prague

so unlike the train from vienna to budapest which was only 5 hours and where we could play bananagrams the entire time the train from budapest to prague was 7 hours and cramped and our car had a heating issue in that although it was 65 degrees outside the heat could not be turned off... i had a total heat attack and had to leave the car... but otherwise we got there safe and sound

so by the time we found and checked into our hotel it was definitely time for some food.  we headed to pivovarsky klub where we had awesome beers and some great czech food... we sat for quite a while and soaked up the ambiance as well as the beer.  on the way home from restaurant to the hotel we faced quite the conundrum, we got to the train station at 8:55 apparently the stands that sold tickets closed at 9, however, at the station we were at they were already closed.  so having no way to buy a ticket we just got on the train anyways, they had a similar systems in vienna and budapest and although we had always purchased tickets we had never seen anyone get caught for not purchasing them.  well when we got off at our stop we were busted.  now i would have been fine being busted if i had the opportunity to purchase a ticket but we didn't!  initially the cop wanted to fine us each $35 when a ticket costs $1, we talked him down to just fining us $35 for all four of us... but still pretty annoying.  we headed back to the hotel and played more bananagrams... it was starting to become a theme.

the next day we set out early for the jewish quarter.  prague has a great jewish history and the 7 buildings that comprise the museum are definitely a must see.  i had been to all of them when i visited prague with my family in 2003 but it was nice to see them again when it was a bit warmer.  we had lunch at kolkovna good old schnitzel and our first of many $2 .5L pilsner urquells YUM - nothing like cheap beer and fried meat!  after lunch we walked back through both the old town square which had a crazy crowed easter market and made our way over to wenceslas square and the mucha museum.  i had really enjoyed this museum the last time i was in prague and this time it was no different.  mucha is a very interesting figure and had a huge impact on prague and the entire czech independence movement.  we ended the day with drinks outside of the astronomical clock where we got to see the clock chime twice and then had a cute dinner followed by bananagrams, hearts and some european candy :)

saturday we decided that we didn't have enough left to do in prague for the two whole days that we had left and it was supposed to rain so we needed some indoor activities... we took the train about an hour and a half away to the pilsner urquell brewery in plzen.  although plzen is a sprawling industrial town it has a cute old town area where both the brewery museum and the museum restaurant are.  the brewery museum wins hands down for best audio tour they had hysterical characters that constantly talked about how disgusting the beer in the town used to be.  the museum restaurant where we had lunch was fabulous, they serve unfiltered unpasturized pilsner urquell which cannot be bought anywhere else that was fabulous.  we all had yummy czech treats including marinated camenbert and i had some great pork with deep friend potato pancakes - YUM!  we walked around the town quickly and went on the brewery tour in the afternoon then headed back to prague and grabbed dinner... followed by even more bananagrams and cards :)

sunday we got up and walked over toward the charles bridge... we walked up the hill to the castle and saw all the major sights up there as well as the changing of the guard.  then we had our only truly terrible meal - we asked for hamburgers and instead got this weird mystery meat that NONE of us could eat it was pretty hysterical.  after that we walked around got some food to eat on the train and once on the train we celebrated carol's 29th birthday with some warm grocery store champagne :)

budapest

so budapest was probably the city that i was most excited for prior to this trip i had already been to prague and i was guessing that vienna was just similar to the rest of europe so budapest was a real draw for me...

we got to budapest in the rain which was too bad but we went down and walked around the market and had some lunch, we were staying on the pest side just a couple of blogs from the main tourist drag... the pest side definitely had more going on than the buda side so i was glad that we stayed there.  we walked down the tourist drag and found pest's easter market which was fun, we also stopped at at h&m, one of our books told us that the schezenyi (totally butchered that spelling) baths were a must see... after cobbeling some pretty ghetto bathing suits together we walked through pest's easter market where one of the major dishes being sold was rooster balls - ICK... we had coffee at gerbeaud caffe mia and alexis had some drink with a ton of caramel in it that they were talking about for the rest of the week.  

we found a cheap pizza joint for dinner and went back to the hotel.  the next morning we headed out to the baths... this is when the real fun starts.  there was a huge line for the baths so we waited for a little more than a half hour, during which we got to watch this video that told us all about the electronic bracelet system that they use that lets you in and out of the baths and unlocks your locker... so i purchased our tickets and after some delay we went to go into the baths... well then the shit hit the fan, apparently their entire system completely crashed in between them running my credit card and us walking over to the turnstile with our bracelets.  no one could get in or OUT of the baths, no one could open lockers, EVERYONE was freaking out.  this lead to old fat naked local men screaming that they just wanted to get out, but employees couldn't let them, we couldn't be let in but because the system was down they also couldn't give us our money back - it was hysterical.   

obviously we didn't want to waste our entire day in pest sitting at the baths waiting until they got their system back up so after about 45 min we left, taking our bracelets with us and telling them we would be back in an hour or so to get our money back.  as we walked out the door a man came up to us and was like please don't steal our bracelets - it was insane.  we walked over to a little fake castle and saw some statues and came back upon our return they refused to give us our money back... even though they were the same people who had said they would give us our money back an hour earlier... but they had a huge sign that said "Get refunded for time not used" so i pointed to it and said that we hadn't used any time therefore we should get a FULL refund... finally it worked and we were on our way.

we took the train down to the terror house which was a great museum and definitely a must see for anyone in budapest.  it goes through both the nazi and communist occupation of hungary in a very cool very modern art inspired way.  definitely my favorite museum of the trip.  then we went to lunch at a fabulous restaurant we all had the lunch special which was incredibly cheap and wonderful (menza) afterward we walked down toward the basilica and walked around inside and then sat and enjoyed some warmth on the steps then headed over to the great synagogue which is the second largest in the world, we walked back over to the basilica area where we found a really cute old wine bar that only served hungarian wines, we initially just ordered a bottle for the four of us but then they offered us a six wine tasting so we left quite tipsy :)  then we had what i think was the best meal of the trip in a little restaurant behind the synagogue, i can't remember the name and am too lazy to look it up right now but i had the most amazing pear and gorgonzola risotto YUM.

the next day we got up and went over to buda, we took the tram up the hill to the castle area... we walked through the underground caves... honestly skip these they were bad and gave us cave hair.  we then walked over to the matthias church which was beautiful and took some pictures of pest from up on the hill.  we walked to the palace and looked around and mistakenly went into the city museum which was also bad... i would not recommend going into either of the museums in the palace they both look not so great.  so we decided to go back to pest and take a tour of the parliament we knew that they last tour started at 4 so we got there around 1 to buy tickets... but they were already sold out! so we took some pictures found a sandwich place for lunch and then walked back to the basilica area to sit out in the sun and eat some yummy rose shaped ice cream cones we had seen the previous day.  

that night we went to the ballet at the hungarian state opera.  we saw anna karenina and although we basically had no idea what was going on the entire time it was great and very pretty and the theater itself was very beautiful too!  we went out and got dinner and beer and headed back to our hotel for the night

vienna

alright so no uploading pictures because it turns out that the internet connection in my hotel in iceland is SUPER slow... but luckily i uploaded to picasa before i left stockholm this morning so there are little slideshow thingys at the bottom...

anyhow, i met carol, alexis and mia late friday night in vienna... our hotel was ok a bit outside of the city center but vienna is expensive so that was fine with all of us :)  we were pretty good about getting up in the morning most days i think that we left our hotel at 9 at the latest quite a few days we left earlier :)  our first stop was the hofburg to try and buy tickets for the lippanzaner horses, my dad lived in austria for a bit when he was growing up and gave me a list of must see things - the lippanzaner horses and the boys choir were obviously on that list.  well the horses were the start of a series of complete fails on this trip - don't get me wrong we had a REALLY great time but a number of things that we specifically had been interested in seeing ended up being cancelled etc.

so we got to the hofburg the line for horse tickets was super long we get to the front and we are told that the horses are sick and will not be doing a performance but we can see them practice... so we went in and saw the practice which mostly involved horses walking around in a circle and not really doing too much interesting - but it was still packed as a result of the cancelled performance.  the rest of the day we took a tour of the state opera house, walked through a crypt or two, and went to stephansdom... plus demels and a few other cute vienna stores, we also walked through a bunch of easter markets... the easter markets were amazing - so many beautiful painted blown eggs... we all wanted to buy them to bring home, but only alexis was brave enough, i knew with all my upcoming travels that they would be broken in no time... we ended the day with some great austrian wine and then ate dinner out in the square outside of the synagogue, during dinner we watched the kids play what seemed to be some austrian version of red rover - it was quite cute!

the second day we got up early again to go see the boys choir... however after waiting in line a bit again at the hofburg we were told that this was one of 2 sundays during their season (from sept to june) that they do not perform - UGH again!  neither of our guide books mentioned this of course... anyhow, we hung out and waited for the hofburg to open and toured the imperial apartments, the silver collection, the treasury and the sissi museum... the austrians seem to looooooooooove sissi and franz joseph... we heard A LOT about them, including the fact that she was 5'10" 90lbs and ate only raw meat juice - GROSS... then we got giant sausages on the street and went to hotel sacher for sacher torte... another one of the things on my dad's list... the torte was definitely good but not quite what i was expecting... i was thinking it would be some SUPER chocolately thing, but it was more apricot-y... still very good and a fun experience...in the afternoon we went out to the summer palace and heard even more about sissi and franzy... they were pretty much our best friends at that point... afterwards we came back into the city and had some wine at another restaurant near the jewish museum, probably our favorite place of the whole trip, it was tiny and adorable and had great austrian wine

we finished off our last night in vienna with dinner at a diner - we tried a million other places but people there don't seem to eat terribly late and places were already sold out of food!

we got up early monday morning and headed to the train station for budapest...

catching up

so i have been away for the past ten days... i spent the 19th-22nd in vienna, then 22nd-25th in budapest, 25th-28th in prague then back to vienna for a day, got into stockholm late late last night and am currently in iceland for two days... the good news is i am iceland by myself so i am sure that i will have plenty of time to catch up on my blog tonight :)

last day in stockholm

yesterday i got done all my last day in stockholm stuff... went to school to take a couple more pictures, bought a SSE sweatshirt, paid my last internet bill, walked from sveavagen through the palace all the way through gamla stan.  i have a little tradition that i buy a print in each country i visit so i got my print yesterday too.  it was a nice day but it was quite gloomy - not shocking given that it is still winter in stockholm :)

anyhow today is full of packing and cleaning i will certainly miss stockholm but i am excited to leave for vienna tonight!!

xc skiing with the king

yesterday i met andrea for lunch at un momento a place next to the student palace behind school... it is quickly becoming one of my favorite lunch places - it is cheap and they have an amazing chicken bulgar salad with tatziki... i don't know if i have mentioned this here before or not but the swedes are totally obsessed with tatziki - they have it everywhere!!!

after lunch we went back to the big dorm near school to meet anna and jana our two czech friends to go watch a xc ski race that was taking place at the palace.  it was a world cup sprint race just over a kilometer and they had built a track around the palace in stockholm... the swedes were quite into the race all the commentary was in swedish so of course i didn't understand what they were saying - but it was really fun... we even got to see the king who came out to open the race... it was quite cold in the shade of the stands and so afterward we went to cafe mistlen in gamla stan for some yummy hot chocolate!

oh the sun

so when i first arrived in sweden it was quite dark, all the time... as in the sun would come up around 10 and then set around 2 and in between those hours it wouldn't be "sunny" it would be hazy and just kinda blah

well because sweden is so far north things regarding the sun change QUICKLY here... now the sun comes up before six and sets after six which is great... but the unfortunate thing is that my bedroom faces east and i have no curtains - so while in january i had a hard time waking up before 10 or 11 now i wake up at 6:30 every morning without fail...

although it would be lovely to be here in june for midsummer i would definitely need some blackout curtains!