szia budapest! igen, nem es koszonom!

choo choo! budapest! (if i didn't mention this before, i flew to prague but took the train from then on)

unfortunately, budapest was a major fail because my cs host wasn't exactly what i was expecting. marton was living on his own, but he had an ex-wife and two children, who were the most adorable things in the world. but unlike the other two hosts, he had my entire itinerary in budapest planned and he accompanied me for all of them. it was nice to not have to plan anything, but i couldn't really do anything that i wanted. so... budapest = fail.

i only had two days and the first, we did a bike tour (which was cool) of all the major sights in pest. on the second day, we ate breakfast at his ex-wife's (weird) and went to see the sights in buda. i think i got to see most of the major sights, but buda and pest each in one day was impossible. oh well, maybe another visit in the future. and so, i have very few pictures from budapest and if i do, it's mostly underground in caves because this guy had some obsession with caves. i practically saw all of buda underground through its caves.

hungary's currency... the forint

shoes on the danube memorial

the most beautiful mcdonald's interior i've ever seen

drinking wine flowing out from the underground caves







yea... comparably not many pictures from budapest.

so as you've all probably heard, this icelandic volcano (which no one can pronounce lol) is potentially ruining my vacation to rome... and possibly my return home. all i can do is wait...

after a couple of nights out on the town this semester, i've come to the conclusion that danes cannot dance. and they let girls in wearing sneakers. that is absolutely unheard of! but i guess it's ok because they're beautiful people... so unfair. and some of their dj's are god awful... how can you play the circle of life in the middle of the night??? how?!

friday was the danish queen's 70th birthday. it is practically a national holiday and the tradition is that everyone stands outside her palace and at noon, she comes out and waves to the people with the rest of the royal family. then she takes her carriage down to the city hall for a reception with the mayor. it was a dose of danish culture but quite uneventful: "there's the queen!" (wave danish flag voraciously) (queen passes by) (everyone disperses) probably a total time span of 5 minutes.

i have bad news. i don't think i'll be bringing any souvenirs. first, because i'm broke. second, because there's nothing really that is "danish" in the way that, say, clogs are dutch. so... sorry!

i am really looking forward to this summer! my major goal is to learn how to cook :)
so you are all welcome to be my taste testers (and i expect brutal honesty)
and as an update, i will be able to finish my last year in school, but i'll be living on one heck of a tight budget. that includes this summer as well. i guess i won't be tan this summer then :(

guten tag wien! ja, nein und danke schon!

next stop --> vienna!

in vienna, i stayed with jascha and nora. they were my favorite hosts the entire trip. jascha is studying to become a filmmaker and nora is a graphic designer. jascha is so creative and his imagination inspires me... he is fascinated with metro maps and the graphic design of urban city maps sooo he is creating his own city, called voranien, and he is building it up via maps. it. is. so. freakin. cool. he basically takes urban planning strategies of cities that he likes and puts them in his own city... like the grid of manhattan, vienna's ringstrasse, paris' boulevards... so. cool. and he created a metro map for his imaginary city :) anddd he also invited me to design something for his city... like a museum or philharmonic hall! i'm going to be a famous architect in his imaginary city lol. my big break... yay!

he was also hosting a cat named felix and it was the funniest cat i have ever seen. he likes to sleep in this tiny little box that barely fits him and he is the biggest attention whore ever! he meows 24/7 and he walks all over the keyboard so you can't type when you're on the computer because he wants you to play with him. and playing with him is quite fun... he loves chasing laser pointers and he gets really sneaky... he hides behind the corner and crouches down and starts prowling towards the laser :)

i couldn't help but notice that the pattern on vienna's metro seats look like pokeballs... hehe.




highlights:

all the impostors of famous composers who dress up in costume, haggle tourists and try to sell expensive tickets to concerts for classical music

johann strauss

toilet of modern art

the hundertwasserhaus!!! my favorite part of vienna :)
the magic of this building cannot be captured in a photograph... you must all just go there

the biggest easter egg sale i've ever seen

the most phallic storefront i've ever seen

cute graphics to indicate seating for disabled, elderly, pregnant or with children on the metro (male and female versions)

awesome church... exterior and interior

and the easter egg that jascha made me :)










so today, in light of the fact that it is carnival at cmu, i did absolutely no work and soaked up some sun with the danes at king's garden. it's so nice to be able to have some beers out in public... something the u.s. needs to adopt :)

the weather has been amazing in copenhagen the past couple of days, but i can feel myself coming down with a cold... boo!!!

i am getting really attached to my danish family and i don't know how i'm going to say goodbye...

ahoj praha! ano, ne a dekuji!

i'm back!!!
home sweet kobenhavn... i love thee :)

so my first stop was prague and i flew into their airport... except i had a 5 hour delay. wtf. but my cs [couchsurfing] host was so understanding! so instead of 10pm, i arrived in prague around 6am. i am never flying this airline ever again!

in prague i stayed with a guy named tomas. he is a 30-year-old banker and lives a little bit outside of prague but still close and easy to get to by public transport. he had a really nice place on his own and he had a hidden talent in playing the piano. here's the first couch i have ever surfed!

unfortunately he was quite busy so i explored prague on my own but i preferred it that way. but we went out to drink some czech beer and eat traditional czech food at night. prague is dirt cheap! and the beer flows like rivers... really. here is a restaurant that is completely lined with pipes from its brewery to each table where everyone pours their own beers... it's never-ending-beer... bottomless beer glasses!


so here are some highlights:

currency = czech crown

pretty metro stations

john lennon wall

babies on the tv tower

gehry's "dancing building"

bone church










so while traveling alone, i realized how lonely it really is to be alone and it made me reconsider my views on marriage. it might be nice to have someone in the end when you're all alone...

a lot of shit is going on at home and i will be returning to a completely new environment... i don't know what to expect.

on the other hand, i have about 1500 pictures so whoever's coming to my house to catch up, you guys may have to sleep over lol. woo slumber party!

so back to school but not loving it at all. i can't wait until i go back on vacation to rome :)
next week i'm taking a day trip to sweden (not stockholm, but malmo) since it's so close and i will post again each time for the other cities.

also on another note, i have a job for the summer! i won't be dirt poor after all! but the future of my last year in college is looking a little hazy right now... it may or may not happen...