Bosnia, Serbia, and Hungary

Hello Blog Readers!

Monday morning we woke up to a beautiful Bosnian day. Upon leaving the hotel our first stop was the Srebrenica Cemetery. The cemetery had over 8000 graves from the Bosnian War of 1995. The cause of the 8000 dead was the genocide of the Bosnian Muslims by the Serbians. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide as he had experienced the war first hand and had lost his father and brother in the genocide. It was said to be the biggest massacre in Europe since WWII. After a thorough tour of the memorial and the other nearby sights we jumped back on the bus and continued on our way. Down the road a ways we crossed the Bosnian border and entered into Serbia. Once entering into Belgrade we checked into our hostel and took a bus tour of the city before having a delicious supper. After supper is where our day got interesting. When we caught our cab back to the hostel our small group caught two cabs with two of the biggest, thug looking, Serbs I’d seen since entering the country that day. Our tour guide told us earlier that day that a cab ride home would cost about 7 euros. Well as it turned out the two cab drivers were in cahoots and talking to each other over their cell phones. They ended up driving the price up and would not let us out of the cabs until at least 18 euros was paid. After being scammed and fairly upset we entered our hostel and called it a day.

The next day we left Serbia and crossed the border into Hungary. Our bus tour guide was excited about this as she is Hungarian and had lived in the capital of Budapest for five years while going to university. Most of the day was spent driving, so by the time we got into Budapest it was around suppertime. Before supper we had a driving tour of Budapest and visited the castle district and the citadel. At the castle district we visited, surprise, the castle. The castle was very beautiful and supplied many of the pictures for the day. When we left the castle we went to the citadel, home of the second best view in the world (the first being the giant statue of Jesus in Brazil). It definitely was an amazing view as you saw a view of the river splitting, what used to be, the individual cities of Buda and Pest. After the driving tour of the city we checked into our hostel and then went for supper where I had a schnitzel bigger than my head. When we were done supper they sang Happy Birthday to Laura (one of our travelling companions) and we had a dessert. We then proceeded to one of the local bars our tour guide knew of before going back to the hostel.

Yesterday was a free day in Budapest, which gave us a lot of time to explore the city. Our first stop of the day was “The Market” where we visited all three floors. The main floor was vegetables and meats, the second floor were souvenirs, and in the basement were the fish products where they had very big fish in very small tanks. After spending a while in the market we walked to the House of Terror. The House of Terror is a museum about the Communist Soviet Union, the Fascist German Nazis, and the part that Hungary played in the Second World War. The place used to have offices for Hungarian government officials on the main floors while the basement was used as a prison and execution chamber for war criminals, where we actually got to enter the cells where the prisoners were kept before being hanged. It was an interesting place to see and was a real eye opener when you came face to face with portraits of figures such as Stalin and Hitler. We then walked past a tank before exiting the museum and going for lunch. When we were done eating we went to Hero Square where there are statues of the great clan chiefs and kings of Hungary. Behind Hero Square is a park with a huge hot spring in a beautiful building with many different sized pools at different temperatures. We had quite a wonderful swim before heading back to the hostel to meet up with our group for supper. After another great meal we walked back to the hostel, did our laundry, and then went to bed.

 

This morning we got up, packed our things, had breakfast, and then hopped on the bus. I am currently writing this blog on the bus while it makes its way out of Hungary and onto Vienna in Austria. Tonight we will be going for ribs for supper before going to a Vienna Classical Concert. Today marks the halfway point of our two week tour. It’s been a great first week in which we’ve got to know quite a few people in our tour group, most specifically two Australian sisters named Laura and Rebecca, and an American named Nicholas. Only one week left on the tour. I can’t wait to see how it goes.

Till next time,

Rocky