Just on a side note. For those who have my address, there are a couple. You can burn that. I no longer live there. Instead I'm in residence with my director in a house outside of the city. So if anyone has an interest in sending me something I would gladly give you the proper location via email.
Now for the fantastic part! My vacation was absolutely phenomenal. As my mom put it, I was all over the place. And I was called several names. Gypsy would be the one I can remember... the others not so much. ~not my time period!~
I will start from April 3rd when I left my host. What a relief! And my director picked me up with all my belongings and dropped me off at the airport. I took Wizzair, which are the Hungarian airlines! I need to get Bethany's picture. When we landed we walked down portable stairs onto a bus and everyone was taking pictures of our pink/purple/white airplane! Even the seats where dark purple. I noticed a reoccurring theme of those colors throughout the capital. And I attribute it to T Mobile, b/c it's there color and they were advertised everywhere. The public phones had pink handles!
The time in the quaint eastern capital was way too short! But we made the most out of it with the hop on, hop off bus. We'd get off wherever and wait for the next one to come when we finished scoping the area. Although we didn't have time to really enter any museums we saw the entire city and participated in the main attractions! The bus tour came with a booklet of discounts so we used one on a free boat ride on the Danube River. The voice was speaking in Hungarian and in English, but we couldn't completely understand what they were saying! One thing we noticed was that the people over all are incredibly outgoing and friendly. Willing to offer help. The cutest memory was after Bethany and I spent over 2 hours soaking in the Roman baths in an outdoor spa, which is another main attraction! Budapest is known for the best of thermal waters filled with minerals. The people were all having a blast in the 3 outdoor pools, all with different temps. The last, and hottest was sooo nice! But we mainly stayed in the middle temp because there were a ton of jets for good messages. Anyways, after we got out to dry down the best as possible ~without any equipment~ I was trying to dry my hair, which was badly knotted, without a brush. The same girl who I let you the dryer I wasn't quite ready to use at the time, offered me her hairbrush so that I could fix the tangle. It was really cute! Of course I denied the hairy brush, but I was all smiles! ~yeah Hungary!~
The main attractions that we got a good look at were Parliament, Fishermen's Bastion, St. Stephen's Basilica, a famous castle that I don't feel like looking up the name at this time, the second grandest Synagogue in Europe, and a peak at the zoo!
After Budapest we traveled on to Vienna. My time there was really short! I mainly saw Mozart's house and walked along several parks at night time. The palace and gardens were closed when we arrived and the cathedral. But the exteriors were gorgeous. Whenever I get that chance to return, I'd like to go to Bethoveen's house too. Both capitals are bursting with famous musicians. Bethany stayed for another day and I was forced to leave from there b/c I had found the cheapest plane ticket for the following afternoon back in Budapest! I essentially woke up at 5am from our hostel to take a bus from Vienna to Budapest, and a plane from Budapest to Barcelona. The following day I left for Madrid. And then the second half of vacations began....
I believe with the way I uploaded the pictures, that the first ones will be of vienna.
I have been staying outdoors and seeing the sights so that is why i haven't been on this thing. Also the crunch time to get in papers and study for finals is now!
Before I forget though, I wanted to show the pictures from Malaga and New Castle. I went to Malaga to see Semana Santa and Antonio Banderas! And I got both wishes! Of course he hopped out onto his balcony overlooking where the procession would be on Holy Thursday just as Adrian and I turned off our cameras/video camera. So upset! But he came out for a good 5 secs to wave and look at the huge crowd that had formed for a military procession that afternoon and then he disappeared behind the curtain.
He supposedly is in the procession of semana santa as one of the leads for the pasos or the parade floats but different b/c a million cofradias carry each one, swaying from side to side.
For the gorgeous day I was in Malaga, we took a horse carriage around the city for 25 minutes and saw all the famous parts of the city. From there went to the Alcazaba which is similar to the Alhambra in Granada but a little less famous. It is just as beautiful and edges a mountain top. And it was quite a hike. In the front a section of an excavated Roman amphitheater was fenced in. We didn't notice the walkway to get in so we looked from the outside.
From there, of course I had to see the beach. In Malaga, people go to the beach! This was the begining of April and there was a few people swimming and a ton of people sun bathing. And some women, of course were exercising their rights to sun bath topless and facing up. ugg. Adrian and I argued whether one of them was actually a girl or not b/c she didn't have much and her hair was pulled underneath.
After a batido (milkshake) and granizado (cocktail slushy) we waited for the processions. A few hours later we were falling asleep waiting and then something started... but it was slow going. I asked a worker about the schedule and we decided to leave and come back later. After getting refreshed we had a mojito at the bar in our hostel, Picasso's Corner. ~which is my favorite hostel I've been too~ From there we set off for dinner. I was in search of calamarie b/c I was told by the locals that by Thursday they have the fresh catch and that well... Malaga is known for their seafood!
We had so much trouble trying to walk around b/c all the streets where filled for this procession since, they were all individual ones from every church that would exit, walk up and down the city, and then return. But luckily, we sat down at an outdoor table of a restaurant around 11ish and watched the last hour of the processions while eating the most delicious spiced and roasted chicken and fresh calamarie with a serving of ali oli sauce and fries.
We did everything we wanted to while in the small ocean town except see Picasso's house. It was closed do to the Easter celebrations.
From there it was to NewCastle. Honestly I don't think I'd have any real reason to go there except Basshunter had is concert in their center. So of course we went. The weather wasn't so nice as in Malaga. But still I enjoyed the opposite traffic directions, the Castle Keep and Cathedral from the outside and the millennium bridge that changed colors and the music theatre from both in and out.
The concert was the highlight of everything. I got to see 30 some odd techno artists and jump for almost 4 hours. The last 45 minutes was saved for Basshunter and he ended with a new song of his. He is great live and had the crowd going. My ears were drumming for 10 minutes after leaving that hall. I got his shirt and Adrian cried b/c they only had them in girl sizes so he got the general concert shirt.
