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NYE Trip. Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest

E

Exterous

Super Moderator
Lots of cheap airfare deals have been popping up lately so when a cheap one showed up for Vienna we figured that would be a nice place to spend New Year’s Eve. We braved the holiday travelers and headed out on Dec 26th and managed to miss all the bad weather that would hit many of the Midwest and east coast cities.

Day 1 Vienna

Vienna was very easy to get around in by metro and the trains were very frequent at each stop (generally 4min or so). English was very common although a few people got a chuckle out of my very rusty German. For some more common phrases they would reply in German but I could tell I clearly mangled some things because they would immediately reply in English.

St Stephens Cathedral





Unfortunately it was much colder and significantly windier than originally expected and started hailing the first night. I took a few pieces of hail to the eyeball which is not the welcome I expected. It looked like it was keeping people away from the Christmas market as crowds were thin and many shops had closed up early. On the positive side the clouds pelting me in the face were the same ones that made 'Blue hour' shots look much more interesting, although it happened pretty early (~5pm)

Schonbrunn Palace




Christmas Market outside Schonbrunn



Praeter (Amusement park)



The city was still pretty well decorated for Christmas



We stayed in 3 different hotels while in Vienna and the location of the Hilton Vienna was the best. It was just across the street from a major metro stop which made things pretty convenient since some of the sites in Vienna are a bit spread out

View from hotel room



 
I loved Vienna when I visited in 2015. Amazing museums filled with all kinds of neat stuff from a thousand or two years of Empire. Nice pics, did you bring a tripod?

My GF and I took advantage of the recently absurdly cheap airfare as well and are headed to Barcelona in 10 days. Can't wait!
 
AznAnarchy99 said:
Nice. I wanna book a trip somewhere, anywhere next New Years just cause I hate celebrating it around here.
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It can be a lot of fun although airports are extremely hit and miss. While we've had luck flying out first thing in the morning on the 26th this time Detroit was a madhouse while Dulles (connecting flight to Vienna) was a ghost town. Coming back on the first Vienna was pretty calm while Frankfurt was a mess.

repoman0 said:
I loved Vienna when I visited in 2015. Amazing museums filled with all kinds of neat stuff from a thousand or two years of Empire. Nice pics, did you bring a tripod?

My GF and I took advantage of the recently absurdly cheap airfare as well and are headed to Barcelona in 10 days. Can't wait!
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Thanks! Yeah we brought our tripod but its usually only used for long exposure night shots. Have fun in Spain!
 
Day 2 – Bratislava\Budapest

The following morning we boarded a train to Bratislava. The sky was pretty clear but still colder than average for the area. The train ride was pleasant although the Bratislava train station was a bit more difficult to figure out departure times and metro\bus\trolley connections than Vienna.

We only planned for a half day in Bratislava but could have spent more time here. As it was we stayed a bit longer than we planned. Train tickets from Bratislava to Budapest are good for any train for the next 3 days so it allows a good deal of travel flexibility.

We normally try to learn a few phrases in the local language but life has been a bit crazy and with both Slovak and Hungarian to learn we didn’t really get much of anything down. Fortunately, in both Bratislava and Budapest English was very common (We saw many advertisements in Bratislava in English). It quickly became apparent that most non-native travelers used English. I think enough people know English that it’s the default option even for non-native English speakers in an area where you don't know the language

The Blue Church







View from Bratislava Castle



Man at work



We headed out around 4pm for Budapest. Other than a train car change to avoid 2 very loud, very obnoxious and very drunk Russians it was a pleasant ride. The Budapest Train station was nice but all open air - including the metro connection. Since it was getting late and very cold we didn't stick around. In Budapest the metro system was, again, pretty easy to figure out although did not have a frequent service as Vienna. The bus system was slightly less easy to figure out and we made our first of two mistakes of the evening – taking the wrong bus. This one didn’t go to the top of the hill where our hotel was. The second was deciding to just walk up the stairs – with our luggage. I’m not sure how many stairs there are but I think ‘a lot’ covers it.

Anyway the location was worth it. If anyone is in the area I highly recommend the Hilton Budapest in the Castle District. Amazing location, superb hotel and very pleasant people working there and pretty dang cheap for what you get. Its up towards the top of our ‘Favorite Hotels’ list. Also – spring for the Danube views

View from hotel room:



 
Day 3 – Budapest Part 1

We headed out to one of Budapest’s thermal bath’s in the morning of the third day – hoping to avoid the crowds. While not as interesting as the thermal baths we went to in Iceland it was still enjoyable and a good way to rest our legs (We averaged 9.5 miles of walking each day on the trip) One side of the pools had a circle where jets would propel you counter clockwise which I thought was much more fun than my wife did

Thermal Baths:



St Stephen’s Basilica





Lots of food stalls around various parts of the city. One thing I noticed though is that prices varied by a huge margin. Lots of places charge more in tourist areas but the difference was substantial in Budapest. Food that cost $8 near a tourist destination would be $2.50 somewhere else. A $5 beer would be $1.20 somewhere else. Also – Budapest is a very cheap place to drink if you’re not near a main attraction (at one location I paid $0.90 for a glass of pretty good house white wine)



Hungarian Funnel Cake




In the afternoon we bought tickets for a tour of the Budapest Opera house which is gorgeous. I opted to pay the additional $2 fee to take photos and the extra $1 for an Operetta which is a short 5 minute performance by one of the opera singers. Both were well worth the price



 
Day 3 Part 2 Budapest

In the evening we headed out to get night shots of quite a few places. Here the short days worked to our advantage because Budapest is gorgeous at night so we could get started early and cover a lot of ground

Parliament





St Stephens Basilica



Buda Castle



Mathias Church and Bastion



We ended at Fisherman’s Bastion and Mathias church – both of which were a convenient 30 seconds from the hotel. Which was great because we were getting quite numb from the cold

Church and Bastion



Church



And forgot one of Buda Castle during the day

 
Day 4 - Budapest

Woke up to a great sunrise view from the room





Christmas market



Mathias Church





We headed back to the train station for an evening trip back to Vienna. Unlike trains from Bratislava we had a specific departure time. We got there early which worked out well as our train was already there and there was a bit of a rush to get seats. It filled up quickly and we saw several groups have to split up to find seats.

One word of note – the “#1 Gyro” food stall at the station has chili sauce that is not messing around. While I don’t have the highest tolerance I can order Thai food hot enough that I am asked if I’ve had it before and warned I can’t send it back. (And most chain restaurants spicy or hot labels don’t even register) Anyway this on par with that which I usually try to avoid if bathroom availability is questionable. (Fortunately no digestive problems to be had)
 
Day 5 – NYE in Vienna


We did the Opera house tour in Vienna as well which, while larger, wasn’t quite as pretty. The room coated in 24k gold was pretty neat though

So much gold:



Opera House



We went back to Schonbrunn to do the tour but, unfortunately, they don’t allow pictures. They had people in most of the rooms except the Hall of Mirrors. I saw lots of people take out cell phones and blatantly take pictures so I did the same but wasn’t brazen enough to use my camera



In the evening we stopped by again to see part of the Opera they broadcast live outside the Opera House



And then it was on to the party. Left the camera back at the hotel room because it was going to be crowded. Vienna had a “NYE Trail” that was several miles long and had all sorts of bands, DJs and orchestras playing along with plenty of food stands. A bit of Hot Wine helped to keep the cold at bay until midnight. We brought in the new year at City Hall square and enjoyed the fireworks afterwards.



 
mztykal said:
Gorgeous photos! Looks like you guys had a blast!
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We did. Every city was more interesting than we thought. Budapest especially so. Its now in the top 5 cities we've been to. We normally feel like we get to see a decent amount of the cities we visit but we left a lot undone there. More so than most places

ImpulsE69 said:
Amazing photos. What did you use to take them?

Looks like it was a fun time.
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First trip with our Canon 5D Mark III and we got the 24-105 lens that is often included with it. A lot of the shots were with the Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 which we've traveled with before. Very little distortion for a 15mm lens. We took the Fuji Finepix XP70 to the thermal baths. Pretty robust little camera that does quite well with pictures. Its held up to this, the blue lagoon, lots of snorkeling and me taking it well below its waterproof depth when diving.
 
Amazing pics- I do bit of photography as well.

1. Was the first pic done using multi exposure?

2. Were the indoor cathedral shots taken on a tripod? They're amazingly sharp!
 
KMFJD said:
Very nice pictures, looks like you had a great time, thanks for sharing!
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You're welcome. Hopefully it puts Budapest on the radar for some people as its a gorgeous city

Kaido said:
Nice pics!

Also, can you bring me back a golden grand piano?
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Too late - we're already back. Besides I think that might be a outside our checked baggage allowance

Zeze said:
Amazing pics- I do bit of photography as well.

1. Was the first pic done using multi exposure?

2. Were the indoor cathedral shots taken on a tripod? They're amazingly sharp!
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Thanks! The first one had enough light that our f2.8 lens didn't need it. Most of the rest of the interior shots are bracketed because the dynamic range was pretty significant. We didn't use a tripod for any of the indoor shots. We tend to not use it indoors because of crowds and this was a pretty busy time of the year. The only reason it doesn't look more crowded is because we got lucky in some places while others had ropes that kept people out of certain areas and I hid as many people behind things as I could. Also I'm not a manlet so I can take pictures above a lot of people. I kept the ISO up a bit and the f stop more in the f/5 range so I could keep my shutter speed reasonable when bracketing. The first St. Stephens Basilica shots were the largest bracketing range I've ever done (-2.25+2.25) so I'm glad it turned out. Even with substantial bracketing I couldn't quite get the stained glass to show through on the second. This was one of the more challenging venues I've ever tied to get pictures in
 
Zeze said:
Wait you are bracketing while hand holding the cam?
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Yeah. Since the camera can be set so it takes all 3 shots in succession automatically, keeping the shutter around 1/60 for the long exposure means everything happens fast enough that it comes together well. I've had some luck with 1/30 and a good stance but its a bit more hit and miss there.

soulcougher73 said:
Great pics. Someday ill finally get to Europe...
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Thanks. There are some cheap flights out there right now if it works out

skyking said:
Nice trip, great photos. I will share this with my wife.
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Thanks! Hope she enjoys them too
 
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