I'M IN: Zagreb, Croatia
HAVING VISITED: Warsaw, Krakow & Budapest
NEXT UP: Da Beach
Well, I have been a busy tourist here in Eastern Europe meandering from great city to greater city. Warsee? Warsaw! I had a great time in Warsaw and not just because I went shopping and to the movies (although that helped). The hostel I stayed in was very fun and I met lots of cool, different people and stayed up waaay too late a number of nights, good fun.
In Krakow I surfed my first couch! This was fantastic in every way, mostly because my hosts, the Blaszkiewicz family, are incredibly generous with their time and help. They drew me maps and furnished lots of insider tips and were generally a dream come true. I felt every inch the honored guest and it was wonderful to get to know them. It is such a different experience to stay in a home versus a hostel - you really get a better sense of the culture and a more nuanced appreciation of everything, really. Krakow itself is a beautiful town and there are lots of things to see and do. I spent a lot of time hanging around town, as per normal. My main tourista activity was visiting the Wielczka Salt Mine, which has been in operation since the 13th century! Bonus: it is nice and cool underground.
When I got off the train from Krakow to Budapest, I just about lost my breath. "I know this place!" I thought. "How do I know this place?" A few seconds later it hit me - this was the train station that was my screen saver for years and years on my work computer. I stared at this view for hours on end talking on the phone or whatnot - it felt like walking into a movie to really be there. I had a few moments of wistful thoughts about who I was then and who I am now and stay gold Ponyboy before proceeding on to my hostel, a bizarre situation in and of itself. The hostel owner was a very kind older woman who was wearing a shirt with a cartoon elephant holding a sign that said "Darfor!" I thought this was a political statement about Africa, but maybe it was a Swedish joke? Either way... The hostel was this woman's home and she slept amongst us guests in whatever bed was free that night. She changed the beds around nightly, deftly moving furniture from room to room, as the guests came and went. My bed was in five different places over the course of my stay. Each time I came back to find it in a different spot this woman would be smiling at me saying, "Ja, I move." I smiled back.
Budapest definitely feels different from any city in recent memory. There is more evidence of urban blight and the accompanying misery parades (ranging from homeless people to crumbling buildings). I visited both a public bath (there are many in town due to a former Turkish occupation) and a park containing all the old communist statues (due to a more recent occupation). This Statue Park was great and I took a ton of pictures. The statues generally depict people pointing, people running, people holding a flag, people pointing and running while holding a flag and Lenin. Outside the park they had a movie theater showing all spy training films! I was able to catch both the home invasion with a warrant and secret home invasion segments before the bus back into town left - really interesting.
Zagreb also seems like a great place - beautiful and great public transport and oddly uncrowded. But I shall not linger as the sea beckons. It has been almost three months since I have been on the beach! Yes, time to go. Reports of the Adriatic to come.
