and we're back

made it back to the states a few days ago. have been re-organizing and re-adjusting. it was actually very difficult to get back on that plane. i was tempted to chain myself to the tube, but thought better of it. we caused enough commotion on that particular form of public transportation, and i didn't want to add to it. oh wait, i didn't tell that story yet..

left off at nurnberg, which was quite interesting. to see where the war crime trials were held, and also the tribune at the nazi fairgrounds where hitler held his mass rallies was just a bit surreal. and eerie. next up was rothenburg, which is basically known for a christmas shop and gingerbread. we spent about 10 hours in the christmas shop. well, not really, but it felt that way (sorry mom). though i did get a real gingerbread man cookie that will harden into an ornament out of it. score! from there, we drove on the romantic road, supposedly one of the most scenic in germany, and europe for that matter. there were quite a lot of hills, villages, castles and monasteries, or so i'm told. i tried my darndest to stay awake, but as soon as i'm a bus - or some type of moving vehicle that i'm not driving - i'm asleep. why did i go on a bus tour of germany, you ask? i asked myself the same question every day..

the next morning we drove to neuschwanstein castle, which is where disney got his inspiration for the cinderella castle. it looks exactly like a fairytale castle should look. we had to take a separate shuttle up and then walk for about 10 mins afterwards since the roads were too narrow for our coach to go on. there were a couple hairpin turns along the way. i think both mom and mommom thought they'd go off the side of the mountain. made it eventually to the entrance. and what a grand entrance it was. here's how it works: you put your ticket in a slot, the machine reads it and spits it back out, you take your ticket and walk through the turnstall. well, mommom got a bit confused. forgot her ticket, pushed halfway through the turnstall, then backed up to get her ticket. when she went to push through again, the machine wouldn't let her. so what else could she do, but crawl under the turnstall. yes, i said crawl. my 79 year old grandmother got down on all fours and crawled her way into the castle. classic.

the castle was nice, though most of it was unfinished. and they made you walk through not 1, but 2 souvenir shops to get out. very clever. afterwards, we made our way to munich, our final city on the tour. the next morning we took a bus tour of the city. unfortunately it was rainy, so the pictures are quite crummy. although i can't complain - we've had excellent weather the entire time. saw a ton of museums and a palace or two. very grand buildings, and nicely restored. too bad i don't remember their names. drove by the olympiapark, where the 1972 attacks occured. also passed a few leftover tents from oktoberfest... there's always next year..

took a day trip to dachau, the first nazi concentration camp. now, obviously a memorial, it was very informative, albeit depressing. that night, returned to munich for our dinner at the hofbrauhaus. oh, what a night. turns out the restaurant/beer hall over booked our group - as well as a few other tour groups that night. so of the 40 that signed up and paid to go, only 20 had seats. our poor tour director. i seriously don't know how she didn't run away and leave our group to fend for ourselves. it all worked out in the end, for us at least. turns out, a lot of people got confused and thought no one could go and so cancelled and got their money back. so eventually there were only 20 of us left, so we all got seats. sweet! it was a fun night of drinking and eating and being entertained by the german folk. mom (yes, my mother) even tried beer. it had lemonade in it (yeah, i thought that was gross too). she sipped it, and asked "do you taste the lemonade in this? i only taste beer." i tried it. i could only taste the lemonade. i proceeded to make her try mine. she tasted her lemonade after that.

our hotel was nice enough to hold our luggage for us so we could walk around munich before flying to london. we took a tour of the residenz. it was huge! over 130 rooms on display. we almost missed our taxi to the airport. well, not really. we were perfectly on time. though 2 panic attacks were had. i did not have one. you do the math. flew to london and arrived at night. took the tube into the center. didn't see a lift and dragged very heavy luggage up 50 steps. not a good idea. did see the lift on the way out. would have been more helpful earlier..

did the whole red bus tour and saw the major sites, including trafalgar square, parliament, buckingham, etc. went into westminster abbey (10 gbp!). made our way to leister square to try to get theatre tickets. there were about 20 shows up on TKTS, but none were must sees, for me at least. so we walked to where mary poppins was playing to see if they had any available. we got center aisle, about 7 rows back. you couldn't ask for better seats. and the show was fabulous. it will definitely be a hit when it comes to broadway. the next day i showed mommom where i lived on high st kensington. then we went into kensington palace (11.50 gbp!!). next we headed to covent garden to walk around. definitely bought a hat from accessorize! well, mom did. but it's for my birthday ;o) then it was onto harrods. who doesn't love walking around that food department?! finally, over to 35 harrington gardens to show mommom where i went to school.

almost forgot the 2 tube stories. once when going to our big red bus tour, i got on the tube but mom and mommom didn't make it. i thought they were right behind me. they weren't. so, they proceeded to pound, literally, on the doors and claw at the slit to try to open it. the look of pure panic in their faces was almost priceless. the security guard telling them to stop was actually priceless. i shouted "marble arch," held up 3 fingers and hoped for the best. a man next to me said "oh, they'll make it," but i assured him they would not. i knew better. so i just got off at the next stop and waited for the next train. luckily they were on it. i was half convinced they would just be standing at the original platform waiting for me to get back to them.

the second story was getting back on the tube to heathrow. we used the lifts this time, and all was going smoothly. too smoothly as it turns out. i didn't realize it was 5:00 - rush hour. and each train that stopped was jam packed with sardines, err people. and there was no room for luggage. eventually we just had to force our way on because it was getting late for the airport. so mommom went first, and mom second (no person left behind was my motto). mom managed to completely flip her luggage over making it impossible to move easily. then she ran over her foot. then broke a nail. thankfully a man helped her out. i barely squeezed in with my pack, daypack and mommom's suitcases. but we got there eventually.

the airport fiasco is a whole 'nother story.

and the journey is like the energizer bunny..

did actually get the chance to write another blog sooner than expected, as our hotel in nurnberg as free (yes FREE!) internet access. very exciting. so thought i'd drop another note to give a bit more details of our bus tour thus far. boy has it been interesting.

first of all, the bus tour is everything i thought it would be, and then some. it's a full coach - 43 of us, with 1 empty seat. and it's full of 40+ year olds. actually more like 60+, with the exception of mom. i think she is the youngest after me, and one teenager traveling with the grandparents. and of course, there are quite a few lovely passengers. we've especially enjoyed our time spent with 2 ladies from near inverness scotland, a couple from near the england-scottish boarder, a couple from australia and a few others.

however, there are also those which make the trip oh-so-memorable. at our first welcome dinner, which made me want to crawl under the table with regret as to what i was getting myself into, i picked out 3 annoying people/groups that i thought were going to drive me nuts. i was correct about 2. not a bad ratio, i say. but what makes it even MORE interesting is that person 1 and group 2 have developed into archrivals. uh huh. funnnnn.

we sat with person 1 at our welcome dinner, which is when she immediately made my "to watch out for" list. not only did she not stop talking, but she complained about everything you can think of. and i thought she would have a heart attack when she heard that a typical european breakfast consisted of a roll, jam and coffee or tea. and anything else that was also served would be considered a special extra treat. please keep in mind, she told us about her extensive travels. though she also managed that night to tell us about how she gets lost all the time and gets frustrated that people don't speak enough english. wellll, we are in germany.. more from her later.

group 2 was at the table across the aisle from us at the welcome dinner. there really are no words to describe them, so i will try to summarize all the events that have occured with them on this trip. (1) one lady is claustrophobic, so the entire bus must reorganize everyday to accommodate her. of course this causes problems b/c cosmos has a rotate-2-seats every day policy, and people immediate suspect she just wants a good seat at the front of the coach. also, person 1 has bad knee and wants special seating too, but was reduced to tears when no special treatment was received - instant enemy! (2) other lady is ditzy, to put it kindly, and also an incessant talker. i don't think she came up for air the first few days. (3) both said ladies decided to take another stairwell down from their hotel room - no elevators for them - and ended up in the kitchen. did they stop? NO! they walked thru the kitchen thinking it would lead outside. well it did. but then they saw a big white patch on the ground and thought, "well that looks nice, we should walk on it." of course, it was newly laid wet cement. and they got stuck. all 4 feet. so the tour director had to come and get them out, and now their shoes have a nice layer of cement on them. (4) at berlin play, claustrophobic lady couldn't sit in any seat, and needed the aisle, so entire row of tourists had to be rearranged. (5) tour director told said ladies of phone charge from room, but they insisted they did not make a call and would not pay the 38 euro cents they owed the reception. tour director had to compromise with reception. i suspect she paid the fee herself. worst of all, ditzy lady later admitted to trying to use the phone. it just slipped her mind at the time. (6) today in dresden, we had free time after a guided tour. said ladies left tour early and didn't make the 2pm meeting time. so tour director had to run around the city to find them, thus making the entire coach 30mins late. nevertheless, said ladies were boo'd upon returning. person 1 was just loving that moment, you can imagine.

and that is only part of it.

so you can imagine the fun we've had on the trip. always an adventure i say. we've seen a ton but i'm definitely going to have to come back as we just have no time to really appreciate things. but berlin was awesome, a very cool city. also wittenberg (martin luther home) was quite interesting as i wrote a thesis in highschool on him and the reformation. dresden was also pretty, and i'm excited for nurnberg tomorrow, also munich. so we'll see what other fun things arise as we continue our travels on the bus.

Guten Abend from Berlin

found all of 5 seconds to write in my blog since i´ve arrived in germany. i´m also apologizing early for the spelling mistakes as i only have a few mins and these german keyboards are sticky and the z and y are backwards.

anyway, the night train from budapest to munich and then onto frankfurt was definitely and experience. it ended up being about 17 hours in total on a train. not something i would repeat again anytime soon, but glad i splurged on a sleeper bed. at least you get to stretch out a bit. there was the cutest hungarian lady in the car next to mine, and we did our best to communicate with each other in sign language and a bit of german. the ride was sketchy because there were only 4 of us in the entire car, so the lady and i came up with a knocking system if one of us got in trouble or needed help. haha. later i was joined by a german girl sometime in the middle of the night. she was nice as well and we talked a little in the morning when we were freshening up. she worked as an au pair in ireland for a year and was just getting back now. very cool.

slept all of 3 hours on that ride, but managed to find my way to our frankfurt hotel half awake and very disoriented. i missed all of my connecting trains so didn´t arrive to the hotel until around 1, but mom and mommom weren´t there yet anyway. showered, they arrived, and we headed out into the city, as those last few hours of the afternoon would be all we had in the city. but were able to cram in the rathaus & frankfurter dom. made it back just in time for the official meeting of the tour group. oh. my. goodness. this will definitely be an interesting time in germany. some of these people are just unreal. very typical americans that think they´re better than most people because - well they travel the world. hahahaha. but holy moly.

the trips been a complete wirlwind so far and we´ve spent pretty much the bulk of the time on the bus. i think that´s the only thing i would change about this trip because we get anywhere from 15 mins to 2 hours at a location, so we just have to really book it around the town to see what we would like. will definitely need to come back to germany. have been to heidelberg castle and university, cologne to see the cathedral, walked around bremen, walked around hamburg at night, wittenberg and all things martin luther today, and now we´re in berlin for the night. tomorrow´s a group tour (yay) and then to potsdam, which i´m excited for.. then onto nuremburg area and finally munich.

not sure if i´ll have a chance to write again before i get home. maybe in london. but i will defintely fill you in on all the trials and tribulations of this leg of the trip. because, oh it´s been interesting thus far..

tschüss!

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times

i will explain the title in a minute. but this may be the last time i get solid internet access for a while, so thought i'd write a post before meeting mom and grandma in germany in 2 days..

anyway, theresa and i took a train to a little town called keszthely that is on the shore of lake balaton, the largest lake in hungary and one of the biggest in europe. it was quite nice, and would have been somewhat nicer had we arrived 2-3 weeks ago. reason being, when they say "off season" they really mean off. as in, basically everything is closed, and you're lucky to find a resturant open to eat. no biggie, it was still beautiful. we spent day 1 wandering the town, and as it was sunday, nothing was open. we then went to the beach and sat on various benches for various amounts of time. picnic lunches and gelati. and that was our sunday.

monday we headed to a town called heviz. we were trying to go to pecs, but after october, the train and bus schedules all change and we would be able to get there, but not back. unless we wanted to spend 15 minutes in the town and 6 hours on the bus. so heviz it was, which was fine with me. it is a resort spa town, housing europe's largest thermal lake. so off we went to bathe in the warm lake waters. only, when we got there, i realized i forgot my bathing suit. i nearly had a cow because i'd been dragging it with me the whole time, and the one chance we get to use it, i forget it. no clue how, because it was the first thing i unpacked that morning, but somehow i left it. so i had to... rent one.

i shudder thinking about it.

how gross it that, renting a bathing suit. i just prayed it didn't have stains and things on it. i think i officially have cooties now. and because i'm so not proportioned, it was hard to find one that actually fit. one finally fit length wise but was too big in the top. i figured, oh well, i'm just floating around in a lake in a tube, so if it shifted a bit, fine and no one would notice. that turned out to be true. though if they did notice i doubt many would care, as most people changed into their suits or back into their regular clothes right in the middle of the lounge chair area, for all the world to see. i guess one thing i will never get used to in europe is their openness with nudity and lack of modesty. but, it's what makes life interesting. (theresa and i did use the changing locker rooms, mind you. we try to blend in, but not that much..)

anyway, minus the renting of the suit, the day was nice. got back to keszthely and all was closed by 630. so early to bed we went after hunting down a market to grab some dinner. next day, the plan was to make a day trip to tihany, a little peninsula on the lake. but again the bus and trains failed us, and there was no way home, so change of plans - off to balatonfurd we went. another little resort town, but unlike keszthely, everything was fully closed. including the toilets, which proved to make life difficult. finally we found one open, but it was 100 huf to get in. only 50 cents, but still - that lady had a monopoly going on. so we basically walked around the lake, sat on benches, walked around the town, sat on more benches, walked back to the lake and sat on benches again. quite productive, i must say. but pretty views, despite the incredibly strong wind. we were almost blown away a few times, but managed to find a bench to hang onto. again back to keszthely, where everything was again closed. and another early night for us.

here comes the title explanation. while theresa definitely needed the 3 days rest because she had developed/was getting over a sore throat, sinus infection and cough. i was fine. until this morning when i woke up with such a bad sore throat i couldn't sleep for a few hours. hence the best of times for her, and the worst for me. it's like when i was at school and would have the craziest semesters, but never get sick. until christmas break when my body had a chance to relax and unwind and everything catches up. so the 3 days of rest allowed me to catch the cold or whatever it is. hopefully it won't be a severe as theresa's... cross your fingers for me.

got back into budapest after quite an interesting train ride (drunken hungrian trying to talk with us, despite our attempts to tell him we only spoke english). and my sore throat didn't stop me from getting the true budapest experience and going to a bath. and what an experience it was. first we couldn't find the entrance. then we almost couldn't find the dressing rooms (no open area changing here). we wandered to where we thought the bath would be, only to find 2 outdoor swimming pools with people doing laps. i was not about to do laps. so followed a random girl down some steps and found the "sauna", which was good enough for us. basically a warm outdoor pool with different bubbling sections. when we first got in everyone stared at us. literally. and i definitely felt like i didn't belong there, or we intruded onto some secret club. but as it turns out, they were staring because we were not wearing the proper uniform - the bathing cap. and eventually a pool guard came out and mimed that to us. up we followed him to the rental office, and after quite a bit of language barrier and leaving my watch as a deposit, we got our caps. and no one stared. well, at least not as much as initially.

the baths were hilarious and we acted like a bunch of teenage tourist in it, but i didn't care. it made me forget my sore throat for an hour or so. and now i can say we had our budapest bath. at least i didn't have to rent a suit this time. i checked about 20 times to make sure i had it with me.

so theresa leaves tomorrow morning, and i leave on a night train for germany tomorrow evening. hopefully that works out okay and i'm able to find my way to our hotel to meet the family. and hope my sore throat goes away :(