Buddy-system: Deactivated!

Josh and I have said our goodbyes and gone our seperate ways! Yesterday was our finally day in Prague, and I must say I was happy to go, the frigid weather had made us forget it was still August! Josh will be leaving to go back home TONIGHT, so he caught a train to Berlin yesterday afternoon. Around that same time I decided to head back to Austria and spend a week with the good friends I have (and have made) here! Josh and my adventure is just about over... cant say it was anything less than fantastic.. but all good things must come to an end. Probably not bad timing either, as fatigue was creeping in and sleeping kept seemily like a better and better way to spend our days lol
We have seen a lot of cities and people these last three weeks, its hard to believe we have really done all of this in such a short period of time. It seems like months ago that we arrived in Istanbul, hot, sweaty and completely exhaused! Now we are finished, cold, shivering but still, completely exhaused! I was trying to remember all the things we have done so far on this trip, and it has proven to be a challenge just to remember all we have done, and everything we have seen! The mosques in Turkey, the endless train rides, the midnight cruise in Greece, the Beerfest in Serbia, the Palaces of Austria, the bath houses of Hungary, and the Museums of Prague! Not the mention the different beers and wines we got to taste along the way, and all the wonderful people we got to meet and converse with throughout the trip. I dont have enough good things to say! Not once did I feel scared or frightened on our journey, even in the sketchiest of places, the people were nice and welcoming.. a testament to humanity and kindness that binds all people of the world.
Since this may very well be the last blog of bjeurotrip2010.. lets recap what we have learned on this trip:

New York: Josh does not like subways.. something about the germs\crazy people\crowdedness, or something like that!! haha
Secondly, Josh does not like humidity.. his first experience with it was not the best, which probably wasnt a good sign considering we headed to Istanbul next lol
Third, the Seinfeld Restaraunt is really NOT that cool.. besides the baby sized cups of OJ the give you!
Istanbul: Is hot and humid!! Hookah is amazing, and josh is an expert at it, while I am most definitely a light weight! Beaches in Istanbul are quite 'rockier' than what we have in California. And most importantly that we are thankful for being American... at least for the fact that we have real toliets!!!! haha
Greece: First thing we found out was that Greece is the hottest place on the face of the planet!! haha and that 42 celcius is ridiculously hot!! Right after we figured out that, we discovered that Greek has AMAZINGLY beautiful women!!! Wowww! and that the men are kinda.. not so nice to their ladies, which made us look remarkably charming ; ) We also came to the realization that sleeping in a room with no AC is definitely NOT ok! However, there is a certain amount of adventure in trying to sleep while literally feeling sweat seep out of every pour on your body.
Serbia: there is absolutely NO drinking age in Serbia! It is suprisingly beautiful and green! The Danub River is hugeee! and that even the creepiest, sketchiest hostels can provide an amazing experience!
Hungary: Is absolutely beautiful!!! The people are wonderful, the food is good, and the beer is cheap!! Bath houses are officially our new favorite thing! Hungarian men are not so bashful, and also not so in shape! The lights of the city a night time are absolutely enchanting! and that Budapest has the cheapest pub crawl ever!.. not that we know for experience lol
Austria: Austrian people are wonderful! So kind, and lovely. Vienna is the cleanest city I have ever seen, and possibly one of the most beautiful! Goulash is extraordinary, and i cant believe it took me 21 years to try it! It was also about this stage in the trip when we realized that all of europe eats SOO much bread!! Such a tease, and it all looks soo delicious! Going out of Vienna, we realized that Austria is just as beautiful as we had imagined it (sound of music). Oh, and we found out that Austrians dont even know or like the Sound of Music!! Imagine our suprise!!
Prague: A beautiful city, but apparently not so secretive a place, as the tourists are out and about! Found out that food prices dont really include the WHOLE price.. sort of frustrating! That beer and wine is cheaper then soda, which is how it should be! Museums are AWESOME, communism and torture musuems, pretty cool! Northern Europe really is MUCH colder than the South! And most importantly, we realized that we have traveled a longgg way! : )
All in all, we have learned much.. and experienced much. But let it be noted, that not once did we get on a wrong train or get lost (with a minor exception in Belgrade)!

From both Josh and I:
Tesekkurler (Turkish)\Danke (German) \ Dêkuji (Czek) \ Köszi (Hungarian) \ Efcharisto (Greek)\ Hvala lepa (Serbian).... THANK YOU! (English)

Prague! This whole trip we have been hearing about how beautiful Prague is, and how we just MUST go there.. Well we can officially say that, this place is worth the hype! What an extraordinary city! The old buildings are without a doubt some of the prettiest we have seen since being in Europe. Each one just seems to be seeping with culture and history. Not to mention the wide array of colors! White, blue, yellow, green, the buildings seem to make their very own rainbow here. A rainbow.. Perfect segway into the weather, which has been raining and cold! Such a change from all the other cities so far. But the change is kinda nice, gives us a chance to bring out our hoodies and jeans. The weather hasn't stopped us from seeing this great city though, today after a nice continental breakfast here at our... Big, somewhat dirty, full of character hostel, we treked through the sprinkles and up to the top of a hill where we came to the Palace. We forgot the name of it, but it's quite famous, and for good reason, it's beautiful! We then decided to get our 'art' fix by stopping in at a museum, The Museum of Torture ; ) it was quite educational, yet somewhat grotesque lol we then wandered a little more before coming back for a nice nap.  It was evening by this time, so we headed out for a little dinner,  and wouldn't you know it, we ran right into a little festival, the international folklore festival! Josh was so excited he could hardly stand it!  : ) we got some cheap sausage and pop corn, and grabbed a few bears and listened to the music! A great day here in Prague. Oh, I almost forgot something worth noting. One of our dorm
mates is a fifty year old man, lovely fellow, but he enjoys sleeping in the nude... So Josh, with all his luck, was fortunate enough to wake up to this guy crawling off his top bunk, butt naked!!! Needless to say, just wasn't all to enthralled with a full moon at 7am lol
anyways, that just about does it for today... Our trip is winding down, but don't fret, we still got plenty of adventure left! 

Just another day in Austria

First off, let me just say I hope you all enjoy the photots.. sorry for the delay in getting them up, but finding a computer to use for any duration of time has been a challenge up until this part of the trip. Anyways, lets get back to the good stuff.
We had an AMAZING day in heidelberg, austria today. It started off with our host, Birgit, making us an incredible Austrian breakfast feast. With meats, cheeses, breads, fruit, jogurt, nutella, and a wonderful expresso! Great way to start off the day. The sun was out and the weather was hot, so we went on down the a group of local lakes to cool off and swim for the day. Little did we know that Austria does 'laking' way different than we do.. and its pretty awesome, or as our Austria kids say 'super'!! The lake was this huge complex of FOUR lakes, all with different purposes 'skiing, swimming, fishing' and not to mention the coooooolest park, obstacle course, gymnastic area we have EVER seen!! So we let up shop at one of the lakes and started to work up a sweat playing some beach volleyball. After that it was into the water, for some jumping of docks and high platforms. After that activity had been adequately exhausted, we moved onto the rope swing. I dont care what anyone says, you are never too old to enjoy a rope swing! We then moved onto the obstacle course, with contraptions I cant even explain, but we did shot put, balance logs, tight rope, trapeeze where you run and jump and its practically like your flying!! Gosh, so many fun activities! ; ) Then getting a little tired we went back and layed in the sun for the remaining hours. After taking a small walk Josh and I realized Austrians are much less conservative in their lake attire... I think you guys know what I am talking about. After a few more swim sessions we were thoroughly exhausted and headed back home where we were treated to another feast, this time a bbq! Completely stuffed, and sunburned (pretty bad) lol we had a few glasses of wine out on the deck with the Alps in the horizon and the sun setting behind us. A perfect day in Austria, sad we are leaving this place tomorrow.. but the show must go on! Early wake up tomorrow, off to.... well we arent sure yet, but we'll find out soon enough!

Heidelberg, Austria... Beautifulll!!

Vienna.. even more!

Vienna!!!

Budapest.. so much to see!

Budapest

Serbia

Half way point: Austria!!

We are in Austria.. and it is everything you could hope for, just like the sound of music!!! Jk but it is beautiful! We left Budapest on Monday, and had an amazing bus ride through endless sunflower fields. Also, we were entertained on the bus by a showing of The Hangover.. which might be even more funny in German with english subtitles... Not often you see that many vulgar words in writting lol We made it to Vienna with no problems, and met up with one of the nicest girls we have ever met.. (shout out Antonia). She showed us around the city, and look us to an amazing dinner, and even got us a place to stay in the apartment of one of her friends.. we lucked out big time! The next day it rained so we napped.. twice.. and then when it subsided a bit we went out an took some pictures. Austria has some of the most breathtaking palaces and buildings I have ever seen. The are enormous and gorgous, all so well built and soo old! It is baffling that buildings like this could be made such a long time ago! I was truly in awe! Then later in the afternoon we met our new best friend, and she took us around to even more sights, that were even more amaying.. I didnt think it was possible. We then went to dinner at a little local restaurant, and she ordered us some gulasch and wine! It was fantastic!! Cant believe Ive gone this long without having gulasch before.. such a shame. We then headed to a cocktail bar, right on the Danub River and had a drink, while chatting about all sorts of wonderful things : ) It was a wonderful night. Then it was back home, to get up early and catch the train to Linz this morning.

The train ride to Linz was even more beautiful than the bus ride to Vienna. Vienna was nice, but not what I was expecting Austria to look like.. but now, we have come into REAL Austria. And it is truly as beautiful as the Sound of Music (Can you tell I really like the movie?) Anyways, we were met at the station by my old nanny.. who I havent seen in 18 years, and it was a wonderful reunion. We then headed to her house, where upon request she made josh and I are FIRST EVER Wienerschnitzel!!! It was ammaaaazing! Now after a day of playing with her children, and reminiscing, it is time to relax. We are off to the lake tomorrow for some good, clean fun. Until next time... Goodnight All!

Day:.. "cant remember": Budapest!

We are in the glorious city of Budapest, and having been here for slightly more than 24 hours, it has already surpassed my expectations! The city is beautiful, in every sense! The only builds like the streets giving it an amazing old-city charm. Churches and Palaces seem to be all to common, and they tower over head, remnants of a much older time. They are amazing structures, with dazzling displays of architecture and innovation. I am still in awe of the ability of such tremendous structures to be built such a long time ago, and yet, to still retain such beauty and elegance. The city is stunning.
We arrived in Budapest yesterday morning at 6am, and to our convenience NOTHING was open! So we hung around the train station for an hour or so until we could exchange some money and find out where they heck we were. After finding a hostel, Josh and I went out exploring. The historical sights in Budapest seem to be endless, and there is so many places we want to go. We ended up walking up this huge mountain, that is filled with pathways (all practiaclly vertiacal) and filled with old statues and monuments. After nearly passing out from the climb, we reached the summit and lone-behold it is a huge castle! The view from the top is something out of a painting, unbelievably beautiful panoramic view of the city. Truly a special spot. We walked a little more, came across an underground church, and some other magnificant buildings, before finally heading back to the hostel, entirely exhausted. We immediately met some very gregarious English Chaps in our dorm, who were still drunk from the night before, and they befriended us right away and took us with them to "bath". And WOW! This was definitely the highlight of the trip thus far. We walked into this seemingly average building, and it opened itself up into a bath/sauna/spa area that was fit for the greatest of Roman Emperors! The place was gigantic! With two huge outdoor pools, which were more like hot tubs, complete with a "worldpool' which is without a doubt every child's dream. Inside the building was an elaborate variety of saunas, steam rooms, hot tubs, and ice baths! Dozens of different expansive saunas, all with different temperatures, and different sweaty people inside of them. One thing I did notice about the people there is that they have NO shame! People who would never dare to come out to the beach or wear a bathing suit in America, are at this bath in all their Glory, wearing nothing but skin tight bathings suits (the kind that look like underwear to us Americans). With their stomaches hanging out and all they are basking in the sun and steam of this magical place. Although, at first it is somewhat offensive to see, there is something quite beautiful about it. The fact that there is no stress to be perfect and skinny, and people who are truly free in their own skin.... but still, it takes a little getting used to lol
After the bath we had a little dinner with our friends, and roamed the streets, until our feet were so sore that it was time for sleep.
Thus sums up our stay in Budapest so far, we shall see what adventures today brings us. I need to get out of here.. internet is costing me 100 HUF every ten mintutes.. but I guess, a good thing 100 HUF only equals are 50 cents. ; )

ViVA la SERBIA!

Greetings from Serbia!
We have found relief from the hot temperatures of Greece and Istanbul!! We are in Belgrade, Serbia.. but will be leaving later this evening for Budapest! Here is a recap on the trip here and our first day:
The train ride which was supposed to take 12 hours, took about 18. Gotta love Europe! : ) But it was not too bad. We made some friends with our roommates, a couple from the UK. And then met some great Portuguese guys, and had great conversation for a good portion of the trip. Finally, arriving in Serbia we proceeded to find a nice quaint little hostel, complete with our very own super happy Serbian grandma. We decided to go see the city, and proceeded to get immediately lost in this terribly confusing city. After walking around the port and rubbish areas of the city.. we treked up back a huge hill.. and finally were reunited with civilization. Serbia is much cheaper than the previous countries we have been to, and after fasting for 24 hours in the train we indulged in some good food here in Serbia, and delicious home made ice cream.

The best part of this stage of the journey is that we happened in upon the Belgrade Beerfest 2010!!! Luckiest break of the trip. We headed down to the festival at around 8 last night.. and were not expecting much. The place was PACKED!! Crowds and crowds of people herding towards the festival area! The inside had beer counters everywhere! Beer from everywhere!! We got a few beers, and listened to some GREAT music!! Josh and I discovered out new favorite band.. and although we do not know their name, they were Croatian. Fantastic! We also saw a few 10 year olds drinking beer, which we just had to take pictures of! We met a couple Serbian Girls who translated some songs for us.. although that didnt stop us from making up words and singing along to every song! Serbia has been a great success, and although short lived, it is time to continue on our travels! Next on the list is Budapest! Talk to y'all shortly!

Bye Bye Greece

Its safe to say Greece is a hot country... both in weather and people, and just about everything else! Sorry we have not been able to blog too much, but internet has been limited here, so lets recap our adventures in this great city of Thessaloniki. The first night we were here we discovered that the night life is Crazy! There is this very classy town square area, that is just filled with bars and night clubs! Very class places.. So here is josh and I crawling into this area, sweaty, hot and barely alive, when we come across this little treasure. Looking at each other, we both turn immediately around and head for our little hotel room.. which we dubbed "the room of death" due to its deathly hot air temperature. Anyways, after a nice shower and a change of clothes, we headed out to socialize with the locals and have some drinks. Two beers, and 19 euro later.. that idea was dead! We we went strolling down the walk path which runs the entire length of the ocean. Very Beautiful. We run into three Greek girls, and get a conversation going.. the ended up taking us on this midnight cruise around the bay, on a ship that was its own club. It was probably the coolest thing we have done thus far.
Day two: After absolutely dying in out hotel room.. I mean sweating uncontrollably and feeling like jumping off the balcony to relieve us of our heat stroke, we headed for the main square to grab a coffee with our new friends. Good conversation, and the best Iced "Freddo" coffee i've ever had, we said goodbye and looked for things to do.
Day Three: Consisted of ALOT of walking, and more sweating.. but we saw a lot more of the city.

I know we said this about Istanbul, but Thessaloniki is truly the city of beautiful women... we went from amazed, to confused, to just bewildered with the sheer amount of beautiful people here! We decided all the sweating must really exfoliate their skin, which makes them glow like angels.. jk sorta ; ) The food here hasn't been the best, and most stuff is pretty expensive, so we are excited to get somewhere new. We did find a Ruby Tuesday's last night, and had two for one drinks.. so a nice little celebration to end our time here. Except, we got the cheesy, bacon fries with our beers.. and proceeded to have terrible heartburn the rest of the night! Live and learn, right?
We are off to Belgrade, Serbia tonight.. another 12 hour, no A/C train ride... see you there!!

Our Journey to Greece

We left for Greece from Turkey Saturday night at 8:30. Didn't get to Greece till 11:30 the next morning. What was to be only a 10hr trip was extended to 15hrs. And here's how it happened.

So we got to the train station on time ready to board and continue out journey. But instead of the train we were put on a bus that took us on a 2hr trip to a different train station in the middle of nowhere. When we boarded the train Billy and I were assigned to two different sleeper cars. Which wouldn't have been bad if I wasn't bunked with a 40yr-old man from Bologna who had the worst body odor ever and packed everything he owned to bring on the train. So not only did he smell but there was nowhere for me to put my bag. He finally stowed his bags away and made room for me. Unfortunately nothing was done about the odor. So clothes pin and all I enter my sleeper car in hopes of sleeping most of the trip.

Before crossing the border to Greece we were stopped for a routine passport and baggage check. Billy and I got our stamps and no baggage check needed. It was easy as that. Unfortunately for my Bologna the same can't be said. They performed a thorough 30minute search through all of his bags to find that he had boxes filled of cologne in hopes of selling them back at his home. They eventually let him pack up his bags and continue into Greece.

Once we crossed the border to Greece however another passport and baggage check was needed. This time it wasn't as easy as before. Let's just say my bunkmate was forced from the train belongings and all. We sat for about an hour. With every passenger on board receiving a free show of the man arguing with customs. Pleading for them to let him through to Thessaloniki. But in the end he was locked in a train car on the tracks next to us never to be seen again.

From there it was smooth sailing to Thessaloniki, Greece where we have stayed for the past few nights. Stay tuned for some stories of our findings in Thessaloniki!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Greeece

DAY 5: Last day in Istabbul

We have bought our train tickets, and will be headed to Greece this evening at 8:30! The journey will continue.. and now the real backpacking will begin. 

Istanbul has been amazing. We found the main city party of Istanbul yesterday.. and were thoroughly entertained. We walked down the main strip for hours.. hundreds of shops, restaurants, cafe's and TONS of people! It was going off!! We posted up at the "Big Pub" for a couples beers and a lot of people watching. It was fantastic. We also finally found the "bar and club" area of Istanbul, and it is crazy! Bar after bar after bar lined the alleyways, it was like an alcoholics heaven! Istanbul is unbelievably big.. we seem to find a whole new world every time we venture our of our room! 

Josh and I have decided that Las Vegas isn't "the city that never sleeps", but ISTANBUL is truly the "city that never sleeps". We spent last night lounging on couches and smoking hookah at a beautiful outdoor restaurant... and finally as the night wound down we made our way back home, at around 2:30am. 

Anyways, Istanbul has been fantastic.. and I cannot wait to return soon, but for now its off to Greece!! 

Istanbul: A Love Story. Day 4

Wow.. I am in love. Istanbul is an unbelievably amazing city, not to mention HUGE! Today was our first full day, well somewhat full considering we woke up at 11am. But, after a little breakfast we headed off for a journey to find some relief from this heat, so we started off for the beach. The man who gave us directions told us to take the tram to get there, however, as found a huge park and decided to walk through it, and in the process got somewhat lost. Not to panic though, our excellent sense of direction got us back on track and we walked along the water, over a bridge and back along the water, to finally come to the harbor. The walk only took us about an hour or so,it was kinda of refreshing (sarcasm). ; ) Anyways, it allowed us to see a lot of this culturally diverse city. Its called Europe's Capital of Culture, and that couldn't be more right now. With food venders and restaurants everywhere, it's like the disneyland of food. Anyways, back to our journey. We came to the harbor, and bought a ticket for the ferry which was to take us out to an island, where the beach is located. As luck would have it we just missed the ferry, and the next one didn't come for over an hour, so we look refuge under some shade trees and relaxed for awhile. The ferry ride was BEAUTIFUL, islands with beautiful architecture everywhere kept us entertained on the voyage. After and hour ride we came to our island, and went searching for the beach. An unknown fact of Turkey (at least to us) is that apparently the beaches don't really have sand, just some rocks that you jump off of into the ocean. So.. we found the rocks with less than bashful swimmers in the water, and we joined in. After swimming, got some food, and made out way back home. Oh by the way.. josh had his first experience with a squat toilet.. and I am still giggling about it! Goood times!

A long day, but we had some great times, and great memories made. Istanbul is truly a beautiful place... and beautiful women : ) 

Da Three in Turkey

Look who finally made it to Turkey! And we're here with only 7 hours of sleep. When I was told it was gonna be hot here I figured I would have been fine being that I am used to the atascadero heat and all. But I didn't take into account the humidity. Its about time they change the name of humidity to 'hell'.

Today pretty much consisted of Billy and I walking the streets of Istanbul taking in the sites. Then coming back to our place where we took a good 6hr nap. Jet lag is a biotch.

As for the night life here we went out and enjoyed ourselves a delicious turkish kabob dinner and beer. Then it was off to the hookah bar were we enjoyed live music and a whole lot of people watchin. In all, today was a good day. Can't wait to see what's in store for us tomorrow. Stay Tuned!

Day TWO: NYC

Wow... the effects of a night without any sleep are starting to creep in. Our flight to NYC went well, minus the continuous, nonstopping turbulence! So it is safe to say we didn't sleep much. But, we made it safely and have been exploring the city since 7am this morning! Our first stop took us to arguably the most historic site in New York.. Tom's Restaurant (The Cafe from Seinfeld!!) Unfortunately, to our sad realization we found out that in reality they did not use the ACTUAL cafe for the filming of the show, but simply used the outside of it. After we got over our initial disappointment that it did not look anything like it does on tv, we got a little breakfast, complete with a shot glass sized cup of orange juice. Leaving the restaurant we also so a classic NYC image, an exploded fire hydrant.. needless to say we were quite amused. We then proceeded to Times Square where we took in the sites of REAL New York City.. quite an experience to see so many large billboards.. of Mr. David Hasselhoff! We also toured around Rockefeller Plaza, looking for our boy Matt Laur, but to no avail. We still have a few more sites we are going to try and see (Statue of Liberty), before we have to head back to the Airport for the longest leg of our journey! A couple things we realized durning this trip: Josh doesn't enjoy crowded, germ infested areas (Subways), or humidity (we are sweating like prostitutes in confession), and we loook way to much like tourists with our cameras out and backpacks on. As I like to say though, "we are travelers, not tourists". Anyways, both of us are absolutely drained and running on fumes, and are actually very excited to get on the plane and try to sleep a little. Anyways, thats it for now.. enjoy the pictures. We shall talk to you guys soon!