Semana Santa + Growing Up! Or something.

Alright blog followers, I bet you’re just dying to hear about my Easter Holiday! By the way, it was super HOT/75 degrees but with sunlight and I’m happy I brought my sunscreen. Here you are:

So I fly to Budapest and miraculously find Emily in the airport because to use our phones would have been expensive. So it’s already getting dark out, which was weird because since Spain is on the very edge of its time zone we have sunlight till 9 pm. So we exchange some money and take the bus to the metro stop. Boy was Budapest scary as hell at night. It looked so sketchy and as if communism was still alive and repressing people. A young couple helps us (the girl said, “Come here”) to the metro where we get off at the right stop! We eventually find our hostel and by this time it isn’t scary anymore. The Goat Hostel in Budapest is the best and I recommend it to everyone. It was small and cozy with lime, orange and yellow walls (even some framed goat pictures on the wall!). Emily and I wake up, cross the river and go to the Citadel, a giant hill/mountain with a military something on top with freedom statues. We also walk around the Castle a little bit where we run into a dude from our hostel. So we all go and find the labyrinth under the castle and get lost in these creepy caves like rooms - pretty sweet! We wander everywhere until our feet hurt. Later on we try going out to celebrate this guy’s birthday at some random club that took forever to find (we got lost) and it’s like someone’s house where all the rooms have different themes, but we were tired! Next day we go to Memento Park where all the communist statues from Hungary are. Emily and I stood where Stalin once did waving under his giant boots - there used to be a whole Stalin, but the people tore him down at the knees. Then we went to Heroes Park where there was some strange rally, tons of people with Hungarian flags. I asked some man and he told me about elections, and then I remembered that just recently the Prime Minister quit. Then I left for Prague the next morning and sadly left my camera with Emily, so I have no pictures to document my trip really.

Trains are awesome, and I got my fair share of them this week. I luckily run into Andrea and her sister on the street! After taking the metro and walking to my hostel, which was bigger, not as friendly, but pretty nice. There were these touristy wooden booths up for some festival with traditional Czech stuff. It actually felt like a Renaissance fair! With music and fake flowers everywhere, and crepe stands! I ate one with nutella and nearly vomited because it was huge and I’m a pig. The next day I walked to the Castle where there were tons of tour groups! The cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, as was Prague in general. I just walked around a ton, bought some food for dinner later and watched the Atomic Café with Andrea. The following day I climbed Petrin Hill! Like the mini mountain in Budapest. I’m a trekker you guys, pretty tough and energetic. At the top was a fake mini Eiffel Tower and kids eating lunch (probably took the tram to get up there - not me!). As I’m climbing down (I’ve lost my way by this time), it is the most beautiful moment ever. Blooming trees with deliciously fragrant white flowers and a tiny domed one-room church with 12 chairs and one chair behind a table covered with a white tablecloth. Someone should get married there because it was just lovely. I ate lunch at some Czech kitchen buffet with no English, so I point to some things and end up eating a lot of potatoes and like deep-fried brie cheeses (so good), while sitting next to strangers speaking a language I couldn’t identify. Then I went to the Mucha museum, a Czech artist know for his Art Nouveau prints. So much Art Nouveau things in Prague - I was so thrilled!

The next day I took a train to Vienna (by the way, I’m always sitting in 6-people cabins with beautiful views) and leave green Czech Republic. I make it to the hostel which seems super sketchy, some old building falling apart inside, and climb the stairs to find a nice woman painting and renovating the place. It was airy with white walls and a fur rug in the living room. I walk to St. Stephen’s, the cathedral, engulfed in tourists once again and make my way to eat some snack. I find a buffet of sandwiches covered in herring, tuna, eggs, peppers, tons of combinations. So I order a few with my child-sized beer and enjoy. I went to the Secession afterwards, a modern art museum that has Klimt’s 105 ft long Art Nouveau fresco inspired by Beethoven. I love Gustav Klimt (you know him, he painted the Kiss with the women melting into the man all in gold). I had a look at the modern stuff (all related to space). I went to the open market across the street, bought a snack and sat in the Karlspatz park. Later that night I treated myself to a slice of the traditional Sachertorte, a dry chocolate cake, at the original café. It felt strange saying, “yes, table for one”. I had been alone most of the time in Prague, but it really hit me in Vienna, romantic Vienna, with candlelit cafes at night when everything else is closed. The next morning I went to the Vienna museum with original stained glass from the cathedral, old clothing, paintings, etc. but the interesting thing was that there was an exhibit about New York there. Candid photographs of New Yorkers from the 40s-90s. Vienna mentioned how New York inspired them to be a city, blah blah blah. Ate some tasty sushi for lunch and headed to the Belvedere Palace! Lots of artwork, where I saw more by Klimt (that’s where the Kiss is located) and other good stuff. The Palace was beautiful. I wish I had gone into the Hapsburgs’ Palace, but didn’t get around to doing it. Later that night, I wanted to see an opera, but it was the only night the opera was closed! There had been one the previous night and I could have almost kicked myself. So I went and saw The Reader which was sad. Oh Ralph Fiennes.

I headed back to Budapest the next day, stayed with Andrea and then went to Madrid. We walked around, ate squid sandwiches and readjusted to hearing Spanish, although there were Spanish tourists in every city I visited. The hostel was nice, but I tried telling some Spanish boys to be quiet in Spanish while I was trying to sleep, weakly calling to them from my bed, to which they broke out in a fit of laughter. I guess it was funny, I don’t know. It was cold that day, but yesterday was nice and we ate lunch in the Retiro Park and took the bus home to Salamanca.

This looks pretty boring , I mean what I’ve just written here, so here are the important observations of the trip (there are many):
1) Hungarian people are wonderful. Although they have harsh faces, they are nice, willing to help you and don’t look at you with disdain like Northern Spaniards. Also, the Hungarian language is crazy! The words are ridiculous and it sounds related to nothing I’ve heard. Not Russian, not German, a little like Portuguese at times, but definitely different.
2) I didn’t come into contact with many Czechs on account of all the tourists, but I have to say that the blue jumpers construction workers wear are hot.
3) When I was at the Castle in Prague I overheard what may possibly be the most stupid conversation ever. Of course, it involves Americans. There were 2 girls behind me around my age looking at the 2 flags hanging on the castle - the Czech flag and the European Union flag. Girl 1 says, “What flag is that?” And Girl 2 responds, “The Czech flag.” Girl 1 asks, “What about the other one with all the stars?” And Girl 2 says, “The European Union” to which Girl 1 is confused and asks, “Where is that?”. I WAS CRUSHED.
4) Austrians were sweet too. The bus drivers were really nice and I had a moment with a woman on the bus. Some lady with a stroller passed by and knocked her, and the lady and I locked eyes and made fun of basically tired ladies carrying baby stuff I think (this is obviously my interpretation). Then when it was my stop to get off, I nearly fall on this women who was hit before and she bursts into Austrian German, and I pat her apologizing, nodding my head and smiling. She thought I was Austrian! So I figure she said something like small talk humans make in situations like these, “Oh I’m always getting hit” or “What luck I have today”, etc.
5) There are dependable crossing street clicking sounds for the blind in Prague and Vienna.
6) The Hofburg lawn in front of the Palace and surrounding gardens = college campus.
7) What tourist travels to a foreign country to go to all the same shops? There were 2 H&Ms and Zaras on the main drag in Vienna.
8) Trams are used in all three cities. How do cars drive on the road with them?
9) I saw Westies in all three countries. I’m officially obsessed.
10) Japanese tour groups!!
11) I saw a poster promoting a night at a club and it said, “Vodka - Connecting People”. I might agree. Babies are also connecting people. I saw some Asian lady fawning over this Austrian baby and was trying to get a picture with the little boy. The parents were probably thinking, “Yes our baby boy is adorable.”
12) You can really tell Austria is part of Western Europe. The guys are like Spaniards and are more direct and say things to you - nice Easterners! So quiet, so humble!
13) I am not American. Bwahahahaha! I do an excellent job pretending to be different nationalities. In Vienna, one girl asked me in German if I spoke English, and I understood what she was asking, so I said yes, and she asked me if I knew where the tourism office was. Ahahaha.
14) DiSCLAiMER: This is my opinion. Prague wins the most beautiful. Budapest wins most charming, intriguing for it’s past struggle with communism and its obvious process of changing, and for being cheapest. And Vienna wins most proud (international city, lots of tourism) but in an ok way with nice people.
15) Hostel cooking is very funny. Eggs and pasta are pretty common, but the random combinations are great!
16) I saw 2 unicyclists. A boy at a train station between Prague and Vienna and a man on the streets in Vienna.
17) I am a master of public transportation. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, I am very self-sufficient traveling on my own and entertaining myself for the most part.

Hope you made it to the end…oh also, please buy Cadbury Eggs for me!! I miss them.