The Julian Alps

After a brief tour through Croatia, we landed in one of the most beautiful places on the earth, Slovenia. At first it looked a lot like the Appalachian Mountains, but then the mountains just kept getting larger, and we quickly realized Julius Cesar decided to name these alps after himself, the Julian Alps.

We stayed three nights in the town of Bled, the town situated on a lake, with a church in the center of the lake built on a small island. There is no bridge to get over to the church, you can only get there by boat, or if you've mastered the whole walking on water thing. The first day that we were in bled it rained, we could tell that we were in an amazing place, but it wasn't until the second day that we were really able to enjoy ourselves.

The second day we took a bus to Bohinj which is where most of the pictures on this post are from. We hiked all day in the mountains, seeing one magnifacent thing after the other. Half way through the day I (Aaron) decided that I'll probably never the chance again to bathe in an alpine waterfall, so I took a very cold, quick shower in one of the waterfalls that we came to. For the sake of the children that may be looking at this post we have decided not to show these pictures, but the picture of me with the wet hair will soon be seen in Irish Spring's advertisement for their new scent Alpine Fresh.

Pecs & Keszthely

We spent two days in Keszthely, Hungary a small town on the Lake Balaton. We rented bikes and biked on the trails around the lake. We found a bird sanctuary and walked this very small handmade bridge through the marsh but only saw one bird. It was a very nice quiet town.

Before that we stayed in Pecs, Hungary at a house with an apartment that looked and smelled like it was owned by an eccentric old lady with lots and lots of dogs (but they were nice) We spent a lot of time here on the patio drinking wine and playing card games. The town was very pretty with lots and lots of little shops and bookstores to roam through. We also came across an old fortress wall that had a statue of what we could only determine was a centaurion (man/horse/lion).
The smaller towns in Hungary were very relaxing and beautiful and a lot of fun to stay but we are ready to see some other things like the Julian Alps.

Well we sure didn't go hungry in Hungary (I'm sorry I'm hitting myself in the face for that one.). Anyway the first day we spent in Hungary was in Sopron, we didn't really see much of it, it was merely a pit stop on the way to Budapest, I will say though that the Pizza Forum very nice.
Budapest was beautiful, busy, but beautiful, a city that is the sister city to Vienna how could it not be. We stayed at the Red Bus hostel which was right in the middle of Pest. We walked all over the city just taking in all the scultures and beautiful architecture, poking our heads into any building that would let us. Later in the day we went caving, yes there are real cave all under Buda, and for a small fee they'll give you a guide and let you go all through the caves. Budapest is where we had our first taste of Hungarian wine; tasty.
Then we decided to go to Eger, sort of on a whim, but a brilliant idea by Aaron. The only thing we read about it was that it was known for its red wine especially one called Bull's Blood and it had a castle. When we arrived we once again wondered around looking for a place to stay and found a sign that said Zimmer Room (free room) and magically found one of the best places we have said at. Not only was it cheap but was owned by this adorable couple who have probably been married for over 60 years. The room was decorated with a beautiful garden view mural and they invited us down for coffee the next day. We were very happy to be staying with them.
In Eger we walked to the Valley of Beautiful women that is known for having over 200 wine cellers where we could just walk around and go into each of them and taste different Hungarian wines including the Bull's blood. Also for dinner aaron tried a Devils Doughnut which is supposed to be Hungarian, it was pretty tasty. ( it was at the resturant with the Hawk)
The second day we visited the castle and then the Mineret which is supposed to be the northern most sign of the Turkish invasion. Aaron climbed the very skinny 97 steps to the top.
Now we are back in Budapest for one night planning where to go to next.

Hallstatt...AMAZING

The Alps
Well we made it to Hallstat, Austria, and it is one of the most beautifull places that we've been thus far. The town is situated on a huge lake nestled in the Alps. All we've been doing for the past few days is hiking all through the mountains, stopping occasionally for some of the most breathtaking views either of us have ever seen. Today as we were hiking we saw an alpine squirrel (slightly smaller and darker, with larger ears), two mountain goats, and we followed snow tracks of some sort of large cat.
Yesterday I (Aaron) decided that it might be fun if I were to take a quick dip in a glacier pool, OK actually I was trying to get down as close as I could to the glacier pool, the whole time with Marla saying I don't think you should be doing this, and I slip and fell in it with all of my clothes on; needless to say it was a very wet mile and a half back to the hotel.
If either of us ever learn German, this is where we will end up.

Augsberg, Germany

Augsber, Germany is a smaller city outside of munich, but still in Bavaria.   We couchsurfed for two days here and walked our little feet off, going the long way to everywhere (not really on purpose)  But we did get to see the Fuggeri  (picture of street) which is the oldest social settlement still around.  It was started in 1521 and is free (or like 10 euros a year) for the residents to stay.  they just have to be poor, native from Augsberg and Catholic.  Also we went to a festival, like Octoberfest but smaller and Aaron drank a liter of beer.  It was a very large glass mug.   

The other picture is of a really cool building in Berlin where we just spent 4 hours walking around before we caught the night train to Augsberg.