In the process of Updating the blog

Hey Guys,

So incredibly sorry I haven´t been keeping up the blog.  Ever since Natalie left I just have been very lazy at actually writing and posting entries. I am currently in Barcelona and will be leaving for Scotland in a few hours. My hope is to write some of the blog on my Ipod touch and then upload it once I´m in Edinburgh. So to hold you over until then below is a brief outline of where I have been since I last left you in Berlin.

June 10th-11th: Malaga, Spain
June 12th-14th: Seville, Spain
June 15th-19th: San Sebastian, Spain (I  was only suppose to be there for 3 days but things change)
June 20th: Bilbao, Spain
June 21st-23rd: Lisbon, Portugal
June 24th-30th: Barcelona, Spain

Brief Note: So far traveling alone has been amazing! I was a bit worried I wouldn´t like it but after 3 weeks of just mosying along, I can definitely say that it is a different and beautiful form of travel. I have met so many unique and fantastic individuals at the hostels. Each city has a different vibe in the dorms some it feels like your with a group of friends traveling and at others (like in Barcelona) it feels as if you have a built in family. At my most recent hostel, all of us in the same dorm room were there for a long span of time and began to affecionately refer to each other as pseudo brothers and sisters.  So for anyone that was worried about me traveling alone, please feel at ease! I am most definitely not alone.

Until later, Cheers!

Munich, Germany

Monday, June 6th

Today is our first and only full day in Munich. A breakfast buffet is served at our hostel for 3.70 Euro. Morgan took advantage of this, while Mark and I slept until 10AM. We quickly showered and got ready for a free tour at 11AM. I, Natalie, also researched carpooling once again. I asked the front desk to call 5 or 6 German numbers but all to no avail. We put transportation to Berlin aside, and headed on our tour. 

The tour was led by a man who was half Bavarian and half Portuguese. He was born in the Bahamas, raised in Canada, has lived in four states, and somehow is now living in Munich as a tour guide since 2006, and has done over 2000 tours. The man was brilliant, and one of the best guides we've had so far. He told us the history of Bavaria, about the culture of Munich, the differences between Munich and Berlin, as well as, the Nazi history. Germany as a country is only about 140 years old. It is the accumulation of 16 separate states, that to this day are still incredibly different and biased towards one another. Munich or Munchen or Monaco of Bavaria are all the names for this city. These terms all relate to a town with Monks. This city of Munich has also been one of the wealthiest in Germany since the middle ages. Munich once controlled Salzburg, which is a city with a massive salt mine. Salt was white gold back in the day. Our term "SALary" comes from the word salt. By controlling the salt trade, Munich gained incredible wealth. 

Munich or the state of Bavaria is also incredibly catholic. The Protestant movement never was able to form in Bavaria. The leader of the movement loved Munich and knew of its wealth. So the leader took 42 Munich hostages, and asked for a 300,000 dollars of their currency in exchange. This was an incredible sum back then, but Munich paid it off in 3 years. So Munich was allowed to stay catholic. The current pope is from Germany, and was the archbishop at the catholic church in Munich during the 70s and 80s. Munich is so catholic that the glochensphell or the giant clock tower that plays 4 songs everyday at noon, is not allowed to play on one day out of the year...Good Friday. Any public establishment, like a bar, is also not allowed to play any music on Good Friday. Doing so will cost you nearly a 100 euro fine. 

Being catholic also establishes them as a very conservative state. Being conservative is a general assumption of an older population. When you're young, you're liberal and as you age one becomes more conservative. Also, the older you are, generally the more wealthy you are. So Munich is an old, traditional, conservative, wealthy, catholic state. These are all traits completely opposite that of Berlin. Berlin is a very modern city, striving to move forward, has a much younger, liberal population, and is protestant. Berlin and Munich are rival cities to the core, and completely opposite in every aspect it seems. You cannot even mention lederhosen in Berlin, because they take offense to it. Lederhosen is a purely Munich tradition and is only in the Bavarian culture. Again, Munich is old and in the past, while Berlin is fancy and modern. Munich even has a clock that is backwards. The numbers are in a counterclockwise arrangement and the clock even runs counterclockwise. 

The food is even different. When you think of typical German food, bratwurst and beer come to mind. Pork is the major staple of Munich, not Berlin. Berlin is much farther norther and closer to the sea. Hops fields cover the landscape surrounding Munich, and employees are even allowed to drink 1.5 liters of beer a day at work. Monks that lived here during lent, back in the day, were fasting on Fridays so could not eat. However, they were allowed to drink 5 liters of beer a day. It was incredibly concentrated at nearly 18% alcohol per liter or over 700 calories or like eating 1.5 Big Macs. Munich is full of beer gardens and we walked through the most famous beer hall called the hofbrauhaus. The beer gardens are tables surrounded by chairs, all under the shade of chestnut tree. Young adults, families, and even grandmas can be see enjoying a liter of beer under the shade. These gardens are the social meeting place for many people on a hot summers day.

Our guide also talked about the Nazi history of the city. The Nazi party was formed in 1920 and Hitler declared Munich as the capital of the Nazi party. Munich was not bombed in WWI but because of this title, only 4 buildings still stood after WWII. On 11.9.1921 the fascist movement began in Italy under Mussolini. Two years, 11.9.1923 Hitler saved the collapse of the Nazi party. During a meeting, Hitler showed up and took into a room three heads of state include the head of the police and head of military. He asked each one to join him. If they said no he would kill them, then commit suicide. That obviously did not happen so the Nazi movement was saved. In 1925 the SS was created. In 1933, the first labor camp, Dachau, was established outside of Munich. It was used for people defying the Nazi party. The camp forced people to work long hours with little food. So prisoners died a slow death. 

The idea of Jews as a scapegoat for the Nazi party was born after a Jewish man in Paris assassinated a German diplomat. The German working class was already incredibly bitter over the 6 trillion British pound debt the Versailles treaty had put on them after WWII. The Jews were the richest citizens, so it was not easy to plant the idea of blaming the Jews for their economic hard ache after the assassination of the diplomat. In 1938 was the glass breaking event, where Nazis went around breaking glass in the Jewish shops, and stealing on the goods. And soon after in 1939, WWII began which lasted until 1945. All except 4 buildings in Munich were leveled from the 54 American bombings. Nearly everything we saw on the tour has been built in the last 60 years. Everything was rebuilt to look as it did, so one year old cobblestone streets or two year old buildings are made to look hundreds of years old. Again, Munich is traditional, conservative, and old.

So overall, the tour was amazing. This is probably the most information we have ever remembered from any tour. After the tour we walked to the train station where we found out the train takes 10 hours for 18 euro. Or we could spend over 100 euro to ride a speed train. Mark and I opted for a 30 euro carpool ride, which our hostel was finally able to nail down for us. Then it started to pour. Thankfully the rain stopped after about two hours. 

The Texan named Ed, that Morgan and I had met in Serbia, comes to Munich every year for Oktoberfest so he had given us a list of restaurants and beer gardens to try. We went to his favorite restaurant called Augustine Mundart. This place was about a 20 minute walk from the city center, so we were in the more residential, non touristy area. There are many restaurants and beer gardens with the name Augustine, because Augustine is the brand of beer they serve. I had Augustine hell or lager, Mark had Augustine Wies? or wheat beer, and Morgan had a dark Augustine. The entire menu was in German, and since we were off the beaten path, they had no English menus. We asked him for some suggestions, and we choose a beef goulash, a fried spetzel and cheese dish, and a schnitzel with mushroom saw and spetzel. They were all fabulous and incredibly filling. 

We then wondered back to the main city center in search of a beer garden. The boys were looking for the giant beer hall called the Hofbrauhaus. Mark and I inadvertently stumbled upon it. We just followed the loud music and bam, there it was in all it's glory. The men were wearing leiderhosen, the woman had dresses on that pushed up their boobs, there were beer steins bigger than my head, and giant bavarian pretzels being passed out. There were massive wooden tables with white and blue table cloths and giant wood benches. The food coming out of the kitchen looked wonderful as well. During the night the boys each got two giant beer steins of about one liter each. I finally caved and ordered a dessert. It was a large pancake type dessert with raisins and powdered sugar. It also oddly came with a side of apple sauce to dip it in. It was good none the less. Four liters of beer, one dessert, and many stories later, we were ready to go. We slowly trekked back to our hotel for a good nights rest and to prepare for Berlin tomorrow. Our last city together!

Tuesday June 7th 

This morning Morgan left on the train to Berlin. His train took about 5-6 hours so he arrived around 3pm. Mark and I did not have a ride till 330pm, so we had some time to kill. After eating breakfast, we'd been given a suggestion to walk around the English Garden. On the map it looked like a big park, with a a large pond/small lake, and a chinese tower structure. It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the entrance. 

The park was beautiful with a stream/river running through it. At points there were small water falls and rapids. It was an incredibly fast moving stream. Everything was incredibly green and the trees were gigantic. I sadly am allergic to something in Germany, so walking through the park was probably not the best idea. I sneezed and blew my nose the whole time. But the scenery was still worth my suffering. We even passed a nude beach with old men laying on their stomachs basking in the sun. They must sunbathe a lot because their skin was a leathering brown color and did not look healthy. After winding our way through this gorgeous park, we came upon the chinese tower. It was a large, wooden, multi-story tower that had about 5 floors. The floors' circumferences got progressively smaller as you went up. There were a few beer gardens around the tower so we took a short break. We then found the large pond and walked around it. It was beautiful. Geese, ducks, and various birds were everywhere. People were paddle boating and fishing. There was a jogging and biking path around the whole thing, so many people were getting their exercise in for the day. It reminding me a lot of Madison and it's lakes during the summer. It was a peaceful hour walk around and back to the entrance of the park. Near the entrance was a bridge with a surfer wave underneath that we had missed earlier. The river is very quick under the bridge and the geography of the bottom made a large wave at the base of the bridge for surfers. On each bank of the river was a line of about 6 surfers in wet suits. A surfer would jump on his board and cruise back and forth on this large wave until he fell. Then within 5 seconds the next surfer would have a go. It was an efficient system, and was a lot of fun to watch.

We then walked back towards the hostel. Along the way we grabbed a drink in the beer garden and attempted to blend in with the locals. Afterward, we grabbed our bags and headed for the metro station. We had to change metros and wait five stops before we arrived at the station where we were supposed to meet our ride. I attempted to call the driver but he did not speak English. I quickly found an English speaking woman, who communicated to the driver for me in German. Apparently, we were at the wrong station and needed to go one more. This was completely different from the information we'd received the day before. We made it to the next stop, and found a Turkish man that spoke no English. He was apparently our ride, even though he was driving a completely different car then specified. It was a large van that was going to hold 6 other passengers. I said "Berlin?" He gave me a blank stare and nodded. That was not the most reassuring answer. When another girl came up, I asked her what was going on. She said that this van was going to Berlin, so then we felt better. I sat by her in the front, while Mark sat in the back with the five other men.

Her name was Veronica and she had grown up near Munich but had recently moved to Berlin. She was 25 and was a waitress. She was in Munich for an interview to work at a beer garden during Oktberfest. During those two weeks she said she would make 7,000 Euro!! She had to work 8am-12am though for two weeks straight. I wished her the best of luck. She was incredibly nice and we talked about everything including jobs, schooling, Texas, Germany, family, food, and bars. After the nearly 6 hour car ride, she even helped us through the metro system to find our hostel. She thankfully lived only two metro stops away from us, so she helped us navigate through Berlin. We had been dropped off on the VERY edge of the city, so it took another 40 minutes on the metro to finally get to the hostel. We said goodbye to her, and said we would try to meet for food and drinks tomorrow.

The hostel was directly on the corner of the metro exit, so it was easy to find this time. We checked-in and dropped our bags off. I met two Brazilian guys in my room, so they invited us out to a club around 1030pm. Mark met an Australian named Hayden in his room, so he joined us as well. We walked to a club called Kaffee Burger, which we thought had burgers to eat. Apparently burger in German means people, so they had no food! After a drink, we went down the street for some falafel and dessert. We went back to the club, listened to the DJ, and watched drunken people dance. The DJ was supposed to be playing dub step, but she was not. It was an odd electronic type music, that was not that interesting. We wandered back to the hostel asking for another suggestion even though it was two in the morning. He suggested Delicious Donut, which we never found. We trekked back to the hostel and went to bed. My sleeping cycle must be off, because I was not tired and decided to take a shower. The shower may have helped because I don't remember falling asleep. Hopefully my sleep cycle being off does not cause problems since I leave on Friday. The first full day in Berlin tomorrow!

Prague, Czech Republic

Thursday, June 2nd

To Be Written...

Friday, June 3rd

This morning Morgan and I were to pick up Mark at 1030am from his hostel, which was only a few blocks from ours. We arrived at 1030am but he had not shown up, so we walked around for coffee and tea. After taking it to go, we walk back to the hostel. Low and behold Mark's taxi showed up a few minutes later! As Mark paid his driver, he look up at me perplexed then realized it was me. His energy jumped up probably five levels. He was so exhausted from the flight, which he didn't sleep on, but was very happy to see us. He left his stuff at the hostel and we went on our way. 

It was around 1130am at that time, so went in search of some czech cuisine. We found a pub restaurant with decent prices and decent sounding food. The waiter was young and spoke well enough English to suggest us some great traditional Czech dishes. Mark ordered chicken wrapped in bacon with a side of roasted potatoes. Morgan ordered a pork dish with a gravy and cranberry sauce on top with a side of mashed potatoes. My stomach was in need a lighter meal, without meat and potatoes, so I had salmon with lime sauce and a side of spinach. Everything was delicious.

We then walked around Prague for the next few hours, showing Mark around the town square. We had another free walking tour at 2pm. Our tour guide was very energetic and loved saying the word BAM! He was half Swedish and half Czech. We started in the town square and made our way around the old town. We went through the Jewish quarter and to the beginning of the Charles Bridge. Morgan may remember more from the tour and add details in later, but I sadly remember very little other than BAM. There was a story about a golem that haunts the attic of a building. This creature was made out of clay and comes alive when a piece of paper is put in its mouth. It then destroys and eats everything in its path including people. To turn him off, you must take the paper out of its mouth. Supposedly an SS guard went into the attic of the golem and never returned. During the tour, we met some fellow Texans who were studying in Vienna, Austria and went to UT. We exchanged information and decided to go out together that night.

After the tour, we went window shopping and bought a few snacks including the delicious "spiny bread". The bread is rolled out into long, thin logs like a pretzel. Then it is spun around a rod into a cylinder shape. It is dusted with cinnamon, sugar, and sometimes nuts. It is then placed over a flame, and spins constantly on thus rod until fully cooked. It's a wonderful, sweet snack. We walked back to the hostel to freshen up and find a place to eat.

We ended up at a cute Italian place. The boys ordered beer, while I had a glass of bekarovka, which is a liquor. It tasted like peppermint schnapps. Morgan had had it last time he was in Prague and described it as tasting like Christmas. I would have to agree. I ordered a vegetable risotto with chicken. Mark ordered pasta with chicken and broccoli. Morgan had a delicious looking pizza, which he devoured. All the food was delicious and filling. Afterward, we met up with the three Australians at their place. We then walked to a bar to meet up with the students from Texas. The bar was fairly hippie like with bright colors, odd looking old furniture, and long haired Czechs. Mark and I were finally able catch up from sixth months of not seeing each other. After an hour of chatting and mingling with everyone, we meandered on to an Irish pub because a girl wanted to watch a soccer game. The game sadly over by the time we arrived. We still stayed to drink cider and beer, while listening to others belt out to classic rock songs. Around midnight everyone was ready to walk home. We walked Mark back to his hostel then Morgan and I went back to ours. Another great day in Prague.

Saturday, June 4th

This morning Mark moved from his hostel to ours. There was a room mix up, so he was not able to stay in our room. Morgan and I were to get two other roommates instead. The rest of the morning was spent determining our transportation to Munich. I had learned of a German rideshare website from a German couple in Croatia. I went on this website and typed in June 5th, Prague to Munich and received nearly 15 people that were driving to Munich that Sunday. I thankfully had an international phone, so I started calling numbers. I would say to all I called, "Guten tag, sprechen ze English?". Many said no and hung up. Other said they did but their car was already full. I finally found someone who spoke english and had two seats available in his car. Mark and I said we'd take it. It was 20 euro and would leave at 600pm tomorrow. Morgan opted to take the train since he wanted to be in Munich much earlier on Sunday. 

Morgan went to go buy his train ticket and would meet us at the castle at 3pm. Mark and I walked around for the next few hours to kill some time. We walked to the marketplace, where he bought a gift for his dad. We ate some lunch, and I also shopped for some more gifts for family and friends. We dropped everything off at the hostel, and proceeded to the castle. 

The castle was situated on the top of a hill across the river. We had to cross the pedestrian bridge called Charles Bridge. There were artists, musicians, and jewelry makers lining the bridge and it was incredibly crowded with tourists as well. As we started walking up the hill, we could see a storm brewing in the distant. About half way up, the wind shifted and the temperature dropped nearly ten degrees. The storm cloud thankfully never went over us, but we could see the rain and lightning to the far left of us. As we were walking up this tremendous hill, we came to a gold and metal gate with guards in front of it. We took some pictures and kept walking farther up this hill. All the signs were in Czech so we were assumed we were walking towards the castle. Sadly, we were not. Somehow, we had missed this MASSIVE castle situated directly behind the building being guarded we'd just taken pictures of. All we had to do was turn around while we were walking farther up this hill and see the castle! Due to Mark's and my error, we never were able to meet up with Morgan. 

After twenty more minutes or so we came to a monastery, where we had to take a break. We listened to some children sing and a man play the accordion. We then walked to the panorama view, where we saw the castle in the distant; still perplexed on how we'd missed it. However, the panorama view was well worth the extra hike. We could see for miles. Prague is a massive, beautiful city surrounded by green hills. After a few photos, we made our way to the castle. After laughing off our ridiculous error, we walked around the castle which is incredibly ornate. It is made of stone and covered in beautiful stone artwork. There are gargoyles, dragon, and faces on nearly every inch of this castle. It's unbelievable the amount of time and effort that must have went in to building this castle. After our 2.5 hour walking adventure, we headed back down the hill. We had quite a walk back, and nearly collapsed on entering our hostel.

We attempted to relax for an hour or so, because we were doing a pub crawl that night. Morgan and I had two new roommates that were from Montana, named Ryan and Darren. They were quite characters so we invited them to the pub crawl. We went to the town square to meet at the first pub. The pub crawl was 15 euro which included a free tshirt, free wine, beer, vodka and absinthe shots for one hour at the first pub, free entrance into three clubs/bars, and a free shot at each place. It was a wonderful deal.

At the meeting place was nearly 50 people ready for the pub crawl. We met our three Aussie friends there as well, so we all grabbed a drink and a shot. The vodka shot was fine, but the absinthe shot was a whole other ball game. Even watered down, it was horrendous. I for some reason felt the need to watch peoples' reaction to this concoction before taking a swig of mine. Everyone's face contorted in this disgusting, "I'm going to puke face". Why I then decided to still take the shot is beyond me. I felt like I was literally breathing fire for 5 minutes. None of us had another one after that. We did however, have plenty of beer and vodka for the next hour. I also decided to break out my trusty pen, and tally on my arm how many shots I'd taken. The idea was a hit so I had to mark on everyone's arm the amount they'd drank.

On our way to the next bar, Mark broke out his video camera. I proceeded to take the camera and film this pub crawl madness. As I'm turning around to video the people behind me, we all hear this huge SMACK. The guy next to me was not paying attention and ran head on into a street sign. I sadly only got the smacking noise and subsequent laughter on film. The rest of us finally made it the bar unscathed, where we were given another free vodka shot on the way down the stairs. Many got beer and then headed to the dance floor near the DJ. Simon, one of the three Australians, started dancing/jumping/skipping/twisting his feet and everyone formed a circle around him. Everyone was trying to learn this Australian boogie but we all failed. I broke out the C walk, which I taught to a few people. After an hour, we headed to the third bar, where my trusty pen came in handy again. Everyone started giving each other autographs. I even wrote on Mark's arm "If lost, take to Mosiac Hostel". After acting like kindergardeners doodling on each other, we finally walked to our last and finally place: The Five Story Club.

This club had five separate levels that each played their own style of music. The floors were named by the type of music: commercial, oldies, black music, chill out, and no one can remember the fifth type. It was amazing! The commercial floor had many go-go dancers, and the oldies floor had a checkerboard floor where each square changed colors. The black music floor had various 6 inch platforms to stand on and lasers shooting down from the ceiling. Th chill out floor had couches and was fairly uninteresting. We danced mostly on the oldies and black floor. We, as in the boys too, belted out to oldies such as Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and It's My Party Ill Cry If I Want To. At nearly 130am, we finally called it quits. Mark had disappeared from nearly the moment we entered this club so we searched for him on the way down to the first floor. We found his 6 foot 4 frame easily, so we headed out. Mark decided to give his nearly 3/4 full beer away, even though he had time to drink it since everyone had taken a bathroom break before exiting. He was very disappointed at this fact, when I told him the next morning. We said goodbye to our Aussie friends, who were leaving for Berlin that morning and walked back to Mosaic Hostel. Another wonderful day and night in Prague. On to Munich tomorrow.

Sunday, June 5th

This morning Morgan somehow left at 8am to catch a train by 9am. I woke up at 930am and felt like I'd been hit by a truck, so I have no idea how he managed. I'm blaming my one absinthe shot for my body's aches. I took a long shower and felt nearly back to normal. Mark on the other hand was a wreck. He could barely function still at noon when we had to check out. I was starving by this time, so Mark, Darren, Ryan, and I went for some food. Many places were closed on Sunday, but we finally found a suitable establishment. We decided to sit outside and bask in the sun. We were all severely dehydrated so we ordered a pitcher of tap water. No one was apparently hungry except me, so I ordered a scrumptious grilled chicken and vegetable dish. It was absolutely wonderful. The chicken was tender and perfectly cooked, and the grilled vegetables consisted of zucchini, squash, onions, and garlic. It was perfect.

We then walked towards the river to lay in the sun. We were all exhausted from the night before, so we needed a day of no walking, just relaxing. We crossed the bridge to the island, where locals were laying on the grass tanning. We laid around and talked for an hour then walked to the large strip with shops and restaurants. Darren and I ordered a mojito to sip on, while Mark bought a coke. We sat on a bench in the sun for another hour, and then the boys were finally hungry. We found a small pub restaurant a few feet from our hostel. It was incredibly cheap, and we'd wondered why we hadn't gone there sooner! Ryan ordered pork neck, Mark ordered a potato pancake with meat and vegetables inside, and Darren ate penne with chicken and broccoli. I attempted to listen to their vulgar, boy conversations but had had enough. I walked outside and talked to my mom on the phone for a bit. After they were finished eating, Mark and I grabbed our bags to leave.

We took the metro to a stop outside the city center where our ride share was picking us up. He was twenty minutes late because of a traffic jam, but that was fine. He spoke wonderful English, and drove a red Avanti A4 Audi. Let's just say the man could drive. He drove a consistent 180 km/hr, which translates into about 110 mph on the autobahn. The car was so smooth and his driving skills around curves was so perfect that Mark and I never felt like we were going 110mph. We felt incredible safe and enjoyed talking to our chauffeur throughout the ride. He traveled between Prague and Munich quite often to visit his girlfriend, so he was very familiar with the roads. We passed many cute villages that were VERY different from eastern Europe. These houses actually looked like normal country American houses, not shacks next to a farm. I could really tell I had finally arrived in western Europe territory. We hit a traffic jam about 45 minutes outside of Munich, so the hour he had nearly cut from driving time was cancelled out by the traffic jam. He dropped us off around 930pm next the a U-Bahn metro, where we navigated to our hostel. 

The metro was very straightforward and we found the metro exit to our hostel easily. However, the directions to the hostel were a different story. Once you left the metro, there 4-5 exits that will take you topside to various sides of the street. We exited and started to follow the directions from step one. We didn't realize we were already at step three in the directions from the street we'd exited on. Needless to say, were walked around for a good 30 minutes before we finally found it. Being the bright people that we are, we ended up 500 ft from where we had begun. Once again, all Mark and I had to do was turn around and we would have see the street to the hostel! Oh well, live and learn. We dropped our bags off, grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went to bed. Day one in Munich tomorrow.

Krakow, Poland

Tuesday, May 31st

To be written....

Wednesday, June 1st

To be written...

Budapest, Hungary

Sunday, May 29th

Life Lesson Number 187.53 of this trip: Always look to see what route your scheduled train will be taking. We unfortunately learned this the hard way. Our night train crossed two borders each with their own passport checks. Mind you that we took a 2AM train, meaning we were woken up multiple times between the hours of 2:30AM and 6AM. Let's just say it made for a rough start to a short trip in Budapest. Natalie: This was my first night train, and let's just say I was not a happy camper. Being woken up 4-5 times during the wee hours of the morning, would not be considered my idea of fun. Nor is the idea of sleeping across three disgusting, old, uncomfortable chairs in the middle of eastern Europe with gypsies and thieves roaming the cabins. Nevertheless, somehow I survived.

While the train may not have been the most pleasant, the time we spent in Hungary absolutely was! The first thing we did upon arriving at the hostel was to take showers. After 9 hours in a hot train and feeling a little sleep deprived, we needed something to wake us up.

With that out of the way, there was only one thing on our my mind....FOOD!!! Having spent substantial time during the semester researching food from each of the regions we were to visit, there was one treat in Hungary worth devouring: goulash! With my target in mind, I sought out local intel on where to taste this regional soup (Not a stew, but a soup). Our hostel pointed us across the street to a restaurant that was both cheap and high quality. Once again we put our faith in the hostel's suggestions, and like always, they did not disappoint. I, Morgan ordered the goulash and Natalie got a shopska salad (I'm starting to thing Natalie may have a strange obsession with this dish since first tasting it in Bulgaria. She seriously has ordered it in almost 5 out of the 6 counties we've been to so far. I'm beginning to think that they put crack in it, she's showing signs of dependency). (I, Natalie, just need some veggies in my diet or my digestive system hates me. So calm down.)

Getting back to the Hungarian restaurant...the goulash was absolutely an epicurean delight! They brought it to me in a hanging caldron like pot with a small flame resting underneath the bowl. They definitely get an A+ for the unique presentation of a soup. It was as equally as strong in taste. My first thought when sipping this soup was that it was eerily similar to the fish one that we had in Serbia, except rather than use fish, they used beef. This Hungarian soup, not stew, is different from most non-eastern Europeans would call goulash. The broth is not thick, like a stew, and the broth is red in color, as well as, spicy. Natalie thoroughly enjoyed her new favorite salad. 

After lunch we headed down a street in the direction of the train ticketing office. On the way we were confronted with the massiveness and beauty of Hungarian buildings. Natalie definitely was hit by surprise by Budapest, as it was nothing like she imagined. She will probably elaborate on this when she edits this post...My (Morgan's) memory for day to day happenings is creepily strong and hers not so much. However, she has an amazing knack for organizing my incoherent ramblings into a thoughtful exposition of our travels so I write she edits. I guess that's what happens when you spend seventeen days with someone 24/7. You truly learn how they think and are able to fill in the gaps. 
  
Right, so my (Natalie's) idea of Hungary or Budapest was completely blown out of the water. I do not think I could have been more wrong. I had the idea that Budapest would be similar to Sarajevo, Bosnia, in that the city would be small and not be very modern. Boy, was I wrong. Budapest is massive. There are massive buildings surrounding all the streets reminiscent of Paris or London. Cars, buses, and trams zig zag every which way on the streets. A huge river also bisects the city into Buda and Pest. Three or four colossal bridges connect two sections of the city, that are similar to modern bridges in NYC. This place is amazing. To top it all off, there is a huge Hungarian palace atop a hill, with a beautiful white church it's side. I'm so glad I am able to visit it now before it is overrun by tourists like Paris and London.

Returning to the walk to the ticket office...After about 10 minutes in, we realized there was no way we would have time to purchase the tickets. 
Life Lesson Number 173.45: Eastern Europeans have no sense of time. Always multiply whatever time they say it will take to do something by 10. 
Taking this into account we abandoned our mission for tickets and went directly to the meeting location for the free walking tour. After reading so many of our posts you may be thinking, "Another walking tour...Really?" My answer to you is that I have no income until september plus a month more of travel, and Natalie isn't a doctor yet. So yes, another free walking tour.

The tour was lead by a young Hungarian woman, named Emma, and she was assisted by a college aged Hungarian guy. They were both rather strange and had extremely high energy. It was like they were pepped up on...To be continued

Monday, May 30th 

To be written...

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Saturday, May 28th

Lake Bled...
Since we were unable to visit the infamous Plitvice National Park while we were in Zagreb, Croatia, we absolutely had to see Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj, and the Savica waterfall in Slovenia. A minimum of four people needed to register for the hostel organized Lake tour in order for it to take place. Last night we were informed by our hostel that no one else had signed up for the tour except us, so this meant we needed an alternative mode of transport to the lakes. The hostel then mentioned that we could rent a car to drive to the lakes. Natalie and I came to the same conclusion: let's get some use out of her AAA international driver's license. 

The hostel called the rental company and set everything up yesterday. The car was dropped off at the hostel at around 8am this morning. Natalie handled the rental car paper work, while Morgan went to the train station to buy the night train tickets. While this splitting up of tasks was meant to be extremely efficient, it was also extremely frustrating because of our lack of communication! Given that the we had not planned where to meet once we each had finished our tasks, we spent a bit of time wandering in a large circle around the building until Natalie turned around and ran into me. 

So with the tickets and paperwork out of the way, we grabbed some pastries and jumped into the car. It was a lime green standard car, so Natalie was the designated driver since she was the only one that knew how to drive standard. The directions to Lake Bled were fairly simple or so we thought. Who would have thought that, "Follow the signs to Kranj and once you pass Kranj, follow the signs to Lake Bled" could be so difficult. Unfortunately about 8 km from the city center, we came to a fork in the road with a sign for Kranj pointing to the right and a sign for Kranj pointing to the left. Our map wasn't small enough to show the city roads, so we had to take a guess. We chose wrong, in a way. We went left instead of right and ended up on a windy country road indirectly following the highway we were supposed to be on. The drive should have taken 40 minutes but took around 75 minutes including a stop to ask for directions through the country towns. The scenery and cute towns were beautiful, so the unintentional detour was worth it.

We finally arrived at the Savica waterfall town, where we realized a new fact of life that should have been rather obvious...When one travels into the mountains and the weather is forecasted to be cold and rainy, don't where shorts and t-shirts. You would think that between a future doctor and a corporate climber, one conjure the idea to dress warmly. So after parking the car we ran to the nearby cafe to have a hot drink and wait for the rain to stop. 

After warming up, we marched on to the park entrance. Once again we had chosen an activity that would require hiking up numerous amounts of paved/carved rock stairs. Like any tourist armed with cameras and a long hike, we passed the time taking multiple photos. Someone even climbed a rock to strike a Captain MORGAN rum pose. Can you guess who? 

Once coming to the end of our 20 minute hike, we were greeted with a spectacular view of the mountains and the Savica waterfall. Again the inner tourist took over and we began snapping some pics. However, the residual spray from the waterfall quickly made us put our cameras away and run for dry cover. We half sprinted down the path to the warmth of our car.

We then drove to Lake Bohinj. Apparently Natalie's inner tourist hadn't had enough and a new photo shoot took place. She wanted a picture of her driving the rental car, so as we were driving down this incredibly narrow, windy mountain road we took photos! In hind sight it was probably not the most intelligent thing we've done so far, but no one was hurt :)

While the waterfall was cool, Lake Bohinj was absolutely breath taking. As we drove around this lake, we pulled off the road to hike down to the waterfront. It was pretty amazing to say the least. We were the only ones it seemed in the middle of the Slovenian mountains on the edge of this beautiful blue lake. Once again we took some photos and hopped back into the car to head towards Lake Bled. 

At Lake Bled we ate delicious Chinese food for lunch and tasted the famous Lake Bled custard cake, and apple strudel. Both were very good, though the apple strudel could have used some good vanilla ice cream. So after a very rich lunch, we seriously needed a walk. Good thing we had Lake Bled at our door step, which takes about two hours to walk around. About halfway around the lake and many photos later, we happened to run into the girl from our hostel, Martyna, who was going to be taking the night train to Budapest with us. We'd invited her to join us for the morning car ride but she was insistent on not waking up at 730am. She was very adamant also about having a ten hour nature meditation like experience alone at Bled. When we asked how her meditation was going, she responded blatantly with, "It sucks! I had this vision of what I wanted it to be and then I arrived here with this terrible weather plus I'm cold and it's wet!" We told her we were leaving for the hostel soon and she was free to join us. Having had a below expectations experience she quickly jumped on board. We finished our beautiful walk around Lake Bled with her then headed for the car. At the car, we found a huge dent and massive scratch on the side of the passenger door. That was definitely not there before hand, but thankfully Natalie had boughten the 14 Euro car insurance which covered all damages.

On the drive back we actually drove on the correct road. The highway was an incredibly quick, easy route to follow. Natalie even got up to 140 km/hr but that probably wasn't very fast considering people were flying by us. Back at the hostel everyone was out in the common area drinking or eating dinner. There was a new and interesting mix of people composed mostly of British and Australians travelers. With so many Brits drinking in the hostels there was a mutual consensus to go to an English pub to watch the Manchester United vs. Barcelona soccer game. With our train leaving at 2 AM, it was perfectly appropriate to watch the game and have a few beers, or cider in Natalie's case. We also ordered some spicy fries and onions rings, which were supposed to be delicious. The fries were, the onions rings, however, were not. The breading was too thick, but they were sadly all eaten to objections of our stomachs. We had some more great conversations with the American accountant, Tom, who lives in London and the Canadian, Martyna, who is originally Polish.

Around 1:15AM we walked to the train station. The train arrived, and we quickly grabbed two compartments. There were no beds, but 6 seats to a compartment. Each of us sprawled out onto three chairs and tried to sleep. Morgan learned another life lesson on the night train: English pub + soccer = multiple beers + massive amounts of fried food = bad overnight train travel. Also, never go on a night train that passes through multiple countries so that during your already uncomfortable night, you are woking up 6+ times between the hours of 2am and 7am.

Zagreb, Croatia + Ljubljana, Slovenia

Thursday, May 26th
Morgan leaving Split, Croatia...
I have to admit, I hate buses. After 4 years of commuting back and fourth between Madison and the twin cities, I think I am allowed to have a distain for them. I feel that buses are fairly inefficient mode of transportation when you compare it to a car. (Natalie Note: My bus took 5 hours, his train took 8 hours...now whose mode of transportation is inefficient?! :) ) The thing I like about trains is that there is a novelty about them. In a train you have the ability to sit down and converse with fellow travellers; you can even get up and stick your head out the window, soak up the fresh air, and scenery. My favorite thing about trains is that there is a life to them. Who knows, maybe my parents let me watch a little too much "Thomas the Train Engine" growing up. However, there is something about trains that the moment you board it a sudden sense of excitement takes over and the train no longer is a mode of transportation but a gateway into an adveture in itself.

Some of my favorite memories from this trip and past travels take place on trains. One of the first times my roommates and I in Barcelona bonded was on a train to Madrid. It was only a week into the program, and we had decided to go on a trip together by train. When we first started we each did our own thing (ie reading/music listening...the usual), about an hour in Rodrigo grabs my sketchbook while I'm writing in it and starts making a doodle. Nick then took his turn and finished off the sketch. When they finally finished it, it had turned into a charachature of a corn-dog person. After a confused glance and a classic sarcastic "really guys?," Rodrigo turns to mean and states matter of factly, "it's you!". It was in reference to the fact that earlier that week I thought I heard them call me corn-dog and I answered to it. So from that train ride on they nicknamed me corndog. The funny thing is that the nickname actually caught on to the point that other students and professors from the program started calling me corndog or cd for short by the end of the program. To this day Nick still calls me corndog.

After so many of these types of train situations, I've come to be excited about riding in them. After multiple never-ending and rather humerous debates over what mode of transportation we would take from Split to Ljubljana, we finally came to a conclusion that it didn't have to be one or the other since both are extremely safe to travel alone on. So Natalie caught an early afternoon train to Zagreb and I stayed around Split for the evening to catch the night train with the hostel manager's girlfriend.

I'm actually pretty glad I stayed as I got to meet some awesome new people who arrived at our hostel that day. Two were girls from Indiana, one of which now lives in Madrid and is sending me a detailed list of things to do in Sevilla. There was also a 26 year old graphic designer Aussie, who had been traveling around for 16 months. The stories he told of all the places he'd been were phenomenal. The last interesting person I got to talk with was Rory, a 31 year old Irish university student majoring in spanish and marketing. He and I talked about a multitude of things ranging from U.S. college towns and European soccer to corporate social responsibility. These people made the seven hours I had to kill interesting and fly by.

The time came to say goodbye and head to the train station, where I became incredibly anxious. While I have taken numerous trains through out Europe, this would be my first overnight train. Like always, I worried about the possibility of not finding a cabin for Chelsea and I to share to be able to collapse the chairs down. I was also a little worried about how you make sure that no one grabs your bag while you're sleeping. Luckily I had Chelsea there, having traveled by train alone throughout Europe and southeast Asia, she knew her stuff. After taking one of Chelsea's Valium I conked out. The only thing that was not exactly pleasant about the night train was that my back and hamstrings were severley sunburned. Each time the train moved ever so lightly, my body would shift and cause me to hit the sunburned areas up against the grooves in the seat cushions. Let's just say it wasn't the most pleasant experience. 

Friday, May 27th
Zagreb, Croatia...
When Chelsea and I arrived in Zagreb at 6:30am we had two hours before Natalie was to meet us at the train station for our train to Ljubljana. Since Chelsea also had a few hours to kill before catching her train to Budapest, we decided to put our bags in a locker and walk around Zagreb for a little bit. She'd been there before so she took me down the street from the station was, and all of a sudden a sprawl of comissioned graffiti was in sight. This was one of the coolest things I'd seen and an ingenious way to prevent pointless street tagging. Essentially it was a mile long wall of graffitti esque murals, don't worry I took lots of pictures (speakig of which I'm actually fairly surprised I haven't used up the first of three memory cards yet).

After seeing the street art, Chelsea headed back to the station and I continued my exploration of Zagreb. While I only spent two hours walkig around I can honestly say Zagreb is an incredibly beautiful city. I kind of wished we would have spent more time there. Having just been in a very touristy beach town, in a hostel managed by an Aussie surfer type, I felt like I was not able to meet the locals and I think I might have had that opportunity in Zagreb. Don't get me wrong Split was cool but I wish I had met more Croats.

By the time I got back to the station at 8:30, Natalie was here waiting for me. We first set our bags with Chelsea, then bought the tickets and were met with a concluding dilema....what to do with the ten euros worth of croation kuna we had? The answer was pretty simple for me: FOOD! I went to the stations bakery counter and bought a giant cured ham and chess sandwich, a pretzel roll, and a double espresso. They were all delicious.

Train to Ljubljana, Slovenia...
So if you didn't get it from the train post. I freaking love them. And this journey was no exception. When we first got on the train most of the cabins were full, so we decided to sit with a nice couple that looked liked they might speak English. Sure enough, they were Canadians. Can I just say I love the Canadians; the accent just makes me right at home and they are always incredibly happy and outgoing. As usual, we exchanged the normal traveler information about where we'd been and where we are headed.
 
After about an hour of conversation we each settled into our own things. The Canadians and Natalie read, while I put on some headphones and listened to my iPod. After about a minute I turned to my left to look out through the window. I was captured by the sight of these small, beautiful villages resting alongside a river that was cutting through the mountainous terrain of Slovenia. Wanting to remember these sights, I grabbed my camera, left the cabin, opened the window, and started snapping some pics. I lost complete track of time and ended up standing there with my head out the window soaking up the fresh air. I'm sure the sight of me there to anyone was reminiscent of a dog with their head out of a car window with their tongue and ears flailing about as the vehicle speeds down the road.
 
Ljubljana, Slovenia...
Upon arriving in Slovenia, we followed the Canadian couple to the same hostel I failed to book the night before. After arriving at the hostel they luckily still had two beds available for that night. So we got the keys, a map, a few suggestions on what to see, where to go, and left the hostel to grab lunch and walk the town.

For lunch we went to a traditional Slovene restaurant called "Number 6." We were seated in a quaint little courtyard area at the back of the restaurant and began searching the menu for something appealing. It really wasn't all that hard as everything sounded delicious. They had pictures of most dishes and let me tell you, these pictures were the types of menu pics that cause your mouth to salivate with just a glance. Feeling adventurous Natalie chose veal soup and grilled veggies, while I chose a buckwheat dumplings rolls made with cottage cheese and walnuts.

Having some spare time while waiting for our food, we began plotting our future travel plans. We realized that if we took the night train to Budapest, cut a day off Krakow and Budapest, and skipped Vienna, Austria altogether we would be back on our original schedule. After a few conversations about how crazy it was that we were in Slovenia, (Cut to Natalie saying slow-vain-ya, krinkling her nose as she stresses the "vain" in an igor from Frankenstein like fashion) and repetitive immitations of the British chick in split saying "literally" our food finally came. Like always we broke out my camera and took pictures of the food and then demolished our plates. The dishes we chose were absolutely delicious and artfully presented. As we began talking about how great the food was, a local man from the table next to us said he noted us taking pictures and wondered if we were doing a food blog as he has friends who do that. We explained that we were just typical dorky tourist wanting a picture of everything. He told us that we chose very traditional and brave dishes for our first meal. He then began to tell us about all the places to see and eat in and around Ljubljana including a local wine town called Madonna, that had about 20 vineyards. He also wrote our on map places to buy good wine, and the famous horse burger butchery and restaurant. We never sought out this burger place though...Maybe next time. Even with this daily conversations with locals, it still amazes us how incredibly friendly the people from the Balkans are.

After about 15 minutes the local man said he had to get going and wished us luck. We asked the waiter for the bill and were pleasantly greeted with a shot of wine liquor on the house. It was a traditional Slovenian drink and the waiter taught us the Slovenian "cheers". The liquor was delicious! It was similar to mulled wine but instead of hot it was cold. The waiter called it Teranova Liquor with a dash of cinnamon, sugar, and lemon. We wondered who had deemed us worthy to have this concoction. Was it the waiter because he saw us mingling with a local? Or was it the local himself? Either way were incredibly grateful.

After lunch we wandered the city, took photos, climbed a steep hill to a castle and went to hippy area where all the buildings in this hippie square are plastered with street art. Ljubljana truly is a beautiful city.

When we got back to the hostel, we cracked open a bottle of wine and chatted with our fellow hostel guests. The conversations went every which way. Some how we started talking about cinema which led to a discussion about Spanish and European cinema. Then this Macedonian started spewing loads of bullshit. He was extremely anatagonistic and would continue to be so as the night progressed to the bars. He even tried to tell a polish person what her culture is. All in all we were not a fan of Alex the Macedonian. The bar drinks did not help the situation because Natalie and Martyna's drink apparently contained no liquor! So after one nonalcoholic drink out Natalie, our new Canadian friend Martyna, and I decided to grab some food and call it a night as we were going to Lake Bled the next day.