Franchu’s Lair

Once more I had the chance to visit Vigo, a city in the north west of Spain. This time I was there for work, so not much time for sightseeing, but I think knowing where to stay and where to eat might be useful for someone. So there we go…

Hotels

The group was split in two hotels. They are not exactly the same quality, but both were ok and quite close to each other.

• Hotel América – I didn’t get to see the rooms, but the people who stayed there said they were ok for a three star hotel.
• Hotel Princesa – I stayed in this one, and even if the rooms are quite small they are clean. The people at the reception desk (Nestor) are really friendly, although they don’t speak english very well. You can check their website for pricing information.

Eating and party

As it is usual in Spain, there are many places where you can eat on a budget and the quality is good. If you like fish and sea food in general this is a great place to go to. Just walk around the center and try one of the many places that you will find.

If you want to play it safe though, we found a very nice place called “El Cortijo” on the street Rosalia de Castro 59. Pili, the waitress, took really good care of us. Ask her for help to know how much food to order and what are the best choices to cover the wide variety of regional specialities. She gave us some discounts for drinks at Marmara, a music pub on the same street walking towards the center. The average age was a bit high, but it was a fun place to finish the workshop.

Last week I was in Poznan, Poland for a workshop and had a great time there. The city is really nice with its old city center and as soon as you get out of it you can still feel the communist past of the country. All in all a great experience for a westerner.

We sampled a few pubs and I recommend the following:

• Brovaria: A nice restaurant/bar with its own brewery. They have wheat beer, normal beer and honey beer, plus a selection of good food.
• Dragon: A cool place with lots of wooden stairs around a central patio. It looks like a castle
• Johnny Rocker: Quiet place near the square. Good place to set a meeting point while enjoying a glass of Ziwiec or Lech (Polish beers)

You can see some of the photos of the city and the workshop:

After spending some time in Zagreb, as I described in a previous post we drove from Zagreb to Budapest. Before checking I thought that the two cities were quite far, but in the end it is just a 3 hours and a half drive on great highways.

As soon as you cross the border by car, you need to look out for a place to buy the vignette that allows you to drive in Hungary on the highway. There is nothing stopping you from going on the highway, but I guess you don’t want to be stopped by the police and having to pay a huge fine for not paying a couple of euros (If I remember correctly it was around 7€ for a four-day vignette). To buy it, you have to follow the signs that take you out of the highway with the vignette logo on them, and when you reach a restaurant or a petrol station ask for vignette or matrica (not sure how to spell it, but it is pronounced “matritsa”). They will ask you to write down your car plate number and then after paying you will get a receipt that you have to keep in the car in case the police stops you. From what we understood there, the enforcement of the vignette is carried by videosurveilance on the highway… if you get caught, you can’t say I didn’t warn you

When we arrived in Budapest it was really cold (-7ºC) for our Spanish standards and we went straight to the hotel. In Budapest we decided to stay at Le Meridien Budapest which is situated in the very center of the city, next to the famous Deak Ferenc street, and withing walking distance of Saint Stephen’s Basilica, the Opera, the Synagogue, the Parliament, the Chain Bridge and the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Castle on the other side of the Danube over the hills of Buda.

That evening we went to Buda to see the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Castle, and we were rewarded with an amazing view over Pest with the Parliament and the Chain Bridge as the most eye-catching visible landmarks.

The next morning we decided to enjoy the Sauna, Jacuzzi and swimming pool at the hotel to try to get warm before going out to freeze queuing to get tickets to visit the Parliament. After waiting for more than one hour, we managed to grab some tickets for the French/Italian last tour of the day. After all, we didn’t queue in vain! Nevertheless, as the visit was more than one hour later, we strolled through the center of the city and managed to visit Saint Stephen’s Basilica and grab a drink at BOB (Bacardi Original Bar) on the same square of the Basilica. The bar is quite posh but prices were not high (two hot chocolates for 4€).

We also tried to get into the Opera, but unfortunately the visits were at the same time we were supposed to be in the Parliament, and the big Synagogue was closed as it was Saturday.

We enjoyed very much the visit of the Parliament, and I’d recommend it to everybody. If you are a EU citizen you get 100% discount Not sure if it was because it was Saturday, but anyway, being inside is well worth it.

Just a last tip, if you stay at Le Meridien, try to get a room on the top floor overlooking the square. You won’t be deceived

And after all this text, take a look to some pictures I took while we were there. Hope you will enjoy them as much as I did taking them!