Breakfast on the park bench ;-) (Day 97 of the world tour)

December 10, 2019

Around 6:00 am (two hours BEFORE the planned arrival time - and that was without the delay our bus in Ninh Binh had), the bus stopped and we were confusedly told that we were already in Hue. Oh! That was quick^^

Both Jonas and I slept in bits and pieces, but I still didn't feel fully rested. Although it was so early, we decided to go straight to the hostel, hoping that maybe they were already open and we could leave our luggage there.

As we got off the bus, eager taxi drivers immediately approached us to offer their services, but we kindly shooed them away and decided to walk :) That didn't stop a motorcycle taxi from following us a bit :p

He belongs to Easy Rider, a provider of transfers and (motorcycle) tours. He even had a book with credentials, including ones from German tourists in German. Phrases like "you can trust him" and "the best decision of my life" were supposed to convince us, but we were really not awake enough to seriously consider a tour, especially not on a motorcycle^^

Somehow we managed to get rid of him and arrived at the hostel after about half an hour. The entrance is in the backyard, but well signposted, and like everywhere on the street, there was already a bit of activity. Like in Hanoi, soup is apparently enjoyed for breakfast here, and our hostel operator was just pushing the rental scooters outside :)

As expected, the room was not yet ready, but we could leave our luggage and coffee was offered to us. Since we had actually expected to arrive in Hue later, we had already put together a "breakfast" in the form of snacks in Ninh Binh, so we decided to have it on the riverfront, which we passed on the way to the hostel.

In a small park with lots of art figures, we found a bench overlooking the water and unpacked our very unhealthy but quite delicious breakfast :p There were a few joggers, young people on benches with a book, or the usual morning exercises, as well as a meditation group around us. Those who passed by us looked a bit surprised at the place and the choice of our meal :D :D

Once, a mobile baguette seller even stopped to offer us his baguettes. When we declined politely (although we had margarine with us but no knife...), he also seemed a bit surprised and looked puzzled at my package of cookies ;-)

A woman with a thin blanket was sleeping on a bench nearby, and well, maybe passersby thought that Jonas and I had also spent the night in the park, who knows?^^

After breakfast, we walked around the city for an hour, across one of the famous bridges. We didn't have a clear destination, but we accidentally found a morning market with lots of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and a bit of fish, meat, and mussels. Only locals were there, and there was a lively hustle and bustle - a really authentic picture :)

For less than 50 cents, we bought 5 (!!!) baguette rolls there, which we planned to have for lunch. After shopping, we briefly went into the city, but since we both needed to use the bathroom and it was already 8:30 am (the room would be available at 9:00 am), we went back to the hostel.

As promised, the room was really ready and it's absolutely fine - clean, big enough, and the bed seems comfortable :)

We took a short nap (we didn't want to rest too long so we wouldn't be tired for the rest of the day), wrote the blog entry for yesterday, and dropped off our laundry. But at 2 pm, we went out again.

The main attraction in Hue, I would say, is the Imperial City. It's an old imperial capital, and a few buildings are still preserved. It's not as old as one might think :p The construction started in 1804 ^^

Nevertheless - it's definitely worth a visit. I was a bit skeptical at first because we had already visited a citadel in Hanoi, but luckily it was something completely different here. There is also a citadel with a flag tower, but actually, you go there for the walled imperial city itself.

As mentioned above, you can find the old buildings there, a bit of information about the history, and there are a few really beautiful ponds/lakes and gardens :)

We stayed there for about 2 hours in total, but you could easily stay longer as there is a lot to explore. But for such a tired day like today, it was okay^^

Furthermore, we wanted to book a tour for tomorrow, which is one of the main reasons for our stop here (but more about that tomorrow ;-) ). On the way back, we stopped at the market again, which was smaller in the afternoon, but we bought some bananas and dragon fruit - yeah, we're being brave :D :D We even watched a YouTube video on how to cut it, and it will be devoured tomorrow :p

When we returned to the hostel, one of the staff members randomly approached us and asked if we were interested in a tour. That was perfect! We told her what we had planned, and within 15 minutes, the tour for tomorrow was booked. Yay!

We don't have much information about the schedule ourselves - except that we will be picked up at 7:00 am tomorrow and if we understood correctly, we will only return at around 9:30 pm!! If that's true, the next blog entry will probably not be until the day after tomorrow ;-)

For dinner, we went to one of the small restaurants that we had passed several times today. By the way, there is also a school on the way that advertises Taekwondo, and when we went for dinner, there was a training session <33 Yeah, I already miss my sport! :)

In the restaurant, I ordered tofu in country style, which meant "with lots of vegetables and fruit". It was mega delicious!! Yay! Not as good as the crispy tofu in our last homestay, but still really good :) Jonas had a noodle dish that he also enjoyed. The only thing that was a bit annoying was that the waitress also tried to sell us a tour :D

Just like this morning, he works for Easy Rider and then showed us his business card and some photos and videos of the tour. Since we had already ordered, we couldn't really escape him :D He told us that he has been doing this for 19 years and has had hundreds of German customers, and that he knows exactly what the Germans like and yeah... he's not a bad businessman, I think ;-)

We took his card with us, but we really doubt that we will do the tour^^

After dinner, we wanted to buy some provisions for the tour tomorrow, and on the way to the supermarket, we noticed that the cafes and bars were getting really crowded. When we looked closely, we remembered that today is the final of the Southeast Asian U22 Cup - Vietnam vs. Indonesia.

The event is being broadcast and celebrated everywhere here in Hue, just like in Hanoi, like the final of the "regular" men's team World Cup in our country. Although we were tired, we watched the first half at least in one of the cafes, which was really funny. It was packed, and everyone was really involved with "Ohs" and "Ahs", and when a goal was scored, everyone jumped up in jubilation. One person even threw their stool in the air (which made the waitress a bit nervous). Wow. Football means a lot here ;-)

Right now, it's the 86th minute and Vietnam is leading 3-0. We left during halftime and are watching the second half on TV in the room at the hostel since we have to get up early tomorrow.

We're excited about tomorrow, already miss Ninh Binh a bit (Hue is again a bigger city and it's so crowded with scooters and noisy :O :D), and I'm most looking forward to sleeping in a real bed^^