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I'm planning a 2 week (ish) trip and I know I want to visit Croatia, Romania and Hungary. I was playing around with adding other single cities in one or two other countries, but those are the main focus and with only two weeks that will likely be it. I will admit I tend to be a bit of a shot gun ADD type traveler, 3-4 days is usually my max for most big cities. I did 3 in Munich and 4 in Berlin and that was perfect for me though probably more rushed than most others would prefer. I'm not much of a museum type, but I like castles and weird places/experiences. Things like the catacombs in France or seeing vampire musicals in Berlin. Questions 1. How is transport between cities/countries in these areas. Are trains/buses generally reliable/on time and if both are an option is train or bus better generally. 2. What are your favorite things in those countries? I have flipped through guide books and the internet, so I've seen some of those suggestions, but what do you all think is fun, especially things that might not make it to a guide book. 3. Food! There is so much info on the internet it's been difficult to narrow down, so maybe just a few food recs for the area? 4. Is there anything a stupid American should get through their thick skull before going to these places? 5. I may be traveling with a pescatarian (ugh) so, in general, is there likely to be some English on the menu so she has an idea what not to order?
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Apr 26, 2015 15:02
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Hungary won't be a good option for your friend, food-wise. Traveling by train in Eastern Europe usually gets you up to about 30mph, so your geographic area over two weeks is impossible. I did Budapest -> Belgrade -> Sofia -> Istanbul -> Budapest over that same time frame and it wasn't fun. Istanbul -> Budapest by train took 45 hours, for example. 3-4 days per city is not ADD at all. My recommendation: Spend half your trip in Croatia and half in BH or Serbia. There's a whole lot to do in Belgrade and Sarajevo, and your friend will eat very well on the Dalmatian coast.
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Apr 27, 2015 06:16
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Seconding the bus recommandation, unless you have a hard-on for old cheap soviet railways that are chronically late like I do  BiH and Serbia are really cool and the History of the area is really interesting, between the recent wars, the Yougoslav nostalgia and the Ottoman heritage there's a lot to discover. And you can do lots of weird stuff in the Balkans if you want to - hike the abandoned 84 winter olympics site in Sarajevo, search for surreal Spomenik monuments, etc. Also, you've got a lot of castles in Bosnia and you can sometimes have them all to yourself as visitors are still fairly rare. Foodwise, apart from the dalmatian coast there will be lots of meat, but you can usually find some vegetarian dishes. Plus, vegetables and fruits are usually fresh and tasty. Personal opinion: the best breakfast is most certainly cheese and spinach filled Burek, and the best snack is grilled Cevapi. As for no-gos: don't mention the war! In all seriousness, the recent yugoslav wars are still fresh in memory so while it is very interesting to learn about it first hand, it's better to not try to engage in a debate. Also, lots of racism towards gypsies and the neighbouring countries, and homosexuality is quite a taboo. Otherwise, as long as you behave like a decent human being you should be fine.
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Apr 27, 2015 13:44
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Aliquid posted:Hungary won't be a good option for your friend, food-wise. Traveling by train in Eastern Europe usually gets you up to about 30mph, so your geographic area over two weeks is impossible. I did Budapest -> Belgrade -> Sofia -> Istanbul -> Budapest over that same time frame and it wasn't fun. Istanbul -> Budapest by train took 45 hours, for example. 3-4 days per city is not ADD at all. I did Berlin to Istanbul and everything in between in 2-3 weeks. I don't know what trains you were taking but it was completely possible. I went from Budapest to Belgrade overnight on the train. I went to Istanbul from Sofia and it was a pretty easy train ride, pretty sure it was just overnight as well... The Sofia>Istanbul train was nice because we had actual beds but had to stop at the border for border control. Budapest>Belgrade did not have sleeping cars and we just slept on top of each other in the cabin. As for food, it's mostly meat dishes in Serbia but there is a strong Italian influence in some parts of Serbia so you can always find an Italian place if you do not feel like eating only meat. quote:
This. If anyone asks you are Canadian or better Swiss. I speak German so I usually just stuck to that during the trip during Yugoslavia. If you are in Belgrade, I would recommend Cafe Insomnia if it is still open, pretty fun bar. I am going to disagree with the rest and say spend some time in Budapest, even if it is only a couple of days. I was really impressed by that city. Serbia wasn't as fun for me but the language barrier was much harder there because I don't speak any Cyrillic languages. If you speak German then you can always revert to that in Hungary because the language is still sort of big there. If you have accomendations set up in Belgrade, I would HIGHLY recommend getting directions in Serbian. I had mine in English which was useless, I knew I had to go to 'ABC Circle' but the problem was everything was in Serb and it is impossible to tell what is what, so make sure you have the names in both English and Serb. I ended up asking directions from a 10 year old girl because she was the only person I could find that spoke something other than Serb. I am probably not going to read this thread again but if you have any follow up questions feel free to PM me. I have a good friend that is Serbian and she goes back to Belgrade quite often (She lives in Oslo now) so I can ask her any exact questions you have. I also travel around a lot so I can point you in the right direction with anything else. Bon Voyage e: I see you don't have an account that can PM so if you get in a bind follow my post history and post in the dota 2 thread with something at me and I will see it because that is probably the only thread I post in daily. Enigma89 fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 16:53
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Enigma89 posted:This. If anyone asks you are Canadian or better Swiss. I speak German so I usually just stuck to that during the trip during Yugoslavia. If you are in Belgrade, I would recommend Cafe Insomnia if it is still open, pretty fun bar. Seconding that Budapest recommendation, haven't been there yet but I only heard positive things, and it's easier to navigate than Belgrade; the cyrillian alphabet can be daunting if you didn't learn to read it, and although I had no trouble finding english speaking people I may have just been lucky.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:19
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Enigma89 posted:This. If anyone asks you are [...] Swiss. Just a warning on this: Half of the population of FYR:AllOfThem now lives in Switzerland, so if you do go this way, be prepared for them to tell you how their cousins, their best friend, and six of their mates from high school now live in Zurich and their followup questions about where you're specifically from and how much they love that little diner in that little village you just said you were from. This is kind of an exaggeration, but really there is a HUGE diaspora of Yugoslavians in Switzerland. Serbian is the 4th most spoken mother tongue, followed by Albanian at #5, and there are an absolute ton of Kosovars here, including Switzerland's star footballler, Xherdan Shaqiri. I'd say Canadian unless you want to get caught in an awkward conversation with someone knowing more about Switzerland than you do. Unless you actually are Swiss. But really you shouldn't have any problems unless you are from a different, and wrong, Yugoslav republic (e.g. being Serbian in BiH or Kosovo or... Croatia or... poo poo, anywhere).
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Apr 30, 2015 17:31
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I went to two cities in Croatia, but silly me didn't go to the ones that are actually famous for being fun. Zagreb was overall okay but kinda quiet and button-down. Some neat old buildings, and a cool streetcar system, but just not really exciting, and their museums were rather dowdy and "we haven't updated since 1970"ish. Then I went to Rijeka on the coast, but since it wasn't summer season yet it was awfully quiet there, but in summer it's packed with people on long family vacations, so I don't know if even then it's a fun place to just drift into. My understanding is that a lot of the actually fun/cool cities are down south, but I was going from Zagreb to Venice so missed all those. Not too distract too much if your plan is already set, but I had a really fun time in Slovenia. Gorgeous country, and the capital of Ljubljana is almost painfully picturesque. Gorgeous city, at least some foodie scene (Zagreb not so much), a whole chunk of downtown is pedestrian-only, and just generally it seemed more like a city that had the luxury of focusing on quality of life and having fun. Good arts scene there, and went to see Oi Polloi play at a literally underground club in some old bomb shelter or something, opened by local punk bands. And there are several museums in Ljubljana which are full on London/DC-quality museums. Really polished, lots of audio-visual additions, etc. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 21:15
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The two spots we are determined to see are Plitvice and Romanian castles. I would love to go to Split or Dubrovnik but I'm not entirely sure it's doable easily. We will be flying into Zagreb late and out through Bucharest early so we have 16 full days. Plitvice can be a day trip from Zagreb so I was figuring at least 2 days there, then to Budapest for at least 3 days, maybe a stop in Cluj then a couple days in Brasov since most of the castles seem to be in that area and then just a day in Bucharest since I've heard there isn't much there. Obviously this leaves quite a few days open so would it be feasible to hit Split and Dubrovnik? Or are there other stops along that line that would require more time?
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May 1, 2015 00:45
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Bumping the thread for any more tips - I'm planning my honeymoon, and it looks like we may go Budapest/surrounding area for a week, and then sorta tour our way around Croatia for a week. I've heard Zagreb is OK, but along the coast is the real awesome stuff. I've also heard that if we go in mid-to-late August, it will be terrible and all Italian/German tourists. Confirm/deny?
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May 30, 2015 05:20
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SgtScruffy posted:Bumping the thread for any more tips - I'm planning my honeymoon, and it looks like we may go Budapest/surrounding area for a week, and then sorta tour our way around Croatia for a week. I've heard Zagreb is OK, but along the coast is the real awesome stuff. Zagreb is OK. There's around 10 times more tourists here than it was several years back due to heavy investments in it. But I wouldn't bother more than a day or two, unless you are also interested in medieval/renaissance castles around it. On your way to the coast visit Plitvice National Park, it's really pretty. Definitely go to the coast. During the summer (with July/August being the height of season) there's a lot happening there. You can find anything from some nice cove somewhere, spending your days splattering in the shallow water drinking beer with your wife, to having wild beach foam parties and going back home with several more wives. Whatever floats your boat. The height of season is the best. Croatian coast is deceptively big (longer than Italian Adriatic coast due to all the islands and inlets etc...) so there's still no critical mass of tourists that bumps into each other all the time. Maybe in Dubrovnik due to its popularity.
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May 30, 2015 12:03
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Dubrovnik was pretty terrible just a few weeks ago tbh. It's a beautiful city but suffers from huge crowds, steeper prices and repetitious poo poo (the same carbon copied mediocre restaurants and trinket shops, mostly). Our best day was renting a car and driving the Bay of Kotor and peninsula near Tivat in Montenegro, which was just as beautiful in its own way but a lot less touristy. I imagine the other stretches of Croatia are pretty similar, minus perhaps Split, which I hear is getting pretty packed. As an aside, regarding what the others have said, I've spent a week in Belgrade and there's no weirdness with being American at all. For what it's worth I like Belgrade more than Budapest, although the latter is prettier and I can read the Serbian alphabet so ymmv. People all over the former Yugoslavia have been uniformly friendly for the most part, though. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 17:24
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MothraAttack posted:Dubrovnik was pretty terrible just a few weeks ago tbh. It's a beautiful city but suffers from huge crowds, steeper prices and repetitious poo poo (the same carbon copied mediocre restaurants and trinket shops, mostly). Our best day was renting a car and driving the Bay of Kotor and peninsula near Tivat in Montenegro, which was just as beautiful in its own way but a lot less touristy. I imagine the other stretches of Croatia are pretty similar, minus perhaps Split, which I hear is getting pretty packed. Yeah I have had nothing but friendly encounters there myself, although I noticed that people may get a bit touchy if you ask them about neighbouring countries. Like, if we asked how to go to X or Y country or if they know some interesting places, the answer was often "Why do you want to go there? It's a shithole, there's nothing nice there. Stay here, it's much better!" Allthough, they maybe just preferred that we spend our Dinars there instead of anywhere else Otherwise, I can second your post - Croatian coast is really nice if you stay outside of the tourist hellholes that are Split and Dubrovnik, even if it is getting more and more popular every year. Montenegro is also really cool, and the hinterland is worth it too, having nice mountains and forests for hiking and all.
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Jun 3, 2015 08:51
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Forget about trains in Croatia. Maybe, and I emphasize maybe if you arrive to Zagreb by train from Slovenia and are a diehard railfan with a penchant for noisy, smokey old diesel locomotives from the 1970s. Now that the adriatic motorway has been completed, the best way to go around is by bus - there are shuttle buses between Zagreb and Split departing every 30 minutes (outside of the tourist season, mind you) and this is doubled, if not tripled during the summer. The buses are generally good, modern and airconditioned. Most buses run directly between Zagreb and Split without any stops in between, if your bus is going all the way to Dubrovnik (most of them do) after Split you'll get to travel on the Adriatic magistralle which runs right by the shore and sees some pretty insane traffic during the summer. Better yet, the driver will be happy to drop you off anywhere you'd like. Zagreb is decidedly underwhelming. It's reasonable to spend maybe one morning in the city and then take an evening bus to the coast - there isn't really all that much to do in Zagreb once you're here. Cheap hostels are abound, and the downtown area around the train/bus station is absolutely littered with them. The place is tourist friendly, most young people speak at least some english, so it's easy to find your way around, even if you get lost. Once again, don't expect too much or you're gonna leave kinda disappointed.
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Jun 7, 2015 15:57
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GAY 4 ORGANS
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Forget about trains in Croatia. Maybe, and I emphasize maybe if you arrive to Zagreb by train from Slovenia and are a diehard railfan with a penchant for noisy, smokey old diesel locomotives from the 1970s. Niche opinion, but I took the train from Rijeka (Croatian coast) to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and really enjoyed it in a retro way, but maybe that's just me. I did also take the train from Zagreb to Rijeka, and it was kinda long and though there were occasional beautiful views, the vast majority of the time it's just endless forests on both sides for hours. quote:Zagreb is decidedly underwhelming. It's reasonable to spend maybe one morning in the city and then take an evening bus to the coast - there isn't really all that much to do in Zagreb once you're here. Cheap hostels are abound, and the downtown area around the train/bus station is absolutely littered with them. The place is tourist friendly, most young people speak at least some english, so it's easy to find your way around, even if you get lost. Once again, don't expect too much or you're gonna leave kinda disappointed. The ethnographic museum is kinda cool, though of 1970s-quality vibe. There's a huge flea market outside of town that was recommended to me, but most of it isn't so much fun quirky stuff as much as a serious swap meet of used washing machines, car parts, old clothes, etc. So more big and weird but not cute tourist fun like flea markets in other countries. There are a couple smaller flea markets downtown with more artsy-antiquey things. The coolest single thing I did in Zagreb was went to see some shows in this multi-stage punky squat-like venue build into an old pharmaceutical factory. I'm not stumbling across the name on google, but I found it by seeing the flyers around town, and it seems to be a pretty established institution. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Jun 7, 2015 19:05
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The coolest single thing I did in Zagreb was went to see some shows in this multi-stage punky squat-like venue build into an old pharmaceutical factory. I'm not stumbling across the name on google, but I found it by seeing the flyers around town, and it seems to be a pretty established institution. Anyone know what I'm talking about? [/quote] It's "Medika". http://www.spottedbylocals.com/zagreb/medika/
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Jun 8, 2015 11:30
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:
Ah yes, that's the one! Have you been as well, or just google better than I? I'd somehow convinced myself that the name was Apteka or Farmacia or something like that, so wasn't getting the hits. 
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Jun 11, 2015 21:18
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Ah yes, that's the one! Have you been as well, or just google better than I? Nah, I'm living in Zagreb and I'm interested in urban exploration and stuff. I haven't been in Medika personally, but I've read about it on some of my favorite urbex blogs.
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Jun 11, 2015 22:18
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Forget about trains in Croatia. Maybe, and I emphasize maybe if you arrive to Zagreb by train from Slovenia and are a diehard railfan with a penchant for noisy, smokey old diesel locomotives from the 1970s. Now that the adriatic motorway has been completed, the best way to go around is by bus - there are shuttle buses between Zagreb and Split departing every 30 minutes (outside of the tourist season, mind you) and this is doubled, if not tripled during the summer. The buses are generally good, modern and airconditioned. Most buses run directly between Zagreb and Split without any stops in between, if your bus is going all the way to Dubrovnik (most of them do) after Split you'll get to travel on the Adriatic magistralle which runs right by the shore and sees some pretty insane traffic during the summer. Better yet, the driver will be happy to drop you off anywhere you'd like. Took the train from Vienna to Zagreb, it was ok. Rented a car after. Drove it all the way down to Dubrovnik then flew to Budapest. Not the cheapest, but worked out fine.
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Jun 15, 2015 23:14
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Sergiu64 posted:Took the train from Vienna to Zagreb, it was ok. Rented a car after. Drove it all the way down to Dubrovnik then flew to Budapest. Not the cheapest, but worked out fine. I think you did the right thing. Allow me to elaborate on the "don't travel by train in Croatia" thing. The railway that leads from Slovenia (and Vienna) is modern and electrified, no problems there. However, the southward railway that goes to split has been completed in 1921 (!) and well... it hasn't changed much, if at all. To add an insult to an injury, the railway is electrified only till Perusic (or Perkovic, can't remember) anyway, your train will be pulled by an electric locomotive through the plains and it will go deceptively fast, making you think you'll get to Split in a reasonable amount of time. However, when the railway reaches the mountains of Lika, bam - no more electric traction and you're doomed to Diesel. The funny thing about the locomotive change is that they'll couple a Diesel engine on the opposite side of the composition so the train will be moving backwards. This causes no end of confusion to some people. The old Diesel locomotive will struggle uphill for hours, and in many areas the train will go no faster than 20 km/h, due to dangerously decrepit tracks. The train trip from Zagreb to Split takes nine hours, provided that the locomotive doesn't crap out somewhere in the boonies - compared to this, going by bus from Zagreb to Split now takes around four hours. Furthermore, if you're going further down south from Split, you're going to take a bus anyway so you might as well board in Zagreb. I'll agree that there are some pretty spectacular views from the train. Here is a cab ride video from the Lika railway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa6sJTmWbXQ
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Jun 16, 2015 08:55
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:The train trip from Zagreb to Split takes nine hours At around 2007-2008, I was travelling Zagreb-Split semi-regularly by train and it took me 6-7 hours. Are you saying it's even worse now?
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Jun 16, 2015 12:31
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Disco Infiva posted:At around 2007-2008, I was travelling Zagreb-Split semi-regularly by train and it took me 6-7 hours. Are you saying it's even worse now? Yes. The tracks have deteriorated even further, and in some locations the train runs at 5 km/h (usually over very questionable viaducts which haven't been repaired since 1945), an old man with a walker could catch up with the train. Another thing, since Zagreb-Split railway has only one gauge, the "express" train to Split often has to wait for some local train (which is ALWAYS late) to clear the track so your Split-bound train can continue the journey. And finally, since our locomotives are around 50 years old, breakdowns are woefully common. Interestingly, back in the 70s, Yugoslav government decided that the old Lika railway is done for, so an entirely new, electrified and modern railway was built along the Una river. The problem with this is, that the new railway crosses the bosnian border several times (and in many cases, the railways itself is a demarcation zone between the countries, and even though the Una railway is modern, it's legally impossible for passenger trains to use that railway since it crosses the national border quite a few times. These days, the modern Una railway lies mostly abandoned, and the spotlight has turned back to the ancient Lika railway because there is no alternative. All of this mess was caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia. What a sad ending to a great railway.
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Jun 16, 2015 23:34
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I hope you don't mind me piggy-backing on your thread, but it looks like it has kind of run its course so I doubt I'll be usurping anyone's discussions. Next May, I'm looking at traveling with my wife to Prague as part of a marathon tour. That part is easy. My questions start where that tour ends. We also wanted to check out Romania, specifically the Transylvania region. I've been looking at several travel package websites to get an idea of the places to see. One of the things in particular that appeals to us is the overnight train from Budapest to Sighisoara. I'm still in the very early stages, but this is kind of where I'm at right now: 5/9 - Fly from Prague to Budapest, landing around 11pm and grabbing a pre-booked hotel that night. 5/10 - Wake up in Budapest for the day. I have no idea what to see when I only have one day there. Catch the night train at 11:30 5/11 Wake up in Sighisoara at 9-ish. See the sights. Catch a late train to Sibiu. 5/12 Wake up in Sibiu. See the sights. Catch a late train to Brasov. 5/13 Wake up in Brasov. See the sights. Catch a late train to Bucharest. 5/14 Fly home from Bucharest. Flight leaves at 6am so we would obviously have to spend the night in town. It feels like one town too many in Romania. If I'm going to double up somewhere, my gut tells me I should spend a little more time in Brasov. Which town should I leave out? Is by train the best way to travel within Romania? Tell me about the trains in Romania. How is Romania in May?
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Sep 10, 2015 18:39
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Hungryjack posted:I hope you don't mind me piggy-backing on your thread, but it looks like it has kind of run its course so I doubt I'll be usurping anyone's discussions. First thing, I haven't posted in here since my intiial question - the honeymoon was a blast! Budapest was probably the most beautiful city I'd ever visited. And Zagreb was fun for like six hours - but we went on a weekend that was essentially Croatian Christmas, so essentially all stores were closed both days we were there. Having said that, the Naive Art museum in Zagreb was AMAZING. Dubrovnik was great as well - though after a few days, we sorta got the point, though it never fully got "old" (and day trips to nearby wineries and such helped). Overall, I'd have spent one day less in Zagreb (essentialy just make it a ~6-8 hour layover), and a few days less in Dubrovnik, and would have stayed more in Budapest. Having said that, Hungryjack - there may be more people who can speak better than I, but from what we saw in Budapest over a few days, I'd say some of the key MUST SEES are to at least go to the Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda side, to see the panorama of the Danube. I don't know if this would work timing wise, but a few companies do a sunset Danube cruise for like $15 a person. They're kinda cheesy, but it was well worth the money for us. Some offer dinner + drinks, but just go with the drinks - the dinner looked pretty crappy, and you had to sit in the covered part of the boat rather than the open air portion. You can also buy a "Budapest Card" that gives you discounted/free admission to a number of museums - that could be a good list of basic places to hit while you're there.
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Jan 4, 2016 03:40
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Thanks for taking the time to reply and congrats on a great honeymoon. This trip for me is on hold for now, but it's still on the bucket list. I appreciate your thoughts.
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Jan 7, 2016 16:38
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