Tag: Travel

Recently I’ve visited Portugal for the first time in my life. The everlasting Dutch off-season makes one long for sun, and where else in Europe can you secure a sunny place, except maybe the Canaries? This spring in Europe is particularly poor, full of floods and cold, so Portugal appears to be the best option for the continental part.

We’ve decided to go for its south coast, the Algarve region. Where the Atlantic Ocean, endless beaches, real waves and the edge of the world are. But first things first.

Warning: tons of photos under the cut!

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The story I’m going to tell you this time is not about how a Russian sees Europe, but the other way around. I’ve been in my home city Tyumen for two weeks, and it’s noteworthy (although logical) that after three years in Holland I’m noticing now more peculiarities in Russia than there.

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On our last day, (morning, to be precise), we decided to visit St. Stephen’s Basilica (Szent István-bazilika), a famous Roman Catholic cathedral.

On our way to the cathedral I spotted an interesting mechanism at a building yard:

A constructor tried to explain me in signs that I wasn’t allowed to photograph there, but I pretended to not understand Magyar signs.

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We borrowed a city guide from our Viennese friends (in German, of course).

So imagine, a Russian and a Dutch in Hungary, at the metro station “Moscow square” (Moszkva tér), speaking English, try to find their way using an Austrian guide printed in German.

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Our accommodation in Budapest was luckily very affordable. It was a two bedroom apartment near the city center, built in the mid twentieth century—with high ceilings, spacious and cozy (we wouldn’t have chosen for worse, yeah).

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Budapest is the capital of Hungary (honest). Hungary is a part of the EU (which Hungarians are undoubtedly proud of, because of the number of EU flags hung out everywhere). But it isn’t part of eurozone, which was a complete surprise for me. They have their own currency called forint, and you exchange it at the rate of one kilo 260 for one euro. Because of that, you usually count them in thousands (1000 HUF ≈ 4 EUR).

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Train ticket from Vienna to Budapest is about € 35. Railjet trains look modern and hi-tech. It is equipped, as we were told, with 80 displays, which try hard to keep us, the passengers, duly informed. Some 40 in one direction:

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Schönbrunn palace

The Schönbrunn palace is situated in the Schlosspark (which simply means “castle park”) and is one of the best spots in Vienna.

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We proceed in the direction of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Restless Austrians demand freedom of religion (as though they lack for it):

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Vienna

To cut a long story short, we landed in Vienna, we were warmly welcome right in the airport and transferred to the city. Austrians speak Austrian German, which I can barely understand, but is no problem for my Dutch fellow: he understands it fairly well and can speak it to a certain extent (that is, it’s advisable to have a Dutch fellow traveler in Austria).

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