Budapest for 1.5 days

If I could describe Budapest using two words, it would be 'grey' and 'mysterious.' The weather wasn't so great during the 1.5 days; it was raining, cloudy and foggy -- definitely not the best time to take photographs. Still, they turned out alright after some post-processing. :)

My travel buddy this time was Alvin, and despite our super uncomfortable wet shoes, we tried to make the best of the trip. Alvin's friend, Albert from Canada met up with us and showed us around despite his busy study schedule for med school finals.

The Chain Bridge

The city is divided into two parts by the river Danube; Buda on the west bank and Pest on the east.

Hungarian Parliament Building

Walking around the city, I noticed a lot of Roman-esque buildings. It turns out, Romans declared this city the capital of Pannonia Inferior.

At the centre of Chain Bridge, overlooking the Statue of Liberty on the left and Pest on the right.

Homeless in Dortmund

Alvin and I bought our plane tickets to Budapest, leaving from Dortmund airport two weeks before the trip. Unfortunately, the only available times for the flights were early morning; which meant we had to be at Dortmund the night before.

Well, it turns out Dortmund airport closes between midnight and 3am, and the city has exactly one hostel, and it was all booked out. Hotels were out of our price range and couchsurfing failed us, so we decided to YOLO it. We brainstormed a few ideas:

1. Bring a sleeping bag, set up a tent near the airport, and camp out for the night. It turns out wild-camping is illegal in Germany. 
2. Find a 24/7 McDonalds, sleep there. There was no 24/7 McD's in Dortmund.
3. Sleep on the street. No problem here.

Clearly, the only option we had was sleeping on the street. 

So we arrived in Dortmund around 8pm, had dinner, and set out to see the city for a bit. We found a Christmas market, and Germany's biggest Christmas tree. Impressive!! Except it was about -5 degrees outside.

As we walked around the city, we looked for bushes near big buildings. We found a super nice hidden place, but we had to sleep on concrete floor. It was away from the city centre, and not a lot of people walked by (even if they did, they couldn't see anything). I didn't take a picture of the place, since it was night time :(

After about an hour of trying to fall asleep in freezing conditions, I gave up. Alvin and I decided to just hang out at the Hauptbahnhoff (main train staition), which is supposedly open 24/7. 

Then came our savior, KFC. This KFC by the HBf was the warmest, and the tastiest-smelling place we were at all night. So, along with 10 other travellers cozied up inside, we took a short nap.

At 4am, we headed to DTM airport.

Off to Budapest! <<-- will be linked to a new post soon.

After Budapest, we came back to Dortmund airport, and stayed at the most beautiful McD's I have ever witnessed until our car-share ride home arrived.

The only good thing about Dortmund was this McDonalds. (Partly because I planned my trip terribly) Dortmund gets 5 McBreakfast out of 10. 

Christmas Market in Hannover (Part 1)

For Germans, Oktoberfest and Christmas are two of the biggest celebrated events of the year. Even a month before Christmas, the markets open up in big cities and offer the citizens with delish xmas treats and warm wine. Despite the -4 degree Celsius weather, Alvin, Philip, Kinan and I decided to check out the market :3 Even with frozen toes we were able to enjoy it.

This huge rotating nut-crackerish fan(?) greeted us as we got out of the downtown tram station

 From left: Philip, Alvin, and Kinan (aka Teenager)

 oops

We ate so much!

Three things you MUST try at the market are: Glühwein (Mulled wine), Kartoffelpuffer (fried potato pancake) with apple sauce, and Mandeln (fried almonds with sugar and spice coating)

Weekend Trip to Prague

One of my favorite things to do is going on weekend trips. It could be somewhere close by, or in a totally different country. Two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to find car-share rides (using blablacar) to and from Prague, so my friend Philip and I visited the city for two nights.

Night time in Prague :)

We left on Friday morning, and arrived at around 6pm. The traffic jam was truly horrific; it took us about 30 minutes to go about 1.5km. I guess we could have simply walked out of the car, too. S:

During the first night in Prague, we saw the city in its most beautiful form. The nightscape in Prague is amazing, and since most tourists are gone, the eerie emptiness of the path on the way to the castle was quite memorable.

Brick roads are my favorite

There are quite a few things to see in the city, but mostly, the castle and Karluv Most (Charles' Bridge) are the two main attractions. There are many street vendors on the bridge, and street music is prevalent. The city's huge canal divides the city in two, and it's mostly the castle side that has more 'touristy' attractions.

This magnificent overview of the city is from near the Temple

Czech food is amazing, too! I had about two dishes of Goulash in a single day :D
Don't forget to Czech out their beer, too!

I love panorama <3

I rate Prague 9/10 for its cheap and delicious food, and amazing scenery. The score of 10 is reserved for Venice (<3) for now. :)