Happy New Year

J Well its been a thrilling three months so far, we've made new friends, seen amazing sights and had some truley life changing experiences. We are starting to miss the comforts of home, and of course our friends and family. Whatever your doing this new years, just remember, we've been partying for the last 8 hours as we're that far ahead of you. lol

Thanks for the emails and support, and have a great and safe new years. May God bless you.

P.S. If you spill a drink on yourself, and minutes later someone insists you peed your pants, the worse thing you can do is take them off and attempt to get people to smell them. Memories.

Nerumberg and Munich

M So we left Berlin and headed south to the city of Nerumberg, famous for it´s Christmas market. We dropped our bags off in the lockers in the train station and headed out. We spent a few hours walking around the quaint city with it's cobble stone streets and narrow roads. We saw the beautiful castle, then when the sun went down, which is at about 4:30 here we hit the Christmas market. It was very similar to many others that we have been to, just bigger. We bought a souvenier for ourselves, ate some bratwurst and enjoyed the carollers. Then it was back to the train station and off to Munich.

The hostel we stayed in the first night was right beside the train station which was great. (Wombats) We spent the night doing lanundry, and watching a HOCKEY came in the bar. Nope it wasn't Edmonton playing. Sure we were the only ones in there watching the game, but it was great to see some NHL hockey.

The next day we decided to take the free walking tour. It was very good. We learned a lot about Munich, and our guide, the only black man in Germany so he was easy to follow, showed us many small things that most tourists would just pass by, like a golden line in the road, Dodgers pass, that symbolises where people who did not want to walk past and Hail Hitler walked.

After the tour we walked around Munich. Went to the hard rock cafe and got Jes a shirt. He has 4 now from this trip and we haven't eaten there once :) We found a mall, and decided that it was about time we went Christmas shopping for each other. It was exciting trying not to be seen by the other person. At one point I was at a cash register and Jes was about 10 feet away from me. I turned the other way and was lucky he missed me, or so he says. It was the fastest shopping ever. After an hour and a half we were completely done. Helps when we have a small budget, our stockings we are going to stuff are just our socks, and you spend 24/7 with a person for 3 months you really start to get to know what they would like.
We then moved our bags from the first hostel to our new one. Went grocery shopping and made dinner and relaxed for the night.

A day inside.. we went to a museum of science and technology. It was huge, it took us all day and we still did not complete it. We saw ships, airplanes, hot-air balloons, computer history, astronomy, trains, musical instruments and much more. One of the most interesting exhibits was learning how tunnels are made, specifically how the chunnell (or Eurotunnel) was created.

We then left and went in search of an internet cafe. After much walking, getting very cold, and not having much luck we decided to go to a movie. On the way there we found a cafe. So we used the internet a bit, then watched the Golden Compass, which was the only movie playing in English. The movie was ok, we would not really recommend it though. What surprised us was the number of Germans in the theater. We spoke to one couple who said they only watch the English films as it is the original version, not dubbed.

The next day we took our time getting up then headed to climb the 302 stairs of a church tower for the best view of the city, and to watch the very cheesy glockenspiel. After a little last minute Christmas shopping we were off to find what our guide book said was the best beergardens in Munich, Augustiner Keller. We arrived to find to it all closed up and covered in frost. But there was a beer hall, where we enjoyed appetizers and the biggest beer Jesse has ever had.

After that we went looking for a grocery store. After that huge beer Jes had to pee. There was no where we could find and he was getting desparate. So he went into a littel hall, and was able to use the bathroom and get out without anyone seeing.

We then found groceries, made dinner, pasta again, and went out to use the internet for the rest of the evening. Today we are off to my great aunts place for Christmas. We will not have access to internet for the next week.

We wish all our blog readers a wonderful and safe Christmas.
Chat with you in the new year when we begin the next leg of our excellent adventure.

Deutschland or bust (Berlin)

M Well to sum up Poland before we get to Germany, the second day we spent walking around Krakow. We saw the castle, Christmas market, looked for a phone to call my aunt.. with little luck. Then in the evening we went out with 2 polish and 1 spanish guys from our hostel. We just went to a couple pubs, later they took us to a famous sausage place. We had a great time hanging out with them. The one guy Cuba worked at the hostel and got 5 hrs of sleep as he worked the morning shift.

The next day, onto Germany. Although Krakow is not far from Germany the only trains that are not night trains go through Warsaw which is the oposite direction. So it was a 9 hour train ride and we sat with 3 Americans on the way to Warsaw, and 2 Polish people and an Italian guy who would not stop talking on our way to Berlin, so no sleep for us.

We arrived in Berlin late in the evening. Their subway/train system is VERY complex compared to Prague and Budapests, it took us like the whole week to figure it out. But we were lucky that 2 people saw us and gave us their day tickets that they were done with. Something Jes had done in Prague, what goes around eh?

We were staying at the GENERATOR (yes you must say it like Arnold Schwarzenegger) with 902 beds. We were very nervous as it was far from our first choice, but many places were full. We were plesently surprised. Yes it is huge, but good breakfast, good atmosphere, and very comfy beds. The first night we met a guy from Spain, and a guy from Israel. We stayed up all night talking with them. It was neat learning about life in Israel first hand.

J Our first surprise in Berlin was how much the subway/metro line cost for a day pass, we ended up getting a tourist pass that cost an extra few €s and gave us unlimited use for three days and discounts at attractions. The first day we had planned an outing to a few meseums as Thursday is free entry into state run museums after 2pm. We wrote a few emails, hung around the hostel, and left just after 1pm for the mesuem of modern art.

We arrived at the first mesuem right after 2 and proceeded to walk in and get stopped at the entrance. Apparently, we had forgot that Thursday was spent on a train, it was Friday! The staff had a hard time communicating the fact that it was free yesterday, so he just started telling us "Friday" which at first I understood to mean the free entry was tomorrow, but later, after seeing that we were upsetting him, realized that indeed it was Friday. So in the end we stayed and paid for a three day meseum pass (as we had 5 days in Berlin).

The modern art museum was very interesting. There were many different exhibits, we made fun of some, fell asleep at some, and enjoyed the rest. Michelle was shocked at the amount of nudity, and I was shocked at the amount of arcade games! Yes, an entire exhibit devoted to these ancient quarter eating machines, we spent almost an hour playing all the free games we wanted, it was so great. Michelle had to drag me out kicking and screaming. (In fact just earlier today we were having a discussion related to Mrs. Packman) lol

We also enjoyed an exhibit by Roman Singer, who blew things up, shot things, threw things in the river, and lit off explosives in his hands. They were mostly videos with a few pictures. I took a few videos of his videos, so Ill share those once we get home. The Mordern Art Museum was a very nice change from the regular art galleries we had been seeing up to this point.

Afterwards we got lost in the great Haupbanhof (main train station), which had trains on the bottom level, the top level, and probably on a few other levels, it was bigger then Edmontons airport, honestly. Once we finally got out of there we headed back to our hostel and met up with Fernando, the guy we had met the day before in our dorm. We had a few drinks in the bar and played pool.

The next day we joined a free walking tour, it was excellent. We saw the Berlin wall, stood where Hitler's bunker was located, walked through the Holocost Memorial (which was the size of a city block, seee picture), Humboldt University (site of book burning), and stopped outside the Berliner dome. Oh and we also froze our butts off, the obvious disadvantage of taking walking tours at this time of year. Once the tour was over we headed straight for another mesuem (free bathrooms, heated, what more could you want?). It was a cool Egyptian Museum, the highlight was of course Queen Nephritis bust (which was a statue of her head basically, not her cleavage).

After warming ourselves sufficiently, we went across to the Christmas market (are you seeing a trend yet?) and had some German susages for dinner.

There was a huge outdoor faire going on around us, it had about as many big rides as Capital Ex, however it was in space of about half that and thus was very cramped and we got out as soon as we could. We then went to the Reichstag, which is like the parliament building, and had this big glass dome on top that had a great view of 1. The city at night and 2. The parliment hard at work below.. thus if the people who are elected to run the country ever forgot who they're working for, they simply have to look up and see the people. Very cool design.

Speaking of design, the architecture in Berlin is amazing, after all, 90% of the place was demolished during WWII so they have replaced or repaired most of it. It is very modern. Oh and did we forget to mention the big T.V. tower? It's nothing special, basically it was the communist government showing they had just as much technology and ability to build big towers as those dirty capitalists.

M What Jes forgot to mention about the TV tower, is that it was build after the Communist government took down all the crosses from churches, and when the sun hit the large golden cross that sits on top of the Berliner Dome (no idea why it was allowed to keep its cross) a big golden reflection shone onto the round T.V. tower and everyone in Berlin could see the cross.

The government was not happy about this, so they told the people that it was not a cross, but a plus sign, a plus for Communisum as they said. Others dubbed it "the Pope's revenge". lol

The next day we started at one of the Berlin Wall documentation site, it also had the church of reconcilation, which we didn´t enter as it had services going on throughout the day. It had more information about life during the existance of the wall, and was situated where the wall stood seperating the French side of West Berlin and the East.

From there we had lunch and headed off to our final museum which was on museum island, a real island in the middle of the city which, as you guessed, is full of museums. The Pergamon Museum was full of ruins from Greece and Turkey, it was huge! Very neat, made us excited about going to those countries. Although we left before seeing the entire place (you can only look at so many statues before it gets old).

That evening we went back to our hostel and hung out with Fernando again and a Aussi/Kiwi couple we had met on our walking tour.

On our last day in Berlin, we went back to the Berlin wall outside Checkpoint Charlie, to take a better look as we kinda flew past it during our tour. We read about the history of it and saw pictures. The story of it comming down is too long to write and many of you probably know it, but it is SO AWESOME. We saw Check Point Charlie which was 1 of 3 American border crossing into and out off East Berlin, then ate lunch at Snack Point Charlie. (cute)

We then went to see another exhibit called the Topography of Terror, which was outside and after an hour of reading and looking at pictures we were very cold, so we did not see the whole thing, but by this point we had a very accurate view of the situation before Hitlers rise to power, the Nazi government, and the rise and fall of the Berlin wall.

J Tuesday morning we headed out toward the train station, and right after jumping on our first S Bahn train/metro we were asked to produce tickets by a pair of plain-clothed officers. Of course if you have been paying attention, you would know that we did indeed pay for tickets and luckily averted the €40 fee/person. We hadn`t been checked up until that point and were beginning to wonder if they even did random checks. Shortly later we were off on a train to our next destination, but we´ll leave that for another post. Caio

A short, memorable time in Poland

J So we went from Prague to Krakow, Poland. It was 8 or 9 hours by train with one change along the way, which is a long day on the train. We had planned well though and brought food and drink, and we passed the time reading, sleeping, and discussing the next leg of our adventure. We were very blessed as our first train, which was 1.5 hrs late, dropped us at our connection point with 15 minutes before the next train to Krakow left, which with a little hussle we made without a problem.

Interesting point: when we first arrived in a non english speaking country (Spain) were we frightened at the thought of not being able to communicate, now however, we just point and attempt to prusuade the locals to remember their English vocab (although we always learn pleasentries and use them, no matter how badly we butcher pronounciation). We always seem to manage, and most people are very friendly, when they aren't.. it's usually because they think we're American. haha

As we arrived in the evening in Krakow, we looked out into the dark and sleet, lifted our bags onto our backs, fixed our touques and mittens, grabbed our carry on packs and started the long haul to our hostel. Going downstairs toward the exit of the train station we walked into a small corridor, with glass doors and a nice black floor-mat on the ground. Strange we thought.

The warm air that hit us, coupled with the smell of baked goods and a faint whisper of music started our jaws towards the ground. As we turned the next corner we saw it, a 30 foot Christmas tree, with decorations, and about 25 smaller ones cleverly placed around little stalls with goods and services at our disposal. Yes the very symbol of capitalism that we forgot we missed so much, a MALL!!!
Krakow Galleria as they call it, what a shock to go from train station, darkness, cold, to this. We later discovered it is at least the size of Kingsway Garden Mall back in E-town.

M We did make it to our awesome hostel that night and were plesantly surprised to find our 10 bed dorm was empty and we had the room to ourselves. We then monopoloized the free internet to do some planning and check email. The next day we were up early and after a breakfast provided by the hostel (Poland was nice and cheap if we haven't mentioned it yet) we were on a bus heading to Auswitch.

We saved Zloty (as we often do) by not taking the tour and walking our tired butts to the bus station and paying for the guided tour at the site. For those that are not familiar with Auswitch, it was the largest Nazi concentration camp, where between 1 and 1.2 million people we murdered, either through starvation, execution, work, sickness, and of course the gas chambers.
The day aroused many emotions in both Jesse and I. Everything from anger to sorrow, and a general somber feeling throughout the day. It was fittingly a very cold, foggy day, and the most shocking thing we discovered was the shear size of the camp, specificallz Burkenau (Auswitch II). We had a bus ride of 1.5 hrs both ways to the site, and thus had time to reflect on the things we heard and saw. The buildings were for the most part preserved, only some of them being made of wood, most were brick, and only the gas chambers at Burkenau were destroyed by the Nazi's in an attempt to cover up their atrociates.

We saw the terrible conditions where they slept, with insufficient heating, room, and of course food (never mind nutrition). We saw the train tracks which brought deported people groups from all over Europe to be forced to work until they died, or if they were old, young, or sick, were sent immediately to the gas chambers. There were store houses of the belongings of the people who came thinking they were simply being relocated to start anew. We even learnt that musicians were forced to play music all day long to keep up the appearance to new arrivals that this camp was a happy, safe place. They learned quickly, if they lived long enough, that it was far from it.

J We left Auswitch wondering how and why anyone would ever regard human life with such low standards, and if such a horrible place would ever exist again. We thoroughly enjoyed the Holocost Meseum in Budapest, but going to the concentration camp was such a moving, incredible experience, one that we are so thankful we experienced.

We'll have to post pictures soon, but for you to visualize. The 2200 volt electric fences still in surrounding the complex, the brick chimneys of wooden buildings still standing despite the buildings having rotted away, the train tracks leading through the gate into Birkeanu where people were glanced at by "doctors" who decided in an instance the fate of the individual, and at the entrace to Auswitch the sign over the front gate "Work Will Set You Free", still standing as it did so many years ago. Then as you climb a tower, you realise the size of the complex, and the sheer enormity of the number of victims, about 1.1 million people, who were stripped of their citizenship, their homes, carted off in worse conditions then we might cart off cattle.
Then, stripped of their dignity, and finally their lives.

M Well post again asap when we have time about the rest of our time in Poland, from their we moved onto Berlin. Talk to you later. Bye.

Praha / Prague

J Well we've been in the city of Praha as the Czech people call it, or Prague as us silly English speaking folks have decided. It's interesting really, Wien is Vienna, and really every major city in Europe has an anglo-ized name.

Our first night was spent hunting for groceries, finding the post office to send off some postcards (hopefully in time for Christmas) and settling into our new hostel. We booked a double bed, and got 4 singles (quite the room for just the two of us), the breakfast included is warm milk with tasteless cornflakes (gross) and doughnuts. Yes you heard correctly. I mean is it cheaper to buy doughnuts then a toaster, a few loafs and some jam? The strange things you experience staying in hostels, not to mention some of the strange people. So far we've lucked out and only met one weirdo, and hostels are fun because your never lonely, there's always someone nearby, sometimes real close nearby.. do I miss my personal space? A bit.

















Enough of the hostel experience, lets talk about Prague. Firstly, like Budapest.. it had a strong Jewish population pre WWII, and to this day the city is divided, Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter. We thoroughly enjoy taking trams around the city, and the metro system works well although its not as extensive as London for example, but then again the sights are mostly centralized around the old city (its not a far walk to see mostly everything).


Yesterday we wandered the city, took pictures, hit another christmas market and tried a few local delicacies. Then we went to the museum of communism, which was really neat, it explained a lot of the history that took place here in Prague. Later after dining on some sausages from a street vendor we went to a Black Light show of the musical Cats (no spoken words, although the music accompaning it was completely in English, ha) . The theatre was a bit of a joke but then again (as Mich pointed out) we were in Prague and not back at the Opera house in Budapest (besides the tickets cost half of what the opera did). The show however was quite entertaining, we may see another before leaving as we're here for 5 nights all told.


Today we had a late start, slept in and then went in search of a local computer store, we've been pondering a PDA as internet isn't always free, and worse then that we rarely are able to plug in to upload pictures. However after learning the OS would be in Czech, we decided to wait and see if a better option was available in Germany.

By noon we made it to the Franz Kafka museum, which was quite interesting, especially since nether of us knew anything about him previously. I think I'd like to read a few of his books in the future (he didn't much care for his father, he was confused about his place in the world as a Jew, he was well educated, cinical, oh and strangly.. a lawyer!). We didn't buy any books at the gift shop (of course), being that we brought books from home which haven't seen much light, something which we're hoping to change and soon, especially since we're almost running out of things to do here in Prague. (suggestions welcome)


We saw a bit more of the city afterward, but decided because of the weather to put off the castle until tomorrow. We visited a Catholic church where a wax figure of the infant baby Jesus is kept, they have a little museum devoted to him, and we witnessed a few dozen people reciting the ritual prayer on the cards in front of the "high alter" where the figurine is placed. Afterward we got lost, stopped at McDonalds for a potty break (yes we had to pay, however its not terribly expensive $0.3 - $0.6), and found some strange arcitecture before heading home. We ate the sandwiches we had packed for lunch for dinner, (saving pasta for tomorrow night, boring, but cheap) and jumped in line to use the computer. We're going to try to hit-the-hay early and get to the castle for 9am, as daylight usually only lasts till 4pm now and apparently theres a lot to see on the grounds.

Oh and the iPod, which I just transfered some pictures to, seems to be acting like it might work, it showed me songs and everything, I'm leaving it to suck some juice off one of the PCs here at the hostel. It's broken one day, and working the next, I love to hate it.


In closing.. weird things in Prague:

They smoke in public, in buildings, and in public buildings.

We got dinner at a restaraunt off the beaten track for $18 CND, with drinks, and yet if we ordered two meals at McDonalds in the touristy area.. it would cost the same.

We've mastered "hello", "please", and "yes/no" but can't seem to remember "thank you", which of course is generally the most used word you need to learn. lol

That's all for now.

Vienna - Gluehwein (hot wine), lights and more...

M Monday, our second day in Vienna. We started the day with the 3.5 euro buffet at our hostel. Then we went off in search of some beautiful rose gardens and a labyrinth. We did finally find them, but they closed in November. :( We then went to the major Christmas market and walked around. The lights were beautiful, the red-bull hot-wine concotion was not!

After getting into the Christmas mood we decided to see a movie at the English movie theatre.. Fred Claus. It was good for a laugh, as it had Vince Vaughn and Kevin Spacey in it.


Tuesday.. a relaxing day. We started by sleeping in, then writting in some christmas cards. Then Jesse got a much needed hair cut and shave, done with a real straight edge blade. He looks good, and he's actually happy with it! Jes always complains about his hair cuts. I guess now we just have to fly to Europe every time he needs one. We then went for a chinese food buffet. First time we've had Chinese food since leaving Canada.


Then off in search of another garden at the Palace. After much searching we did find it, and it was ok; the fountains were turned off, and there were no flowers in bloom, but there was some very nicely shaped hedges, and Christmas lights.





Then we hit happy hour at the music museum (half price on Tuesdays after 5pm). Very cool. You learn history of famous Austrian musicians like Mozart and Beethoven. There is an interactive floor that talks about sound and how it travels. There is a place where you stand in front of an orchestra on a huge screen and you conduct them. I thought it would be funny to make them play really really fast, but after about 30 seconds they just got mad and quit playing. One area had all sorts of sounds like people laughing, street noise in New York, people playing tennis etc, you can pick which sounds you want and make your own CD. Of course they make you pay for it, so we didn't buy ours, but had a lot of fun playing around making it.

After the museum we got a bite to eat and walked around looking at the amazing Christmas lights down town. We then got on the trusty #2 trolly that goes in a loop around the main area down town to look at the lights and sights at night. We got chatting with a lady on the tram who was asking us for directions. Luckily someone who spoke English well realized that we were giving her wrong directions and informed us that trusty #2 tram was heading outside the city as it was done for the day. If it wasn't for her who knows when we would have noticed and if we would know how to get back. With her guidance we managed to get back to the hostel to use the internet and chat with our roommate a bit.

This morning we were up bright and early and on a train to Prague. I really enjoyed the scenery and looking at the small towns we passed along the way. In many ways the buildings, in the towns anyway, look a lot like Romania. Once settled into our hostel we mailed our cards out, after getting a little lost trying to find the post office. Then did some grocery shopping and came back for a relaxing night at our hostel. We will be here for then next 5 nights, or so we have booked. This hostel has a deal where you get the 5th night free, so we will see after a day or so if we will for sure take them up on it :)

Bye from Prague

Bye Romania and Hungary

M Romania..

Well we stayed in Medias, Romania until Nov. 26. Jes worked all that week on renos/building an old existing house in the small village of Lunca. He really enjoyed the company of the 3 or 4 guys he was working with. Every morning before leaving they did a small bible study, and while working they would sing/whistle worship songs. Jesse had a lot of fun joking around with them and they did well communicating despite only one Romanian knowing English.

I did all sorts of odd jobs throughout the week. Some mornings I had no clue what the day held, but there was always something! I helped prepare for christmas crafts with the kids, went out to a village and helped to run street kids outreach programs, one day I sorted a huge clothing donation with our good friend/roommate Monica, then the next day after it had been picked over we resorted it into boxes. Then, joined by a fellow canadian, Grandma Noreen - who I know from volunteering at Kids Kottage, we organized and counted 987 pairs of winter boots. Wow what an amazing donation! CAIRD, the organization we were volunteering with, will be going into Moldova and delivering 650 of the boots there. The rest to Romanias.

Romania was really like a retreat for us even though we were volunteering. We just met so many really awesome people and were really encouraged by the experience. We stayed an extra day as Jes got pretty sick with a stomache bug, but we were very thankful it happened when it did and not in some 16 bed hostel.

Our next stop.. Budapest.


Budapest

J So we left Romania with big hugs and our friend Moni (Monica) escorted us to the train station (knowing our track record for missing trains thus far) but we activated our EuRail pass and started the 9 hour train ride.. it seemed long as we stopped for some time at the Border, but no problems with getting into Hungary, and at long last we arrived in Budapest.

That first night, after checking into our very cool hostel called the Loft, which yes, is a Loft.. we went for a walk. No toques, and for some reason I wore only 1 of my jackets.. one word.. BBBBRRRRRR. As we stood between Buda and Pest (yes at one time they were two seperate cities divided by the Danube river) we marveled at the beautiful city and the many bridges connecting the two halfs. Oh and we froze. So the next morning, we bought toques and stopped by the very cool open air market. It's not a heated building basically and there are dozens of stands where people sell fresh fruit, meats, and snacks (mmm strudel).

We spent the afternoon checking out the Jewish Muesum and Synagogue, and from there to the House of Terror, which is a building which was used during WWII by the Nazis and afterward by the Arrow Cross government and finally the Soviets. It now is home to a very cool, large, interactive and thorough Museum about life during those years. Our only regret was only arriving an hour and a half before it closed so we were a bit rushed.

We also stopped at the Opera house, which was beautiful, but we decided to pass on the tour which was about 14 CDN as we pondered going to our first Opera!

Back at our hostel we met some cool people, the feel of the little hostel (a total of 18 beds) made for a cozy and intimate feel, our first night we were treated to authentic Hungarian grub, oh and they had cool movies going all the time. We watched Transformers and Anchor Man.

The next day we made our way to the Castle Hill district in Buda, we saw Matthias Church (which had a neat mini museum inside) and beside it the Fisherman's Bastion. If we hadn't mentioned it to this point, the one big disadvantage of traveling at this time in the season, is that almost every church or castle you get excited about visiting.. is under construction. I'm sure my friend Searle the scaffold man is going to love some of the pictures we took. lol

We also toured the parliment buildings from the outside, and got held up for half an hour as diplomats and fancy pants people arrived in tour buses, apparently they needed a big crowd of angry tourists behind a police line to make it look offical. They explained in perfect Hungarian why they felt the need to prevent us from getting back to our bus stop, of course the thing about Hungarian is we had no idea what any of it meant, which made for an interesting time in Hungary. lol

M Later we went to one of Budapests famous baths (they do wear bathing suits in these ones). There were 3 outdoor pools. The first pool was warm, not hot, but had many neat features such as jets that bubbled up and made it look like it was boiling. In the middle there are jets that creat a strong current, and you jump in and spin around like a washing machine. It may sound weird but it is tonnes of fun. The second pool is a cold pool for lane swimming. The last was the best it was a huge hot tub with water pouring out of statues so hard it made for an awesome massage.

After the pools we walked around and saw a park with people skating, but the skate rental shop was closed so we could not join in. We had to change hostels the next day as we decided to stay an extra day and ours was full. Luckly we found one without trouble.

We went to the Holocost museum. It was very sobering and informative. That evening we pretended like we were not backpackers and dressed up as best we could and went to see an opera in one of Europes most famous opera houses. It was beautiful inside. The opera was good as well. We saw Madamme Butterfly. Apperently all opera´s are in their origional language which we knew going in, so it was in Italian. But there is a screen above the stage with subtitles in Hungarian. So we missed out on the exact plot, but we got the basics. From what I could gather it is almost the exact same story as Miss Saigon, only the woman is from Japan not Vietnam. They had two intermissions with tasty little treats and beverages (which were suprisingly affordable). Oh and the music from the orchestra was wonderful.

On our last day in Budapest we went up to Hero´s Square and walked around a castle, we also went back to the market for more of these tasty little oranges and struddles. We did some window shopping down the main pedestrian street, then headed to the train station.
Our next destination.. Vienna, Austria.

We arrived in Vienna last night. We had tried booking a hostel, but everywhere was full, so we decided to use our gift certificates for Best Western, it wasn't exactly cheap, but what a comfortable bed!!! Included was this awesome breakfast buffet too. After settling in we wandered the streets trying to find an affordable place to eat. A little off the beaten track we found it, Schnitzelhaus! (Mmmm schnitzel)

Today we moved over to our hostel where we will be for the next 3 nights. We walked around downtown and saw St. Stephens Cathedral, this huge church with catacombs in the basement. We took the tour of the catacombs and saw huge underground rooms full of bones of people, some of which had died during the black death (plague).

We then wandered the streets and stumbled upon the palace. Beautiful. Then wandering a bit more we found our first christmas market of the season. It was really neat, but everything was way over priced, we did enjoy some hot wine, a wild boar sandwich, chirstmas music and holiday decorations.

We hope all our faithful blog readers are doing well. Bye for now.