That was fun...

Man, I've had a busy few days. New things to check off my list:

Went to Germany

Drove over 100 mph on the autobahn

Went to Liechtenstein

Swam in an Alpine lake that was close to freezing

I am seriously too tired to blog about it. Maybe tomorrow I'll catch up on all we did. 

And now you know...

someone who has gone to Liechtenstein. That´s right. Today was busy.. The internet sucks, so I´ll summarize. Woke up in Austria. Swam in a freezing cold lake fed from mountain stream, probably a glacier. Drove in Germany. I actually for a bit. Spent basically the entire day crusing through the Alps. I visited Schloß Neuschwanstein. Look it up. I went to Liechtenstein in the evening. That makes 3 countries in one day. Not bad at all I´d say. I´ll give more detail in the days to come.

The Hills Are Alive

So Tomas and I had been planning to go to the Baltic Sea for almost a week now. Well, I say planning. Really we´ve just been talking about it. We didn´t do any planning at all. So yesterday afternoon I told him we should change plans. So here I am in Austria, in the foothills of the Alps. Today we were probably a mile above sea level. I can´t even begin to explain to you the way it looks here. It is probably the most vastly contrasting landscape I´ve ever seen. We are staying in a town called Ebensee, which sits on a beautiful lake. Immediately behind the houses on the lake, the Alps begin their climb against the skyline. A few even reach peak through the clouds. From the deep in the mountains run streams of the clearest water I´ve ever seen. I can´t wait until I´m on a decent computer and can upload pictures. Though, I hesitate to because it just won´t do it any justice at all.

I´m tired of typing on this alternate European computer that has the "z" and "y" kezs switched. Plus, there are a host of other fun additives that I keep pressing like ü, ß, and ö, and ä. It´s quite annozing. Anzwaz, here are our plans for the next few days. Tomorrow Tom and I wake up and head to Schloß (this time I meant to use it) Neuschwanstein. It´s a castle. Look it up. Either the next day, or later on tomorrow, we are going to a secret location that only Travis and Kovach know about. I´ll let everyone else know after we´ve done it. I don´t want to Jinx anything. Ok, that´s all for now.

Ambivalence

So today I realized in the metro station that I think I could live here in Prague again. The big issue is that I need something to do. It's like the Garden of Eden thing. If you believe the story literally, God made a man and put him in paradise. Even though he was in a place of perfection, he was still given work to do: name the animals; take care of the garden. Humans, no matter how lazy we get, are instilled with a need to be productive. The book of Proverbs says that "Where there is no vision, the people perish." I think that definitely holds true for.

What I need is a project. And I need it to be challenging. I'm not talking about Prague, either. I'm talking about in my life. I need to be working toward something. I guess that's why I did so well in school. There were all of these goals and objectives to master. I was given an assignment and was told to figure out how to complete it. Life is much harder. That's obvious. But in some ways I need life to be more like school. I can't just float across the sea. I need ports of call. Hopefully the next few years of my life will provide that. 

I'd love to post some pictures of Budapest right now, but I need to go sleep. Tom and I are leaving tomorrow to go to Austria, Germany, and Liechtenstein. I have a feeling you're going to love these pictures. Oh yeah, and I'm hoping to get to drive on the Autobahn. What now!?

Pestilence

So I would love to tell you all I've had a fantastic time in Budapest, but that's not entirely accurate. You see, what many people do not know is that Budapest historically was two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube river. Well, this time, I didn't set foot in Buda. So to sum this whole thing up, I had a wonderful time in Pest.

I don't really have a whole lot to say about the day. I read for a while and ate bread with creamy swiss that I squirted from a tube. I'll post pictures of that when I get back to Prague and upload the photos from my camera. On a stranger note, I ate tacos for dinner tonight and can honestly say that it's the only food I've had in all of Europe that I would not argue with the restauranteur for labeling "Mexican food."

Marcus and I were supposed to go to this unbelievable cafe in town called Choco Bar Noir. It's like nothing I've ever seen. The place is at least. If you recall, a few years ago Starbucks began offering a drink called "Chantico." It was like a hot chocolate pudding almost and you were supposed to dip some sort of biscotti in it. Anyway, it was a small amount and it cost around $4. The problem was that no one understood it. It flopped, and Starbucks pulled it from the menu. Here it's pretty normal. It how many Eastern Europeans make hot chocolate- like a hot chocolate pudding. Except at Choco Bar Noir, it's not just normal chocolate. They offer fruit flavored hot chocolates and even a hot pepper chocolate (supposedly it's a really nice flavor pairing). Anyway, it's an unbelievable place, and I think it would be super successful in a metropolitan area. You would just have to make sure it was the primary offering and not one strange side offering. The waitstaff would have to do a good job of educating the customers, too. If I had a few $100k lying around somewhere, that's one thing I would do with it.

Finally Marcus and I ended up on this island in the Danube right between Buda and Pest. It has trendy bars, great landscaping and treelines, and a nice running track I wish I had known about. It was a great way to end the evening. Speaking of which, I have to wake up at 5:15 to catch the 7:00 bus out of (Buda)pest. So this is it for now. I hope you are enjoying reading this... whoever you are.

Blue Note

In some ways we change without realizing it. I arrived in Budapest today by bus, not really knowing where it would take me. When it finally dropped me off, I took a look around and thought, "You're kidding, right?" It didn't take us to a bus station; rather it dropped us off on the corner of some random street. It looked like a pretty run-down area where the bus company just happened to have bought a room for an office. I sent Marcus a text, hoping he was not too far. And then I tried to figure things out. I wasn't super worried. I was a bit anxious, but I knew it would work out. There was a time when the thought of being dropped off on a random street in Hungary would have freaked me out. But things have changed. I have changed. I've grown up.

A little.

When I quit my job at the Caledonian School and decided to travel, Budapest was the first place I went. And I went with Marcus. Three years later I'm here again with Marcus. We're walking the same streets. I have to say, it feels good.

When I started traveling then, I decided that I would keep a diary and a blog. I wanted to keep everyone up-to-date with my travels, but there were some things I wanted to keep to myself. I do recall, however, writing in that diary about how much more I liked Budapest than Prague. Being here one day has shown me that I think I still feel that way. Don't get me wrong. I loved Prague, but it had to grow on me. Budapest just feels different. Prague has a much heavier feel to it, if that makes any sense at all. This place is so much more open. It's in the architecture, the city streets, the atmosphere, everything.

Tonight Marcus and I sat for a while in a bar listening to a jazz duo. It was a bassist and a pianist. I could float away to that stuff. A common theme in my postings through the year has been the notion of a soundtrack to my life. It's quite ironic because I rarely listen to much music. I play sometimes, but it doesn't seem on the surface to be very important to my life. For some reason, though, I've always been fascinated by how much a relate my moods to music. It really was perfect. I just wish we had more venues like that in Murfreesboro. Sometimes I feel the States is so culturally bankrupt. The difference in pace and lifestyle is baffling. If I could import one thing to share with you all. It would be that.

There aren't any more pictures tonight. Here's one that I took on Marcus' iPhone wille drinking some vanilla cream "oops I thought it was coffee based" frozen drink. Stay tuned. Turkish baths and massage tomorrow.

Photo Moto

So today was a little better walking around Prague. There were some times when it was definitely good and reminded me of the old days. But after a few hours, it got kind of boring. I really feel like I've been whining the whole time I've been over here. I'm sorry for that.

The thing is I'm not really sure what I am over here. I'm not a tourist, I've lived here too long. I don't really live here either. I've kind of just been taking up space in the city. I did manage to meet up with a few old students of mine for lunch. It was great to see them. It seems, though, like everyone else who still lives around here is on holiday, though. Petr Samek, my private student who owns a music shop wasn't there when I visited, but he'll be back next week. Another student, Eva Fučikova (no joke, pronounced Foo-cheek'-ova) was also unavailable due to holiday plans. It wouldn't be so bad if Tom wasn't at work all day and I had something to do. I'm not one to walk around all day by myself. I need company. 

I did manage to go to this tea house I went to a few times when I lived here. I couldn't help but order the White Monkey Fujian Tea. I mean, with a name like that, how could I not. It reminded of me of the time I went skiing in the Czech Republic and ordered the Giant Mountain Spirit Anger for dinner. I'm not kidding... that's what it was called.

Anyway, I've decided to head for Budapest tomorrow to reconnect with my old friend Marcus and to meet some young people. It turns out I'll be meeting most of his friends at church tomorrow night. Seriously, I will have been to 3 months worth of church in the same number of weeks here in Europe. 

I'm going to upload quite a few pictures now. I won't caption them all; I don't have time. I need to sleep because I have to be out of here at 6:20 in the morning. If you want to call me to make sure I'm awake, go for it.

These four are the view I had from the place where I had a cold coffee drink today. It's the terrace atop a hotel call U Prince.

The next two are shots showing a real Czech classic snack. They basically take a common bread roll (called a rolik), carve out the center, and shove a hotdog in it. It's like the gyro's hotdog cousin.

I'll post more as time goes by. I really need sleep now. Cheers!