Day 10, July 30th, Paris, France

Got up early again, but this time was to get a jump on the showers. My room of 6 people and 1 bathroom wasn't gonna be fun. Then I just got packed and checked out early. I just sat around the lobby of the hostel and used the internet for a couple of hours. I thought about actually trying to see a little more of Munich OR I could go back to Olympic park during the day or go have breakfast somewhere. Nope, didn't do it, I guess today was pretty much a resting day.

I started out with a Brezel (pretzel) at the train station, that was the extend of the German food for me, oh well. Train pulled out of Munich at 10:23 and I had 2 trains to take to Paris. It was pretty full the whole way there and it was difficult to get pictures. It was pretty and in some areas it was really interesting to see that there were vineyards on steep hill sides that stretched out for at least a mile. And they were in little sections, a few rows would do vertical, then a few rows horizontal. It was quite interesting to see and I don't think I was even in France at this point, I'm pretty sure I was in mid-Western Austria. The country side of France was very pretty, very green and lush. The little villages/towns (can't say for sure what they are, I don't know the dynamics of the place), were just adorable, from a small snipped to sight via train. But the ride towards the end was getting really long, 6 hours, but this was the fast train, so it could have been worse. I got in at 4:30 and was very proud of myself to find the subway, asked what line I needed and got to my hotel in very little time!!!

I chose a hotel for Paris and it is a very small, quaint, old building. The elevator was so tiny that I almost couldn't fit in it with my backpacks on, lol. It is a little bitty room w/ a Twin bed, perfect for 1 person and I think the shower is bigger in a camper then this one, but I like it and I'm really spending a very little bit of time here. I got things settled and head out to Hard Rock Cafe. It was only blocks away and easy to find this time, that goodness. So I hung out there and then slowly walked back the the hotel to take in the sites and sounds of Paris... not knowing, I'd take in the sounds all night until the wee hours of the morning, like 4am! Oh well, life it good!

Day 9, Wednesday July 29th, Munich, Germany

6:14 train!!!! I got everything ready the night before and there was no traffic that early in Vienna, took us 10 mins to get there. The train was really nice, I think it was new. Gaby and I said our goodbyes and I was off to Germany. It was a much better ride for pictures this time around and I was kinda kicking myself that I didn't stay in Saulzberg when I saw it from the train while making a quick stop. It was pretty and the mountains were great, then I reminded myself, I live in the Rockies, I have bigger mountains. But I guess it's always nice to see others, and makes you appreciate where you live. I did make an attempt to at least get some pictures of them. They are pretty.

Once in Munich, my hostel was 2 blocks away from the train, awesome!! But I got there at 10:30 and check in was 2, haha oh well. This place was crawling with 20 somethings, but mostly English speaking, yeay. I guess Wombats was an Australian owned place, so it catered to their country folk. Luckily, at 11 a free walking tour started, so everyone hanging around the lobby left. This place was really cool and I'd recommend it to anyone, if you can handle a big house party at night. Anyways, I stored my bag and went back to the train station to get a ticket to Paris, 135 Euros, not too bad, 6 hours and only 1 change. Ok, off to Hard Rock Cafe #1!!!!! I had two maps, one of the city from the hostel and 1 printed from google to give me directions to HRC. Even if you know exactly where you are, it is still difficult to read a map in another language! So, I walked and walked and walked and walked some more. Luckily I was taking pictures at the same time, because I was WAY past it. But I did finally find it and was happy to get into some A/C and get a nice tall Mojito! I also had a chicken sandwich. I thought the menus were the same in all locations, but there aren't, I guess over here it is the American version of food. It was good though. Across the ally was the famous Hoffbrau house. It was going crazy with a band and tons of people drinking beer. It was super busy and seemed like a place for groups of people, I felt a little out of place alone, so I just walked around for a few. Back out on the street, I promptly went the wrong direction AGAIN, haha. So I decided that I was going to take the subway, per my map, it would take me right back to my hostel, perfect! And it pretty much did. Since I was so hot, again upper 80 degree day, I rested for a bit. I knew there was more of Munich to see, like Olympic Park, but I figured I'd just miss it. When I checked in, I got a ticket for a free small beer (it was a cute little thing), so I decided that since the bar opened at 6 I'd head down. Again, I was feeling a bit out of place, but I decided to just drink and check e-mail and stuff. Gotta love a hostel that has WiFi in it for free. Finally, 2 guys from Munich sat down and started to chat with me, and they gave me some of their beer, whoo hoo. Theirs names were Boris and Stanly. Boris was originally from Slovenia and Stanly was from Nigeria. I asked them what I should do that night or where I could see the city from a hill or something. Their suggestion, the observation tower at Olympic Park!!! Yeah, that's awesome. So they gave me directions, then decided to walk me to the subway. While walking and talking, Stanly thought it would be cool to see it too, so he just went along with me, Boris' girlfriend was already calling him wondering why his beer was taking so long, haha. When we walked up the stairs, is my shock and amazement... it was BMW's World Headquarters!!!!!!! It was beautiful!!!! I couldn't believe I was actually standing in front of it, I had seen pictures and Bob told me it was in Munich, but this place is huge, so I never thought I'd get a chance to see it. I was so excited I was dancing around (surprising right? I'm a little crazy) The museum for BMW is at the base of the building, and was closing shortly, so we hurried in and took a peak around. The store inside was already closed, but I got a good look around, and of course pictures. Then we headed up the observation tower (it has a name, but I can't remember it) and look out over Munich. I was really huge!!!! Got there just as the sun was going down, so the lights of the city were on and it was an amazing view. After that we had a glass of wine in the bar that rotates, that was fun. Stanly was very nice and made sure I got back to my SUPER noisy hostel and was on his way.

I was kinda surprised, I got put in a room with 5 other people, 4 guys and 1 girl, it was a family from Poland that were there for the soccer finals. It was weird, but they were quiet sleepers so I didn't really mind. The hostel was built so well that once you were in your room, the only noise you could here was from the street, nothing from the bar downstairs, it was great!

Day 8, Tuesday July 28th Vienna, Austria

I got to sleep in, yeay! And after a nice breakfast and doing some laundry, we headed to the city center of Vienna. More walking, oh boy! But 1st, Gaby took me to the Bank Austria to exchange my Hungarian Forint for Euros, she was able to do it for free, so that was awesome! Then McD's, of course and then to the train station next door to buy my ticket to Munich, I'm so glad we did that! 49 Euros, not bad, but I have to leave at 6:14am, oh well, it saves me money.

Then the walking and riding on the metro/tram begins, LOTS of it. Office buildings, national buildings, opera houses, city hall, concert halls, palaces and Churches, my oh my. I took lots of pictures and of course it was hot as haties again, but at least there was a nice breeze today. It really was a beautiful city, but I think we were trying to take in too much at a time. I'm not even quite sure I remember all of the buildings. I'll have to study my pictures when I get home. Although, while Gaby was practicing her English with me, she over explained everything, so it is quiet possible, once I see the pics, I'll remember. I kinda felt bad because the over explaining was with everything and I was kinda getting annoyed, haha

The one building I do remember very well is St. Stevens Cathedral, it was breathtaking! This was the only building we went inside of and I'm so glad we did. It had enormous stained glass windows, as to be expected and an extravagant pipe organ. I'm sure my jaw was on the floor the entire time I was in this church. We didn't spend much time here but it was just enough, amazing. But all of this was almost overwhelming. I even passed up a walk down a hill to part of a Palace, just because we would have to walk back uphill to leave.

I guess lunch wasn't on the schedule of my tour guide, since it was after 2 and she explained that most restaurants were not open. So we went back to McD's to look at something on the net and I could down a bottle of water and some fries. I was getting dehydrated, and Gaby admitted that she forgets to drink water. So, by this point, I've now noticed that my knees and ankles have swollen, lol. What do I do to myself! The other really funny thing is, while walking in the city center, it is full of horse carriages! Yep, I'm allergic to horses!!! Great, they were everywhere, I don't have to even touch the things for me to get sneezy! Oh boy again! So needless to say I was not exactly enjoying this walking and sneezing. But it was worth it, I got to see it all.

Lastly, we went to dinner by car, even Gaby was sick of public transportation by now. I had the traditional Schnitzel, a breaded piece of flat pork w/ fries. Not bad a little plain and then I finished it with a piece of "Apfelstrudel". Another local fair, pretty good, but kinda plain for a desert, next time, Italy, just for the desserts, LOL We also went to some famous Farris wheel so I could see it, then we were both done with walking. I really didn't have ankles anymore! Oh the price I pay for wanting to see everything!

Day 7, July 27th, 09, Vienna (Wien), Austria

I was up early to pack up and head to McD's for the last time in Budapest. I was excited to be getting on my way to Vienna. The guy at the Hostel (the only helpful one) gave me detailed directions on how to get to the international train via the Metro, sweet, cuz this big backpack was heavy for some reason. I guess I packed it wrong. So I made my way to the train, boarded and headed West. I learned that you don't ask for help at a train station, then employees appear to be helpful, then want a tip. I guess that's typical. I was looking forward to taking pictures along the way, but Hungary kinda looks like a green version of Eastern Colorado/ Nebraska. Lots of corn, energy wind mills and rolls of hay. Nothing to write home about, haha.

I got into Vienna at 12:15 and we hit the ground running. There was definitely a difference in the two cities that are called sister cities. Budapest is the dirty one and Vienna the new and exciting one. The architecture was much different and more modern in some places. There is a LOT of graffiti in both cities though. I met up with Gaby, a lady I met in Mexico in Dec of 2007, she and I both were traveling solo there and we met and had dinner 1 night. We exchanged e-mail addresses and had kept in touch, so I ask if I could visit while traveling in Europe. So, Gaby met me at the station and we set out on our whirlwind tour of her city. She's a fast walker and I was already feeling my legs wanting to fall off. Gonna be a long 2 days. After a quick lunch at her flat we headed out via the Metro to a royal palace called Schonbrunn, it was the home of Franz Joseph and Elizabeth Sisi (she was famous in Hungary). It was a amazing place and we walked around for quiet a while, took a bunch of pictures and stopped for an Austrian beer in the cafe. There was so much to see here and we were dripping with sweat, it was again in the upper 80's, yikes. I was told I must have brought the head with me, not normally like this. At least it's been dry. We then went around the city a little bit, went back to the flat to shower and we were off again to the Wien Film Festival. I was told it was a good place to get "different" foods. All the food was either Greek, Chinese or American... lol, there was 1 stand that was from Iran and another from Australia too. I went with some kebab dish from Iran. All the menus were in German too, I just pointed at the sample. I don't even know what it was called, but Gaby took a picture of me eating it. Then we had Austrian Dumplings! Oh wow, those were GOOD! I could have had an entire plate of those for dinner. Chocolate, Strawberry and Apple, yumm. Each food stand also had a punch bowl with a different alcoholic fruit drink in them, some mango, some strawberry, rasberry and I ended up w/ palmagranet... tasted like a sort of ketchup, uck, I don't like ketchup on my fries, let alone drinking it! LOL. It was a pretty strong drink too. 1st strong drink I've had on the trip, not bad. I surprised Gaby by having a conversation w/ a couple that shared the table with us. She came back from getting a drink and these people had started to talk to me. I guess, in Austria, people don't just strike up conversation w/ strangers. I must just bring that out in people, haha. After we hung around for a bit, Gaby drove me to a hill that was a great place to see the city at night. It was beautiful and I got a really good picture. I was really cool to see the lights along the Danube river in a different city. We had just spent 11 1/2 hours going and the next day was going to be worse! hmmmm

Day 6, July 26th. Budapest, Hungary

RACE DAY!!!!!! So exciting, that I didn't get much sleep, lol. I got up at 6:15 and headed over to McDonald's to use the internet. Check out a few ways to get to the race and then picked the most expensive, most ridiculous way to get there. I'm so upset about it that I'm not even going to elaborate on it. I must just forget about it and let it go! GRRR

The Hungaroring is the name of the track and it was absolutely beautiful!!!! So green, sooooo many trees and I had views of 5 corners, it was unbelievable. I walked around at first and took a bunch of pictures (of course) and bought a couple souvenirs. I was just awestruck by the grandeur of the races in Europe, Indianapolis has nothing on this place and I don't even know if my pictures did it any justice. I like the word MAGNIFICENT, for many reasons, but especially for this place. I think I would bore most with my excitement about the race, so I'll talk about some other things. Being in a country that I don't speak the language is very frustrating and nerve racking. But I don't think that many people at the track today were from Hungary, just a huge mix of languages. I think I may have said two sentences to the people around me and I find it funny that I'm positive that in the States, someone would have commented that I was alone. Here, no one seemed to care, which I guess is ok. I was only hassled by one drunk guy today, but I just kinda dodged him and everyone else seem pretty friendly.

After the race I refused to make the same mistake a 2nd time around, so I wandered and wandered til some German guy told me to just walk into this little town and catch a bus to Budapest. Great idea AND it was FREE! I missed understood someone in the morning and I could have come this was 1st. Oh well, lesson learned. I met some really nice British men, older and they noticed I was wearing a hat from an old team called B.A.R Honda (British American Racing). So they made sure they got me on the same bus as them and we had a wonderful conversation about racing, all types and all sorts different drivers. It was a nice way to calm my nerves.Luckily, after taking the metro last night, I knew exactly how to get back to the hostel, once the bus dropped us at another part of the city. So nice to figure things out!

Once back at the co-ed hostel (I have 2 guys in my room now, I thought I told them female floor, this Hostel is not run well), I finally figured out how to call my brother Donnie's, friend's Mom. She then came and picked me up and took me to dinner, it was so sweet. But then we walked around, I'm pretty sure my legs and feet want me dead right now. She also let me use her phone to call Gaby in Vienna to give her the info on when I'll show up. She was such a nice lady, oh and of course, I was given dessert and a peach! Sweet!

Dinner was Chinese food, Sweet n Sour fried chicken. (Just in case Eric is reading, don't want to miss the description of dinner)
Also.... have I mentioned that it's been in the 90's here? I know I've said "scorching hot", so yeah, in the 90's!!!!!

Day 5, July 25th. Budapest, Hungary

I SLEPT TIL 7:30!!!!! Hooray!!!!!! The bad part about that, we had to leave for Budapest at 7:45, lol. Yikes. Oh well, for the most part, I was ready to roll. But in the hurry to get my things together, came the 1st tragedy of the journey. The big, BRAND NEW, Sony SLR camera that I bought a couple of months ago, slipped between the arms of 2 chairs, fell a VERY short distance and inevitably, cracked the LCD display. I didn't figure it out until I was trying to take pictures out the window while riding to Budapest, and I have to be honest, several curse words were exclaimed. The camera itself still works great, but I can't review pictures, can't use the option of the fold out screen to take pictures over my head, can't tell how many pictures I've taken OR how many I can still take and can't change any of the setting on the camera unless I look at the info that shows up in the view finder. Thank goodness it has a view finder and thank goodness I had a film SLR camera for years, I am still capable of shooting pictures with out the instant gratification of seeing the shot for 2 seconds after, it just means, I have to take MORE. LOL. I'm still pretty upset about it, but I don't really think there is much I can do about it here in Hungary, so all I can do is make the best of it. Frick.

Nick was kind enough to take me past the Hungarioring on the way to BP to exchange my F1 ticket voucher for the actual ticket. I'm so glad I did too, Sunday this place will be a nightmare for this kind of thing. And as I type this blog, I'm not even sure how easy it would have been to exchange my ticket if I hadn't had Nick to drive me right to it. What a blessing! Everything just keeps falling into place. It was SO exciting to see the track and all the fans going to see qualifying today, I feel like this is my 1st F1 race ever!!! It's indescribable the exact feelings I have, but tomorrow is going to me magnificent! This actually almost made up for the camera thing, until I thought about it again and realized it's going to be difficult tomorrow to know if I got good shots, uggg.

We got into Budapest a little bit early, so Nick showed me around a tiny bit and gave me a little bit of a Hungarian History lesson. We then went to the airport to pick up some people for Nick's English camp and added 2 people from Syracuse, NY to the history lesson. We went down to the Danube River and looked at the 2nd largest Parliament building in Europe, 1st largest is in London. But after walking around for a short while, I was dropped off at the Baniki Hostel downtown Budapest. Nick and I parted ways here and he headed back to pick up another round of Americans at the airport and onward back to Egar.

Thank you to Nick and Rosemary (and Nate and Balaze) for their hospitality!!! I had a wonderful time and I'm starting to think I'm kinda crazy for doing the rest of this trip alone, but there is no turning back now! lol I hope your English Camp goes well. Please tell everyone that I met, that I they all made my trip to Egar memorable, esp the Australians,

So, I found out I made a bad decision on hostels. The advertisement said, sheet & towels were included in price and free WiFi. Not exactly.... sheets yes, no towels, good thing I brought my own. Free WiFi.... at McDonald's, 3 blocks away. Oh well, what can ya do? The McDonald's I mentioned, it is so ridiculous!!! It has to be the most dynamic McD's in the world. It's 3 levels, chandeliers, intricate molding detail (I think it was once part of the train station) and they stopped me from taking pictures. Oh I'll get one, you can count on it!

After some him'n and hawing about what to do, I decided to go visit the Castle on the Buda side of the Danube river, did you know that Budapest is really broken up into Buda on one side and Pest on the other. I had to take the Metro and a Bus, but it was worth every moment! I got some great shots of the city and the famous bridge at dusk and in the dark. Then I made my way back, there sure are a lot of F1 fans here, lol, it's awesome. By 10 pm I was ready for dinner, Lamb medallions w/ a buttery pesto sauce, mushrooms and mashed potatoes! Yummy! Gin is served as a shot, so I had that and a glass of Cherry Iced tea, different but good. Made it to bed around 12:30.... so excited about the F1 race tomorrow!

Day 4, July 24th. Egar, Hungary

Happy 21st Birthday to my Nephew Nick!
Again, up at 4 AM, hmmm, it's not like 4 AM is any relative time to when I'd be waking up at home, it would be like 8 PM there. Oh well, it is what it is. So I met up with Rosemary and the Australians, along with some other friends of Nick's to go out to the camp site where the English camp will take place next week. It was a beautiful place, and I was told that it was formerly a Communist youth camp. It seemed to be a very peaceful place and I'm sure it will be wonderful for Nick and his group. They all seem like very nice people.

After that, it was a day for Rosemary to complete some things that needed to be done for the camp. So I just hung out with her,went to McDonald's for lunch and then visited with the Australians! When Nick's was day at the Church, we all decided an hour or so at the local pool would be fantastic!!! It's another scorching hot day and it was so nice to cool off. I was exhausted by the time we were done, but I was forcing myself to stay awake as long as possible, this not sleeping at night was for the owls, haha. I did take a small 10 min nap before Nick, Rosemary and I went out again downtown for dinner. It was a beautiful night and Nick and I loved the opportunity to get some more photos. Funny thing about that is we decided on a restaurant and had a cute little table. There was live music near by and some kind of "Civil War" like rifle demonstration, I guess is the best I can think of for a description. I decided it was time to get a picture or two of the Monkey in Egar, so I started positioning and posing and snapped a couple. The large table next to us was commenting about it and laughing about it, so I had Nick ask if I could take their picture with Monkey. They discussed for a few moments and they finally said yes... come to find out, it was the Mayor of Egar!!!! We all got a good laugh out of that!!

I think I mentioned before that Egar is a really big wine area, so again, we took to getting a taste of the local fair. I chose a cool Riesling this time, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I was the previous nights with the other White and Red wines. It tasted like a Chardonnay and I was quite surprised on my 1st sip. I was still about to fall asleep at the table, but the fresh air was doing a nice job of keeping me alive, so a light dinner was in order. I had fruit soup, never heard of fruit soup, but it was really good. It was cold and had a ton of blackberries in it. We also indulged in some creape desserts too along with an Americana coffee, which was horrible. But I guess you take the good with the bad!

Day 3, Thursday July 23rd. Egar, Hungary

I began the day by waking up at 4 AM.... wide awake, hello jet lag. Today was Mountain Bike ride day, wow, I haven't been on a bike for a while! And it showed. We started out with the typical air in tires stuff, then, crossing a busy street, we had to jump a median, too bad my brain didn't get the memo. I hit the darn thing head on, CRASH!! Nice bruised palm, scrapped up knee, leg and took the cross bar in the Right thigh, nice work! I only dripped a little blood, but I've officially left a little bit of myself in Hungary! LOL After picking up the bike and avoiding traffic, we got on the train to our trail head, 25 km away (or something like that). I should have just turned back when I fell, oops. So the attempt to ride this bike w/ jet lag, adrenalin/shock from crash, 90 some degree temps and being out of shape was a complete failure. I ended up over heating, nearly vomiting and we turned back. I felt really bad for the guys (Nick and his friend Andy). We ended up hanging out at a lake so I could cool my feet in the water and sit in the shade. The plan now was to put me back on the train, although, the train didn't pick up for another 2 1/2 hours. So Nick called Rosemary and she was sooo nice to come and pick me up. While we waited, we ate Hungarian Hamburgers, interesting is the word I'm going to use. We also watched some silly girl drive her car right into the restaurant door, lol. The guys started over on the trail when I was picked up and Rosemary stopped along the road back to show me a Village. They are VERY small little communities here that outline the cities. They are a special dynamic and most who live in villages never leave them.
The rest of the day was spent trying to keep cool, poor little Nate was just miserable, of course so were the rest of us. I got to see the local mall, 3 blocks away from Nick & Rosemary's house and it was air conditioned!! It also had ice cream, that always makes everything better. Later that evening, Nick, Rosemary, "The Australians" as they are called, Kim and Andy, and I went to a nice Moroccan restaurant! I was lovely. We all shared a bottle of local Cabernet Souvangon, which I had to say was great! For dinner I had Lamb stew w/ noodles, cucumber salad w/ sour cream, it was amazing!! Afterwords, we had complementary Hookah. I'd never tried it before, so since it's vacation, what the heck! Not bad, definitely interesting as well.

Day 1 and 2 run together. Egar, Hungary

I left Denver at 4pm and after a plane change in DC, I left the US at 8pm MDT. The flight from Denver to DC was great, but I made the mistake of falling asleep. I even attempted to watch the in-flight movie, Monsters vs Aliens, but just as I always do on a plane, I snoozed right through it. However, DC to Frankfurt was a different story, I was supposed to sleep on this flight, it was an overnighter, but for the most part, that didn't happen. I chatted with an Army guy that sat next to me; he's staying in Germany for four weeks to do some training. But once the in-flight movies started, that discussion was over and I watched "The Secrets of a Shopoholic" or something like that. Upon trying to sleep, the Army guy, being very tall, was elbowing me and kneeing me and it was all sorts of horrible. I think at one point, he was almost sleeping on my shoulder, he was cute, but I didn't need to be his pillow. And did I mention United Airlines doesn't give free alcohol on international flights anymore, I was looking forward to that the most, haha This flight was only 7 hours long, but felt longer then the 15 hour one to Sidney, maybe because of the 1st flight also, I don't know. My work out came trying to get onto the flight from Frankfurt to Budapest... I had 1 hour to echange my ticket for a boarding pass that they didn't give me in Denver, get through customs, get through security again and get to the complete opposite side of the terminal to catch the next flight. While exchanging the ticket (waiting 15 mins for 2 people to help a huge line), the lady at the counter told me, "you are literally going to have to run to catch this plane". Oh just great! Then of course, I got into the worst line in customs, "come on!", sped through security and then, yes, RAN down stairs, through tunnels, back up stairs, through long corridors and I got to the gate, practically the very last gate, just in time to get in line. I was pretty sure I was going to die! Hot, humid and not to mention, I don't run!! Luckily the plane was ice cold and I passed out the moment my head hit the cold leather of the Lufthansa plane. Once in Hungary it was super hot and sticky, but I only waited about 20 mins for my cousins wife to pull up to the airport, find me and head on out. She had already driven 1 1/2 hours, so we went to a toy store to let my little cousin Nate stretch his little legs and to cool off, the big stores have the A/C!
Now off to their town, Egar. It was super cool that I saw a truck, hauling gear to the F1 track, for my favorite driver, Kimi Raikkonin. I was so awe struck, I forgot to get a picture... even though my camera was in my lap, how often does that happen! I did get a picture of the sign to the track while we drove by, it's going to be amazing. Riding along through Hungary, it strikes me as odd or funny that my mind is in a continuous state of looking at something new and trying to compare it to somewhere else. Why is it so difficult for me to just absorb the new and let it be magnificent all on it's own. Lesson #1 apparently, it's time to see and learn new things, not compare the old. The history here is amazing and sad, but I like to learn and I think tomorrow will be some fun to walk around and take some pictures. I met up with my cousin Nick around 8:30pm and we got my accommodations situated at a friends flat, Judith. Lovely little place and she is super sweet. We then went for an evening stroll into Downtown and got some pictures of the city at night. Some wonderful cafe's light up in the night with white lights, like Christmas. We then sat and had a really great glass of wine from Egar and just chatter. I got back to the flat around 11:45... time to attempt some sleep, it's only 3:45 in the afternoon at home, so we'll see.

July 21st, 2009, the day I've waited for all year, perhaps my whole life.

The excitement has built up for so long, now I think it's finally melting into peace. I'm very anxious for this journey to begin, as I sit here with my backpack full (it crept up to 29 lbs, and 14 lbs for the day pack) and watching the time tick by.

I slept quiet well last night, considering I went to bed at 2 and woke feeling fully rested at 8. I thought I'd sleep in to kill some time, apparently not! Oh well. Tonight I sleep on a plane, whoo hoo, and I'll wake up in the EU. Frankfurt, Germany is the 1st stop, approximately 3 am our time. Then off to Budapest, Hungary!

I still can't believe that I'm going to be at an F1 race again too, even pinching myself isn't working... this really is so amazing.

Not much more to blabber about today! Goodbye to America... as Arnold said "I'll be back"!

Counting down

So as it has come down to the last 2 weeks before the trip, my plans are starting to change! I hope I can keep up on being able to go with the flow and just let things happen! Looks like I've decided not to stay in Salzburg, Austria, I canceled my hostel there and book one in Munich, 1/2 mile from Hard Rock Cafe!!!! This is getting so exciting and I can't wait for all the chatter about it to stop and the real thing to begin. It has been a long time in the making and it's really not going to hit me, until I'm on the plain.... yikes. At this moment in 14 days, I will be getting off the train and hanging out with my cousins in Egar, Hungary!!!! YEAH!

Keep checking back! I may not post a lot in the coming weeks, but I'll be updating daily (hopefully) starting on the 21st!