Last full day in Budapest

Went climbing at an indoor bouldering club. Was surprised to see people literally hanging from the rafters as I climbed the steps to the second floor where the gym is.

Walked through the park and randomly ran into some (mostly) older gentlement playing chess in the park. They even had that box-timer-dealio that you smack after you make a move. I ended up playing a game with one of them, and although I lost, did not do so immediately, which I was somewhat happy with.

Then made it to the thermal baths, which were fantastic. Inside this crazy ornate neo-renaissance building, thermal springs are piped up into a series of baths. Although there are several, one of my favourites was one where there is a series of concentric circles, with a very strong current pushing you in a counter-clockwise fashion. If you don't time your transition between circles quite right, you get smashed into the wall (learned that one the hard way).

Also hit up a Mexican restaurant on my way home, and managed to get myself a free beer while watching the olympics. Score.

While I was thinking that today would be a bit of a waste of a day because I'd seen eveything I wanted to here, I ended up really happy that I had this day to chillax. Tomorrow I leave for the train station, to take me to the airport, to the next airport, to the next airport, to the Ottawa airport. I love flying cheap.

Yesterday got filled up by a walking tour, followed by a very entertaining underground labyrinth experience. Also got to see a free outdoor concert (again). Sometimes I just have the best accidental timing ever.

Be home (relatively) soon. Cheers.

Poop deck

...no, I haven't decided to go sailing, I've just made an interesting observation.

The toilets in Budapest have what I will call a poop deck. The part where you poo contains a very shallow basin that is parallel to the floor. This is the poop deck. Towards your feet (while sitting) is the drain pipe where your business ends up after what is usually a relatively violent flush.

What's the purpose of this poop deck? Is it to prevent splash in the case of an exceptionally large poop? Is it so that you can observe and admire your poops, or perhaps show them off to your friends before sending them on their way? Maybe the children here are especially prone to eating small shiny things like valuable rings or earrings. I don't know.

One of the more random things I thought I'd share.

Prague

Turns out that everyone who had talked to me about it was in fact not lying: Prague is a very beautiful city. Everywhere you turn there is gorgeous architecture, and the Prague castle complex is apparently the largest in the world - more of a small town in and of itself.

Went to a classical music concert one night, which I can now cross off of my list of things to do.

Also went to this place called Hutna Cora (probably mis-spelled) which is a neat little town. The highlight of that trip was visiting this ossuary. When the owners decided to re-decorate the place, they used the bones of people who had previously been buried there (apparently this was -THE- place to be buried, so they quickly ran out of space). There is a giant chandelier with one of every bone of the human body. There's also a giant coat-of-arms made entirely out of human bones. Human bones line the walls, and make up various other ornaments. It was fun playing 'guess the bone', and thanks to MSK, I think I got most of them right.

Am currently writing in a hostel from the Pest part of Budapest. Is raining today, and I realized that I've been incredibly lucky with weather, only having been caught once in the rain this whole trip. A few more days here, and if everything goes well, I'll be back in Canada on Wednesday.

Paragliding, canyoning, kayaking, and mountain biking

...these are the things I got up to while in Bovec, Slovenia. It is an outdoor wonderland.

Paragliding was probably the funnest, as it's the closest I've ever come to flying. Basically you run off the side of a mountain while filling up a parachute with air behind you. Then you glide around, catching thermal currents in order to keep yourself airborne. Very neat.

The keyboard I'm using here (in addition to the usual oddities of all the shift keys being different) actually have the z and y key reversed. You'd be surprised how often you use a y.

Canyoning involves hiking up into a mountain, then lowering yourself into a kind of ... well ... canyon. You then walk partway through the river; whenever you come across a waterfall, you either do a waterslide-like action down it, or rappel off the side, then several meters from the water, you just push yourself off the rappel line and zip through the air into the water below. Ample opportunities for cliff jumping as well. Probably the scariest moment was being lowered -through- a waterfall 50 m high.

Kayaking and mountain biking were also fun, but I'd done both of those before, so they're slightly less exciting to talk about.

Prague was nice; more on that later maybe.

Took the most annoying train ride ever this morning. Left at 2 am from Lubjana (definitely spelled that wrong - the capital of Slovenia) to Budapest, where I arrived at noon. Couldn't figure out why they didn't have the option of a sleeper car until a few hours into the trip. From there on in, we were woken up about every 30 minutes to have either our passports or train tickets checked. Very odd for 2 reasons:
1) didn't check the route, but I'm pretty sure we passed through a maximum of 2 countries
2) have had my passport checked once in the 7 countries I have been to so far
3) passport got checked 6 times
...I guess in some countries you get checked not only by immigration then customs, but also by the local police. I was half-expecting to be stopped by the boy scouts to have my passport checked next.

Anyhow, arrived safe and sound in Buda; will probably check out the Pest tomorrow or the next day. In all honesty, I'm somewhat relieved that I'll be in the same place for a little while, and won't have to deal with any more train ladies (more on those later).

cheers

Off to Slovenia

Decided to head to Slovenia instead of Budapest straight away. Am taking the overnight train tonight from Prague.

Only spent a couple of days in Prague. I need to get out of the Czech Republic. You can buy a beer here for less than 50 cents - it's cheaper than water. This makes little sense to me, as water is a primary ingredient in beer.

Am having trouble sticking to my two-beers-a-day policy.

Poland - not just beer and pierogies

Went hiking all day in Zakopane yesterday. Reached a couple of summits, the highest of which was about 2300 m. Absoluetly goregeous views. Some of the nicest hiking I've done ... well ... ever, actually. Wish I could share some pictures. On the way up was a bit of scrambling, and sections where chain links are bolted into the side of the mountain. Also almost set up a rock-climbing expedition, but it unfortunately fell through. Got to drink some very refreshing mountain spring water when my bottle dried up, which is always refreshing.

Also discovered new tasty street food, which I think is a kind of fried cheese. Speaking of which, I never thought I'd say this, but I think I've had enough cheese for a while. My diet here consists of approximately 50% dairy products. Although delicious, it doesn't say much for variety. Rather hard to find vegetables (especially fresh ones) in this part of the world, apparently.

Am taking the overnight train to Prague, and hope to spend a few days there and the surroundings. Next likely off to Budapest. Not sure if I'll have time to make it to Romania to check out Transylvania.