Where East meets West

Golly Gee it's been some time since the last blog. I am ashamed to announce that I am all the way in Bratislava, Slovakia, meaning you have yet to hear about the quirks of Graz and Budapest. Wondering how we got here so fast say you? Well thats becuase we are just a pair of badass bikers on a mission. Graz was a super nice city: a cocktail of both ancient and modern architechture (pics to come, I promise). Scott and I got pretty lucky and met an enthusiastic hotel clerk in a hotel in graz. After chatting about biking and the fact that America is afraid to show nipple on television, he gave us a nice room and warned us against Hungary. In fact, everyone in Graz seemed to imply in one way or another that Budapest was barbaric and sinister to the core (that is a slight over-dramaticization). Heeding no warning, Scott and I decided to head on to Budapest.

As far as I could tell, Hungary may be the windiest country I have ever been to. There was nothing but flat fields and wind all the way to Budapest, making for some painfully slow biking. Luckily we had yummy goulash soup to keep us going. Budapest was also quite the refresher. The city is so dynamic, a nice break from the tourism of most cities. The city also housed the largest biking scene I have seen in Europe. Hip kids in tight jeans on fixies EVERYWHERE! I can't blame them really, Budapest was a fun city to bike. It also had the best hostels and bath houses. I don't know where the idea that bath houses are gross came from, but I must report quite the opposite opinion. The city has a variety of really cool baths; my favorite of which was a giant whirl-pool that whipped you around and awesome paces.

Scott and I have also biked through our first day in the rain: no downpour but a substantial bit of water. It was exciting for the first 30 miles, but soon tired me out. We extended our bike ride to Bratislava by a day, and warmed up with some soup. It was no Hungarian goulash, but damn was it good: :)

-The Velodicts