"The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world."
-- John Buroughs
I feel that there is a need to apologize for my lack of blogs - it's not that I haven't been doing anything fun and exciting, it's more that I came back to Lisieux, worked for 5 weeks, and than had a 2 week vacation. So really, in my mind, not that long has passed and not that much has happened since my January post. Though, I might have had 2 weeks, I really only traveled for one of them - the rest of the time was spent trying to not freak out about freaking out about not freaking out about what I was doing with my life post-TAPIF, sleeping the day away (while it rained cats and dogs), and applying to jobs, figuring out travel plans, and participating in TakeCaitlinToWorkDay via FaceTime.
So, vacation. Vacation, eh? Va-ca-ti-on, vaaaaacation, vacationvacationvacationvactionvacation, vacation! Hope everyone is getting all of this down.
Budapest, Hungary. Where old meets new, where street food is all the rage, where ruin pubs are the coolest things ever, where there's something new, something historical, something fascinating just waiting around the corner to be found. And like always in Europe, where the majority of museums are free to teachers/students...which when on a budget is awesome, because it means you can spend more money on aforementioned food and beer....which in Eastern Europe is fantastic.
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| Museum of Fine Arts - home to Rembrandt |
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| Heroes' Square |
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| Ice Skating |
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| St Stephen's Basilica |
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| Parliament Building |
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| Inside the Thermal Baths |
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| Mathias Church |
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| Buda hills |
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| National Gallery |
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| Buda Castle over Chain Bridge |
Prague, Czech Republic. Where old is still old, where kolace pastries and chimney cakes reign supreme, where the building architecture means you are in a living and breathing art gallery, where there's something historical and ancient waiting to be discovered just down that narrow, twisting cobbled streets. And much like Budapest, where the beer is cheap, delicious and always available.
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| Astronomical Clock |
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| Prague Castle from Charles Bridge |
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| Inside the Municipal House |
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| Municipal House |
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| Kafka statue |
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| Mirror Chapel in Clementinum |
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| John Lennon Wall |
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Prague Old Town
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I think it's important to point out that to get from Budapest to Prague, I took a night bus - 11pm to 7am - through Bratislava. I can officially check "take a night bus" off my Bucket List - it is long, uncomfortable (either a sauna or a freezer, no in between), and border patrol/passport checks happen either way too often or not enough.
So to wrap up Eastern Europe: delicious and cheap beer, many delicious pastries, and worth returning to for another visit.
