Category: Hungary

TRAVEL TIPS: BALKANOLOGY 101 ( DRIVING THRU THE BALKANS)

3/2/2015

We can’t know what’s going to happen. We can just try to figure it out as we go along.
- Morgan Matson | Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

HOW DID WE DECIDE ON A ROUTE?

The Balkan Region has been a dream destination for both of us and seeing this off-the-beaten path region is probably our most favorite trip as couple. As you all know, using trains in this part of Europe is not as easy as the other popular European cities. The main transportation that tourists usually use in this region are buses (train in some parts of Croatia), but as you all know we like do-it-yourself trips, that is why we decided on renting a car to see the best of the Balkans. We wanted to give you a few tips on driving around this region, since we only found a few blog sites that offer this kind of perspective.

WHY DID WE RENT A CAR?

We truly love the freedom of the open road and always enjoyed road trips. First of all, we rented a car for convenience. If we drive a rental car, we can take as much time on tourist spots we want to see and stop wherever we want to stop. We wanted to make every moment and every part of our trip an adventure. We do not want to rely on regimented itinerary of group tours, or to follow bus schedules and we end up hurrying + scared of being late if we miss a bus. In this way, we can tailor our trip as much as we like and we can be flexible for unexpected happenings. For instance, we were suppose to see Plitvice Lakes National Park and stay there for 2 nights but instead heavy rains welcomed us, and it was pointless to see Plitvice Lakes in this condition (see here why we did decide to see it). Instead, we only stayed for 1 night and drove to Slovenia a day early than expected. For more details, click here.

We patterned our trip with Topdeck Travel's Balkan Itinerary but removed some places we did not want to see, and added a few more stops we are interested in. We are also inspired by Souvenir Chronicles about driving around the Balkans by car and they were very nice to answer our initial questions about driving a rental car around this area.

When I started searching about this trip like - how the roads are, especially driving thru Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, appropriate visas, border crossings and checkpoints or other important parts of the road trip we wanted to know, there's only a few blogs that discusses it in detail how is it really like driving this region. Below is our Balkan road trip map, I deleted some of the stops we did, but only pinned the major cities of the countries we've had the pleasure of driving. We did the Balkans for at least 18 days and added Budapest and Krakow at the beginning and end of the trip (total of 25 days).

Our Balkan Itinerary

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BEGINNING AND END (Budapest, Hungary)

9/20/2014

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The world would not be in such a snarl, had Marx been Groucho instead of Karl.
- Irving Berlin

Budapest is the beginning and the end of our road trip around the Balkans. Our drive of almost 5 hours, from Ljubljana to Budapest was bittersweet, it only means that our trip was coming to an end.

We returned our rental car in Budapest because we did not want to pay an astronomical fee just to be able to drop off the car in a different location. We also extended our trip to Krakow and Budapest was a good base to catch the bus to Poland. On our way back to our hotel in Budapest, we stopped by Memento Park.

If you grew up during the Cold War period (outside of the USSR), it would be worth your while to make a stop at Memento Park that has about 30 massive communist era statues. I was about 13 when the wall fell, so my experience of the cold war was gained from watching 80’s movies. Nonetheless, the statues are very striking. Outside of Russia, this is probably the only place where you can still see a larger than life statue of Lenin. Politics aside, the craftsmanship of the statues are impressive. However, the site is located farther out from Budapest city proper, and if you don’t have a car, you will probably spend more time getting there than it takes to see everything inside.

Our recommendation - If you are really interested in the Cold War, then its worth the trip. If not, then your time will be better spent closer to town.

- Brock

Categories: Europe, Hungary, Balkan Road Trip

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BREATHTAKING BUDAPEST! (Budapest, Hungary)

8/24/2014

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"I'm grateful for all the travels included in my life and the person
who have been part of them. It's good for the soul."

This trip was supposed to be CANCELLED because of certain unforseen events BUT finally, the stars aligned, and this dream has pushed through. We love going to Europe and we always miss traveling there. After our Scandinavia, Russia and Iceland trip in 2012, we said to ourselves, that the Balkans should be the next on our list and some parts of Eastern Europe that we haven't been.

Budapest is our point of entry to start our Balkan road trip. I have never been to Budapest and Brock has been there once, when he backpacked Europe several years back, I have heard so many good things about Budapest, mainly because Brock's dad is best friends with a guy from Hungary. So it was an easy choice for us, to start our Balkan adventure here and it's the easiest country that we can fly into from South Korea. Also, it's about time for me to discover and meander around this charming city.

We booked our hotel around Castle Hill area mainly because we wanted to get a picturesque view of the Danube River from morning till night. And that was a great move for us, we definitely saw the sun from dusk till dawn. We saw the sky enveloped the Danube River with awesome colors and boy it was a magnificent view, considering it's just from our hotel window!

The best way to explore this city is on foot. Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion was just near our hotel and it was our first stop. Walking around the cobbled streets of Castle Hill, you can see the Royal Palace and charming buildings. Down the hilly side, we took a Hop On- Hop Off Bus (HOHO) to explore the other part of the city so we can reach areas that is quite far from our hotel.