Made it to Croatia!

I have been so bad at writing while on the road. But since last time I wrote I have been through Budapest, Venice and 2 cities of Croatia! It's been kind of a whirlwind.

Well I am happy to report that I was able to beat my cold! It started in Budapest and I think I slept like 10 hours a day there so it never got too bad. Then it came back a little in Venice so I slept a long time again and it was gone. Seems like all I have to do is sleep huh? That I can do well.

Despite being sick in Budapest I still really liked it! I didn't think I would at first, because the city looks pretty gritty. It's like a lot of buildings need a face lift from being though the wars and just time. But after a while you can see though all of that and begin to appreciate it. It's a pretty big city, especially for Europe I think. The sites are not located close to each other like in Prague. The city is actually two parts - Buda and Pest, with the Danube river separating them. There are 4 or so bridges connecting them. The Buda side has the old castle and citadel. The Pest side has a lot more modern stuff, shopping, restaurants, etc. And that's where we stayed. I didn't know this till right before going there, but the area is a big wine region. We had so much good wine! Really cheap too. Actually every meal we had in Budapest was excellent. We would have like 3-4 course meals with wine for about 30 USD for dinner every night. It was awesome!! Definitely the best food we had on the trip. And best value for the money.

The city also has lots of Turkish thermal baths. We went to 2 different baths to soak up our tired legs. They are pretty cool as you just pay a flat fee (about 15 bucks) and use it for as long as you want. The only thing is they don't open as late as you'd want! We showed up to one one night at 9 and it was closed. We went to 2 there, one is called Szechenyi and it's huge! Like 20 different pools with different temperatures, and lots of saunas and steam rooms. The hottest temp they had though was still not as hot as the hot tubs we are used to which I guess is how it is there. We also didn't know that you have to pay extra to rent towels and we didn't bring any from our hotel so it was very very cold running from the pool to the locker room. The second bath we went to was the famous one called Gellert. We read that it's like bathing in a cathedral. But honestly it was not all that at all. Only a few pools and also not very hot. A lot of it is separate for men and women too (so people can be naked) which wasn't that fun for us. I got bored sitting by myself after like 5 minutes. So I think if you ever go to Budapest, you can pass on Gellert.

We took a short flight to Venice after 4 days in Budapest and spent 2 nights there. Venice is very romantic of course. We did not take a gondola ride though. Just seemed a little lame at the time. Hahaha. We quickly visited the very touristy San Marcos square and started wandering the city. That was a lot more fun than being among tons of tourists. I couldn't believe how many people were there in the middle of October. But once you get away from people it's so cute. I liked all the old windy streets. We had pizza and gelato everyday. In fact there's so much pizza and Italian food everywhere we've been that we are sick of it! We stayed at this cute bed and breakfast place in Venice that we found at the last minute. It's right next to the market by Rialto bridge - great location! Made it a fun little trip.

Then we hopped over to Croatia! Actually we are taking a tour for this leg of our trip. I forgot that tours like this are like work. You are up at 6-7 am everyday and home by 8-9 pm. So tiring!! You get to see a lot but maybe not as much time in a single place as you would like. So we have been to Opatija and Split already. Today we got to Dubrovnik and will be here for a few nights. Thank god! Croatia is very beautiful and not entirely different from LA. LA is on the same latitude as the Mediterranean so the weather is similar. Finally we have some warmer weather! Not warm enough to go sun bathing or anything but it also means less tourist now. We still get to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful views though. I really like the old parts of Croatia like the Roman ruins and such. They have a really well preserves palace in Split. Best preserved in the world, according to them. It's the Diocletian palace. And it's very cool to walk around there. I think Roman history is so intriguing. And it's so amazing people back in the day hand carved and moved every stone to make these huge structures! It seems that a lot of stuff like that in Croatia was destroyed during the different wars. So sad. There's still bullet holes in lots of buildings. And land mines and bunkers along the road we drove on. But anyway, I will write about Croatia later on after seeing it all!

I do have to say that these 2 weeks of pigging out has taken it's toll. We walk like 15-20 miles a day but I think we are still eating way more than we are burning! No other forms of workouts. So we both feel large and bloated! I am actually really looking forward to cooking my own meals and eating healthy. Eating out every meal of everyday is really fattening! Now I really don't know how I will be able to run the half marathon 2 weeks after I get back... Lol...