In reality, I am just a terrible blogger.
I realize that I am about a two months behind on posts about my whereabouts. When you've done as much traveling as I did in this period of time, you just get caught up not blogging. Or maybe I just got too lazy. For your sake, let's go with the former. I started writing a blog post about my travels to Hamburg. I got about halfway done....3 weeks ago, and somehow I never finished it. I think the amount of time it takes for me to upload all the pictures and write my entire stories out hinders me from keeping up.
We all know that my blog is better than others because of my depth of story and incredible wit. That's why I have readers in Brazil, Switzerland, Luxembourg (AWESOME!!!), Thailand, Mongolia, Italy, Norway and Russia...JUST THIS WEEK.
So what have I been doing instead of blogging...
I won't go into my normal depth because it will take me three weeks just to write everything. I do want to be able to move back to the future, or do I mean present. Whatever.
I went to Hamburg in early March and toured the city. I fell in love with the different districts and the general feel to the place. I went to the infamous Reeperbahn, the red light district. I haven't been to Amsterdam, but I have heard the Reeperbahn is similar but smaller.
I also attended a concert by the band Yuck. They aren't a huge indie band...yet, but the show was incredible and I spoke with the drummer and guitarist after the show. A friend of mine, Jordan Platt was roommates with the drummer in Israel during their gap year. It was a great time and my ears rang for 3 days afterward.
One city district in particular that is a must-see is St. Pauli. Made famous by the Beatles (yes, those Beatles) and the Reeperbahn, St. Pauli is the rebellious district in the western part of the city. It is home to pirates and rowdy soccer fans (A few weeks ago, a fan threw a full cup of beer at the linesman at the 88th minute of a game against Schalke. The head referee decided to call the game thereafter, and FC St. Pauli had to play their next home game with no fans in the stands.)
I got back to Freiburg and enjoyed another Shabbat dinner at the Amitai's beautiful house. The food was insanely good. I refuse to describe it right now because it is Passover.
March 10th began my next journey. I took a 10 hour train from Freiburg to Vienna to visit Max 1. Altogether it took about 12 hours to get there with delays and missed connections. I also broke my headphone cable getting off my final train of the day. Luckily, I could buy a new one in Vienna.
I spent five wild days with Max 1. We experimented with coffee, met with some of his friends and did a few touristy things, but not too many. That isn't our style (This comment is for Max 1). We went to the extremely wide Danube River and took some cool pictures.
Here is an artsy one of him:
One of my favorite things in Vienna is the Naschmarkt. It is an open-air market with a large Arabic influence. You can buy several "flavors" of hummus to go with your falafel (2 Euros for 20 pieces and 5 for 50). I tried the Wasabi hummus and it was quite delicious and great for vegetarians like Max 1.
After my five days there, I ventured into the semi-unknown, Budapest. I had been there once before in 2007 but only for one day. I was going there to see some friends from AEPi and UT. I decided to spend 5 days there as well. I booked a hostel for a very cheap price, but only ended up using it as a storage locker for my stuff. I met up with the group of friends who were on an alternative Spring Break trip. They did stuff in the community during the day and we met up to go out at night.
I traveled around the city seeing different things while they were busy. I went to the Hungarian National History Museum...which was overwhelmingly exciting, but I really did enjoy my time in eastern Europe. Beside the rain, I had no complaints about it. I also accidentally ended up at an anti-Semitic fascist party rally in downtown Budapest... to be fair, I didn't understand what they were saying or where I was.
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| Stupid Fascists....and me |
THE TWO BEST THINGS ABOUT BUDAPEST ARE: Escalators and Subway Doors
The escalators in Budapest subway stations move 5 times the speed of normal escalators. They are really really long and so fast. You have to concentrate very hard to get on one without falling. I found them to be fun and amusing. The subway car doors slam like a butcher cutting a slab of meat: fast, hard and with conviction. I always made sure to get on right as the doors open because if you get caught in the door....well, I don't want to know what happens.
One really cool thing that happened in Budapest was running into a girl I went to high school with that I hadn't seen or talked to in two and a half years. It wasn't completely a coincidence since we were looking for the same people, but the timing was insane. We ended up having a hard time finding the people we were looking for and ended up catching up. She is studying this semester in Vienna (kinda jealous since I love that city too).
I ended this journey by taking the ICE from Budapest back to Freiburg. Yes, it was a long 13 hours, but I watched American Gangster with Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington and Josh Brolin. Good movie.
I spent one full day at home in Freiburg. I played a little bit of soccer since I hadn't in 10 days and the weather was finally getting nice. The next day was the start of the end of my European adventures for the time being.
I will be adding a second part to my I am a terrible person. catch-up post. I will be talking about my lengthened trip to Esbjerg, Denmark and my two weeks in Israel/Jordan.
If you are still reading my blog at this point, thank you very much for the support. School starts up again in a week. Life will get back to normal. I hope to stay consistent in my future posts and I need to finish planning my trip in June to London.
AK
like you'll go to school hahaha
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