Winter Travels Part 2: Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia

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To recap from my last post, I was in Israel with my family for 2 weeks, and I flew from there  to Budapest...here's an overview of the next week and a half.

Hungary    

          

Just before New Years Eve, I left Israel to go meet up with a bunch of friends in Budapest. Ryan, Matt, Clayton, Timmy, Andy, and Amade all came to Budapest for a big Pomona reunion for New Years. The first night we went to a spa party at the Szechenyi Baths. The baths are one of the main tourist attractions in Budapest, and by day they have several types of spa treatment and massages for fancy people. Each Saturday night, everything changes, and the spa opens up as a party venue after dark. There are two giant outdoor pools, heated to 100+ degrees while the outside temperature is well below freezing. There is a stage in the middle with a DJ, and concert lights set up all around the pool. The steam rising up from the hot water makes a club-like effect, and the fancy old person spa turns into a crazy party venue. There is a bar on one side of the pool which requires a short walk through the snow and ice in a swimsuit, but is totally worth it for the $1 beers. The party was insane, one of the most ridiculous parties I've ever been to. Though it did made me cringe to think that the next day there would be old people bathing in that pool, thinking that the water is healing their skin when really it was full of puke, jizz (yes, a lot of it), and beer.

The next morning, New Year’s Eve, we woke up in our airbnb and set out to explore Budapest. With Andy as our tour guide (he had visited once before), we walked around the city and saw the palace, cathedral, and some other big fancy buildings.

The gang in Budapest. From left, Amade, Timmy, me, Clayton, Matt, Andy, Ryan

a big fancy building

                As the day turned into night, the streets became crowded with people braving the cold to get drunk and shoot off fireworks in the middle of the city. Mulled wine stands lined the streets and vendors sold giant fireworks to anybody who wanted them at about 3 bucks a pop. As the time neared midnight, the fireworks got crazier and crazier. Constant bangs came from every direction and sparks were flying everywhere. There was an area in the main square that had been cleared of people, and several tubes were set in the middle of it for fireworks to be shot from. Most of the idiot tourists didn't know what to do with the fireworks, and about half of them ended up exploding on the ground, sending showers of sparks at everybody nearby. Just before midnight we went to the river where people were lining up. We were expecting the city to put on a fireworks show at midnight, but instead it turned out that as the clock struck midnight the entire city exploded as people set off their own personal firework stashes all at once. There was no professional show; there were just hundreds of people shooting off their own fireworks in every direction. Though they were not as big or impressive as a professional show would have been, it was a ridiculous spectacle that never would be able to occur in the USA, especially in the middle of the city surrounded by breakable windows and peoples’ homes.

Croatia

                On New Years Day we woke up and got on a train to Croatia. I had to leave the Schengen Area (European no-borders zone) because my German visa was about to expire, and Croatia was somewhere that I had always wanted to go. The train was about 6 hours and got there fairly late, so we didn't do much that night other than eat sausages. The next morning we woke up and rented a car to drive to Plitvice Lakes National Park. The roads were incredibly well marked and finding our next airbnb was really easy. The multilingual and convenient signage was the first of many things that surprised me that Eastern Europe has and the USA does not. When we got to the airbnb, we dropped off our stuff and headed into the national park, well known as one of the most beautiful and most visited parks in Europe (google it if you've never heard of it). Though the main tourist season is in the summer when the lakes are bright turquoise and the area is lush and full of life, visiting in the winter was also really amazing because the waterfalls were half frozen with the most enormous icicles and craziest ice formations that I've ever seen.

the big waterfall

                On the first day we went to the biggest waterfall in the lower section of the park (pictured above). The walk up to it was incredibly sketchy, on a boardwalk that went directly through a lake with no railings and was completely covered in ice. I honestly have no idea how nobody fell in the freezing water. I recommend crampons if you ever go there in winter.

the gang by the big waterfall

               

                We then walked further up the path, through a cave, and to the biggest lake where there was a boat going back and forth to each side. We took the boat to the far side but it ended up being the last boat ride of the day so we walked back along the lake as the sun set. The rest of the night consisted of hockey and beer, a perfect throwback to the nights spent in the A-frame at Mammoth the last few years. In the morning we drove to the upper entrance to the park, which was technically closed but there was nothing stopping people from getting in. We walked to the upper lakes which are even more beautiful than the lower ones, with brighter blue water and tons of waterfalls. We also discovered the coolest sound ever, skipping rocks across ice.

beautiful Plitvice Lakes in winter

                We headed back to Zagreb that afternoon and everyone else flew out that day or the next day. We went to a brewery that evening with some pretty good beer and ate a delicious Croatian meal of a bunch of meat. I went to the train station to figure out where I could go next, and decided to buy a ticket to Sarajevo for the next morning.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

                Bosnia was one of the unexpected highlights of my trip. I knew essentially nothing about the country before I showed up there, and my short visit definitely gave me a desire to go back. I knew my friend Zack was travelling around the Balkans but I wasn’t sure where he was at that time, so I messaged him to find out what his plan was right before I left Croatia. When I arrived in Sarajevo, I asked a taxi driver to take me to a hostel in the old town where I got a bed and checked my phone. I had a message from Zack saying that he was also in Sarajevo, and it turned out that his hostel was just one block away from mine. I walked over to his hostel right away, stoked to see another friend, who I hadn’t seen in over a year, in Bosnia of all places. We bought some 2 liter beers for $1.50 (yeah Bosnia is awesome) and hung out in the hostel where we met a bunch of other backpackers. Two of them were going skiing the next day so I decided to join them.

                In the morning I found the two Australians that I had met the previous night and we got a taxi to the ski mountain. The taxi ride was a little over half an hour and cost a grand total of $28, not too bad when split between 3 people. The taxi ended up being the most expensive part of the day—even more than the ski rental and ski pass combined. We went to Jahorina, which was the mountain that the 1984 Yugoslavian Olympics were held. Only a small part of the mountain was open that day, but the conditions were great. It had snowed all night and there was a fresh 4-6” on the ground, and in the morning the sun came out for a bluebird powder day.

Bosnian pow

                The next day I went up another mountain with some Canadians who had a car. We were originally trying to go sledding on the Olympic bobsled track, but the road was too snowy and we couldn't make it to the top in their tiny little car. Instead, we pulled to the side of the road and explored a big abandoned building. It appeared to have been an apartment building before the war, but it had been completely shot up and bombed and there was just a crumbling frame remaining. Sights like this were everywhere around Sarajevo, a very visible reminder of the war which ended less than 20 years ago. I learned a bit about the Bosnian history while I was there, and basically in the early 1990s, Yugoslavia broke up and the Serbian government didn't like the fact that Bosnia had so many Muslims, so they started a war. Sarajevo is located in a valley surrounded by huge mountains, and the Serbians posted up on the mountains all around the city so that they could prevent anybody from leaving. The apartment building we found was likely occupied by Serbian snipers at some point, as it had a great view over the whole city.

Abandoned apartment building in the hills above Sarajevo

The view from the apartment building over Sarajevo, likely occupied by snipers during the war

bullet holes in the walls

                Later that afternoon, Zack and I took a bus to Mostar, a smaller city in Herzegovina. On the bus I met a really interesting guy who told me his story about the war. He was 17 when the war started and after a year he managed to escape through Croatia to Italy. There was very little possibility to find a job and start a new life in Italy, though, so he tried to sneak into Switzerland. After 5 failed attempts to sneak in while hidden in peoples’ cars, him and his friend decided to hike to Switzerland, through the snowy alps in the middle of the night in the winter with no hiking or snow equipment. Somehow they survived, and 20 years later he is working for a TV channel in Switzerland and has Swiss citizenship.

                The main sight to see in Mostar is a famous bridge, which was bombed and destroyed in the war but has now been rebuilt. It spans the beautiful river that winds through the city. On our full day in Mostar, we walked around the city, saw the bridge, and went into a museum which had a video of the bridge being bombed. That afternoon we took a bus to the next town over, called Blagaj, where there is a river that comes out of a cliff. By that I mean, there is a giant hole in the side of a cliff and an entire river pours out of it. It is pretty cool.

Zack and I at Stari Most, the famous bridge in Mostar

the whole river comes out of that cave

Croatia (again)

                The next day, Zack and I got a bus to Split, Croatia. Split is a beautiful city on the Dalmatian coast in southern Croatia. We got there fairly early and set out to adventure around the city. Let me tell you, it was quite the adventure. We wandered around the old town for a little while, getting lost in the labyrinth of brick streets, and then headed uphill through a park that overlooks the city. We walked and walked and walked up seemingly endless stairs that appeared to be going right through peoples’ backyards, and finally we reached the top which opened up to an amazing view over Split, the bay, and the nearby islands. Rays of sunlight streamed through the clouds on the horizon shining light on the islands, which melted into the deep blue of the Adriatic Sea. Colors morphed together to form a beautiful image of wild nature meeting the neat and orderly city. The park seemed to contain every ecosystem imaginable, with Mediterranean sage scrub melting into evergreen forest melting into palm trees and cacti and playground equipment out of a Doctor Seuss book.  

Split, from the top of Marjan Park. There are huge mountains further east (left) and Italy is about 150 miles to the west (right) across the sea

As we made our way back down from the park we decided to take a different route, through the woods and back into the city from the other side of the park. We got a bit lost after seeing the sea and walking towards it, without realizing that we were on a peninsula and were walking towards the wrong coastline. After failing to get directions from a lady who looked more witch than human, we suddenly found ourselves right back in the middle of the city, with absolutely no idea how we ended up there. We headed back to the hostel, where we met another traveler, Chris, invited him to come out to the promenade for some drinks with us. Split has a beautiful promenade along the beach, which, though fairly empty in the wintertime, was a great place to hang out. Outdoor bars lined the promenade, situated under umbrellas and tents with portable heaters to stay warm. It was a great atmosphere and we hung out for several drinks, getting to know Chris and drinking the free Rakija (Croatian moonshine) shots that the bartender kept bringing.

The Split promenade

                The next day we spent walking around Split, visiting an art museum, drinking ridiculously cheap beer, and we went to a bar at night. Being a Friday, the bar was a bit more packed than it had been the previous night, and we met several interesting locals there. At some point we stumbled back to the hostel, fell asleep, and Zack and Chris left early the next morning to continue south to Dubrovnik. I went the opposite direction, north up to Zagreb, slowly making my way back to Germany where I had left many of my belongings when my internship finished. In Zagreb I couchsurfed with a great host, Dijana, who had just recently moved to Zagreb and was hosting me and one other couchsurfer for her first time there. She told us stories about her travels through the USA and made us an incredible breakfast the next morning. It was a quick visit to Zagreb for me, and the next day I headed north to Ljubljana, Slovenia, which was probably my favorite destination on the trip so far.

To be continued…