Smoky Croatia, Beautiful Budapest, Lovely Vienna

I (Klas) am back - we have free internet access at the hotel so it will not cost us a fortune to have me type. First, I did not eat all of Plate Lipa on my own (see last posting). Second, Plate Lipa cost only €20.90.

We have spent the past 10 days in Croatia, Hungary and Vienna with quite a bit of the time being spent on the road.

On our way from Ljubljana to Split (Croatia), we stopped in Zagreb (capital of Croatia) for a few hours before continuing to Split. The train ride from Zagreb to Split (6 hours) was not a pleasant one. We were not able to get seats in the non-smoking cart. However, Melissa found some people in the non-smoking area to to switch with us, but that ended up just being slighty better since the air from the smoking section was transferred to us through the air vents. We learned later that their buses are non-smoking, so that would have been the way to travel.

Though visiting Split during the summer probably would have been better, we still had a good time walking around the city and taking day trips to Trogir and Krka National Park. Both of us prefer smoke free environments, but can usually handle it if it is not available. In Split we did not even go to a resturant or internet cafe because they just reaked of smoke - there has to be something different with the tobacco they use because we haven't experienced anything like it before. This was a shame since we missed out on the local cuisine and culture a bit.

Next, we caught a flight to Vienna on our way to Budapest. First we visited Buda and then we visited Pest. I am not kidding, one area is called Buda and the other one Pest, ie Budapest. We really liked the city a lot. It has so many beautiful buildings and statues. Our favourite sites were the Heroes' Square, Castle Hill and Andrassy Street. Budapest actually reminded us of Paris quite a bit which I guess makes sense since some people refer to it as the Paris of the east.

Currently, we are in Vienna or Wien as they call it here. The weather has been all over the place while we've been here - snow, rain and sunshine. We have also done quite a few different things here such as attend a string quartet concert and part of an opera, visit the Hofburg Palace and the Schönbrunn Castle as well as walk around the city seeing beautiful buildings while learining some of the history of the Habsburgs who ruled the Austrian empire for over 600 years.
Finally, we spent a few hours in Bratislava, Slovakia. We saw both some beautiful buildings in the Old Town as well as some ugly concrete apartment areas reminiscent of the previous era. A few hours here was enough.

Next we are off to Prague.



Zagreb, Croatia


Trogir, Croatia


Krka National Park, Croatia



Laundry day - lots of socks



Split, Croatia


Split


An old palace in Budapest, Hungary


Buda at night - Chain Bridge and Castle Hill


Heroes´Square, Budapest


Snowing in Vienna, Austria



Concert at Mozarthaus, Vienna


Opera House in Vienna...standing tickets only €3.50 each


Schloss Schönbrunn (former summer residence of the Hapsburgs), Vienna


Hofburg Palace (former home of the Hapsburgs), Vienna


Palace in Bratislava, Slovakia



Concrete jungle from the previous era in Bratislava