what happened to budapest???

vienna happened. that is what. after bratislava got a little better with live music and a bikinified lake and whatnot, we left. here is what we saw our last day there...

bratislava only offers two slow buses a day to budapest, but we missed the early one. we had hours to wait for the late one, but we noticed that buses left every half hour to vienna...soooo....we went. and it's summer! and summer in vienna is fun!! there's food everywhere and classical music playing on big screens and food and drinks and music and drinks and food and people and music and food and and and...

anyhow, it didn't make sense for us to get to budapest before monday anyway, since we were too late to get the keys to my apartment for the weekend. it did make sense to get a room in a super swanky hotel with pink neon lights and a pink bathtub, though. thank you, le meridien.

on another note, mike and i were riding a tram to anywhere and we noticed there were hungarians riding with us. he decided to tell them i was attempting to learn their language, and i then proceeded to embarrass myself by speaking the worst hungarian ever. even better, i completely shut down when i didn't understand what they were saying back to me. nice. we eventually wound up at a hundertwasserhaus, so that made the ride worth it...

and now i'm abruptly ending this writing...i'm tired...

more brno & bratislava

the second day in brno was quite eventful. i walked around the city to spilberk castle that was at one time converted to the most feared prison in europe. sometimes, when mike talks too much, this is where i wish i could put him:

after my lovely, but sweaty, walk around town, mike and i took a tram far out into the posh part of the city and went to a huge, freezing swimming pool. that's where we saw these hot guys:

that picture was taken just for our friend summer. this IS what you wanted, right, summer?

next came bratislava, which many people told me would be better than prague and budapest. i disagree. in fact....what are people even thinking? it's not better than either of those two cities. is it because my expectations were too high? is it because it's too small for my tastes? when i expect to see a city, i want a city...a big one...where the whole thing is nice, or at least interesting - not one with some confined tourist area full of overpriced tourist restaurants and bars. of course, there are less tourists than in prague and budapest, but even so, we've been hard-pressed to find the places only locals go without finding ourselves in hell. anyway, the cute part is definitely cute. here's proof:

and here's one you ladies have been waiting for...

favourite part of bratislava? the 50-(euro)cent scoops of gelato....mmmm

going to budapest tomorrow to cry at my moldy moldy apartment! weeee.....here's a little something for all the hungarians in my life: mi újság? gyakorolok magyarul mindennap!

ági szerint a lakásom nagyon rossz van, de szerintem nem baj! gazdag tanár vagyok…phffftt…nem igaz nem igaz…fokhagyma enni akarok! heh....i'm sure my word order is terrible, but you'll understand me...tudna segíteni? szia, magyar!

not so terrible: prague & brno

i landed in prague after only a little sleep on the plane, and mike and i hit the town soon after. we posed for some cheesy pictures with the rest of the 876 tourists...

and then went home for a nap...

next day, caught a bus to brno, where jetlag was still catching up with me, and i slept nearly the whole way there. but once in brno i was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed (unlike some of the rat-squirrels in central park). look at this very cutesy place...

the best part of the town was seeing all these men, and i mean all of them - on the bench, on the wall, in blue. my favourite was this pained gentleman...

lastly, i took one more picture for a loyal reader...she'll know who i mean when she sees this...

terribleness

this is what my sad little apartment in budapest looks like now:

hopefully, as this blog continues, you will get to see improvements...but if you don't, just know that i am not happy. fixing this little dump of a place is what my summer trip is all about. first, prague and brno quickly, then bratislava just as quickly, and then budapest not-so-quickly. and if we get kicked out of my flat because there's so much work going on, we could end up anywhere! exciting times ahead...woo.