Train # 6 (Budapest to Frankfurt, Day 24)

It took almost 12 hours by train from Budapest, Hungary to Frankfurt, Germany. We even had to pass through Austria. We were exhaaaaauuuusted. Once we arrived at the Frankfurt airport we still had a long night ahead of us, since we were spending it in the airport itself. We had to choice but to eat dinner at McDonald's because it was the only thing open at midnight. Then we went downstairs near Greg's terminal because his flight was earlier than mine. There was two sets of three seats and two benches. We were lucky enough to swipe the two benches and streched out to sleep.

Little did we know what was about to come.

I drifted in and out of sleep for about an hour. Around 2 am a group of Turkish people decided it would be great fun to have a picnic in the seats right next to our benches. This was an international airport for crying outloud with TONS OF ROOM but apparently they wanted to feast right next to us. I kid you not, they had thermoses of hot tea, gyros sandwiches, salads, fresh breads, the works! I probably wouldn't have been angered at them had they offered me some food. They were being so loud so Greg and I decided to pick up our bags and migrate to the other group of seats on the other side of the terminal.

Oh but guess what? 30 minutes later they also migrated towards us. We thought this was some sort of cruel joke. Was someone videotapeing this from a corner? What this a prank? Hadn't we made it very clear when we huff and puffed with our heavy packs when we moved away from them the first time?

It was probably 2:30 am at this time and little by little more and more of them kept coming. Within fifteen minutes their population doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled. What this a family reunion? In an airport? Was this some bizarre joke we both weren't in on? Greg got up and looked at the Departure screen to figure out where they were going....but we had no idea. We were befuddled and grouchy and laughing deliriously and sort of crying at the same time.

Around 3 am I counted them. I stopped counting once I reached 200. Were they trying to ruin our lives? All we wanted to do was sleep, couldn't they do somewhere else?

I can even explain how out of place we felt. It no longer felt like we were in Germany but under a Turkish invasion in a foreign land. It seemed like everyone knew eachother. They were all taking pictures of each other, video tapeing eachother, and swarming around eachother like bees and we were in the middle of it all.

Hundreds of women ask us to give up our seats, but we were being stubborn. Many older women glared at Greg because he wasn't being a gentlemen. We wanted to yell, "WE GOT HERE AT MIDNIGHT AND YOU GOT HERE AT 4 AM SO JUST DEAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!"

At 5 am Greg got us muffins for breakfast and I had to shoo the women off of his seat. One women had asked me three times for his seat, no means no lady. At this time there was definitely 400 people if not 5 or 6 hundred. It was insane.

Around 5:30 Greg went to the bathroom to wash his teeth and said that all the men were batheing their feet in the sinks. What. Batheing? Their feet? In the SINKS? This was the last straw, Greg went upstairs to use the restroom. I figured the women wouldn't be doing this and went he restroom once Greg returned.

Oh, boy.

They sure proved me wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I walked in with toothbrush, toothpaste and water bottle in hand only to find 15 women and 7 children in a cramped 4 stall bathroom. None of them were wearing shoes. All of them were washing their feet. Children were screaming as their mothers scrubbed their stupid feet. The ground was covered in sweaty water. They were making a huge. I walked in, shocked and grunted ughhhhhhhh outloud as I slammed the door behind me.

There was no way in hell I was going to put my mouth up against the facet that had just touched their feet. I was outraged and bolted up the third floor restrooms.

I know I'm supposed to respect other people's cultures and customs. But this just pushed my buttons the wrong way. Greg was equally was furious. We decided to abandon our seats and the ladies that had been vultures all fought over who would sit. The second Greg got up they had attacked the seat and he had difficulties even getting his bags out of the area.

Finally Greg went through security at 6ish and I headed to the other terminal and left around 10ish. It seemed as though all of bad karma was instantly paid off because I was able to lay down and sleep for half the flight across 3 seats.

Train # 5 (Wien to Budapest, Day 19)

Today we embarked a train to our last generation, Budapest. We saved the best for last. Here Greg is reading the first few pages of my copy of Atlas Shrugged. I read only the first half of the novel two years ago, and I loved it, but sometimes it's just too dense and the font is microscopic, I promise I will finish it someday but I want to give it the attention it deserves.

We took over the entire cart, what a mess.

Shuttle to Linz, Österreich + Train # 4 to Wien (Day 16)

Today we took a shuttle from Cesky Krumlov to Linz, Austria. Then from there we took a train to Vienna. We stayed with my friend Sabrina - a Viennese girl Lana and I met in while backpacking last summer in Costa Rica / Panama. Sabrina is amazing. She is very sweet, always laughing, and a great conversationist. She knows how to include everyone and make them feel comfortable. This past year she spent a semester abroad in Spain teaching English as a Second Language. She knows German, Spanish and English all fluently. She was out of town on the day we arrived but informed her flat mates that we would be arriving. We arrived in the late afternoon but when we buzzed the apartment no one answered. We waited around for someone to open the front door and I went up to the fourth floor to knock on their door. A little aggressive I know but we were tired from so much transit and just wanted to set our packs down. No answer. We sat outside her building for 30 minutes and Greg shot this photo of the opposing apartment complex:

We were hungered so we tried looking for a cafe to grab a bite to eat. We were sort of in the wrong part of town because there was mostly just apartments and buildings and no eateries. We set our packs down inside a windowless, cigarette hot-boxed bar complete with digital dart machine and the meanest butch bartender women. She yelled at us in German when we entered the door, she yelled at us in German when we set down our packs, she yelled at us to order some beers, she yelled at me when I stepped outside to find another bar, she yelled at Greg while I was gone, all she did was yell and give us the meanest looks in the world. It's no wonder she only had two customers, one of which was a dog. We quickly left without buying anything and she yelled at us as we left her stupid place. We found another bar with the jolliest Austrian bartender in the world. We didn't know German and he didn't know English so a lot of sign language and pointing was used, but the love for each other was mutual.....8 beers later we were feeling great but Greg had to make a quick sprint to the ATM to pay for the tab. Whooops. Once he paid for the beers we put on our packs and arrived at Sabrina's, her flatmates let us in, we set down our packs and went out again to find some food. We settled on doner kebab and pretty much inhaled it. We came back to the apartment and called it night. In the morning I took these photos of Sabrina's place for Lana to see:

She had many photos of Panama around her room:

Train # 3 (Praha to Český Krumlov, Day 13)

Incredible.

This poster is amazing.

Lauren Stupek this one is for you:

It's great to see this because I want to get my Masters in TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It's very reassuring to know that I will be able to get a job anywhere teaching English as a second/foreign language, even in Prague if I'd like.

After being yelled at twice for sitting in the smallest bus transit station we hopped on the smelliest bus in the history of buses. It smelled like someone had poured gallons of B.O. on all the seats. There was no bathroom and no way to open the windows. I had to pee the entire three hours of our journey. The moment I boarded the bus I felt like I was going to explode so it was very very uncomfortable. It made me reminisce of the time that my best friend Lana had to pee really badly while we were backpacking in Costa Rica last summer. I had the brilliant idea of transversing the entire country from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic coast - in one day. Lana has to hold her pee for about 14 hours. Ohhhh the pain but ohhh the lifelong memories.

Train # 2 (Berlin to Praha, Day 9)

Goodbye Trevor and Leonard. I will miss you and your glorious kitchen....

This was shot by Greg (of course), to see more of his photos, click here.

Today we trained from Berlin to Prague today...

In our train compartment we met this really great German guy named Stephan. He had recently visited California and loved it. Greg and I still had some questions concerning the Berlin wall and he suggested we watch this Youtube. It's ten minutes but definitely mind-blowing and worth watching...

We stayed at Sir Toby's Hostel, one of the best hostels everrrr. After picking up some essentials at the grocery store we just hung out in the basement lounge playing Connect 4.

The lounge area is super awesome as you can see. It has mix-matched furniture, retro lamp shades, kitschy framed photographs and afghan rugs.

Here Greg is setting up the game board...

..little did he know he was setting himself up for total domination....

This is my moment to shine. I won 9 times in a row. NINE. I've never even come close to winning Connect 4 nine times TOTAL, and to win 9 times IN A ROW was the most glorious thing of my life!!!!!!!! Especially since Greg was my opponent and wins at everything.

Train # 1 (Bremen to Berlin, Day 6)

Before I go any further let me express my love for train travels in Germany. The train pulls into the station at the exact time it says it will, passengers get off, new travelers get on, the train is stopped for a short amount of time (3-5 minutes), and then pulls away at the precise moment indicated in the times table. Everything is so efficient, orderly, organized and timely. Everything is done with precision and expertise.

We took a train from Bremen to Berlin and we had the lucky coincidence of running into our SLO friend Levi (who had been training from Amsterdam). He was also staying at Trevor and Leonard's house and was meeting Trevor himself at the main station. Things worked out perfectly and we all lugged our packs to their apartment. After setting down our packs, we ran to the supermarket to fix up a quick meal and headed to this sweet cafe/bar in their neighborhood.

This little bar/cafe was very quaint and cozy. It was packed in with little tables and comfy chairs. There were bottles filled with flowers, candles, soft couches, warm dim lights and furnace in the corner (which Leonard and I hogged). There was wallpaper and bare stone walls. It felt so homey and bit out of an Anthropologie catalog. I wish I could come here everyday. Here is one of our great hosts, Trevor:

It's important to note that we all ordered beer named BIER. Leonard speaks German quite well and translated the back of the beer label for us. It said something along the lines like: good quality beer doesn't need a name, the product will sell itself if it is of quality. The beer was very good and the marketing was pretty clever.

This is Trevor's amazing room and here is some of his artwork.

Trevor and Leonard both has their closets set up the same way. I had never seen anything like it and maybe one day I will borrow/steal their idea....

They did a great job of creating a cool living space...