Short little stopover in Vienna

 Our little trip to Vienna was a short one…more of a scouting layover than anything. When we were trying to figure out how to get from Budapest to Split,  a train would have taken all day and all the flights went through Vienna with a layover anyway, so we decided to take a shortish train ride and spend 24 hours checking it out.

We were really lucky with regards to getting on the train at Keleti Station in Budapest. We got there early and it looked like our train was there in the platform, but the board said it was leaving at 7:10 instead of 7:40 like we thought. We quickly ran down to info, took a number and stood in line to ask. The moments were ticking away and finally made it to the counter at 7:04 where the lady confirmed that it was our train. 

There was no time to ponder why the hell our train would be leaving a full 30 minutes EARLY, but we made it just in time (when has anything ever left early?!? This was weird! Did we say we loved taking the train? We might revise our feelings on the topic after this experience. )

It was an OBB jet train and we were in 2nd class which usually doesn’t require a reservation so we just sat down in the first empty seats we could find. 

After the train’s next stop, some guy got on and told us he had a reservation for the seats we were sitting in. Fair enough, but the train was packed. We asked the attendant where we were supposed to sit and she told us that she had no idea because the train we were on was carrying all the passengers from an ealier train that had been cancelled. She suggested we go up to first class and try to buy a reservation from her colleague. 

On our way to the first class car, we walked through the dining car and  saw a lady sitting by herself and so we asked if we could join her. 

This turned out to be a good move because we were able to sit there for the rest of the ride and had a really interesting conversation.

She was from Hungary and explained that she was currently moving her family to Vienna. We talked at length about politics, travel, family, and just life in general. Not only did she give us some perspective about the political climate in Hungary, but she gave us some great tips for our short stay in Vienna, which was super helpful. 

We stayed at the weirdest hotel called Prizotel right near the train station. We booked it for convenience but man, this was the most poorly designed hotel we’ve ever seen. It looked like whomever designed it did it solely for the pinterest pics. Nothing about it made sense. 

The colors made us feel like we were in a videogame, and the carpet rivaled even the cheesiest Laughlin casino. 

The room itself had a floor that could give someone a seizure, lacked a closet, and looked like it was inspired by The Jetsons. 

The floor of our room.

There was no place to hang anything in the bathroom. No hooks to hang that ditty bag or a towel, and the towel rack was INSIDE the shower. We aplaud the fact that they had a shower wand you could take off the wall, but it’s operation was unintuitive to say the least. The whole design was baffling. It was like the designer had never stayed at a hotel before. I wish I had taken more photos, but you get the idea…the place sucked.

Anyhow, we stashed our stuff and hopped on the tram to the center of the city just to cruise around and look at stuff. 

We went to the Naschmarkt, a cute market of stalls where one could buy food and trinkets and such. There were a lot of people selling olives bread, cheese and wine. 

We ate at one of the resturants there and had weiner schnitzel and Viennese goulash (which was very different than Czech or Hungarian goulash.) 

Both were delicious.

Viennese goulash

Then we walked toward the Hapsburg House and just took it all in. The buildings were beautiful and in amazing condition.

Their Parliament building was particularly impressive. 

For dinner we went to a cute out of the way restaurant called Klein Steiermark.

The service was terrible, but the amazing food made up for it! We had beef tartare and some kind of breaded chicken prepared with pumpkin oil and seeds. 

For dessert we had apple strudel and kind of Viennese cake called Sachertorte. 

We weren’t in Vienna for long, but long enough to know we want to come back. Now onto Croatia!

Budapest: Flipper Muzeum

 We have discovered heaven on earth and it’s called the Flipper Muzeum.

 For 4200 Hungarian Forint (about $12.50 U.S) you can play all the pinball you want. 

We’ve been to a few pinball museums in our time, and this one has to be one of the best. 

There were games dating back to the 40’s! 

We found a giant tabletop non-electronic game of Pong.

Budapest: The Weird Stuff

 These are a few of the stranger things we encountered while walking around the city:

Some kind of creepy circus

We were walking through a park and stumbled upon this very strange military event where they, among other things, appeared to be teaching kids how to find land mines. 

Budapest Hungary: Getting Around, Budapest Castle, Central Market Hall, Museum of Terror

 Budapest originally consisted of two towns, Óbuda and Pest, that straddled the Danube River (they were unified in 1873.) It has a tumultuous history of occupation, most recently from the Nazis then the USSR, but has been out from under communism since 1989.

They use Hungarian Forint which is 347.5 to 1 dollar. 

There are a few train stations. We arrived from Prague at the Budapest Nyugati Pu station (the journey took about 7 hours), and are staying in an Air BNB near Keleti station for convenience. It’s walking distance and we have an early train to Vienna after our time here.

We downloaded an app called Budapest GO ( the icon looks like a purple target) at the suggestion of our Airbnb host. We had a bit of trouble using it but it is good for finding the best way to get from point A to point B. Metro tickets can also easily be purchased at the machines in the station and 1 ticket costs 350 forints (about $1.00 US)

Sometimes it’s just easier to take a taxi, and the best way to do that is by downloading an app called BOLT, which is Hungary’s version of Uber. 

Do NOT just get into any random taxi. They will rape you on the fare. Use the BOLT app and just know that the Bolt cars look very similar to regular taxis. Rides were pretty cheap for most places around town (under $10).  Obviously, your phone would need to be operational for this to work, so best to research the best place to get a SIM card. 

We took the Metro over to the Central Market Hall which was an enormous two story bustling market with street food and vendors selling everything from souvenirs to clothing.  

 

Budapest is huge and there is tons to do. 

Buda castle is probably the #1 must see. The complex is huge and we went to a decent museum inside to learn all about the castle’s history.

Then we went back over to the “Pest” side of town to visit the Museum of Terror, a building where the  police during the communist era tortured people. There was no photography allowed, and we were so struck by what we saw in there that we forgot to take a picture of the exterior of the building. It was a good museum (not as good as the Communism museum we saw in Prague though), and we would recommend it, but just be aware that the subject matter is pretty heavy.

On a lighter note, we tried a local food called Lángos, which was a fried dough with sour cream and cheese on top. Margarite tried it with some cherry juice. It was delicious!