Ljubljana - ctd.

Day two Ljubljana, we wandered a bit through town.  We had seen most of the things in the historic part of town so we didn’t spend too much time out and about. We decided to take an early bus to Lake Bled so that we could get ourselves settled in town when it was still light out.  It was easy enough to get things figured out, though when I first asked about train times, they gave me a schedule and failed to mention that the train station is actually 2km out of the actual town of Bled.  Not good, so we ended up using the bus system instead.  In my infinite wisdom, we sought out the lockers at the train station, knowing we’d have to return to catch our trains in a couple days, and we left two bags there for two days.  It was nice not to have to worry about the extra pieces while we trekked around Slovenia.  We purchased bus tickets, got some drinks and waited for our bus.  We had all our luggage with us since we were staying in Bled for two nights, so that was a bit cumbersome – but when we got to the bus, the driver helped us load it under the bus.  It was just over an hour to Bled, not really a long trip, but a scenic one.  Slovenia is a beautiful country – I really think everyone should get there at some time in their lives.  At any rate, we got to Bled, and I decided to be proactive, so I opened the luggage door on the bottom of the bus, only to open the wrong one – the broken one.  It raised a bit and then kind of ker-plunked to the right, since it was not connected on the left side at all.  The bus driver high-tailed it out of the bus, and began to yell at me – to be expected I guess.  The funniest part was the man who was seated against the window directly above where I had broken the bus – the look on his face was priceless, translatable in any language “you’re f&@!ed.”  We retrieved our luggage from the correct compartment, and I scurried around the side of the bus station so as to get out of the eyesight of the bus driver.  It seemed to take forever for the bus to pull out and continue on its route, but whatever – shit happens.  

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana was beautiful.  We were staying near the main square in the historic part of town.  We exited our hotel into a shopping district and a pedestrian street lined with vendors and various sculptures.  We decided it would be in our best interest to get some Euros since we no longer were operating with Croatian currency.  I used my Hungarian card and was able to get money easily.  My dad tried – and once he got through the end of the transaction, he realized that he didn’t get any money out.  We stood and stared at the machine for a while wondering what could have just happened, since I got money and he didn’t…  We tried to seek out help to say “we tried to get money, and it said we got money, but we got no money”  which isn’t easy to do in a country as small as Slovenia and – we had no Slovene that any of us knew.  After we didn’t find anyone to help us, we tried a different machine, and it didn’t work again.  I then tried my card that was the same as my parents, and it didn’t work – so we figured it was the card itself, and not necessarily the machine.  We also paid a little closer attention and realized that the machine had said “you have chosen an invalid transaction” so we did not lose any money as they never actually gave any out of the macine.  At any rate, we hit Ljubljana hard since we only had a day and a half there.  We rode the funicular to the top of the hill where the castle is.  The castle itself was not as impressive as others we had seen (or my parents would see on the rest of their trip).  We did enjoy the view and there was a 3-D movie that explained the history of the city.  We continued to wander through the pedestrian walkways and check out the stores along the way.  When it started to sprinkle a bit, we decided to duck into a little restaurant and get something small to eat.  Mom ordered the “best” bean soup she has ever had – and even I liked it – so it was that good.  We also tried the local beer and a glass of wine.  After lunch we wandered again, and I decided to get my haircut.  There should be an entirely separate blog titled “never let a non-English speaking, tool belt (holding hair clips, combs and scissors) wearing, mullet sporting Slovenian cut your hair after you’ve been drinking”  It didn’t end well for any of us – let me tell you.  I definitely walked out of there with Euro-bangs.  If you don’t know what “euro-bangs” are, they are basically asymmetrical starting in the upper left of my forehead and getting longer to the lower right – and while I’ve had my hair cut like this before, I’ve never had them start as short as these did.  At any rate, we met for dinner and had a nice evening out.  After a few glasses of wine, I began to reminisce about the perceived “deprived childhood” that I didn’t really have, but when you’re young and don’t get your way, you feel like you’re deprived.  Many of the situations were strictly me being a baby about things, but when re-told as an adult, the way I perceived things was not only skewed, but funny.  

Coffee...

One sidenote I forgot to mention, is the coffee in Europe.  I have never been a coffee drinker.  I am a cold caffeine girl – so Diet Coke is for me.  However, my dad has been a coffee drinker for about 100 years, and that wasn’t going to change once he arrived in Europe.  Now, he doesn’t go for the fru-fru frappuchinos or any sort of flavored coffee – he likes it just as regular coffee with a little cream in it.   Europeans, on the other hand, like it strong and thick- lots of espresso like drinks in Europe.  So, when my dad first ordered a Euro-coffee (incidentally at McDonald’s) was he in for a surprise.  He’s gotten used to it, a bit – or when he orders a coffee, just puts a ton of cream in it.  He has embraced the caffe latte – (is that what it’s called, or am I just thinking of the resturant in St. Paul)… at any rate, he’s gotten a bit used to it – but my most entertaining coffee day was our first morning in Ljubljana.  We were at a hotel that served a nice breakfast.  He had prepared a plate and was in search of a beverage.  Once he located the machine that seemingly delivered coffee, the adventure began.  He looked up and down at the choices, and finally decided on one.  He pushed the button next to the choice he wanted, and waited.  He wasn't sure if his drink choice had finished or not, so we got the lean down and look - and since he wasn't satisfied with the amount of coffee dispersed, he pushed the button and made himself a double... after he finished filling his cup, he decided to put some sugar in his coffee - the adventure continues... see last picture.  It took a bit to get those sugar chunks out :)

Rovinj

The next morning, we decided that we were going to go on a “glass-bottomed” boat ride.  We didn’t end up seeing all that many fish, but it was a nice way to get out and around the 13 islands of Rovinj.  The weather was beautiful again- and we enjoyed our time on the water.  We were able to take nice pictures of the town and landscape that we were experiencing, and I enjoyed the time in the sun.  We finally broke down and bought internet time from an internet café – one of the three of us was dying without her internet (mom).  It was a bit problematic because for some reason, the signal on my parents’ computer is weak, so they had to be in the right spots to be able to connect.  Mom was happy that she got to catch up on some e-mails and such, so we all were happy. 

 

We ended up taking the bus back to Zagreb rather than a bus and train (and it saved us four hours)  We caught an evening train to Ljubljana, and were on our way again…  the ride to Ljubljana was only two hours, and dark by the time we got there, but it was some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.  The water was a light greenish color, and there were trees in bloom, mountains and lots of cute little villages scattered about on the hillside.  We got in a little bit earlier this time, closer to 9 o’clock, but still too late to be roaming around a city looking for where you are staying.   We got settled in and prepared for the next day in Ljubljana.  

Views of Rovinj

We headed up to the church that sits atop the island to look out at the scenery, and I encountered the scariest stairs of my life.  I have never been officially scared of heights – I just would rather be on solid ground.  My dad used to be paralyzed by heights, I just get a little woozy – but these stairs – 188 of them – were the most terrifying thing I have ever done.  I don’t think my dad could have made it up two staircases of them let alone to the top.  It was quite a view once I was up there, but I didn’t even try to hid the fact that I was scared out of my mind.  It was worth the 10 Kuna, but man, it was scary- plus it didn’t help that I had all that liquor prior to starting my journey up the stairs.  Anyhow…

We had a nice dinner that night – with the best risotto carbonara any of us had ever had.  It was cheesy and smooth and for sure not good for you, but delicious none-the-less. 

Rovinj, Croatia

We woke up bright and early the next morning in search of breakfast, and found that most European cities don’t actually serve breakfast, it’s either ice cream or coffee.  We finally found some croissants but we made a note to self to purchase some breakfast things on our own.  Dad had a coffee – which I’ll comment on later, and mom dad pudding in a cup.  They called it cocoa, and I LOVE it, but she wasn’t thrilled with her melted candy bar in drink form.  We walked to the bus station to try and figure out what time was best to leave on Monday – since Sunday was Easter, and Easter Monday is a holiday here too, we weren’t sure if the bus lady would be there or not.  We purchased tickets back to Rijeka and were set to go exploring.  Rovinj reminded me a bit of Venice in that there are narrow streets with tall worn buildings towering over these almost alley-ways, but other than that, Rovinj is a place of its own.  We walked around and did some shopping – more linens of course – and we got some postcards and such.  We had a nice lunch and then roamed some more.  I stopped at a place that sold liquor, I had some wine purchases to make, and I wanted some of the Croatian version of palinka – to give as a gift – I want nothing to do with it.  After a glass of wine at lunch, and three samples of the fruit brandy that is Rakija I knew it was going to be an early night. 

In Zagreb for the day

Zagreb was dubbed the “most beautiful European city” my mom has ever seen.  We got in late on Thursday night and didn’t see anything then, but the next day was full of a quick tour before a 12:30 departure.  There were flowers in bloom, sun shining, and lots of people out enjoying the weather.  There was a large flower market, and fresh fruit and vegetable market too.  You could tell my dad was itching to get in his garden back home – to see if he could produce such fine fruits and vegetables.  Mom got suckered into buying some linens, the first of many, but it’s a pretty table cloth type thing that is really different so I’m glad she did.  We went in the big Catholic church, and since it was Good Friday, there were people lined up almost out the door to go to confession.  We caught a train to Rijeka and then had to get a bus from there to our destination town of Rovinj, Croatia.  It was a bit of a long day as we didn’t arrive to Rovinj until about 10:30 and then had no idea where we were going, but we made it alive and it was worth the haul.  Unfortunately we announced our arrival by clattering our luggage along the marble cobblestones (can you have cobblestones made of marble or are they just marble stones then?) anyway we were loud getting to our apartment in Rovinj, but we couldn’t help it.  

Trek to Zagreb, Croatia

We had one scare while traveling to Zagreb, well my mom had a scare, I knew we were fine.  We stopped at some random city for quite a period of time.  We felt the clanging of cars changing, and potentially the engine changing but we thought nothing of it, until we started to move, in the direction we came from.  We all looked at each other, and my mom instantly panicked.  “I’m going to go see what’s going on – I’ll check out the other cars.”  When she got to the end of our car, all that was there was an open window out to nothing – the engine and dining cars were gone.  I assured her that it was okay, and we double checked the door to make sure it said “Zagreb” on it – sure enough it did.  Rookie travelrs…

Leaving Hungary

Thursday morning, we packed up and headed to Budapest to catch a train to Zagreb.  Boo knew something was up since we were all packing our stuff together – but she would be in good hands for the next week or so.  Justin had agreed last minute to come over and check on her every now and again to make sure she survived while we were away.  It was a challenge to get all the luggage up and down the stairs and to Budapest again.  Thankfully, three of the suitcases were filled with stuff for me, so that load was dealt with- though I put some things to take home in one of them.  At any rate, the load was a bit smaller for our big trip.  I put mom in charge of making the sandwiches for the train – after all, what kind of semi-Hungarians would we be if we hadn’t packed sandwiches for our trip?  She decided that it would be a good idea to put the butter and cheese in the break, and then we could take the salami and ham with and decide which kind we wanted as we made our sandwich.  We packed beverages and other snacks to tide us over on the 6 hour train ride to Zagreb, Croatia.  Of course, later when we went to eat the sandwiches, we couldn’t find the meat or tomato that mom had “packed”.  I’ve never liked cheese sandwiches, and I still don’t – but it was all we had… cheese, butter and bread.  We were sad Hungarians.  When we got to the train station, the woman in Tata saw my Eurail pass and her first question was “what’s this?”  Oh jojj… we were in trouble.  You had to validate the pass before you started, and I wasn’t sure what to do.  To save the hassle, I just bought three tickets to Budapest and we were on our way.  On the first train, we ended up in first class – because it was right inside the door and a full train.  One of the girls from my school was in the car with us, so when we got scolded she was there to help us.  We arrived in Budapest about 20 minutes late, which was close to when our train was leaving.  We still had to have our passes validated and so we headed to wait in line.  When it was finally our turn (approximately 8 minutes before our train was to leave) a woman cut in front of me and said, “they already called my number and I missed it.”  Not about to miss our train, I replied with a firm “yes, but we waited in line- you’ll have to go after us” and pushed her out of the way.  We got to our train and settled in just in time for departure.  

Back to School!

Tuesday and Wednesday involved my parents coming to school to visit.  They were the guest speakers in 5 of my classes, and all of the students were eager to meet them.  Some groups more shy than others, it seemed like my 9^th graders took the cake in terms of most involvement in discussion.  Though, “party Peter” as I call him in my 11^th grade class, threw out a classic line as the first question of the hour, “could you please tell us some compromising facts about Carla’s teenage years?”  Direct quote – ask my parents.  The only thing they could come up with was the fact that a neighbor girl and I took our our conversion van and drove it to the Tom Thumb about a mile away to get candy.  If that’s the worst of my teenage rebellion, that’s pretty good I think.  Tuesday afternoon we took an eventful trip to Tatabanya.  My parents had gone “fix-it” on my apartment and were repairing little things left and right.  My mom was cleaning things and my dad was putting new wheels on things – so a trip to the hardware store was in need.  It took us a while to get our bearings as the language was still an issue, but we eventually left with parts for a new wheel, screens for my windows, a grill and other small things to spruce up the place.  It was a productive but tiring day.  

Mom and Dad in Tata

Monday was a lazy day – I don’t have to be to school until 10 on Mondays- so we had a nice long morning and mom and dad walked me to school.  They continued on exploring Tata – and getting lost (though some Hungarian helped them – nice people the Hungarians are).  A colleague of mine had invited us over for dinner that night.  Erzebet – whose house I’d been to once before for a meal – told us to be there by 7.  In the fashion of Hungarian gift giving, we had purchased a beautifully made boquet of flowers earlier that day and were dutifully hauling them along with us to her house.  We were quite a bit early, so we headed “around the block” – noting after the fact that Hungarians don’t do “blocks” like we do, and almost ending up late for dinner.  However, my parents were able to see a number of interesting vegetation, home structures and other notable things along the way, so it was nice.  Erzebet served Hungarian gulyas, and a pasta dish.  It was delicious.  The interesting thing about dinner, was about 45 minutes after we got there, a Transylvanian woman showed up with a duffel bag full of her linen wares.  Now, this was a last minute dinner that Erzebet invited us to, so there is no way that the Transylvanian woman was there specifically to sell us stuff, but it felt a bit awkward at first.  Finally we decided to buy a few things, and we learned more about the region of Transylvania (which once belonged to the Hungarians) in the process.  It was a nice evening.  

Sightseeing in Budapest

Sunday we returned to Budapest to do some sightseeing.  We were grateful that we didn’t have to haul the luggage again- it was just things necessary for the day.  We took a “hop-on, hop-off” bus tour and it gave the overview of the city of Budapest.  I thought it was a nice tour- we could have gone on it longer I suppose, but with such little time in BP, it was the best option for us.  Unfortunately, one of the stops that I decided we should get off at was the funicular.  I have wanted to ride this since I got here, and no one I’m with ever wants to.  So, today was going to be the day.  We got off the bus and I marched triumphantly to the ticket booth to purchase tickets – only to read that it was closed for upgrading or something like that.  WHAT!?!?  Our next destination was on castle “hill” – the hill upon which the Buda castle resides… so the only choice we had was to hoof it up the stairs.  My parents conveniently found some things to “stop and admire” along the way – so it wasn’t that bad.  

Quick morning in Budapest

We wandered around admiring the architecture (and trees, and garbage cans, and man holes – my parents don’t seem to get out too much) of Budapest and happened on the Spring Market in one of the squares. We were able to look at a lot of kitschy stuff (none of it really screaming “I’m a Hungarian craft”) and tried the kulacs bread (the picture is of my mom and the bread) that I have been describing to my mom for months. I was really pleased that they were able to try it. We got to bed early since they were tired from traveling, and we had to get up and do it again the next morning. Saturday morning, we were up and on a train to Tata by 9:30. We managed to get the luggage in and out of the train station, up and down escalators, on and off a train, and up and down the Tata station stairs. It was quite a haul. Once we were in Tata, we relaxed at my apartment for a while – though Boo didn’t really get a chance to relax since my dad was there – and then headed to lunch. We ate at the pirate bat – for those of you who are diligent readers, I have mentioned the pirate bar both with affection and distaste before several times. We met my friend Megan, and two new friends, Justin and Riley (John) there for lunch. Justin and Riley are two of the American soldiers stationed in Tata until their deployment to Afghanistan in July. It was nice – my dad got to talk army, my mom got to talk with Megan and we had a nice meal. It's early to be saying this, but I think Justin and I are hitting it off - he told me after meeting my parents that he wanted to have dinner with just me if I had time. It was cute how nervous he was to "ask me out." After that, we headed to my choir performance at the castle in Tata. We were singing for the opening of an art exhibit in the castle, beautiful wood carvings done by a man who is inching up on 80 years old. The place was packed – and it was really warm. Thank goodness I’d scored one of the “choir scarves” earlier in the year so I had it to wear! At any rate, it went well – though long – and mom and dad got to meet the choir.

Day one

Friday April 3, 2009 – my parents arrived in Budapest.  I was waiting for them outside the hostel we were staying at (literally a guy’s apartment with empty rooms) and watched as they pulled in from the airport.  They were minus two large bags as a result of them getting misplaced in Amsterdam, but I doubt they would have fit into this car they were in anyhow.  We got the stuff up to the room and almost immediately, my dad started re-arranging things.  There were three single beds, and for the last 36 odd years, my dad has always slept next to my mom.  There weren’t two beds together, so he managed to re-arrange the whole room to make the beds work.  I think the number of times I said “Da-ad…” in the first few hours was out of control – but he started it.  Later that night, our luggage showed up so all was well.  The pictures are of our hostel entryway - though there was quite a convoluted way of getting up to the hostel after you got in the building- and the beds my dad moved.

Back to Reality?

Well I am not even sure where to start – after 2 taxis, 2 boat trips, 2 trains, three buses, 757 miles and three countries, I am back to the homeland (Hungary).  It has been an exciting trip, and lucky for my parents, they still have 10 days left.  Maybe not lucky for my mom since my dad has been like a kid in a candy shop observing lots of things, but not paying attention to many things… at any rate, we departed ways at the Ljubljana train station on Friday, me for Budapest and them for Garmisch via Munich.  I’ll try and begin my blogs with their arrival to Budapest, but I’m only going to give the highlights.  I’m sure my mom will tell many of you the stories in person (though I can pretty much guarantee my version will be better – and more often than not, more accurate) J

here and alive

Well - after trains, buses and taxis, we're in Ljubljana - and loving it.  We had a few rocky moments, but thus is the adventure in a "Staffa family vacation" - minus two of the family members.  For once, I was not the one in trouble- my mom was (of course) right, but since my dad is never wrong, I couldn't really see how this was going to end - other than in possible chaos.  At any rate, we're going to check out Ljubljana and I'll write more tonight.

Some pics from the first few days...

These are some pictures of mom and dad's first few days in Hungary.  The top picture is them in one of my classrooms talking to students.  The next one is taken on the Buda side, looking over the Danube to the Parliament building.  Next is them and Megan on the small tourist train in Tata, followed with them and me after my choir performance in the castle.  The last two are from Budapest, at the spring market and then atop St. Stephen's Basilica looking out to Parliament again.  

They're Here!

So my parents are here in Tata visiting for the next few weeks. They have had a good time so far seeing Budapest, meeting the choir, having lunch with Megan and some of the American Soldiers who are in town- one I've taken a particular liking to :) - he was so nervous to meet my parents he he!! They have toured my scenic city, ridden the super fun green train, and will be show and tell at school tomorrow. We'll put up some pictures soon!!