budapest.vienna.prague. :)

so since you are reading this. and i am pretty thankful that you are. i am going to let you in on a little secret of mine. 

i a little bit fell in love this past week. with budapest, vienna, and prague. i dont know how it happened, but it was AWESOME. 

dispite two 30 hour bus rides and two 7 hour bus rides...i loved every second of it. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.

the bus ride to budapest was long and painful. and we made it there, but the bus refused to take us to the hotel so we could shower and feel a little bit better about ourselves. so what did we do? we took a million zillion nasty pictures :) yaaay.

the worlds largest hourglass! i'm trying to spin it...

but forreal, budapest ws beautiful. the arcitecture. the weather. the people. i felt so at home and happy there. i didnt feel like people were judging me (ukraine is SO guilty of that) and i felt like i was actually safe! i had such a blast. unfortunately we only had the day there, so we went to a square, and then we left the group and went and found a castle and walked around there, and it was very beautiful! and it had this wonderful cathedral that was so awesome! and the flowers were out, and there were a lot of people out on walks, and playing at the park...and having a grand old time! and i didnt even feel super dorky to be a tourist...because practically every single person there WAS  a tourist! it was wonderful. and even if they werent a tourist...i didnt feel like i was being judged. 

in ukraine...everyone looks at you like a crazy person if you arent wearing a black or brown fur coat (even when it's warm out) and heels. it's a joke! i feel like i'm like walking around and everyone is just laughing at me. 

but nut-uh not in budapest. everyone just did their own thing..and it was beautiful. so then we got tired and layed on a patch of grass (how long had it been since i've been able to do that!?) it was wonderful. we were just soaking up the sun, waiting to meet the rest of our group <3 

so then we met the rest of the group and we toured a few other places around the bus...the national museum..another castle..and another church. it was kinda frustrating because there were only 7 of us that were americans..and then 40-something ukrainians. so of course all the tours were in ukranian...it was frustrating. luckily there were a few really nice girls in the group that were nice enough to come tell us "this is a church" or "this is a museum" but that's all we got. it was kinda frustrating. and the rest of the group HATED us. they were so mean! and the old people would always just glare at us. 

so then we loaded onto the bus and went to this other castle (again, i have no idea what it was...i need to do a little research and actually figure out what i saw..hahaaa) 

so then we broke off from the tour group and walked around and explored the beauty and found the most amazing view of the city...and then we went back to where they said we were supposed to meet...but guess what? the group never showed up! we were scared they left us. so after like 20 minutes of waiting, the tour guide found us and he was PISSED so we followed him to the bus and all the evil old ukranian people were mad too. so we gave them the stink eye.

so thennnn we finally went to the hotel...except the stupid bus got lost and we ended up taking 3 hours to go on a 30 minute drive. and yes, we stayed IN THE MOUNTAINS. at least 7 hours away from the city. and the hotel was gheetoooooo. but it was fun :) we laughed our heads off, and played cards. listened to drunk spring breakers sing, and attempted to sleep. it felt so amazing actually sleeeping in a bed! <3 i've never been so happy to sleep in a gross bed covered in semen! (that was a joke..i hope. we dont know what the stains were. but we just pretended like they werent there and closed our eyes and turned the lights off) 

so then we left bright and early the next morning to head to VIENNA! 

since vienna is so expensive, we werent able to sleep there..only spend the day. so we left super early so we could get enough touring time. 

we thought the bus ride was only two hours....but two hours passed and we still hadn't even reached the boarder. 

so then we thought it was 5 hours.. and then hour 5 passed and we were getting PISSED. i swore they were driving us back to america. after being on a bus for so long, you go crazy. your body shuts down. your mind does weird things to you. and you are just not a happy camper. especially when it's freezingcold and they refuse to turn the AC on. or when there are smells you wish didnt even exist. 

but we had fun :)

i was frolicking around at one of the stops on the way..singing the hills are alive, of course. 

because wanna know what? when we finally made it to the city, it made the whole 7 hour bus ride worth it. 

it was amazingly beautiful <3 i had never been so happy to be somewhere. it was warm. people spoke english. everyone had a smile on their face. it was CLEAN. and again, we werent the only tourists! :) 

(sidenote: i am kinda excited for the eurocup..because then maybe i can be the cool person that speaks english and will help my fellow english speakers to navigate the awful public transportation of ukraine. and give them tips on where *NOT* to eat. and the two cool things that there are to do in ukraine.) 

(sidenote #2: when me and my friends were sitting ona bench in prague eating an apple, some guy came up and talked to us and he was from new york..moved to prague like 11 years ago..blah blah blah. wellllll i guess he lived in kiev for a while. the was like...yeah. i've traveled all around the world. kiev is THE ugliest most awfulest place on the planet earth. those are his words, not mine. but it was comforting to know that it wasnt just me that was wildly disappointed in this country.) 

anyways, vienna. :) 

it was so much fun! we toured around...read a lot of information (in ENGLISH!) and walked around like we were on top of the world. we saw the national library..and some other stuff. i dont feel like blabbing about. but it was really cool :) then we found some really cool churches and what not. it was exciting. 

again, our tour group was set up with a russian tour guide...and so we followed them around for a little while hoping some good would come from it. we followed them for a while. walked around a square...and then around a bunch of buildings and statues (i really wish i could tell you what they were) and followed them until we got in trouble for talking too loud (and we spotted starbucks...so we made a run for it) 

we walked around a while longer, embracing the beauty and the wonder of the city. wishing we had more time...and making plans to come back someday when we are rich and...rich. :) 

then we met back at the bus, and made our way to prague. 

again, what we thought was a 2 hour bus ride turned into a 5 and then into a 7. i was so sad that it was night time when we got into the city because i was SO excited to see the beauty of the city...but i was also exhausted to i was just mostly ready to snuggle into my bed and have a wonderful night sleep. 

....and to rest my feet! 

so we pulled up to our hotel...hotel golf. aka hotel GHETTO. it was like super nice in the pictures, and even in lobby it was nice. then they gave us our keys and said "follow me" we went outside, around the back of the main hotel..and into the freaking forest....where our building was. at let me tell you. if any of you are familiar with "trefoil ranch" before they did all the renovations...the ghettoness of it...yeah. that was our building. it was HILARIOUS. i couldnt stop laughing. there were 3 beds in the room, so i shared with becki and lisa, and we had a HOOT. we unpacked and snuggled up for a nice sleep, excited for the adventures of the next day. 

so the next day the group was leaving at 7, so we woke up, got ready, ate breakfast (stole food) and then met some of the group in the hotel lobby. the tour made us find our way to the city, and buy our own transportation (those jerks) so we took the tram, but the stupid lady that was trying to guide us all there had NO idea where she was going. and we had a map. and she didnt. and she wouldnt listen to us, and i was getting PISSED. so once we got into the city we ran away from them and did our own thing, and boy oh boy did we find so many adventures. the city is such a wonder! it was so beautiful! luckily we got there pretty early, too...because we had the whole city to ourselves for a while. we got to walk charles bridge with nobody to bother us...and to explore the streets. it was so much fun :) 

we kinda used our first day to scope out the city and see what there was, and what we wanted to do. but we walked our socks off. it was awesome! we found the coolest look outs and what not..and found this square with people playing music. we had so much fun dancing around :) it was just a good time. 

the mass amount of people 

me, becki, lisa, mallory, and rachel 

the john lennon wall 

me and lisa

so thennn we walked around more..found the clock tower...scoped out some museums and churches..and went back to the hotel to make the plan for our next few days in prague. 

the next day we set out and there was a MASS amount of people. forreal, i dont know who decided to get the whole population of italy and go to prague...but there were so many people there. it was like a wall of people...i wanted to crawl in a hole and DIE. but it was interesting...seeing alll those people. we would kinda latch on to tour groups that spoke english and listen for a minute to figure out what things were, and then move on to our next thing. it was so fun! and such a beauty! 

i was so bummed out we didnt have a tour group to take us around so we could actually know what we were looking at. and the hidden mysteries about prague. but it was still fun. we made up our own stories...and talked about how when we got home we were going to look up all these things ( i still havent had time to do that...shame on me.) 

so we made our way to the toy museum! it was so much fun. they had the greatest things! they had an entire FLOOR of barbies. i didnt even know that many barbies existed in the world...but it was so much fun! they had a BYU barbie, which cracked me up...and practiclly everything you could ever think of. it was a hoot. 

then on the other floor they had toys from like 700 years ago. 

okay, maybe that was an april fools joke. but they had reallly old toys, and all we kept saying was "why didnt we have this cool of toys when we were growing up!" it was so cool! they had a lot of creepy dolls though, that wasnt cool. they coulda left that part out. but it was interesting! they had the worlds tinyest doll..that was smaller than my pinky fingernail. and its arms and legs moved..WHAT THE HECK! it was wild. we had so much fun there, looking at all the awesome train sets and what not. it was a hoot! 

then we went to another city look out, took some pictures, rested..drank some water...hung out at the cathedral. told eachother our thoughts on what the history of prague was. all of which were wrong, but we had some awesome theories. including aliens. because they're real 

 also, did you know that prague was the only city not bombed in WWII? it's 100% untouched..and the same from a millionzillion years ago. 

cool, huh? and i'm pretty sure that fact is a real fact too! 

so after that we went to the city center and i got a FALAFEL. and yum yum yum it was good, but i'm gunna say the ones at o'falafel in the grand SLC still win over these falafels! <3 i miss them 

i also miss cafe rio. 

and...delicious food in general :) dont worry..i have an entire book full of food that i cant wait to eat when i come back. i'm going to eat until i get sick. and then get sick, and eat more. 

so then we decided it was a good idea to go to the torture museum...we dont quite know who's awesome idea that was...but it was a BAD idea. 

verryyy bad idea. 

the first floor, we were kinda just laughing at everything..getting a hoot out of it all. and then we went to the second floor. third four. fourth floor. and by the fifth floor we were all getting sick. we were dizzy and all of us felt like we were going to pass out or throw up. it was awful. i didnt think reading about it and looking at the machines would make me so sick! but i was dying. so by the end we  all looked at eachother and we were like "umm can we PLEASE leave?!" with desperation in our eyes. so we all agreed and RAN down the stairs to get out of there, and to get some fresh air. we sat on the stairs and ate some lunch and tried to forget about the horror. 

those people were ruthless! 

it made me sick. i cant think about it anymore..it makes me sick 

but just in case you're interested... 

yes. you would sit on that. and they would put weights on your arms and legs to make it hurt more. can you just feel the pain? OWWWWW! 

this one..you get tied to a post and they would rake and your back until it was bloody..and they reached the bones. and you died. 

yuck yuck yuck. this one is the worst. i dont know if you can see the picture...but they would hang you upside down (so the blood would go to your head..to keep you alive longer) and then they would saw you in half. this is the one that threw me over the edge. 

so then the day was pretty much over and we just chilled in the city and walked around (we're really good at walking around) 

then we were tired and hungry so we headed back to the hotel and ate some dinner and sat there. wrote in our journals. laid in our beds. slept a lots 

day 3 in prague was COLD and rainy. we kinda got a late start, because we were tired and our feet hurt. so we slept in a bit, and just went slow to get ready. and then we went to the dancing house...which was cool. 

not really..it was just a funky looking building. the pictures look a lot cooler than it was in real life haha. maybe it was because i was freezing cold and tired, or..i dont know what. but i was ill impressed.

so then we walked and walked and walked trying to find all this other stuff we wanted to see...and found this cool/weird communist statue....it was weird. so we took pictures, and laughed, 

then tried to find our way back to the center. i dont even remember what we wanted to do, but we got lost and i got pissed and cold and it wasnt that great. but it was fun :) we always have fun. because it's me and i'm awesome..remember? 

:) 

and also i'm really funny. 

so blah blah blah. a lot of other things happened, but my fingers are sick of typing. practically, that was the end. and we loaded onto the bus and made the 30 hour bus ride back to kiev. BOOOOOOOO.

i slept most of the time :)