We're Rich!

here we are at the last night of our trip. Budapest has been a love hate relationship for me... when we arrived the city seemed so dirty compared to Vienna, and even worse the hostel we had planned on staying in was in a horrible old building with a scary elevator. one night in the hostel and we switched to a hotel. I soon realized that Budapest is actually a very beautiful city, the air here is similar to ocean air, and it is warmer than anywhere else we've been. the first day we walked over the Danube river to an island with a huge park and took a walk, and had coffee and pastry after of course. then we walked for about five hours straight just taking in the sights. we saw the fisherman's bastion, a sort of guard wall with amazing views of the city. today we woke up early and went to the thermal baths that Budapest is famous for. these baths are housed in an amazingly ornate building, and are filled with old people trying to get the health benefits of the mineral water. we saw more old men in speedos than i ever cared to see. the turkish baths are an ancient tradition in this city so you can imagine the wrath zak evoked when he acidentally splashed an old lady while swimming:) afterwards we tried to go to three shops and a museum but all were closed. that's all for me, i will see you guys on wed!
Jessi-
The party's over, we are about to start the 22 hours of plane and train rides that will take us about 48 hours to complete with layovers. Budapest was swell the hot baths were the best, and you get to spend thousands of dollars when you buy stuff because the Forint isn't worth the paper it's printed on, which is fun. I became addicted to a middle-eastern Chipotle called Szeraj. They have durnas which are chicken, cabbage, lettuce, and sauces in a pita or tortilla and cost only $56,900 forint, or two american dollars. We ate there three times, and each time was awesomer than the last, except for the time we ate chocolate baklava which was seriously pretty weak. -no way! it was awesome! (JF)-
So far we've been attacked by two mean old bags that were unhappy with my behavior. The first was old bag nun who wouldn't let me dry my clothes and pretty much ruined my life. The second old bag was some fat old bag who tried to swear at me in English for splashing in a pool. (If you get mad when you get wet in a pool, you're an old bag) Anyhow, I tried to learn to say "Go sit on a tack you old bag," in two languages but was unsucessful.
That's all, Merry Christmas
Zak Bouck

City-o-my-dreams

How swell is this?
This city kicks,
Bootay, everyday in the mor-or-ning


Vienna wins hands down. The city is perfect, it has the most amazing buildings: castles, palaces, museums, statues, and shops, but it also manages to be non-intrusively modern, so you can still have fun. Everyone in Europe has a dog and has bad breath and BO that smells like salami, but they also have good fashion and are pretty quite which is braggable.
I'm compiling a list of things I like and don't like about Europe.
Things I like:
Tons of cheap bakeries
Toilets have two flushing options, one for number 1, one for number 2. (I had this idea years ago)
Good Cake
Tons of coffees
Good public transportation
All cars are manual
The Coca-Cola is WAY better
Good History stuff
Poker on TV
Kateri and the nuns that stuff you full of goodies

Things I don't like
You have to pay for water :(
You have to pay to use the toilette:(
If you order tap water, the waiter frowns at you, or tells you they don't serve tap water in this establishment :((
Salami Breath
Dog Poo everywhere
Mean old nuns that won't let you get your laundry out of the washer because it's to late and she's trying to sleep so you have to carry a duffel bag full of wet laundry for 8 hours until you get to your hotel in Vienna so you can let it dry. Mean-face
Zak-

Hey Everyone, internet is much harder to come by than we thought, so these blogs are scarce, sorry! Vienna is so much better than i thought, it is our favorite so far. we get free breakfast in our hotel, and it is delicious, and all the coffee shops here have tons of beautiful cakes on display. this city has such an old fashioned charm, it is the perfect romantic European city. yesterday we went to a huge palace that is now an art gallery and we got the see the painting "the kiss" by Klimt and "Napolean at St. Bernard" both are really famous paintings that you learn about in art history so it was very exciting. today we are going to a big market to shop areound and eat lunch, it should be fun, i will try to post some pics as soon as i can, but for now here are some of zak and me goofing around at the church of baby Jesus in Prague.
Jessi-

Goodbye Prague

Goodbye Kateri, Hello fast food. I had my first foreign McDonalds today. I had a sausage McMuffin with lettuce, tomato, and big mac sauce. How bizarre. Prague was fun, but I think we ran out of sights to see, so it was time to go. Vienna is by far the most spectacular city that has ever been blessed by my presence. We’ll post pictures to show you the spectacularity. We’re past the half-way point, and six days from the journey home! Happy days to you all!

Tonight is our last night in Prague, so we are half way through our trip! I feel like we have been here forever already, and I can’t believe that we have two more cities to go. Besides being a little more touristy than I expected, Prague is just as beautiful as I always imagined it. I love walking over the Charles bridge early in the morning and seeing the fisherman in their little canoes and a group of swans floating lazily around with the gorgeous city in the background. It is just like what people envision when they think or a European city. Today we visited the national museum, which had an entire floor dedicated to rocks! We have visited many cafes, and had many tasty baked goods. We rode a little train up a big hill over looking the city to go to a mirror maze, which I have been looking forward to since we got here, only to find that it was closed! But we got a lovely view of the castle and the city, so it wasn’t all that bad. We also went to a torture museum, and well, it was a museum about torture, so you can imagine… the best part of Prague has been just walking around in the city and taking in all the sights. Vienna here we come!
Jessi-

We haven't died quite yet.

Hooray! It’s been swell. Sorry we’ve haven’t posted at all. The last day in Germany we had to meet up with Jessi’s friend Henrik, and in Prague we didn’t have the right plug until today. On Friday we went to a really rad palace that was huge and awesome. We also saw some hip-urban graffiti house that was ok. We ate bratwurst and drank smuggled tap-water.
Friday was long, we traveled 4.5 hours from Berlin to Prague (which was fun, we saw the German countryside, with rivers, towns, and fields full of bunnies) found Kateri after getting lost, walked to a huge castle and a bunch of old churches and went to sleep. Today we went to church, and celebrated the Bishops birthday in his super-rich palace dinner room. We had a 4-course meal and feasted on all the delicious goodies available to mankind. We went to a museum where all nuns and their parties get in for free, so score one for the Catholics. Also we got the leftovers de la feast, and we now have pork for a week!
Torture Museum here we come!
Zak-

Hello everyone,
Yay! We are in Prague. We are staying right near Charles bridge, which is one of the main tourist attractions, and also the center of the city. Today we went to a really old, fancy library. It was so incredible, the books went all the way up to the ceilings, which were covered in white intricate moldings, and had tons of frescos (paintings right on the ceiling.) lunch with the Nuncio was very fancy, and the food was amazing. It was his birthday so we also got cake. The cook at the nun’s house is very gifted indeed! She makes candy, and everything else that is good ☺ tommorow we are going to a mirror maze, my first one! Goodbye for now.
Jessi-

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

JFK uttered these famous words "I am a jelly donut," at the Berlin Wall in 1963. While he probably was trying to say I am a Berliner, everyone tried to devour his tasty insides after the ceremony. Today was the swell-bot-mgcee of all days. We saw the Branderberg Gates, a church that was bombed in WWII and left in it's destroyed condition, two huge churches, the Reichstag - home of German Parliment and the famous Reichstag fire, where the Nazi's declared an emergency state and killed all the commies and took political control.
We went to a 13th century church that was rebuilt, and saw some Nazi artillery and tanks.
It's weird how east berlin is like a quaint village and West Berlin is like Tokyo the west has been developed so much, and the East is pretty beat up. There are really no buildings that are older than 1945 because 95% of all buildings were bombed to oblivion by the good guys in WWII, which is good the Allies, and bad for the tourists!
Auf Wiedersehen!

Hey all!
Today (actually yesterday for us) was awesome and tiresome all at the same time, apart from generally getting lost in the Berlin chaos, we saw some of the most famous sights this city has to offer, as zak outlined above. we rode the bus and train all over the city, and walked for about three miles to get to the west side. we observed that nobody here wears colors. so in a fancy mall on the west side we played a game trying to spot as many colorful outfits as possible, and only saw one girl wearing a pink shirt, out of an entire shopping mall!! well zak is harassing me to go so i guess that's it for now.

We Arrive.

So far things have been boring. We flew all night and jessi and stayed up for 30 hours straight, came to Berlin and slept for 14 hours. Unfortunately we got up at 5 AM before anyone else, and managed to annoy everyone in Germany. I forgot my Qtips which has been hard. Harder than I ever thought life could be.

The coolest thing so far has been staying in East Berlin, the former Communist half of Germany. My room is the size of a closet, and whole families used to live in it! How mediocre! That's about all that has happened. The German airport staff were jerks, but everyone else has been really nice. We're sight-seeing today, and I have a feeling Ronald Reagan will be on the blog tomorrow. Please leave comments to validate my typing.
- Zak

Hey everyone! we are finally here. the plane rides were pretty painless, Lufthansa is the best airline ever, the food actually tasted like food, good food. after arriving in Berlin we took the bus to our hotel, and we passed all the major landmarks of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gates, and all the Government buildings. our hotel is located in the perfect place, we have a grocery store, bakery, and Internet cafe all within a few blocks, and also a BMX bike shop that Zak is really excited about! that's is about all for now, we are sight seeing today, so there will be much more to write about tomorrow.
-Jessi

We Leave Tonight

We are leaving tonight! Wish us fun and luck, and that we don't end up in a northern Atlantic version of Lost.