Yesterday was cold and wet. We wandered around for over five hours with all of our bags, which are getting heavier (I already chucked a pair of shorts and I have a feeling other things are going to be chucked to make room for souvenirs). We spent two hours in an Italian restaurant where we had pizza and some soup and a hot chocolate - it was our Thanksgiving meal and it was nothing compared to mom's traditional turkey spread! We were trying to keep and stay dry and warm. We sat undercover outside, did a little shopping and generally widdled away the time.
The shuttle arrived on time and the ride was shared with a family of five. It was all pretty uneventful. Had I not known we were in Czech/Austria it would have looked just like home. It took about three hours to get to our hostel.
The hostel room is small (but not Amsterdam boat smal!) but still a little cramped. The sheets are questionable and there are holes... We're not thoroughly impressed.
We found some dinner at a doner place (surprised?) as it was cheap and easy for after 8pm. The kitchen had been WAY too busy to attempt to make our own food like we had planned. How does a huge hostel only have one sink and one stove top for all these people to share? It's kind of ridiculous.
We have a t.v. in our room but I'd rather have better sheets. I even put the pillowcase I brought ontop of the pillowcase they provided. We watched CNN in English which was nice for a change although rather depressing as CNN tends to be.
I got up and showered in a tiny stall and then walked to the grocery store to get breakfast and a few things (yogurt, nutella, granola bars, water, apples). Jeff and I walked to the centre of the old town and saw the catherdral, a gorgeous old Baroque church, a memorial to the 65 000 Austrian Jews that were killed by the Nazis (very sad), and about half a dozen McDonalds' and H&Ms (okay, at least three of each and on the same street!). It was six hours of walking.
We're finding that a lot of places are starting to blur together and are starting to all look the same, which is draining and not so much fun. We're beginning to get tired of the hustle and bustle, the getting lost, oriented and then having to do it over and over again. So, we are changing our plans and are going to take a 'break' from our traveling (if you can believe it). We booked three nights at this spectacular sounding resort in Innsbruck, Austria, in the alps. It's expensive but we still got a deal (42% off the regular price). It has a pool and saunas and relaxing areas. I think Jeff is really in need of a break after being sick and we're both getting tired. We're going to skip Budapest and after Innsbruck head to Venice, Cinque Terre and then Rome (maybe for a week with some day trips). It'll be, hopefully, less chaotic that way and each place will be quite different than the others, which should inspire some excitement.
We'll see how it goes. We're already looking forward to this place in Innsbruck and we just booked it this evening.
We made dinner before the mad rush of other hostelers and we were lucky enough to get the extra of someone else's meal shared with us - homemade bolognese pasta sauce with meat (which was probably a lot better than our Uncle Ben's 'out-of-a-jar' stuff).
Jeff just came back from the store with some apple juice and now we're going to head back to our room - which is outside of this building about eight seconds away (but a pain nonetheless because we don't have internet in our room and it's only in this building... Urgh).
Time to do a little research for tomorrow's adventure.
Hope you're having a super day,
Amanda
No comments:
Post a Comment