Time for a Break Through

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.

Monseratt

Funny story while pictures upload: In the last post there's a picture in McDonalds with ice cream. Adrian wanted his kit kat which is visible sticking out of the vanilla cone. His came right off the euro menu. My eye zeroed in on the Oreo Mcflurry and I indicated that to Adrian, who decided to pay for this order. Adrian pointed to the euro menu for me to select from, so I told him the fruit and yogurt would be good. He ordered the two from the euro menu and paid. He gave me a sidelong look and pointed to the receipt. "The euro menu turned out to be more for some reason!" I shrugged. It was my first time ordering Mccy Ds outside the US. The register guy got back with our orders and he gave me a knowing smile. I looked at the oreo mcflurry and laughed. Adrian guffawed and joked that I owed him. It was so good and worth the extra euro!

Barcelona another coastline another Sea

As of last week I´ve seen three major bodies of water! This is exciting because it just dawned on me now. :) I traveled there by night bus and was very upset w/ Alsa because I bought it for 12:30am Wednesday night the 18 a few weeks prior. But as I was waiting I noticed the date change on my watch slowly to 19! I cursed and walked over to the ventas to ask if it was acceptable since I still considered it Wednesday night. The man behind the glass shrugged his shoulders and told me I couldn't get refunded or change it. I could only buy another. I wanted to cry with frustration as I bought another. It still bothers me just a little b/c of the wasted ticket. But Adrian made it worth it completely. As soon as I got there at 8:30 am on Thursday we trecked with my bag in hand to the most popular sights in Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell. We walked around the Cathedral in process since before the Spanish Civil War and continues today with out the creator Antoni Gaudi. Then we went down into the metro and got some Dunkin Coffee (not Dunkin Donuts) they have their own versions of American cafes and eateries. We exited at a street miles from our destination and Adrian brought me the way that was most tiring but the most scenic. It was a steep incline and a series of escalators bringing us to the top where Park Güell was. From there we could see the whole city and the Mediterranean Sea. I did some hw after that at the apart as he was in studio. Once he came back we went out to eat at a Mexican Restaurant Rosa del Raval which is the place for the architecture students because we met Ali and her friend drinking the happy hour specialties and bumped into Adrian's apartment upon leaving. I had my first Bellini and tried Adrian's Margarita. I liked mine better! I chowed down on nachos and a borrito b/c I was craving my favorite food! From there we went towards the beach for a stroll where a man had all his tools for sculpted master pieces in the sand. We bumped into my friends from Madrid also traveling in BCN and talked about Chipitos later. We parted there to go look at Gaudi's famous houses, Casa Mila and Casa Batlló. In between we walked on Las Ramblas which is a huge outdoor market of goods and gathering of people showing off art work demonstrations or soccerball tricks. A supermarket has entire section to the side of Las Ramblas where I saw foods I'll never see again! I bought half a kilo of Strawberries! And then the prostitutes are around. I saw a naked guy hanging out in a bar by lying in the window.... it's legal here. We went back the Las Ramblas another night to buy a 5 postcards for a euro and I bought a picture frame. Day 2 We went to Monserrat outside of Barcelona. There a ton of pretty pictures of the mountains that inspired Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. We went with John Pierce and that was a full day of walking or rather climbing. Although the little mountain village had two Funiculars and a Cable Car to help with the steep parts. We got a ticket that included everything but the cable car and lunch. We checked out the Monastery Santa Cova on the edge of a cliff about an hour away from everything then hiked back to view the Basilica that the Virgin Mary of Monserrat appeared at. There was a ridiculous line to view Mary holding a globe that you could touch and would appear to be in mid air apparently. That's what John told me. I wanted to see it, but the line was extreme. We checked out the Museum and watched a video of they offered of their 'town' which has on building of apartments and one hotel. So it's super tiny! We almost attempted walking to the top of the mountain on the approximate 2 hour walk. Luckily John asked and we went back to take the Funicular to the top and walk along the paths to a small chapel and just enjoy the view on top of the world. After a nap from the awesome trip the night started with the Magic Fountains in Monjuic which is french for mountain of the jews due to the cemetery on the other side. I didn't get to see it but I walked to the Olympics Stadium and took pictures of the torch. We walked by a torro stadium and the Park of Joan Miró to go eat a Menu del Día. If there's one thing I'll miss about restaurants in Spain it's their awesome deals on tons of food! You get served your first dish and then your second which comes with bread, and wine, soda, or water and is followed by desert. There are a list of options for the two courses and they are always spectacular. Adrian got a chickpea soap and then Languistinas which was an experience for him, cleaning off all the full shrimps with heads attached. I enjoyed the spaghetti then the chicken and fries. I looked at La Oveja Negra which is the pub that all the arch students hang out at. At the entrance a mime puts his finger to his lips to keep the customers quite to keep the sleeping residents from complaining. We failed at entering the clubs when a group of us went to the beach after 1:30.~ honestly I didn't mind that much~ Instead back at the apartment the guys watched a crazy Japanese Movie online that I watched most of. Battle Royale. If anyone hasn't seen it, it's not a big deal. It is like the crazy story Lord of the Flies. Everyone kills everyone to be the finalist who can leave the island. Only one can survive. Crazy Japanese. Day 3 We went back in the day time to La Sagrada Familia under construction and helped the building of the church with our 9 euro entradas and then an addition 2.50 euros to take the elevator up one of the towers. That was quite a site and I'm thankful it wasn't windy or I might have fallen off. I would like to come back in 2010 to see the completion of the congregation area and their first mass. The inside and outside are covered in works of nature so you feel like you're truly in a work of art created by God. The very columns inside look like trees! From there we entered Casa Mila and walked along the roof which is curvy like something out of hobbiton. From there he has arches and knights decorating the 34 some odd chimeneas of the house. One arch frames his work of La Sagrada Familia! It's perfect. The last night we cooked at the apartment a frozen pizza and broke out the first bottle of wine Adrian bought, which was blush. I enjoyed it and hope he ends up saving it! We went to Chapitos which means shots. That was fun! The pictures with things being lit on fire, that's our shots being engulfed in flames. This was the second time going. My favorites where the Harry Potter, the Marshmallow, and the pop rocks. It made the shots entertaining with the rules you had to follow to drink them. I have a ton of lovely pictures on Monserrat. I'll post those separately!