The full story
Most people don’t treat Budapest as a stopover city. There’s so much to see and do that you could spend weeks exploring and experiencing. But Brian had been to Budapest before, and we had a bit of planning to do if we were even going to attempt to do right by Croatia, a place we were planning to explore much more in depth.
So we got just a few nights in Budapest, a couple days for planning and a couple for exploring. Of course we could spend longer if we felt like it – the beauty of not planning too much in advance. But, as luck would have it, our planning led us to catch the last available cabin on a sailboat heading along the Croatian coast much earlier than we thought we would. So we were to spend exactly four days in Budapest before beginning the long trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia.
We had several, wonderful and memorable experiences including the sights of the magnificent buildings lit up at night, a day relaxing at the thermal baths, and a night of beers with some locals and other travelers… And of course our first foray into Hungarian eats!
But the most memorable moment, and unfortunately the smudge on the Budapest experience, was the shart that befell me while we were on a walking tour, in the middle of the Chain Bridge, truly equidistant from either end. I was going to be gentle about describing this, talking about the unfortunate case of travellers tummy that hit unexpectedly. But I opted instead for the elements of surprise and shock with a dash of “ew” – the same feelings that hit me all at once as I stood on that bridge and exclaimed to Brian in a stage whisper, “Find me a bathroom, like, 5 seconds ago!”
Yep. Travellers tummy hit, and hit hard and repeatedly that day. We left the tour early and spent the rest of the day in a shopping mall. A shopping mall?! How does that seem like a good idea? Consider this. A shopping mall sells new underwear, something I was in need of as no amount of laundering was going to do. The best I could do is discard the evidence. A shopping mall also always has a toilet available, something else I was in need of throughout the day but could not count on finding at our hostel. And the mall bathrooms were surprisingly nicer than the hostel’s. And finally, I felt fine. Until I didn’t. And that passed way too quickly. Then I felt fine again. So it went, and we passed the time with small errands and a snack at the mall, turning Budapest into even more of a stopover experience.
We caught the train to Zagreb, Croatia (the first leg of our journey to Dubrovnik) early the next morning. 6am to be exact. Far earlier than we will ever attempt to do again as we couldn’t make it to bed before 2am the night before. I’m sure we weren’t the only zombies wandering the museums and bathrooms (check. day two of traveller’s tummy) of Zagreb that afternoon. But we were certainly truest to form.
It turns out many people do treat Zagreb as a stopover city, spending only one night as they travel through. Croatia is known for its coast, and Zagreb is far from the blue waters of the Adriatic. We largely did so as well, spending only two nights. But there were a few things we wanted to see. The early train allowed us to explore a couple museums our first afternoon: The Croatian Museum of Naive Art, and The Museum of Broken Relationships. That is, after we hit up our first and possibly most important stop, The Cookie Factory. Nothing beats a homemade chocolate chip cookie when you’re eating an international diet.
The museums were also a wonderful experience – made even more so by our delusional state? The Croatian Museum of Naive Art exhibits art pieces from largely rural Croatians who’ve had no formal training. The pieces were magnificent. Many were paintings on glass as glass was a cheap surface to use. Glass allowed the colors to appear incredibly vivid and the overall painting to look smooth and clean. Both Brian and I were spellbound by several pieces. One of our favorite pieces is “Solar Eclipse” by Ivan Generalic.
The Museum of Broken Relationships displays artifacts and stories sent from people around the world about their failed relationships. These were everything one would expect: touching, funny, heartwrenching. But most of all, the museum created an atmosphere of collective empathy. Every person who walks through will find themselves in some piece of a story, making the whole experiences truly personal to each visitor.
Our plan for day two was to head to a national park for some promised amazing hiking. We flushed that plan with Brian’s first bout of travellers tummy and resigned ourselves to a more relaxing and hopefully recuperating day in Zagreb. We walked, slowly, post-dinner European style, to a manmade lake and relaxed by its shore with lemonade. The lake had rigged a pulley system to allow people to wake board around in circles, and we had fun watching them and quietly wishing we felt good enough to try it. We then took the tram back into the old town and spent the rest of our time snacking through The Cookie Factory’s delights. I love having a regular spot. The verdict: good cookies, great brownies, terrible ice cream. (Outside of that we were both on a diet of white bread, bananas, and ramen.)
We hop a noontime bus for an 8.5 hour trip to Dubrovnik tomorrow, setting sail the next day. Fingers crossed for plentiful enough bathroom stops… and that we fully heal so we don’t muddy the waters of the Adriatic.
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