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Brie & Trent's Travels
So this is a picture of Ireland and we are actually in Germany... but oh well.. they dont have a picture of Germany on this site.
We had a nice and relaxing last night in Budapest. I really liked that city, and what I realized is that I am more partial to cities that are located near or on (Venice) water... in a way I feel at home.
We hung out with the other people that were staying at the hostel... some americans, aussies, and english... That hostel was great because it had such a homey feel... which is nice after staying in a huge hostel.
We didnt have such a wonderful traveling day yesterday which was quite unexpected. First we headed to the big market in Budapest to pick up some food for the day. The market was in such a huge building... we were curious if the equivalent of $4 was going to be enough for the both of us. We bought some bread that was less than 25 cents for 4 fresh sandwich rolls, and $1.50 for a huge piece of swiss cheese were are guessing... we had no idea what it was but it looked good. I again made a hungarian mad ordering the cheese. Im not sure what it was... the american accent or the blonde hair but I got quite a few stares and bad looks, along with rude attitudes in Hungary. It made the other countries seem all that more friendly. Hungary kinda reminded me of what it would be like for a foreigner to come to the US and not speak the language... impatient and rude. I guess we are lucky that the rest of the countries werent like that.
I think we forgot to mention this because we were overwhelmed with the bedbug story but when we arrived in Bratislava they took Trent and my passport along with 3 others from the entire plane and set them aside as we waited for the line to finish and then they gave us the special treatment of the lengthly passport lookover which was also a different experience.
Anyways, back to Budapest... we got to the airport 2 hours ahead, but we realized that the screen indicated that the flight that was originally supposed to leave at 1250 was set back until 3pm. We didnt end up leaving until a little after 4pm which was no fun waiting in the airport for that long. At least the airport was really nice and had AC... we were just bummed because we planned on having that whole half day to explore Berlin. The worst part about it was when we boarded the plane at 3pm they told us that there was going to be another 2.5hr delay... right after we boarded... why put us on the plane?? luckily it was only an hour delay... we got to our hostel around 7 or 730... and headed to dinner.
There is this really cool street just a few blocks from out hostel and we walked around there looking for a place to eat. All of the restaurants had outdoor cafes... Trent thought they were bars but it was happy hour so they were all serving drinks... but they were restaurants. Trent let me pick a place so I chose an Indian buffet. Im not sure if that would have been his choice but it was a great adventure. We ate some of the randomest food but it was good and I got my vegetable fix. Plus it was all you can eat for 5e.. yum! Trent wanted to find some German food but even in my guide book it said that in Berlin they love eating varied food and international cuisine.. which was very evident when we were walking down the street. They had italian, chinese, thai, vietnamese, turkish, german and a lot of indian food, just on two blocks. I just love how all of the cafes have outdoor seating and they are really modern looking.
I was tired from traveling all day so we just headed to bed and went with the plan of seeing Berlin in a day... so chaotic.
Berlin is such a cool city. There is a mix of a bunch of old buildings and history along with a lot of new very modern buildings. I love the look of that, plus the mixture of cultures, and the graffiti art is everywhere. We even saw some in progress yesterday.
After eating some breakfast we headed to Museum Island which is right down the Spree River close to our hostel-hotel. The Berlin Dome, The Royal Palace and a few museums are around there. Then we headed to Checkpoint Charlie and it was really odd thinking about what it was like back in the day with tanks on each side... soo much history. Then we went to the Jewish history museum that was in this axis shaped building which was quite unique. It had a bunch of stories about people that had been killed in the Holocaust along with their letters and belongings. Then it had this whole other part about how jews used to join-create their own athletic clubs because they werent allowed in the german ones, and they used the clubs for social and political reasons as well...
I think all of the traveling is wearing me down and I was grumpy this morning so Trent and I went our own ways because I just wanted to relax after waking up at 630 and walking around until nearly 1. I thought that I was headed back to the hostel but I decided to see the Parliament building (Reichstag) which was where the reunification of Germany was reenacted... and also the Brandenburger tower... which has become the symbol of Berlin. Then I put my feet in the river which was really nice and relaxing, and then headed back to the hostel for a... you know it... a siesta.
I woke up and headed to a guidebook recommendation of a restaurant which ended up being a jewish kosher restaurant with a german menu that i couldnt read without trents phrasebook... so I left and cruised up and down that funky street we ate at before and noticed a bunch of street looking art galleries... i dont know how else to explain them.. but they were great and i ended up at an italian restaurant. i had a veggie pizza that reminded me nothing of italy but it was wonderful anyways. They are now having a pool party at the hostel in their above ground pool so I might go for a swim... they also have some yummy beer on tap so I might enjoy that also.
Only 4 more days left... whoa.. Amsterdam here we come!
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