Travel Journal Pt. III

More experiences, jokes etc. Budapest to part of Rome

24 Hour Fitness – your membership lasts 24 hours. Have fun for 24 hours! You wont feel great afterward.

Lion cereal = disgusting. “I’m going to donate this [camera cord] to the hostel… and THIS [Lion cereal, full] to the kitchen…” (spilled on the bed, “wake up with Lions stuck to your face… GROSS!”)

Crazy Budapest experience!

Okay the Budapest story is in my email to Mom; it’s a little long to write.

[here it is]

Sorry Mom, this keyboardi s sticky, so I’ll have typos and very few capitals.

Today we were going to budapest, and we tried to find the train, but they were like "no, get on this bus" so we did, and we were like "oh my gosh, i hope they actually take us to budapest...." and it ended up taking an extra hour or so.... and then when we got there, we were like "umm.... how are we going to get back?!" and we asked the bus driver, and he didn't speak annny english, and he kept saying "nien nien" and "i'm not going back to vienna..." and then this crazy taxi driver who REALLY wanted us to take his taxi was like, "there is a strike. no trains going out. there is a strike. you must take bus international station." .... um yeah we were like GET away from us, we're not going to take your taxi... and then this poor asian guy had the same problem, and he was freaking out, "how am i going to get back?! this is last stop of my journey." and he didn't speak very good english either. anyway, so our best option was to take another shuttle bus back at 13.10, which only gave us 1.5 hours to see Budapest... and the asian guy (who, by the way, was TOTALLY josh... literal asian version of josh) kept saying "you know, the other buses wilil cost money, and this one is free, you are taking a risk... just think about it." but I really really wanted to see budapest and it had taken us 4 hours to get there... I was like, we're HERE, I want to see something. And he kept saying, "we should just go have a nice lunch. all that matters is a niiice lunch." I"m telling you, mom, he was josh! totally being calm and trying to persuade us not to argue or take any risks and to just have lunch with him. Haha poor guy. Well, we ended up seeing a few things, but not too much. We saw the hungarian parliament which was really cool, on the danube, but not much else. a few other things in the backstreets of town. budapest was just crazy, in every way... totally sketchy. haha all of the kids looked like hoodlums too! Anyway, we went back to catch the shuttlebus, and a guy by a bus said "vienna" and pointed inside, and thre was a train there! we were like "umm.... okay..." and we asked three more people, so apparently, they got a train there; no more strike? we don't know. it was insane, but we're back in vienna safe and sound. so.... uh cool. Haha. but yeah, only an hour and a half in budapest. looks like i'd better go back someday.

-

OH MY GOSH I JUST SAW CARLY!!!! That was crazy! Deb and I are just powerwalking to our train that leaves in 3 minutes, down the streets of Vienna, and I hear, “Laurel?!” I’m like, “huh?” and I turn around… “CARLY?!?!” We freaked out, walking as we hugged; she’s so exiteable,; I LOVE it. She was like, “I can’t believe it! I don’t even see you in Rexburg!!!” It was AMAZING. Seriously. I’m still freaking out. I love her and it was so good to see her. I wish I’d had more time. I forgot to tell her about the You’ve Got Mail experience I had yesterday!

We were at the grocery store, and there was a credit card machine right there, but she was like, “cash only…” I was so tempted to say, “ORANGE you going to give us a break by zipping this credit card through the credit card machine??” And Carly’s the one I was going to tell. I totally would have told her if we’d had more time. I was even thinking last night that I needed to write that on her wall or something.

-

Band name: A Couple of Songs

“Hey, have you heard A Couple of Songs?”

“Um… yes…”

[that’s almost as good as Everybody Else… excellent in conversations…]

-

13 May

(using Skype)

Mom: “Where are you?”

Deb: “Rimini.”

Mom: “Boleenee?”

Deb: “Ri-mi-ni!”

Mom: “Bomgeenee?”

Mom couldn’t understand what we were saying when we called her, and it was sooo funny. We were saying, “Rimini” and she just kept saying all these crazy names, cause she couldn’t understand us. I was in hysterics (literally), and she could hear me and was like, “oh dear.” Hahaha. I love her.

So we’re in Rimini today. We went to Venice, stayed a day/night and I really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t want to be there very long, but there’s something so amazing and fun about it. Especially the water buses. Beats all! Buses suck, but breezy water buses are really really great. And the little streets are super fun to wander, and the shops are pretty awesome. They have about 5 specialties, and then a million shops selling one or all of those 5 things. Italy has this way… of making you want to buy things… I got this seriously sweet leather bag (messenger style), and we got some amazing things for Karen’s bridal shower… excellent. We are beyond excited to see her reaction when she opens it. We can’t buy very much stuff though cause we don’t have room for it.

So, today I achieved a recent life-goal; I visited San Marino!! My little San Marino!! Wow, it was seriously incredible. It’s like this city on a hill… this fortress-castle city… There are narrow, winding steep roads all the way up to the castle on top, with little restaurants and shops and stuff—I bought some amber (way cheaper than Prague!), and I love it. Wow—the San Marino castle … best castle ever! They let you go wherever you want—nothing is roped off or blocked. We climbed up ladders and stairs, stood on fling-self-offable turrets, and saw an remarkable view from all sides, of San Marino and Eastern Italy. [Remarkable is kind of a dumb word. It shouldn’t mean what it does… all it really means is “worthy of remarks.” But shouldn’t everything I say be worthy of remarks? Hm… there’s something to think about. I’ve been wasting everyone’s time with my unremarkable words.] It was magical.

Let me tell you about Rimini. It’s like Santa Cruz’s sister town. It’s on the beach (we’re a 2 minute walk away), and even has a boardwalk-style setup, semi-cheesy, with each pier decorated… this isn’t the peak season (“female?! English speakers?!”), but it looks like it’s about to start up soon. Other than San Marino, which is 45 min. away, this doesn’t feel like Italy at all. It’s like staying in Santa Cruz, or some cross between SC and Miami.

By the way, Switzerland with Yana and the rest of the family was wonderful. Schaffhausen is one of my favorite places in the world. It has been since the first time I went—it’s definitely become like a second home to me. Hanging out with Yana and Sergio (her boyfriend) was so fun. They’re both hilarious, and she’s so happy. And when Maria and Paulo showed up… I just love my little family. When there’s Russian, Italian, German, English and more just flying across the table within one minute… man those are some of my favorite times. They’re wonderful people.

We weren’t able to get our favorite bread from the Coop—we actually did have it on Sunday, but it was sliced… Boo! So much better in torn-off chunks… Okay, headed to Rome tomorrow. This is the greatest trip of my life.

-

[Rome]

British guy outside train station: “’Scuse me, do you speak English? …Do you like ignoring people??”

-

From SUPER ghetto hotel in Rome: They said that they charge for towels, and we got up there, and they were just sitting there, asking to be used. We decided we’d use them, and then fold them back up inconspicuously and put a sign on them that said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We didn’t use these towels.” Hahahaaa.

[insert drawing: no whistling on the train]

“My bed looked more appealing to me than the toilet… can you blame me?” –Laurel

“You’re a certified Greek dancer? … how long did that take, two hours?”