malone”. For one whole hour, we were served free beer, absinthe, and fanta+vodka shots.
Me, nico, and a group of Americans from Connecticut (goddamn they laughed when I pronounced it with all the C’s), together with some Frenchies who kept saying “Ching Ching!” sat together in the upstairs “VIP” area, and talked.
The rest of the Pub Crawl was a bit of a haze in my head. What I remember is buying 10 Vodka shots together with another dude, speaking with a Costa Rican girl named Paola, whom I really liked, and grinding and making out with some random girl, the funny thing being that I could not at all remember what she looked like (thats probably a good thing :S), or even how I ended up dancing with her. We left the pub crawl rather late, and got back to the hostel at only 6 a.m.
Me and Nico agreed to book for another day, since we were simply too exhausted to check out at 11a.m.
Day 3 - Prague
Spent the whole train ride reading the book I bought at the station, so arrived in Prague at 1:30am. We sat at the station for around 10-15 mins, just chilling and trying to make our minds up about what to do.
Meanwhile, an intimidatingly fat woman walked around the station, and locked EVERYTHING! Even the toilet. So, us two, and around 10 other travellers ended up being stranded at the station. Perfect setting for a horror film. When the station was reopened, we went to the closest gas station, and bought some sandwhiches. Then we returned to the station, exhausted, and at 5am took the train which would get us within vicinity of our hostel.
The hostel was closed, so we went to the closest bar, and ordered some Czech beer. Mmm, beer at 6 in the morning. When the hotel was opened, we were told that we would have to wait till midday before checking in. So me and Nico dropped our bags, and set out to explore the rather dubious part of Prague our hostel was in. We found a Mall, and spent our remaining time procrastinating: drank some coffee, played a bit of computer games. When we got back to our hostel, we still had some time left, so we visited a traditional Czech restaurant. Seems like people here live in an early regime: the metro was filled with people at 5am, and everyone was eating lunch by 11:30am.
After eating, we went back to the hotel, and slept.
Woke up to meet our roommates, 2 american girls. Neither of the two were particularly attractive, and one was sinfully fat. After properly waking up, we went bowling, where I sucked except for when I got 3 strikes in a row, and Nicolas properly kicked my ass.
After Bowling, we watched “Ice age 3”, which was a typical example of good ‘ol holly wood entertainment.
I had quite a few laughs; the girl behind us was smoking hot, which proved to be an added bonus.
Meanwhile, an intimidatingly fat woman walked around the station, and locked EVERYTHING! Even the toilet. So, us two, and around 10 other travellers ended up being stranded at the station. Perfect setting for a horror film. When the station was reopened, we went to the closest gas station, and bought some sandwhiches. Then we returned to the station, exhausted, and at 5am took the train which would get us within vicinity of our hostel.
The hostel was closed, so we went to the closest bar, and ordered some Czech beer. Mmm, beer at 6 in the morning. When the hotel was opened, we were told that we would have to wait till midday before checking in. So me and Nico dropped our bags, and set out to explore the rather dubious part of Prague our hostel was in. We found a Mall, and spent our remaining time procrastinating: drank some coffee, played a bit of computer games. When we got back to our hostel, we still had some time left, so we visited a traditional Czech restaurant. Seems like people here live in an early regime: the metro was filled with people at 5am, and everyone was eating lunch by 11:30am.
After eating, we went back to the hotel, and slept.
Woke up to meet our roommates, 2 american girls. Neither of the two were particularly attractive, and one was sinfully fat. After properly waking up, we went bowling, where I sucked except for when I got 3 strikes in a row, and Nicolas properly kicked my ass.
After Bowling, we watched “Ice age 3”, which was a typical example of good ‘ol holly wood entertainment.
I had quite a few laughs; the girl behind us was smoking hot, which proved to be an added bonus.
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