Solo diner-friendly restaurants

While eating out tonight it occured to me that it might be a good idea to start a list of restaurants that I have found to be solo diner-friendly, as going into a new restaurant alone can be daunting. I've added it as a page here. It's a short list at the moment but will grow as I travel - and possibly with your contributions too!

Living and working abroad: a Library Camp 2012 session

I recently attended the Library Camp 2012 unconference in Birmingham. I wrote up the full day on my other blog, but thought I would reproduce my write-up of this one session on this blog too. 

I had put out a request on the wiki for someone to talk about living and working abroad (particularly in libraries and information work), as it is a personal interest and ambition of mine, and Michelle kindly volunteered to share her immense knowledge on this  topic. Michelle has lived and worked in six countries and, while none of this work was in library or information services, she still had loads of advice for making the move abroad for those of us who were interested in it. She spoke highly of working holiday visas, which are offered by Australia, New Zealand and Canada, generally with an age limit of 18 to 30 or 35. These last for one or two years and allow you to work, though the main purpose of your time there should be holidaying. There are also restrictions such as not being able to work for the same employer for more than six months. This is definitely an option I’d consider in the future; I’m not sure whether I’d be able to find temporary library work (the point was made in the session that library jobs are being cut pretty much everywhere, and that in some countries there are laws which mean that a foreign applicant can only be given a job if no suitable citizen has applied for it) but it would allow me to experience living in another country. (Edited to add - here's a useful website about working holiday visas which Michelle has pointed me to).

We talked about expenses and finding somewhere to live; Michelle explained that she lived in hostels and that this is OK if you don’t mind sharing a room – they are cheap, there may be other people living there rather than just passing through with whom you can make friends, and you can often get your bed free in return for cleaning the hostel or similar. Again, this is an option I would consider in the future, although I do wonder if I’m now a bit old for that!

We also discussed the CILIP LIBEX international library and information job exchange, where you can arrange to job-swap with a librarian or information manager in another country. I have looked at this scheme before, but one big problem with this is that you are supposed to swap homes too – I rent a small, damp one-bed flat so I can’t do this; another participant said she’d been actively pursuing exchanges through this programme but they had fallen through for this very reason – she would need to swap with someone who was in a position to live in a room in a shared house. The other problem would be getting work to agree to it; we are in a challenging position at work at the moment so a swap just wouldn’t be do-able. This does look like a great scheme for someone whose work and living situations allow for it to happen though, and one that I will consider in the future if my situation changes. If you're not working in libraries or information, perhaps your professional body or someone else offers a similar scheme?

I shared with the other attendees the TES jobs website, where librarian positions in international schools abroad are posted. I was told on Twitter by Kirsten, an international school librarian, that schools start advertising around November for a start date of August, so this site may be worth keeping an eye on if you're looking for this kind of role.

I really enjoyed this session – it was good to hear about Michelle’s experiences. Michelle pointed out that waiting for the “right time” to travel is often in vain – there is never really a “right time” so really you just need to do it if you want to. I am very guilty of thinking it’s never the “right time” so this has given me something to think about.

Learning to love hostels

I’m fairly new to solo travel, but I’m even newer to staying in hostels. A year ago I wouldn’t have set foot in one. After bad house-sharing experiences in the past, I’ve been living on my own for a few years and am well and truly used to my own space – the thought of having to share a room with strangers, in a bunk bed, was awful! However, as my desire to see the world and travel whenever I had the chance grew, I realised that I needed to give hostels a go if I was going to be able to afford to travel as frequently as I wanted to; hotel rooms can get horribly expensive when there’s no one to split the cost with.

When looking for accommodation in Lisbon earlier this year, I had a look at some private ensuite rooms in hostels there, and decided to book one for my friend and I rather than a hotel room, as it was so much cheaper. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and the first evening and morning were a bit of a shock; there were so many people around and it felt strange making my coffee and getting my cereal, and washing the dishes afterwards, in a shared kitchen like this – I felt like I was back in university halls! However, by the end of our first full day there, when we returned from a long day of sight-seeing to home-cooked Portuguese food for free, all-you-can-drink sangria for one euro, and conversation with travellers from all over the world, I felt totally at home there. I actually really missed the hostel when I returned home to my little flat and there was no one around in my kitchen! Our room was fantastic – much more spacious than any hotel rooms I’d stayed in recently – we were given city maps and advice on what to see and do and where to eat with the locals, and there was brilliant, reliable free WiFi. This was much better than being in a hotel and I was a total hostel convert – provided I could have a private room with my own bathroom.

Private rooms in hostels are cheap in comparison to hotel rooms, particularly when you’ve got someone to share the cost with; but when you’re travelling solo they can still be a bit pricey. So I decided that I needed to have a go at staying in a hostel dorm; if it was OK, then it would open up so many more options for travelling for me – I could even afford to go further afield than Europe, if I could keep the accommodation costs down in this way. So I booked my trip to Budapest, and booked into a hostel dorm, to see how I fared. It turns out I was absolutely fine! I wrote a bit about the hostel I stayed in in my previous blog post. I stayed in a six bed dorm but I only had one roommate the first two nights, and then I had the room to myself on the final night I was there, so I don’t feel that I had the total dorm experience that I was hoping to have! However I still had the experience of sharing a room and bathroom with strangers, so it did help me to decide how I felt about hostel dorms; irrespective of how many roommates I had, I still had get used to dorm etiquette etc. Dorm etiquette was the thing I was most anxious about – I’d read loads of blogs about it and so I knew that I should avoid doing anything with plastic bags when others are sleeping, I should be quiet, I shouldn’t put the main light on; but I was worried that I was getting things wrong – and also that I was disturbing my roommate by sneezing and coughing in the night! I’m hoping that getting the etiquette right and feeling more comfortable about myself as a roommate will be something I’ll pick up further the more I stay in dorms. As nice as it was to only have to share with one person, I think I would have felt less worried about disturbing people if there had been more people in the room.

So from my albeit limited experience of hostels, here’s what I love so far:

• The price! In Budapest I paid about £10.80 per night for a bed including breakfast – amazing. Staying in hostel dorms means that I can spend more money on getting to my destination – so I can travel further in the world. Travelling alone, I never really thought I’d manage to get to the US but now I think maybe I can afford it one year after all – hooray!
• Meeting people from all over the world. I don’t talk to other guests in hotels because I only see them in passing on the stairs, or maybe in the breakfast room. In hostels you meet people in the kitchen when making breakfast and in your room if you’re in a dorm, and in my experience everyone is open to saying hello and having a chat.
• Free WiFi that actually works. This was brilliant in both Lisbon and Budapest for checking things like timetables and ticket prices. It saves you having to think about all the info you might need and writing it down somewhere before you travel. I’ve stayed in hotels which claimed to offer free WiFi, but it was patchy and unreliable. The free WiFi is a big draw to hostels for me.
• Bonus stuff. In the hostel in Lisbon, the staff made yummy fruit pancakes for us every morning, there was free home-cooked food on offer most nights, and I’ve already mentioned the cheap sangria! They also arranged pub crawls in the Bairro Alto twice a week – we didn’t go on one as we were planning our own night out there, but if I’d been alone then this would have been a great way to experience the nightlife if I was nervous about going alone. You wouldn’t get any of that in a hotel!
• Good advice from the hostel staff on what to see and do in the city during your stay.
• The location. Again, limited experience, but both of the hostels I’ve stayed in have been in a great central location, and also in residential buildings on residential streets – so you’re living amongst the locals and even almost like a local, which I love!

And here are the things I’ve found difficult:

• Both hostels could get noisy – not necessarily because people were being noisy, but just from people moving around to go and use the bathrooms etc. In the Budapest hostel, the common areas were right next to the dorms, so you couldn’t help but hear people. I’ve stayed in hotels which could be noisy too, but I think they are less so because people are more likely to be just in their rooms. I tried earplugs but didn’t get on with them, so this is something I will just need to get used to.
• Worrying about disturbing my roommates. As I said above, I’m hoping I’ll get less worried about this the more I do it.
• Having to lock all my stuff away. In a hotel room you can leave your phone out on charge and leave stuff lying around while you go for a shower or to breakfast; in a hostel dorm, sharing with strangers, you take a risk if you do this. Also along the same lines, I tend to spread all of my clothes and belongings around my hotel room, but in a hostel dorm you don’t have the space to do this, so I had to learn to be tidy!
• Banging my head every time I sat up on my lower bunk. This is just me being clumsy however!

Would I stay in a hostel dorm again? Definitely. Will I stay in hostel dorm for all of my future trips? No, I don’t think so. Sometimes when I travel I am going on holiday, and I want to relax, which I don’t think I could fully do in a hostel dorm. So I will continue to stay in cheap hotels or private ensuite rooms in hostels sometimes; but I will be making use of hostel dorms for some of my trips. 

What about you – what do you think of hostels?

My bunk bed in Budapest

Budapest, Hungary

With a few days booked off work at the start of September, I fancied one last trip away before the hectic Autumn term began at work. I wanted to go and visit a European city, preferably one with water and history, maybe a castle or similar, and somewhere which I could travel to and stay in fairly cheaply! I started off by looking for cheap flights on Skyscanner, and Budapest came up as the cheapest city option from my local airport, Bristol. A quick search on Hostelworld revealed that there was a large choice of low-cost hostels in the city, and a bit of brief research on Budapest suggested that it would be ideal, so off I went.

This was to be my second time staying in a hostel, but my first ever time staying in a dorm (I had a private room with ensuite bathroom last time). I was a bit nervous about the prospect, so spent some time looking at the options and settled on Anadin Female Hostel; I wanted a woman-only room which they offered (I wasn’t looking for a whole women-only hostel, but this came up as the best option so I went for it), somewhere small which was not a “party” hostel, and somewhere well-located for getting into the city centre – Anadin seemed to fit my criteria. It was a great little hostel for my stay and I would recommend it for someone looking for a hostel along the same criteria. The owner was fantastic, recommending the things that I should see and do during my two full days there. The hostel was small (12 beds in total across 2 dorms), clean, generally quiet, the other guests were friendly, the free WiFi worked really well in my dorm and the kitchen, and breakfast was included in the price, which was 3800 HUF – approximately £10.80 – per night for a bed in a 6-bedroom dorm. Located in Pest, it was a 10 minute walk down a safe street to the Danube and Margaret Island (Margitszigot), and a 5-10 minute safe walk to metro and tram stops for a very short ride into the centre and other areas of interest. I’ll write a bit more about getting used to hostels in a separate blog post soon.

I flew with Ryanair from Bristol (UK) to Budapest, arriving at 14:20 on Saturday. The flight was fine and lasted about two hours and 20 minutes. The airport is located in the outskirts of the city, and my research suggested that the easiest option for getting into town for someone unfamiliar with the public transport system there would be the airport shuttle bus service (I emailed the hostel owner to check and she confirmed that this was true). This is a brilliant service; running 24/7, the minibus drops you right at the door of your accommodation and will pick you up again too. There was no waiting around like I’ve experienced on transfer coaches in other countries – I was on my way within 10 minutes of checking in at the airport shuttle desk (clearly marked as you come into the arrivals hall) – and they turned up a few minutes before my designated pick-up time on the way back. You can book online, though you need to wait until 24 hours before your first journey until you can book. It cost me 4950 HUF for a return transfer, which is about £14. 

Having checked in and settled in at the hostel, and popped out to the large Aldi supermarket just down the road to pick up the supplies I needed, I took a walk down to the Danube and then walked a little way along it, as far as Parliament, to get my bearings. It was a glorious hot and sunny afternoon, and the river looked beautiful! 

The Danube in the afternoon sun

I then headed back up Poszonyi ut (the street where my hostel was) which has several restaurants, cafes, bars and bakeries, to find somewhere for dinner. I chose Kiskakukk Etterem as it looked cosy and the food sounded good and was reasonably priced. I was made very welcome as a solo diner, and they spoke to me in English after I asked “beszel angolul?”. The menu was in both Hungarian and English. I chose the turkey breast stuffed with mushroom and zucchini with potato croquettes and jasmine rice, followed by a dessert of crepes. It was all delicious, but not very high in vegetable content – I had read that Hungarian cuisine was meat-heavy, and I could see this right in front me! The food plus a glass of wine and small bottle of water, and a 10% service charge included in the bill, came to about 4700 HUF (£13.40).

After dinner I walked down to the Danube again, to see Margaret Bridge (Margit hid) lit up over the water. It was beautiful, but a mere taster for the sight of the centre lit up after dark, which I would experience the next night.

On Sunday, I got up early to get started on seeing the city – I had a lot to fit in during two days! I walked to the nearest metro station (Lehel Ter) to buy a 24-hour travel card, which is valid on the metro, trams, buses and ferry – basically all public transport except the funicular up Castle Hill. It’s well worth buying one of these if you’re going to be using public transport, as a single metro ticket is only valid for one journey on one metro train – so if you need to switch onto another line, you need to buy another ticket. Plus you need to remember to validate them, or risk a fine! Travel cards don’t need to be validated – you just show them if and when asked. The 24-hour card cost 1550 HUF (about £4.40) and there’s also a 72-hour one for 3850 HUF, as well as various group passes – all the info is on their website. The cashiers I encountered spoke English, but just in case, I had written down the name of the travel card in Hungarian, from the website, to hand over to them, with a smile and a “kerem” (please) and “koszonom” (thank you). 

I headed to Deak ter on the highly efficient metro to start my day with one of the Free Budapest Walking Tours. They offer several tours with an English-speaking guide, and I went on the “original” tour, which sets off at 10.30am and 2pm every day. It takes about 2 and a half hours. This tour took us over the Szechenyi Lanchid (Chain Bridge) to the Buda side of the river, to climb Castle Hill for some great views over the city, then up to the Royal Palace and Matyas (St Matthias) Church.

Szechenyi Bridge from Castle Hill

The Royal Palace

Matyas (St Matthias) Church

The guide was brilliant, telling us about the history behind everything we saw and giving us a brilliant “history of Hungary in 10 minutes” talk! He also gave us tips on other things to see, marked things on our maps according to our individual interests, made some suggestions for what we should eat and drink, aimed particularly at those travelling on a budget (and confirmed that Hungarian cuisine is meat on meat!), and pointed us in the direction of a great little café which didn’t charge high prices in the touristy Castle Hill area. The tour was free and the guide just asked us to tip if we wanted to, which I did – it was a brilliant introduction to Budapest. I highly recommend anyone new to Budapest to start their visit with one of these tours.

The tour finished next to Fishermen’s Bastion, which is a pretty structure which offers some great views over the city. 

Looking over the river to Parliament from Fishermen's Bastion

View from Fishermen's Bastion

After exploring around here for a while, I headed back to the recommended little café and gave in to the temptation of a cherry strudel – absolutely delicious!

I then walked back down to the riverside and over the Chain Bridge back to the Pest side, to catch the metro back to my hostel to freshen up, then up to Andrassy ut, which is apparently considered to be the Champs-Elysees of Budapest; it certainly feels similar. I stopped off at the Hungarian National Opera House but didn’t go in; I believe they offer tours at 3pm and 4pm every day however. I walked further up the street and found the Alexandra bookstore; I had seen the café in here recommended on TripAdvisor so I went in for a coffee. The café was beautiful, with an ornate ceiling and furniture, and a pianist playing. Despite its appearance, it is actually inexpensive. I was tempted by one of the fabulous cakes with my coffee, but decided to be good due to the strudel consumed earlier!

Ceiling of the Alexandra bookstore cafe

After my refreshment stop, I continued my walk up Andrassy ut, to Heroes’ Square (Hosok tere), which features the impressive Millennium Monument. 

Heroes' Square

I explored the area a little, finding the world’s biggest hourglass, which was put in place when Hungary entered the EU in 2004.

World's biggest hourglass

It was now dinnertime, so I headed back down Andrassy ut via the metro, getting off at Oktagon to go to Liszt Ferenc ter, the location of Café Vian, which I had decided to try as it was recommended by the Hostelworld Guide to Budapest as a place for inexpensive Hungarian food. This was a lovely square, lit up in the dusk, with lots of restaurants with outside seating. I was made welcome at Café Vian, and took a seat at an outside table, where I enjoyed a delicious meal of Hungarian beef stew in red wine with dumplings, followed by some fantastic pancakes. Service wasn’t included in the bill but even with a 10% tip added on, my food and a large glass of wine still came to less than 5000 HUF.

Beef stew and dumplings

Pancakes

The hostel owner had told me that not only was Budapest very safe to go out in at night alone, but it actually should be done as the city is beautiful after dark, so after dinner I took the metro first to the Opera House and then to Heroes’ Square to see them lit up, and then back down to Vorosmarty ter in Pest centre. Emerging at the riverside, the sight was fantastic – the Royal Palace and St Matthias Church were lit up, visible over the also illuminated Szechenyi bridge, with the lights from the boats out on evening cruises twinkling below. I think I stood there with my mouth open for a few seconds – it was like a fairytale city! My photos do not do it justice – my camera doesn’t do nighttime very well (or I need to find the right settings!) – so please google for images of Budapest by night, or even better, go there and see it yourself!

Royal Palace

Szechenyi Bridge and Matyas Church

After walking over the bridge and along the Buda side to see Parliament lit up, I caught the metro back to the hostel, to get some sleep before another busy day of sightseeing!

Parliament

On Monday it was another early start and another trip to the metro station to get a 24-hour ticket and then to head down into town. I wanted to climb up Gellert Hill as I had read that the views of the city from up there are magnificent, but as it looked like a steep climb I wanted to do it in the morning before it got too hot! I caught the metro to Kalvin Ter then walked past the Central Market Hall and over the Liberty (green) bridge, to start the climb. It wasn’t as steep as it looks from a distance, actually! The views you get from the top make it worth it too.

View from Gellert Hill

Another view from Gellert Hill

I spent a while up here enjoying the views, and by the time I got back down it was midday, so I decided to go and get some lunch in the Central Market Hall, as recommended by a few guides I’d looked at. The cafes are all on the mezzanine, and offer stand-up tables to eat the cheap, yummy food off paper plates. It was very busy but it was worth persevering to get my lunch of sausage, onion and potatoes, for 1000 HUF (£2.80). I recommend lunch here!

Hungarian lunch

Full of food, I decided to head up to Margaret Island by yellow tram, which travels along the riverside and is a lovely ride. I sat on Margaret Island for a while, enjoying the view of the boats going by on the Danube.

Boats on the Danube

There’s also a wonderful fountain on the island, which “dances” to classical music!

Next, I went to look at St Stephen’s Basilica, before heading back down to the centre, with the intention of going on a boat trip. However, I had just missed a few sailings and there was an hour to wait for the next ones. Wandering along the moorings, I spotted a sign for the public ferry – on which I could use my 24-hour travel card, rather than pay over £10 for a trip on one of the tourist boats – brilliant! I had a pleasant ride back up to the river to Margaret Island, and if I’d had more  time I would have spent some more time on the ferry, going back the other way. Unless you’re particularly set on doing a particular boat trip, I definitely recommend the ferry instead. Some of the ferries have an open air top-deck, so it’s almost the same thing!

Parliament seen from the ferry

I headed back to the hostel to pack for my departure first thing the next day, before returning to Kiskakukk Etterem for dinner. This time I had chicken breast in (lots of) cheese, with vegetable risotto (rice with a hint of vegetables!) – as with all of my other meals, not healthy but still delicious! I thought I may as well finish my Hungarian food experience with some somloi galuska, a sponge cake with orangey and nutty bits, and chocolate sauce – yum!

Somloi galuska

The obvious way to spend my final night in Budapest was to go and see the city by night again. This time I caught the yellow tram number 2 down along the river, to get the full view as it emerged – beautiful. After another evening walk admiring the view, it was time to go back to the hostel and to bed, to be picked up by the airport shuttle bus at 8am the next morning.

Yellow tram number 2 passing the Chain Bridge

I had a wonderful time in Budapest! It would have been lovely to have been able to spend a couple more days there – there’s lots I didn’t manage to fit in, such as City Park, Statue Park, the Jewish Quarter, the thermal baths, the House of Terror, the other museums, or any trips down the Danube to other towns. However, I think I did manage to see as much as I could in two days, and I really enjoyed my time there. I found it a really welcoming destination for a solo traveller; the restaurants seemed happy to have me, the city felt very safe, the public transport was brilliant and efficient, and I encountered many other solo travellers – usually when we were offering to take photos for each other at the sights! I found that English was spoken everywhere that I went once it was realised that I wasn’t Hungarian (I was told I look Hungarian!), but I was glad that I’d managed to learn some basic words like “good morning/afternoon/evening”, “please”, “thank you” and “do you speak English” so I could feel like I was being polite at least, even if I just couldn’t grasp the language at all!

If you’re looking for a city trip, with lots of history, culture and things to see, I would recommend Budapest, whether you’re a solo traveller or with others. I expect I will return one day.

I did lots of taking photos for other travellers too!