Budapest, Croatia, and other stuff

As this is being written, we’ve been on the road for just over 2 ½ months. Writing that down makes it look like such a short period of time, but it feels like it was closer to 2 ½ years already. Time moves pretty slow when you’re seeing new things and not settling into any one place for longer than a week or two, often less. Even with the perception of being slowed down, we’ve struggled to find time and energy to write down our thoughts on what was one of the most rewarding and trying portions of our trip to date. It’s

not that we didn’t want to, we love you all and want, nay need, to keep you up to date and share our adventures. It’s that… well, traveling has its ups and downs… this platitude is one of those obvious statements that are so plain and commonsensical that you feel like you’re insulting people buy saying it. Kind of like, “what goes up most come down” or “what happens in Jamaica stays in Jamaica”. You get the idea. We experienced a lot of these on this portion, and we are just now coming out of the travel and heat induced daze, surfacing just in time to share with y’all our first time in eastern Europe. We hope you’ll forgive the delay in getting this one done! Anyway, this installment of Two Kids Adrift finds our heroes leaving the United Kingdom and flying to the land of goulash, paprika, amazing bridges, hidden bars, and a rich history. On a whim (a theme that is likely to continue with our somewhat cathartic and somewhat stress inducing lack of planning), we decided to fly to Budapest (Hungary). We knew very little about Budapest, save others having said things like “I hear Budapest is cool”, it is by the way, or “I always wanted to go to Budapest”, (which you should). But, it was just the kind of place we were looking for. Different, cool, easy, and being a little cheaper never hurts as well.

Budapest was perfect for us and what we are starting to hone in on as what we are looking for in these wacky travels.

For starters, we’ve become completely cool with the fact that we don’t need to do the most touristy things and we aren’t art museum people, which, though we’ve mentioned before, has only galvanized further as we move through this year. Rather, we want to be able to hang around in the town and get a sense of the local people and culture. To find the hole in the wall place where we can hang out and hopefully strike up a conversation with somebody from the area. And, importantly, just live in the city for a bit.

Budapest wasn’t built around sites to see for us, instead we just walked around, popped into the occasional café, and tried to take in the view. And there were some amazing things to see. It’s a hard city to describe, it’s two very different areas (Buda and Pest) separated by the Danube River. The bridges connecting the two areas are spectacular and used as a place to hang out at night. Nothing is as awe inspiring as some of the waterfalls we’ve seen, or the ruins of larger cities in Europe, but the feeling of Budapest is comfortable and contagious. You want to get know more about the people and its interesting past (occupied by both Nazi Germany and the Soviets, at one point at the same time), you want to just let it wash over you. Not wash over you in sort of weird, sticky way. More like wash over you like when your super tired and that pleasant feeling of the first parts of sleep start to take hold, it’s better if you just relax and enjoy the moment.

The one must see item for us was to visit the Ruin Pubs in the Jewish center of Budapest. These pubs are built into old abandoned buildings and empty lots. They’re not very well advertised, no big signs or anything to let you know where to find them. Most of them have big courtyards decorated with funky “found” types of items (think good yard sale kind of items), lots of colors and lights, local artists decorate the walls, and usually have a younger vibe. They started as illegal “pop-up” bars, but have since gone legit. If you ever find yourself in Budapest, check them out. It’ll be one of the coolest drinking / hangout establishment you come across. Other than that, there was a lot of playing cards, running along the river, and just living in Budapest. Not glamorous or anything, but it felt right in a lot of ways.

From Budapest, we decided to stay in Eastern Europe and take a bus to a country that as recent as the nineties was at war for its independence, beautiful Croatia. Mountains, crazy blue water, castles, great people, islands, great food, ties to Game of Thrones. It was awesome. Except for one thing. The fucking heat. Now we usually will try to refrain from using such language for our younger followers, but this is the only way to describe the heat wave that was going on during our visit. In Europe, they called heat wave “Lucifer”. We think that it’s giving Lucifer a bad rap to do so. Nothing puts you in a mood quite like walking around in 105+ heat, not cool weather gods! Heat aside (for now), we were fortunate enough to experience a lot of different things in Croatia. From the slower and livable capital city of Zagreb, to the awe inspiring “Hanging Lakes”, to islands in the Adriatic, wrapping up in the fairytale city of Dubrovnik, we fit a lot into our 2+ weeks here. Some may say, a little too much…

Our Croatian adventure started in the capital, Zagreb. Zagreb was surprisingly easy. Everyone spoke perfect English, the public transit was easy and cheap, Uber was there (and was crazy cheap), and since it was a city it had everything we needed to take care of some lingering personal matters. For instance, Trent’s hair is not something that grows out gracefully. Nah, the sides grow out like a cotton swab. With the top, well, the top does the best it can. Zagreb was the perfect place to take care of things like haircuts, much-needed waxings, planning, really lots of mundane things. There wasn’t really much to see in Zagreb, but there was something to eat. A recommendation from our Uber driver, we went to a place that specialized in Strukli. Strukli is essentially baked dough layered with tons of cheese and can be either sweet or savory. Think baked mac & cheese – plus lasagna – plus truffle oil – plus unicorns. The only bad thing here is it is served flaming lava hot and destroys the impatient mouth (Michele) like a hot pocket. Still worth it.

From Zagreb it is a short bus ride to one of coolest places on the planet, Plitvice National Park. Picture the bluest water you can imagine, add in jungle-ish foliage, and then imagine that there are dozens of lakes that are essentially infinity pools that lead to waterfalls, that are stacked on top of each other spread throughout the park. Definitely check out the pics below on this one, no filters used! Now, this place must have been amazing, because it was the hottest day ever recorded at Plitvice the day we chose to go (around 42 Centigrade and it felt like 110 Fahrenheit). Add in the fact that we were there during high tourist season, and it could have been miserable. There were so many freaking people, there were lines that lasted well over an hour (with no shade) in parts. Lesson learned this trip… avoid Europe during high season if at all possible. Luckily, we found some off piste areas that let us skirt the crowd and still take in the views. According to my phone, we walked nearly ten miles the heat wave that day.Even given some challenges with heat and crowds, sooooo completely worth it!

Exhausted, we had a 3-hour bus ride to get to the port town of Split. Split was supposed to be a stop to explore the 2^nd largest city in Croatia. Mainly, we just wanted to not be outside in the sun. Walking around when it was as hot and humid as it was in Split kind of puts you in an immediate bad mood. Not the best thing to be in when you’re staying in a 150 square ft. room on the 13^th floor with the same person you’ve been next too for a couple of months. Needless to say, Split was not explored as fully as other places. And that is okay.

Next up are were the islands of Croatia, initially we were going to stay 6 days on just one of them before moving on. As a last minute adjustment, we decided to split up the stay 3 days on two different islands, Hvar and Korcula. While on Hvar we had one of the best days we’ve had and one of the toughest. We stayed in a little village named Milna, where all the locals share the same surname of Tudor. Which is weird from a dating standpoint, but, I guess they make it work? Milna was tiny and built into cliffs surrounded by olive orchards. Pretty picturesque. But, this meant getting anywhere was pretty difficult. No direct paths and we did not have a car. Our best day on Hvar we ventured out the beach. The best beach (remote and beautiful), was a “short” hike away, but we had no idea how to get there. Sometimes getting lost is the best thing you can do. We ended up completely blazing new trails through olive orchards along cliffs until we found our way. Now, this beach was the nudist beach, but it was so hot we definitely did not care. The water was refreshing and the views (non-human at least), breathtaking. This was a great day. The next day was less so, Michele got pretty sick and was bed ridden the entire night and next day. There’s something very disconcerting about being sick and away from home. Add to that the fact that this tiny village did not have a store let alone a pharmacy, that made us feel even more remote.

But, all is well that ends well as everyone survived and we moved on the next island of Korcula. Korcula had more charm than Hvar, and we had more things close to us. A short stay here with similar things, swimming in the deep blue sea, oppressive heat, and catching up on the most recent season of Game of Thrones. Through some AirBnb mis-communication we ended up in a place with no air-conditioning. Normally not a problem on Korcula where the average high should have been 81 degrees, but it was 97. So even though Korcula was lovely, we wanted to get to Dubrovnik (and air conditioning) as fast as we could. What’s the fastest way? Rent a speed boat to take 2 hours across the Adriatic. Hell yes.

Ah Dubrovnik, if you watch Game of Thrones you’ve probably seen some of it and know it as “Kings Landing”. The TV series may not even do it justice to be honest.

A castle fairytale town with orange rooftops, cliffs, blue waves crashing on the city, and walkable fortress walls that can use to circle the amazing little city. Speaking of GoT, we splurged on a Game of Thrones walking tour through the old town in Dubrovnik where a lot of it is filmed. <Cough… Nerds! Cough…> We completely geeked out, and it was awesome. Our tour guide was involved with the filming (as many locals are) and had fun insider information about the show and the actors.

So, one really important factoid about Croatia that is vital to happy travels. Do not order a “mojito” in Croatia.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. – Inigo Montoya

Mojitos are delicious, and it pains us to give this advice. However, their version of a mojito is just basically sugar rum water with some mint leaves dropped in as a garnish. Sound good? Nope, it’s not. You’re welcome future Croatian travelers, think of us next time you are not choking down an over priced rum-water.

-t&m

Favorite Quote in Croatia:
“I don’t want to discover anything else about myself”

A Q&A and other musings from Michele:

We get a lot of questions from friends and family about what it is like traveling full-time. I am writing this portion for some of my more curious friends who ask questions such as, and I quote, “How are your poops going? These are the things I need to know, Michele.” Or questions such as, “Is it hard being around each other 24/7?” “Is everything amazing?” My adorable well-meaning Grandma even asked, “What will you do about your period?” I will answer this question now. The rest of the women in the world also bleed so I think I’ll be alright.

“Is everything amazing?”

Short answer, yes and no. Traveling has been exceptional at times. We have seen beautiful architecture, breath-taking scenery, enjoyed spectacular people watching and have effortlessly floated in the super-salty Adriatic Sea while marveling at how incredibly fortunate we are. We have tasted the best coffees and beers, had delicious and unusual meals and meditated over the sounds of ocean waves. We’ve been lucky in that our health hasn’t been compromised and we still have all (well most) of the original items we brought to get us through our travels. Yes. Life has been great. Let’s be real though. Are these magical moments happening everyday? H – E – DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS, NO! This is travel and not a vacation. We are figuring out how to live in a place and not party it up every moment. Not many, especially us, can withstand constant partying and vacationing. We both get bored of it. And we’ve definitely been bored at times. Neither of us do well with boredom. Most of the time is not exploring new caves or waterfalls, nor are we dancing and toasting to our fancy lives. Most of the time is spent researching the next place of travel, looking for accommodations with a washing machine and finding ways to discreetly smell my armpits. There have been a couple days where we laid around all day, a couple days where we spent most of our time in coffee shops writing (this is one of those days) and some days walking around in blistering heat annoyed at the lack of public bathrooms. Many places outside of the U.S. require you to pay to use public restrooms (something we were already accustomed to), however there have been numerous free urinal stands in many cities we’ve gone. I have to pay money to pee and he doesn’t?? The feminist in me wants to make a deal of it and then I snap back to reality and realize my privilege is boring and no one cares what I have to say. By the way, “toilet” is the universal word wisely used in many places. I asked one woman where the restroom was and she looked confused. I repeated and she shook her head no until I said ‘toilet.’ Ah yes, the toilet, around the corner miss. I don’t like asking for the toilet. It leaves nothing up to the imagination. Now restroom, I could be going to wash my hands, powder my nose or fix my hair. Toilet though. It gets right to the point. “Where can I go empty myself?”

Speaking of, how are your poops and other things…

Within the past couple years, I’ve met some of the best people in my life. One of these people, we will call her Lauren, is an inquisitive individual and always asks the hard-hitting questions. She wants to know how my poops are going.

Here it goes. I’m not sure why, but typically when I travel, my bowel movements become irregular if non-existent. I’ve never known why. Traveling days make me tired, but I don’t see why they change my bathroom routine. From the onset of this trip, I was worried I would have the same issues I typically do and not being able to use the bathroom for days and weeks, have to resort to laxatives or something of that nature. To my surprise, this hasn’t been the case. If anything they have been small and underwhelming. Possibly due to eating less and burning calories like crazy. I suspect the bowels will be more of an issue in areas where the water isn’t as potable as it is in Europe.

Checking out what you’ve made in the toilet bowl is a good way to see how your body is responding to change and to tell you what it needs. I’m no stranger and a frequent purveyor of the Bristol stool chart. Recently, I believe my poops are telling me that I am underfed and dehydrated. It has been upper 90s in some places and we are sweating buckets. Lately, it feels as though we are just in search of water as the water we bring barely makes it an hour. On top of that, when I am overly hot, I tend not to eat. Food just doesn’t sound good when there is sweat rolling off the tip of your nose. Needless to say, I have lost a few pounds and for once, it doesn’t feel good. I’m feeling very weak and when the place you’re sleeping averages 80 degrees inside, there isn’t much motivation for working out. I’m looking forward to getting to places where we can get back into our running (and yoga) routine and eat healthy on the regular. Speaking of eating healthy, it takes more effort to do while traveling than living in health-conscious Denver. Grocery stores tend to be smaller if not tiny and the choices are limited, especially when our cooking utensils are limited. Eating at restaurants gets too expensive and we like to start from scratch. We get by with what we can find, but lately it’s been muesli and yogurt, deli meat sandwiches, eggs and bananas. To top it off, so many places don’t even carry peanut butter. What is that?? Salt, pepper, olive oil, peanut butter. Those are the staples. Nothing more, nothing less.

Is it hard always being around each other?

At times, yes. We’ve been trying to give each other space, but it can be difficult if your accommodations are small and it’s 105 degrees outside. We don’t have the answers here, but hopefully one day we’ll be able to write an enlightening post as others have done on how we were able to survive without smothering each other with a pillow. This is a work in progress. One thing I have learned is that I need lots of space. I thrive on independence and naturally I’m able to get this at home. Traveling however, I don’t get that space and don’t realize I need it until I’m pissed and ready to punch someone. Getting the space I need before I “need” it is the key. I’ve been meditating a lot since we started traveling, which helps give me some time out, however that’s typically under 30 minutes and quite frankly not enough. WHY ARE YOU BREATHING SO LOOOOOOUUUUUDDD? Yeah. I’m a real pain in the butt when I don’t have alone time.

We are both becoming more mindful about our individual needs and trying to respect them. It’s only been a couple of months and we aren’t too concerned as we’ve always traveled really well together. We will get there.

How long will you travel? Do you think it will be a whole year?

Who’s to say. Our timeline is flexible and we have no immediate desire to see all places on earth. We’ve already put a few countries on the backburner and are content with our decisions. We may travel longer than a year which is what we set out to do, we may travel less. We may travel some and take a break to come home for a bit. Again, not sure. One thing is for sure though, we have not stopped missing our dog child since we’ve left. There are points when my heart hurts because to think of him. Of course, we knew that we’d would miss him, but we didn’t realize the intensity it would have. I personally think about him all the time and dream of him most nights. He is my buddy, my pal, my safety blanket, a paci of sorts, and there is nothing better than coming home to him every day. We have full-on conversations and he’s the funniest dog I know. No one makes me laugh harder or cry softer. He is the Zen master. He is my banana-face, Russell. If anything pulls us back permanently it will be because of him.

-m