Traveling in Austria and Hungary
Austria 2017
Arriving from Turkey, we found that the hot water had not been turned on. With peace of mind, you could fly further. Three days later, we had planned this little trip to neighboring Europe. Or rather, if we had known for a year of planning that things would come to a visa-free regime, then the trips would have been postponed. But now we have one-year souvenir visas in biometric foreign countries. The surprising fact is that Zhuliany decided to close for a week of repairs so that our trip clearly fell on these dates and had to go to Boryspil. Joyfully, it was that the lounge area was waiting for us as always. The flight took a little over an hour, but the Vizer tried to make it seem like we were flying for two days. It was a plane in which it was not even possible to sit down, so that the knees would fit. I had to keep my feet in the aisle all the time. The seats did not fold down and were exactly at an angle of 90 degrees. In general, something strange, we have not yet seen such uncomfortable aircraft in the Vizeira fleet. But the flight in this case is the case. Our first day was in Hungary.
Budapest
Upon arrival, the most important thing is to go through border control as quickly as possible. This time we set a record by passing it together in one minute. The border guards did not even check the photo and did not ask questions at all. The regime seems to be simplified. And that made me very, very happy. If it will always be like this with the onset of visa-free travel, then it is very joyful! I asked the taxi driver exactly where the bus stop was, and found out that, according to his version, city buses do not exist. When we found our bus, I returned to troll it and pointed to the bus and asked exactly where this non-urban “bus” was going. The taxi driver even got out here that it was like a private bus, not a city one. In general, the very first advice to all independent travelers is not to mess with taxi drivers. Unless you want to troll them. It was a hot sunny day, the sky was clear. We are staying in Budapest for the second time and this one was a continuation of what we did not see last time. We started with a luxurious summer park in the area of the Szé chenyi baths.
The park is large with lakes and fountains. The castle looks very harmonious among the park. Walking in this park was a pleasure.
And after that, relax in the thermal baths. Baths in terms of size and number of rooms turned out to be not that big - they are simply endless. Many different saunas, pools of different temperatures, all this is very, very relaxing. The most epic sauna is called Volcano. It's pretty hard to get over it. There is a complete temperature imitation of the fact that you went down to the Volcano, and also a cool soundtrack.
We spent a couple of hours in the Baths, which flew by like a couple of minutes. Even in the outdoor pool there is a spiral with an artificial current, where you can spin in circles while relaxing quite lazily. Last time we were in the baths Gelert. Now we can compare them. In Gelert, there is more entourage, but here there is more space and beautiful outdoor pools. We advise you to visit both, but on different trips. After leaving our luggage at the hotel, we went to the center. On the way, we just had a bombing meal in one of the local cafes.
Since the day was promised to be relaxed, at the next stage we lay on the grass, in a clearing near the main bridge. And after another 20 minutes, we managed to rent a funicular!
At least we were on our floor ourselves. Moreover, time flew by at a frantic speed. The views from the Fisherman's Bastion were still as wonderful as they were a couple of years ago. It seems that they didn’t do anything like that in a day, and evening has already come. By the time we got to the hotel, we should have gone to bed as soon as possible.
Because there was an early train waiting. Somehow, Budapest passed comfortably on this trip.
Vienna
We had to check out and put the keys in a slot in a metal box. In one Series, Masyanya and Khryundil did something similar in Budapest and got stuck between two closed doors. I am haunted by the fear that something will go the same way as Masyanya did. Dasha also tensed up at the sight of the box, especially the last time it didn't end very well. Having carefully double-checked that nothing had been forgotten in the room, I carefully closed everything and threw the keys into the slot. In parting, pulling the door by the handle, it turned out that the bolts of the door did not enter the grooves and without a key it is now impossible to close it at all. It was a silent scene with a lot of facepalms. Looking closely at the box, I discovered that it had already been opened more than once. And he was able to easily open it too and get the keys. We lived right next to the station, so getting to the train was uneventful. The drive was a little over three hours. When we crossed the border, outside the window even the landscapes changed. It was clear that the country was different. Upon arrival in Vienna, the first thing that caught my eye was the many lines from the planes on the blue sky. There were a lot of planes there and they flew often. The metro gave us a very pleasant surprise. It was possible to buy a travel card for up to three days, which is valid for all transport in the city.
Since we had booked an apartment, we had to contact the owner. Fortunately, cheap Viagra with the same name free Wi-Fi was sold under the house. I didn't think Viagra would help us on this trip.
We started from the center. When we reached the Ringstrasse, we were surprised how Austrians love beer.
Right in the center at the tables, everyone is standing and feasting. But even more they love dogs. At first it seemed ridiculous to us that the machine sold transport tickets, including for dogs. But there has never been such a large number of domestic dogs. Literally every third Austrian walks with a dog. And the dogs are so smart. The first impression of Vienna is very positive. The city is designed in strict colors, but at the same time very green. But as soon as you enter the area of the old city, Vienna immediately became bulky and inhospitable. Too monumental and concrete. Behind the old town is a chic park in which you begin to feel comfortable again. And the park really made an impression on me. There were many statues and other sights in the inner city, but for some reason I liked the Japanese restaurant the most.
Apparently we are poor in spirit. I want to pay special attention to souvenir shops. Mozart's homeland is saturated with music. And there are a lot of interesting musical gizmos in the shops. We didn't leave until I had listened to most of the music boxes and played the miniature violins. Buying something in these stores, of course, you can make yourself bankrupt. In Austria, it is very cool that drinking water flows from the tap, which you can drink without boiling. There are many fountains with drinking water around the city.
In the evening we went to visit Dasha's friends who had moved and settled down in Austria. It was interesting to see and hear about how people live in Austria. In general, everything sounds good. To ensure the employee and leave in good quantity and social package, everything is there. I was very pleased with the metro, which runs around the clock before holidays and weekends. I consider this a great achievement of mankind! We noticed that the outskirts of Vienna are very cozy. The next day we had a long route.
Vienna Woods
We started with the legendary Vienna Woods. I remember the music teacher turned on a record for us with tracks called “Tales of the Vienna Woods”. There are so many wild garlic growing in the forest that you can open a garlic factory. We walked forever through parks, forests, ponds and vineyards.
We even met a wild hare. On the way we passed a town where we found a buffet restaurant. For 10 euros, you could taste the entire Austrian cuisine. The meat there was especially tasty. Since we paid with a card everywhere, the terminals constantly asked if we wanted to leave a tip.
At the end of the 18-kilometer route, a panorama was waiting for us from which the whole capital was opened.
There was a bus going from Panorama to the city. About 50 meters from it there is a cozy shop. We sat on it so comfortably that we even missed the bus, which runs every half an hour. In a sense, you can say overslept. The second half of the day fell on the Prater park. In which an unthinkable number of different attractions.
Dasha and I are not big fans of centrifugal rides, but I couldn't resist in front of the free fall tower. It was exciting. And the spirit was captured in the truest sense of the word. Behind the amusement park is an ordinary park. That's something, but I remember the parks of Vienna well. I love it when there are a lot of parks in the city. The tram leaves directly from the park. Our path was to the Hundertwasser House. The road to the house ran through a Mexican restaurant. In general, we had quite international cuisine on this trip.
The house looked unusual, somewhat similar to the Vietnamese Crazy house. Since the case was in the evening, everything was already closed. But it’s not difficult for us to come back here in the morning again. Usually we make travel routes more dense, but here we have three days and you can even allow to return to places again. The morning started unusually.
A large orchestra with drums, bowed and wind instruments looked at me attentively. I confidently looked at them, it was necessary to begin. I wave my conductor's baton and begin a classical music concert. The orchestra closely follows my gestures. I play louder and more rhythmically, this is my debut! I played the part excellently, the orchestra clapped for me, even live spectators, watching from the side, clapped. I'm a star in the house of music! From the outside, it might seem easy, but when another guy decided to repeat my feat with a virtual orchestra, his orchestra rotted and expressed everything that they think about him. And the audience laughed. Oddly enough, but my ear for music and a solid five from school music lessons made themselves felt.
There were other jokes in the house of music, but the virtual orchestra is clearly the main thing here! With high spirits, we left the music museum and went to the Hundertwasser House and its village, which is located next door.
It's like a ministeran inside the city. Various shops, tastings, atmosphere. It was magical! Be sure to drop by for 30 minutes in this interesting corner of Vienna. Our lunch consisted of Asian cuisine. There wasn't much time for him. We ate a delicious wok. The seller even made an increased portion for us, because we liked it so much. Not far from the center is the street street food market Nash Markt. Probably half of the city hangs out there. And everyone eats something. And they do it so tasty that you start to regret that you are not hungry.
We had to start moving to the train, but on the way we decided to look into the territory of the Belvidere Palace. The park near the palace turned out to be an order of magnitude simpler than the main city parks. On the territory of the castle there was a strange white building in human growth. It looked like a house made of artificial ice.
When we looked inside, we found people sitting on a bench, to whom the same house was telling something from the screen in German. We had to return to the apartments and quickly pick up the backpacks left in storage. We did it with such speed that we found the owner in his underpants in the middle of the kitchen. Before boarding the train, we had to have a quick meal, and even here a small Japanese restaurant helped us out) After saying goodbye to Vienna, we headed to Sopron.
Győ r
When we planned the trip, we imagined that Sopron was on the way from Vienna to Budapest. But when we realized what kind of detour we were making, Dasha remarked, “You should have wanted so much in Sopron! ”. Even with a transplant. The transplant was in the subject, it was the small town of Gyor. 25 minutes was just enough to take a good look at it and move on. By the way, we really liked the town, as if it was built specifically for tourists.
Sopron!
Sopron met us more radically. The city is surrounded by the "Impassable" chain of cafes. Behind the chain is a similar city wall. It was night. The weather deteriorated greatly and a cold gale-force wind arose. In the center of the old city, apparently they decided to dig up the treasures of pirates. Holes were dug everywhere, pipes lay and a mass of construction equipment stood. The same phrase was spinning in my head: “It was so necessary to want to go to Sopron! ”. In the morning, a sumptuous breakfast was waiting for us at the hotel, and fortunately it didn’t snow outside. Although the dubar was still the same.
It seemed to us that we had not plunged enough into the depths of Hungary. We got on a bus and drove even further to the city of Fuerthoracos. Upon arrival, we rented bicycles and went to some steppes to a distant lake. The route was beautiful, and we even noted that it was not in vain that we wanted to visit Sopron so much!
There was a large lake outside the city, on which stood a whole street of houses on stilts. The landscapes around were like from the song of Elena Voinarovskaya - Light. The ducks also walked their ducklings along the stream. I remember this bike trip, in my opinion, more than anything else on this trip.
It was somehow quite comfortable. Even the weather cleared up and the sky turned blue.
On one of the trails there were views of two small towns, one Hungarian, the other Austrian. Around the steppe and jasmine groves. The windsurfers practiced their skills on the lake. In principle, apart from a trip to the lake, there is nothing else special in Fuertoracosa.
Some more ruins. But they did not inspire confidence in us. On the hourly bus we returned to explore Sopron. By the way, in these towns they do not speak English at all. Sopron looked more welcoming in the sunlight without the hurricane. We even went to the bakery museum where we were given a tour in German. I don't know why, but we understood what the woman was talking about. We were tense only for one moment, when the grandmother said something like “Killer! ”, And indicated that we climbed into the dumb basement. Of course, we obeyed our grandmother and seemed to have even survived.
There is also a nice walk along the streets of Sopron, but at one moment you notice that you are walking in a circle. By evening, the phrase “How good it is that we wanted to go to Sopron! ” Then there was a banal road home on the principle of airport-work. Although there was another adventure, I was run over by a “train” on my leg in the cabin of the plane. But with long legs, this is no stranger and that's a completely different story.
Trip Information
Date of travel: 05/17/2016 – 05/23/2016
Duration: 5 full days
Full days without rain: 5
Flights: Wizzair
Hotels: Booking. com + Airbnb
Hungary Visa: Kyiv Visa Center
Excursions: All by yourself
Trip difficulty: 3/10 (easy)
