Valencia, Spain

Oct 2 - 5

Every time I go to a new city in Spain I immediately think "Oh, I love this place. I wanna live here one day!" So... I now want to live in Valenica!nI think it's the combination of the beautiful buildings, the quiet streetd, the big long beach, the friendly people and the delicious food that has me so inspired. (It's only missing the mountains!) It's just got an awesome chilled out vibe that I love too.

When I arrived I was feeling a bit flat, so I went for a run in the Turia Gardens - a park which borders the city centre and used to be a river. When the river dried out, the locals were given an opportunity to vote on what should be done with it, and they decided on a park. They then paid 4% extra tax for the next two years to pay for its construction. Hopefully the locals would agree that it was worth it. 

The park has something for everyone: bike paths, outdoor gyms, playgrounds, ponds and lakes, memorials, plus a zoo and the Arts & Science centre (I didn't get that far on my run - but more on that later)

I met a Brit (called Lucy!) in my hostel and we went out for pintxos and sangria. Then we popped up to the hostel rooftop terrace bar for a chilled out night, playing cards and chatting to Germans.

I had a lovely long sleep before a walking tour in the morning. The highlight of the walking tour for me was the silk exchange building. The rich Christian folk had the poor non-Christian folk build it for them. The clever non-Christian builders sneakily created some rather inappropriate gargoyles, including a woman masterbating and a man pooping onto the building. Apparently it is considered a "sign of weakness" to remove anything from a religious building, so they will forever remain there!

I also really liked the central market. Not only is it full of delicious fresh foods, but it is also a lovely building. 

While there, we got free samples of the local ham (Delicious! I'm obsessed!) and I tried some Horchata - a Valencian drink that tasted more or less of sweet milk. Not a fan...

We also saw heaps of stunning buildings around the city. 

One standout was Palacio del Marqués de Dos Aguas. Just cos it's pretty and unique!

Valencia is just so beautiful. And clean. And not toooo touristy or crowded. I love it.

After lunch, I climbed the 207 narrow steps up to the top of the Miguelete Tower, a part of the Cathedral. The view was lovely but to see it you had to climb up onto a step and peer over the edge, through cross-wires. Not exactly a place where you can sit and admire the view for a lengthy time. That said, you can see ALL of Valencia, so it was worth the €2!

Upon further exploring I came across many beautiful plazas, as well as the bull ring and train station.

Lucy and I found more pintxos for dinner and again spent our evening on the hostel's rooftop terrace.

I started off the next day with a walk through the Turia Gardens, heading towards the Arts and Science Centre. But before I got that far, I found a rather interesting playground. It was a huge human figure lying down, with various steps going up and slides going down, plus ropes and climbing nets at various spots across the body. It reminded me of Gulliver's Travels! (And what do you know...further research proved that this was exactly the intention - it's even called Parque Gulliver)

I don't even know how to begin explaining the Arts and Science Centre.. It was like something from the future! And yet it was built in the 90s. All the buildings were white and shiny and curvy and just so pretty! 

I didn't go inside any of the buildings, I just admired them from the outside and found a nice spot to eat my lunch nearby.

A slightly longer and far less scenic walk eventually led me to the beach. A huge beach covered in nice soft sand, perfect for a lazy afternoon. Given that it would probably be my last beach day for a very long time, I even went for a swim! And the water was perfect - refreshing, but not icy cold.

Yet again, I had pintxos for dinner. Yum!

After a quick stop at the market for some fresh fruit, most of my final morning in Valencia was spent at the Silk Exchange. As well as it's aforementioned hillarious gargoyles, it is a stunning building which was once used as a marketplace.

Barcelona... I just can't get enough!

Sept 25 - Oct 2

For the third time this summer, I found myself in Barcelona. I've fallen in love with Spain, and I just can't get enough!

When I arrived in Barcelona I was not very well. By pure coincidence, neither was Alex. We both had a nasty cough and cold so we spent the first few days in bed recovering. The only exception to this was on the first night. There was a festival on, La Merce, that was finishing up that day - so if I wanted to catch any of it, I would have to drag myself out of bed. We walked just around the corner from Alex's place to Placa San Juame, where we watched the light show: an animated projection onto Barcelona's City Hall. It was incredibly well put-together, making the building seem as if it were alive at times.

Once both of us were more or less better we got out a bit more. But on the whole...it was mostly a fairly lazy week. A perfect break from the fast-paced backpacking I had been maintaining the last few weeks. Sometimes I'd go with Alex to do his promoting work, either on the beach during the day or on the streets at night. And sometimes I'd roam around the city while he worked. We also went out most nights on the pub crawl that he promotes.

I saw a few sights I'd missed in the first two visits.

One standout was Casa Batllo, a Gaudi masterpiece. I'd seen the house from the outside on my last visit but didn't have a chance to go in. Gaudi was truly one of a kind. Every work I've seen has blown my mind, and Casa Batllo was no exception. Many features of the house were inspired by nature, including turtle shell wallpaper and ceilings that look like waves. Mosaics covered walls and stain glass brightened the rooms. Simply stunning.

But there's always more to do in Barcelona... I still haven't been to Olympic Park or climbed Montserrat. I haven't watched the sunset from the war bunkers or the sunrise from the beach! The more time I spend in this city, the more I love it. I'm sure it won't be long til I see you again, Barcelona ❤

Budapest, Hungary

Sept 21 - 25

After a loooong day on the bus we finally made it to Budapest! It was almost midnight and the drive through town was stunning, with all the buildings along the river lit up. We made it to Robin and Marie's house very late and had a quick chat about how to best spend our time in Budapest, before we all went to bed.

We started the next day with a free walking tour around the central part of town. In Pest we admired St Stephen's church, then we walked over the chain bridge to Buda.

In Buda we got nice city views and roamed around, admiring the beautiful architecture. Last time I was here, it was all covered in snow! Looks quite different in the summer time.

After lunch, Aamer and I continued to wander the streets of Buda, the "richer" side of the river. The streets were pristine and somewhat empty. It felt like we were walking on a movie set!

Eventually we got ourselves back down towards the river and found a nice spot for a view of the parliament. Among many ridiculously stunning buildings in Budapest, this one was a standout for me. Unfortunately you have to book ahead if you want to go inside and we missed our chance.

We were advised that the #2 tram is a beautifully scenic ride, so we hopped on and it took us down along the Pest side of the river, passing parliament and giving views across the river to the castle. It was lovely, but I actually think I would've preferred to walk it so it didn't all wizz past so quickly.

Marie cooked us a delicious dinner and we all chatted the night away over a bit of wine.

After a lazy morning (where I attempted a run but discovered my "little cough" was preventing me from breathing properly..) we got the bus into town and walked through City Park. We stumbled upon a local festival which included an outdoor cinema, live performances and market stalls with food, wine and crafts - lots of free samples!

At the other end of the park we reached Szechenyi Baths. We spent most of the day there, hopping between saunas, spas, steam rooms and pools. I particularly liked the insanely hot steam rooms, where I could only stay for maybe 30 seconds at a time. Right after the steam room, I would jump either into a cold pool or under a cold shower. Refreshing!

On our way back through the park afterwards, we stopped to go up one of the towers of the castle. The highest tower was already closed but the one we went up still offered a little view of the park.

We went out in the Jewish quarter for dinner, where we found some strange (but delicious) pastry dish that was apparently gluten free! Winner. 

Everyone raves about the ruin bars in Budapest, so we went to check out a few of them. Basically, after many buildings were destroyed in WW2, they started making the run-down buildings into bars. Clever idea - Bosnia should perhaps do something similar. First we went to Szimpla, the original ruin bar - regarded as one of the best bars in the world! Szimpla is enormous, split into many different areas, and decroated with a mish mash of random items; toys, bicycles, posters, traffic signs, plants... While there we caught a little bit of the Open Mic night - where some guy was pumping out really depressing tunes. Odd.

The next one we went to was kind of two separate bars, Fogashaz and Fogaskert, which were connected so you could walk freely between them. This was a much more organised design, less of a jumble of things. Fogashaz was a big club set in what appeared to be an old apartment building. Fogaskert was once, I'm guessing, a courtyard but is now a very cool bar filled with trees that hang fairy lights and flying pigs! Up the back, it has a closed off area with a dancefloor.

Later in the night we hopped on a 'party boat' to see the sights by night. It's beautiful during the day, but my god...at night?! Budapest is actually magical at night!

We danced for an hour and a half on the boat, regularly pausing for photo opportunities.

Once our boat had docked, we were taken to a club in Pest. The club played all the exact same songs we'd heard on the boat, so eventually we got a bit over it and headed back to the Foga bars.

I took Robin's dog, Palko, for a walk in the morning. We went up onto a beautiful trail where I got views of the area - but I didn't manage to find the view point that looks towards the city...oops!

We went back to the Jewish quarter for lunch, where Aamer tried goulash soup and I had a cheesy soup.

The Jewish quarter is where many thousands of Jewish Hungarians were killed in WW2. We passed the Great Synagogue and saw the willow tree memorial monument which has a leaf for every victim, with their names inscribed on them. Unfortunately it was closed, so we couldn't go in.

We had a flowery ice cream in the afternoon, just as delicious as it was pretty!

In the evening, Leda, Milo and I created some pipe cleaner masterpieces! Then we had a BBQ for dinner and attempted to get an early night, in preparation for our 4am wakeup...

Palko trying to escape the family photo!