Final day in Budapest we went to Szcentendre, (St. Andrews), which is just past St. Envelope according to Donna. At least that was her translation........Neat little town, and had the best junk food ever! Called langos, they're deep fried yeast bread things----piping hot with tons of different things you can add. We chose to have ours plain, and it was incredible. (had we not just had lunch----and now I know what chicken paprika should be) I'd have had five or six more.
Back to Budapest---20 minute train ride--- and we decided to go to a restaurant close by called Grappa. We were there the day before for a glass of wine and someother people ordered a plate for two that looked incredible. We figured that we'd make it our last good dinner in Budapest. Donna ordered a salad and i ordered fish and chips. Donnas iceburg lettuce with a slice of tomato and two olives, and my fish sticks and french fries (previously frozen) sucked. We had a good bottle of wine and that was it.
No more big cities for us. From this point on, we're going to do small cities till we get back to Nice. Big cities have a lot to offer, sights, history, museums, etc, but without a GPS, it's virtually impossible to find anything. It takes us as long to find where we are trying to go as it does to get there. While in Budapest, there was street construction beneath us, starting at seven in the morning, and a constant barrage of sirens and car alarms. Not to mention the horns........
Got to the motorway about ten and were heading for Lake Bled and the Juhlian Alps. Couple hours into we changed our minds and headed for Plitzvica lakes. We were there about five or six years ago, and knew the hotel where we stayed then. Found it, and took a room. After about five minutes we changed our mind and "checked out". Going back is often times not the same as the first time. The first time we were there, after driving up from Dubrovnik, we would have stayed in a tent if they had a restaurant and a bar. This time we went back and it wasn't the same..............it hadn't changed since the last time. Dated. (Turns out that this was the "park" hotel----run by the government for a long time, and one of the only places to stay) We ended up about a mile away in a brand new hotel (five months) for the same price. Marble floors, new beds, great shower, well worth the expense.
Did Plitzvica this morning. This IS the most beautiful natural area in the world, that we've ever seen. Donna's posting picture tomorrow and every one is from a different place. Though they may look alike, not one of them is the same area. You walk on boardwalks, directly over streams and waterfalls that are as clear as glass. You can see the bottom form anywhere. The fish can be seen everywhere. Trees that have fallen in are preserved like petrified wood. All the water is filtered through travertine, which it builds, through moss, and flows from the upper lakes through a series of falls that lowers about five hundred meters from the upper lakes to the lower. It's very hard to describe this place. I can't do it justice. Renee sent me a card today that showed autumn------the pictures Donna took today are autumn. We originally went on the two hour walking trail, which I didn't quite read right and we ended up on the six hour trail, which we managed to do in four hours.
Leaving there we messed up and took five hours to go about four hours worth of diving. We are in Rovinj, on the Adriatic. It's a three day weekend in Italy and this is where the Italians come for cheap vacations. the hotel is large, and fully booked. There must have been a thousand italians going through the buffet tonight, which makes for good people watching, but the wild children offset the fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment