I got a fix of nature here. We went on a simple walking trail with Lazlo. And then I spent more time walking through the city looking for plaques and different architecture and notable structures.
And very randomly, I have become obsessed with walking the city area too, knowing I could find all these plaques on random buildings that I found meaningful or just plain interesting. So I continued walking around to take it all in as I walked to the Shoes of the Danube.
Batthyány Eternal FlameShoes at the Danube
John von Neumann’s childhood home (foundational to modern computer architecture)
The View from the balcony of O11.Ken Lum’s pi art installationNaschmarktFoodie tourFrankl’s Post-Concentration camp home
I call Viktor Frankl a philosopher due to his larger questions around the meaning and life.
With what he lived through and who he became after, as a person and true influencer is such a testament to courage and optimism in the face of the worst mankind can offer his fellow man. He is my favorite. It felt like a pilgrimage seeing where he lived that it is definitely something I will cherish as part of this journee, knowing and being able to see the home in which he wrote his published work.
Train travel, Mozart, oh … water closets!?! I get it now.
So train travel … does not work with tons of crap. You have to be able to lug it yourself and make the step up and off the train with it. When you get on the train, look for the baggage area and stick you big bag there, once you get on. Not much fits overhead and there wasn’t room at the seats. A table seat is nice. It gives you a little extra room. Get a reserved seat, pay the extra 3 euro for it. Although non-reserved seats allow you to sit anywhere, 1) it doesn’t allow you to have a seat (especially if it were packed) and 2) if someone reserved the seat you are in … you have to move.
So one of the things I did when I got in was look for an atm. I set up a schwab’s investment checking before I left because they don’t have foreign transaction fees and any extra fees that are listed when I take out foreign currency at a bank location gets reimbursed when they reconcile at the end of the month. I couldn’t beat the way that sounded at all.
Given that I had to find an atm bank and that put me in the middle of a mall walk in the first district and historic city center, Innere Stadt. I saw a crazy amount of people right next to the bank at Hiiich Teddy Cafe, which I guess was a Instagram/TikTok thing?!? It was fun to see the crowd, the musician and I totally bought a teddybear from it, just because.
And then to Wiener Mozart Concert for Vienna Mozart Concerts in Historical Costumes which was a greatest hits of Mozart with Opera singers, too.
And if you noticed above, I shared some pics of the hotel I was staying at, if you saw the photos you may have noticed something missing in them. 😁😉
The toilet.
I swear I was sitting in it in the middle of the night and then it hit me. Oh, wc, water closet. I get it now. In Prague and Vienna all the public toilets had signs that said WC. It all made sense now.
Morning and The Frieze, Train to Budapest, Laundry
I will try to break this down a little more.
This was amazing. It was one of my favorite experiences. I have been paying a lot of attention to trying to understand how each of these places feel to me because I think that it says a lot about what I feel like had meaning to me in my life at this time. This in particular had a story that felt very clear to my personal reflections about life and what I was seeing from all the places. It wrapped it all together nicely.
It was stunning. In a place that was just as impressive.
And then to Budapest.
I cannot even explain how different the two experiences were by train entry. The places felt immediately different.
But it was just different. I would t say unsafe but I mean, Vienna to the city in Budapest. They were different. At first I was worried because the ladies I were with talked about experiences that made me pause and want to be more guarded.
But as you walk the city, it is just that everyone is there, people live there, work there, and visit there in droves, but it is probably the place I met the most people actually from there not just travelers.
So many people walking their dogs! And the dogs were so friendly.
This is the best city to walk. Their are plaques and memorials everywhere that share the history of the place, who lived there and what happened there.
I did laundry and right next to it was the Glass museum. It was the base of operations for Carl Lutz and he saved 10s of thousands of Jewish people from the Arrow Cross during World War II. And this was next to the laundromat 👀
So there are a lot of Asian things here and Asian populations. It all has little idiosyncrasies that make me think, what?!? Like a Japanese Restaurant in the hotel I am staying at on the parking side -2 level.
The oddities are like, kimchi and no japanese whiskey on the menu but they do have inside out rolls, like the California roll. My stream of consciousness is probably just as confusing. Like Cafe Sofa the first full day I was here, matcha, poke bowl, a Fuji-like shaped white chocolate, matcha cake with strawberry compote, plus a Totoro pastry. 👀
Across the street is a Vietnamese restaurant, in general there is so much Matcha, and Korean beauty products at a level that rivals Hawai’i, primarily because I can get them in the regular essential product stores. One thing I have noticed after a few days, KFC seems more popular than McDonalds (also here) and the ladies mentioned Popeyes sitings. I haven’t seen a 7-11 anywhere. I did see a Five Guys, too, though. And of course, Starbucks.
They also have my favorite chocolate brand, Milka. I got excited and then sad. I am trying to control my random omiyage/makana spending, being only the first leg. Crossing my fingers I see them at the other locations also.
And then something that really makes me think of Hawai’i as connected through relevance, how culture and language are normalized here and an important part of identity.
I see it in the way art and the artist and politics are so closely woven and public. Art is everywhere here, generations and centuries of history are a part of every day life. You cannot go a 100 steps in the main areas I have been without seeing ornamentation, an installation, or something that has been intentionally made, so it has a story, and then the edifice retained.
I haven’t met many people from Czechnya. I honestly think, I only met one that self-identified.
Then there is the czech krown and the euro relationship.
General feeling for me, this is a place of perpetual wonder and web weaving.
So it seems like Budapest had a similar feel to me. I went into a Vietnamese restaurant and they had Thai, Chinese and Japanese food, too. It was very confusing to me. I also passed a Thai place and they were all Indian. That kind of made sense because I saw a lot of people from India in Thailand.
So there was not much to understand about Journee before I actually began it. One thing I was most unsure about was whether or not I was going to be with a tour group. I was obviously not sure but once it started, with the first excursion, I heard someone else say they were there with Journee. I walked to to her and asked. She was from Winnepeg, Canada. It was nice to know we would continue to see each other since we were also both doing the beer tasting/hall crawl later that day.
By the end of day, we met another Journee lady from Memphis, Tennessee (originally Ohio). She was delayed so she was hopping on one excursion behind us (they shifted her reservations around a little to accommodate for the missed experience on another day).
At this point we began comparing notes on what we were doing next. The trips mostly matched! And with the beer tasting it was a nice relaxed way to get to know each other.
The next day, it was a given we were a small group. At this point, we saw a couple that we recognized from the day tour that ‘Canada’ and I attended. We rode the bus together to the next destination, comparing notes with them also. They are from Arizona is all I know so far but most of the excursions match.
The ladies are the easy pod though because it looks as if the couple are enjoying time together.
Also, because we all have WhatsApp because of the Journee communications and ease of use for them, we could easily add each other to a group.
One them said, you need to be open-minded and relinquish control to do something like this, and also able to be vulnerable. I like that.
I actually don’t see myself like that but after everything going on this year, I guess maybe it could be what I want. To relinquish control, be vulnerable, and open-minded.
Also, if you get FOMO and try to last minute research all these places to not miss anything, you pretty much stress yourself out. This trip really is about you being in it and your experiences. You have to kind of just let it happen and see what you can. It actually fits me pretty well. I am fine missing stuff, I just liketl to be somewhere and see what it is like in my self-bubble.
Walking distance, Muzeum Literatura, U.S. Embassy on Ronald Reagan Lane, and an underground Japanese restaurant at my hotel.
So today my gma passed. I am very glad I made it a point to take it easier today and stay within walking distance to the hotel. My sister shared the news with me.
I was able to talk with her just that morning and say I loved her but it is surreal to say the least right now.
So I don’t like bus rides that are 2.5 hours long and not in a comfortable bus seat. Because if it is 2.5 hours one way it is 2.5 hours the other way. So five hours is more than half the day just driving.
But …
If you know me, you know my love of animals on trips. Seeing the castle bears was quite special and that super furry dog made my day. I love the table setting of the completely edible dessert made for Castle guests and the overall music hall was beautiful.
I don’t have any photos but today’s highlight for me was Cafe Louvre. It was an intellectual hangout back in the day, notables were many but these are a couple, Kafka and Einstein, I personally liked thinking I was in a place they had been as well.
The Old Town tour, Salvador Dali, Alfons Mucha, and Warhol’s permanent exhibit, David Cerny, three microbreweries, and Bolt.
I typically don’t do things when I travel because I have been inherently lazy to have to figure out what to do. I just want to be lost in a crowd and discover things just by being in the place and seeing something that perks my interest. Journee is not like that for me in all ways.
I have to do stuff. Hilariously, I can say that I also stand out just because I do not have similar features as others on this side of the world, in Central Europe, so getting lost in a crowd is not easy. Not that I am the only one but I am not on tour groups from those other countties either and they would look at me the same way. Yes, they notice me, too. Oh well. I wonder half the time if they are profiling me but tbh, if they are, I am not going to see them again anyway.
But back to some of the things that stand out from today …
There are so many stories, so many pictures (not all of them are here) hidden societies, the astronomical clock, David Cerny art installations like the hanging Freud, more Warhol, the theatre President Vaklav worked at, Kafka’s birthhome, and rising water lines.
But the one story I would like to share is regarding the tiles with people’s name on them in the Jewish Quarter. They are memorials to those that died in the Holocaust at the doorstep of the home they were taken from. Once we were told about it, I couldn’t stop looking for them or even thinkkng of them in other areas on different days.
