I learned pretty quickly that the Grand Budapest Hotel is a fictional fabrication and not a real building, but fortunately Budapest has many other “Grand” sights to behold.

Firstly, my journey from Kiev, Ukraine to Budapest, Hungary was an anomaly by backpacking standards. I have gotten used to long waits and inconvenient departure times. The only wait was for the roughly 5pm departure time from Kiev which brought me to the utmost edge of Ukraine in Chop, arriving at 9am. The approximate 16-hour train ride cost a mere equivalent of $5.75 US. That included a sleeper berth, which at this point has become quite common for me. I am usually able to sleep soundly despite the crowdedness, maybe even better than a hostel bed, in thanks, part to the rhythm of a moving train. That train was a pleasant surprise for the price and then upon arrival in Chop, Ukraine I only had to wait 20 minutes for a train to take me across the border to Záhony, Hungary. The immigration and passport control went smoothly and I arrived in Záhony with my Hungarian entry stamp and my official entry into the EU. While the 20-minute wait seemed like a quick turnaround, upon arriving in Záhony I had 5 minutes to quickly purchase a ticket taking me straight to Budapest. My receipt showed a 10:01 purchase with the train leaving at 10:03am. I doubt I could have even planned it that perfectly! It’s very rare that things line up that perfectly especially when flying by the seat of your pants, as I usually do.

My first day in Budapest was greeted with the visit of my Summer camp friends Mark and Veronika at the train Station. Veronika had to quickly get back to work, so Mark took me to grab some food since I had ridden through lunch. Mark then had to leave for soccer practice, leaving me to wander the famous Danube river at night. It was gorgeous with the Parliament, a cathedral, and a castle all lit up along the river walk.

The next day after a nights rest in a downtown hostel Mark, Veronika, and now Balazs gave me a tour of the city! I really didn’t have any expectations for Hungary since I really didn’t know much about it, but I was really impressed with how nice it was. Super nice public transport, very clean, and all sorts of nest old buildings.

We went inside the St. Stephen’s Basilica and it reminded me of the grand cathedrals I visited in Italy on my first trip to Europe. Not sure when from China to Russia to Hungary that I officially entered Europe, but I can be sure I’m there now!

Then at night I met back up with Veronika and we climbed to the top of the Citadel. I guess that statue there in the picture above is the Hungarian equivalent of the statue of Liberty. The views from the top were great as well!

After, that I said goodbye and I made my way by public transport to the bus station. It was a quick trip, but a good one!

Now I am in Czechia after a 5 hour bus ride. Through the night I went right through Bratislava, the capital of Solvakia. My layover here was from 4am to 8:30am. Luckily I’ve been camping out in a 24/7 bar and cafe. I witnessed drunken fights at 5am and then almost immediately afterwards the crowd changed to older folks getting there 5:30am coffee. Kind of interesting to see…

Tomorrow, I plan on touring Auschwitz and then I’ll head a little further north in Poland to visit a friend from University.

It just occurred to me after looking through social media that it is now most college’s spring break. For me that means heading north to Siberia. Not typical, but since I missed out on winter I guess I’ll just try to cramp it into a couple week span here.

Above is a picture of a wintery Siberian morning after crossing the border at 1-2am. Mongolian border wasn’t that intense, but the Russian border brought on some military personnel to check bags. They mostly left me alone probably because my fanny pack screams tourist. Apparently, in the past the railroad was used for transport ingredients drugs, guns, and counterfeit goods. That would explain the drug sniffing dog. However, as far as I could tell I didn’t see any signs of the Russian mafia. In fact, my only bunk mate was another Japanese tourist.

Fresh off the train I wandered around Irktusk and saw some of the buildings and what have you. I eventually made my way to the bus station. An hour and a half about got me to Listvyanka. Here I got my first glimpse of Lake Baikal! Lake Baikal actually has more water than all the Great Lakes combined. However, even lake Huron has a bigger surface area. Baikal it’s noted for it’s vast depths and for Omul. Omul is a fish that only lives in Baikal. It tasted pretty standardly fishy. At least I can say I’ve had Omul though now.

At the hostel in Listvyanka I met 4 young Russian travelers about my age. They invited me to have dinner with them. The dinner was a simple pasta dish since we we’re back at least a half an hour walk from the main town on some snowy back roads. It was late and a lot of places might not be open in this small town as well. I think they could tell that I miscalculated my dinner plans! I really appreciated that and they were so nice. They invited me to go exploring with them the next day. It was pure serendipity that they had one seat left in there rental car. We did the road and drove 6 hours to the island in the more nothern portion of the lake. I guess the island is the largest lake bound island or something like that. On the way we saw some awesome views and made some frequent stops to take pictures and explore.

They had planned the hostel ahead of time and with some more serendipity one of the rooms had an extra bed. So that worked perfect. Nicolai, Alexander and I were in one room and Natasha and her husband Ivan were in the other room. The room was super cozy and we made another make shift dinner in the cabin’s kitchen. The next day I saw a PPV boxing match for the heavy weight title during breakfast around primetime in the US. Somehow what is pay per view in the US was being broadcast on public stations even to remote dirt road secluded Siberian cabins.

That first night near the island we went i skating at midnight. It was so awesome under the full moon and to hear the ice cream and crack through the silence of the night. However, I can not compete ice skating with Russians… The next morning we headed for an adventure on the ice road to the island! That in itself was a cool adventure! My Russian friends have a drone, so eventually I’ll have some drone footage, along with a bunch of awesome pictures, to show our journey on the ice. We also had a snowboard and a rope. You can guess the fun we had getting towed by the car.

We stopped for a late lunch on island. I had some Omul and some Borscht, the typical Russian soup. After lunch we cruised around the island. The whole island is dirt roads and some of the roads turn into haphazard trails rather than roads. Of course, that’s where my friends planned to go. I have to say it is slightly terrifying how fast they drive on snowy roads, but also comforting knowing that they Russians and snow and ice roads are typical. However, these trails are a different story. Nicolai punched that Toyota down the rough trails through rock strewn stretches and snow enveloped paths fully aware that it was a rental car. I can only imagine the horror of the rental agent if he could see the places we took that Toyota at those speeds. At the end of the night we we’re planning to ice skate in this secluded part of the island. Nicolai even had a firework in his backpack. But the wind was pretty wild through there which caused the ice to be way to rough, plus it was super cold! So we headed back to the hostel for another group dinner. This time I was able to at least contribute by buying groceries.

The next morning I got taken to the bus pickup location. I then spent 6 hours getting back to Irktusk. Then I got my train ticket. I’m sitting at the train station waiting for my 4am departure right now. 4 days from now and a lot of miles of rail later I’ll be in Moscow. Plan is to meet back up with my Russian friends (comrades), who are Moscow natives. They will spend a couple more days at lake Baikal before flying back and arriving there the same day as me! More serendipity.