Day 314: Budapest, here we come!

We should have stayed in Zagreb to see the sites. I even have a friend living in the city, but thanks to our magnificent timing (as always) she was out of town for the day. With the hostel prices so high (Seriously, Fancy Hostel, you charge extra for coffee in the morning?) and both of us anxious to get to Budapest, we hopped on one of the first trains out of town and arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon. We were excited to get to the little apartment we rented out for our stay, but that enthusiasm quickly vanished when we found ourselves locked in the courtyard of a building that had signs up for the hostel/guesthouse office but no one indoors to take us to our apartment. This would have been a lot funnier had I not needed to go to the bathroom. We knocked on doors. We tried to break into the locked wi-fi networks. We finally found a nice neighbor to call another neighbor to call the guy we needed to talk to. We were in the wrong location, and had to walk a few blocks, take a tram, walk a few more blocks to get to the right location. Halfway there, we discovered the tram wasn’t running. We weren’t even surprised and hopped on a bus hoping not to get caught without a ticket. We made it, and even better, found a Thai restaurant around the corner from our place and promptly splurged on dinner.

What’s with the plastic cups in the window you might wonder? It was around the corner from our place and I was so impressed with the creativity in these window displays. It’s not the greatest shot (with the reflection and all) but I wanted to share and remember it for later. I told Andrew that I needed cheap decorating tips for our future American home. Don’t be surprised when you come to visit if our apartment is covered in plastic cups…

Day 313: We’re going to Zagreb?

This was not a part of the plan. Sarajevo was closer to Budapest… And Budapest was THE plan. Little did we know, there were no direct trains nor buses between the two, despite it being a quick (six hour) drive… I suggested we hitchhike. Andrew brushed the idea off. Instead, we had to spend an entire day on a train to Zagreb, and then another simply to get to Budapest. I wasn’t happy. Andrew wasn’t happy. When we saw the prices for even just a hostel bed in Zagreb (after not hearing from any couchsurfers) we were practically dreading the detour.

The silver lining (after nearly missing our train out of Sarajevo waiting for the tram to the station) was that we scored our own cabin and I was able to recline the seats into a bed and sleep for the majority of the ride. I slept so much that when I woke up, Andrew questioned if I was feeling ok.

Another silver lining, is that when we were given the wrong tram information in Zagreb, and ended up having to walk several blocks to our hostel, Andrew carried my big backpack for me. He always does. He won’t even let me carry it anymore, and instead gives me his smaller backpack in it’s place. Sometimes though, I’ll trick him and I’ll get to both big backpacks first. This doesn’t happen often though, because he has this whole height/long leg advantage over me.

Whenever other couples see him with both big backpacks, the men roll their eyes and I have this feeling that they give me the once over thinking I must be sooo high maintenance. But then they usually see me schlepping behind with our smaller backpacks, a bag full of snacks (now including coffee and toilet paper) and my Nepalese yak wool scarf under one arm while I try to balance my camera in the other for either a picture or some video… Then they don’t know what to think. The women look at Andrew like he must be the sweetest. I always want to tell them that he’s equally stubborn- even if it’s in a completely charming and sometimes infuriatingly chivalrous way.