Three days in Budapest leaves me Hungary for more

Budapest is one of those cities I feel like I should have visited ages ago but just hadn't got round to. It's like that list of films everyone has that they haven't seen yet, but feel like they probably should have. For example, I've never seen Gremlins or Gone With The Wind... there, I've said it. Don't judge me.

I flew in from Copenhagen (after a three-day work trip there) and made my way to a slightly shabby but excellently located Airbnb right in the centre of Budapest, about five minutes walk from the Danube. Historically, Budapest is two cities merged into one, Buda on one side of the river and Pest on the other. Pest is where most of the action is for tourists, with St Stephen's Basilica, the Jewish district and all the best bars and restaurants.

It also has the Széchenyi thermal baths, the highlight of my visit. Around 30 or more pools of varying sizes and water temperatures, it's a wonderful way to spend a few hours in Budapest. I took the advice I was given to get there early (6am-10am) or late (6pm-10pm) to avoid the crowds in the busiest part of the day, and I was relaxing in one of the larger outdoor pools by 8.45am. Let's face it, I wasn't going to get there for 6am, this was a holiday after all.

On my first morning in the city I went full tourist and joined one of the free (but not really free because you tip the guide afterwards) walking tours. It's one of the best ways to orientate yourself in a new city, learn a bit of history about the place and spot some things to go back to later.

I was only there for three days and could easily have spent another day wandering about the city. But on the other hand it was enough to be left wanting to back again to check out the things I didn't have time for and eat some more tasty Hungarian Goulash.

Budapest's not a bad looking city at night, especially down by the Danube, with bridges and buildings on both side illuminated. This is Széchenyi Chain Bridge.

The Hungarian Parliament Building. The spotlights used to light up some of the buildings attract loads of bugs/moths, which in turn attracts a lot of birds who want to eat them. That's what all the white dots above the building in this photo are.

Standing in front of the Parliament Building.

Matthias Church, over on the Buda side of the river. Photo taken from the Fisherman's Bastion, one of the shortest tourist attractions I've ever paid for. A quick walk round a wall and you're done.

Can't remember where this was (somewhere on the Buda side of the river) but I liked the look of it.

Central Hall Market is busy but you can get some proper Hungarian Goulash in there for a few quid, as well as endless stalls selling paprika-related gifts. Hungarians love the paprika.

I tried out Airbnb 'experiences' and went to see the Secret Swing Concerts of Budapest, with a band that played swing jazz and a lot of Django Reinhardt. Would absolutely recommend if you're in Budapest on a Thursday night.

One of the outdoor pools at Széchenyi thermal baths. There are plenty of thermal baths to choose from in Budapest, and I heard the Gellert is good too, but this is the most famous one.

Another shot of the baths. It was warm and sunny when I was there but the baths are open all year round. It would be cool to go back again on a colder day and see the steam rising off the water.

Chimney cake - a Hungarian speciality. A long cone-shaped cake sprinkled with cinnamon.

The Liberty Statue was erected under Soviet rule in 1947, but when Hungary gained independence in 1989 the locals decided they wanted to keep it.

Shot of Budapest at night from the Liberty Statue's viewpoint, on the Buda side of the Danube.

Up some mountains and stalked by goats in Bulgaria

Hello there. I went to Bulgaria for 10 days at the beginning of October to do a bit of exploring and now I'm going to tell you what I found.

It was odd arriving in Sofia and getting on the metro system, only to see a poster for a snooker match between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby but that's how the trip started. I found myself in a few places with snooker on the TV too, so there's a fact for you about modern Bulgarians: they like a bit of snooker.

Another fun Bulgaria fact is that if you go into a restaurant expecting attentive service with a smile, the majority of the time you ain't getting it. That's not to say waiters are grumpy exactly, but they just care less than you might expect and aren't so fussed about getting a tip. It's oddly refreshing in some way, and was the same in Romania when I went there six years ago.

A lot of people (including Bulgarians) asked me: "why did you choose Bulgaria for a holiday?" Most of the time I said something along the lines of I'd enjoyed Romania so thought I'd give Bulgaria a go or it was a cheap place to visit from the UK or I wanted to do some hiking in the mountains. All of which were true but it's also fun to go to a country where there's a bit of a challenge involved. Bulgaria doesn't have a big tourist industry so you've got to do things for yourself and hope you'll be able to find someone who speaks English at the bus station to point you in the right direction. Which you can, most of the time.

Anyway, enough jibber-jabber, onto the photos...

Sunset from the airplane, as I was flying to Bulgaria. Something Ryanair haven't figured out a way to charge extra for yet.

Rila Monastery was built in 927 AD so it's pretty damn old. I stayed there overnight before heading off into the mountains the next day and it was one of the most peaceful places I've ever stayed at. As you'd expect from a monastery built by a hermit, I guess. They close the gates at 8pm so you have to be done in the restaurant next door before then or the monks might not let you back in.

Luckily I didn't have to set off into the mountains alone but found a couple of  guys from Israel going the same way. Autumn was in full effect at the lower altitudes, as you can see here.

(Some of the photos have a time-stamp on them because I was trying out a new Olfi camera and didn't realise the time-stamp was turned on until it was too late...)

After a mostly ascending six-hour trek up Ivan Vazov, we came to the house we would be staying in for the night. I don't think I've ever stayed somewhere so remote. The only way they could get building materials there was by horse, coming up from the valley below. The menu there was concise - bean soup, bean soup or bean soup. When it snowed and clouded over the next day, visibility out the front door was about 10 metres.

Our shoes (and my socks) were a bit damp but soon warmed up next to the wood burning stove. We thought our six hours was pretty good going until a Kiwi named Scott arrived just before dark, having powered through in about 4.5 hours. Bloody show off. He joined us on the next leg of the trip the following day. 

We weren't sure if the weather was going to let us leave the house the next day but we wanted to get to the Seven Lakes, so off we went. There was still a fair bit of snow on the ground up there but it wasn't too cold as long as we kept moving. 

When we got near the top of a mountain pass it was pretty windy. Enough for the snow on this signpost to be frozen horizontally.

Oh yes, it's an eight-second video. Hit play and be transported to the Rila Mountains. Kind of.

The sight that awaited us when we came down out of the clouds to see the Seven lakes was incredible. Makes a long walk worthwhile.

Ofri, me and Itamal, celebrating reaching the Seven Lakes. You'll notice they look a lot better equipped for mountain hiking than me. That's because they were a lot better equipped. Big thanks to Ofri and Itamal for letting me join them for a couple of days and avoiding freezing in the mountains like Jack Nicholson in the hedge maze at the end of The Shining.

Striking a manly pose on top of a mountain is what I do best.

The day after the mountains, it was on to Koprivshtitsa, a small town but a crucial one in the April Uprising of 1876. You're all familiar with that uprising, I'm sure. In case you're not, it was the one when Bulgaria decided it had had enough of Ottoman rule and kicked off, with the help of Russia.

A Roman amphitheatre in the old town area of Plovdiv. Built in around 97 AD and still used today.  I liked Plovdiv, friendly place. After watching Bulgaria get hammered 4-1 by France in the football, I played table football with some locals and helped them drown their sporting sorrows.

I painting of Plovdiv that I liked in the city's art gallery. Not sure what drew me to it, maybe all the pretty colours. Probably wasn't meant to be taking photos in there but that's the kind of loose cannon, reckless, don't play by the rules, maverick I am.

A lion guards the gates of Tsarevets Fortess in Veliko Tarnovo, northern Bulgaria. This was the next destination after Plovdiv and was a cool little mountain town/city. The fortress was built in the 12th century and was the "tsars medieval stronghold" according to history-types.

A sign on the wall of Tsarverets Fortress. No sitting forwards, no sitting backwards and no ballerinas.

The day after the fortress I went on a hike to Arbanasi. Just a few hours this time and no snowy mountains involved. This photo was taken from a bridge that was roughly the starting point on the walk. Although it took me a while to figure that out because the signposting was a bit sparse. Ended up getting a bit lost and charged at by a massive junkyard dog which was luckily on a leash.

On the way to Arbanasi I got stalked by goats, as the title of this blog so intriguingly hints at. A herd of them decided to follow me. I was a bit worried that I would take them away from their shepherds so had to keep stopping, facing them and sort of waving my arms at them. Which made them stop following for a moment. Then I would turn my back and keep walking and they would follow again. It was a bit like a game of musical statues, but with goats.

Decent view of Veliko Tarnovo from the window of a pizza restaurant called Ego on the high street. The city is built around the Yantra River, which snakes around a bit so there are quite a few dramatic backdrops like this if you have a wander.

On my last night in Veliko Tarnovo I went to a bar called Melon Live Music Club with a couple of guys from the hostel I was staying in. I drank some pretty good beer, the name of which now eludes me, and watched some guys play jazz. Bulgarian jazz is much like English jazz, except you can't understand what they're saying between songs.

I used to love the sitcom Allo Allo when I was a kid, so it pleased me to discover a theatre was doing stage version of it in Sofia. Didn't get to see it, unfortunately, but did discover that the sitcom is a still-popular favourite in Bulgaria. 

Ivan Vazov Theatre in Sofia. Same name as the mountain I climbed, named after a popular Bulgarian poet, novelist and playwright.

An imposing looking statue of Tsar Samuil in Sofia. He ruled Bulgaria in the 10th century and at night the eyes of this statue glow in the dark, which is probably how all great leaders wish to be commemorated.

For the last couple of days of my trip, I was joined in Sofia by none other than Alastair aka The International Gentleman Traveller (IGT for short). Some say if there's a country he hasn't been to then it's probably not really a country at all. Either way, he was excellent company to end my holiday with and we went to a restaurant where there were things like 'Hooded Pheasant' and 'Rabbit killed with gun with expired shooting license' on the menu. I guess they were trying to be a bit whacky but the food was damn fine.

And that was Bulgaria.

Putin on our walking shoes and heading to northern Russia

Ha, see what I did there in the title? Just because this blog doesn't get updated as much as I'd like these days, doesn't mean the pun gun's got rusty.

It was to be ten days of northern Russia. Starting and ending the trip in St Petersburg, we hiked through a forest in Priozersk; camped on the shores of Lake Ladoga; explored the island of Valaam; wandered through Petrozavodsk; walked, cycled and rowed our way around the Solovetsky Islands for four days and met a lot of lovely people.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the UK we get a pretty negative impression of Russia. It's very Putin-centric and the media defines Russia as a nation by the actions of one man. Just imagine if the UK was defined as a nation by the actions of David Cameron? The man is a robotic Etonian sh*t who should be fired out of a cannon into shark infested waters.

The Russia we saw is full of beautiful landscapes, friendly and welcoming folk who love the great outdoors, immense historic monasteries, St Petersburg with as much culture and as many hipsters as any other European city and long summer days in the north where darkness never arrives.

And the banya. Lets talk about the banya. It's a bit like a sauna, but you pour warm water onto hot rocks, which creates very hot steam and increases the temperature of the room to, in our case, about 80 degrees centigrade. When it gets too hot, you get out and take a cold shower or jump in a lake or some snow if such a thing is nearby. But that's not even the best bit. You get to whip each other with birch tree branches. After an hour of hot banya, cold shower, hot banya, cold shower, and a bit of birch branch flagellation I was so relaxed I could hardly move. It was amazing. (A lot of people have remarked that the whipping sounds a bit homoerotic, but take from it what you will...)

Who was I whipping with birch branches? Nick, who I have seen many countries with mentioned on this very blog and Alastair, aka the International Gentleman Traveller or IGT. Some say he's forgotten more about backpacking than you or I will ever know, some say he speaks all the languages of the world including the ancient tongue of the lost city of Atlantis. All I know is, we would have been utterly screwed in the northern reaches of Russia without a Russian speaker. Not to mention the fact that he had an entire travel itinerary lined up for us and an extra tent. Me and Nick owe him big-time for an amazing adventure. 

The pictures below start at day two because day one was mostly just us getting to Russia with a three hour detour to Riga, Latvia caused by the incompetence of Polish Airlines. Although we did have some incredible Georgian food in a St Petersburg cafe. 

Day two: Getting a fire going on the shores of Lake Ladoga after a hard afternoon's walk through the forest.

A view through the trees of Lake Ladoga by night. Taken around midnight but still not dark. More of a tranquil blue-purple dusk. FACT: Ladoga is the largest freshwater lake in Europe and 15th largest in the world.

Day three: Our first campsite on Valaam. We were later evicted from this campsite by a man who pulled up on a dinghy to tell us we weren't allowed to camp there. But he gave us a lift to another site where we met some friendly Armenians who gave us food and vodka. Every cloud and all that.

This van is known as the bread loaf, because of its shape. Its nickname is much catchier than it's real name UAZ-452. It's pretty much the Soviet equivalent of the iconic Volkswagen camper van.

Wooden monastery on the island of Valaam. Main religion of Russia is Orthodox Christian and they don't seem short of cash, judging by some of the building work we saw them carrying out.

After midnight on Valaam. This is a silhouette of Nick and Alastair. It makes Alastair look like a hobbit, but he is a normal sized human being.

Day four: Our campsite and our Armenian friends. I think one was Russian actually, but either way, they were very hospitable to three English guys who were escorted to the campsite late at night by a man in military gear.

We took a taxi from the campsite back to the port and this was our driver Vyacheslav from Ukraine with his well-worn Lada. A surprisingly sturdy vehicle and it needs to be on the bumpy tracks.

Valaam Monastery. Built some time between the 11th and 14th centuries (records are very hazy, according to Wikipedia and that's as far as my research went). A bit over-painted in my opinion, giving it an Orthodox Christianity does Disneyland feel. Impressive inside though, all gold and full of your religious imagery.

Outside Valaam monastery a kitten eats a sausage. He/she is being guarded by an old Russian lady who keeps shooing away a large seagull that is also after the sausage. Or maybe the kitten if it's a particularly hungry seagull. (NO KITTENS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS PHOTOGRAPH.)

An evening in Petrozavodsk and we walked by the world's most ridiculous KFC. You'd think they would put something of cultural or historical interest in such a building but maverick Russia don't play by the rules.

As close as we got to seeing a bear really, apart from a bear pelt hanging from a wall in a restaurant. This one had a moving arm that waved back and forth so it gave you a good idea of what a bear might look like if it stood up and waved at you before charging straight at you and eating you.

Just under the big white writing you can see the translation 'before I die, I want to...' and this board was full of people finishing that sentence with their hopes, dreams and ambitions.

A long time after sunset on the shores of Lake Onega

Day five: Order tea on a train in Russia and it will be served in one of these amazing cups. This train took us from Petrozavodsk to Kem', the gateway to the Slovetsky Islands.

One of the corner towers of Solovetsky Monastery. Built out of bloody massive rocks. FACT: In 1855, the English turned up with three ships and shelled the monastery for nine hours. They did very little damage, gave up and sailed away.

Solovetsky Monastery has seen a lot in its time, including the Soviet government designating the Solovetsky Islands as the site of the first ever gulag (forced labour camp) in 1921. It was hard to reconcile the natural beauty of the islands with the horrors that took place there through the 1920s and 1930s.

The monastery by night. Well, not night in the normal sense of the word but the light at 1.30am type of night that we experienced that far north. We were on the same latitude as Iceland at this point and this was as dark as it got. You can see the moon there and some mist.

Day six: A bit of cycling over roads that get flooded very easily but don't dry out very easily. So we put on some wellies provided by the best-equipped bike shop ever and waded through some swampy puddles. We were heading to the smaller island of Muksalma, which is linked to the main island by a big stone causeway built by monks.

And this is said stone causeway, linking Muksalma to Bolshoi Solovetsky. FACT: Bolshoi in Russian means big so Bolshoi Solovetsky is the big Solovestky island. (The Bolshoi Ballet is the big ballet.)

Band photo #1. After half a day cycling through bogs and over bumpy tracks, Nick and Alastair take a break in the sun.

Later that day, round the campfire with Alastair and Olga (part of team Olga, Olga and Margarita who were three Russian girls we met on a bus.) We were all politely evicted together from Solovetsky Monastery for exploring a part of it that was supposed to be closed. (Eviction number two.)

Day seven: We rented bikes again and embarked on a day which included about 30km of cycling over tricky roads and some rowing through Lake Krasnoye and its canals. The canals were built by monks 500 years ago. The water in the canal was so still it was like a mirror to the surrounding forest.

Nick puts his back into it during his shift between the oars on Lake Krasnoye. You've got to get some work out of him when you can.

This was a monument to all who were imprisoned and died on Solovetsky Islands when it was a gulag under Soviet rule. This hill was absolutely swarming with mosquitoes and midges. So many that prison guards could punish prisoners by tying them naked to a tree and leaving them to be bitten by mosquitoes until they passed out from the pain or blood loss.

It's banya time! Weird hats and swimming shorts on. Russian men usually go naked into the banya but we had to draw the line somewhere. So hot n' steamy in there that it was hard to take photos, as you can see.

This photo doesn't really do justice to how relaxed I felt afterwards although it does suggest how relaxed Nick was. We had done a lot of cycling during the day so a hot banya felt absolutely amazing.

Day eight: Artfully shot (I think you'll agree) Orthodox Christian cross on the very small island of Bolshoi Zayatsky which felt completely exposed to the elements and contained some ancient stone labyrinths.

This day was rather wet and cold so we thought it would be an ideal opportunity for a trip to a small exposed island covered in tundra that used to be used for isolation punishment back in the gulag days. No one said a holiday has to be all sunshine and t-shirts...

A cross in memory of the victims of the gulag on Bolshoi Zayatsky.

This dog was awesome. He chased anything on wheels if it dared to go past the bike rental hut and then skidded to a stop at the end of the road by splaying his legs as if he were on skis.

Took me ages to get this shot because he would never stay still long enough.

Seagulls follow our ferry from the Solovetsky Islands back to Kem', where we got an overnight train back to St Petersburg.

Day nine: An underground station in St Petersburg. Some of them are pretty swish.

This blue sign was painted during the 900-day German siege of St Petersburg/Leningrad in WW2. It advises people to stand on the other side of the road when artillery shelling begins, because this side was where the bombs would most likely land.

Me and Nick in front of the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Imagine the British Museum crossed with a ridiculously opulent palace. It's no wonder the Russians killed most of their aristocracy when they were building palaces like this (there are more) while the rest of the country could barely put food on the table. If they had a table.

A view of the Hermitage without two prancing fools stood in front of it.

One of the most bling rooms in the Hermitage. Lots of gold, lots of red. If MTV Cribs had existed in during the height of the Russian aristocracy it would have taken about four hours to get through one episode.

Band photo #2. Nick and Alastair in a big hall full of portraits of Russian officers who did battles and stuff during the Napoleonic wars.

Managed to snap this picture quickly as we were being led out of the Hermitage for at least our third polite eviction of the trip. They were about to close but officials in Russia do love being extra officious and led us to the exit door.

The Rostral Columns by the river in St Petersburg. FACT: Those are the prows of captured ships attached to the column.

 The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, St Petersburg. Very dramatic name, and an impressive exterior.

While walking around the city centre on our penultimate day in St Petersburg, we stumbled on a street festival celebrating Dostoyevsky day. Cue opportunity for hilarious photo.

A doughnut shop called Bolshaya Konushennaya that has been around since 1958 serving doughnuts, coffee and not much else. The doughnuts were great and the coffee was very sweet and milky.

A selection of t-shirts being sold on the streets of St Petersburg. The red writing above and below Putin delivering a knockout blow to Obama says 'the answer to economic sanctions'. They're not best pleased about the economic sanctions in Russia but as Putin controls most of the media they don't tend to get the impression that he brought it on them by kicking off in Ukraine.

A rogues gallery of busts for the St Petersburg souvenir hunter, including Putin, Lenin and Chairman Mao. It was hard to tell how ironic they were being with the Putin paraphernalia, if at all.

Want to read more about the trip from Nick's perspective? He even made a film of our trip which will probably appear soon here: twentysomethingburnouts.com