Tag: public transportation

Thermal baths, a fake Transylvanian castle and the Magyars

October 31, 2017 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Budapest is known for its natural springs. There are 118 springs in the area pumping up over 70 million liters of thermal water per day and that’s why there are so many thermal baths here. They claim that the thermal baths, with its high concentration of minerals and salts, are good for different medical conditions, so perhaps this is why they are so popular. We spent an afternoon combining steam saunas with differently temperated baths and we loved it.

We also encountered a fake Transylvanian castle close by and ended up at the Heroe’s square in Budapest. The origin of the Hungarian people or the Magyars are very interesting. They are steppe people from central Asia and they found their way to Europe in the 10th century and settled here on a flatland surrounded by mountains. “Geography now” has made a short introduction to Hungary that we can highly recommend if you want to learn more about Hungary and its people.

Budapest är känt för sina naturliga källor. Det finns 118 källor i området som pumpar upp över 70 miljoner liter termiskt vatten per dag och det är därför det finns så många termiska bad här. De hävdar att de termiska baden, med hög koncentration av mineraler och salter, är bra för olika medicinska åkommor, så det är kanske därför baden är så populära här. Vi tillbringade en eftermiddag vid ett sådant bad där vi kombinerade ångbastur med olika tempererade bad och vi älskade det.

Vi hittade också ett falskt transsylvaniskt slott i närheten av badet och hamnade på Hjältarnas torg i Budapest. Ursprunget till det ungerska folket eller Magyars är mycket intressant. De är steppfolk från Centralasien och de hittade till Europa på 900-talet och bosatte sig i ett platt landskap omgiven av berg. “Geography Now” har gjort en kort introduktion till Ungern som vi kan rekommendera om du vill lära dig mer om Ungern och dess folk.

Experiencing one of the many thermal baths in Budapest felt like a must do thing for us. We decided to go to the largest medicinal bath in Europe, the Széchenyi thermal bath.

You can take the metro to this thermal baths and one of the metro stops we passed to get there had a really funny name if you can read Swedish (Bajsa means to poop in Swedish).

We must say that the public transportation system in Budapest is good. The city is stretched out in all directions, but it is easy to get around with a little bit of help from google maps. You can even travel to Mexikoi here, but we wanted to get off at Széchenyi fürdö.

Széchenyi thermal bath during an early autumn afternoon in 2017. The thermal baths opened its doors on 16 June 1913 and has since then expanded a bit and today you’ll find 3 outdoor and 15 indoor pools and 10 saunas inside this Neo-barouqe designed building.

You can choose different types of changing rooms and of course pay different entrance fees depending on if you want a changing cabin or just a locker.

We chose a cabin to share.

We’ve seen this clever electronic locking system both here in Hungary and in the Czech Republic.

Then it was time to try all the pools and saunas they had to offer. Most of the thermal baths are located in the yellow part of the building opposite of the pool.

The water is heated by two wells that are over 1000 meter deep and the temperatures ranging from 18 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees. More pictures from this place can be found below.

Széchenyi thermal bath are located in the City Park of Budapest.

Here we found a number of sculptures depicting (in)famous world politicians.

And we also found a real fake Transylvanian castle!

This castle, called the Vajdahunyad Castle, was designed by Ignác Alpár in 1896 and the castle was originally constructed out of just wood and cardboard. The intention of the cardboard castle was only to be a temporary exhibition to celebrate that it was one thousand years since the medieval Magyars first settled on the plains of Pannonia, the start of the Hungarian peoples existence in Europe. The attraction proved to be such a success and loved by the Hungarian people that a permanent structure was built in 1904.

Nowadays, parts of the castle are housing the Hungarian Agricultural Museum. More Pictures of the city park and castle can be found below.

Between Vajdahunyad Castle and Hősök tere (The Heroes’ Square) lies a big pond, which is turned into an ice rink during the winter months. The ice rink opened in 1870 and is one of the oldest ice rinks in Europe, but is used by humans in, and next to, boats during the summer.

The millenial memorial monument at the Heroe’s square and the tomb of the unknown soldier.

The column are flanked by the seven chieftains of the Magyars (Hungarians), which was the leaders of the seven tribes of the Magyars originally from the Ural mountains in Russia, who arrived to the Carpathian Basin in 895 AD (today’s Hungary).

Two colonnades with statues from later leaders of Hungary surrounds the Heroe’s square.

Then we continued our exploration of Budapest, that will be part three of Budapest, which will hopefully come soon.

Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque & Turkish food

June 10, 2017 / Ulrika / 2 Comments

We had just landed in Turkey where we last left you and now it’s time to show you some pictures from our stay in Istanbul. Ulrika was sick most of our time here so the energy to edit movies and pictures was not there, but we managed to see a lot of Istanbul anyways, probably due to Ulrika’s persistence, and tried a lot of different Turkish food. Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque was also on our to-do list, so here is some pictures and videos from our visits there.

Vi hade just landat i Turkiet där vi lämnade er senast och nu känner vi att det är dags att visa några bilder från vår vistelse i Istanbul. Ulrika var sjuk mestadels av vår tid i Istanbul, så energin att redigera filmer och bilder fanns inte då, men vi lyckades ändå se mycket av Istanbul, troligtvis beroende på Ulrikas envishet, samt prova mycket turkisk mat. Hagia Sofia och den blå moskén var också på vår att göra-lista, så här är några bilder och videor från våra besök där.

Bosphorus – the waterway that separates Europe from Asia, and this view has been on Ulrika’s bucket list for a long time. We landed at the Sabiha Gökçen-airport on the Asian side of Turkey and took a bus over to the European side.

We had been travelling all night, with a transit in Iran, so seeing how the turks spell the word toilet was funny to us Swedes. It reminded us of a funny tv-sketch “Svenska för nybörjare” or Swedish for beginners 🙂

One of the reasons for our choice of destination was the food, or the craving for Turkish Kebab. Here, we’re eating two of our favorite dishes – Iskander Kebab and Beyti wrap drinking Ayran, a Turkisk sour milk drink which is really good, and ice tea.

The other reason to travel to Istanbul was this- Hagia Sofia. the 1500 year old church that is now a museum.

Hagia Sofia was a church for the first 1000 years, before the Ottoman empire transformed it into a mosque in the 15th century, It was a Mosque until 1935 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the first president of Turkey, transformed it into a museum.

The christian mosaic was covered with islamic patterns, because of the “do not portrait the image of god, which humans are”-rule in islam. However, the cover up has now been removed and the old mosaic pictures are being restored.

But you can still see the mix of islam and christianity in the church.

Inside the Hagia Sofia:

And some really old remnants are on display inside Hagia Sofia. Here is the lustration urn from Pergamom, an urn carved in a single marble block.

Hagia Sofia has a second floor from where you get a beautiful overview of the inside of the church, which you can see in the video above. The tunnel to the second flor is also remarkable. Think that here has humans walked up and down for 1500 years.

Here you also find a viking tag from a viking who took work in the guard force of Hagia Sofia approximately 1000 years ago.

When Ulrika was not feeling sick, we also tried to explore Istanbul. Public transportation in Istanbul is really cheap and easy to use. The Istanbulkart is the thing you want when using the trams, metro, buses etc in Istanbul.

Love the trams!

Also love the colors and patterns that are common here. The Shisha can be smoked everywhere here.

Turkish carpets!

We mostly enjoyed eating Turkish food, here is Pontus with an eggplant kebab.

Another favorite was the Turkish ravioli.

And the baklava. Here, together with apple tea another Turkish delight!

The Turkish ice-cream is our new favorite. It is similar to our Swedish favorite brand “Lejonet och björnen”.

We also tried roasted chestnuts, but Ulrika didn’t fancy them.

Turkish people really like their sweets!

We also visited the Blue Mosque while we were in Istanbul.

The Blue Mosque or the Sultan Ahmed Camii, was built under much controversy in the beginning of the 17th century. Sultan Ahmed I was not fortunate with winning wars, so he was not so popular. Then he financed the new mosque from the empires treasure promising a great mosque that ended up looking like the Hagia Sofia church, which just stands a few hundred meters from the blue mosque. However, the hand-painted blue tiles inside the mosque are beautiful to see.

Inside the Blue Mosque:

You have to cover up if you want to visit the church, so here is Ulrika looking like a “Påskkärrring”
Påskkärringar are seen in Sweden during Easter, where children dress up as witches and “travel” to Blåkulla on Maundy Thursday, for meeting with the devil. The children go around as witches, knocking the doors in the neighbourhood requesting treats and sing a song or give you a drawing.

We noticed that the number of tourists coming to Turkey are really low, illustrated by the picture. The prices has gone down because of that, so now you can find cheap accommodation in the old parts of Istanbul and it is not so crowded. We loved Istanbul so much that we decided to extend our stay here.

You’ll find the Hippodrome of Constantinople, today the Sultan Ahmet Square, with the obelisk remnants from the old days, just in front of the blue mosque. The first obelisk was erected during the 18th dynasty by Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC), but was transported to Constantinople in 390. The second obelisk is called the walled obelisk and it was erected in the 10th century by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. It was originally covered with gilded bronze plaques. The third obelisk (not shown here) is the serpent column, which was erected to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars in the 5th century BC.

Istanbul is beautiful and we met really nice people and animals here. Unfortunately, Ulrika caught the air-condition sickness just before we left Malaysia, so she’s lagging behind with the blog posts. She is much better now, so we will try to catch up in the coming weeks.

En omväg i Indien / A detour in India

March 21, 2016 / Ulrika / 2 Comments

(Please scroll down to the orange text for the English version)

Vår vän Sandra skrev en kommentar som handlade om att se på “ny lokaltrafik som ett potentiellt litet äventyr” och det påminde oss om en fantastisk resa med lokaltrafiken i Indien som vi gjorde förra året och som vi inte berättat om tidigare på bloggen. Det var meningen att vi skulle ta direktbussen mellan Munnar och Kumily med avgångstiden klockan sex på morgonen, men 15 minuter efter planerad avgång så ställdes turen in och vi blev hänvisade till en annan buss. Trots den stora språkbarriären så förstod vi att vi skulle behöva byta buss någonstans på vägen och det gjorde oss lite oroliga, men det skulle senare visa sig var en helt onödig känsla.
En sak vi alltid gör när vi ska åka från en punkt till en annan är följa vår resa med hjälp av google maps i offlineläge, så vi alltid vet var vi är även om vi inte vet vart vi hamnar. Vi satte oss på bussen och förmedlade att vi skulle till Kumily till konduktören och hoppades på det bästa. Efter några timmars bussfärd visade konduktören med en gest var vi skulle hoppa av och det visade sig att att vi nu kommit till liten stad vid namn Cheruthoni. Alla informationstavlor är skrivna på sanskrit, troligtvis Malayalam som är det officiella språket i det här området, så vi fick helt enkelt fråga lokalbefolkningen om hjälp för att komma på rätt buss. Med fler handgester så förstod vi att vår buss skulle komma om cirka 15 minuter, så det enda vi kunde göra var att stå där på busstationen i Cheruthoni och vänta. Minuterna tickade på och flera bussar hann både anlända och åka vidare innan den snälla mannen, som vi tidigare frågat om hjälp, med en handgest visade oss till en buss som svängde in till busstationen. Konduktören bekräftade med en nickning att vi kommit på rätt buss och vi trodde nu att nästa stopp för oss skulle bli Kumily.
Det visade sig inte stämma och vi fick hoppa av i Kattapana göra om samma procedur och ta hjälp av lokalbefolkningen igen, men vid det här laget hade oron gått över och vi gjorde om resan till en äventyrlig omväg. Lokalbefolkningen var lika hjälpsamma här och visade oss till en buss som tog oss till Kumily, dock med flera timmars försening. Vår färd hade förvandlats till en omväg där vi fick uppleva fantastisk natur, hjälpsamma människor och flera samtal med våra medresenärer som oftast bestod mer av teckenspråk än verbal kommunikation. Det kallar vi ett äventyr!

För övrigt borde ni spana Sandras blogg där hon publicerar fantastiska bilder från hennes och Marcus hem bland bergen i Österrike, men också bilder från andra resor de gör!

Our friend Sandra wrote a comment about “seeing a new public transport as a potential little adventure” and it reminded us of a fantastic journey we did last year involving public transportation in India. The idea was that we would take a direct bus between Munnar and Kumily, with a departure time at 6 am in the morning. But the bus was canceled 15 minutes after the scheduled departure and we were referred to another bus. Despite the big language barrier, we understood that we would have to change bus somewhere along the way and this made us a little worried, which would later prove to be completely unnecessary. We took a seat on the bus and told the conductor that we wanted to go to Kumily and hoped for the best. One thing we always do when we go from one point to another is to follow our journey with the help of Google Maps in the offline mode, so we always know where we are, even though we do not know where we will end up. It turned out that we had come to a very small town, called Cheruthoni, when the conductor showed with a gesture that this is where we should jump off. All information signs are written in Sanskrit, probably Malayalam, which is the official language in this area, so we had to ask locals for help to get on the right bus. We understood with more hand gestures, that our bus would arrive within 15 minutes, so all we could do was stand in the bus station in Cheruthoni and wait. The minutes were passing, and several buses both arrived and departed before the nice man, who we previously asked for help, showed with a hand gesture towards a bus that were pulling up to the bus station. The conductor confirmed with a nod that we jumped on to the right bus and now we thought that the next stop for us would be Kumily. This assumption was proven wrong and we had to jump of in Kattapana and follow the same procedure as in Cheruthoni, which meant asking for help by the locals again. By this time our concerns were gone and we had made the detour into an adventure. The locals were just as helpful here and showed us to a bus that finally took us to Kumily, with several hours of delay. Our journey had turned into a fantastic detour where we got to experience a fantastic scenery, helpful people and several conversations with our fellow passengers that often consisted more of sign language than verbal communication. We call that an adventure!

Moreover, you should check out Sandra’s blog where she publishes amazing pictures from her and Marcus home in the mountains in Austria, and also images from trips they make!

Direktbussen mellan Munnar och Kumily ställdes in 15 min efter annonserad avgång och istället fick vi byta buss både i Cheruthoni och Kattapana innan vi äntligen anlände till Kumily! The direct bus between Munnar and Kumily was canceled 15 minutes after the advertised departure. Instead, we had to change buses in both Cheruthoni and Kattapana before we finally got to Kumily!

VI fick se en skymt av en jättedamm uppe bland bergen i Kerala! We got a glimpse of a giant dam in the mountains of Kerala!

Vi var vana vid att se hur teplantagen sträcker ut sig i dalgångarna, men nu fick vi se en helt annan växtlighet. We were used to see how the tea plantation stretched out in the valleys around Munnar, but now we got to see a completely different vegetation.

Serpentinvägarna gjorde att mötande trafik blev en intressant upplevelse, men chaufförerna rattade skickligt bussarna runt varandra! The serpentine roads made oncoming traffic into an interesting experience, but the drivers were skillful in driving the busses around each other!

Omvägen blev tillslut en helt fantastisk upplevelse! The detour eventually became an absolutely amazing experience!

Vi har bara positiva erfarenheter av att åka med lokaltrafiken i södra Indien! We only have positive experiences of travelling with the public transports in South India!

Ta oskulden av lokaltrafiken / Take the virginity of the public transport system

March 15, 2016 / Ulrika / 3 Comments

(Please scroll down to the orange text for the English version)

En av de första trösklarna att ta sig över när vi kommer till en ny plats är att bli vän med lokaltrafiken. Det var mycket jobbigare för oss i början på vår resa att våga, men vi upplever att ju fler platser vi varit på, desto lägre har denna tröskel blivit. Vi brukar skoja om det när vi kommer till en ny plats genom att säga att vi måste ta oskulden av lokaltrafiken så fort som möjligt så vi blir bekväma med de transportmedel som finns till hands. Inget land är det andra likt och även inom länder kan det skilja sig ordentligt mellan olika platser och städer. Ofta hoppar vi bara på en buss eller liknande och ser vad som händer. Vi brukar också fråga lokalbefolkningen och använda oss av Wikitravel för att läsa på om transportmedel, men tillslut måste man bara hoppa på en buss och se vart den leder. Ett tips är att ha gott om tid utifall man råkar hamna på en rundtur runt hela staden, vilket också kan vara väldigt trevligt. Här i Acapulco är lokaltrafiken privatägd, dvs varje buss är sitt eget företag. Därför stannar de väldigt ofta för att få fler kunder och du behöver bara vinka in en buss för att hoppa på. De flesta bussar åker på Costeran, vilket är huvudgatan som går längs med stranden inne i viken i Acapulco. Det som skiljer bussarna åt är var de vänder för att åka åt motsatt håll.
Åker du taxi så får du räkna med att taxichaufförerna inte vet var platsen dit du vill ligger om du inte ska till någon av de stora hotellkedjorna som ligger längs med Costeran eller till Walmart. Var därför redo att kunna guida taxichauffören med gps eller karta om du ska någon annanstans. Var också beredd på att pruta!
Ni hittar även vår vän Juans väldigt informativa youtube-video om hur man åker med lokaltrafiken här i Acapulco längst ned i detta blogginlägg!

One of the first threshold to overcome when we come to a new place is to learn the public transport system. It was much harder for us in the beginning of our trip to dare to jump on a bus, but the feeling is that the more places we have been visiting, the lower this threshold has become. We use to joke about it when we get to a new location by saying that we have to take the virginity of the public transport system as quickly as possible, so we become comfortable with the transportation that is at hand fast. No country is like another and it can differ between different places and cities within countries, so often we just jump on a bus and see what happens. We usually ask local people how it works and consult Wikitravel for reading about the means of transport, but in the end you just have to jump on a bus and see where it leads. One advice is to have plenty of time in case you happen to get a tour around the city, which could be nice also. The public transportation here in Acapulco is privately owned, which means that each bus driver has his own business. Therefore they often stop to get more customers on to the bus and you only need to hail a bus to get on them. Most buses go back and forth on the Costera, which is the main street that runs along the beach in the bay of Acapuco. What separates the buses are where they turn on the Costera to go in the opposite direction.
You should expect that taxi drivers don’t know where the place you want go is located, if you are not going to any of the big hotel chains that are located along the Costera or to Walmart. Be ready to be able to guide the taxi driver with GPS or a map if you are going somewhere else. Also, be prepared to haggle!
You will also find our friend Juan’s very informative youtube video about how to travel by public transportation here in Acapulco at the bottom of this blog post!

Discobussarna är de utan luftkonditionering och kostar 7 pesos (ca 3,5 SEK) för en färd. Du kkäbbber igen dem då de åker utan fönster längs med Costeran. Vi kallar dem discobussarna på grund av deras färgade, blinkande lampor och hög musik på kvällarna för att locka till sig partysugna resenärer. Disco buses have no air condition, you recognize them with their windows open, and they costs 7 pesos (about 0.35 Euro) for a journey. We call them the disco buses, because of their colored flashing lights and loud music they put on in the evenings to attract partygoers travelers.

Discobussarna är de utan luftkonditionering och kostar 7 pesos (ca 3,5 SEK) för en färd. Du känner igen dem då de åker utan fönster längs med Costeran. Vi kallar dem discobussarna på grund av deras färgade, blinkande lampor och hög musik på kvällarna för att locka till sig partysugna resenärer. The disco buses have no air condition, you recognize them with their windows open, and they costs 7 pesos (about 0.35 Euro) for a journey. We call them the disco buses, because of their colored flashing lights and loud music they put on in the evenings to attract travelers looking for a party.

Du hittar till vilka områden bussen åker till på framrutan! De allra flesta åker mellan olika ställen på Costeran, men vissa svänger av och åker upp mot bergen, så håll utkik efter vad det står på bussen. Skulle det hända att bussen svänger av så är det bara att hoppa av och gå tillbaka till Costeran och hoppa på nästa buss! You will find which areas the bus will go to on the front window of the bus! Most buses travel between different places on the Costera, but some turn off the road and go up the mountains, so look what it says on the bus window. Should it happen that the bus makes that turn, just jump off and go back to the Costera and hop on the next bus!

De gula bussarna och vissa av discobussarna har luftkonditionering och då kostar biljetten 8 peso (cirka 4 SEK) för en resa. Hoppar du av och på alla bussar så måste du betala för en ny färd då alla bussar är privatägda! The yellow buses and some of the disco buses have air conditioning and then the ticket price is 8 pesos (about 0.4 Euro) for a trip. You must buy a new fare for a new journey if you jump off and on to another bus. All buses are privately owned in Acapulco!

De gula taxibilarna är så kallade “colectivos” och de åker också mellan olika områden. Åker du med dem så får du räkna med att de stannar flera gånger under din resa för att plocka upp fler passagerare eller släppa av andra. Det kostar 14 pesos (Cirka 7 SEK) att åka med dem. The yellow taxis are so-called “colectivos” and they also travel between specific areas. If you go with them expect that they will stop several times during your trip to pick up more passengers or drop off others. It costs 14 pesos (about 0.7 Euro) to ride with them!

Dessa blå taxibilar har luftkonditionering och de är lite dyrare än de utan luftkonditionering! Vi betalar 50 pesos (cirka 25 SEK) för en resa på cirka 2.5 km med dem. These blue taxis have air conditioning and they are a bit more expensive than those without air conditioning! We pay 50 pesos (about 2.5 Euro) for a trip of about 2.5 km with them.

Blå VW-taxis är billigare då de är utan luftkonditionering. Priset som vi betalar är runt 40 pesos (20 SEK) för cirka 2.5 km. Blue VW-taxis are cheaper because they do not have air conditioning. The price we pay is around 40 pesos (2 Euro) for about 2.5 km.

Tag: public transportation

Thermal baths, a fake Transylvanian castle and the Magyars

Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque & Turkish food

En omväg i Indien / A detour in India

Ta oskulden av lokaltrafiken / Take the virginity of the public transport system

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