globes and maps are all around me now..

alright, so here's the plan; i'm going to write this in two posts. the first will be a quick summery of where i've been, what i've seen, ect of the last week or so, and the second will be a kind of final blog-where i'm at now kind of thing. make sense? doesn't matter, read on regardless.

budapest
not what i thought it would be, but lovely just the same. way too easy to get lost in that city-no joke. my new friend alex and i went on a lovely walk one evening after it finished raining and took pictures and had wonderful conversations. we also went to the baths, where it was impossible to not feel like a princess in a far off land! it was so beautiful, the water was so warm, the sun was so hot! my train ride leaving budapest was nice, i met a friendly girl who lived in vienna, and we talked about traveling and life issues. i missed my train to prague by a few minutes, so i camped out in vienna for the night..an experience i don't have the energy nor the will to write down here. let's just say that i made it through the night alive and leave it at that :)

prague
met up with alex again in prague (she left budapest the day before i did) and also met some nice turkish guys that alex had befriended the night before. the first night i was there we all took a walk to the hard rock cafe where some old men sure were rocking hard! we left shortly after said men finished jamming..we think maybe they had to go to bed, so we followed suit. alex left the next morning for Frankfurt and tried to convince me to follow her again, alas, prague was waiting to be explored, and my money was running low. i'll say now, that prague was the place i was most excited to go to. everyone i met last summer when i was backpacking through europe said, "prague's amazing, go! go! go! prague! prague! prague!" so..i went to prague. and now i'm left to say, "prague's amazing! go! go! go! prague! prague! prague!" it's the cutest little city that never gets old. you can really see everything in a solid eight hours walk, but you can also take your time and enjoy everything, keeping you there for days on end. sadly, there was a great deal of construction being done on the bridge, and travelers get restless when they're standing in the sun for a half hour without moving.

bratislava
i don't really know what to say about bratislava..i figured i'd go check it out since it cost me less than five euros there and back, so i suppose i could say it was worth it. the old town is really cute with lots of little shops, and on my first day of exploring i found an area with a stage set up and benches. i saw some people getting ready to sing, and it turns out that they were a christian tour that led worship, and then a paster came out and started talking to everyone. even though it was in Slovakian, it was nice to sit and enjoy. i felt that it was a lovely surprise from God, because i had a million and one things going on in my head that day, and i was wrestling spiritually with a lot of things. He'll never cease to amaze me. the following day i went up to the castle and had a picnic in front of the parliament building.

vienna (again!)
the thing i love about revisiting a city i've already been to is that i can feel so at home there. i spent a few nights at a friends house in vienna again to pick up my bags and just relax before heading to munich. after arriving thursday night, i went bowling with him and a few of his friends. friday i went to a park and lay in the sun, and saturday i headed to munich(just barely making my train)

munich
wow! i'm going through these fast! thankfully, the computer hasn't overheated yet.
okay, so i think i'm leaving a bit of my heart in munich. saturday night i walked into town (my hostel was about 20 minutes outside of the city center) and took a few pictures. the good thing is that i was already here before with teresa and toni when teresa and i flew in from dublin, so again, it felt a little familiar to me. sunday..wow! sunday was a great day in munich. i went to a modern art museum (it was only 1 euro to get in!) and observed some amazing art, and some ridiculous art, as you would expect to find in any modern art museum, i suppose. after the museum, i went to the park in munich, which is europes largest inner city park. shortly after entering, i cam across a massive group of people playing the drums, and people sitting in the grass watching. it was such a hippy fest. love x10! after a few hours of that, i continued my walking, and stumbled into a massive group of young guys riding bikes and doing tricks off this one building. they were having some kind of mini competition. shortly after, i was walking through a beautiful garden, and under a gazebo were ten or so couples swing dancing, with a crowd of people surrounding them. europe is the best place ever. there's something going on behind every corner! today i met up with kelsey, and we hung out for a few hours before meeting up with one of her german friends. it was so nice to hang out with someone from home, and to experience some german culture (i tried on a dirndl!)
so now, here i am in my hotel room (thanks sandy!) thinking about the plain tomorrow, and reflecting, which brings me to my next blog entry which i'm sure has been read already..