Well, it all started out last Thursday. Meg, Andrea, Little Ryan, Ryan, and I left class early (around 7:30ish) to hop on a bus to take us to the main bus station in Granada. We met up with Madeline (the final person in our traveling group) and a bunch of other people from our program there. As it turns out, a bunch of our good friends were also taking the same bus and then flight as us because they were going to Amsterdam. This group included Logan, Bruce, Matt Bunyon, Abby, and a few others. It was really nice to have other people we knew, too, traveling with us! Having everybody there made the time fly a LOT faster.
I'm pretty sure that we were all just slap-happy to finally start our real traveling. The evening at the bus station started out with all 15 of us standing by the corner outside waiting, while Madeline proceeded to open up her bottle of alergy pills too abruptly, causing them to fly into the air and it to rain pills on everyone (particularly Logan). This led us to all shout "Amsterdam!" and get that half of the group particularly pumped. haha. Then, we got to the Malaga airport. Which is completely empty from 10pm-6am. Literally, you could almost hear crickets. What we ended up doing was pulling a bunch of benches together and making our own little space. It was so nice to be there with a big group when you have that much time because it really helped the time fly faster. We started out the evening by playing a massive game of Never Have I Ever (got to know each other a little bit TOO well), then we just kind of hung out, ate bocadillos, layed around, and got what little sleep we could on the airport floor. Next thing, we knew, it was the crack of dawn and time to go through security and get on our plane. Our flight to Eindhoven (the Netherlands. The first step in our connecting flight) was about 2 ish hours and it was through Ryan Air- aka it was the crappiest, yet cheapest, possible plane. The chairs didn't even recline. However, it's never really THAT bad because you can always just stare out the window and daydream....unless you are Meg, Cory, or Bruce, who managed to find the ONE row of seats on the airplane that actually didn't have a window!! We made do with what we could...
Who needs a real window when you can make your own?
After the flight, we reached cloudy, cold Eindhoven, Netherlands. Here, we were sad to split up with the Amsterdam group, but we did what we had to do! We walked through the airport and to our gate to wait for our plane to Prague to be ready. We were only supposed to wait 2 hours in the airport, but it was delayed an hour so we waited 3. We found ways to pass the time.
Little kids playing video games at the airport.
We took a Wizz Air flight to Prague, which, I know, sounds a lot sketchier than Ryan Air, but we actually liked it a lot better! This flight was only a couples hours as well, and we made it to Prague in good time! It was pretty much a nice big jolt of culture shock as soon as we got there.. We did not speak the language, didn't have a great idea of where we were, and didn't have the proper currency. We quickly changed all of this: We went to an exchange place at the airport and exchanged our euros for Czech Crowns (1 euro=24.18 crowns...You can imagine how confusing/annoying THAT was for the trip) and then we found a cab service stand that got a cab-van for us to take us to Ryan's friend's apartment (where we were staying for the next 3 days). After about a 10-15 minute cab ride, we made it to Ryan's friend's (Sam) apartment building! Only problem... We forgot his apartment number! And our phones weren't working. So we did the only thing we could do.. Ring the doorbell of every single apartment number, until Sam answered! Eventually, without a doubt, Sam's was the last of the 10 we tried, and we got in!
We were MORE than extremely lucky with our housing situation for Prague. We stayed with Ryan's friend from high school, Sam, who is currently studying in Prague for the semester. He was living there with 3 other guys from his program: Oliver, Steven, and Etai. They were the nicest group of guys ever, and a lot of fun, too! We ended up going out together every night, and we all coordinated together nicely throughout the day. We were so lucky that they were so accommodating to us. Their apartment was really big, too. Probably bigger than most of our host family's apartments, so that made it even better.
So that first afternoon, we just walked around Prague ourselves and took in some of the sights. We bought ourselves a map and walked around the central square. Prague is gorgeous; definitely one of our favorites.
That night, we learned that Prague has great nightlife, too. We pregamed with the guys at the apartment, and went to a couple bars: First, we went to a bar that we absolutely loved called "Acropolis" where they played older music that was really fun to dance to, and we all danced and drank together! After that, we went to a bar called "Chapan Rouge" that was a whole different story.. Here, they played weird house music that seemed to attract really only one type of person. And the best way to describe that music is "convulsions". It was the same beat over and over again, and everyone was doing the same type of strange, jerky bounce that looked like everyone was convulsing. Needless to say, we didn't stay at that one too late. It was still a really fun night though!
The next morning, we went on our free walking tour of Prague, and basically learned everything there was to know about the city.
The clocktower show Prague is famous for...also famous for being extremely anti-climactic. Super cool when it was invented, in like the 1400's. Nowadays... not quite. It's a funny thing though known throughout the city.
Absolutely gorgeous church.
The John Lennon wall.. So cool.
After the free tour, we found the John Lennon wall. Then after that, we were literally about to freeze to death so we ran home. There, we had a nice family dinner with our friends from the apartment! Madeline made spaghetti for all of us! Then after that, we drank and went out to one of the bars called Roxy. We're pretty sure we went there too early, because although it was a REALLY cool looking bar, it was kinda dead. We ended up grabbing some drunk food and heading home around 3 that night!
Family dinner!
The next morning, we unconsciously decided that none of us would set an alarm (whoops), so we woke up pretty late in the afternoon! We ended up checking out the royal palace/castle thing on top of a HUGE hill, and it was really pretty! There was also a cathedral up there that was really gorgeous, too.
The castle
View from the top of the hill
After that, we walked around town for a while and did some souvenir shopping. Then, after a traumatizing experience at Bohemia Bagel (WHAT kind of place doesn't accept credit cards!?) we ended up just going to the grocery store and buying some frozen pizzas for dinner for the night. We hung out inside for the night, and just showered and went to bed because early the next morning we had our bus ride to Vienna!
So we got off of our bus in Vienna and were completely confused as to where the hell we were and as to where we would meet up with our host for the next few days, Matt. Luckily, our phones started to work and we were able to call Matt and meet him at the bus station! Matt was just getting back from a trip, too, and it was so sweet of him to take us in right afterwards! We got very lucky once again; Matt was extremely accommodating, too! The only crappy part about this situation was that Matt's apartment was honestly more like a dorm. So there were 6 of us crowded on a veryyy small floor. To make matters worse, in my case, I think that I caught a bit of a stomach virus as we left Prague. I had some of the worst stomach aches EVER and I was feeling very weak. This lasted for most of Vienna, but I didn't let it get the best of me!
We all bought some metro tickets (because Vienna is HUGE and, it being this cold especially, you need to take the metro or a bus pretty much everywhere!) and dropped our stuff off at Matt's place. After, Matt took us around for a little "tour". However, Matt had only been in Vienna for a couple days, so he was able to show us some stuff, but we had absolutely no idea what any of the stuff was! Here are some pictures of the cool stuff, even though we're not exactly sure what it is!
The first night there, we ended up going to this bar called "The Travel Shack". It was a cool, smaller bar with a lot of American students in it! We saw a bunch of other people from Matt's program there, some of them we knew from U of I! We stayed there for a couple hours, I didn't really drink because I was sick. Meg and I messed with some of the really drunk guys. Madeline took a fire shot. You know, the usual stuff. Then, on the way home, it was so far that we'd need to take a couple metros, but we forgot that they closed early during the week! So after walking in the frigid cold for a bit, we ordered taxis. Then we came home and went to sleep!
The next day, we woke up a little later (because we wanted to) and Matt made us all breakfast! It was absolutely delicious. It seemed like it was even more freezing that day. We decided to give Vienna the name "The City of Closed Doors" because everything we tried to walk into was either locked, or you had to pay to go in! We saw some more of the royal buildings, and only the outside of the opera house. Then, we came back to the apartment and made grilled cheese sandwiches, played cards, and watched rat race! It was a peaceful afternoon. Then that night, everyone went to an irish pub, but I was still feeling sick so I stayed home and caught up on my emails and stuff like that.
The next day we decided to wake up late again and we made ourselves some breakfast. Matt wasn't there when we got up because he had some orientation stuff to do that day, so we decided to walk around town ourselves. As it turns out, Breanne, Kelsey, McKenna, and Esteban were in Vienna for that day, too! We ended up meeting up with them at a Starbucks and hanging out for the day! Some of us went to a Music Museum, while me, Bre, McKenna, and Kelsey went to this place called Cafe Sacher where we ate this DELICIOUS famous cake that is made only in that cafe at that hotel with a recipe that is a secret to the rest of the world. It was just what I needed to give me a little bit more energy!
SO good.
That evening, Kelsey and them went to an opera, so I met back up with my group and we went to the World Market (which actually isn't that busy/exciting when it is this cold out) and then we did some souvenir shopping. Then, as usual, we were freezing, so we ran home and had another pasta dinner! We stayed in and showered and stuff that night because the next morning, we had our train to Budapest!
We woke up early the next morning and got to the train station in good time. The train ride was just a couple hours, and then next thing we knew, we were in Budapest! Budapest was absolutely amazing. It is tied for first for all of us with Prague.. The city is absolutely gorgeous and we had a lot of fun there, too. Everything was less expensive and complicated than Vienna.
We got there, got a map, exchanged our currency (Vienna was the euro, luckily. Budapest, however, is the HUFF. Hungarian Forint. We decided to just called it the Hufflepuff), got a map, and walked about a 30-40 minute walk to our hostel, our first of this trip. We stayed at the Loft Hostel. From the outside, it looked super creepy. It was in a really tall, kind of dead building. We walked up tons of creepy stairs and finally saw a sign at the top that said Loft Hostel. We then learned the valuable lesson, never judge a book by its cover! The hostel was awesome and SO cozy! The people were so nice and welcoming, too. (Well, most of them. To be explained later). We really liked the hostel!
The Loft <3
The view from the Loft!
When we first got to the hostel, I still wasn't feeling very well so I stayed in as the rest of the group explored a bit and got groceries. When they came back, we made ourselves some breakfast for dinner (yummmm) and to my delight, everyone decided to stay in for the night! We watched the movie "Taken" (how appropriate) and made a funny drinking game out of it. It was a really nice night! We think that there were some people in the hostel that judged us for not going out our first night in Budapest, but we went out the next night! And we doubt people understood that we had been traveling nonstop for SEVEN days at this point! So we didn't let it get to us!
The next morning, luckily, I was feeling totally better! We started out the day with our walking tour! As usual, we learned a lot from it and got to see a lot of pretty sights! Unfortunately, we did catch our tourguide in a lie a couple of times, (An annual pillow fight that happens in one of the plazas once a year? Yeah, no such thing...) but overall it was a good time!
After our walking tour, we went back to the hostel and made some pasta and watched the Hangover. Then, that night, we went to a really great bar called Szimpla. It was really cool looking and there were all sorts of people there, not just Americans. We ended up making friends with two people studying in (Prague? I think?) and we played 21 with them for a good portion of the night. After that, me, Meg, Madeline, and the Ryans just ordered a couple beers and hung out with each other until about 4 am, when we got sick of talking to these annoying people that came up to us. So we grabbed shwarmas (yummmm) on our way home and called it a night!
The next day we got up early ish and walked down one of the main roads of the city. We saw the opera house, and ATTEMPTED to go to the Communist (Terror) Museum, but it cost too much money, so we just carried on instead! We were pretty sad, though, because it looked really cool!
We ended up walking to one of the castles in the city with a big park and everything. It was nice, but probably a lot prettier when it's warm out. We walked around there, I ate a really big pretzel, until we eventually made our way to the BUDAPEST BATHHOUSE! These things are SO cool. It's a huge, gorgeous building made up of tons and tons of baths, all of different temperatures. Some of them with special minerals that are good for your skin. One of the really hot ones was outside (where it was freezing, of course!) so that one was really cool. It was SO relaxing and the perfect way to end our trip! I snapped a few of the only pictures I could.
That evening was a great finish for us as well! We went back to the hostel and grabbed some cash, then we went to this restaurant where I tried duck for the first time! (Tastes like chicken!) It was our only real meal out in Budapest and it hit the spot PERFECTLY. After that, we came back to the hostel and spent the night there because we were leaving early the next morning! We were excited to stay in and watch Anchorman, since we were so tired. THIS is where we were judged even more for not going out, but we didn't care!
We popped in Anchorman around 11ish, and next thing we knew, 20 minutes later, Ryan and I heard nothing but snores. Everyone fell asleep but us!
Everything had been going SO well travel-wise. We made every single train, bus ride, plane, etc. thus far. So, naturally, we HAD to switch things up the last day.. For some reason that last morning, we totally forgot what time we should leave the hostel. We left about 25 min early when it was at LEAST a 30 min walk to the bus station. And buses NEVER leave late.. So we start walking, and about 20 minutes into the walk, we realize "We are not even close.. We should probably pick up the pace.." So we start walking faster. With still no bus station in sight, Meg decides "Um we should probably run." And it was on. With our heavy backpacks on, and each of us wearing about a hundred layers, we are sprinting through the streets of Budapest. Toughest run ever. The Ryan's sped ahead while the girls all caught up with each other in the underground bus station. Once we're all together, we run up the stairs, look around, and, by the grace of God, I hear Little Ryan scream "HEY! OVER HERE." The bus is STILL parked there, about 30 feet away, and Ryan is trying his very hardest to stall the ticket checker. We make it to the bus just in time, and the bus starts moving before we even sit down in our seat... QUITE the close call. Had we missed this bus, we would've missed our flight to Malaga, causing us to miss our bus to Granada, too. Could've been a disaster! But we made it, so it's all good.. :) Had to add a little spice to the end of the trip.
Well, it was a GREAT time in Budapest! It was an amazing week overall! I feel like I learned so much, and I'm so glad that I went, and especially with such a great group of people!
Paris next weekend! Who knows what's to come!
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