Playing tourist

I've been running around like a crazy person. After the CEELI Board Meeting and the final submission of the grant, I took a few days to head to Budapest and Vienna.

It was pretty awesome.

So Budapest first:

Our hostel was great - incredibly cheap, pretty clean, and very cool inside. Amanda and I went out in search of some scenery and definitely found it. . .Budapest is a BEAUTIFUL city. The Danube is smack between Buda and Pest, with Parliament on one side and the palace on the other. We checked out the Opera House and the Cable Bridge, before heading to a fun bar where we danced and hung out with the locals - watching many of them sing English songs with Hungarian accents. We were both surprised at how friendly everyone was, and how EVERYONE spoke English. Definitely a shock after our last few weeks in the CZ.

We got up early to do some sight seeing - checking out the churches in Buda, along with the Palace Labyrinth, a series of caves carved out under Buda by the hot springs that run under the city. Amanda went off to the Pride parade - definitely check out her blog to hear about that one - and I went off to explore the castle. A huge festival was going on inside, which was pretty cool - it's amazing to roam through a castle while medieval music is playing in the background and people dressed in period costume are eating sausages while sitting in the middle of the castle courtyard.

Amanda and I met back up on the bridge to do some souvenir shopping and ate the most amazing funnel cake/bread/donut thing I have ever had which they cook over spits and are hot and crispy and amazing. I have a picture somewhere on the slideshow. . .I was a happy camper. I highly recommend Budapest to anyone going to Europe - like CZ - Hungary is not on the Euro yet, and unlike CZ, this makes a significant difference. Stuff was slightly cheaper in Budapest than it would be in the US - I don't think we ate a single meal that cost me more than 10 dollars, and we bought some really great souvenirs. . .check out the picture of Amanda's new hat on the blog.

We left early the next day for Vienna, which we had heard mixed reviews about. . .however, once we arrived in Vienna we were super happy. It's a great city - extremely clean and efficient and we had no problem finding our hostel for the night. We did some major walking after checking in - taking a look at the Parliament building and other famous landmarks. We also ate the most ridiculous sundaes ever at a cafe.

The next day, we did some major sightseeing - including the opera house, the palaces, the butterfly house, etc. My pictures have captions, so you might get a better sense by checking them out. I was pretty unhappy about leaving Vienna - but I have to push through. If Robert ever states that he would like to move to Germany/Austria/Switzerland or some other exceptionally clean, friendly country - I'm on board. Just sign me up for my German lessons now. I love the anal retentive nature of the subway system, the swift apologies given for bumping in to someone, and the great energy efficiency - Vienna was so efficient that when there is no one on the escalators, they slow down to an almost stop, as to not use so much energy. Once someone steps on and trips a sensor, they go right back to normal. Ingenius.

In other news, I think I will be nearly done with my project in about a week and a half (I had very little to do these past few days, as the Burma Center directors are on vacation and I had finished everything they gave me to do), so I just have some loose ends to tie up and my Clinton School paper to write and then I will be totally finished - most likely with a week and a half to spare. I'm doing some little side projects for a few different people here in town, so that should keep me relatively occupied. I got a lot accomplished by working ridiculous hours the first month and a half, so I get to play grasshopper and enjoy myself a little bit more, now that the work is nearly complete.

Anyways - enjoy the pictures. For those interested in my schedule for the rest of the summer, here you go. . .any days not marked on here are workdays in Prague.

July 12-13: In Prague - Jewish quarter and Zoo
July 19-20: Cesky Krumlov
July 23-24: Plzen (to visit the language4law.com director and CEELI fellow and volunteer at his TEFL school)
July 30-August 2nd: Rome
August 5: Leave CZ - fly to London, Los Angeles, and Portland
August 9-11: Vancouver, BC
August 12-14: Orcas Islands, Washington
August 15: Leave Portland - Arrive in Little Rock. . .hopefully around 9 pm, I'll be having a margarita and a Flying Burrito quesadilla with my buddies! Can we plan this now, please? :)