I know my pictures are splattered all over the place, but this time I decided to upload them to facebook. In case you don’t have facebook, here they are:
The pictures don’t really flow, but we have 2,000+ pics to choose from, so I quickly selected a handful from each city.
We had a lot of fun in all places, and were glad to make the trek. What we did was book a one-way flight to Vienna, and another one-way flight out of Budapest, and all of our hotels beforehand. For travelling in-between cities, we just left it until the last minute. All it took was going to the main station and buying a train ticket. Super easy!
Vienna was our first stop and also the most expensive city out of the lot. We decided to cheap out a little on Vienna as we knew we would be heading into Eastern Europe soon where it would be more affordable. Instead of eating at Viennese restaurants, we ate at supermarkets (also because that’s what locals do for fast food). You go into the deli section of the supermarket and order the ingredients of a sandwich, and they put it together and only charge you for the ingredients. I got the classic gouda cheese and sweet gherkins on a kaiser bun, which was always less than 1.50€ and super fresh! Although this was a good way to save money (whilst staying healthy), I actually didn’t find Vienna to be prohibitively expensive like everyone says. It’s kinda like Paris, where the tourist areas are definitely expensive and if you do all the touristy things, you’ll spend some money. But if you do what the locals do, it’s pretty affordable. You can’t really tell in the pictures I selected, but Vienna was amazing and tons of fun! Beautiful city with a nice atmosphere and lots going on. I could live there.
We took the train from Vienna to Bratislava, and it was only 14 € per person for an hour ride! That is waaay cheaper than the Deutsche Bahn, which cost me more than that to travel to Martin’s place from Düsseldorf (everyone knows the DB is actually prohibitively expensive). Arriving in Bratislava was really cool to me, because it was my first time travelling to an unknown place via train. The Slovak language is also completely unfamiliar to both me and Martin, so that was an adventure in itself. Luckily most people speak English and/or German, so that’s not a huge problem. We realized pretty quickly that asking people if they knew English was somewhat offensive, so it was better to assume they spoke English and to just start speaking it. This is different in Germany, where you should preface with Sprechen Sie englisch?
So Bratislava was fun, but small. By the 3rd day we didn’t know what else to do, but that could also be due to our lack of knowledge of the city. It was definitely cheaper than Vienna and we went to a restaurant every dinner/lunch and ordered good food for around 7€ per person including drinks and tip. I liked just chilling out there. It was really nice and relaxing. Slovakian people on average, also happen to be exceptionally gorgeous! Well, I didn’t notice the men, but the women were WOW (in a conventionally stunning kind of way!). The people (men and women) are also really well dressed – like, all the time. 
Getting to Budapest from Bratislava was also very easy. We bought our ticket for 15€ and it took only a 2.5 hour ride. (This is super cheap to me, since I live in Germany and travelled all over the Rhineland for work). We rode in an old train that was compartmentalized into sections seating 6. You could stand up in the hallway and open the window, and let the wind blow your hair. Martin said he travelled this way in East Germany with his Oma as a kid. It brought back memories for him, whilst instilling new ones in me. Cool!
Budapest to me, is the Paris of Eastern Europe. It’s a huge, friendly, dynamic city full of everthing and more. Or I could look at it as being a mixture of Vienna and Bratislava too. Prices were cheap in Budapest, though a little more expensive than Bratislava, but with TONS more things to do like in Vienna. They still use old trams, buses, and trains, making it look very 1950’s and totally Old World. Actually, Budapest was very striking to me. It made me want to learn more about Hungarian politics, history, and current economy. I just think I’m in love with the city, culture, and lifestyle.
So, I won’t write too much more about it because it’s getting too long winded here, but check out my pictures for more info!
