Trip to Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest
Bratislava is only an hour away by train from Vienna, and Budapest is only three hours away from Vienna, so I decided to combine these three cities in one trip. While I’ve been to Vienna before, Bratislava and Budapest were new to me — and I was very excited about Budapest! My trip was 6 days, so I split it into Budapest and Vienna, staying in each for 3 days. And one of the days in Vienna I did a day trip to Bratislava.
Since I was traveling alone, I also decided to do something I haven’t done in like 7–8 years: I decided to stay in hostels! It wasn’t very comfortable, but I’m glad I did it — I actually met some interesting people!
My first night in Vienna wasn’t very eventful, except the moment when the receptionist at the hostel asked me if I’d like to pay 4 Euros for a towel there, or I could also wait the next day and get one from a store for 1–2 Euros. I asked her if she has ever been to Switzerland, she said no. It was clear to me she never saw Swiss prices.
The next day I went to see Schönbrunn palace — it’s imperially majestic! I’ll won’t talk much about it, and I’ll let the pictures do it.
Bratislava was unfortunately not like in the movie Eurotrip — things were expensive than a few dollars :) But it was also not rundown and gray! It was a bit more rundown than average western European cities — but definitely not like in the movie! After walking around the city for a bit, I went to see the palace, which was mostly closed, since it’s an official government building. But it was still worth it!
Budapest was something — it’s a very beautiful city with a lot of history! I took a few walking tours around the city, and learned a lot about Budapest and Hungary in general. One thing that struck me was that a lot of history there is pretty sad — something that our guide actually mentioned. He also mentioned that Hungarian people are generally pretty melancholic, which I did notice too!
Most of the touristic places are walkable, so I highly recommend walking tours! You can’t visit the Parliament every day, so make sure you have a reservation. And definitely go out in ruin pubs in District VII — they’re pretty awesome!
I had a great time in Budapest — but one unpleasant event was the cab driver who totally ripped me off. Instead of paying around 1500 Forints for a trip, I was charged 5000! His meter was going really fast. I only found out after asking a Hungarian friend about the distance I traveled, cause 5000 seemed a lot to me. So my advice would be to take public transportation only, and not rely on cabs. Budapest isn’t that big, so walking + public transportation should cover you.
