missmadrid

I only have 10 minutes but i just wanted to wish my brother taylor a happy Birthday, i cant call but if my mom can please call him and wish him a happy birthday for me i would greatly appreciate it!! and also happy birthday to my aunt angie and my mother!! i leave for Vienna tommorow.. i am one step closer to singing the sound of music and i little green hill in Austria!!!

Well i finally departed from Ceske Budojovice and took a train to Budapest. The train took a while and i had to change trains in Brno, south Czech Republic. Well when i was on the train from Brno to Budapest there were 3 passport controls. What the passport control people did was ride train from one stop to another, check your passport and stamp it, then get off. I guess we were going through alot of borders. Well i went through 3 passport controls in like 3 hours, i was like "where am i, whats going on" and i would look at the stamp and it would say "Kuty" okay, NEVER heard of Kuty before but its in some country i am going through which i have no idea what country that is, and then like and hour later more passport control people came and stamped it "Sturov" okay, NEVER heard of Sturov before either and i have no idea what country thats in. then another passport guy comes around and hour later and asks for my passport and i was like "what country am i in, and where was i before" and he was SSSOOOOO annoyed by my question that i didnt know where i was at, he didnt say anything and stamped my passport "Budapest" i was like okay, im in Hungry now, i have no idea where i have been the last 2 hours, must have been Slovakia, not sure have to look on a map, but it was pretty while i looked at it out the window wondering what country i was looking at. Well when i arrived in Budapest i walked allllllll the way to my hostel and checked in. Its another student dorm like place but way better than the crap place in Prague. Well i had to share with another person, so i went to my room to find a very nice and sweet girl from Belgium named Catrin that was looking forward to her nice evening in listening to music and drawing in her notebook. Well poor girl had no clue what tornado just entered her room. She asked me my name and where i was from and i answered like i have done 35,657 times on this trip. Anyways i asked her if i could do my laundry and she said yes they have a washer and a dryer, i was like "dryer, did someone say DRYER" i was so excited i wanted to throw myself IN the dryer, my clothes havent seen a dryer in early 5 years, so it was a grand moment on my trip. i desperately needed to wash clothes and i asked her about the money situation and how much it costs to use the washing machine and she told me it was 200 foiurguitu whatever you call it money, which i didnt have on me, i still hadnt taken out money. so she gathered some change together so i could put my clothes in right away. well when i went to the washing machine it didnt work so i went back to ask her and she came to show me how to use it. i also didnt have any soap and i was about to throw some shampoo in the washer or shower gel cant remember, but she said she had some soap for clothes, so she went back to the room and brought me some soap. i finally got it started. She told me that the washing machines spin cycle doesnt work and i had to go down to the 2nd floor and put it in a machine to spin dry it and then bring it up back to the 3rd floor and put it in the dryer. i was okay ill figure it out when the time comes. i took a shower and left to go get something to eat and take out money.(by the way, Budapest Rocks) when i came back the clothes were done but were sopping wet, so i just decided to put them directly in the dryer and skip that spin dryer thing Catrin told me to do. well i put the money in and the dryer wouldnt work. i was like "shit" so i went to the room and had to wake up catrin to ask her how the dryer worked, so she got up and went with me to the wash room, she couldnt figure it out either, but she said i had to put my clothes in the spin dryer first. So we went to the 2nd floor and she showed me a machine i have never seen in my life. It was cylinder shaped and the top flipped up. she said to put some clothes in, not alot cause it was small, and close the top. The machine starting spinning hysterically and she said i had to like sit on it and that the water came out of a little spout on the bottom and i had to aim the little spout in the drain. I was like riding a rodeo horse and trying to aim the little spout in a drain in the floor that was spitting water out from the clothes. I told her i would take it from here and she could go back to bed. i had to do that 3 times to spin dry all my clothes. It was the funniest thing yet, i swear, i was like what am i doing? why am i sitting on top of a spin dryer aiming it at a drain? how did i get here? well after my rodeo cowboy session with the spin dryer, i took my clothes back up to the dryer on the third floor. the dryer still wouldnt work. I was sooooooo dertermined to dry my clothes and finish this damn load of laundry i started to take apart the knob on the dryer cause that is why it wouldnt start, the knob wasnt catching on to the little plastic thing that had to turn the dial. so i went back to my room and rummaged through my stuff in the dark (poor catrin) and i found this nail set thing i bought in krakow that had clippers, tweezers,little scissors and so forth, which was now going to be my master tool kit. it came in a little pink fluffy case and everything. so here i find myself sitting on a disgusting half wet floor taking apart a dryer in Budapest. i figured out what was wrong and i turned the dial myself with the tweezers and metal nail file, it would start but not catch on, cause i couldnt turn it enough, finally i was like i am hot wiring this damn dryer, i ended up turning the dial just enough where it started and didnt stop, i was like "its alive, ITS ALIVE" i was so excited. i had to wait an hour for my clothes to dry and when i pulled them out i was rubbing my warm pajama shirt on my face, it was so soft and dry, mmmmmm i miss dryers. well i finally made it to bed and didnt bother Catrin anymore. The next day i spent walking all over Budapest and spent alot of time taking pictures. Budapest is absolutely fantastic. i went back to my room and read a while and took a nap, then i went out to eat some dinner. After dinner I went to have a glass of wine and the girl asked me if i wanted a deci liter or a full glass of wine, i was like, "i want a proper glass of wine, which ever of the two that may be" i swear, they measure everything, a deci liter of wine, whats that? well i made my way to bed early, im quite tired from all the travelling and i am enjoying the fact that i wake up and have no plans and i have no clue what the date is or the day of the week, no clue, couldnt tell you, not interested. i have a few more days here in budapest then i most likely am going to make my way to Viena. Still havent seen a sunny day yet.

Well it hasnt stopped raining at all since i arrived into this town. It has been raining alllllll the time. anyway, i am the only one staying at the hostal so i am a bit bored but they have a t.v. there and i havent watched tv in over 2 weeks. so i made my dinner and watched Dennis the Menace in Czech. then some movie come on that i really liked with the actor Adrien Brody where he wants to become a ventriloquist, that was funny. well i stayed in my room all night looking at the wall and thinking about my life and how did i end up in the small town in the south of the Czech Republic that i didnt even know existed till like 4 days ago. I read "The Alchemist" again and was of course profoundly moved and made me think even more about what i am doing, which really is a dangerous thing for me cause i am capable or doing quite irrational things and the spur of the moment. I fell asleep and woke up at noon. it was still raining outside. i showered and got dressed and went to the train station to see how i can get to budapest tomm. well on my way over here i was on the bus and there was some guy coming around chewcking tickets, i was like, um i dont have a ticket cause tehre isnt anywhere to buy a ticket and you cant pay the bus driver and no one else has a ticket when they get on so whatever, it sthe same in italy and other countries as well. well today was my lucky day. This man comes up to me and says something and i play the "no entiendo" card he keeps speaking to me in czech and i am like hey buddy "no entiendo" so i speak broken english so he doesnt think i speak english in case he does. he was really upset and i think he asked me if i spoke german i said "nine" which was stupid cause i just responded in german. I was so muddled with so many languages in my head and this man was really pissed off and he kept speaking to me in Czech. he asked me for my passport and i said i didnt have it on me, it was at the hostal and he wrote down on a piece of paper 400 Krowns, i was like i am NOT giving you 400 Krowns. i got off on the next stop to get away from this situation and he got off too, i know he was trying to tell me that i had to pay to get on the bus which is fine i have NNOOOOOOOO problem paying to use public transportation but when there arent any places whatsoever to buy a ticket, its kind of hard and just because your system is shite doesnt give you the right to give me shit cause i am NOT the only one on that bus without a ticket buddy! He kept pointing and yelling i said "dont understand" he was poitnign at a ticket machine that happend to be there and i said "UBarku" {cause that was the name of my stop} and he was like yeah Ubarku i understand that so i was like "Ubarku as i pointed at the machine, NINE, Ubarku NINE {such as there arent any flippin ticket machines where i am at} i just walked away in the rain with my broken giraffe umbrella thats barely holding on. I was so upset, there arent any ticket machines anywhere, what do you want from me? anywaya, im gettign hungry, im goign back to the hostel and eat some food i bought and maybe watch a movie in Czech.

Well i am currently in this town české Budějovice because there wasnt anywhere else to go in all of eastern europe. since i kind of plan things as a go i was left with no rooms anywhere. i was planning on going to either, Bratislava or Budapest next but there werent any rooms availible at all in either of these places. I tried looking in neighboring countries and couldnt find a damn thing, not in even in small towns in Hungry,Slavakia, Austria or Slovenia, and none in Prague, so i had to leave cause i coudlnt stay there, so i remembered, thank god, of a small village in the south of the Czech Republic that these guys mentioned to me in Krakow that was fantastic and gave me the name and number of the hostel where they stayed, so i called the hostal and they had a room so i caught the next train to this village. Well on the train on the way over here something verz verz very funny happened. i was sitting in the cabin with 3 other women, a very old woman, a middle aged woman, and a young girl, all Czechs. anyways i am sitting there reading my book and the other women are talking and this man comes into to the cabin and looks at us and closes his eyes and FARTS!!!!!! Then he left. I couldnt understand the old woman but i swear she must have said something like (did he just fart?) we started laughing so hard, we didnt understand what the hell that was all about, i mean i laughed for like 5 minutes, some like random man walks in farts and leaves (im laughing again just thinking about it) anzÿway that was just so random. well i arrived in this town 2 and a half hours later and almost got harrased by some gypsys who i knew were plotting to rob my backpack as i waited for the bus to take me to this hostel. Anyway, i make it to my hostal and ring the doorbell. This little old grandma sticks her head out of the window and starts speaking to me in Czech and im like "dont understand" and she said "maria" and i said zes that was me. well she opened the door and she spoke nothing but czech. she was explaning everzthing to me in Czech and using hand gestures, i kept answering "ya" like as if i was german was like "ya" "ya" everztime i understood something she was trying to tell me. its amaying how you dont need lamguage sometimes just hand gestures, expressions of the face and a simple "ya" to confirm you understood. its a quaint little room and hostal and its costingm me 6 euros a night so im okay now. im not quite sure how long i will stay even though i paid for 3 nights. I tried to find the town center, only to find it empty and no one on the street (these are the times i wish most places were like spain where on sundays, everyone is out having canas and tapas). well there isnt anyone around and i found this internet cafe and i ordered a beer. the beer cost me like 40 cents and its a STEIN of beer, i was like "wow thanks" I have learned that this town is known fo rthe beer cause this is where budweiser was first brewed, hence the name Budějovice, but the german way of saying this town is Budweiser. Now i dont know what the hell to do, its cold and rainy outside, like it has been on my whole trip. you know i havent been able to wear a tank top nor a skirt on my whole trip? i know when i get to italy ill be boiling, but for now i have to keep the sweater on which is fine, i rather be in places like this in the summer instead of suffoctaing from the heat down in the sounthern countries like spain or italy (damn this is good beer, am i rambling?)

I am so sorry that i haven't written i'm just having a fantastic time. Anyway I have been in Prague now for 3 days. wow it is reallz difficult for me to write this casue the keyboards in every country are arranged differently because they have different letters i have to really look at the key board and write and all the number keys are different look this is +ěščřžýáíé, that is 1-9, yeah confusing, and the y is where the z is and vice versa, anywho, the night i left Krakow i ended up staying up till 5am. I hung out outside and drank fantastic polish beer and listened to people play acoustic guitar, after the polish police came out and busted up the party, we had to go inside and keep singing. Well i don't know where he came from, but suddenly rat boy was sitting there hanging out. after a half an hour of playing he asked if he could play a few songs. there were 2 acoustic guitars going around so he grabbed one and started playing the most BEAUTIFUL song, called "She was right in front of me" i've never heard of it before or the songwriter but i swear i almost cried. He sang the whole song and played the guitar beautifully as if it he made no effort to play, it came so naturally to him. He played for an hour and i sat there next to him and watched him play and i swear rat boy touched my heart, i was thinking, this is one of those stinky guys in my room, and all of a sudden i saw him in a whole new light, as the universe always shows in her good time, you really never know someone. At the end of the session he sang a song to me and i swear i blushed, i couldn't believe rat boy made me blush. anyway, at 5 we all went to bed and i expressed to johnny (rat boy that i thought he sang beautifully and i loved his guitar playing. All he said was thank you and smiled and he made his way off to bed. The next morning I set off for Prague, i took a day train and i arrived at 8:30 at night only to find myself completely lost and it was almost night time. i was walking around trying to follow the directions the hostel gave me i couldn't find anything, luckiy this angel of a boy helped me to find the bus and the address and everything, he was so incredibly helpful, thanks to him i found my hostel. When i found my hostel i wanted to unfind it. When i started walking up the place i was already horrified. there were like 10 huge student housing block building things and nothing around. they looked like they were built 85 years ago i couldn't even see nor here the city anywhere. when i walked up to building number 4 i went to reception to be greeted by some kid with a HUGE afro. luckily some girl came out to help me who spoke broken english. i told her i reserved 4 nights and i would like to see the room before i paid. the room was on the third floor and the floors were just loooooong hallways with doors on both sides, it looked, sounded, and felt horrible. the room was fit for small rodents and circus animals, i wanted to cry. It was now 11:30 at night and i had no idea where to go and i didn't want to walk around Prague with my backpack that time of night so i decided i had no choice but to stay. I paid for my room and went up to my death chanber. there was broken furniture and crap written all on the walls in Czech, i think i was staying at student housing or something cause there were a bunch of young kids who lived there. i went down to reception to ask where i can buy something to drink, preferably a beer or something to help ease my nerves a bit. there was a local liquor store next to the building where i bought a very tasty and cheap Czech beer. i went back to my room and drank my beer and tried to figure out what was written on the walls. the showers looked like prison showers where everyone showers together and there is one drain, oh it was horrible, i almost cried i swear. i unpacked and tried so hard to be more positive and that everything would be okay. the next morning i got up and was ready to explore the city. Well on my way to explore the city i realized the city was verz far away, way far down the HUGE park i had to walk down. The park was beautiful and BIG and it was all along the hill that had a fantastic view of the city, but all i kept thinking about was how far i was from my hostal and i would have to walk aaaalllll the way back up the hill when i wanted to go back home which would most likely be late at night, so i was just a bit preturbed for a while. then i made it to the famous bridge that was PACKED with tourists, i couldn't even walk, i was getting a bit frustrated, i tried to find somewhere where there weren't any tourists and i didn't have any luck. i finally got myself something to eat and just statred walking and walking and walking. I walked out of the city and there were't any tourists anymore. I found a Yoga place and an organic grocery store, my spirits were changing. I finally made it down some little street and found the best bar in the whole entire world. The bar is called "Louis" after Louis Armstrong the bar was small but decorated so perfectly. They had the best music playing the whole time, they played Louis Armstrong, Billie Hoilday, Etta James, and Frank Sinatra to name a few. I drank a beer and listened to the music and looked at all the decorations around me and thought to myself "I'm in Prague" i spent some time there thinking to myself and appreciating everything i had in life. Then i walked around some more till i jumped on a tram, not knowing where it was going to take me but it took me through a fantastic tour through the city and it ended up dropping me off at right at the foot of the park i had to hike through to get to the city. so i popped in a bar and had a beer. I saw a pool table and i wanted to play but i am by myself so i asked this young man and older man sitting at the bar speaking english if they wanted to play, they looked at me and then looked at each other and decided to play. You will not believe where the young guy was from, his name is Bergen and he's from Long Beach and he's on vacation for 2 weeks, i was like no way, what a small world. He's a Dallas Cowboys fan, i tried not to think about it or judge him, after all look what happened to rat boy. Well Berger, Amon, (the older english man played pool for 2 hours talking about all kinds of stuff. Then Amon had to go and Bergen asked if i wanted to go to some bars where he knows some people so i was like sure i have nowhere to go and nothing to do for the next 2 and a half weeks. so we ate a kebab then found the bar he was meeting friends at. i sat there for a while and talked with a few people and then moved from one bar to the next. I had so much fun, we ended up staying out quite late and i was able to catch a tram back to my comfy prison cell. While bergen and i walked across the bridge he stopped and said, "you know, you just don't get a view like this back home" and it was nice to have someone there from home to share that with, someone who knows that's it's nothing like this back home. anyways, i awoke the next day with over 50 bites all over my body and one on my eyelid that makes me look like Rocky Balboa. I went to the Pharmacy and they sid i should go to the emergency room that it might be an allergic reaction, i freaked out and went to the emergency only to find i couldn't communicate with anybody and they wanted to give me an injection so i ran out and never went back, i think i just got bit all over,probably from bed lice or something, i am sure there are many creatures living in my room with me. I walked around all day and rented a bike and rode around like as if i were "Amelie" riding around Paris. I went to the Communist Museum and tried to go to the movie theatres, but nothing interesting was playing. well i am going to go now cause i only have 5 minutes left an i have to correct all my mistakes i made typing this.