Dora attempts to summarise Eastern Tour

So, it's been a week since we flew home from Vienna, after a week of exciting tourist fun around Eastern Europe. Since I can't really be bothered to recount every detail of the trip, here's as brief a summary I can manage, complete with photos to illustrate the things I fail at explaining. One paragraph = one day.

So the first day, me, Sophie, Ali and Max flew out to Budapest to join the Dresden crew, and Hannah and Bertpfeif, who had already been enjoying Budapest for a whole day. We went out to a ruin bar, which looked amazing. At midnight, it was Ali's birthday, so I bought him a Birthday shot of delicious Unicum. Oh, I definitely recommend Unicum. Especially if you're a fan of spirits that taste a bit like alcoholic soil and claim to be healthy.

The second day, we saw literally as much of Budapest as it is physically possible to see in one day. We did a walking tour with an awesome tour guide, who told us all about how happy but poor Hungarians are and recommended us the best places to go out, as well as forcing the reluctant group to sing happy birthday to Ali. We followed up the tour with a trip to these amazing underground candle-lit caves, which featured a wine fountain. In the evening, we headed to another ruin bar called Szimpla, which everyone had recommended, and it did not disappoint. We sat and drank in an old Trabi. The only slight set-back was when me and Sophie accidentally got left behind by accepting free tequila shots just when we were meant to be leaving, and ended up very lost in Budapest, until we finally got rescued through the magic of Ali and his iphone.

Owl on the wall at the first ruin bar.

Decorative bunnies across the room in first ruin bar.

Dora enjoying the Buda side of Budapest.

Our tourguide, showing us how to grope the horse statue's balls for good luck (and good sex, apparently).

Dora enjoying a castle that looks a bit like it's made of sand.

Ali and the wine fountain in the caves. We were advised not to drink the wine. It didn't kill us.

Sophie in an old Trabi at the second ruin bar.

Sophie, lost in Budapest, with a book and a beer she acquired along the way.

Tuesday was Bratislava day. Budapest started looking nice and sunny, but it was time for us to trundle along to the next country. Our train to Slovakia was very exciting; there were compartments! We sat in a compartment! Did I mention it was hot and sunny in Budapest? Well in Bratislava, it was grey and rainy. It stayed that way for most of the time we were there. We spent most of Eastern Tour running away from good weather. Our first day in Bratislava was quite chilled. We went for a massive chinese, then in the evening we went out to a bar where I had a cocktail that used sparkling wine as a mixer, and we saw some Russians being racist. It wasn't our favourite bar of the holiday. They did give us free shots though.

So the next day, we walked around Bratislava and saw pretty much all they had to offer. The centre is very nice, probably because it's all been built for tourists. The rest of the town, outside of this cheap little haven of cute restaurants and souvenir shops, is grey and depressing. There's a nice castle though, which we did visit, and everything was incredibly cheap. The only real fail was that Bratislava is completely dead during the week. We tried to go to what looked like an incredible club in an old bunker, sort of built into the side of a mountain, but it was closed during the week.

Yes, we made it to Slovakia.

 Walking up some cute winding side streets, towards the castle.

 View of Bratislava. I told you it wasn't pretty. There is a bridge that looks like a UFO, though.

One of many cultural experiences; Pippa with some Tesco value string cheese (yes, they have Tesco!), which seems to be popular in Slovakia. It tasted a bit like rubber and looked a bit like intestines.

Oh, did I mention we got a really fast BOAT to Vienna?

They let Sophie drive.

We may or may not have shouted "boat wankers" at any inferior passing boats.

It was really windy.

We made it to Vienna! Third country in a week. Glen joined us (after I managed to find him, all lost at Westbahnhof, as I expected) and then there were ten. The first day, we did some chilling, seeing as we were all getting a bit shattered. We went for a very cost effective italian, and I can safely say I went to bed at about 11pm, exhausted.

Refreshed and rejuvenated, the next day we went to Hundertwasserhaus, which is a pretty, odd-shaped building, and then to Prater, which is like a big funfair. Fun it was. By this time, it was the 29th April, which was Royal Wedding day, and we celebrated in our own special way, by getting wankered at the hostel, then going to a club by the river, wearing Royal Wedding bunting from Poundland (because somehow we didn't feel we looked "Brits Abroad" enough yet). We made a fantastic impression on Vienna.

And Vienna made a fantastic impression on me. So much so that I had to spend most of the Saturday afternoon at the hostel, napping and being sick. I'm getting too old to make party. I did manage to recover in time to join the others for afternoon tea in a posh cafe. That night, we enjoyed our last evening of Eastern Tour in a vaguely Austrian themed restaurant. I had Käsespätzl. I can't tell you what it is, sadly, but it's tasty.

Our last day of Eastern Tour consisted of checking out of the hostel (kindly leaving our leftover pre-drink in the fridge with a multi-lingual note, encouraging people to help themselves to it) and going to the zoo. After deciding the zoo was too expensive, we settled for the gift shop, where Glen got very attached to many of the soft toys. The last adventure in Vienna was a visit to Cafe Central, previously frequented by Lenin and Freud, for a very classy glass of wine and a very posh chocolate mousse.

Crew outside Hundertwasserhaus, near a Hunderwasser fountain.

Pippa about to enjoy exciting soup served inside some bread.

Royal Wedding-themed clubbing.

Glen looking pensive in Cafe Central.

Oh, and me, Glen and Sophie had a nice little silent disco to liven up the plane ride back to Cologne.

I think that is a suitable summary of everything that happened on Eastern Tour. Ooh na na...Eastern Tour...

Dora.
xxx