A Month of Travel by Bullet Points
The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I'll try to keep it to the highlights, but it's in the details where the fun is.

Part I: Europe
March 17, Munich Germany (The First time)

• Flew from Bucharest, and got myself to the hotel
• Met up with my mom who looked drastically different (at first) after a year
• Packed my backpack with all the summer clothes she brought me (5 pants plus 13 shirts
• Duration of our stay: one night
• What we ate: I ate coffee and beer and some noodle stir fry my mom brought me from the city. The breakfast at the hotel was indescribable but I'll go out there and try absa-fan-tac-ular as shot at it.

March 18, Nurnbuerg Germany

• Shopped the Easter market, bought postcards, gingerbread and spices
• Climbed the hill to the castle
• Duration of our stay: a couple of hours
• What we ate: A pretzel as big as my head, a cup of tea/coffee
• Life Goals accomplished: Have now been somewhere in Germany that's not Munich or Dachau

March 18-19, Prague Czech Republic (the First time)

• Got lost trying to find old town center, drank wine in a basement club advertising jazz but hosting a folk music band instead
• Memorable Quotes from our cab driver: The St. Charles bridge was built in the 14th century. In the 14th century, your country was only Indians and bison.
• Toured the city of Prague
• Toured Prague Castle and the accompanying Cathedral where we saw the final resting place of St. John Nepomunk (?) after which my grandma's church and my mom's elementary school was named.
• Visited Easter market
• Took pictures of the city square from the clock tower
• Bought the book The Good Soldier from Kafka’s bookstore
• Enjoyed an evening performance of traditional Czech dancing and singing with the Moravian bagpipes, a Slovakian shepard’s whistle the size of an Esuzaphone, and the Dulcimer table - in addition to the violin.
• Tried to engage other tour-goers in teaching our tour guide a third song in english, Take Me Out to the Ball Game - but no takers
• Walked across a significant bridge while snow and hail blew in my face - photographed St. Charles bridge obscured by show and hail
• Memorable quotes from Mihaela, Czech tour guide: In front of tower is ditch with water, Around the corner is a statue of a naked boy so in 25 minutes I meet you at Naked Boy. Over there is Museum of Communism but I can't tell you if its any good because I live 26 years with communism and I've had quite enough.
• Made plans for second trip to Prague
• Duration of stay: 2 nights

March 20 - 21 Vienna Austria

• Toured the city in the afternoon to snow accompanied by thunder
• Mom bought for me an emergency scarf to cover my head which was later lost in Prague (I think in the bathroom of the Museum of Communism)
• Attended a concert of classical music including some ballet and some opera singing in some beautiful Palace featuring the "Emperor's staircase" and drank a glass of champange
• Heard a lot about the Hapsburgs, viewed their "winter palace" from the outside
• Had coffee in a Viennese café (this is the thing to do since Vienna has over 300 coffee shops
• Watched the horses of the famous Spanish Riding School cross the street for morning exercise, but didn’t attend morning exercise for €12
• Emailed family about trip so far from an internet café with very expensive Schwepp’s bitter lemon but 1 hour of net time for €1 plus the cost of a drink
• Duration of stay: 1 night
• What we ate: Mom ate schnitzel twice. I ate Viennese Zacher Torte, a famous Austrian chocolate cake.

March 21-23 Budapest Hungary (the First time)

• Walked around Pest trying to find a fancy restaurant, found a cheaper restaurant that didn’t require a reservation instead, discovered mom left her wallet at the hotel, prayed they’d accept my credit card in Hungary which they did but had no cash to pay for service or tip the musicians
• Learned two words of Hungaraian which are Egészségedre! (cheers) and Köszönöm (thank you)
• Chatted with our Budapest tour guide who was born in Romania and speaks 9 languages
• Toured Budapest by bus and walking, but mostly by bus in the rain and saw the Hero’s Square
• Had coffee in a café at the top of castle hill
• Spent a cold rainy afternoon in Hungarian Baths heated by natural hot springs
• Intended to go back and tip our waiter but instead spent the money at a wonderful outdoor market featuring the work of local artists and great food.
• Bought gifts for friends, handmade soap, and a pretty shirt. Mom bought wreaths that smell exactly like the delicious hot wine at the market, and some linen placemats.
• Learned that 1,000 Hungarian florintz is equal to two cups of coffee
• What we ate: Hungarian goulash (mine with beans, picked the meat out), Shom-loss cake – don’t know how to spell it, but it’s fantastic, langos a kind of fried bread covered with oil, garlic and cheese, fried potatoes at the outdoor Art Market, Hot wine, mom had a kabob.
• Duration of stay: Two nights

March 23rd Somewhere in the Austrian Alps

• Visited the huge and beautiful Melk Abby
• Photographed the Austrian countryside
• Stayed the night at Pension Schwaighofen
• Planned to get up early and walk around in the snow and look for deer, slept in and saw the deer anyway in the morning before the bus left.
• Ate dinner with two ladies from the country Bahrain, and had a nice chat
• Drank beer
• Duration of stay: 1 night

March 24 Salzburg, Austria and Munich

• Found a store selling handmade wooden crafts that I had been to four years ago in 2002, but they were closed
• Walked around the main shopping street perusing Austrian goods including a Christmas store.
• Considered buying a nutcracker but the wooden crafts store was closed.
• Stood in front of Mozart’s birthplace
• Took the funicular train up the mountain to the fortress
• Photographed Salzburg covered in snow from the fortress
• Breezed through the fortress museum – wishing we could have stayed longer
• Stopped at a museum of marionette puppetry on the way to the bus – fascinated, bought a book and postcards
• Duration of stay: 4 hours, about
• What we ate: Had coffee and strudel at a café in a hotel, mom has a wurst and beer at the outdoor food market

March 24 Munich Germany (the second time)

• Walked to the metro station
• Accidentally took the metro to the airport
• Got on the right metro line and went to the train station, bought our train tickets for Prague
  Walked to the Hoffbrauhaus, Remembered how to get there after was last there in 2002.
• Ate dinner at the Hoffbrauhaus including each of us drinking 1.5 liters of beer.
• Got back on the metro however our train going to the hotel had stopped running for some reason.
• Ended up back at the airport after waiting around in the snow at the metro stop before the airport which was a parking lot with no taxi cabs.
• Spent €30 on a taxi cab from the airport to the hotel.
• Learned that Munich can somehow justify charging €8 for a ride on their metro!
• Walked into the hotel at 1:30 am and requested a 6:00am wake up call
• Memorable quotes: Mom: Ok, we'll take a Taxi? Das es goot? Laura: Das es damn goot!
• What we ate: I ate spatzel for the first time, and I remember a pretzel. Other things I’m sure but I can’t remember them right now…
• Duration of stay: 1 night
  

March 25 - 28 Prague Czech Republic (the Second time)

• Took a cab to the metro station
• Mom had to get more cash at an ATM after the taxi the night before
• Took very slow metro to the train station
• Arrived at the train station with 8 minutes until our train departed not knowing where to go
• Boarded train with baggage with 0 minutes to spare
• Learned through perception that the train was not going all the way to Prague although the railway worker refused to help us find someone to explain the situation in anything other than Czech or German
• Got off train in Pilszen, waited for a new train which was going all the way to Prague
• Arrived in Prague 1 hour and 45 minutes late from the expected time of arrival
• Went to a bar with a sex shop in it and the internet to send a message to the people who we thought were going to meet us that we would wait in the train station until 8:30 and after that find our own accommodation and get in touch later
• Went home with an old lady who ran a pension out of her apartment with a door like a vault.
• Shared a room just the two of us as opposed to the hostel which had 1 room for 5 people and shared a bathroom with another person. Had free cups of tea. Used spare clothing as a towel
• Read email the next morning and realized we’d arrived in Prague a day earlier than we told the relatives we would. Went back to train station to check luggage in lockers and went out to lunch.
• Met the family (Steven and his cousin Michael) at the train station and checked into a hotel
• Visited the church with the stature the Infant of Prague
• Saw the famous John Lennon wall although Lennon’s portrait no longer there
• Tasted famous Czech beers, Pilsner from Pilszen, Czech Republic and Budweiser, not related to American Budweiser.
• Went to the National Museum in St. Wenceslas square
• Toured the Jewish Quarter, museums and synagogues
• Shopped in the Old Town center, bought a garnet ring to wear on my middle finger that one day will hopefully one day be an heirloom for my children
• Realized the exchange rate to dollars was not quite what I thought it was
• Fretted and remained confused about the exchange rate for the rest of the day
• Bought gifts for friends at the Easter Market in Old Town square – mom bought Moravian painted eggs
• Visited the Museum of Communism solo while mom and Michael went shopping for books
• Missed going to the Czech ethnographic museum – will have to do that next time
• What we ate: mom had stew just like her grandmother used to make. I had potatoes au gratin with broccoli in St. Wenceslas Square that replaced that baked potato in Belfast as The Best Potato I’ve Ever Eaten and Kuba which is baked barley with mushrooms and garlic – very tasty but if I eat a meal without potatoes in it I get agitated!
• Duration of stay: three nights (surprise!)
  

March 28-29 Vlčnov Czech Republic

• Took a bus to a town where we were greeted by Eva (Steven’s sister) and her father.
• Learned that 30 years and 1 month earlier Eva’s father met my uncle Rick at the same bus station
• Had a coffee and walked around this old town where the bus station was
• Went to Eva’s mother and father’s house and chatted with the relatives
• Learned the Eva's mother, Donna's grandfather is my grandmother's cousin
• Met Eva’s son Jacob who is almost one?
• Did shots of slivovitza – twice distilled plum brandy which sounds like palinka to me
• Walked around the village in the morning, saw the little houses used as wine cellars
• Stopped in a little shop and were gifted with souvenirs of Vlčnov
• Visited and took pictures of the village church. My great-grandmother’s house is behind the church but it started to rain so we didn’t see it
• Looked at old photographs and learned about the Ride of the Kings tradition in the village at the end of May – maybe I’ll be back next year!
  

March 29- 30 Budapest (the Second time)

• Eva and her husband give us a ride to Budapest and help us get our baggage to the hostel and get us checked in
• I can add Slovakia to the list of countries I’ve been to because we ate lunch there
• We realized Europe’s largest synagogue is actually quite close to our hostel so we could take pictures of it without even coming back the next day
• Did a dry run of locating the train station we would need the next night and bought our train tickets for Timisoara the next night
• Walked the city of Pest, discovered where and when we had to be to buy our tickets to tour Parliament the next day, ate ill-fated dinner at the Italian restaurant
• Were first in line to buy our tickets to tour parliament at 7:35 a.m. The doors open at 8 a.m.
• Moved our baggage out of our room and checked out of the hostel
• Toured the beautiful Hungarian Parliament building
• Photographed the historical Hungarian crown, scepter and orb
• Bought tickets for a boat ride on the Danube and in the meantime ate strudels at the fabulous Art market which was still going on – bought my apron and some fabulous postcards
• Didn’t find the open-air market but I think we were close to it but I didn’t know how to get there
• Took a boat ride tour of Buda and Pest from the Danube (the only way to see Budapest – is from a boat. You have to do it!)
• Had a guided tour around on Margaret island in the Danube between the two cities, and had an ice cream
• Walked across the Chain Bridge
• Took the funicular train to the top of castle hill
• Bought a lot of paprika
• Thought we were out of money so we got more from an ATM, later mom found 200,000 florintz in her wallet
• Photographed fisherman’s bastion and Matthias church at sunset
• Went BACK to the art market one more time so I could support a cool woman artist who made this necklace, got there just before the market closed and I was glad I could support her work. Wish I had given the lady a hug or taken my picture with her. Sie la vie!
• Found the restaurant recommended by our hostel at which we had a 10% discount
• Duration of our stay: More than 24 hours, but we only slept 1 night at the hostel
• What we ate: more langos with garlic and cheese, strudels, fried camembert cheese with fruit and rice, stuffed mushrooms with cheese and ham
• Experienced European Daylight Savings and jumped ahead 1 hour when we got on the train
• Collected our massive baggage and went to the train station for our 11:30pm overnight train to Timişoara, Romania