Hungary
Budapest is the capital and this was my second time here. This time the stay was in Hotel Danubius Helia at the Karpat Utca, on the banks of river Danubius. You get a view of Margaret island from the hotel rooms. I visited the island on the Day 1 evening, people usually go there for jogging, having alcohol at the restaurant, watching the ruins. There is also a presedved bio diversity, a few animals kept in there covered from all sides.
I took a walking tour on the second day and they take you through: the Parliament, American Embassy, Heroes square, Ruin Bars, the Jewish synagogue
Slovenia
Its a very small country in the Central Europe, part of which also meets the Adriatic Sea in the south. Almost any part can be reached in a couple of hours from the capital: Ljubljana. If compared, the country must be smaller than Indian state Madhya Pradesh.
Unlike rest of the European countries, the capital doesn’t have Tram trains and Subways as public transport. You can only use the local buses. In fact if you’re a tourist, every tourist spot can be covered by walk. Its all within a square kilometer from the main bus station. Preseren Square, Ljubljana castle, Dragon Bridge, National & University Library, Restaurants, Market are the only places that can be visited or are a must visit. You won’t find Starbucks, Subway, KFC et cetera here in the capital. Luckily, we have McD, Pizza Hut, at least for the Vegetarians.
25 minutes of walk to the castle, mostly climbing, you get a very beautiful view of the city from the top. There are multiple entries and exits at the bottom where you can start your climbing. You can also take a Funicular railway for a return ticket of 6 Euros, to avoid walking. I preferred walking because thats what I’ve been doing since last 6 days perhaps to save a few Euros for the remaining tour. I’ve started liking to walk (a lot) now a days. You’ll see a bunch of private restaurants, pretty costly too, on the top part of the castle. This part, privatization at the world heritage sites, I really hate it.
Bled is a beautiful town 55 kimoleters away from the capital. Arriva is the transport company here which takes you there with a good frequency of buses, for every half an hour, charging 13 Euros for return. I had planned for only 1 day for Bled unknowing of its charm. One can spend like a week here if you plan to see it thoroughly. There’s a lake in the middle of the town with a small island which has a church. People usually take local ferries to reach there, the charge is 15 Euros for return. Its a wooden boat and the person ferrying us has to row using the oars in both hands, sounds like bit of a stamina work, right? To add to that, there were around 16 people on the boat.
Vintgar Klamm is a place from where you can start your walk through gorge, to the waterfall alongside the picturesque Radovna river. 2 Euros for a return ticket by bus from Bled and about 30 minutes to reach.
Its a beautiful walk with cold breezes and lushy green forest. You can also go near the water, drink it, sit there for some time unless you are making any risky move.
For solo travellers or not tourists, who do not want to spend a lot on stay, I would suggest booking Turn Hostel in Mala Ulica near the main bus station which is 5 minutes walking distance. They charge around 25 Euros per night plus 3 Euros environment tax. Also all tourist places in Ljubljana are at a walking distance.
Germany
After the beautiful trip of Slovenia, I then took a bus from the main bus station of Ljubljana to Marburg where I’ll be meeting my brother in law. It was a 17 hours of journey by Bus, I had booked a Flixbus through their app, it costed me 53 Euros. The bus was scheduled at 21:05.
The bus was a double decker Flixbus and it was running late by an hour as it had started from Zagreb. To my surprise, Buses in Europe run late too. I hadn’t booked a specific seat number, so boarded and searched for the best available seat for me on the upper half. It doesn’t matter to be seated in last seats in European countries as the roads and speed breakers are smooth enough. More importantly, buses are comparatively comfortable too. I got a window seat exactly above the rear tyre set. It was a semi sleeper and the journey was for the entire night. Phew!!
It reached on time to the Frankfurt bus station at around 9:00 am and I had a connecting bus at 11:00 am to Marburg. I walked in to a nearby hotel to enquire for using the washroom. 1 Euro was the charge. I quickly refreshed myself, enquired for the coffee at the reception but unfortunately they didn’t serve only coffee, I needed to take the entire buffet which I was not in the mood to. I decoded to take a walk around the bus station, it was a big place, with many shops, hotels, tram stations et cetera. I could even see an Indian restaurant across the road, but it would only open after I take my bus to Marburg.
“I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way”
Trip Route:
Mumbai — Vienna — Budapest — Ljubljana — Bled — Ljubljana— Marburg — Munich — Vienna — Mumbai