March 27

March 25

I was the only one in my apartment to wake up before 2pm, so I sat alone in our living room doing all of my math homework for the next few weeks. I finished trig, which is due the Wednesday after the Barcelona trip and precalc, which isn't due until two weeks after Barcelona. We don't think our teacher realized tat we have April 4th off...so we only have one more class with her and the exam until we're finished. Once everyone started waking up Jacqueline came down and we all decided we'd take a walk to the riverbed to attempt to fly her kite. Her parents sent her a care package with Easter candy and this very, very tiny kite...it's something Mom would have put in our Easter baskets, I think she has once, actually. Anyway, it was about 80 degrees outside and it was nice to just sit in the park and relax for a while.

March 26

Today was the beach day. Lia wanted everyone up and ready to go by 9:30...we all left around 10:30 and got to the beach by 11. It was super nice for the first hour or 2, but by 1 it started to get really windy, and therefore, cold. We came back and some of them left to go shopping, and I took a nap. Later I went for a walk around the city and I imagined how it had looked only a week earlier. There are still a lot of people, but not nearly as many, and I have yet to hear a firework/firecracker go off since March 19th, it's literally Heaven. On my way back I stopped for gelato, because I hadn't had it in a while. I actually wanted a hot fudge sundae from McDonald's, but the place was packed and the line was too long, so I figured I could get that in America, I might as well get gelato while I still can.

March 27

This morning I woke up and went to church. It was a lot less stressful than Palm Sunday and I could follow along more easily. I came home and made myself this very great, very large American breakfast: scrambled eggs, toast, and real bacon. Jacqueline came in later and made me feel bad for not doing micro work, so I kicked out 3 papers too. Then I went on a run/walk through the riverbed and came back here to plan Geneva. We're planning on blowing our budgets on $40 fondue for a night, we think it's well worth it. 

Tonight I also researched everything I could about actuarial science and I am freaking out. There is so much to do and so many classes...the internet people keep telling me it's rare to not fail a class and there is a 40% passing rate on the exams. The 7 exams I'd have to take at some point. It's rough, next year will definitely be a wake up call. I can't believe the semester is almost over, it's gone by way too fast.

March 24

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately. This week was "recovery" week, after Fallas, and next week we'll be in Barcelona (YES!). Classes are starting to slow down, as we only have 4 weeks left (eek) until the semester ends. It's starting to feel real. Jacqueline and I will head towards London and Lia and Brittany will be on their way to Florence. What are we going to do?! They're actually planning on visiting us in London, so, it won't be too bad, but it will definitely be super strange.

Lia and I actually had a really nice heart to heart on Tuesday night until 4am the next morning. It was just another night I was super grateful for the friendships I have made here and how excited I am to be with them for the next 3 years.

The attack on Brussels put FSU on high alert, but they have yet to discourage us from traveling, just advising major caution in Germany, Paris, London, Italy, especially the touristy locations. One of my friend's mom said, "You should go [to Brussels], if you don't go, you let them win." I am all about caution, but, like my mom has always said, "you can't live life in fear."

On the note of the upcoming election, my math professor had an interesting conversation with us. She thought the amount of guns Americans can get their hands on is appalling. She's completely against it, "Unless Trump becomes president, then everyone will need a gun...for suicide," she obviously has high hopes if he were to make it all the way. It is really interesting the point of view foreigners have on our election. Americans, I feel, have no care who the British Prime Minister or the President of France are, but here, the USA election is a BIG deal.

Today I registered for summer classes today and got pizza from San Tommaso (our second trip in a week) for dinner, and fro-yo for dessert. I did run, or at least I tried to, and did an insanity video today, so I totally earned it.

The plans for the weekend consist of the beach (and possibly shopping). Holy week is a huge deal in Spain so many stores were closed for Holy Thursday, more will be closed for Good Friday, opened on Saturday, and closed again on Sunday for Easter, and possibly even for "Easter Monday." I honestly don't feel like the Catholic customs are practiced much here (because it took forever to get a fish sandwich at McDonald's one Friday during Lent, at home, ours are stocked up...at least it appears that way).

March 20

March 20

Going into the church, for Palm Sunday, was an absolute madhouse. There were soooo many people, and 15 priests handing out communion. In Spain, they fight for their communion, like, no orderly lines, but pushing and shoving to the front. Now, imagine this with about 1,000 people coming in and out of the church, getting up on the alter and taking photos (while the Bishop is reading the Gospel)...It was terrible.

Then we went to a bull fight, but we didn't know it was a real bull fight until the morning of. We stayed for 2 bulls, one of which appeared to have "lost" but once someone went in for the kill shot, he got right back up and fought for a while longer. However, we left after that, because once we saw one, we've basically seen them all. 

March 21

Jacqueline walked into my living room at about 11:30 tonight and wanted to know if I'd be up for planning our July trip. Of course, I agreed, and now here we are at 1am planning Copenhagen, Brussels, and Luxemborg...I love traveling. I also love my friends because they all love traveling too! How convenient, this program is amazing! 

March 19 Fallas de San José

Las Falla Infintile for the
Carmen District

Scarred from the events of the previous night, I avoided most contact with the world outside of my apartment for the majority of the day. The last mascleta happened today, but I was not going to fight through crowds of people, in the rain, to hear the booms that I could easily hear from my apartment. I did not feel bad, because some tried to make me feel bad about it, because I have been to enough, it's not like I had never been. I really just hate the noise, and the crowds of people gathering around got larger and larger as the week went on.

I went to dinner at "Acai Bowl," which isn't the actual name of the place, but it's what we call it, with Jacqueline and Brittany. Then we got dessert at San Tommaso, even though they sadly ran out of what we actually wanted. Then we came back to get ready for the burnings.

The children's structures, the smaller ones, were burned first between 10 and 11. The 'bombers' (firefighters, an awful name, isn't it?) have to be present at all burnings, so not all 200+ can burn at once. Ours went off around 10:30 and the firefighters were hosing down the trees with water, the poor things. We discovered, though, that before each burning, fireworks are shot off, for about a minute beforehand, to let everyone know that a burning is taking place. Fireworks were going off every few minutes and when we were walking towards the city center we could see several and we knew that something was going up in flames.

We stood in one spot for 2 hours waiting for the burning of the main Falla. We were basically 10 rows back, from the closest they'd allow us to be. It was a great spot and the conversations/arguments we had going for that hour were brilliant. The fireworks that went off before the main Falla, at 1am, were freaking crazy. They were 10x louder than normal, and a few went off that didn't shoot upward, but just sounded like a bomb going off. It shook the ground, and as one of my friends said before, "it shook my soul," they were terrifying. The blinding lights of the certain fireworks are terrible, but the sound is just, eughhh. The sound also echos and bounces from the buildings, so you can still hear them going off minutes after they've actually stopped.



The burning itself was pretty neat too. At first is seemed like nothing really caught on fire, but then something happened and it was gone. The person was made entirely of wood, so it burned super quick. We could feel the heat and we were probably 200 yards away from it. The Valencian anthem was played/sung, as it was at every burning, and people cheered as everything began to crumble.

The remnants of  Falla

March 18 Part II

I hate Fallas. I hate the noise. I hate the people. I hate the children. I hate the explosives. I hate the fact that I almost died tonight. Jacqueline and I were especially running through a war zone. I never want to do that again. Ever. I completely understand why Valencians leave during Fallas. It sucks.

March 17

March 16

We had a required FSU Fallas activity after classes, which was a tour of the Fallas with our teachers or program employees. My group was with my math teacher, which was exciting because she is from Valencia and she could tell us all about it. Her plans for this weekend, actually include, leaving Valencia, because she doesn't enjoy Fallas. We were told most Valencians do this because it has become a very large, and touristy festival. We didn't see much that we hadn't before and eventually we split apart from the group and went for dinner. Jacqueline, Lia, Brittany, and I all settled for street food, particularly the french fries and chorizo sandwiches being sold. Although, probably not sanitary, it was a great dinner regardless.

When we returned Jacqueline and Brittany's apartment was absolutely trashed...so we messed with everyone that was apart of it...

March 17

St. Patrick's Day! We had classes, but most we out and about around the city and it was as though we didn't actually have class. We walked around, although we didn't get far, due to the crowds of people. Once again, Brittany, Lia, and I ate food from the vendors for lunch, watched the masceleta, and headed back for the apartment. At one point throughout the night 7 of us ended up in Aleesia's bedroom just relaxing and having the strangest conversations before going out. We all made our dinners and then hit the bars early, because Cici couldn't be out late. 

Around 1 we went towards the riverbed to watch the fireworks. We were really close to them this time around and it was actually super cool. They included fireworks that were shapes, like smileys, hearts, and stars, but I really just love the ones that don't really explode, but just kind of shimmer. 

We walked back to the apartment and Jacqueline and attempted a challenge, that didn't go quite right...but was fun nonetheless. We called it a night around 3am, while Brielle, Logan and Marilyn went back out.

March 18

All 485 neighborhoods parade to the Virgin Fountain
and offer flowers to the Virgin Mary

Jacqueline and I woke up early to go get massages. It was glorious after last night, besides the waking up part. We were given a discount when paying, got Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts (new to the VLC last month) and came back to Gold for naps. Nothing much has happened since then. I am very tired of Fallas, because everyday is pretty much the same. The same fireworks, masceleta, parades, light shows etc. so today I just took a break from it all. We'll probably go out tonight, as well, if only to see the fireworks, but at least I won't be exhausted from the day.

The Offering started March 17 at 3pm-12am
And continued March 18 at 3pm-12am

Parade of women heading towards
The Offering

March 15

March 14

I wasn't feeling super well, so I went to Spanish class, got my exam grade, 91% :D and then went to the store to buy bread. White bread, cause, toast, Mom taught me well. I ate my toast and then went to take my pre-calc exam. The exam went well, I think, but my friends have me really nervous. I got finished in an hour and a half, which really isn't that bad, but my friends were there for an hour, and hour and a half after me...They're not super confident about the exam, but I keep feeling like I missed something because I finished so early.

Later, once my friends all finished we went out in search for food for them. The place they wanted was closed so we ended up at another cheque place. I ended up getting something small, so that was okay, and after dinner we went to the lights.

The light show is a big deal here...like, hundreds of people show up at 9/9:30 to watch these lights dance to music for 5 minutes. It was really cool, we also saw more Fallas on our walk to and from.

March 15

I started my morning with a walk, because running just seemed like a lot of work before class. Then I actually went to class, but that was shortened by an hour and a half, There was a bull fight today...that I did not attend, but others did, so they let us out early. 

We walked around to see some more Fallas, because they all need to be up by the 15th, so many are going up now. There are a lot of fairly, vulgar, statutes, but that's okay, we definitely get a laugh out of it. 

Later we went to Tako Away for dinner and then headed for the lights again, because Jacqueline and Heather hadn't been. It seemed to go by faster the second time, but we also didn't wait as long. I was not feeling as great about it today as I was yesterday. There were too many close people, too much weed and smoke, and too many explosions going on around us. We had split from Lia, Marilyn and Jacqueline, but somehow ran into them again and started making our way back home around 11. Now, the fireworks started at 12 and lasted about 20 minutes. They were pretty spectacular, but I cannot understand why Valencia spends so much money on all of this stuff. It's insane! 

Aleesia, Jacqueline and I got back before the rest of the crew. They all came in about 15 minutes after us, screaming at each other and suddenly everyone invited themselves into our kitchen. Our kitchen can comfortably hold about 8 people, there were twice that. They were screaming over each other, they started drinking, and they started playing really loud videos...like, really loud. I was soooooo done. Marilyn got everyone out though, earlier than expected, she's my favorite person ever. 

Once they all left, we (Aleesia, Jacqueline and myself) had about 5 minutes of peace before they dragged me to the street food stand 3 blocks down. Mind you, it's 1:30 in the morning, and I was in my sweatpants and Jacqueline wore crocs. We definitely stood out. There were tons of people there, watching the finishing of the structure next to the stand. At 1/2am is when they begin adding the finishing touches to the structures. They all have to be done by a the morning of March 16th, so they work through the night. People were working and people were watching and they were dressed appropriately, but we made memories. Tonight, as in, this last half an hour, was really spectacular. 

March 12 Barcelona

Jacqueline and I got up before 9, on a Saturday, to catch our 10 am bus to Barcelona. It took about 4 and a half hours to get there, so the ride itself was pretty bad, but the rest of the day was spectacular. We walked straight to the hostel from the bus station (only an 8 minute walk) to get checked in and get caught up on our social media accounts.

We went for lunch around 3pm, and vowing not to spend any money, we found a place that took cheques. It wasn't bad, but ti wasn't the best either. It was chillier than expected, so as we started walking around the outskirts of Barcelona we found a Starbucks and stopped in for a few minutes. The hot chocolate at this Starbucks was much better than the ones back in Valencia, I was super excited. Then we went on the hunt for dessert, which really was us finding a grocery store so we could get candy. This is very unusual for Jacqueline and myself, but we're on vacation, technically, and that would be dinner, so it's justified. 

After finding dessert we started to venture towards the concert hall. We walked to the beach and Olympic Port, which is somewhere we had both been before. I did not, however, make it to the Barcelona beach my first 2 trips to Barcelona, so we stopped, and took photos. We also walked through this park, right in front of the zoo, where people were picnic-ing and the atmosphere was great. 

When we got to the venue, we waited in the wrong line for about 20 minutes, and when we found the correct line, it was wrapped around over half the building! It was interesting, to say the least. James Bay is from England, so there were people from all over to see him. We met people from England, Ecuador, Germany, and the Spanish were everywhere too. The line started moving and we got in without a problem (other than the fact that they wanted to throw out my water bottle, but we fixed that). Once inside, we were trying to figure out where to stand, when I suggested going up to the second level and sitting on the railing. Others were doing it, and we were sure glad we did. Our spots were amazing, and we didn't have to stand or be pushed the entire time like those standing in front of the stage. The concert was absolutely terrific and Jacqueline and I were in agreement that this trip to Barcelona was well worth it.

Once the concert was over, we walked back to the hostel, and it only took about 20 minutes! It really amazes me that this hostel was in prime location for us, that is really rare for us...I will never get over it. We woke up at 6:30 on the 13th to catch our bus back to Valencia, but we didn't have to wake up any earlier, because it was less than a 10 minute walk to the bus station!

Anyway, I love Barcelona, it is by far one of my favorite cities in Spain. I'll be back with FSU, for my 4th time, in 2 weeks, once Fallas is done. I cannot wait. Barcelona is literally the best.

March 11

I woke up "early" on Friday to finish my micro exam before all of the festivities for the day began. After my exam I watched my classmates make paella, but, paella takes forever to cook, so I bailed after an hour and a half of standing in the sun. It was very much like a tailgate, Spanish style, though. That was pretty awesome. It was before noon and every already had their large glasses of beers, mojitos, and sangria in their hands. The smell was wafting through the air and everyone was having a good time. If only there was a football game that everyone could have watched afterwards.

Lia got me to leave the apartment again, to go to lunch with her. The paella competition had finished so Marilyn, Emily, Alanna, and Jacqueline joined us. On our way back from lunch we explored a little and decided to get ourselves some stuffed churros. With Fallas going on, all of these stands have popped up everywhere and are serving these 'once a year' treats, including stuffed (with chocolate, cream, or orange) churros, which can also be rolled in chocolate, and buñuelos, which are basically fried balls of dough. We are going to take advantage of these stands. I don't like churros and chocolate, they are very overrated, but I love it when they are stuffed with chocolate. Yum! We also stumbled upon a structure being put together in front of the Central Market.

Once I got back to the apartments, Javier informed me that I had a package at the front desk. They were cupcakes from mis padres. I was surprised for my "middle of the semester" treat, and my friends were probably more excited than me. Lia and I then did our day 2 of insanity, because I was going to make her work for the cupcakes. While I'm discussing all of the sugar I ate throughout the day, I also had a piece (or 2) of carrot cake in honor of it being Dad's birthday! And before the night was over, we bought our traditional Fallas shirts, with the FSU logo and the logo of our Fallas House. The photo is us modeling for the FSU Valencia Facebook page. Friday was a marvelous day. 

March 8

Today we had a group meeting to discuss Fallas. The do's and don't, what to expect, how to get into out Fallas House parties. It's so great! I'm excited! People are lighting off fireworks throughout the day and children are setting off firecrackers. There are people everywhere and small explosions going off every second.

Today, Brittany and I went to the mascelta, where they set off fireworks at 2 in the afternoon. The town square is packed, and people stopped working to watch this take place...every day since February 29th until March 19th, when they burn the statues.

This particular show was done by Reyes Marti, the only female pyrotechnic in Spain. Appearntly, she "won" for the best show last year, but we don't know how you can win, when shooting off fireworks during the day. The smoke was everywhere, and you could see very little sparks. It was super weird though, when the smoke got so dark that it shaded us from the sun for a second or 2. I just cannot believe that Valencians spend millions on structures that they are going to burn, as well as a constant 5 minute show of explosives, that you can't even see, for 3 weeks straight plus the ones at night, for 4 days before Fallas.

Mascleta 8 de Marzo 2016. Fallas Valencia 2016. Pirotecnia Reyes Martí

Spring Break: Prague

March 2

We got a later start on the day than normal but we still made it to the 10am free walking tour. Our tour guide really, really liked to talk. He told us about the Astronomical Clock, and how underneath the clock are 365 names that are in accordance with the 365 days of the year, (the Saint names and the days they are celebrated, basically). He told us about how if you had a name that wasn't on the clock, you were basically shunned and people who had names on the clock normally hated them (which reminded me of Grandma Glesser), but they couldn't change them. The tour lasted for another 3 hours before we finally got to leave for lunch. 

Intrigued by this clock/name situation I was curious to if my Grandma's name was on the clock. It is on July 11th. I then asked my dad for Grandma's siblings names. I could find their names, or what I think is the Czech version of their names for Mary (Marie), Andrew (Andrej), David, Martha (Marta), Arthur (Artur), Robert, but Loretta isn't on the clock. Mom told me that Loretta dies when she was very young, and it's just really strange because her name isn't on the clock. Interesting. Regardless, being in Prague really hyped me up about Czechoslovakia and the history of the land and everything. 

We went to a twisty thing place, that Kathy had sent me a link to the day before, where they put ice cream, fruits, and chocolate into the cones. It was pretty spectacular. I got mine with chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream. We ate as we walked along the river towards the Dancing House. We went up to the top but didn't go out on the terrace, We passed churches and the train station then we went back to the hostel for a small break before dinner. The guy working at the hostel suggested this weird medieval place. It was dimly lit and the servers were dressed for the time. It was weird. Emily and I, and Logan and Jacqueline, split a pork knuckle. Jacqueline got a pork knuckle in Munich and has not stopped talking about it. This one we had was not nearly as good as the one in Germany, but it was interesting for sure. The only other people in our dining area were British, and they were very, very loud and super drunk. It was pretty entertaining. 

We stopped a at convenience store for some dessert like items, and after talking to Mom for a while at the hostel I decided she'd get cookies so I got cookies. It was a great decision on my part, they were pretty good. There was a lot of arguing going on and Jacqueline and I were/are just trying to keep the peace.

Step Count: 22,589

March 3

We (me, Jacqueline, and Lia) wanted Thursday to be an easier, more relaxed day. That didn't necessarily happen, Emily wasn't going to let that happen. So, through compromise, we walked to the John Lennon wall, the castle and saw some churches, how exciting? Honestly, after being in Europe for so long, all churches start to look very, very similar. The climb to the top of the castle graced me with the best hot chocolate I had ever had, better than Paris, though, so that's a positive to come from it. Jacqueline and I ended up splitting from Lia and Emily, which is funny because those two were not and are not on the best terms. That was their problem though. Jacqueline and I walked in and out of 2 or 3 different chocolate shops, and I held off and didn't get anything, but man, I could've. We met up with Emily and Lia for lunch and then we walked around one of the malls in Prague. Lia wanted to "shop," but I don't think she really bought anything...and Jacqueline and I were falling asleep watching her walk in and out of stores with nothing, so we left. We went for dinner around 8 and I got this realy great burger and fries...it was much needed. There was more arguing and Lia kept Jacqueline outside talking until 11ish. I was getting really angry, because we still had to pay and we had to find a way to the airport in the morning, and they weren't back at the hostel yet. Lia felt bad when she found out I had been keeping myself awake for them, but once we got everything sorted out I finally got to sleep.

Step Count: 19,887

March 4

We were up at 5:30 to walk to the metro that took us to the bus that would take us to the airport. We made it through security in about 2 minutes...it was empty. Our flight didn't leave until 8:50 and it was 7:15 when we finally got to the terminal, so Jacqueline and I decided to get some breakfast at an airport restaurant. The server was not the nicest and was very upfront about his tip. I didn't want to give him one, but he didn't let me handle my credit card, like the rest of Europe, so "and I'll add on a 10% tip, is that okay?" Like, no, bro, you were rude when we walked in, and you charged Jacqueline for butter and you're just awful. But, I just sucked it up, because it was less that 50 Crowns, which is less than 2 euros...but, still.

We had a small, 2 seats per side plane on the way to Dusseldorf, which reminded me of flights to Florida with Mom. Lia thought we were going to crash flying into Dusseldorf. The plane was shaking for the 2 minutes before landing and it was just rough. She was really thankful, as was someone else in the back who started clapping once we landed. The guy in front of Lia, who helped her with her bag earlier, was trying to calm her down, and he was laughing, it was pretty funny. We made it though. Then our flight into Valencia was nice, a little rocky, but not much. This was the first flight that I didn't have the row to myself, but that was okay, because I was going home.

Spring Break: Vienna

February 29

Once we got off the bus, after a 4 hour bus ride, we took a metro to a stop close to our hostel and then walked through the rain to get there. The lady at the front desk actually gave us an upgrade, as upgraded as one can get in a hostel, and put the 4 of us in a private room for no extra cost. Knowing we had less than 24 hours in Vienna we broke out the maps and planned our path. We got dinner and then walked around the museums, Parliament, and City Hall, which had a huge ice rink in front of it. At City Hall there were vendors selling goodies so Emiy and I bought a bag of almonds that were covered in crushed Raffaello, they were pretty spectacular. The weather was really nice this night so we ended up exploring a bit more than expected and we got a little lost. We made it back okay, though, and called it a night around midnight.

Step count: 30,305

March 1

The first day of March was absolutely terrible for weather. I actually mentioned how it felt like track weather and my southern friends were appalled. It was sleeting and super windy, it was dreadful. We walked to this market, which I had hoped would be inside, early in the morning. Lia and Emily were dragging their feet a bit with the free samples they kept getting offered and tensions were rising. It was freezing cold and Jacqueline and I couldn't have been more that 500 yards in front of them, but we were in that same spot for over 10 minutes until Emily and Lia finally caught up.We decided then would be a good time to get breakfast, at a coffee shop across from the half empty market.


At breakfast, Jacqueline checked her e-mails, and good thing she did, because our departure time had been moved. We now left at 5 instead of 3 in the afternoon, so we didn't have to hurry as much, but that meant we were in the cold much longer. Once we finished eating we walked to the palace, and stopped at a bookstore along the way. I actually bought as well, it is very large and really expensive, but I figured I'll enjoy it and I'll have 50 days to read through it. When we got to the palace we found out we'd have to pay, and it wasn't a little bit, they wanted us to pay 18 euros...that's not worth it. The gardens were free, however, so we walked through those. I'm sure they are much more beautiful in the summer as opposed to the rainy, snowing, windy day we were having. We made it back to the hostel for our bags and took the metro back to the bus station. There were about 20 people on a bus that could fit 50, so they must have changed our time because there was no point in sending 2 buses.

Step count: 24, 972

Spring Break: Budapest

February 26

We didn't have a 6am flight like everybody else, hallelujah, so we slept in, ate some breakfast, then headed for the airport around noon. Our first flight was to Dusseldorf and it felt like forever, then we had a short layover there and onto Budapest we went. Both times I had the entire row of seats to myself, which was glorious. Our friends, Logan, Brielle, and Emily were flying out of Barcelona and straight into Budapest and we ended up flying in around the same time, so we met up at the airport in Budapest. We exchanged some currency, and then shared a cab to the hostel we were all staying at. We got in and settled to the hostel around 9 and we headed out for a quick dinner. The dinner was Hungarian food, buffet style. It was 5 euros for all you can eat, so we decided it was a steal. The food wasn't the best quality, but it gave us a chance to experience different types of Hungarian food, kind of like tapas.

Step count: 10,000

February 27

The plan was to start the morning, 6am, at the hot springs. Jacqueline, Emily, and Lia all brought their bathing suits...I didn't. I was going to wake up with them, and I did, but after a quick researching session, I realized I couldn't go into the Szechenyi Bathhouse with them, so I went back to sleep. They got back in around 9:45 and after our free breakfast (toast and jam) we went for a free walking tour around Budapest. It was a 3 hour walking tour and they gave us a little bit of history on Budapest. Buda and Pest are actually two different cities and Pest is pronounced "pesh," not "pest." After the tour we went to lunch and then we got Kürtőskalács, which I call "the twisty thing." Kürtőskalács are a dough rolled around a cylinder, baked and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar topping. We had one of these in Berlin during fall break, and once we realized they were well known throughout Hungary and the Czech Republic we were stoked. 

On our walk back to the hostel, in the afternoon, we came across a bookstore. Jacqueline has to get a book form every country we visit, so we went into a few and she came out with a book. We went back to the hostel so they could nap, or at least, rest, then we walked towards the Jewish Quarter for dinner. Dinner ended up being dessert with hot chocolate, which was fine for me, but after dessert we tried to find a club called Szimpla It is one of the best known clubs in Budapest, but for whatever reason we couldn't find it and we were exhausted so after an hour of searching we went back to the hostel.

Step count: 23,381

February 28

We finally found Szimpla, after we had a good nights rest. The night club also hosts a market on Sundays, so that's where we started our day. It's really large and has an upper and lower portion, as well as an outside patio. The place is covered in graffiti and very strange piece of artwork. Walking from the outside portion in smelled like the coleslaw truck from the festival. It was definitely nostalgic. We walked around and came across the largest synagogue in Europe. It was freezing, so we sat in for some coffee (hot chocolate) before exploring some more. 

Emily, Jacqueline, myself and Lia all climbed up to the top of Lady Liberty on the Pest side of Budapest. There were tons of stairs, and it felt like climbing to the top of Montmarte in Paris. The view was well worth the trek. We stopped for a quick lunch after the climb and then walked around a bit. We came across the Parliament building and we walked onto the island that sits between Buda and Pest. We took photos around the island and Jacqueline and Emily had a brilliant idea to climb a tree, although not a very large one, but this lead to some problems. The two of them got up easily, but then Lia wanted to join. Lia then goes and tries to jump up to them, while they try to grab her and she's laughing so hard and her bladder is so full that she pees herself. I got it on video and we have many photos. We won't ever let her live it down, and it wasn't just a little, it was a lot. Then we had to go back to the hostel so she could change and once she was finished we headed back out.

We walked to Hero's Gate and we watched people ice skating. This was the last day for the ice rink to be open, so there were hundrereds of people there. We happened to sit down and be on the side where the expereinced skaters were...after 10 minutes or so we realized they were playing sharks and minnows (basically tag) on skates. It was mind blowing. We walked around the castle, which was cool because it was dark and it was kind of eerie, then we went for some Hungarian dinner. I had to go all out on dinner because I had 5,000 of their currency left to spend. I got homemade strawberry lemonade (lemonade is a big thing over here, apparently), goulash soup, and chicken paprikash. It tasted like home.

Step count: 32,241

February 29

We "slept in" on Monday, but there were these sirens that went off 5 or 6 times before 8 am so I was wide awake by then. We ate breakfast around 9 and then started walking the 3 miles to the bus station. The station was on the outskirts, of the outskirts of the city, but we didn't want to have to pay for a taxi, so we just sucked it up. We had the station in our sights when it started to rain, so we really just missed it, which was great for us. Off to Austria we went.