Bucharest and Brasov, Romania

Feeling adventurous, my lovely friend Kaitlin and I decided to take on another weekend of travel immediately following our spring break excursions. Bucharest is a city I had looked into while I was planning spring break but decided I didn't have the time to see it then, though we were both curious about Romania so we decided to take a weekend to go explore.

Since we were both coming off spring break travels, we approached the weekend from more of a vacation standpoint than a travel standpoint. (This whole semester is travel, but we had a very relaxed weekend and that's how I would distinguish it). Here are the highlights from out trip:

Our hostel - probably the best hostel I've stayed at in Europe so far because of its small, more family style environment that reminded me of hostels I'd stayed in last semester. They even had their own tea room where we were able to enjoy tea and play with their cats.

City tour - Romania as a whole has a lively history, complete with Dracula and a dictatorship that ended in 1989. Highlights from the tour: the house of parliament is the 2nd largest government building in the world, second only to the pentagon in the USA, and nearly 55% is underground. Of the part that is above ground, only around 30% is used and the rest is rented out as event space. Its a massive and beautiful building, however the government (dictatorship) evicted people from their houses to build it and relocated them outside the city, so it doesn't have the best history.

Parliament - this doesn't even do it justice

Lovely open spaces in the city

Old and new

Moving churches - during the time that the country was under dictatorial rule and people were moved from their homes, the plan was also to destroy around 40 churches in the surrounding area to make room for the parliament building. One of the architects, though, had the brilliant idea to "simply" move the churches by pouring cement under them and rolling them on train tracks they had built specifically to move them to other locations. Don't ask me for specifics, that's all I know, but it's an interesting story, and explains why there are so many random beautiful churches surrounded by much newer looking buildings. The churches have a very distinct architecture and I thought they were all so beautiful.

Thermal baths - I don't remember the last time I felt so at peace and pampered. The picture below is from the internet because I didn't have my phone on me in the pools but I wanted to convey how incredible this place is. The water is naturally heated and the complex is huge, complete with water slides, spas, indoor/ outdoor pools connected by a revolving door in the water, and bars in the middle of some of the pools. We went at night (incredibly fun) and spend several hours going down slides, wading in the pools, enjoying the jacuzzies, and meeting all sorts of people. If you are in Romania, go.

                               

Brasov - we took a brief day trip to a town in the middle of the Transylvanian alps, Brasov. The train ride through the alps was lovely, but I was surprised there wasn't more snow. The town is divided between a very industrialized downtown and the historic city center, which is where we spent our time. We walked through its winding streets, climbed up above the city to an old fortress-turned-lookout point, rode the tram up the town's imposing hill, and mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the sun. I would love to explore more of this region.

Train through the alps

Main Square

Aside from this our time was filled with good conversation with friends made at the hostel, various meals (some Romanian, others not), and time out enjoying the sun and relaxing in some of Bucharest's beautiful parks.

It was a great weekend with a laid-back pace that both of us needed and appreciated. Bucharest was very urban, much like the other large eastern European cities I visited over break and filled with a young, alternative vibe. Again, it's surprising (and relieving) how many people can speak English, however much like our time in Rome, it discourages us from absorbing as much of the language. We weren't going to manage conversational Romanian in one weekend, but we didn't even have to try as almost everyone could speak to us in English. We are happy to have this be true, but we also recognize English fluency as an immense privilege that we have and with this we have been trying our best to not go around relying on English to get us where we need to go and instead try to at least learn hello/goodbye/ please/ thank you in other languages. And we use our limited Italian when we are out in Italy. However, being able to go all of these places and use English has been really impressive and easy.  Language observations aside, Romania is a very beautiful country (or at least what we saw over the course of 3 days) and I would love to go back and explore more of the countryside and learn more about its culture.

Vienna and Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg, Austria

(I'm behind on posts, life is busy as usual, but I have several more trips to post about soon!)

After my quick stop over in Slovakia, I took a quick (1.5 hours) bus to Vienna to explore Austria's capital city for a couple of days.

Vienna is huge - I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was slightly overwhelmed by the city just in its scope. That aside, it's an incredibly beautiful place and I was taken aback by the pure beauty of the architecture and the open spaces around the city.

During my time in Vienna, I was able to visit a couple markets, the famous and slightly tourist Naschmarkt and a lesser well-known, more local market in a different area of the city. I tried some of the cheese and olive samples given to me, but by far the best food I had was a sausage from one of the many stands around the city.

Market hopping

I also took a couple of tours, one walking and one on "kick-bikes" where I learned a little about Vienna's history, and, on the latter, saw lots of street art and a few more local neighborhoods.

Kick-bikes take Vienna 

Street art of Vienna

I took most of my time in Vienna to wander around the city and admire its beauty, and took a little down time for myself as well. I wish I had planned more time there to see the museums and go to an opera because I heard both are phenomenal. I'd like to go back when I'm older, maybe around Christmas time because of the famous Christmas markets, and I can check these off my bucket list then.

One of Vienna's many museums 

Government building, I was just impressed with the architecture

Famous cathederal

Just wandering

After some time in Vienna, I took a beautiful 3 hour train ride to Salzburg, by far my favorite city aesthetically speaking during my eastern Europe adventure. Like most European cities, the town has a river running through it, and on one side sits the old, more historic part of the city while the other side, though still charming, is a little newer. I don't know what else to say besides that the town is so beautiful and no picture will convey how lovely it really is. The architecture is simple and white with blueish-green basilicas dotting the landscape, plenty of open spaces, a large castle on a hill overlooking the town, and all of this surrounded by the gorgeous alps that give the town a storybook type feel.

Such a beautiful city

I toured the castle

Views from the castle

I spent my most of my time wandering the city and exploring its narrow streets. I ended up at a market where I ate some of the most wonderful food I have ever tasted - a krasekrainer, some gingerbread made with honey, and a chocolate pretzel that was beyond description. Salzburg treated me well in the food department.

Wandering

I would add this krasekrainer to the list of top 5 most wonderful foods

Honey gingerbread

mmmmm pretzels

I think my favorite part of the town was this beautiful walking path just below the castle that spanned the hill above Salzburg and provided me with a peaceful walk through the woods and also incredible views of the buildings below. I spent time on wandering this hill both days and it is one of my best memories from break.

I also happened to be staying in the same hostel as a friend that I had made in Budapest a few days earlier, and we decided to take a Sound of Music tour together. It was actually very fun (our hostel shows the film every evening so we watched it the night before to prepare) and we got to tour sights both inside and outside the town, singing the songs along the way. I had no idea that it's based off a true story (did you?) but we got to learn a lot about the real family and "real" story, although the movie for the most part is pretty accurate. The coolest part was that we went a little outside Salzburg into part of the lakes and mountains district and it was stunning. I could have spent a whole other week (or weeks) there exploring these mountains and the picturesque towns within them.

This is a real thing that I did

Peep the mountain behind me squinting

Recognize this house from the movie?

My favorite part of the tour

Time to sit by the water

Church where they were married

And just like that, I was on an overnight train that took me back to Rome as my "Alexis takes on Eastern Europe solo for a week" adventure drew to a close. I could not believe how fast the trip arrived, and even more how fast it went by. Looking back, I could not be happier that I chose to take on this trip solo for my break as opposed to going to the beach with friends or on some student tour. I met dozens of incredible people during these travels because, since I was solo, I was so much more inclined to push myself out of my comfort zone and talk to as many people as possible with the hopes of making a few friends (I ended up with more than a few). While relying on solely myself for the week, especially traveling between so many places, was slightly exhausting, I was sincerely shocked by how comfortable and relaxed I felt through almost every moment. Obviously times like these push me to rely on street smarts, paper (and Google) maps, kind locals, and my own ability to take challenges as they come and make the most out of my time.

Solo travel was so nice in the somewhat selfish sense that I could really do whatever I wanted without having to cater to a group's itinerary. I consider myself somewhat passive in the sense that, when in a group, I will almost always go along with what the majority of the group wants to do regardless of my own preference for the sake of simplicity and to avoid conflict (this can be a bad habit and I'm trying to be more outspoken but that doesn't really have to do with this post). Anyway, my schedule, my preferences. Another interesting concept was going out to eat solo. Most meals were either quick things I ate on the go or pasta made in the hostel, but a couple of times I went to sit down restaurants and treated myself to a nice meal with myself for company. It was actually nice and I usually just observed those around me and planned out what I would do next. Normally I would never think to go to a restaurant by myself, but it really wasn't as scary / loner -esque as it seems.

Overall, while solo travel pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to be almost entirely independent for the week, I am so grateful I was able to have this experience. I met so many wonderful people, saw incredible cities, and realized that while resilience can be tough and not always easy to summon, I am capable of handling so much more than I would ever give myself credit for.

Recently I've been working to distinguish the difference between being lonely and being alone, and how they certainly don't always go together. Spring break I was alone in terms of not travelling with anyone familiar, but at no point did I feel lonely since I was so adamant about making friends and finding community wherever I went. That being said, this was only one week and I met so many solo travelers who had been backpacking for weeks or even months. All the power to them - I admire them and their independence a lot and that is a task I can't hardly begin to imagine.

Everything considered, I hope this long winded explanation accurately conveys how fun, educational (it's true), and encouraging my week of solo travel was. I have so many more stories, experiences, and observations that I simply don't have the time or space to share, but I hope I can catch up with all of my faithful blog followers at some point to give you an even better idea of my travels. Though spring break is over, I have several more travels coming up before the end of the semester that I will be documenting eventually. But for now...so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye!

Bratislava, Slovakia

I wasn't even in Slovakia for 24 hours but wow - it was the gem that I never expected to find. My intention in planning was to stop over between Budapest and Vienna for 1 night just to see what Slovakia's capital was like, but while I was there I seriously debated canceling the rest of my reservations and staying in Bratislava for the remainder of the week. Though I really wanted to be spontaneous and stay, there were a lot of things I was looking forward to in Austria that convinced me to keep to my schedule. However, if you find yourself with an opportunity to go visit the country, go! You won't regret it.

So, since I really only had an afternoon in Bratislava (I took a 3 hour bus ride from Budapest), I basically just walked around the center of the city. The architecture is lovely and the buildings are unique and colorful. I enjoyed some traditional Slovakian schnitzel,

Divine

saw beautiful street art,

explored the area outside the city's castle,

Large castle - hard to get a good picture of the whole thing

Views from the castle

Views from the castle

and just spent time admiring the small but unique city.

My hostel was just through this arch

I loved the colors in this city, if you couldn't tell

I was most surprised by the young and downright cool vibe that the city had. There is a university somewhere around where I was staying, which would explain the multitude of coffee shops, bars, clubs, and cafes that populated the city center. Also, in every shop people would start speaking to me in Slovak which is an incredibly cool language I know nothing about, but when I would respond with a "hello" everyone also had magically perfect English.

I wanted to stay longer to explore the city more and get a better feel for the people there. I also wanted to get outside of Bratislava and explore the mountains and countryside of Slovakia which other people staying in my hostel told me was unreal. So, should I have been spontaneous and stayed? Maybe. But I was also ready to set out for Vienna and Salzburg as well. Slovakia - I'll be back.