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Budapest

In a panic, we hurried to the train station to catch our train to Prague and start our ten day adventure. We had just gotten married that morning in a brief ceremony, and spent the day packing and preparing for our trip. It really hadn't hit me yet that we were actually married.

We had both begun to worry about this trip that I had largely planned. Would we make it to all the destinations, or would we be too exhausted from all of the travel and nights in trains? Would we still be able to stand each other at the end of it all?

In Prague we switched to a night train. It was quite different from the one we took to Zurich last Spring: it was pretty uncomfortable and also had four other beds, which meant that strange people might be sleeping with us. This particular sleeping car did not have me very excited about the prospects of many more nights on a train.

Luckily, the train was not crowded and nobody came in. I slept fitfully on the hard beds as the train rocked and made several stops. Mike slept like a baby because he loves riding in trains.

When we arrived in Budapest we started walking to the hostel I had booked. I hoped it wouldn't turn out to be a dump, but with hostels it's quite a gamble and I guess for 11 euros per night, per person, I shouldn't complain.

The hostel turned out fine, they were friendly and they had free internet and goulash for dinner so we were satisified. But I was a little wary of sleeping in the dorm room with other people.

We put our valuables in a locker and headed out for a meal and to see some of Pest, which is the side of the river that we were on. Mike made me promise not to tell anyone how many times we ate at McDonald's during our trip so I will omit that information (I've never been adventurous with food and in a foreign place seeing something familiar and predictable is very comforting!).

To get to the subways you had to take these long escalators down, and they were the longest and steepest I have ever seen in my life! It actually scared me a little because it felt like falling and you could feel the rush of wind when the subways went through.

We then took an hour long boat tour on the Danube. Unfortunately it was terribly cold on the river, but we got to take some pictures.

When we came back to our hostel for a nap because I had not slept very well on the train, the girl informed us that she had overbooked the hostel. But instead of it being bad news for us, it was actually pretty good because she moved us to a private apartment two minutes away.

I want to note that in Budapest nearly everyone spoke English, so it was very easy to get around.

The next day we went to the Buda side of the river and saw the Buda Castle. It was quite a climb up the hill, but there were beautiful views of the city and we had great weather.

There was a construction site where they were restoring some of the surroundings of the castle and hiding in the rubble we saw five little kittens.

Lately my heart melts whenever I see cats, I have become such a sap. Luckily I didn't have to feel sad about these kitties because they looked well fed and happy. I was also dealing with the guilt of leaving my kitty at home alone for the trip!

I actually really liked Budapest. I am starting to like these eastern European cities because I think they are interesting and beautiful. It's really fascinating, the juxtaposition of the old and new, the ugly and the beautiful. I'd like to go back to Budapest and I would highly recommend it for other travelers.

Next on our trip we took a night train to Belgrade, Serbia...

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Arizona & Back

I got back from the U.S. on Sunday night. I have to say I was a little relieved to get back into my normal routines. It is no fun living out of a suitcase and having limited internet access for three weeks.

So, was the US everything I had been longing for? Yes and no. I had lots of fun shopping and eating, although many of the foods I used to love made me feel sick. I still know that I want to live in Chandler or Tempe, Arizona, but I wont be longing for the things I miss as badly now that I've had them recently and they weren't as amazing as I had built them up to be.

Sidenote: San Francisco to Frankfurt is a really long stinking time to be on an airline that doesn't serve free drinks!

I guess I can officially announce it here, since I finally sent out the announcements to my family: Mike and I are getting married this summer.

No date and no ceremony. We are still trying to work out all of the paperwork. When we do, we are just going down to the Whateveramt and getting a license. I will be sure to keep everyone posted on the date.

This weekend we are going to Lindau, which is an island on Lake Constance in Bavaria. We will be very close to all of the amazing fußball action (lucky me), so it will probably be a zoo. I don't have to watch the games to know the outcomes. On Sunday night when I got home from my flight and was exhausted and trying to sleep, I could hear that Germany had beat Poland 2:0 by all of the sounds of jubliation coming from my neighborhood.

It is really, really hot here. Not Phoenix hot. But atleast in Phoenix you know you have some refuge from the heat: in your car, in your home, in your office. But here, air conditioning is practically non-existent, so it is quite miserable in our apartment. I am hoping our new apartment on the ground floor will be a bit cooler.

We just found out that we will be able to move in next week! Very exciting. Only hitch is that the internet may take a while so we wont want to move in yet. I need to move now. My fuse is getting shorter and shorter.

This news about Saxony is a little worrisome. I haven't personally experienced any of these types, and hope that I don't have to while I am here.

And finally.....they are mailing out my diploma! Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Marketing. Woohoo! Whatever that means!

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Frühling

Spring

Spring has finally arrived in Germany, and it is pretty great. It's sunny and all of the greenness looks so amazing with the backdrop of blue sky. I should have come to Germany in the Spring, and not at the beginning of winter. The sun is up until eight o'clock at night, and all the trees are blooming.

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to make some guacamole. I don't know what for, since I still can't eat chips. But I went to the store and tried to find the ingredients. I was a little stumped with the cilantro, but I looked it up in a dictionary and it said it was called Koriander in German. Well apparently, it's called coriander in English as well, but that is the wrong part of the plant. The fresh leaves are called cilantro, which is what I wanted, and the spice called coriander is made from the seeds and tastes differently. So I bought some coriander, which will probably make my guacamole taste strangely, but oh well! I am waiting for my avocados to get soft, I have no clue how to tell when they are ripe. But then I will enjoy some odd guacamole.

I started playing Lord of the Rings Online again yesterday, and it was fun. I haven't played for about a month. I really think I just don't like playing when the roommates are here. I will be so happy when we finally move out of this place.

But in two weeks I will be in Phoenix! I cannot wait. I will spend my days shopping, eating, and watching movies while Mike is at work. I really hope my mouth is healed by then. And then I will get to see a lot of my lovely family for Nathaniel's graduation.

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Hunger

So, the death breath, swelling, and most of the pain have gone away. And now, the only thing left to trouble me is my inability to eat anything.

I have an appointment tomorrow to get my stitches out, so I will find out if they are healing properly (they seem to be).

Like I mentioned, I have been eating chicken broth, instant mashed potatoes, and ice cream. I can only eat a little because my jaw gets tired, so I am constantly starving, because these things are not very filling. Then the combination of starving and not taking my antibiotics resulted in nausea the other day.

I've been having dreams about food, folks. It's all I can think about, I am so hungry! Yesterday I went to class, and all I could smell when walking past the Hauptbahnhof was the Burger King and Subway. When I got home I pleaded with Mike to take me to the grocery store, and I bought refried beans, taco seasoning, ground beef, and tortillas.

So now I am enjoying taco meat and refried beans, and it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I have to chew it with my front teeth, and it still wears my jaw out to eat it. But it is goood. The tortillas are still a little too hard for me.

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Fernsehshow

TV Show

This weekend we went to Markersdorf to celebrate Mike's Oma's birthday. His grandparents live in Mückenhain, which is even smaller than Markersdorf. Their house is very old and was once a prison. We went to the restaurant in their village and I ordered grilled pork with scrambled eggs on the top and fried potatoes on the side. Mike's grandmother and mother ate tongue, which I find really disgusting. I tried a bite once, and it felt just like you would expect it to, like chewing on a tongue. Very icky.

For dessert I ordered ice cream, and Mike's grandparents had a shot of alcohol. I tried to imagine my grandparents having a shot after meals, but couldn't. Later I felt bad, because I had forgotten about the tradition in Germany where the person who is having the birthday treats everyone else. I wouldn't have ordered dessert had I remembered that.

When we got back from the restaurant everyone else went inside to rest before the next meal, so I suggested to Mike that we should take a bike ride to burn off the huge meal we had just eaten. Whenever we visit Mike's family, it is like an eating marathon. You are barely done digesting one meal before the next begins.

We took a nice bike ride around the village and to a lake that used to be a coal mine. It was a little too windy and cold, but the weather here is finally starting to warm up. I am really looking forward to the summer! I was a little upset with myself for forgetting to bring my camera on the trip, because I know pictures of the little village, the houses, and the flowers would have been nice to share.

After the bike ride we had "Kaffee trinken" (coffee drinking) which is a tradition for the Germans to do on weekend afternoons. I don't drink coffee, so I usually have water or juice. This shocks Mike's grandmother because in Europe people drink a lot of hot drinks like tea and coffee. And they rarely drink plain water, only sparkling mineral water. She asked how I could drink so many cold drinks, don't I have a cold stomach? But I guess in Arizona we don't really need warm drinks, even the coffees are iced!

Along with the coffee and tea, we eat cakes or cookies. We had streusel cake and also two store-bought cakes that were kind of creamy and had fruit in them. I like these best because they are sweeter. The sweets in Germany are not very sweet. They are quite plain and usually have fruit in them which tends to be more sour than sweet. This explains why his parents weren't crazy about my chocolate chip cookies which were incredibly sweet and buttery.

After Kaffee trinken, we talked a while and rested. Mike's grandfather showed me the photos on the wall, and pointed out who everyone was. He likes to impress me with his English by saying "thank you" atleast once every visit.

We left after that and went back to Mike's parents' house. Usually on Saturday night there is some big German television show to watch. I find these shows curious because they are live and often three to four hours long. I usually can't stay up until the end.

The most popular show is Wetten dass...? (roughly translated to Wanna bet?) Ordinary people offer to perform strange or difficult tasks. They also have celebrities and musical performances. I find it amusing to watch stars like Nicholas Cage, Celine Dion, Renee Zellweger, and Jerry Seinfeld sitting on the show looking very confused. My favorite bet was when a man claimed he could identify all of his cows by name, based on the way they sounded when eating apples. He was blindfolded, and the cows all had cute women's names. He was able to identify them all correctly!

Another show is called Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel, which is primarily a music show. When we watched, they had Hans Klok, a magician, on the show who performed along with Pamela Anderson. Hans Klok was really entertaining and I would like to see him perform live.

The show we watched last night was called Verstehen Sie Spass? (Do you understand fun?). It is kind of like a candid camera show where they play pranks on people. They told one family they were going to redecorate their home, then they made it really ugly looking and exactly the colors the family said they hated. They also had comedians on the show (which I found boring because it is very hard to understand comedy in a foreign language), and a joke-telling contest.

We are back at our apartment now. I just checked the mail and had a bunch of postcards waiting for me:

Taiwan, Montana, Portugal

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