English? 1 Euro.

So we drove, we saw things, we made our ancestors proud. Well, we did more than that, but I really wanted to do a parody of that Thor quote, because it's wonderful. I just finished a 5 day roadtrip through Eastern Europe (and Austria), and it was quite the adventure. In those 5 days, we hit up 5 different cities and saw a bunch of really cool things. Also learned a lot about Eastern Europe. I start with a few things: 1) Eastern Europe is awesome and will often surprise you, 2) Slavic languages are really hard, and 3) horse meat is exactly as weird as you'd think. 

February 20th: Tübingen – Salzburg
We began our journey in the late afternoon on Thursday, because Anna had a dentist appointment. But that was fine, because Salzburg is only a 4 hour drive from Tübingen. We ate some PB&J's on the road and stopped a couple of times to get gas, stretch our legs, and buy random things for the car (stickers that allowed us to use the roads, safety vests–because some European countries have funny driving laws–etc.). 

We arrived in Salzburg around 21:30 and checked into our very swanky hostel, the Meininger Hotel. It was a combination of a hotel and hostel, but the hostel part was basically a hotel with bunk beds. It came with towels, (skin compatible) soap, the whole nine yards. The five of us got a room to ourselves, which was all very nice. We settled in and watched some news about Ukraine before heading out to do some evening exploring. 

Salzburg is an absolutely gorgeous and old city, and it is pretty cool at night. Oh and Mozart was born there, and the people that The Sound of Music is based on lived around there–two things that the city and all its tourist shops will never let you forget. We wandered around the city center for an hour or two and looked at its many wonderful shops before reaching a freezing point and deciding to go into a bar to grab some beer and get warm. We made a point in each of the places we went to try some local or national brew. And the Austrian beer was mighty tasty, but unfortunately, I forget the name. 

So that was about our evening. Very chill in both senses of the word. 

February 21st: Salzburg – Ljubljana
The next day, we checked out at 11AM, put all our things in the car, and proceeded to explore Salzburg in the daylight. Before heading to any city monuments or anything, we checked out a bunch of stores along the main street, which included a really cool music shop which sold any number of instruments, where Lasse bought a kazoo and Anna bought a triangle, and a dollar store, which contained any number of bizarre items. 

We then wandered up the hill (Salzburg is situated in somewhat of a valley) to a small castle-type-thing. The view of the Salzach River and the fortress were absolutely incredible, and we sat pondering on one of the walls for a while. Afterwards, we wandered through the city, had some delicious bread from the first bakery in Salzburg, and then hiked up another small mountain to the fortress, where we didn't go inside, because they charged 8€. After a few hours, around 14:30, we headed back to the car, because we had a 3 hour drive to Ljubljana. So with that we sad goodbye to Salzburg.

The drive to Slovenia is an absolutely gorgeous one. It's a large highway that winds through large, snowy mountains. God, nature. So good. However, the 3 hour drive turned out to be longer and more expensive than planned. It turns out that you have to pay tolls, very expensive tolls, to use the tunnels, which go through some of these mountains, which left us paying 18€ more than expected. There was also a large traffic back-up at the tunnel just after the Slovenian border, where we sat at a stand-still for a half and hour or so. After that, there was some confusion about the directions once we actually got to Ljubljana, but by some stroke of luck, we didn't manage to get too lost and we arrived at the hostel only an hour later than the expected time. 

Our hostel, known as the Vila Veselova, was a really nice and home-y place, with free coffee, tea, and questionable juice syrups (which with water could be made into juice) and colorful walls. The receptionist checked us in and told us about what there was to do in Ljubljana both during the day and at night. And after settling in, we wandered into the city center. Not having eaten a real meal all day, all of us were pretty hungry, and after a failed mission to find kebabs, we went to a bar that served pizza and burgers, where we watched the Olympics, drank Slovenian beer, and ate delicious pizza. 

By the end of that, it was nearly midnight, but we decided to stay out anyway. We first wandered into a karaoke bar, which was half empty and rather uncomfortable. We promptly left and found a Disco Bar known as Pr'Skelet. This club was basically a night club placed on an archaeological dig, or at least, I think that was the atmosphere they were going for. And it was awesome (and wicked cheap).

February 22nd: Ljubljana – Zagreb

We had a pretty early wake up call the next morning due to the 10AM check-out time, but we chilled in the hostel for the free breakfast and because the rain outside was rather miserable. Instead, we ate, watched the Olympics, and talked with two guys who were staying in our hostel, one from California and the other from Germany. That was nice, but we did want to see Ljubljana during the daylight hours, so we left and went out to brave the rain. 

Our resolve to see Ljubljana shrunk with each wet step, but we did make it to the famous Dragon Bridge, at least. We also stopped in some tourist shops along the way, which minimally mediated the rain's soaking effect. 

Before long, we stopped at Zvezda bistro, which Klara, the Slovenian girl from Deutsch Kompakt, had recommended. And boy, was it worth it. There was hardly any room inside, probably because of the rain. So we sat outside, between two heating lamps that were working on hyperdrive. But we all ordered cake, and it was so tasty. 

Afterwards, we went back to the hostel and the car, because we refused to wander up to the Ljubljana castle in the rain. So instead, we drove up the large hill. The castle is a rather modest thing compared with the fortress in Salzburg or other ones that I have been to, but it was nice nonetheless. There were some nice views of Ljubljana, albeit some were very obscured by trees. 

After while, we got kind of bored so we went back to the car to go to Zagreb. However, we couldn't leave without trying the illustrious horse burgers recommended to us by the receptionist at our hostel. Now, I know about the whole horse meat scandal from last year. However, in Eastern Europe, people do eat and like horse meat. So we stopped at a place called Hot Horse to try their burgers. I didn't like them very much, but hey, at least I tried it. 

Then it was onward to Zagreb. The ride was shorter and a little less scenic than the one from Salzburg to Ljubljana, but nice nonetheless. Oh, and fun fact we didn't know: there is US style border control at the Slovenian-Croatian border, where we were talked to by not-very-happy Croatian border control. But hey, now I have new stamps in my passport. 

We got to our hostel, the Palmers Lodge, in good time. The hostel was nice and clean and the staff was friendly, but beyond that, it wasn't terribly remarkable. We stayed there only briefly before heading out to explore Zagreb at night. Zagreb is a pretty and picturesque city, but I found Ljubljana to be prettier. After looking at the main cathedral, we went to the bar street where we commenced a five-bar bar crawl, which first brought us to a loud place with an awesomely eclectic playlist. We drank some Croatian beer and left just in time to be accosted by a Baltic band, which invaded the place. We then went to a place called the history club which played the History Channel. And then to three more places. In between, we stopped for döner, which was an awesome decision, as it was different from any döner I have had before and absolutely delicious. 

February 23rd: Zagreb – Bratislava

The next day, we got out of our hostel at 11AM and did a little bit of exploring, but we could only do a little bit, because the ride from Zagreb to Bratislava was more than four hours. Also, it was raining again, which made exploring not particularly great. Before hitting the center of the city, we stopped at a grocery store (grocery stores are open on Sunday!) to grab some really cheap food for the road (Eastern Europe for the win!). We then wandered through the main platz in town and ended up in the middle of some kind of festival–Carneval, maybe?–but we weren't quite sure. There were a bunch of women, who seemed to be dressed up at black-face ladybugs and that was about all we got. After that confusion, we went back up to the big cathedral, took a few pictures, and headed back to the car to get on the road to Slovakia. 

I can't tell you much about the drive from Zagreb to Bratislava, because I was asleep for most of it. But we did get controlled at the border again by gruff men and the parts of Austria that I was awake for were beautiful. 

We arrived in Bratislava without any problems, and I was really pleasantly surprised by the city. My only conception of Bratislava was what I had gotten from Eurotrip, which doesn't exactly paint the city in the most pleasant of lights. However, Bratislava is absolutely beautiful. But more about that later. First the hostel. Art Hostel Taurus is absolutely awesome, and if ever in Bratislava, I highly recommend staying there. It's extremely modern and funky and the room have single non-bunk beds (awesome!) and it's all very nice. 

Now, back to Bratislava. We wandered into the city and what we saw was absolutely beautiful. There is a very clear demarcation line between the old and new parts of the city. The old city is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful white buildings and old restaurants and pubs. The new city, to put it simply, looks like it was built by Communists. However, it was really, really cool. 

After some exploring, we started to get hungry and decided to look for dinner. We were just planning on grabbing some döner, but in the new city, we happened to come across a place simply labelled at 1. Slovakian Pub. We checked the menu and it was incredibly cheap, so went in. The pub is old with wooden floors and paintings on the walls. And the food was absolutely delicious. I mean, just look at it. All in all, we fed 5 people with huge meals and a round of beer for 40€. Eastern Europe is the best.

Afterwards, we wandered around and went into a few bars, but everything closed pretty early because it was Sunday. So we went back to the hostel and called it an early night.

February 24th: Bratislava – Prague

The next day, we ate breakfast at the hostel and checked out at 11AM. After loading up the car, we walked up the hill to the Bratislava castle. The original castle was destroyed through various political moves during the late 1700s and early 1800s and was only rebuilt post 1953, so the entire thing is incredibly modern-looking. However, the hill it rests on offers very pretty views of Bratislava. 

We hung out up there for a little bit and took some pictures. Afterwards, we went back into the main part of the city, where we stopped in shops (most important a children's toy shop which sold, amongst other things, a children's book called Did You Poop on Me?–or at least that's what I am assuming it was called, the title was in Slovakian, but it was about a mole trying to figure out who pooped on his head), took more pictures, and ate more tasty döner. We then made our way back to the car, because it was another long drive from Bratislava to Prague. 

This drive was fine. The roads in the Czech Republic are a bit questionable. But ultimately, we ended up spending most of the making a homemade deck of Cards Against Humanity, which kept us occupied. We got to our very swanky hostel, Mosaic House, in good time. This hostel is actually a hotel, where they put a couple of hostel rooms in the basement. It also has a bar and lounge and is carbon neutral, which is cool. We wandered out to exchange currency and grab some dinner. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to play our Cards Against Humanity and then we went back into the center of town to go to a bar. We ended up finding a dive bar close to our hostel to drink some pilsner and hang out before heading back to the hostel to get some sleep. 

February 25th: Prague – Tübingen
Then next day, we woke up around 10:30 in order to make our 11AM check-out time and after loading up the car, we wandered out in search of food. Our quest led us to the James Dean diner. Now you may be saying, Sarah, you are in Prague, why aren't you eating Czech food? And to that I say, I wanted some bacon, eggs, and toast, damnit. And I don't regret it. I can't remember the last time I had a "typical American breakfast." 

After that, I gave them the same Stadtführung around the Jewish quarter the last time I came to Prague. (If you want to read about it go to the Prague post from November.) This ultimately led us over the Vltava and to the castle. However, this time, I actually went back to the beautiful and Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, where a few Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors are buried. It was originally founded in the 900's so yeah, it's really old and cool. We sort of got to go inside (there's a small part where you can see most of the cathedral and don't have to pay for it) and there's a series of absolutely beautiful stained glass windows. 

After that we went to the main part of the castle and chilled in the courtyard for a while trying to figure out what important figure was coming to visit the castle. When nothing happened for a while we went to the front and watch the guards marching. Then, just as we were about to head back into the main part of the city, the car procession started. It was only 4 cars long. We managed to make it back to the gate in time to see some Chinese official–a woman, and beyond that I have no idea who she is–get out of the car and be greeted by the Chinese anthem performed by a Czech military marching band. 

After all of that hullabaloo, we went to a museum store so Anna could get a postcard, played with some swords, and then went back to the old city. We did some wandering and eventually reached the new city, before deciding it was probably time to head back to the car to start the trek back to Tübingen. 

It started slowly. We were all very tired, and it hadn't even been an hour before we stopped to take a nap. After we hit the German border, however, there started to be a problem. Lasse was always of the mindset that we didn't necessarily need to stop the second the gaslight came on. So the gaslight came on, and then suddenly there weren't any gas stations for miles. We got down to 20km, and Lasse conceded that maybe we needed to stop. So we pulled off at the closest exit to try and find gas. By that point, the meter told us we had 8km left. We drove through a small town, which didn't have a gas station. 5km. Then we came to another town, which had stop lights. More promising. We reached the gas station with around 3km to spare. After that little fiasco, we were all quite giddy and hyper and spent the rest of the ride blaring music and singing. We made it back to Tübingen just after 10PM. 

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So gang, that was the trip. It was absolutely incredible, and I am shocked that we didn't have any major issues. But it was all good. I guess, if I had to pick a favorite city, it'd be Ljubljana closely followed by Bratislava, if only because both of them were so surprisingly wonderful. 

With that, the future. I don't really know what I am going to do these next few weeks. But I do have an interrail pass and a sense of adventure. So maybe I'll explore Switzerland and France before heading up to Belgium for Louise's birthday. Then, of course, there's Ireland. Which is going to be a blast and a half. In other news, since my autofocus broke during the roadtrip, I am now the proud owner of a brand-spanking-new telephoto lens. It's beautiful and I can't get over it. Anyways, that's what I have got for now: bis später, dudes.