Central Europe trip, Post 9: Bratislava

On Friday, January 3rd, we left Budapest (Hungary) and drove to Vienna (Austria). On the way, we stopped for a few hours in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

Slovakia was our final "new country" for the trip, as the remaining two countries in our itinerary were ones we'd already been to. I'm mentioning this because, for the past few years, I've had the goal of reaching "30 by 30"... that is, by getting my country count equal to the years of my age by the time I turned 30 (and equalling or exceeding my age from then on).

Well, Bratislava was my 29th country, and I turned 30 four days later! So I didn't quite reach my goal on time... but I exceeded 30 two months later on our next vacation, which I'll be blogging about after I finally get this one done!

And FYI, Ben and I have very strict rules about what constitutes visiting a country: (1) it must be a sovereign state (for example, the UK is counted as one country only, not separately for England, Scotland, Wales, territories such as the Cayman Islands, etc), and (2) we must have been out of the airport. Ben's country count is the same as mine (although a couple of the countries differ), and Finley's was 9 by the end of this trip!

Here are some photos from our wanderings in Bratislava's Old Town...

Family selfie

We absolutely loved this door!

Hlavné námestie (Main Square)

Buskers

I'd been wanting a photo of this cute sign all trip!

All I can really remember about Bratislava is that it had some great architecture - we especially enjoyed noticing all the big old wooden doors - and that it was bitterly cold that day! But it was a pleasant stopover on our way to spending the next three days in Vienna.

To be continued...

Central Europe trip, Post 8: Budapest

After Zagreb, we spent three nights in Budapest, Hungary. We arrived on New Year's Eve (a Tuesday), and left on Friday, January 3rd.

Our B&B was a small, basic, and somewhat grungy one a fair distance from the city centre, on the Buda side, as it was just too expensive to stay in the heart of Budapest over New Year's. However, it afforded us a good view of the many NYE fireworks displays on the hills around the city; they went on for hours!

Unfortunately, this part of the trip was my turn to be feeling under the weather, so we didn't do most of the sightseeing I'd had in mind. But here's what we did get up to...

On two of the three nights, we walked to a restaurant at another B&B about 20 minutes from ours. Both times we had interesting and tasty Hungarian meals, and Finley spent a lot of time charming the manager!

On Thursday afternoon we rode the Children's Railway (Gyermekvasút) up in the Buda Hills. This is not a railway FOR children... but a railway RUN BY children! (With the exception of the train driver and - I think - some supervisors.) Children's railways were a popular "extracurricular educational institution" in the Soviet era, and there are still a number of them operating in eastern Europe today.

The railway is 11.2 km long, but we only rode part of it as otherwise we would miss the last train back. The view from the train wasn't particularly exciting, but it was an interesting experience, and Finley enjoyed holding hands with one of the teenage conductors (photo below)! One of the best parts was watching the young staff line up and salute the train as we departed from each station. We didn't manage to get a good photo of them all doing it, but one boy held the salute for long enough that we caught it in one of the shots below.

Budapest was originally two cities, Buda and Pest, with the Danube River dividing them. After our train ride, we parked near the Danube on the Pest side and walked along on foot beside the river. It was dark by this time and we had the vague idea of taking a boat tour, but the area was fairly deserted and we didn't find anything suitable. As we drove back to our B&B, first on the Pest side and then on the Buda side of the river, we enjoyed some breathtaking views of Budapest's most famous buildings.

City sights as seen from the Pest side...

Gellert Hill

Buda Castle

Buda Castle

Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion

Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion

Hungarian Parliament Building

And from the Buda side...

Hungarian Parliament Building

Hungarian Parliament Building

And that was all we really saw of Budapest... I hardly feel like I've been there at all! Oh well, we'll just have to go again... ;)

Central Europe trip, Post 7: Zagreb

From December 28th to 31st, we spent three nights in Zagreb, Croatia's capital city. This is the point at which my detailed trip notes, typed on my phone as we drove, come to an abrupt end because my phone became the primary navigation device due to Ben's phone having issues. Thus, as I'm blogging this 3.5 months and another holiday later, these Europe entries might be a little less wordy from now on! ;)

In Zagreb we stayed in the most excellently-located hotel of our trip: Hotel Dubrovnik on Ban Jelačić Square, the city's central square. From the window of our room on the fifth floor, we looked down at a pedestrian street filled with a bustling Christmas market, while trams and people dodged each other in the square around the corner. During our stay in Zagreb we didn't need to use our car at all, but could simply step out of our hotel and explore on foot. It was fantastic!

Unfortunately, however, Zagreb saw us encounter some issues with colds and tummy bugs that affected one or more of us for most of the rest of the trip. As a result, our explorations of Zagreb were not what they could have been, but here are some photos from what we did see...

Evening stroll on the first night...

Zagreb Cathedral (tallest building in Croatia!)

Crowds watching an open air nativity play

Statue in front of the cathedral

Ban Jelačić Square

A living statue busker in the square

Daytime sights in Ban Jelačić Square...

Festive tram conductors...

...and driver!

Flower sellers

Miscellaneous Zagrebian sights...

Fritule from the Christmas markets outside our hotel

Some rather large sandwiches being prepared at the market!

Pizza delivery motorbike

Zagreb Cathedral entrance up close

Another door in the same wall of the cathedral

Eroded stonework from the cathedral,
replaced in a 1990 post-Communist-era renovation

Cathedral statue

A highlight of our stay in Zagreb was our wander through the colourful Dolac farmers' market on December 30th... which happened to be our 7th wedding anniversary, and the day Finley turned 11 months old! :)

We also wandered through a nearby indoor market...

And the flower market near the main square...

...And later on I got an anniversary rose (Ben got some anniversary chocolate). :)

And that was Zagreb... vibrant, colourful, busy and festive!

On New Year's Eve we set off for our next destination: Budapest, Hungary. To be continued...