Day 9: September 13, 2008. Take your shoes off.

We started off a lovely morning with complimentary breakfast, accompanied by Turkish tea and coffee. We were meeting a friend of Jocelyn's (Alicia's sister) at noon, so we had a little tome to kill and wandered around Sultanahmet, taking in the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and watching the other tourists pass us by.

As noon approached, we took a metro across Istanbul toward Taksim. We got off one stop early and went into this (comparatively) small mosque -our first! - and looked around. We were the only ones there beside the man who let us in, and, as is customary, we took off our shoes and covered our heads. The mosque, although not elaborate, was beautiful.

We moseyed on up toward Taksim Sq, bought some delicious juice, and waited for Kate and her roommate, Allia, while trying to remain inconspicuous. We weren't entirely successful, but we held our own.

The next part of our day, while not exactly what we had planned, gave us the opportunity to see a good part of the city on foot. Three and a half hours later, we were back exactly where we began. This time Karla was the frustrated one. But luckily, as soon as we found a bathroom and lunch, everyone was back on track and ready for more sightseeing.

We walked to Topkapi Palace, the home of several generations of Turkish sultans, begining around the 12th century. 36 different sulatns had made their residence there, and the palace itself was large enough to house 4000 servants! As expected, it was beautiful. We had to cover a lot of ground in two and a half hours!

The museum housed the sultans' wardrobes (Hagrid-sized!), the Ottoman jewels and treasures, medieval weapons, gardens, elaborate thrones, and of course, holy relics. Moses' rod was there from the 6th century BC , along with John the Baptist's arm and piece of his skull from the 1st century BC, the beard of the prophet Mohammed from the 600's AD, along with his sword, and the keys to the Kabba. We thought that perhaps other religions would be fighting for these treasures, but apparently they're all in one room in this palace with blue backlighting. Go figure.

After the palace, which also by the way, boasted exquisite views of the Bosphorus, we decided to go inside the Blue Mosque. Whereas the first mosque we entered was humble, this was quite elaborate. It seemed as though every inch of the walls and ceiling were artfully and intricately decorated. There were colorful stained glass windows, and had an enormous prayer space that was filled with worshippers.

We were ushered out before the call to prayer, and so we decided to grab some dinner from the outdoor fair in the park by the mosque, quickly followed by more baklava. We then showed Kate and Allia the little shop we had found before, which turns out to be housed in a 400 year-old former university. The history in this city is amazing!

We said goodbye to our new friends and tackled our next project: laundry in the hostel sink. It was another (necessary!) adventure. We're currently sottong in the bottom bunk in a cave of fresh smelling clothes. At least tomorrow, we'll start off smelling fresh!

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Day 8: Sept 12: title unkown

Today got off to a rough start. We left our hostel with plenty of time to spare before our flight...or so we thought.

Our wonderful hostel-owner told us that it took a half hour to get to the airport by train, and so we took his word for it. We arrived at the train station about 15 minutes before departure, so we just hopped on a train that left 5 min earlier than planned. Little did we know that this very 5 min would be the difference between catching our flight and staying another day in Budapest!

The train ride itself was very pleasant, until we arrived at the station for the airport...we arrived a bit ahead of schedule, the train barely paused there, and then the train door wouldn't open! We missed our stop.

A kind hungarian man explained to us that the car door was broken, so we should move to the next car and get off at the next stop (unfortunately 15 min away) and go back. We did as told, with the help of those natives who took pity on us in our (and by our I mean mostly my) frenzied state.

Once at the airport, we breathed a sigh of relief. Yet our troubles were far from over. It was 11:05 - we had a 12:30 flight - and we were standing in front of Terminal 1 with Terminal 2 nowhere to be found. Luckily (we thought), we found a bus headed to Terminal 2. A half hour later, we were dropped off at a bus depot somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

11:35. We looked around for some sign of Terminal 2 in utter disbelief. There! A bus - the same number that we had just taken - was clearly marked for both terminals. We asked the bus driver, who demanded tickets. We, of course, didn't have tickets, nor did we have cash (see Day 7)...and then a miracle happened. A nice Irish lad, also looking for Terminal 2, had extra bus tickets that he offered us. For the next 40 minutes, while we literally re-stopped everywhere we had just been, including where we got on, our new Irish friend made small talk with us and assured us that Hungarians wait til the very last minute to close flights, so we shouldn't worry.

When we finally arrived at the elusive terminal (by the way we still haven't figured out how the first bus didn't go there - it was the exact same route!!), we sprinted up to departures and made the flight by the skin of our teeth. Phew! All's well that ends well, I suppose. Despite a few grey hairs.

The rest of our transit was MUCH less interesting (mercifully!), and we checked into this cute hostel right in the center of Sultanahmet which is the older part of Istanbul.

We began to tackle the city by just walking around to get our bearings. We had three goals. Get money, find water, and then find dinner in a place that was neither too touristy nor too sketchy and cheap. After heading towards what seemed to be the shore (which we never got to) and dodging some heckling waiters, we found a nice restaurant full of turkish folk. We didn't realize how close to sunset it was. As we ordered, the people on either side of us were sitting in front of their soup waiting. At first we thought they might be waiting for us to eat, but then we heard a brief singing over the loud speaker and everyone dug in. We realized after that since it is Ramadan, everyone was just waiting for the sun to set. After ordering my(karla) usual dish of beef goulash, we started to feel more comfortable. At least we weren't one of those tourists across the street at the "Istanbul Restaurant and cafe.". The meal was great and we felt ready to explore a little more. Did I mention that we'd planned ahead and found some baklava to eat later. At least we both have quite the sweet tooth.

On our walk home, we popped our heads into a little market place full of water pipe smokers and shops filled with rugs and lamps. It felt like and underground cave tent (well lit and colorful). We met one of the vendors who showed very beautiful but very expensive rugs. Turns out that his name is Ali but he does not in fact sell Magic carpets. He spoke pretty good english and had travelled quite a bit and so had a lot to say. We joined the crowd of turkish people and had some delicious apple tea while he told us about turkey. It was hard not to stare at the many ornate and colorful lamps overhead.

After about an hour we started walking home again, but we stumbled upon a huge outdoor concert. It was quite the show of traditional music. We think it might have been a some sort of Ramadan celebration but we could be entirely wrong. When it ended we headed back to our room and finished off the night with our baklava!
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Day 7: Echo!

The day began in Esztergom, where we again ate our delicious breakfast of Nutella and bread (best purchase of our lives!), then were off searching for adventure. The first order of business, as usual, was to do the most challenging thing. So we climbed up extremely steep and narrow stairs to get to the Esztergom Basilica on top of yet another Castle Hill. Yet again, this 1822 Neoclassical church is not the origional, which dated from the 12th century...the first church was destroyed by the Turks. Go figure.

The basilica was enormous. So obviously, the next step was to climb to the top of the cupola. By far, the best decision of the day. Not only were the views spectacular, but we also got a personal concert to demonstrate the acoustics inside the top of the cupola. The guard, who had to be 75 years old (how the heck did he get up those stairs every day?!?!?), lead us into a gated artea of the cupola, then ran around to the other side and sang, whistled, hummed, and clucked to demonstrate how near he sounded. It was incredible - although he was literally as far as he could be from us, he sounded like he was whispering into our ears. It was the coolest thing we've done so far.

After recovering from the winding steps, we walked back down the hill to the Christian museum, which houses 15th and 16th century masterpieces. Although neither of us love medieval art, we were blown away by the ingenuity of the pieces. It was amazing how different they all were, despite the fact that they were all telling the same story.

After a hamburger that tasted like salami, we gathered our 4-months worth of possessions, and took the train home to Budapest. We were greeted here by all the people that were missing from all the other cities...and then some!

We came back to our same hostel, and were enthusiastically greeted by the owner, who blabbed on for a bit about Croatia, then we dumped our stuff and had a quick dinner. The challenge of our evening came in trying to spend the last 275 HUF (roughly equivalent to $1.50). We wanted to a) get the most for our money and b) spend everything we had. All in all, it took us back to St. Stephan's Basilica, the Chain Bridge, and the lovely tram, before we ended up back in the neighborhood by our hostel with baklava. Unfortunately, we fell short of our goal as we have 25 HUF left.

Szia in Turkey!

Day 5(Tuesday): Hello....hello

Szia! Today we bid farewell to our sextalingual hostel host and then packed in the left over icecream for breakfast and made our way to the train station to head up the Danube bend. After indulging in some bread and nutella for a second breakfast on the train, we arrived in the quiet and very old town of Szentendre. We checked into the Ilona hostel and got a look around the town. As it turns out they have one of the largest open air museums in Hungary, called a skanzen. We thought we might be able to bike there but as we couldn't find somewhere to rent them, we took a bus. The friendly driver told us it was only ten minutes down the road from where he dropped us, but after twenty minutes we thought wed never get there. Then we turned the corner and there it was. It was packed with houses and reconstructed villages from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. We only got through 2/3 of it in 3 hours. Wow. We even saw a movie being shot in one of the mock villages. From here we bused back into town and tracked down a very cool wine museum. We then made our way to the bus station to get the schedule for buses to Visegrad for the morning. A very nice old lady helped us out, despite not being able to say a single word of on gaw lul (english). Exhausted we walked back to the hostel and found a delicious meal of beef goulash and dumplings. So good. That's all for now! Szia!

Day 6: Where is everyone?

We started the day with a very pleasant breakfast in the courtyard of our hostel. We then took the bus from Szentendre to Viszegrad.

The town of Viszegrad, while adorable, was virtually deserted. There were no toruists to be seen! We dropped our stuff off at a hotel where a very nice receptionist promised to keep an eye on them (and they were still there when we got back!) And then took one look around the town and decided to hike to the top of the mountain to get it over with. And it was quite a hike!

The Castle was a medieval fort, a citadel built in 1249, and the views were spectacular. We ate a nutricious lunch of Nutella and white bread (and water), and then hiked back down again after learning some stuff.

We weren't castle-ed out yet, so we cruised om over to the Royal Palace, built in 1323, but redone in the 15th century. Turns out what happened in this castle was was the foundation for Renaissance villas and Italian and French culinary delights as we know them! Amd of course, like everything else in Hungary, had been destroyed by the Turks and is now rebuilt. No wonder nobody here wants us to go to Turkey!

We picked up our stuff, ate a liter of ice cream, and got directions (and were entertained by) a nice little old Hungarian lady. We've been receiving a lot of unsollicited help from the elderly Hungarian population...they seem to sense that we"re in trouble and do their darndest to try to help us out. This particular old woman did an intricate dance for us - which we still don't understand - to try to tell us something about how to get to Esztergom. Despite the fact that we don't understand them half the time, they're wonderfully hospitable.

Once in Eszertergom, we found a hostel, and decided to go to Slovokia. Who knew it was right across the Danube from Esztergom? We had a charming view of the basilica from the shores of Slovakia, then re-crossed the river, checking Slovakia off our list.

Shockingly, although it is only earlt September, we noticed a significant lack of tourists in Esztergom as well. Which prompted us to ask the question: where is everybody? To which the answer is...we have no idea. I guess we'll see if they're in Turkey on Friday.

We had dinner (VEGETABLES!) right under the basilica, and are now lounging in our quaint guesthouse (again with a private bathrrom!!!) We apologise to our fans for the lack of post yesterday, as there were technical difficulties. We will do our best to remedy the situation in a timely manner.

Very truly yours,
Us

Day 4: Young and Spry

Karla is keeping me young and spry. We had a very busy day - although not in the way we intended. We hoped to rent bike, but we woke up to pouring rain and had to modify our plan.

We went out to breakfast, then walked to the central market, which was fulll of everything from fruit and meats to scarves and embroidered tableclothes...the ultimate mix of goods! And the people in there varied from native Hungarians to the most touristy of tourists.

The next stop was a cave in the Buda Hills. It was gorgeous! It was a bit of a hike to get there, but we were the only people down there so it was really awesome slash creepy at times...but we had a map so we were fine, other than scaring ourselves.

After the cave, we walked down to Margurite Island, too cheap to rent bikes for more than $4 (hey! we're on a budget!) so we circumnavigated the island by foot. Then we took the tram to the other end of the city to walk up to the citadella, where you can see an unbelievable view of the city. This is where young and spry comes in. I'm not gonna lie. I was struggling. But Karla was charging up that mountain like it ain't no thang, so I toodled on up after her.

Believe me, it was worth it. Once we got up there, the view was incredible. We ended up walking back down as the sun was setting to the street by the market, where we had the "special dinner" (read "tourist dinner") of hungarian specialties of goulash and a pork dish for a reduced price.

After dinner, we stopped by a pub, again recommended by Laura (thanks buddy!) for a beer, and went home for bed. Tomorrow we're heading up the Danube Bend to discover the less urban Hungarian lifestyle.

Day Three: Beszél angolul?

Well today got off to a slow start - by the time we got up and said goodbye to our new friends from the hostel, it was noon. They gave us some great traveling tips for Turkey and Asia. Hopefully we will be able to accumulate similar sorts of information throughout our trip.

Once we started out, we decided to look for the Childrens Railroad museum in the buda hills. On foot, it took over 4 hours to finally get there, always relying on the phrase, Beszél angolul?, with a Koszonom to find our way. As promised by Laura, we rode through the beautiful hills, watching the small children who ran the train salute as we passed each station. Dont worry, we have pictures. It only took maybe an hour to get back as we decided to test out the trams. And here we are ready for a full day of biking in the buda hills again tomorrow. This time we plan on visiting a cave and exploring Margarite Island in the middle of the Danube river in the afternoon. On tuesday we were thinking of heading up the Danube bend towards the north to hunt out another part of Hungarys past.