21st Century Odyssey: 2010-06-27

I left Belgium and headed to Vienna, which for me has been the most expensive city to date. I had intentions of going to Paris, there is a Swarthmore Alum who I heard about that sounded really interesting to meet, and of course, Paris would be lovely in the early summer. Instead, Jelmer and Candice hosted me for a few days and then Jelmer dropped me off, and I found my waz to Vienna.

I realized quickly that it is a city that I would like to come back to when I can afford concerts and expensive coffees. But, it is not a city for my current budget. I scanned through my book looking for an escape from Vienna. Ljubljana? sounds interesting I thought. I had no idea at the time how to pronounce it.

It took a long time to get there, and needless to say, was not that interesting in my opinion. There is a cool alternative scene, which from the outside seemed neat. I walked through the bar area at night, took a tour during the day, and met some interesting people. Preparing to depart soon after arriving for lake Bled, a supposedly famous lake nearby, I fell into a brief conversation with a girl named Kelin. Kelin was planning to go to Prague. I considered that it was my original plan to spend time in Prague at the apartment which did not work out, and I knew that Judita had returned home. Why not, I decided, and off we headed on a midnight train.

The woke us in Salzberg, that is, our crazy conductor woke us up in Salzberg to tell us that the train would not be going anywhere for a while. I think he just did not want to remain with the one passenger who opted to stay, and so we were herded off the train. I misheard, and we ended up on the slow track, arriving late in Prague. Walked around, took a free walking tour, and met an Israeli named Etay.

Judita and I met up, and she made me a lovely picnic lunch which we ate conveniently near a bier garden, so that the game could be watched.

That night we left for Krakow. This time, no surprises, and we arrived onlz with a slight delaz (I think for eastern europe, this is a very good outcome).

We dropped our bags, and went straight to Auschwitz. It had a huge impact on me, which I can explain in greater detail if one is interested, just email me.

Back in Krakow, I was not feeling like partying or going out, and we spent the day sitting in parks, or meandering the streets. After spending a night, we both headed south, Kelin to Bratislava and me to Budapest. This is relevant because our conductor mixed up our tickets, and gave hers back when she got off in Bratislava. So, at the Slovakian border I was offered the choice of being arrested on the spot or purchasing an entirely new ticket. I chose not to go to jail. The conductor played dumb to avoid any consequences of the mix up.

Budapest was interesting. I spent the morning exploring the Buda side, including a labyrinth, and checking out some other neat buildings. Then walked across the chain bridge, and took a free Jewish Sites and Pubs bar crawl. Lots of misinformation on Judaism, and on the whole, I felt like the guide was talking about an extinct species or something. It was rather disconcerting. I ended feeling the obligation of correcting her on some things which were objectively wrong (like the Kotel or Western wall is NOT a part of the temple wall).

The pubs were interesting, they are pubs in places that have not been renovated.

I guess the biggest surprise was that at the beginning of the tour, she asked who was Jewish. I have never been asked this question in a group setting. Even more surprising was that standing across from me in our small group was Etay!

We grabbed dinner after, Kosher Ghoulash, and now as one can imagine, I am sleepy and ready for bed. However, first I took some time in the sauna, and then used my 24 hour metro ticket to head out to a park on the outskirts where kids on trial bikes jumped over their backpacks, and couples looked into each other's eyes under the light reflecting off of the manz statues.