Europe
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Thermal Baths
Budapest apparently has the most thermal baths of any major city. We decide to check one out on Thursday. Szechenyi pool has outdoor pools and indoor hot tubs, saunas, and steam rooms. All the pools have different temperatures, most are between 25- 35 degrees. The saunas and steam rooms are also heated to different temps. The hottest sauna we see is set to 60-70 degrees! On a hot day, the pools are an excellent way to stay cool. We test out several baths and pools and leave when our fingers turn all wrinkly.
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Budapest, alive at night
Budapest is hot and sunny during these long June days. We spend the days wandering various parts of the city. Up and down Kiraly Utca, where our hostel is centrally located, we branch off into the side streets to find restaurants and cafes. Two streets over is Andrassy Utca, the main street in the city that connects all the way to Hero’s Square. Budapest is actually made of two halves: Buda to the West of the river and Pest to the East. The Buda side is cute, lots of smaller narrower streets with colourful buildings lining the sides. The Buda hills contain the castle, Matthias church and the Fisherman’s Bastion…
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Denmark vs. Germany
Second day in Copenhagen and I am loving this beautiful city. The core is incredibly compact and very walk-able. Bikes are everywhere…according to Carter, who’s studying geography/urban planning, CPH is a global leader in making the city bike friendly; everyone wants to “Copenhagenise”. We spent the afternoon doing a free walking your, organise by a group called Sandemans. The guides are all young volunteers, essentially, working for tips only. Our guide is Rosie, a Brit who’s been living in CPH for about a year and a half. Her full time gig is an internship as a copywriter at an agency. She’s a great guide and gives us a brief history…
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When everything goes wrong
We had plans to spend all day Wednesday in Stockholm, sight see, wander around, and then have dinner at a well rated restaurant where I had made a reservation ages ago. Carter booked us onto the Swebus to Stockholm. We take the #2 Flogsta bus to Uppsala centre, then board the bus for the 1 hour journey to Stockholm. Once we get into Stockholm, we walk along the water, towards the pier where we plan to buy tickets to a hop-on-hop-off cruise that would take us to all the major tourist stops. Suddenly, I notice Carter frantically searching his pockets and rummaging around in his bag, looking for something. “What…
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Extreme contrasts
Landed as scheduled early in the morning at Arlanda airport and take the train to Uppsala, where I meet Carter. First impressions of Uppsala: there is no one here. Flying from crowded, noisy, dirty, hot, humid SE Asia to cold, quiet, clean, sparsely populate Sweden has been a shock to the system. We spend the afternoon wandering around the centre of Uppsala and visit the main church and some of the main streets. There is hardly anyone around. We take the bus to a lake nearby — still no one around. Carter asks a lady near the lake “is there a beach/sitting area nearby with more people?” “More people?!”…
