PART I: BUDAPEST
Wednesday, 10/22:
-School finished a tad early. I BOOKED it home and packed, then ran to the bus to meet a student I have private lessons with. I had made the mistake of letting her know what I was doing on break, so she discovered we'd BOTH be leaving for Budapest on the same day and offered to take the train with me. I agreed, not realizing until later that it was gonna be pretty weird. Sigh...I've gotta stop agreeing to things like that.
Aaaanyway. So, 4 awkward hours later, we arrived in Budapest at Deli Palyaudvar (South Station), where Ashley was waiting for me! And the fun began!
Thursday, 10/23
Thursday was the anniversary of the 1956 Revolution against the Soviets. It's a very solemn/political holiday, and though there are peaceful gatherings, the holiday also brings out the crazy, radical, often very racist or nationalist groups who demonstrate in major city squares, and occasionally can become violent against tourists. Therefore, Ashley and I decided to "lay low," and took it easy at the mall seeing Pineapple Express. ("Waaaaait...." hahahahaha!) That night, we went out to a pretty well-known Budapest bar called Szimpla, frequented more by expats than locals. While we were there, I got a great idea: call Dani! (Dani was my closest friend here in 2004--wonderful guy. He just moved back to Budapest.) Much to my surprise, he actually showed up!
It was SOOOOO great to see that kid. He took us to another bar or two, and then Ashley and I realized we were too lazy to take a night bus all the way to her place, so Dani let us sleep at his flat. (He lives with his mom, but she was out of town.) It was adorable, especially since Dani lent Ashley his suitcase in the morning.
PART II: PRAGUE
Friday, 10/24:
This was the day we left on our 7 HOUR BUS to Prague. We were super excited, but our bus didn't leave until 4 pm, so we decided in the morning we'd go boot shopping. 'Cause, you know....going to Prague and Vienna...gotta have boots. So we successfully completed this task, and then went off to find our bus. We almost panicked when we got to the bus station (where our tickets said to go) and the lady said, "Oh, it's not here." Then she started going for her Budapest city map. Ummm...was there a DIFFERENT bus station by the same name?!
Luckily, it turns out our bus company is hilarious, so instead of having an actual platform at the depot, they park on street half a block away. Um....OK. We made it onto the bus, with enough time to buy some delicious cheese pastries. Perfect! We were in a fantastic mood at this point, and to celebrate our recent success of having found the bus, we ate our cheese pastries immediately.
The bus was amazing. I wish I could take that bus everywhere. First of all, they give you free coffee. They also show movies (sure, it was "New York Minute" starring the Olsen twins, but still). They also show "Friends" when the movie is over. They give out Czech magazines. And finally, there was Tomas. Tomas was the Czech announcer and steward. He was SO polite, but not only that, he would get up on the speaker and give his speech in Czech, then actually TURN HIS HEAD AROUND (scene change!), and turn back and do the same speech in English. Maybe it's hard to explain in writing why this was so awesome, but trust me...it was.
Anyway. 7 luxurious hours later, we arrived in Prague. We got out off the bus and realized......we had no idea where we were going. I had the address of the hostel, but I didn't know where we were in relation to it, what the currency exchange rate was, nothing. Real smart. So first I went to an ATM and tried to take out 2000 crowns...too much. I started freaking out, wondering how little money I actually had. I texted Jessi (my friend from Chicago who's teaching in Prague) and she invited us out for the evening, but Ashley and I decided maybe we should just go to our hostel and crash out. We took a cab to our hostel (Ashley graciously covering me)...about 3 blocks away. Oh. (By the way, our cabbie was the first of many types I saw in Prague: middle-aged, with a shaved head, totally terrifying-looking...but really, really nice!)
We got to our hostel (which I stayed in in 2004, under a different owner), rang the bell, and another terrifying bald man opened the door and just glared at us. "Well? Can I help you?" he said. "Uh...we're staying here?" we awkwardly answered. "In the hostel? Levir?" he replied. "Yes...." (we figured this was obvious, since there was only ONE hostel in this building, and he owned it...) He led us inside, and Ashley and I exchanged terrified glances...this guy did NOT seem pleased with us. But after just a few minutes, he became really, really friendly as he got us our room. Turns out there were about 50 Hungarian high schoolers staying there, being drunk and loud and making a mess...so he was just a little on edge. His name was Tony (Anton, from Siberia, actually) and he ended up being the nicest guy ever. Oh, Prague!
When we got into our room, Tony told us there was an American guy named Sean staying on the next bed. We took note of this information. Nobody was there at the time because it was Friday night. We decided, fuck it...time for bed. But not long after starting to unpack, the other guys staying in our room came in, including Sean. Ashley said, "Oh yeah, Sean, we've heard so much about you. You're American." He was like, "Uh, yeah, how'd you know?" After casually talking for a while (he's from California, going to med school in Prague, staying in the hostel until his new flat is ready), he noticed Ashley and I had the same sense of humor and kept making the same jokes, which prompted him to ask, "are you guys, like, soul mates or something?" Oh, Sean. And thus he became our oldest and dearest friend in Prague.
Saturday, 10/25:
Our first full day in Prague! As I recall, it started with Ashley and me being served coffee by Tony. He then told us a little about his life. That man is so nice. Then we walked into town to find some food. We walked down the main street into the old town center, and it started coming back to me....Prague is BEAUTIFUL. Seriously. Every single building, every tram that goes by, the city is incredible. We went straight to the touristy area just because hey, ya gotta do that. We had some delicious Greek food for lunch, and made friends with the waiter. He is Macedonian and wants to study in the US. Good luck, kid! Then we spent the day marveling at everything....the Old Town Gate, the church, Wenceslas Square...I got myself in the habit of saying "Fuck you, Prague!" because I'm actually mad at it for being so gorgeous. Ugh. Stupid Prague, thinks it's hot shit.
Prague has become SO Westernized since 1989, and even more so even since I was there 4 years ago. The signs are everywhere: Swarowski, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and other major designers all have super-fancy storefronts along the main shopping streets. They're all in beautifully restored neo-Baroque buildings, with white stone facades and artistic lighting. The Old Town (Stare Mesto) is so miraculously well-preserved, you don't realize at first that you're walking amidst over 1000 years of history. Everything is beautiful; there's really no other way to say it.
Anyway, given the Westernization, Prague has something Budapest does not: Starbucks. (I know, I know...there's a billion things wrong with going to Starbucks ever, let alone in Prague. Spare me...we were homesick.) It was so funny to go in there. It's designed based on the universal model, so everything inside looks exactly the same as it does at home (except the cathedral ceilings, of course). The employees all speak English, and given the store's location (right across from the Astronomical Clock, rad!!), they don't even bother to address you in any language other than English.
We got some drinks and chilled out, and then talked to Jessi. My friend Jen, another coworker from Chicago, lives in Liberec, a town about an hour away, and she had come in for the weekend to hang out. We all agreed to meet in an hour at the Jan Hus statue in the main square. So we walked over after our coffee, and all had an "OMG we used to work at Solex in Chicago, now we're all totally hanging out in Prague!" freakout, Ashley met them, and then we went to get MORE coffee. (Basically, it's the cheapest thing to do, and I always want to be drinking coffee anyway, so it really works out.) We all talked for a while, but Ashley was falling asleep...turns out she hadn't been able to sleep the night before. So we agreed that we'd go our separate ways, and then meet up later to go out on the town.
Back at the hostel, Ashley took a nap, and I hung out with Sean. When she woke up, we convinced Sean to come out with us, and we all walked back to the town center. First, we all went to a pretty fun bar, just inside the old town area, which is underground and has rounded ceilings and exposed brickwork and overall just makes me jealous of all the old ass buildings in Europe. We hung out for a drink, met some of Jessi's other friends, and then began a looong walk...
Jessi and Jen had some friends who lived way out in a different neighborhood, and I guess they always walk everywhere, so we followed them....we had to go to their flat, and then get directions to a neighborhood bar. Well this is where things get interesting: we were going down a particularly steep dark street, and Ashley fell in a "Prague hole" (her words) and sprained her foot. Um....ouch.
Now luckily for us, as I mentioned, we happened to be with Sean, who's a third-year med student in Prague. How convenient is that? So he offered to help her with it the next day. In the meantime, we told Jessi and Jen sorry, but we wanted to go back to the city center, since it was our only Saturday in Prague. Sean led us back, and we went to another bar he knew of. We made a bunch of hilarious friends from around the world, and I spoke Spanish/Hungarian/English with a Hungarian woman who spent the last 8 years in Spain. Um, awesome! Then we left, and Ashley started to realize her foot really hurt. We decided that maybe on Sunday, we should go to a pharmacy and buy her some crutches.
Sunday, 10/26:
I forgot to mention that Jessi told us we could stay in her former apartment for free for the next 2 nights if we wanted, because she still had a week on the lease. We decided to take it, so we talked to Tony, and I'm pretty sure broke his heart by saying we were leaving early...but we took a picture with him and told him he was the nicest guy ever, so hopefully he's ok. We then packed up, and enlisted Sean to help us find some crutches for Ashley. I'll spare the details, but but basically, we ended up checking into the new apartment, where we slept on a futon in the kitchen and the real occupants stayed in the bedroom...and then Sean successfully got Ashley into the Prague ER. As we were waiting for Ashley to be x-rayed, I said, "We LITERALLY could not have made a better friend here." Seriously--MED STUDENT. You can't make this stuff up. Thanks, Sean! Wherever you went....(did we dream him? We got no email!)
So, Ashley got her crutches, and then Sean took us to a delicious Greek place inside a mall nearby, where we forced him to let us pay for lunch. Then we went to a coffee shop and chilled out more (emphasis on NOT walking) and eventually took a cab back to our new futon-home. Sean said he'd call us later when he got more minutes on his phone, but that was the last we saw of him. It was like he was a con artist, except instead of stealing from us, he was just really, really helpful and then disappeared. Weird....
Monday, 10/27:
This was our last full day in Prague. We wanted to do stuff, like maybe take a tour, but we also realized walking would be difficult. Instead, we once again spent most of the day eating delicious food or hanging out in cafes, and then in the evening we went to a puppet performance of "Don Giovanni" (seriously). Then we walked along the Vltava river and admired the castle on the other side, all lit up. It was actually pretty romantic. Then we found a local bar and hung out for a bit, and then went to bed. We had to leave in the morning, so this was pretty much the last we saw of Prague....but we vowed to be back!
Part III: VIENNA
Tuesday, 10/28:
The bus to Vienna was 5 hours. It was the same company, but the stewardess was NOT as friendly as Tom...as if anyone could be! They showed "Madagascar." Ew. We got to Vienna just at dusk, and decided to be daring and just take the Ubahn straight to our hostel without buying tickets....ooooo! (By the way, we were successful....we didn't get busted once the whole time we were there!) Now, the problem here was that Ashley had her crutches, and the hostel is at the top of a hill. Hmm. Basically, we painstakingly made the hike, and Ashley somehow survived. We checked in, and were happy to see that the hostel is pretty cool. There's free internet, free breakfast, nice desk people...and we thought at first we had our room to ourselves, but it turned out our roommates just weren't there yet. Well, whatever. Then Ashley and I went out for dinner, where we had soup, french fries, and coffee. Healthy? We also made friends with our waitress, who it turns out has lived in Oregon and plans to move back. She was cool. That was it for day 1, since we got in kinda late.
Wednesday, 10/29:
So! We were in Vienna! I didn't (and still don't) know much about the city, so we decided to just take the train to random places and walk around. We got some advice from various people on where to go, so we just figured we'd take it easy and find some of the places they mentioned. We had some delicious Chinese food (something I hadn't eaten in 2 months), and then toured around the main streets a bit. Then we remembered we had looked up shows playing at the Wien Operhaus. We had learned that Liszt's ballet, "Mayerling," was playing. We went to the box office and secured tickets for 8 euros apiece! Then we went across the street to the most adorable freaking cafe I've ever seen. I bought some Mozart chocolates to give to my Hungarian teacher, and then we continued on our way.
The waitress from our first night had told us to go to the Heitzing stop on the U4, where there's a zoo. We went up there and had a lovely time walking around, but never actually went in the zoo because it was too expensive. Then we found...you guessed it...! Another cafe! It was in the lobby of an old hotel...we actually felt like we had walked into the 19th century. I loved it.
We decided that, being Ashley and Eliza, having friend-making superpowers, we definitely needed to go out and make friends in Vienna. We took the advice of another stranger and went to a particular street with a lot of bars and clubs. We picked one, but it was packed and we used this as an ice-breaker to share a table with some dudes. They ended up being our new Vienna friends. Their names were Markus and Chris, and umm...they work at a beer company. Markus is also from the same town as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh Austria. They were super nice, except Chris was only 18 and really awkward and didn't speak any English. Except he understood when Ashley mentioned Heidi Klum, and smiled sheepishly. (See photo: Me, Markus, Ashley, Chris. As you can see, Chris looks like he has no idea what's going on.)
Our new friends were great. They helped us find the right Ubahn to take home, and convinced us to buy street hot dogs (I've been cheating on vegetarianism big-time). We parted ways when they got off the Ubahn at their stop. Ashley and I were silently enjoying the ride home when a tiny asian-looking man got on and sat next to me. He smiled terrifyingly in my face, and then introduced himself in English. (I don't know how he knew we weren't from there...we weren't talking.) Then he said, "Nice to meet you! Where are you from?" "America." "Guess where I'M from?" "Uh....somewhere east?" "I'll give you a hint...I'm from a country that your country has troops in!" (This continued. Basically, he was from Afghanistan. For the next few minutes, never losing his weird grin, he told us that the US government should leave his country, and that "America will fall." Then he got up, politely said goodbye, and disappeared.
...So. Other than meeting a future terrorist, we had a lovely evening.
Thursday, 10/30:
Our only other full day in Vienna. Sad! We had a great day. First, we took the Ubahn back to the center and found the major shopping area. We may have gone to H&M. Okay, we may have gone to TWO H&Ms, within a few blocks of each other. But you have to understand, we hadn't been shopping in a while! I didn't spend very much money. But it was fun. Then we got some italian food for lunch at an outdoor cafe, and again, just cursed Europe for being so picturesque. We found yet another cafe (that's basically my main reason for being in Europe) and relaxed. We returned home to change into our new clothes (ha), and then went out for dinner. We had some AMAZING indian food...god bless western europe for being so cosmopolitan! Then we returned to the same bar we'd gone the previous night, and made some new friends, Tom and Stefan. They were OK, but they were no Markus and Chris. We headed home kinda early because we wanted to be awake enough to get out of our hostel in time for our bus the next morning. And so ended our time in Vienna!
. . . . . . . .
You may realize that this whole time in Prague and Vienna, we never once took a formal tour. Well, that's just our style...we never actually learned where the hell we were the whole time. I think it was actually a good idea, because as Ashley and I said, we didn't want to feel obligated to do anything during our break--we just wanted to have fun. And that's just what we did! If you actually read all of this, I commend you--it probably isn't that interesting to read unless you were there. But hey--I got all of it down before I forgot, and that's the important thing! And so, I bid you good day.
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