The thoughts & opinions of Sassarella, the Queen of Sass as she cavorts in 's Gravenhage & beyond. Brought to you by CES's (Chief Executive Slaves) of Big Skanky Ho Inc.
Okee dokee. I've made it back to the computer alive. I'm leaving Croatia in about four hours for the wonders of Italy, which, truth be told I won't be experiencing for very long as I have to get my ass back home. I'm taking a night ferry to Ancona from Split, grabbing a train to Milan from there, and then straight home. I think I'll end up getting a day in Milan, but who knows how it'll work out in the end?
The day after my last Budapest entry, Kate went caving and me and Aimee headed to a local flea market to take advantage of the Hungarian exchange rate. It being a national holiday and the flea market being closed, we ended up back downtown, chowing down on Hungarian food, and then having a wander in their mostly closed shopping district.
The next day was equally lazy, with the three of us spending most of the day sitting around the hostel. James and Alex and a dude from Mexico City named Leon hauled us over the City Park, where I took many pictures of the Vajdahunyad Castle in the twilight. Very pretty. It looks like something straight out of a fairy tale with white walls and turrets and towers. The park itself is huge and amazing, a fact we got to see up close when we separated from the boys and quickly proceeded to get lost. We told them that we stopped for drinks on the way, though I have a feeling that they were equally lost and had, in fact, arrived back only moments before us.
The next day, we hopped on a train to Split. Luckily, this is a 16 hour trek, so I'm well prepared for my trip home. We ended not getting sleeping bunks and attempting to sleep on the seats. It sucked. It sucked royally.
The train trip was made even more bizarre by the presence of a whole lot of bombed out empty houses on the way in country that was beautiful, mountainous, and dry. A bit surreal, really.
Upon arrival in Split at about 7am, we were accosted by about 15 grannies attempting to rent out their rooms, yelling at us in Croatian. The granny we settled on kept up a running monologue as she hauled us on her back alley route to her apartment, (at one point we went through a hole in a fence and over a ditch, something she managed with surprising grace) which turned out to be surprisingly nice. After this moment, we've dealt exclusively with her grandson who looks like a bit of a gino. I could see why the grandmother went to the train station and not him. I wouldn't rent from him either.
At this point, all of us collectively took a nap. Around noon, me and James got up and went to the market for breakfast supplies, which he proceeded to put to good use, while I sat around and looked tired. Shortly thereafter, they went to the beach and I wandered down to Emperor Diocletian's retirement palace, the biggest sight in Split. It was very pretty, but most of the grounds are in use as a big market and various cafes. It's a little surreal to be bargaining for flipflops in the shadow of a palace that's older than anything in the whole of Canada.
Split is very pretty, all small alleys and boxy houses and cobblestones and laundry lines hanging everywhere. It's on the Adriatic Sea, in a region called Dalmatia, which makes for many humourous postcards with Dalmatians on beaches. The beaches are mostly rocky, so someone has taken the expedient of paving over most of them and probably importing a bit of sand to shove at the front. You must be on constant speedo alert as every man seems to wear a thong and every woman seems to wear a teeny bikini, no matter what age or body type. Props to the Croatian for not being so body-conscious.
This morning, I bought my ticket on the night ferry to Ancona, and then went into the vaults under the palace with Kate. We eventually ended up here and we're soon to return to the apartment where I'll have to pack. 2100 hours tonight, I'm out of here.
Right now I'm in Split, which is a resort town in Croatia. It's hot here and I haven't drunk enough water, so I'm feeling bizarrely dizzy and disoriented right now. Hee hee. I can be the first person to have a fainting spell on the Internet. I was okay when I got here and sat down, but I guess the wonders of Diocletian's retirement palace were too much for me. Sorry for this sucky post, but I must be horizontal right now. posted by Alleen at 6:31:15 PM
Monday, August 19, 2002
I love Budapest. This city is beyond wicked. The hostel that we're in is the Pest section of the city, on the outskirts in a residential area that looks like it was a pretty nice place to live in pre-Communist times. There are wicked huge, but crumbling houses from the 1800s right next to squat unattractive boxes from the Communist era that look vaguely like prisons.
One bus ride away is the Buda section of the city, where the unbelievably gorgeous Castle District lies. Yesterday we didn't make it to the castle itself, but instead wandered the area, looking at how amazingly gorgeous it all is. We ran into a cultural festival, and ended up poking around booths full of incredibly cheap Hungarian outfits and tasty tasty food.
The best part was finding an entrance to the Labyrinth, a collection of tunnels under the Castle District. For 800 Forints (about 2.5 euros), you get a lantern and a map and get to explore all sorts of fun poky tunnels with all sorts of funny fake exhibits. Best of all, it was cool on a hot day and had a fountain that poured out wine (undrinkable wine, but wine nonetheless), a small pool and all sorts of of dark scary corners with creepy sounds. We left there to go to a cafe that overlooked the Danube and the Pest section of the city, probably one of the greatest views to be found in the whole of Eastern Europe.
We stopped at a restaurant for a pretty fancy dinner that we paid all of 16 euros for between the three of us and then headed back over the bridge to Pest. After wandering the downtown area and checking out the nightlife, we returned to the hostel and sat around drinking until late.
It's the next morning now and Kate is planning to go caving, while me and Aimee are going to check out some shopping in the city since the exchange rate is so good and then maybe take a trip to the baths. posted by Alleen at 1:33:05 PM
Sunday, August 18, 2002
I got to Budapest yesterday evening and then promptly passed out in bed. I've just realised that I've written nothing in a few days. In fact, for the whole of my stay in Vienna and leaving Salzburg. So here it is.
My last day in Salzburg consisted of a wander around the Residenz museum, where the Emperor lived when he was in Salzburg in some serious comfort. The walls were hung with red damask and everything was covered in stucco and gilding, and though the Emperor's room was supposed to be spartan, I found it to be pretty well luxurious. On the other hand, I'm not used to living in palaces. After the Residenz, I wandered off to the Schloss Mirabelle, where I wandered the palace grounds. These grounds were supposedly used in the Sound of Music, but not only did I not recognise anything, but I was also less than impressed. The flowers were pretty but the statuary was kind of freakish, consisting of bad copies of heroic Greek statues and depictions of wierd little country folk. It was kind of hilarious actually. I was on the verge of heading to the Catacombs, when I realised that I'd better get my ass to the train station or forego the pleasures of Vienna for the day.
I got to Vienna on Wednesday, pretty late in the day and stumbled my way to my hostel, the Panda. It was a pretty strange little place, on the 3rd floor of an apartment building, basically a converted apartment. Two rooms were converted into ten bed dorms, one room was a double, and the space above the kitchen had been turned into some kind of loft. I was in a ten bed dorm, and basically walked in and ran into two crazy British girls, Aimee and Kate, with whom I've been travelling since then. The first day in Vienna was almost entirely spent bullshitting and drinking with them, followed by a trip to the nearby Chelsea Bar, where they played some Motown and fun indie, where more bullshitting and drinking ensued.
I think I've drunk more on this trip than my whole time in the Netherlands.
Thursday we went for breakfast at a local cafe and then wandered off to the Schloss Schonbrunn, the imperial winter palace. Not having realised that it was a national holiday, none of us could figure out why the damn place was so crowded. We ended up doing the tour in under 20 minutes and then heading out to the gardens, which were beyond amazing. This was a former hunting ground, so they were unbelievably huge, with a gorgeous cultivated area in the middle and woods to either side. There was a zoo on the grounds as well as the carriage museum, where you could see the Habsburg's modes of transportation going back several years.
In a manouevre that both Vivien and Dorsa will remember, I ended up accidentally stealing a whole pile of postcards. Classic Alleen.
That night, the hostel was packed and we hung with two other Brits, the Schmenkies, Alex and James, some lost Australians, some other lost Australians, and two boys from Seattle. After an extended bullshitting and drinking session, it was off to the Chelsea bar for some more of the same.
The next morning I went off by myself and covered much of the city with great efficiency. I wandered around the Hofburg, the seat of the Habsburgs and then wandered off to St Stephen's Platz where St. Stephen's Dom is located. Gorgeousness. After some time spent in the Old City, where I was once forced to adjust a contact lens using a window as a mirror in the middle of a street, I went off to the KunstHausWien, which was built by an artist named Hundertwasser to house his art. The KunstHausWien was this wicked colourful house with tiles and paint and uneven floors and rounded corners and bulging walls. It also had a a leafy terrace cafe where I spent an hour, sipping fizzy water and reading about the Habsburgs. Heaven. After the KunstHausWien, I went to another house designed by Hundertwasser, called, appropriately enough, Hundertwasser Haus, which was equally beautiful, though you couldn't go inside.
I headed back to the hostel after this and ran into two girls from Iceland, Ewa and Ragna. Ragna was studied to be a music producer in Long Island, so we sat and talked about hip hop for a little while. Later on, pretty much the whole hostel headed out to a club called Flex, which was tiny on the inside, but covered a great big part of the canal side with picnic tables. We were accosted by the world's loudest American who proceeded to tell us about his top three requirements for a woman (she must swallow, shave completely, and never wear panties). We left not long after and crawled back to our comfy beds.
The next morning, Aimee and Kate and I headed off to the train station and came here to Budapest.
Right now, we're sitting in a hostel called the Station, killing time until we go to Buda to check out the Castle and the Labyrinth.
