Category: European Honeymoon

I transcribed a few more journal entries tonight. I’m still working on our honeymoon. I went through the entries from Rome, Italy. As mentioned earlier you can read them at this link:

https://waywardrambling.com/2014/09/

After Rome we also visited Prague in the Czech Republic as well as Munich in Germany. I will get to those other two cities another time.

I’m having a blast transcribing these entries though. I fondly recall some events from our trip as I type out the details on each page. Journaling is a nice way to stretch a little more enjoyment out of a vacation. You can go back and revisit it years down the road.

Just wanted to drop a note. I am trying to make progress transcribing our entries from our pen and paper travel journal. A little at a time, I’ll get it done eventually. At the moment I am still working my way through our European honeymoon. Tonight I finished the last two days we spent in Budapest, Hungary. Budapest was our favorite city we visited on that trip. It is a lot of fun typing out these entries onto the weblog. Takes me back. At any rate, I wanted to mention it because I am entering timestamps from the original writings. They won’t show up on the top of the page when I post them. If you want to read these entries, you can find them here:

https://waywardrambling.com/2014/09/

I’ll try to give another update when I make more progress with the old entries.

We started today out by getting an earlier start so that we could go to Kutna Hora to see the Bone Chapel. We took the metro to the train station and purchased a two way ticket for an express train to get there. Once there, we purchased a ticket for the Bone Chapel. We paid for a ticket for three attractions: the Cathedral of Assumption of our Lady and Saint John the Baptist, the Sedlec Ossuary (Bone Chapel) and the Cathedral of St Barbara. The Bone Chapel was very different from anything else we’d seen in Europe. It was a Chapel that was decorated with bones. There were piles of bones neatly arranged in a few places. There were also other decorations such as a bone chandelier. After that, we ate lunch at a place in the city center, and stopped at a bar to have a couple beers. We had to rush to catch the local train to catch our train home, we hoped to catch the 6 pm puppet show. When we got there, we found out that there weren’t any shows on Wednesdays. We stopped at our hostel, the Pension Tara, for a bit. There was a top rated beer bar that I wanted to go to, and Linda found a nice restaurant half way down the tram route there. At dinner, I ordered trout, Linda had potato pancakes with smoked meat. The trout was a whole fish, head, bones and all. I also ordered a Budweiser to drink, which was different, because here they had an option for a dark bud, which I had. It wasn’t too bad. We continued on our tram route to the bar. We ordered a couple beers, I talked to a local couple for a bit. The bar was Zig Casy, the restaurant was Pod Slavinem. We hung out at the bar for a few hours trying small (.3L) beers so that we could have more variety, then we took the tram home. I’m looking forward to taking the train to Germany tomorrow, because I want to tour/see the BMW Headquarters, and more importantly, I want to go to Oktoberfest. Prost!

Today we walked past the market outside our hostel where Andy stopped to buy a peach. We then walked over to the square with the astronomical clock and bought another Kurtosh cake. It was different than the one in Budapest, but still good. We watched the wooden saints appear in the trap doors. Then we headed over to the Old Jewish Cemetery which we didn’t end up going in. It housed bodies from the ghetto until the late 1700s. We then walked across the river for lunch at Baracnicka Rychta which served authentic Czech food. Andy and I split the beef goulash and pork tenderloin. Before that, Andy also stopped at Cafe Ebel to buy coffee and it was really good. Andy thought it may have been better than the Italian coffee. After lunch, we made our way up to the Prague Castle and saw St. Vitus’ Cathedral, which had interesting gothic architecture. We also saw the Old Royal Palace, Basillica of St George, and the Golden Lane. We also walked through the gardens. On our way back across the river, we stopped at a church with the Infant of Prague where people pray to baby Jesus. We stopped at the tourist booth by the bridge to find out more information about the puppet shows. We wanted to catch the slapstick opera from the Forman’s Mystery Boat Theater, but we couldn’t find it. So we stopped to look at the Dancing House and then the Beer Museum. I thought Andy was thoroughly enjoying learning about the history of beer. By the time we finished up at the Beer Museum, it was time for dinner. We ate at Pivnice in Pivrnce, for some pub grub. We had sirloin with Bohemian dumplings and roasted duck with Bohemian and potato dumplings.

We left Rome, Italy today and moved on to the Czech Republic in prague. We ate at a different place for breakfast, the cafeteria, and we ate a much larger meal. In addition to a pastry and cappuccino they also gave us an omelette with ham and cheese. The omelette was just eggs folded in half with a piece of ham and cheese running the length of the omelette. It was good that way. We left in a hurry to catch our train to the airport. We flew out of FCO, Rome Fiumicino, whereas we flew into Rome at Ciampino. FCO was easier to get to because we went directly from Termini to the airport by a non-metro train. The lines, we suspect, may have been worse. If we did this again, I suspect we may try going with a carry-on bag, or perhaps only checking one bag between the two of us. Our bags weighed about 8 KG and 10 KG. I believe the limit may have been 14 KG. When we were trying to buy our train tickets in Rome, a scammer offered to help us. When we arrived in Prague, a guy by the bus offered to sell us a taxi for 500 Koruna, which is a rip off. 20 Koruna is 1 USD. Once we got to our hostel, we checked in and ate at the restaurant next door, Pizzeria Corto. We got a 20% discount there. There is a vibrant marketplace outside our apartment/hostel. We went to look at the astronomical clock tower. Linda convinced me to walk to the top, but I stayed inside the glass. I don’t think I’m getting any better with the whole heights thing. After that, we walked across the Charles Bridge. I was concerned going there because it’s supposed to be bad for pickpockets. We saw a guy on the Metro in Rome get pick-pocketed and I’ve been concerned a bit more since. After that, we went to a micro brewery restaurant to have a few beers, U Tri Ruzi. We went home to call it an early night.

No breakfast today. Our host of B&B Chain Gallienus never got back to us about breakfast. We got up late and rushed to get ready so that we could still make it to the Pantheon before it closed. We tested the guide’s facts about the room being perfectly sized to view the entire room with one’s peripheral vision. We also looked at the oculus, which was also sized perfectly to support the dome structure. It has no steel supports, like they would have if they built it today. We also saw the tombs of the first two kings of Italy as well as the original burial place of the artist Rafael. After the Pantheon, we stopped at the pizza place our tour guide recommended called Montecarlo. Linda had the Montecarlo pizza (okay) and Andy had the anchovies pizza (good). We had to return to our hostel to switch rooms, which we still didn’t understand why. The accommodation is nicer, a private apartment. But it smells because it’s below surface level. We took the metro to the Spanish Steps. We both saw a guy on the metro get pick pocketed. We were torn as to what we should do, but the pickpockets were right next to us and we didn’t want to have a confrontation since we could’ve ended up as a target ourselves. When we got to the steps, we found out that the fountain there also was in the process of being restored. We sat there for an hour or so and bought semi-cold beers from the illegal street vendors. We ended up going back to the ice cream place to order/try more flavors. On our way back, Linda saw another guy get pick-pocketed. In fact, one of the pock-pockets may have been sizing her up since a local asked her for change when he obviously knew how the system worked. We tried to eat at the place our hostel recommended, Trattoria Vecchia Roma, but it was closed so we tried the Trattoria at the corner near our hostel. They overcharged us one euro and charged us two euro for table service. We wanted to eat at the pasta place David recommended but we didn’t want to travel far. It was called La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali. We also bought a couple bottles of wine and a corkscrew to enjoy at night in our hostel. We also stopped at Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore. It was probably one of the nicer churches we’ve seen so far.

Today started a little later than we would have hoped. The previous night wound up being a bit of a late one. We started with breakfast at Cafeteria Merulana. We had pastries and cappuccino for breakfast. After that, we took transit to the Vatican. On our way there we passed many street vendors as well as beggars that maimed themselves. We had the foresight to buy advanced tickets online for an extra four euro each. The line wasn’t as bad as the last time Linda was there. We walked around and looked at a lot of painted ceilings, statues and paintings. We tried to avoid tour groups because they got in the way. We stopped for cappuccino in the courtyard while we were there. It seems that the Catholic church is profiting off of a lot of Roman artwork there, which is a bit odd. After the Vatican, we went to get gelato at Della Palma. They had 150 flavors. I tried four and Linda had three, so we tried seven today. After that, we went to Caffe Sant Eustachio for coffee. Linda had tiramisu. I bought a kilo of whole beans to bring home, split between two bags for my mom and I. We walked over to the Trevi fountain, but it was being refurbished, so it was dry. They had a small pool there to throw coins instead. It took me two tries, but I made one in. I said I would go to little Italy in Chicago instead because tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain is supposed to ensure a return trip to Rome, but I tossed a coin into a small pool instead. We made it to Fish Market for dinner, but we were too late to be seated (10:45 pm?) So we had to order through the window. We had two glasses of white wine and squid and octopus, then I went back to order fish and chips (fish and chips was a lot of food). While we were across the river, we went to Vin Allegro, a wine bar. Linda and I shared a bottle of red wine while we played a game of chess. We walked all the way home. We spent less time walking on cobblestone compared to yesterday, so it wasn’t as bad. We also saw Circo Massimo, where the chariot races used to happen. Andy went inside of Saint Peter’s Basilica, but unfortunately Linda’s shorts were mid-thigh, so they wouldn’t let her in. She had the foresight to bring a long-sleeve but didn’t think about the legs.

We got up at 3:50 am this morning to catch our flight from Budapest to Rome. Didn’t have any problems this time at the airport. However, when we arrived, we decided to take the bus which confused us a bit. The bus was full when we left the airport, but somehow we managed to keep picking up more passengers along the way. We also missed our stop. We planned to get off at the train station in Ciampino, but we missed the stop. We noticed it as we drove away from it so we ended up getting off at the subsequent stop. The bus driver told us we could just catch the metro to Rome. But we didn’t really understand what he meant at the time. We probably spent about a half hour there trying to figure it out, with little help from the train people since they didn’t speak much English. Andy actually figured it out. When we got off at Termini, we walked to the hostel but no one was there. We ended up asking the neighboring hostel (Savannah House) and they actually helped us out by calling the hostel. It’s actually just a group of independently owned guest houses. It’s decent, though we should expect some amount of independence since our host doesn’t speak a lot of English either. The first thing we ended up doing was walking down tot he Coliseum. After talking to a tour guide, we took their restaurant recommendation and decided to go back later for a tour. We had fried vegetable pizza and lasagna with meat at Pizzeria Lizzi. It was quite entertaining. The waitstaff accidentally sat two couples at a table awkwardly and spent the entire time confused and talking about it. Andy’s pizza came out first and it looked like vegetables just meant watercress. Then they brought out a pizza and lasagna to the table next to us even though we were seated and ordered before them. We eventually got my lasagna though. They also brought food to the wrong table and I ended up switching their food. Anyways, we went on a tour of the Coliseum afterwards. The tour guide could have been better. He kept talking about the same things repeatedly and was not very energetic. The next guide for the Roman Forum was David Battaglino. +39 345 3370484, email david-tours@live.com. He was great. He gave us some interesting history and tips. He talked about how it functions as their marketplace. Some of the tips he gave us included how water was free and safe from the fountains, bathrooms must be made available to public by law, where to go to eat, ect. He mentioned another tour he was giving later in the evening and we decided to do that as well. We grabbed a beer from the store and walked around drinking it in public. That’s allowed anywhere until 10 pm apparently. He took us to Colonna Traiana, past Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele 11, past Ara Coeli and Campidoglio, past the Teatro Marcello (looks like the miniature version of the Coliseum, to a church with a walk through the underground, past the Synagogue, by the elephant obelisk (with the trunk giving the middle finger and the trunk moving as to motion he would be pooping), by the Pantheon, and ending at the Piazza di Navona (one side curved because it was built on ruins and supporting the hill while one side was flat). We then walked over to Ciambella for pasta. We had a lamb with potatoes and risotto with buffalo milk (first course meal). It was small portions but it seemed okay. The food itself was good. We headed home after that. Oh, we also stopped at the cat sanctuary. That was fun.

We started today by going to the post office to mail my mom a postcard. We bought a cocoa Kurtosh cake outside our hostel on the way there. After that, we went to the heroes square via the subway. It drizzled a bit early in the day, and everyone seemed to be carrying an umbrella. A lady tried selling us umbrellas, but we turned her down. There were also umbrellas hanging in our hostel, but we weren’t sure we should use them, so we didn’t. In hindsight, we probably should have gotten an umbrella, because we just got poured on on our way home tonight. After heroes square, we came back to our hostel, and went to Castro Bistro for goulash and also had an eggplant pita. The eggplant was actually hummus, which surprised us. Also, I finally figured out the custom for paying the bill. I asked for the bill, gave my server the cash I was paying him, and told him how much change I wanted. The bill was 2880 and I wanted to pay 3200 with tip, I paid with a 10,000. I asked for 6800, and the server ecstatically said thank you. We weren’t sure if that was because the tip was over 10%, or because he was surprised we finally figured out the tipping custom. Then, we went to the bath house. We paid for two admissions and one private cabin . We started with the large pools outside. I saw the locals playing chess, and tried to ask a few for a game, but I was turned down. There was a whirlpool, I think they called it the lazy river. It was a lot of fun being spun around by the jets in that pool, it went very fast. We went inside, and tried out just about every pool, as well as a few saunas. The medicinal pools felt different, we weren’t quite sure why. We went back outside, and I went into the large pool where they played chess while Linda walked around taking picture. I found a chess board without an opponent, so I hung around it for a while. A lady was in front, drinking beer and talking to a guy, both older. I motioned to the chess board to the guy, and he motioned to her, she agreed to play me. It was hard to focus on the game and think multiple moves ahead. I was up pieces for a while because she traded a rook for a knight. At one point, she said I moved twice after talking to a guy in the crowd that came to watch. I think he was wrong about that, and she put my knight where I didn’t move it, and said it was my turn. I wanted to avoid confrontation, so I played it out. At any rate, I got spanked in chess by a drunk old Hungarian woman. We went home for a shower, and planned on going out to a restaurant highly rated on yelp. We couldn’t get a table, but our backup plan was Sir Lancelot, a medieval themed restaurant. We had soup and duck with potatoes and cabbage. While we ate, there were people performing things like juggling, lifting things, balancing a wine glass on a dagger, and belly dancing. We left in hopes of stopping at the hammock ruin pub, or the labyrinth ruin pub, but they were closed. The whole walk/ride home it was pouring. We stopped to buy a bottle of wine on our way.

We started our day by visiting the same square we were at the night before to take photos of Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion. We took the metro there and of course, the stop we spent probably an hour looking for was right on the square as we had suspected. We took the bus over and across the Chain Bridge and got off at the first stop since we weren’t sure which stop we needed. We walked up a ton of stairs to get to Buda Castle. When we finally got to the top, we realized that the Budapest Wine Festival was starting today and throughout the week (5 days total). We had originally planned to visit the bath houses but decided it would be worth it to come back later for the festival instead. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant next to Buda Castle and split a prosciutto sandwich and a greek salad. I’m not sure why we ordered a greek salad. Neither of us are big fans of black olives. The food was decent nonetheless. We walked over to Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church to look around. The architecture and views of the city are amazing here. We decided to go in to Matthias Church, which I happened to like the best so far from the churches we have visited. Afterwards, we walked over to the Labyrinth to check it out, but we were both exhausted from walking so we opted not to walk through it, though at least we had a chance to see a little bit of it at the entrance. We then walked back towards Fisherman’s Bastion to see the view from the bottom (even better of course). By the way, we realized the bus would have taken us all the way to the top of the hill so we never really needed to climb those stairs. We found the Metro to take us to the other side of the river (underground beneath the river) to go see the Parliament Building. It was impressive. We also saw the guards performing some ritual (a similar ritual also happened near Buda Castle). We then walked over to see the bronze shoes on the Danube River, which is really sad for what it represents. We took the tram back to the square to catch the metro back to our hostel. Andy wanted to ride all forms of public transit. We stopped at our hostel to reload. Eventually, we found ourselves back where we started our day, at Buda Castle for the wine tasting. The cost was a flat admission rate, and then you pay each vendor money for a taste. I think there were over 200 Hungarian wines there. We were overwhelmed, so we decided to try the award-winning wines listed in the information booklet. We even had a vendor toast us (or so I think) when we tried the wine known as the Taste of Hungary. Since we were already there, we decided to have dinner as well. There were food vendors everywhere but we found a food court similar to the setup as the food vendors at the square the night before. It must be a thing. Again, delicious food. We had goose leg with vegetables, and potatoes with a funny side of meat. I wonder if we should start eating goose back home. We sure have enough of them. The Wine Festival was a wonderful find we happened to stumble upon. I forget to mention, after trying one bad bottle of still water and one carbonated water, we finally found the right brand (NaturAgua with pink cap). Andy’s reaction to the best tasting water ever (in Hungary) was funny. We had also stopped at a food stand right outside our hostel for a cinnamon pastry type cake. Smelled and tasted great!