On Tuesday, December 19 I head off on my first solo adventure and final trip of the term: 10 days traveling through Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Prague. I was surprised when I realized this would be my first completely solo adventure of the term. It just happened to work out that on every other trip there was someone else who wanted to join or I joined someone else. I was looking forward to getting some headspace, meeting new people, and exploring some wonderful cities. But before I could do that I had to sit through a day of travel. It started with an all nighter followed by a 4:30am taxi to the Oulu Airport to catch my 6:45am flight to Helsinki. Once there I caught a train to the city center with my luggage to meet a friend of a friend who was going to store my bags while I travelled. After dropping off my bags I went back to the airport and caught my 2:20pm flight to Vienna, Austria with a stopover in Riga, Latvia. I finally reached Vienna at 6pm local time and took a bus to Wien Westbanhof. Thankfully my hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the stop. After checking in I grabbed a quick dinner from a food stall across the street. I took it pretty easy that night by catching up on some messages and sleeping early - after the day of traveling I was already exhausted.
Part I: Vienna
The next day I woke up, got ready, and head out at about 9:30am to get to the other Wombat’s City Hostel from which a walking tour was starting at 10:30am. The two and a half hour tour covered most of the famous attractions including: Naschmarkt, the Secession and Opera House, Heroes Square, Plague Column, Parliament, Hofburg Imperial Palace, St. Michael’s Square, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
On the tour I made friends with another girl who was traveling alone and we ended up spending the day together. After the tour we walked back to some of the highlights such as St. Stephen’s Church and Imperial Palace, checked out some souvenir shops, and went to Christmas markets at City Hall and Maria Theresein-Platz. The Christmas markets were very cute and the spirit in the air was amazing. We also got coffee at the oldest coffeehouse in Vienna, Café Frauenhuber. Created in about 1720 and renamed multiple times since then, Café Frauenhuber has been the venue of concerts from artists including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. It was probably the nicest café I’ve been to yet and I would highly recommend it!
In the evening I went back to my own hostel, got dinner from another food stall (I was loving the food scene in Vienna compared to Oulu), and spent some time relaxing in my room and doing some work. I spent a couple hours at the hostel bar talking to some other travelers, and then, tired from the day of exploring, went to bed.
The weather the next day called for pretty much constant rain so I decided to get a day pass for the train/subway. My first stop was Schönbrunn Palace. Built and remodelled to its present form during empress Maria Theresa’s reign in the 1740s-50s, the 1441 room palace is a major historical monument and tourist attraction for the country. I spent some time walking around the Christmas market outside the palace and walked the expansive grounds. Next, I caught the train to Naschmarkt. The 1.5km long market is loved by tourists and locals alike. After walking through the market and sampling all kinds of snacks, I caught another train to Stephenplatz with the goal of going to Hoher Market for lunch. Yelp’s highest rated wurstelstand is in Hoher Market right by the Anker Clock. I got a traditional sausage with mustard and dark bread for lunch, and watched the clock strike 12. Since my hands and toes were frozen from the cold, I decided it would be a good time to grab a coffee, so I went to Cafe Diglas, another old Viennese cafe founded in 1923. My last stop for the day was Belvedere Palace and Museum and the Christmas market in front of the palace.
I then went back to my hostel, had dinner, grabbed my bag, and left for the bus station to catch my 7:30pm bus to Bratislava, Slovakia. Unfortunately, the bus was delayed by just over half an hour, but I was able to kill time by talking to the other travelers and locals. By the time I got off the bus in Bratislava, walked to my hostel, and checked in, I was pretty done for the day and ready to call it a night.
Part II: Bratislava
The next morning I checked out of my hostel and started my day in Bratislava with a walking tour. On the tour we saw St. Michael’s Gate, Old Town Hall, Slovak National Uprising, Blue Church, St Martin’s Cathedral, Hviezdoslavovo Square, Slovak National Theatre and the SNP Bridge. After the tour I went to Bratislava Castle with one of the girls on my tour and then got lunch at Slovak Pub where we had bryndzové halušky which is basically like potato gnocchi in a sheep cheese sauce. We then spent a couple hours walking around the (small) city and stopping into souvenir shops, and then checked out the Christmas markets in the main square outside our hostel.
Although I only spent about 8 hours exploring the city, I feel like I had just enough time there. I picked up my things from the hostel and walked back to the bus station to catch by 5:10pm bus to Budapest.
Part III: Budapest
I arrived at the bus station in Budapest at around 8:00pm and caught a bus (since the train line was not running) to Kalvin Ter, which was about a 7 minute walk from my hostel. After checking into my hostel and freshening up, I went back to Kalvin Ter where I met one of my friends from high school who is currently studying in Budapest. We went to a pho place for dinner, then checked out Gozsdu Udvar (a cute street full of restaurants and bars), and ended the night with drinks and some games of pool at a bar called Stifler.
I had about 5 days to spend in Budapest and when I mapped out all the things I wanted to do I realized I had more than enough time to do everything on my list. I decided to split the sightseeing across the days and spend extra time relaxing, reading, and sleeping in in the mornings.
The next day I went to see the Old Synagogue, Opera House, St. Stephen’s Church, Christmas markets at Vorosmarty Square and St. Stephen’s, and the Budapest Eye. I spent the evening relaxing in the hostel and watching a movie with some of the other people staying in the hostel.
The following day I started off with a walking tour which covered the Danube Promenade, Buda Castle, Matthias Church, Presidential Palace, and the Chain Bridge, and ended at Fisherman’s Bastion. After the tour I stuck around the area and took some pictures of Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion, before taking a longer route home to see the Shoes on the Danube Bank monument.
What I didn’t realize was that most things in the city were going to shut down from mid-day of the 24th up to the 27th since apparently in Budapest they celebrate Christmas and “The Day After Christmas”. So on Christmas I went to Vorosmarty Square again, explored the Jewish Quarter, walked up to the Citadella which offered an incredible view of the city, and wandered all the way to Fisherman’s Bastion to see that and the city at night. For dinner I tried the traditional Hungarian dish of lángos (basically deep fried dough topped with cream and cheese) from the Christmas market by St. Stephen’s, and finally went back to the hostel.
Since I want this blog to offer a realistic view of traveling, I should mention that at the hostel I was staying at, I woke up one morning with a bunch of bug bites. Since there was no pattern I thought it was just a spider or mosquito. But the next morning I woke up with a bunch more, this time forming a couple line patterns. This is a pretty clear indication of bed bugs. So I ended up spending Christmas night washing and drying all my clothes and blowdrying my backpack to make sure I killed anything on my stuff. That night I moved to a different hostel room and bed, but since I was pretty put off with the experience, the next day I switched to another hostel about a 10 minute walk away from my first one.
After laundry on Christmas night I went to St. Stephen’s Basilica to see the midnight mass with some friends I had made at the hostel. The next morning I switched hostels and then went to a nearby café where I read and did some work. I walked around the city a bit more before heading back to the hostel for a nap. My new hostel did nightly “family” dinners so I had dinner at the hostel and got to know the other people that were staying there. After dinner we had some drinks and played some games before heading off on a pub crawl to a couple nearby bars and clubs.
The next day, exhausted from the late night, I woke up late, got ready, and checked out of the hostel. I walked about an hour to see the Heroes Monument, and then went to Szechenyi Thermal Baths, which is apparently the largest medicinal bath in Europe. It was extremely relaxing, so much so that I spent about 3 hours enjoying the outdoor baths and weather. Afterwards I returned to the hostel, stopping at a few souvenir shops along the way, took a shower, and hung out in the lounge. After another hostel dinner I checked out Szimpla Kert, one of the most famous pubs in Budapest, with a friend from the hostel. That night I caught a tram to the bus station to catch my overnight bus to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Part IV: Prague
I arrived to the bus stop in Prague at about 6:15am and walked to my hostel. I was able to check in but my bed wasn’t ready yet so I ended up taking a nap in the common area until my bed was ready, then moved to my room to continue catching up on sleep. After finally waking up and getting ready I went out to explore the Christmas markets and got lunch at one of the food stalls in the market in the Old Square. After a couple hours of walking around the city I went back to the hostel to relax before getting dinner and calling it an early night.
Having already seen most of the major attractions of Prague on my previous trip, I didn’t feel as much pressure to sightsee this time around. The next day I spent some time seeing the other Christmas market and visited the Church of Our Lady before Týn. I then walked to Café Slavia, located close to the Charles Bridge. After getting a coffee and making some progress on the book I was reading, I took a walk across Charles Bridge and then walked back to the hostel. That evening I caught a train and bus to the airport, to catch my 7pm flight back to Helsinki.
Part V: Toronto
After arriving to Helsinki at about 11pm I spent the night sleeping in a lounge at the airport. The next morning I took the train back into the city to pick up my luggage, went back to the airport, and tried to fit my travel stuff into my luggage while making sure my bags were within weight limits. Somehow I managed to split the weight and get my bags through. I caught my 2pm flight back to Toronto, and after a short stopover in Reykjavík, I got on my last flight of the term. Honestly, after four months away and 10 busy days of traveling, it felt so great to be back home.
I spent one amazing week at home relaxing with my family, celebrating my 21st birthday along with my mom’s birthday as well, seeing my brother and sister-law, and eating my favourite foods. Unfortunately (or fortunately given the crazy cold Toronto weather) the following Sunday I left for San Francisco for my 5th coop term and my 2nd one working at Tile.
Overall, my final adventure was a lot of fun and I’m happy with the sights I was able to see and the people I was able to meet. If you’re sad about this being the last blog post, don’t be! I have one more left where I’ll be reflecting on my exchange experience. As always, thank you, danke (German for thank you), Ďakujem (Slovak for thank you), köszönöm (Hungarian for thank you), and Děkuji (Czech for thank you) for reading!
-Pallavi