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September 24th, 2008

Okay, so I’m finally updating this blog. I’ve waited much too long to do this, but must lest i forget it all. OMG, I just realized that last you heard was of us about to go out to dinner in Budapest, that seems like so long ago. So we went to a nice restaurant called Boch something which Jenny’s mom was nice enough to pay for (she was the one who recommended it). The food was good, but Jenny and I got in this long introspective conversation (probably my fault) which kind of left me bummed by the end of the night. Afterwards, we went to a bar where she wanted to dance and drink and I just wasn’t in the mood. I did make some attempts, but the music was crappy and so I was kind of a party pooper, which I hate being.

We stayed another day and went to the zoo which was very nice. I saw some crazy animals in there. There was one that looked like a cross between a monkey, a bat, and a lion. It was all black except its paws were lion colored and so was its long lion like tail. Got some good pictures, which I’ll put up later as soon as I get all my crap together.
Later that night, we ordered some hungarian food from a really cheap place that came highly recommended by all stayers of that hostel. It was really good, but I’ll learn later not to save if for the next morning. Anyway, we stayed in that night chatting with other hostelers and met some really cool people. We also watched Euro Trip which was hilarious. Finally went to bed around 3 and had to get up hella early to make the train to Vienna.
We arrived in the afternoon and it was raining. I have decided that Vienna hates me. I’ve been there once before and it was also overcast and rainy. It stayed rainy pretty much the entire time we were there. Oh and there’s more reason. I ate the Hungarian food for dinner that night and felt wonky the entire next day, leading up to a lovely spat of food poisoning. But we’ll get to that later. So we went and did some shopping. I finally found the hat I’ve always wanted and even added a smiley face button and one that says “bin degegan” which means “I’m against it.” Then we went to the MUMOK museum and saw some interested artwork. THere was some done by an artist named Lisa something or other that was very good. Oh and we had checked in at the hostel Ruthenstein and were staying a block down from the main hostel at a smaller summer hostel. We went down to the common room and ate dinner and chatted with some folks, of course ending up playing cards and I learned a new game called Du Roch, it’s russian and pretty unlike any card game I’ve ever played before. It was a russian girl, Nika, that showed us. We also met a canadian brother and sister, Devon and Jess.

THe next day, we walked around Vienna with Devon and Jess, went to the Leopold museum and the Sisi museum, which is really the one I wanted to go to the whole time. Learned all about Queen Elizabeth who helped orchestrate the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was known as Sisi by the people who loved her or so the story goes. In reality, she wasn’t much of a public figure when she was alive, but after her tragic death, poets immortalized her as a caring young girl who had duty thrust upon her and that’s when she gained publicity as being beloved. Oh and we also had the pleasure of seeing their entire dish collection. yaaaay…
That night, we were supposed to do a pub crawl, but I had been feeling weird all day and when I laid down to take a nap, I felt it coming on and I hate to vomit, like I will do anything I can not to vomit and when it’s something like motion sickness, usually I can hold out, but food poisoning is a must vomit. There were times when I was sitting on the toilet with the trash can having stuff come out of both ends. Not a good night. So of course I did not make the pub crawl but I told Jenny to go without me. And I’m glad she did cause she had a great time. She was taking care of me before hand though and offered to stay home. She prolly wouldn’t have enjoyed watching me throw up over and over again though. After about 12 hours of this, I felt my system was sufficiently purged from what I believe was the bacteria filled hungarian food and so I took an immodium and got up for the day.

Wed, everyone felt about the same. I was getting over my illness and Jenny and Jess were getting over the night of SEVERE drinking. Devon didn’t even get out of bed. We took it easy and went to the Handerwasser Haus which is done by an architect who “doesn’t beleive in straight lines” It was kinda cool, but I think Antonio Salvador of Barcelona was better. We walked around a bit more and tried to find this cemetary which we never ended up finding. Then returned to the hostel after buying train tickets to play scrabble until our train came. It was a straight shot from Vienna to Passau and I know I slept the whole way pretty much.
We had one day in Passau before I had to go back to Munich to fly home. Jenny finally enjoyed a good 12 hours of sleep (still can’t believe humans sleep that long), and then we went out to lunch at a nice Bavarian place with her roommate Mickey and his friend Wolfy (Wolfgang). The service took forever cause they were packed, but we didn’t even get food until like an hour and a half after we got there, but it WAS very good, so that made up for it. That night, we took it easy and watched some movies before going to bed. We got up early the next morning and drove the 4 hours or so to Munich. It was a sad departure. I had a lot of fun and Jenny is fun to hang around. She says she’ll be coming to Austin next year so hopefully that’s true.
Now what did I learn from this trip. Number one, I learned that there are a lot of attractive women in Southern Germany and Hungary. I came back and went out to bars in Austin and looked around thinking, where are all the hot girls? Sad I know. My I should move. But almost as important, I learned that it’s very difficult for me NOT to talk. I always knew that the less I said, the more luck I had with women in bars, but I didn’t know as much that is was actually a struggle to be in silence. Perhaps that’s because of all the time I spend alone with myself. So I know I need to work on that and I am. I also realized this sort of weird dimension in which I exist. I’m never really anywhere for a period of time and everyone in my life seems transient. Perhaps that’s why I think most about my parents because they are the few constants which are in my life. I feel I want to stay put a bit more, but really I can’t stop traveling. Perhaps I should just embrace it. In fact, I’m off to Southeast Asia in November. So there ya go.

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Budapest Videos

September 14th, 2008

Billy Jean in Hungarian Acapela

We were a wee bit drunk at the old wine festival

Traditional Hungarian Dance

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Budapest

September 13th, 2008

Sorry for the incommunicado these last few days. We’ve been running around so much, I’ve had no time to get on the net. I don’t have a lot of time, we’re going out for a nice dinner tonight so I’ve got to get ready, but I’ll try to sum up. So we took the long train ride from Passau to Budapest, stopping twice for a connection. We got to Budapest on Wed afternoon and checked into our hostel at the Backpacker’s Guest House which has actually been really cool and a lot of fun people are around. We took the tram to the Royal Palace to have a look around and found out there was a wine festival going on throughout the length of our stay in BudaPest. So we of course spent the next 4 to 5 hours there, drinking wine, eating food and listening to authentic Hungarian music. THere was an accordian that almost made me cry he played so well. And this acapella group of five guys that was very good and funny. They sang Billy Jean by Michael Jackson in Hungarian! We left there to go on an evening water cruise on the Danube to see Budapest at night. The guide guy who took our money was a really laid back and outgoing Hungarian named Baliant. We ended up going out with him and his friend *also named Baliant* to drink pallinka, the typical Hungarian liquor which was kind of like vodka but flavored and not as strong, like a smirnoff. We sat on the banks of the Danube, laughing and drinking and hitting each other with sticks. On Thursday, we went to the Great Market Hall which is HUGE and has all sorts of fresh foods and souvenours to buy. I bought way too much stuff. Then we went to the Gellert baths. Budapest is known for its natural thermal baths flowing underground and Gellert is one of the nicer ones if not THE nicest, so of course we went there. We spent about 5 hours there and I had to pry Jenny from the waters so we could go see something else. There was hot water, cold water baths, air bubbles, steam rooms and a bunch of other stuff. Afterwards, we walked up to the Citadella to see the barracks and a cool statue which overlooks the city. From there, we went back to the hostel to get dressed up and eat. We couldn’t get a table at the restaurant Jenny’s mom had sugested, so we made reservations for that place which I’m going to soon, and went to a place on Castle Hill which is called Pest-Buda. It was good, but kind of pricey. I had some goulash that was delicious but still doesn’t beat lamb stew at McGann’s in Doolin. That night, I think we just went to bed after that. Fri, we got up to do the city bus tour which we meant to do our first day but hadn’t made it. It was nice, it was basically us and a bunch of old folk, but we got to see some parts of the city we might not have seen otherwise. After that, we went to the meeting point for the cave tours and almost missed it cause we took the wrong bus. The caves are huge, the second longest sytem in the world and are about an hour outside the city. The first largest is actually in Kentucky, USA. We were underground for about 2 hours squezzing through some pretty tight spots. Jenny wasn’t sure if she wanted to do it in the beginning but I convinced her and she’s happy to report that she’s not claustrophic. B) After the caves, we went out to eat at a place called Okay Italia with a couple of brits, Andy and Jess, that we met while caving. The food was really good and reasonably priced, and the company was great. Today, we meant to get up early, but we’d met some people back at the hostel when we came back home and ended up staying up till 2am talking and trying to juggle sticks. B) So at noon, we headed up to castle hill again to visit some museums which turned out to be litte more then a few rooms. We couldn’t find them at first and then Jenny said, Museum! and there was a closed door that just said Museum on top of it. We walked in and the lady turned all the exhibit lights on and gave us sheets to read and let us walk through. It was kinda funny. Afterwards, we went to the Labrynth which is some tunnels that snake through the bottom of the castle in the hill. It was kind of wierd. They’ve sort of turned into more of an existencial self realization art peice which was lame at first but it got cooler. No time to go into details. After that, we wandered around in the art gallery for a bit, then cam back to the hostel. that’s it for me, laters.

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At the Ready

September 9th, 2008

So yesterday, we packed up all of our stuff (I nearly forgot my suit in the closet, but thank goodness Jenny remembered), and planned what we’re going to do for the next week and a half. For some reason, we had not put together how much time we really had left as it is only about 10 more days, so we only have time to go to Budapest and Vienna. Last time I went to Vienna, I was not too impressed, but I was only there a day and Jenny has always wanted to go there plus the guide book sounded interesting; so we’re spending 3 to 4 days in Budapest and a few days in Vienna. Now we’ll BOTH not know the language. No more talking about me while I’m sitting right there. Ha HA!
That evening, we went to a nearby restaurant which was really a house converted into a restaurant but was very nice and had some good chicken and salad. Shortly after, we met the others (which are Jenny’s friends: Irwin, Fred, Martin, and Tinne) for drinks in the park (that’s right, you can drink in public no problem!) and then on to the pub once again.
We woke up this morning to drive to Passau where Jenny goes to university. it’s about a four hour drive, but we haven’t killed each other yet, so we’re doing fine! We got there in the early afternoon and Jenny had a bunch of stuff she had to do to schedule upcoming classes and register; ended up taking her all day! So while she did that, I went out walking around in the small town of Passau. It’s a pretty cool scene here. Reminds me a lot of Peru and the small, winding cobblestone streets. It’s basically a small peninsula which branches out into the meeting of three rivers: the Donau, which is the same river we rafted in Riedliegen, the Inn, and the Ilz rivers. Lots of shops and parks to play around in and I FINALLY found a power converter for my laptop which has a ground. So after almost two weeks, I can finally use my laptop for more then a few minutes. Yay! In fact, I’m typing on it right now and it feels dang good to be on an english keyboard.

A made it back to the flat at around 7:15, Jenny was still working on scheduling and so I began to make dinner. We had bought some pasta and stuff upon our arrive, so I made tortellinis and some other type of pasta with a sauce I made myself. It was a tomato base with cream, I added three chopped cloves of garlic, some salt, oregano, fresh basil from their plant here in the flat, and pepper. It was really good. WE also had salad with and I made a quick balsamic vinigrette with olive oil for dressing and then garlic bread. Jenny and Mickey (her roommmate) were quite impressed and Mickey said I was the best American cook they’d ever had in the flat. I wasn’t sure how high a praise that was, but I’ll take what I can get. And now we’re just looking up stuff on the net, before we have to get up at 4:30a to make our train to Budapest!

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Going to Stuttgart

September 8th, 2008

So on Thursday, not a lot happened. We had an easy day, it was raining, so we just went shopping for a bit and then that night I went over to Tinne’s place to watch a movie. She’s very cool, so it was nice to spend some time with her.

Friday was similar in that we didnt do a whole lot. We had to leave forStuttgart that afternoon to visit Jenny#s cousin Carmen who Id also met while in Peru. So we watched a couple of movies: Eastern Promises (very good, but very violent) and PS I love you, which was good but slow in spots. Then we left for Stuttgart, got lost along the way, and the oil cap cap off and the car started smoking all over the place so we had to stop and get it fixed. Arriving much later then expected, we had just enough time to get to Carmens and get something to eat before we went out to the Buddha Lounge to dance oddly enough salsa. And might I say, damn we looked good. Jenny and I apparently retained most of what we learned in Peru the year before cause we were moving quite well. Some tall blonde german sisters even came up to me at the bar and said that I danced very well so I talkd to them for a while. Good times.

Later on that night, we were sitting in the back on their outdoor “beach” area talking with some people we’d just met and they were speaking spanish and english and german and some french even got thrown around a bit. It was awesome, cause I could understand most of the spanish and respond, my german was lacking but if someone didnt know a word in english, Id say give it to me in spanish and they would, and id tell them what it was in english. It was really cool and met some nice people. However there was one guy named Carlos who was basically an Ecuadorian guy just drunk out of his mind who kept calling me gringo all night, so I started calling him baracho, which means drunk. He was becoming very anoying cause drunk people have no off switch outside vomiting. Soon, I learned this was the Carlos that was Carmen’s friend and would be coming home with us, greeeeaaatt. So once we left the Buddha lounge, things were quite awkward, but whatever, it happens. The next day, we walked around Stutgart and went for a drink. On Sunday, we went to the StattsGallerie Museum and had some cake and pasta before Jenny and I headed back to Bad Waldsee. Okay, I make a declaration here and now no more sweets for the rest of this trip. It seems like everyday, we’re having ice cream or tarts or sugared bread of some sort. It is all very good, but i am going to get fat and my face is starting to break out which bloooowws. So no more!!

Once we got back to Bad Waldsee, we went out for a drink with Tinne, Irwin, and Walde (who’s leaving to study abroad in France) and went to bed around midnight. Today, we’re supposed to plan our Eastern European excursion, but Jenny is of course still asleep, it being now only 11am. She takes at least 10 to 12 hours everyday. Astonishing amount of unconsciousness.

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Sailing and Paddling

September 4th, 2008

Wow, so much has happened over the last few days and ive had hardly any tme to study german, but its been a lot of fun. Yesterday we went sailing on the Lake of Konstanz on her cousin’s boat. Its only like an hour away, as is snowboarding. I swear, I could live here. People are so nice, its so beautiful and clean and theres lots to do and yet its still so small. Anyway, we stopped in the middle of the lake and went for a swim, diving off the deck, got some great pics which ill post you know when i get a chance. The boat actually belongs to Stefon’s parents and Stefon is the husband of Jenny’s cousin Nikki and the two of them have a little girl named Lisa who’s really süss (cute). After sailing, Stefon showed me some pics of Thailand when he was there to prepare me for my upcoming trip in the fall (for which I have still yet to buy tickets). After that, we raced to make half of the BBQ Jenny’s friend Ann-Kathrin was throwing. We were late because of sailing but it was still a lot of fun. We sang songs around the camp fire and talked. Everyone of course speaks english pretty well, but they would go into German every once in a while which I didnt mind cause it helped me learn.

The next day, we went paddling with Nikki, Stefon, and Lisa. We rented canoes and took them down the Danaoe river. Lisa who is 7 wanted to go with Jenny and I and boy she’s a talker but i could only catch a few of the german words. After paddling for a couple of hours, we played in the FREEZING cold water and then went to a cafe for beers and drinks. Upon our return to the house, we rested up a bit, then went out to see the Dark Knight, which I’ve already seen but this was in German so it was kind of fun to see how well the dubbings were, and to be honest, they weren’t half bad.

Today, we’re taking a chill day, we might go to a butterfly farm back on the Lake of Konstanz. We’ll see.

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Schloss

September 1st, 2008

Well we saw some castles today. Drove for a long while and saw Neuschwanstein and Linderhoff. Neuschwanstein is the castle which Disney based the castle at Disney land after; although i didnt see much of a resemblance. It was built for King Ludwig II who was certifiably insane and built three castles in south germany for no reason but because he wanted them. He was a huge Wagner (a famous german composer) fan and all his castles had Wagnerian themes with statues, paintings, architecture. Theres not an inch on the walls thats not decorated with something, expecially Linderhoff. It was teh more impressive of the two. It even had a Grotto a short walk from the castle where Ludwig had them build a man made cave with a pond and stage, so that he could float around in this huge boat shaped lake a sea shell and watch Wagner performances. It was built in the late 1800s so it even had special effects like electric lighting, an artificial waterfall and glowing crystals, it was crazy, much like Ludwig

Alot of driving today but some beautiful scenery and sites. Tomorrow, we go back to the lake of Konstantz and then to a friends haus for a BBQ. Ive been eating so much meat, i know ive gained weight on this trip.

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Visiting Jenny

August 30th, 2008

Guten Tag meine freundinen, I landed in Munich on Donnerstag (Thursday), and Jenny was there to pick me up from the airport. Then we drive two hours to her parents’ haus in Bad Wadsee, a tiny town of about 6,000. It’s beautiful here. SO much open space, nice people and beautifully clean. Sehr schön! Jenny’s family is verz nice. She lives in a duplex, but not the way zou think of them in the states; these go up. So her flat is on the ground floor, her aunt lives on the upper floor and owns the haus, and they all share the basement. Her grandma (meme) also lives in another house on the same lot. Her cousin Carmen is down visiting from school as well. I had also met her in Peru when I was there.

Oh, in case you don’t know, I went to Peru and studied spanish for a few weeks last fall and met some really cool people, among them was a german girl named Jenny who speaks really good english and spanish. She invited me to stay with her for a little while before she goes back to school so I took her up on it.

The first night I got here, we just ate dinner with the family; her dad France and mom Renatta. And stayed in watching german popstar, kind of like american idle. It’s funny cause they still sing american songs, even though they speak german, so they forget the words alot. Freitag, we went around the town a little bit, went into a church and paddle peddled in one of the ´lakes´ near here. they call them lakes, but really they are ponds, very small. but tomorrow we will go to the Lake of Constance, which is supposed to be huge. Yesterday, along with Joshua’s birthday, it was also France’s birthday and he took us and the rest of family and friends out to a nice restaurant with a five course meal and everything. It was REALLY nice. Was on a golf course. I’d love to go out there and try a few shots just for kicks. Anyway, after that we tried to get in this club called Kantine, but it was packed and after waiting in line for 30 minutes, thez wouldn’t let us in cause Jenny is not yet 21. Oh and we met up with some of her friends: Tinne (also not yet 21), Waldermart, Marc, Anktina, and Norman. We went to a bar called Bacchus (I think every major city has to have a bar called Bacchus in it. Where they sang Karaoke and we danced a bunch, oh and drank of course. Jenny did not drink though cause she was driving, neither did Marc for the same reason, they’re quite responsible over here.

So we didn’t end up getting to bed till around 5am and then woke up at 2p, had some lunch and went swimming and sunning in another lake. Now we’re back at the haus watching soccer, grilling some steaks and about to have dinner. So far, good times.

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