Leaving Italy and seeing new countries
Just to get away from the crowds and have some time to deal with my insurance issues, I booked a hotel in the mountains south of Parma, in a small town called Vezzano sul Crostolo, I hadn’t really looked at the pictures, so I assumed it was a normal small hotel. However, when I arrived I realized it was simply an older couple’s home and some of the rooms on the 2nd floor were rooms for booking. It was a very cozy and homey stay, AND they had an old sweet dog! I got to park my motorcycle behind their locked gate and the dog was surely protecting it - I made sure to give the dogs lots of pets for watching over my motorcycle and keeping it safe.
My last stay in Italy was Venice. As many others I’ve always wanted to see Venice and explore the canals going through the streets, so I booked one the hostels on the mainland for a few nights. I had a full day of just exploring Venice and it was the most steps I’ve taken in a single day so was on the trip. The city was beautiful and quite different than most other places I’ve been, it was interesting seeing a city build into the water with canals running through almost every street.
After Venice I headed straight for Slovenia and ended up in a small hostel in Ljubljiana just outside the city center. The first thing I decided on doing was bouldering, so I found the nearest climbing gym and went. At the gym I met a few cool people, especially one guy I had a good chat with and he invited my to his grandparent’s vineyard to try some local Slovenian Wine. He was staying in Ljubljiana for about a week before going back to his grandparent’s place, so I had some time to travel around before meeting up with him again.
In the hostel I met a couple of interesting people, first an English woman traveling around Europe, we ended up chatting and hanging out for the day. Next a Danish girl backpacking through Europe and finally two men from North Macedonia, whom I may meet up with later. They gave me their number and offered to show me around Ohrid if I decided to stay there.
After some days I left Ljubljiana for Maribor, where I again went climbing and walked around town, but I didn’t stay long as I was headed for Budapest.
While looking up hostels in Budapest I noticed a lot of party hostels, and figured that would be a fun change from the relaxing time I had so far. So I booked a party hostel right on the main bar street, and off I went. Once I got there I quickly realized that parking wasn’t gonna be easy and I payed more for a parking spot in a garage than I did for the hostel I was staying at, but at least my bike was safe.
As I was checking in, the woman in the reception suggested a bar crawl and I immediately signed up for that, cuz why the hell not! It was already late so I barely had time to unpack and take a shower before I was on my way to the bar. It ended up being an awesome party starting at smaller pubs and ending up at the popular ruin bars. I made a bunch of friends who were also attending the bar crawl, however, they were staying at another hostel. So after getting home at 4am and sleeping a few hours I met up with my new frinds from the night before and spent the whole day sightseeing, hanging out and watching F1 with them at their hostel.
For my last day in Budapest I yet again decided to go climbing, despite my arms and fingers still being tired from all the previous bouldering trips. So off I went in the morning for some breakfast and a climbing session, before getting some lunch and then going to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath for a nice relaxing time with hot baths, saunas, cold plunges and beer. What more can you ask for.