2006-10-07 - 4:11 p.m.
And, we're in Austria! We got in yesterday in the late afternoon. After a brief interview with that most useful of inventions, the telephone, we managed to secure a really very nice hostel for a really very nice price.
We spent our last day in Hungary doing what we do best- walking around and trying to save money. It worked more or less, and we got to see a significant portion of the city. I'm a little impressed that we managed to miss both of Budapest's big attractions- mineral baths and caves- but we enjoyed ourselves. We found an English used bookstore, and picked up a couple more books. After buying the books, we looked at how much Hungarian money we had left, and realized that we could afford to both get some Christmas presents for Jesse's family and go out for supper. We also spent a bit on McFlurries from McDonalds, since, y'know, you can't get those at home.
The hostel continued to be awesome. There was an American girl staying there, and on her second or third day in Budapest she stepped funny off some stairs by the Synagogue, and fractured her ankle. The Hungarian doctors put her in a cast, and so she spent the last two day of our stay moping around the hostel. Luckily for her, it was a hostel well equipped in the entertainment division, as it had cable TV, DVDs, and free internet. Still, it would have got boring pretty quickly. She was convinced that the cast would be coming off on Monday, five days after the accident, and I hope for her sake that it works out. Nothing like going on a seven week vacation and spending most of it laid up in a Budapest hostel.
The hostel was also good to us in terms of books. We traded three books there, getting rid of ones that we had both read. That, along with the books that we bought means that I have several more to go before I have to start rereading. This is much better than when we were in France and Belgium, and couldn't find a book to trade there for love or money. Jesse, of course, rather than read the book that I've read(Moby Dick) so we can get rid of it, insists on reading the new acquisitions.
I mentioned in an earlier post about the awesome Hungarian restaurant near the hostel. We went back there twice, and I got (both times!) this awesome Hungarian goulash. Man, it was good. It was just chunks of veal in some delicious sauce, with some kind of potato pancake on the side. So, so, good.
It's only a three hour ride to Vienna from Budapest, so we took the one o'clock train. This meant that we could sleep in a little, and not have to rush to catch the train. The train was a German train, which meant that it was significantly nicer than the trains in the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary.
We spent last night walking around Vienna. It is a really nice city, and very good for walking. Our hostel is maybe a twenty minute walk out of downtown. One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be a glut of McDonalds in the city. There are at least six in the downtown area.
Today we went to this cool open air market. There was a big flea market area, basically a giant garage sale. I loved it. I spent at least an hour wandering around. Among the things I saw- WWII steel German helmets, a sword, roller skates that instead of wheels had tracks like a tank, and a communion chalice and plate for ten euro. I also found a WWI Austrian medal. I liked the medal, so I asked how much it was.
"Twenty Euro" the guy says.
I sadly shake my head. It's worth 20 euro, sure, but I can't afford it. I slowly put the medal down.
"well," he says, seeing me do this "what do you think it's worth?"
Another chance to bargain! Let's hope I do better than in Morocco. After a whispered consultation with Jesse, I offer ten.
We went back and forth a bit, but settled on 13 euro. Now, I know this isn't the best deal I could have got, but I was pretty darn happy. I successfully lowered the price on something I wanted to something I could afford. I was ready to go make an offer on the sword, but Jesse's cooler head prevailed, as he pointed out the difficulty we may have in getting it through customs, not to mention carrying it around for the next two and a half months!
The hostel is cool. We are in a room (actually two rooms) that have a combined ten beds. The nice thing is that there is one bathroom per room, so we are sharing only with these eight other people, instead of a whole floor full, as is often the case. There is a bar, with a piano you can use (oh why didn't I take piano when I was a kid? What's one free afternoon a week compared with being able to impress girls?) and internet access, although it's expensive. It's clean though, and fairly new. Can't ask for much more than that.
The next few days should be filled with a blur of walking, and Hapsburg history, which I am looking forward to very very much.
