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Showing posts from May 10, 2009

Friends, and Friendly Faces We've Met Along the Way

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So far on our trip we have met many wonderful people. Unfortunately, we make friends best when we are drunk. So, please forgive us, as we have excluded all names to protect the innocent, but we have included locations, Enjoy! Our drinking buddies from Vienna, 4:00 a.m. never came so quick! Thanks for the good times! Our English friends we met in Vienna that we played Euchre with in the bar Our Budapest BBQ crowd! Another Budapest pic from the BBQ Good times and Good friends in the Buda part of Budapest. Our German friend we met at a bar in Bruges, Belgium More German pals- Bruges, Belgium Goo Germany! Foose Ball Champions in Bruges Our Brewery Tour pals from America- (congrats on the engagement!) Bruges, Belgium Late night laundry mat friendship was made in Amsterdam! (Our friends from Spain studying architecture) Oban, Scotland (I cant wait to get home to buy a bottle of Glenmoranje!) Too many Scotches that night... Hello to our friends from Glospie, Scotland! London, Britis

Vienna- The City of Lovers and Dumplings

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We traveled to Vienna from Budapest on a Volanbusz, yes that’s right a Hungarian bus. A four hour ride cost just $25 for both of us. Surprisingly, there were only four people on the bus, and despite the fact that the bus was from a former eastern block country, it was probably the best looking and nicest bus we have ridden on this trip. After some strange looking bus station pizza, we slept almost the whole way to Vienna. The first night we walked through town, discovering block after block of beautiful stone buildings full of carved statues and spires. The parliament building, Rathous (city hall), and burg theater were some of the more notables ones. We also came across a beautiful church. That night we watched a soccer match in an Irish bar downtown, before heading back to our hostel for some inexpensive beers and meeting Titus and Tobey from London. We sought out a more Viennese establishment and met Phillip and Norte, some locals. We ended up chatting with them till almost 4 AM abo

Budapest, The Land of Sparkling Water!

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After a 7 hour train ride through the rest of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and northern Hungary, we arrived in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday. We had booked a room at a small hotel, located in an old Habsburg fortress, built in the 1850’s. The window to our room stretched through the outer wall of the place, which was about 2-3 feet thick. Because it was up on top of a hill, the views of the Danube river and the city lights were impressive. All of the major buildings were lit up every night as well. It was also quite a pain to try to ascend and descend the hill every morning and night. I’m not sure we will book a hotel up on a hill again, but it was great fun to stay in an old castle, and totally worth it! In Vienna, the next stop, our hostel is down the street from the train station. We met up with a friend of Eric’s brother in law that lives and is studying in Budapest. His name is Thomas, and he and his girlfriend Anita really showed us around Budapest. We had a great time with th

Budwar, the other Budweiser…

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After Berlin, we crossed the former Iron Curtain and traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic. Prague is quite a city. In our eyes, it is unmatched in the beauty of its buildings. With its cobble stone streets, Baroque plaster facades over medieval houses, and the numerous palaces, cathedrals and towers, it is no wonder why this place is called the “City of 1000 Spires.” We had booked a room in a small cozy little hostel, with a nice courtyard, free WiFi and breakfast, and not too far from the city center. Although it was gloomy and rainy, we still made the best of our time. We stopped by a second hand bookstore, which reputably had the “largest selection of English books in the Czeck Republic." Apparently that title is not too hard to accomplish. But after purchasing a few decent used paperbacks and a “Greece” lonely planet, we toured a few of the architectural wonders of Prague, and had a huge dinner of traditional Czech cuisine to celebrate our one month anniversary. Our meal w