Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Moscow

Moscow was a ridiculous two part adventure.

first, the adventure even getting to the city.  second, my whirlwind literally THREE HOURS in the city.  the damn visa for just this city cost me $300 (so essentially I paid $100 for each hour I was there), but honestly... when is the next time I'm going to get to M-O-S-C-O-W?!  it's not exactly the easiest of places to get to, nor is it really that high on people's travel priority list.  but since I was already flying on the Russian airline, I decided to make my layover as long as possible in order to be able to get into the city.

I'll start with trying to get to the city first.

as mentioned in the previous post, I arrived at the airport at around 9:30pm for a 2:00am flight.  about two hours before the flight was scheduled to leave they finally listed where we were supposed to go to check in.  I wait in line like everyone else, get up to one of the ticket agents and hand them my passport, since I didn't have a way of checking in online and printing my boarding pass (pretty sure you can't do that on an international flight anyway).  the woman can't find my record in the system.  so she legit tosses my passport over to guy at the next counter so he can check me in.  he can't find me in the system.  he finally explains to me that his supervisor (who was also checking people in - I think they were short staffed at the desks at this time of the night/morning) would check on my situation once he was finished checking people in.  no problem - I mean did I really have any other choice but to wait?  finally the supervisor finishes checking people in he brings me over to a separate desk to try and figure out the problem.  after about a half hour or so he finally figured out what the problem was.  apparently the airline company canceled my reservation and never re-booked me.  awesome.  he was able to re-book me on to the same flights and get me a new confirmation number, but he said unfortunately the flights were full.  I thought to myself, "that's nice but I'm still getting on both of these planes even if I have to sit on the pilot's lap."  so I go back over to the counter to check in and they couldn't find me again.  but then this woman came over to help and after a little bit, was able to get me all checked in and set with both of my boarding passes.  as a side note, I noticed earlier that these two other American girls were checking in and had a lot of trouble like I did.  coincidence maybe?

second adventure: a total of three hours in Moscow

make it to Moscow a-ok.  head out to the main terminal to find an information desk, as I only had pretty crude directions on where to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives in Moscow (we were meeting at a Starbucks no less).  the first information girl I spoke with had this attitude about her that how-dare-I-ask-her-for-anything (uh, hello?  your job is to provide information, meaning you are going to have to actually talk to people) and she can't believe she is stuck in "the worst job in the world."  I was able to finally get her to print out a subway map for me of where the train from the airport would bring me into and where I had to take the subway to.  as I'm heading to the train, I find another information booth and this woman was 10x more helpful.  she printed me out a map of what street I needed to walk down once I got off the subway, which is what I really needed to begin with anyway.  I could have found my way on the subway, I live in in NYC for goodness sake!  (although, I will admit it's a lot harder on a subway when all the words are in Russian and they don't even have the same letters as us!)  so I get on the train to the subway fine.  had a little mix-up on the subway trains, but through sounds, hand gestures, and a general look of confusion on my face I was able to get people to help me find where I needed to go.  I get off the subway train and this was the hardest part - trying to find the street I needed.  I memorized the Russian word for "english" so I just randomly started walking up to people and saying "angliyski?" and pointing to the spot on the map where I needed to go.  no one could help.  ugh.  finally found a police officer, who, when I asked him "angliyski?," responded with "little."  perfect!  I could totally work with that.  showed him the map and all of a sudden he got really animated and started spouting off in Russian on where I was supposed to go (I'm assuming).  I of course had NO idea what he was saying, but he kept pointing to the right so I assumed that was the direction I was supposed to go.  and even as I was walking away, he was still talking to me in Russian.

made it to the Starbucks and the friend of friend met me there (he was 17 and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've been around a 17 year old.  they act differently).  our first stop was the Red Square, Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral.  it was beyond cool.  the city as a whole was a little industrial to me.  to be honest, I'm not sure how high going back there is on my list.  maybe to go to the country of Russia itself.  or at least to St. Petersburg.  however, I can say that I definitely do not regret going and it was a fun way to end my three week trek through eastern europe!!  :)

 (entrance to Red Square)

 (can anyone read me what this says?  anyone?)

 (St. Basil's Cathedral)

(St. Basil's Cathedral)

Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Istanbul

I am going to forewarn you - this post is going to be LONG.  but I hope you still read and enjoy it.  :)  before I can even begin to tell you about the wonderful city of Istanbul, I have to talk about our TWENTY-FOUR hour train ride there.  mind you the train wasn't supposed to take 24 hours - it was only supposed to take 20 - but we made so many random stops for god knows what reason that it took an extra four hours!  by the way, this was also the "express" train.  if this was express, I'd hate to know how long the regular train was...

so the train had a total of three cars.  one Romanian car, one Turkish car, and one Bulgarian car.  and NO food car.  for 24 hours there was no food.  luckily, well sort of, Furi Kuri and I woke up late the morning of our train ride and had to end up throwing all of our breakfast stuff in little baggies to take with us (because we did have a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive from where we were staying to the train station, not to mention we still had to return the rental car) so we had food for the train ride.  just had to ration everything out to last us.  we did make friends with the guy working on the train and ended up sharing a beer with him and his friend.  it helps to talk to people.  :)  some other interesting factoids about this train ride:

1.) we literally stopped at every border station for them to check our passports.  all other trains I've been on they check your passport while the train is still going.  and not only did they stop the train, but they stopped it twice.  once to check your passport from the country you were leaving and then 15 minutes later for the country you were entering.
2.) I have two stamps in my passport for Bulgaria, even though I have never stepped foot in that country (just like The Netherlands - I was only in the Amsterdam airport for a total of three hours, yet I have a stamp in my passport).
3.) they stopped the train at around 2am to add another car.  seriously took about 45min -1 hour to this.  unsure why it took so long, but I don't work on trains so I couldn't even begin to give you an educated guess.
4.) they kicked everyone off the train at 5am when we got to the border of Turkey so we could get our visas.  we had to go to one window to purchase the visa and then stand in line at another window to get the stamp.  not exactly a very efficient system if you ask me.  also, you were never sure of how much the visa was going to cost.  and you had to pay in your own currency (they didn't take Turkish money for them).  the cost depended upon Turkey's relationship with your country at that time - so I will say a thank you to the US Government, this time, for not effing things up with the country of Turkey.  because if it cost any more than the $20 I had, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me in their country.

we finally made it to Istanbul.  my very first impression was that it was similar to Cairo, though much more cosmopolitan.  thank goodness we had looked up the address to the hostel from the train station on Furi Kuri's phone and saved the map because otherwise, I have no idea if we would have ever made it to our hostel.  first thing we did after checking into our room was change and head out to do some sightseeing.  our hostel was literally a 5-10 minute walk from the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.  I cannot even begin to describe what it was like to be in the Hagia Sophia.  I mean, it's something I've only ever studied in a text book and then to see it in real life?!  the magnitude of the place is unreal.  let's just say, the inner art history geek in me was freaking out a little.  I had to leave Furi Kuri to explore a little on her own the rest of the afternoon as I didn't have any energy left (I had been sick from the moment I stepped on the train to Istanbul - and believe me, being sick on a rocking train is NOT fun whatsoever).

 (inside ceiling of the Blue Mosque)

(inside ceiling of the Hagia Sophia)

the next day was absolutely amazing and one of the reasons I also absolutely love traveling with Furi Kuri.  we started out the morning going to the Topkapi Palace.  let me just tell you - the Turks have EVERYONE beat when it comes to jewels.  I mean they had a box on display of lose emeralds.  I can't imagine what they were for.  unless the little spoiled prince of a sultan decided he was going to play bocce ball with emeralds or something.  after the palace we were going to head over to the grand bazaar.  on our walk there we heard someone say "girls, girls," which at this point we had learned to ignore since it usually just meant someone was just trying to sell you something.  but after we kept on walking we heard the person say "I'm not trying to sell you anything."  at this point we actually turned around to see that the gentleman that was talking to us had a Florida Gators shirt on!  turns out he was from Turkey, his wife was from South Carolina and they were currently living in Sarasota.  he had his own private carpet selling and making business (plus a few hotels and other business ventures as well).  we were asking him for tips on what to look for when buying a Turkish rug, so he asked if we would like to go to his private building and have his general manager explain everything to us (usually only reserved for clients who buy wholesale).  our answer?  sure!  so we headed over to the building (which looked like an art museum inside) and the general manager and his brother pulled out rug after rug after rug to show us the differences and things to look for to make it authentic.  now I wasn't really looking to buy a Turkish rug (mainly because I didn't think I could afford it), but I saw one there that I just HAD to have.  it literally was perfect.  I threw my credit card at him and told him to charge it before I changed my mind.  even though it was one of the largest purchases I've ever made in my life, I do not regret it one bit.  I love that rug!  Furi Kuri took a little longer in her search to find the perfect rug.  she won't buy anything unless she absolutely loves it (something I admire about her).  in the meantime, they bought us lunch from a place that only caters to businesses and as someone walking in off the street you cannot order anything from them.  after a little while longer there we left to drop off my rug back at the hostel and then continue to our original destination - the grand bazaar.

somehow on our second walk to the grand bazaar we found another small street bazaar.  stopped into this linen and towel store and started talking to the guy about prices and such.  somewhere along our trip we heard that we should say we are from Canada as people tend to jack up prices for Americans (which wouldn't surprise me one bit).  so when the guy at the store asked us where we from we told him Canada.  all of a sudden his face lit up and he explained to us that the owner of the store, Jennifer (who was sitting just a few feet away talking to someone), was also from Canada!  shit.  we tried to hurry up and leave, but the guy kept talking so much that we didn't get to leave before Jennifer came over.  he was so excited to tell her that we were from Canada as well.  and then of course she was so excited to have someone from her home country in her store.  here is how the conversation went:

Jennifer: "where are you from?!"
me: "...Toronto..."
Jennifer: "omg!  I'm from [insert name of small Canadian town here]"
me: "omg no way!  that's crazy!"  (meanwhile of course I had absolutely NO idea where she was talking about)

we actually ended up having a good 1-2 hour conversation with her about how she got started in the business, her other business ventures, how everything in the store was organic and made right on small farms in Turkey.  she even had a video on her camera that she showed us of this 80 year old spinning silk from this huge vat of silk worms onto a loom.  it was amazing to watch.  another one of her business ventures was in quartz and ceramics.  I mentioned that I was looking for a gift for my mother, so she personally walked us down to her other store and told the guy there to explain the differences between quartz and ceramic to us.  after getting a few souvenirs, the guy asked us if we would just like to walk down to another store that had all the quartz stuff in it.  sure!  let me tell you, it was amazing!!  once I save up enough pennies I'm definitely going back to get my dad something!  we got to talking to the guy and asked him for restaurant recommendations - which he said that there were a lot of good places along the water by the bridge and that actually him and his friends were going there to have dinner, drinks and dancing.  we promised to try and stop by after he got off work, but if we weren't there then not to wait for us. 

(finished silk worm cocoon)

we finally made it off that street and went to this textile store that Furi Kuri had been drooling over our entire trip.  of course spent another few hours there going through hundreds and hundreds of squares in all shapes and sizes of the most colorful textiles you've ever seen from every "stan" country you can think of.  finally we were starting to get hungry, so the shop keeper suggested a place to us that was just up the road.  we ended up making friends with our waiter there, who felt so bad that Furi Kuri didn't like the meal he suggested to her that he brought us free alcohol.  next thing you know, he was telling us that one of the other waiters wanted us to join him for shisha and backgammon (HUGE in the country of Turkey by the way).  next thing you know, it was three o'clock in the morning and we had just finished smoking way too much shisha, playing countless games of backgammon and having the most delicious popcorn I've ever tasted.  oh, what a night.  (I feel like I should bust out in Frankie Valli's "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) )

(shisha "house" we were at)

the next day we actually managed to get up early (since it was our last day in the city, we wanted to take in everything that we could) and make our way down to the water to catch a ferry over to the Asia side of Istanbul.  we were bad tourists in that we didn't really explore the area too much, we mainly just went over there to be able to say we went to Asia.  our next goal was to find the modern art museum and somehow along the way we managed to find the spice bazaar.  wasn't 100% what I was expected, but still fun to walk through (minus of course everyone shouting at you "girls! girls!  come look in my shop!  I have many, many things for you!").  we searched forever and ever for this museum and ended up in what I am pretty sure was a place they do NOT put in the guide books.  we kept seeing a sign for this cafe, so we decided to stop in and ask them where the musuem was and ended up stumbling upon one of the best views of Istanbul.  (I was totally right by the way in that we were completely on the wrong side of the city for the museum - just want to point that out.)  so we stayed there and had lunch and just soaked up the views before I unfortunately had to go back to the hostel and pack since the airport shuttle was leaving at 8:30 that night (even though my plane didn't leave until 2am - yeah, that was a fun wait in the airport).  on our walk back to the hostel we finally made it to the grand bazaar.  maybe because we didn't have much time or maybe because we had already gotten all of our gifts, but I wasn't 100% impressed with it.  don't get me wrong - it definitely was cool - but actually a little more modern than I was expecting.

 (view of the city coming back from the Asia side)

 (our lunch time view)

 (some sweets at the bazaar)

 (man trying to sell me sweets at the bazaar)

 (anyone fancy a hat?)

 (some of the spices at the spice market)

(some gorgeous lamps I saw at the bazaar)

 (deciding what pieces to put into a Turkish rug)

(many of the carpet stores literally had stacks upon stacks of rugs)

and even though I hated to leave this city because it was my favorite of the trip, unfortunately the time had come.  :(

Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Romania

before I can even begin to talk about our time in Romania, I need to discuss the train ride there. it was my first time ever taking an overnight train and it was a rather interesting experience to say the least. and since Furi Kuri and I are completely horrible about waiting until the last minute to do things, we ended up in a six person sleeper car instead of the two person that we wanted. so there we were with this old Romanian couple who didn't speak a lick of English, a girl that had just graduated high school and had been traveling for months (I commend her - I couldn't even do three weeks by myself!), and an asian kid who didn't speak to anyone the whole trip. so in order to fit six people sleeping in one of those Harry Potter like train cars this is how we had to set everything up - the very top bunks were already laid out (all comforters and pillows were up there & that's also where we had to store all the luggage), the "seats" we were sitting on were actually the bottom bunks, and then the back rests we were leaning on flipped up to become the middle bunks. it was a very tight squeeze once all of the beds were set up. not only that, but sleeping on a moving train was also an interesting experience as well.

(inside our train car)

 and, as stated before, Furi Kuri and I can never have a trip without an adventure. so here is our story in Romania:

 - we arrived on a Tuesday at noon. decided it would be best to buy our train ticket to Istanbul for the next evening while we were already at the station (see mom, sometimes I think ahead). go to the ticket counter only to discover that there is only ONE train that leaves from Bucharest to Istanbul - and it leaves at noon every day. awesome. that meant that we had a total of TWENTY-FOUR hours in the country.
- so we bought the tickets and headed to the bus stop to go up to the airport where we would pick up the car we rented (which turned out to be an almost expensive, epic fail). got into a fight with the guy who gets on the bus to check your ticket. tried to tell us we owed a 50LIE (their money) fine. finally after a bit of arguing the man finely did what he should have done in the first place - unlocked the machines so we could validate the tickets we had for two people (instead of the one it was accidentally validated for).
- got the rental car (with GPS) no problem - finally something went right.
- then the goal was to find the bed & breakfast place we were supposed to be staying in. according to their directions online, they should have only been about an hour, maybe hour and a half, outside the city of Bucharest. three hours later we were still driving with no sign of the B&B. and mind you the directions we were following had statements like "go over the wooden bridge" and "take a left at the second rock."

**side note: driving through this country was an obstacle course!! between the crazy drivers, the horse pulled carts sharing the highway, having to stop in the middle of the highway for the pedestrian crosswalks they had set, dodging stray dogs, and dealing with the most construction I've ever seen... let's just say I had white knuckles the entire time I was driving (Furi Kuri didn't dare get behind the wheel, as she isn't the greatest driver to begin with and probably would have had a heart attack trying to navigate this country).

- we decided to ditch the B&B plans and turn around to drive back to Bran Castle. the guide book said it closed at 7:00pm, so we figured we had plenty of time...
- arrive at 6:15pm to have this woman inform us that the castle actually closes at 6:00pm (thanks a lot guide book), but we decided to head up to the castle anyway just to see for ourselves. it did indeed close at 6:00pm, however it didn't even matter because the last entry time was 4:30pm. :( I couldn't believe it. my ENTIRE reason for even going to this country in the first place didn't happen. to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

 (Bran Castle)

(the entrance into the castle grounds - looking up at the castle)

("Dracula's Castle" that I didn't get to see :(  )

since our entire reason for going to this country didn't happen and we had no place to stay that night, we decided to stop for a little dinner and figure out our next moves. we ate at this little outdoor restaurant in the town of Bran (which I swear was a population of about 300 people, minus the tourists) and this group of three couples sat down at the table next to us. it was one of those situations where they ask to take your picture and then you start talking and next thing you know they were inviting us to stay at the B&B they were staying in just up the road. our obvious answer: sure!

it was the cutest little place! cheaper than where we were originally going to stay and included a nice warm, home cooked breakfast. spent the evening chatting with the couples (all from Israel and beyond totally Jewish), taking shots with them and making friends with the St. Bernard - Altos - that lived there (I was excited because I had never seen a St. Bernard in real life). we even got to meet their bike tour guide - Arnold. not necessarily a "Romanian" name in my opinion, but he did have that Draculaesque "I vant to drink your blood" accent. :)

so even though the train was almost an epic fail, I did end up having a good time. and at least now it's a story. :)

Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Budapest

I'll say it.  we were officially the worst tourists ever in Budapest.  first thing we did was one of those hop on, hop off bus tours to get an idea of the layout of the city.  once we just rode around the whole thing once, we would pick the spots we wanted to go back and see, then hop back on the bus and go.  yeah... the hopping back on the bus thing never happened.  maybe it's because we were exhausted from traveling the day before and our sort of scary evening trying to find the hostel.

(something famous in Budapest)

I've traveled a fair amount in my life and have stayed in some pretty interesting places.  but the hostel we stayed in in this city, was by far the sketchiest place I've ever been.  ever.  don't get me wrong though - I loved the city and the people there were some of the nicest people I've met, but the actual hostel itself and the area surrounding it... whole 'nother story!  (don't be upset mom, I made it home safe and sound.)  the area was very, I mean very, deserted at night and there was barely even a sign for the hostel.  we initially walk passed it the first round of trying to find it and when I told Furi Kuri that we needed to go back I thought she was about to take my head off!  finally we found it, with this tiny little flyer posted on the window.  they had to buzz you in and when you got in the main door it looked like you stepped into someone's garage.  not even kidding.  then it was into this beyond ridiculously rundown courtyard and up a flight of steps.  once inside the hostel though, it was cozy and the people were very hospitable (the guy working at the hostel was Australian and oh so cute (especially with that accent), which may be the reason why I wasn't so sketched out anymore.  who knows).

[overlooking the whole city of Budapest (I don't have a picture of the hostel, because it was just too sketch to photograph)]

the idea of time kind of escapes me in this city, but I can tell you that we spent almost an entire afternoon sitting outside at a restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop drinking pitchers of mojitos and making friends with our artist waitress.  now what mojitos and tapas have to do with traditional Hungarian culture, I couldn't tell you.  but it was an amazing afternoon.  I believe this also might have been the day that we did some aimless wandering and happened upon a really cool outdoor art installation, which was next to an actual castle we decided to take a peek into, and then stopped at what we thought was going to be an amazing outdoor concert of euro-hillbilly music but ended up with a bald man with a beer belly playing the flute (not even joking), then finally ended up spending the evening at the Turkish baths.

("art" in front of the castle)

 (the outside pool at the Turkish bath)

apparently we lost track of time so much that we ended up seeing the sun rise over the city twice (this is supposed to be a vacation right?  way too many sunrises for a vacation) - which of course both were the result of nights out dancing and drinking.  and speaking of drinking... Budapest has the best drunk food.   ever.  it's called langos.  it's amazingness in your mouth.  seriously.  now I will admit that the first time I tried it, I wasn't a fan.  but the second time... oh, the second time.  first night out was with people from the hostel (cute Australian included) and we ended up going to see the hostel owner's friend who was playing in a band in an underground bar.  it was a chill place and the music was really good and even though it wasn't really a dance party, we turned it into one.  randomly made our way over to another bar, complete with a roof deck, which stayed open until who knows what time in the morning which is how we ended up seeing the sun rise.  the next night (well day too actually) we ended up at this party for a guerrilla music station that was only in business for a month and then threw a huge "going out of business" celebration.  we went with our new friend T-Bone who part of this awesome music group - Dr. Relax.  as a result of going to this party, we also missed our train to Romania.  oops.

(the sun rising over the city)

(one of the worst bands ever that was playing at the radio station party)

however, the best part of this whole city was when we went... wait for it... CAVING!!!  we had to meet our guide at a bus stop, take a bus, walk, then another bus to who knows where outside the city.  got to wear these gorgeous zip-up jumpsuit type things and the outfit came complete with a helmet and head lamp.  sexy, let me tell you.  after a few instructions, down into the caves we climbed.  I've never received so many bruises before - on my legs, arms, shoulders, back, head - but it was totally and completely worth it.  we had to army crawl through spaces that my ass barely fit through, squeeze through another space they called the "wedgie" (and for good reason), crawl like a spider monkey up rocks, slide on our butts through tunnels, and probably everything else in between that I can't think of at the moment.  our guide even had all of us turn off our helmet lights at one point to play a game of "telephone" in which we had to line up single file and give directions to the person directly behind us on where to walk in the completely-pitch-black-can't-even-see-your-hand-right-in-front-of-your-face cave.  by the time we finished this little game, it felt like we had gone a hundred yards.  of course, when we all turned our lights back on we had maybe gone about 10 feet.  awesome.

(one of the tiny, tiny spaces we had to crawl through)

we did unfortunately have to leave this amazing city, but it was on to Romania and the land of Dracula - which I cannot even begin to describe how I excited I was about it!  I even took a course in college called the Slavic Vampire - but don't categorize me as one of those squealing Twilight fans!  actual vampires (as real or non-real as they might be) are a bit different than Edward Cullen & Co. (I did read the books, however.  don't judge.  but I don't own the movies.  does that make it better?)

Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Vienna

Vienna was still as gorgeous as I remember.  I first visited the city when I was 14 as part of People to People Student Ambassadors (in which you are supposed to be an "ambassador," but really it's an excuse to travel on your parent's dime).  honestly, I think it may have been a little young to send a 14 year-old on a three week trek through Europe because all I can really remember from the trip is spending countless hours in a bus, eating pringles (and not much else since European food was still "weird" to me at this point), listening to the Pure Moods II CD over and over (don't judge), and spending the only few hours we had in Zurich in the chocolate shop (Teuscher) - which was beyond completely worth it.  but I can say that I remember Vienna having a lot of big, pretty buildings.  and my memory definitely served me correctly, as Vienna wasn't any different than what I remember.

(Rathaus, Vienna's City Hall)

we arrived in the city a-ok from Prague, though it was a little bit before we could find our hostel (after walking in literally circles for a good half hour we came to discover that our hostel was literally just around the corner from the train station.  awesome).  the hostel itself was really cool and a very nice, clean place to stay.  it even had it's own bar in the basement (complete with a free drink on your first night of check in)!  Furi Kuri and I kind of each did our own thing in Vienna - which was probably one of our better decisions.  I wanted to do the more classical visiting of the palaces and see all the fancy jewels and such (hey, I live on the UES for a reason) while Furi Kuri wanted to do more of the artistic, off-the-beaten-track scene.  so we split up agreeing to meet at a certain point later in the day (which didn't exactly work out according to plan when I waited at the designated meeting spot for 4 hours before dragging myself back to the hostel only to have her come back there about an hour later saying she got lost and ended up at the wrong church - now if you know her, this is not a surprise to you).  while Vienna was gorgeous and I loved all things royal there, it definitely wasn't my favorite city of the trip.

(Schönbrunn Palace)

however, we did take a day trip to the Wachau Mountains for a bike ride and wine tasting tour.  and no, we didn't end up in a ditch somewhere, clutching a wine bottle by the end of the tour - although that would make for a really funny story.  it was more along the lines of have a tasting of these three wines at this vineyard, hop on your bike to this vineyard, have a tasting of these few wines, bike, wine, bike, wine.  we did have lunch stuck somewhere in there too.  and we made some great friends along the way!  towards the end of the day we hiked up to the Durnstein Castle ruin that apparently at one point held Richard the Lionheart captive.  it honestly didn't look too much like a castle, but it was definitely up high enough on the mountain to provide a gorgeous view!

 (some of the wine we got to taste)

 (the ruin at the top is Durnstein Castle)

[view from (almost) the top of the castle]

now our trip wouldn't be one of "our trips" without a little adventure.  and although it seems like Vienna was smooth sailing, she was saving it all for the end.  we had to catch a train to Budapest at 7:45.  by the time we left, dropped everyone else off, made it through crazy traffic we arrived at our hostel at 7:30.  we still had to get our luggage out of storage, run to the train station, wait in line to buy our tickets (no mom, we didn't do the "right" thing and buy them before), and legit run on to the train probably seconds before it pulled away from the station.  however, we were smart enough this time that when we bought our tickets we got seat reservations instead of risking the chance of sitting next to a large, smelly eastern European man that is trying to have a conversation while you are clearly giving him the signal of "I-have-my-head-phones-in-for-a-reason-so-I-don't-have-to-talk-to-anyone."  which of course they never understand.  le sigh.

p.s. - I didn't end up buying a bottle of wine to bring back home with me because I wasn't schlepping that halfway across Eastern Europe.  however, I did end up getting a bottle of this tequila, cinnamon, and chili stuff that's actually really good (and it was a really small bottle) and a bag of rabbit shit.  yeah, you heard me correctly - rabbit shit.  it's actually dark and milk chocolate mixed together in a little ball that probably could pass as rabbit shit, but it tasted soooooooo good.  so needless to say, none of it made it home. 

Brand New New Yorker on Location: Eastern Europe, Prague

I have been planning this vacation for years.  what originally started out as a two month trek across western and eastern europe was eventually whittled down to a three week jaunt through eastern europe with nothing but my backpack, camera, and my crazy, but lovable, friend by my side.  (actually you should check out her blog, Furi Kuri Travels, as she is quite entertaining.)

before I can even begin to tell you about my adventures in the first stop of my trip (which was Prague btw) I have to share the story of my adventure to even make it to that side of the world.  so being the cheap ass that I am I was extremely stoked when I found an airline ticket for this trip that was only $800!!  I booked it right away obviously, without paying much attention to who I was flying.  big mistake.  my flight was on Aeroflot Airlines (the Russian airline) and I vow that I will never, never fly this airline again.  here's a run down of the adventure:

- the flight was supposed to leave at 7:00pm, but at 9:00am that morning they had already delayed the flight to 9:00pm
- had to stand in line for TWO hours to get my boarding pass (thank god they delayed the flight then or none of us would have made it on the plane)
- the plane of course didn't end up actually taking off until 10:00pm
- we arrive in Moscow at 2:35pm and my connecting flight was leaving at 2:45pm - which I tried explaining to the flight attendants to see if they would allow me to sit closer to the exit and the response I got was "just talk to someone when you get off the plane."  thanks.
- plane lands and everyone jumps up in the aisles to get off.  I explain to these two Russian women behind me that my flight is leaving in 10 minutes, to which they proceeded to tell everyone else in the aisle my situation so I was legit crawling over people to try and make it as close to the exit of the plane (meanwhile my carry on bag strap had broken at this point)
- I get off the plane and RUN to where I have to check in/go through passport control to get to my next flight and when I finally stop panting and catch my breath (hey, it was a long way to run) to explain to the woman my situation she tells me my flight was delayed until 5:15pm.  thank you jesus!  I have never in my life been so grateful that a flight was delayed.
- got my boarding pass and made it to the next gate, which, by the way, wasn't even my gate at all.  my plane moved and of course no one made an announcement to this change.  wait, I lied.  they did make an announcement - however it was in Russian and since I don't speak Russian (except for the word thank you - the only word I know) it was interesting to figure out where I had to go.
** as a random side note I would like to point out that the airport was stock full of hundreds of duty free shops (not even kidding), which doesn't make any sense because I swear Russia doesn't want anyone visiting their country since they make it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to get a visa (ridiculously difficult actually).**
- got on the plane to Prague for what I thought was only going to be an hour flight - completely forgetting about the time changes and also not realizing how far away Moscow actually was - and four hours later I was in Prague.
- I seriously saw 6:00pm three times in one day and couldn't tell you what time it was, what day it was, or heck probably even what my name was by the time I landed in my first destination.
- by this point I'm hours late and my friend and her husband, S. Monster, had been waiting at the airport for me since I had no way of getting in touch with them to let them know of the flight delays (read: I didn't bring my phone with me on this trip) and when I get there, my luggage didn't.
- had to report my lost luggage to the airline people who said that a flight was coming in from Moscow at midnight and that my backpack would probably be on there.  and when it came in, they would deliver it to me.  she asked me for the name of the hotel I was staying in.  didn't know the answer.  asked me for a number I could be reached at.  didn't know the answer to that one either.  at this point I think she was a little frustrated with me and gave me a number to call with my information once I knew it.
- walked out of the baggage claim with my broken carry on in my arms and gave my friend a GIANT  bear hug when I saw her.  at this point I just lost it.  (hey, it was a stressful however-many-hours I had just been traveling through three different countries and countless time zones.)  however, five minutes of bawling my eyes out later and I was good to go!  :)

I hope you found that story entertaining.  I do anyways when I look back on it now, at the time of course I did not find any of it remotely hilarious.  now I can get on to the adventures in Prague.  :)

first thing we did in Prague was take a trip outside the city.  we hopped on a train to a little place called Kutna Hora that was about an hour outside the city to see The Church of Bones.  yeah, you heard me right.  a church made of bones.  I mean technically it was a church first, then a family bought it (didn't know anyone could own a church), during the plague there were so many bodies lying around that the church was converted into an ossuary (where they store bodies), and then for some odd reason someone thought it would be a fantastic idea to take the bones of some 40,000-70,000 skeletons and make art of them.  not my idea of a good time, but I guess whatever floats your boat...

(bone chandelier)

we did the general sightseeing things - Old Town, Clock Tower, Charles Bridge, and Castle.  (so cool because they definitely invoked the sense that you were transported back into the middle ages.)  we saw the city's TV antenna tower complete with bronze babies crawling all over it.  you heard me right - crawling babies.  it was pretty cool far away, but up close the babies just looked extremely creepy.  we went to one of the coolest bars I have ever seen.  apparently they change the decor every few months when the people in charge just get tired of what's up on the walls.  we went also went to the oldest brewery in Prague - U Fleku.  you didn't have a choice in what you drank there because as soon as you sat down they plopped a mug of dark beer in front of you.  normally I don't drink dark beer, but let me just tell you that this was seriously the best beer I have ever had in my life.  hands down.  no joke.  the place also came complete with a two man band - a tuba and an accordion.

 (beer at the beer hall)

 (TV antenna with crawling babies)

(skyline view of the old castle in the city)

funny enough, one thing I really remember from Prague is that not ONCE did we eat any sort of typical Czech food.  we ate Mexican (twice), amazing Italian, some pizza, and we even stopped at a Starbucks (I know, I know but I was dying for a frapp and it's the only one I had the whole trip).  we did also partake in the Prague nightlife and ended up going to a place that didn't even open until 4am.  that was only one night however, since I am old now and can't party like I used to.

(really fun installation at one of the bars we went to)

sadly we had to eventually say goodbye to this city and head off on our adventure, which continued in Vienna.  :)

I have the best friends

one random week day I get an email from Hollywood asking me if I would like to go to the Metropolitan Opera.  to which of course I responded yes.  (I mean, honestly, who wouldn't?  it also helps that I've been wanting to see an opera forever.)  I kid you not, literally a few hours later I get another email from Hollywood that reads like this: "we have free tickets to go on Tuesday."  nice.

so the night of the opera arrives and it turns out we are seeing Ariadne auf Naxos.  I've never heard of the opera, but it was an opera nonetheless so I was perfectly content.  our seats were A-MAZ-ING.  we were almost literally in the laps of the people on stage.  and right in the center of the orchestra as well!

I was even lucky enough to score a seat behind this lady:

I mean, really?  this isn't the royal wedding.  it isn't Ascot.  WHY in the world did she think it was necessary to wear a hat to the opera??  especially since the opera is a place where everyone sits and it's already hard enough to find a viewing spot with people sitting right in front of you.  put a hat into the mix and it just makes it worse.  le sigh.

to thank Hollywood for scoring us these awesome FREE tickets to the opera, I decided I would treat us both to a glass of champagne during the intermission.  so I'm waiting in line and while waiting I end up talking to the very nice gentleman in front of me.  small opera chit chat about what our favorites were, which I of course had none seeing as this was only the second opera I had ever been to.  finally it's my turn to order the drinks and I tell the man at the bar two glasses of champagne.  while waiting I look to the left and the right of me at others ordering and notice that everyone is paying with cash.  so I asked the bartender if it's cash only - which it was and I didn't have the THIRTY SIX dollars to pay for the two glasses of champagne.  and wouldn't you know, the gentleman who was in line in front me paid for my drinks.  I didn't ask him - he just jumped in and handed the bartender the money.  I couldn't believe it.  after thanking him profusely I asked him how I could get in touch with him to repay him the money.  he wouldn't let me - said it was his treat to me and that I should enjoy the opera.  all I can say is, karma is going to come back to that man in a good way.  :)

after the wonderful free champagne, we went back to our seats for the second half of our free opera.  even though I definitely enjoyed the experience, I am going to complain about one little thing here.  this opera was legit the longest thing I have ever had to sit through!  seriously at the end of it, the two main characters were singing "I love you" to each other over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... well you get the idea.  and now you also get a sense of what I had to sit through!  but it was a great night in the end and one I hope to have more of in the future.  :)

(a picture of what the opera house looked like from behind our seats)

p.s. - I didn't have my actual camera, so please excuse the bad iPhone photos

"free falling"

I'm sure y'all are familiar with Groupon, LivingSocial, Flockmaster, and all of those other "discount" websites.  one day Yelp was having a deal for a High Falls Stunt Class, courtesy of  Hollywood Stunts.  so for shits and giggles, my friend, we'll call her Hollywood, and I signed up.  it turned out to be one of the coolest things I have ever done.

before we were able to do any of the jumps, we had to practice on this small platform first.  they told us, just jump and land completely flat with all of your body parts landing at the same time.  surprisingly not an easy task, since I am pretty sure instinct tells you not to slam your head on anything when you fall.  but in reality (after a few tries) it hurt way less to land like they said - a.k.a. no whiplash.  I was even excited during this practice session because I was the only one who got a "perfect" from the instructor.  :)  (let me gloat a little)

then it was time for the big guns.  the first jump was about 20 feet or so.  when the instructor asked who wanted to go first, I grabbed Hollywood so fast and said we would do it that I don't think she even had time to react.  it wasn't until we were up on the platform, 20 feet above the ground about to jump into a giant air bubble/blob thing that she even registered what was going on.  the instructor was a little flabbergasted because he said that he never had girls literally rush to be first in line (what can I say?  I was really excited to try this :) )

(it's weird for me to be posting an "almost" picture of myself because I semi wanted to remain anonymous on this blog, but there I am.  climbing up the scaffolding so I can jump off it 2 minutes later)

funny thing though - I was absolutely terrified waiting up on the platform to jump.  we were essentially just standing on scaffolding and if you fell off (not in the direction of the bubble/blob) well... it would hurt.  a lot.  as soon as it came time to actually do the free fall we had been taught I didn't have a moment's hesitation.

free falling is A-MAZ-ING.  I've done my fair share of cliff jumping in my life (around the Cornell campus in NY and in Italy), but it was always into water.  so really it was just jumping off a giant diving board (with a few jagged rocks here and there).  this was something else entirely though.  I can't even really describe that feeling of just falling - the moments between when you jump and when you land.  when you feel like you could float in the air forever.

all I can say is that I am definitely ready to go back and sign up for the next level!  :)