EuroQuest: Day 3 - Zagreb/Budapest

Hi everyone! Third day and we're moving onto our second country: Budapest!

The day started with a little bit of a train polava! We had reserved seats but unlike the trains in England the carriages aren't numbered and the few that were labelled weren't in the right order. So instead of pacing up and down the platform looking for a carriage that possibly didn't exist we just got on the train and tried to look around. Now the trains over there again aren't like our but more like the carriage on the train in Harry Potter. There are a couple of cabins and a very thin corridor to walk down and we were there with a giant rucksacks on and had no idea where we were going.

Budapest

We then found almost straight away what we thought were out seats in the first carriage. We unloaded and then I believe someone told us that this wasn't the carriage we were looking for. So we all had to put our bags back on and push our way into the next carriage which we were assured was ours. But alas, these seats weren't ours either. No it turns out we were right with the first seats we sat in after all!! So we tried to get back along the narrow corridors but it just wasn't working so we had to sit by the doors. This was when we started moving. Now, in most places there is a conductor on the platform that goes and makes sure all the doors are shut properly, but not here! As we began to pick up speed Attie turned around and said "Should I shut the door?" which resulted in a mad panic to pull this door shut before the train got any faster!

The train

The train journey was... well... interesting to say the least! To start with it was boiling hot and there was no air conditioning and the windows were open but the air outside was so hot it made very little difference. Half way through the journey we discovered that you could pull out the chairs in order to turn them into beds! All the seats in our cabin were pulled out (apart from mine & Emiis due to the bin being in the way) and it was basically like a giant mattress! Evie took full advantage of this and spread herself out and drifted off into a deep sleep - something she managed to do throughout the trip in some peculiar positions!

Fast asleep

We finally arrived just over an hour late into Budapest due to there being a huge number of lengthy stops along the way. It was still so hot even though it was quite late in the evening. The heat would have been fine if we were just relaxing on the beach or something but we weren't. We were walking carrying giant rucksacks around the city in an attempt to find the Maverick Hostel. We did find it eventually and the lobby was architecturally gorgeous!

The stairs

We were a few floors up so we had to climb up quite a lot of step which got my thighs burning! Once we got there there was a comunal living area with a huge TV and a computer. Our room was beautiful as well! There was a sort of balcony upstairs in the room! It's pretty hard to explain so I'll put a picture in. But Emii and Tash were soon singing 'When Will My Life Begin' from Tangled acting like this balcony was the tower!

Our bedroom (although my bed was by the window so you can't see it)

We then went for a little explore of the city. Instantly, it was obvious that this was a much more touristy city compared to Zagreb and there were loads of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and they all were in English.

Fountains at night

We went for a quick easy dinner at Burger King and I'm a vegetarian so we asked if they did veggie burgers. They assured us they did and I was looking forward to a veggie pattie kind of thing like the ones you can now get in McDonalds. So my burger arrived and I opened it up and it was literally salad in a bun!! But to be fair to them it was literally a veggie burger!

Burger King!!

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out below.

The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Budapest as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

ZAGREB VIDEO: COMING SOON!
BUDAPEST VIDEO: COMING SOON!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!

EuroQuest: Day 2 - Zagreb

Hi everyone! So onto day two! We got up pretty early (or at least by my standards) because we were going SEGWAYING!!

Clearly I hadn't planned my outfit well - green top, green helmet & pink hair!!

We first got breakfast from this cute little bakery place near our hostel and ended up eating our pastries in the shade of a statue in the main square before embarking on our journey to the segways. We had to go to this really fancy hotel to get the segways and it was so pretty with a fountain near by. We split into two groups as there wasn't enough segways for us all to use and I was in the first group. So we went up to the terrace of this hotel and the guy was really nice and gave us a little demonstration and then once we were all happy with the basic controls we went off!

On the terrace practicing 

It was basically a tour around Zagreb on segways! We were on the pavements, which he assured us was legal there (it isn't in England) although not many people seemed to understand that as we got a few angry word thrown in our direction as we went along. We then stopped in one of the many parks and he took us off beginner mode. This basically meant it was easier to steer and we could go faster - much to Saras delight!

After about an hour we went back to the hotel to swap with the other group and we were let off to explore the area. We didn't really do much exploring but we did however find a new flavour of capri sun: Mystic dragon! I think it was some sort of dragon fruit concoction but it tasted really nice!

After the other group had finished we had lunch and had a little rest in one of the parks we had segwayed through before deciding to head over to the zoo.

An actual Zebra crossing!

We didn't actually go into the zoo as it was quite expensive and none of us were particular bothered about going in so we were let loose in the huge gardens next to the zoo in our groups of 5. However, we basically sat in a place called the Palladium of Echos for two hours and talked, where we found out we all basically spent too much time on the internet!

We had to meet back at the cafe afterwards where we performed our beloved pony song where 2 waiters (who didn't have a clue what we were doing) joined in and added some... interesting dance moves (!) rather than copying what we were doing!

Walking to the top

We headed back into the center and went to find the funicular railway which to our dismay was out of service meaning we had to walk all the way to the top! But it was definitely worth it! There were so many hand made craft stalls up there and the views across Zagreb were amazing. I really liked some tables that belonged to the bar which were covered in maps. They looked like something you would normally find on pinterest!

Market stalls

Cute table covers

The builiding in the old part of the town were also so beautiful. When I first saw the roof tops I honestly thought they were knitted?! They of course weren't - but they were so well made and everything was so clean compared to England which we decided was due to the lack of cars as there were so many trams you just didn't need a car.

Pretty roof tiles

View over Zagreb

On the way to the restaurant for dinner we went into to this adorable handmade shop that the other group had discovered the day before and it was amazing. I ended up buying a candle that looked like a glass of beer but there was so much cute stuff in there I wish I could have bought more!

Then came one of the most eventful nights of the whole trip. The night we were serenaded by drunk Spanish boys. At least, we think they were Spanish - the couple of us that took Spanish could pick out a couple of words but I'm not sure how accurate we were (although I believe Emii did get and A*/A for GCSE). Anyways, they basically kept knocking on our door asking us to let them in and then they started singing some random English songs to us. Eventually they left but I don't think they realised our age (these suspicions were confirmed when we were met with their guilty faces in the morning)

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out here:
The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Zagreb as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

ZAGREB VIDEO: COMING SOON

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!