The road up to Budapest from Banja Luka was mostly through farmland, along toll roads, with a quick 150km of Croatia in the middle. Both border crossings took some time but we had no issues. We quickly learned that German is the 2nd language around these parts, and I wish I would have continued my studies beyond just the 2 years in high school (which was 22 years ago). Julia and I are back in the lands of our forefathers, and although we may have the last names and look the part, we can't talk it.
In Budapest, we stayed in a hotel up in the hilly Buda side of town. Just 3 blocks from the #8E bus, it was an easy 20 min ride to the city center. This will be our strategy for the big cities; find lodging with free parking near public transit. That first night (Sunday), we rode downtown and walked the touristy pedestrian streets. We found a small restaurant with a small set menu and enjoyed our wine, goulash, meat & cheese plate, paprika chicken with spätzle, stewed beef, and apple strudel. While strolling, we stumbled upon a large number of teenage girls sitting and standing on the sidewalk around the Ritz-Carlton. Intrigued, we joined the crowd and Julia asked 2 ladies standing on the curb "What are we waiting for?". A little creeped out, one lady replied "Bus #16." Julia retreated and chose some younger girls to ask next. They informed us that Shawn Mendes (young male pop singer) had posted on Instagram that he was staying at the Ritz, and they didn't think he was coming out but had nothing better to do. We decided to keep walking. We meandered along the waterfront for views of the illuminated Royal Palace, before crossing a bridge and hiking part way up Gellert Hill for views of the city.
Monday was our only full day in the city so we did our best to hit the top spots. Unfortunately, this also happened to be the day we both felt the effects of drinking the Buda water. Stops were short, we didn't linger. First was the crowded and touristy central market, where we ate lángos (basically an Elephant ear with numerous toppings, traditional being cheese and garlic sour cream), then we walked across the Chain Bridge to Castle Hill. The big museum in the palace was closed, so we instead made our way to Matthias Church for a few pictures, before making our way back down and across the Chain Bridge to gawk in and around St Stephen's Basilica.
By now it was mid-afternoon and after numerous bathroom stops, we were ready to cure all that ailed us in one of the famous thermal baths. We rode the rickety old subway to Széchenyi, where a long entry line worried us a little. Luckily we were informed of another entrance just around the corner, and in short time we were healing ourselves in 38 °C medicinal water. The complex is huge, one of the largest in Europe, so we tried to explore all of the pools and rooms. The sauna followed by cold water bath was a favorite, as well as the lazy river. Although there were a lot of people giving it a spring break vibe, we didn't feel like it hindered our ability to relax.
We left the bath feeling much better and ready for sleep, but we had one more thing to do that day in the city, eat more local food. Julia found a food truck online that reportedly served some good goulash and we went searching. After almost giving up, we stumbled upon a Portland style food cart pod where the goulash truck was parked along with a truck serving lángos pork burgers. It was a good meal. Just a few doors down from the pod was one of the many "ruins bars", where a rundown building is divided into multiple drinking establishments and uniquely decorated. We did not have the energy that night to stay longer, but something to add to the list for next time.
Our last stop in Hungary was the town of Eger. Known for their local red wine called "Bull's Blood", this was a must visit. We wasted little time getting after it, making our first stop the "Valley of the Beautiful Women" (a series of wine cellars dug into the hillside, set in somewhat of a horseshoe formation, that now offer wine tasting instead of storage). The servings were generous and cheap at the 2 establishments we sampled from and the quality overall was fairly good. A pleasant afternoon despite the parking ticket being put on our car just as we returned to it. We failed to see the payment machine at the other end of the lot and assumed it was free since we were on the outskirts of town. It was only about $8, but a bit of a hassle finding the office to pay it the next day.
That night in Eger, we tried a smaller, more local thermal bath before wandering the quite downtown streets until we found some pizza. Amazingly, none of the 4 youngish employees spoke English, so we pointed at random pizza names. We ended up with one spicy pepperoni and one with Canadian bacon topped with canned mushrooms and canned corn. The later was as bad as you would expect.
We left town the next day, but spent the morning touring the castle and the central square. It poured down rain in the early afternoon as we drove north into Slovakia. We may have skipped exit formalities leaving Hungary but the signs weren't very clear, so we just kept driving. It was a scenic day on the road, as we skirted multiple national parks, winding up mountain passes and down tight corridors. It was green all around. Our home for the next 3 nights was Spišská Belá in Northern Slovakia, a small town close to a mountain range known as the High Tatras. The hotel owners were a cute older couple who spoke very little English, so sentences normally contained hand gestures, Slovak, and German, which we tried to decipher. Eventually they put their son on speaker phone to translate and make sure everything was okay.
The place was very new and clean and advertised an in-house restaurant, but they needed a day heads up if you actually wanted to eat there. We walked around the town center looking for food. The church was overflowing on this Wednesday night and it was interesting watching them all file out and fill the streets when the service ended. There was only one restaurant open that we could find, and luckily they had a menu with English and served good cheap traditional food. It was a nice reminder how much we enjoy the food of our ancestors.
Below left, Dinner: pork schnitzel, potato pancakes, dumplings filled with sheep cheese.
Below right, Lunch: sausage, fried potatoes, pork, spätzle, sauerkraut
Thursday, we slept in and got some planning done. We then drove out to see the UNESCO town of Levoča where we strolled and had another fine Slovakian meal (see photo above right), before driving a little further to check out Spiš Castle, one of the largest in Europe. It is an impressive site. That night, we ate at the only other open place serving dinner near us, a kebab shop that was actually quite generous and tasty. We tried to go to bed early but 2 local men were talking loudly on the street outside our open window. After about an hour or so, the noise got louder and I got up to close the window before realizing things had turned into a fight. I saw a lady restrain and drag a damaged man across the street while he shouted at someone underneath us. They sat down in the grass and the shouting continued for quite some time. Neighbors came out in robes and eventually one of the parties was escorted away down an alley. The fracas may have continued but we could no longer see, all we really cared about was that it was now quiet.
Our main purpose for coming to this area was to hike its mountains, so Friday we got a fairly early start and picked up some supplies from the grocery. We drove about 45 min to the town of Štrbské Pleso, where we could easily get up into the mountains without having to ride a gondola. After much research, I settled on a loop hike up through the Mlynicka Valley, across the Bystra Pass, and back down the Furkotska Valley. It is a very popular hike that passes numerous small lakes and a delightful waterfall. We learned some things about European hikers that day. Many groups had no propblem with stopping and sitting right in the middle of the trail, but they did seem to have a problem with being passed. As I would walk through a resting group, they would immediate stand up and start hiking right behind me, cutting Julia off in the process. It was odd and a little annoying. Other than dealing with the somewhat crowded trail on the way up, the queue to use a chain rope to navigate the steep summit of the pass, and a little rain, it felt amazing to be up in the mountains again. The total distance covered was around 18km which took us about 9hrs, mostly due to the slow rocky descent. Please enjoy the plethora of pictures below. (Interesting side note: out here they measure trails by time instead of distance, based on an average hiking pace, and that is on the signs.)
We had hoped for one last hearty Slovakian dinner before we said goodbye, but our only option ended up being the kebab joint again, which we were not too upset about. They seriously load you up and smother everything in sauces.
On Saturday we made the scenic drive north out of Slovakia, through quaint resort towns, and were soon entering unstopped into Poland. The quaintness lasted for a short while before unmoving traffic brought us back from our bliss. Construction of a new highway appeared to be the cause, and after 2+ hrs of working a manual transmission for brief spurts, we found our bliss again in the form of 30 assorted Polish dumplings at a much needed stop in a small town.
It made us happy and excited for what Poland had to offer, and the road after became smooth sailing into Kraków, where we will reside for the next 3 nights. This is as far north as we will go, from here we head west before making our way back south. We will type more words soon. Láska prechádza žalúdkom.
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