So my mom and brother came last week. It was SUPER awesome to see them : ) I'm so glad they got to come visit me! They've been working off their jet lag by walking all over Vienna, and now their feet and legs are sore...that was me my first week and a half. And now my calves are MONSTERS. Seriously. I mean, they were pretty strong before, but now their ginormous, and this effect is intensified by the fact that my ankles are so small I can wrap my hands around them and touch my fingers. And my hands are really small. So, yeah, I have like a mountain range on my legs, which makes it extremely difficult to shave...
Maybe I'll just have to go European on everyone and ditch the razor.
So we went to Budapest on Friday morning, and for some reason (unbeknownst to me), our travel agent told my mom it was cheaper for three people to get first class train tickets. Which isn't true...but hey, we had a bitchin train ride. SO much foot room.
And Budapest was....interesting. First off, the city is suuuuper dirty. And after staying in one of the cleanest cities in Europe for a month, that was a huge shock. Half our money was spent on water bottles.
Also, the people were assholes. They were so rude to us. Every single restaurant we went to we were ignored. On our last day, we watched three other tables eat and pay before we even got our appetizers. It made me wonder how we treat tourists in America. Now, with the whole immigration thing, I've always been kind of irked. Because if you're going to come LIVE in a country, you should at least know enough of the language to get around. But I don't know that I've ever really interacted any tourists in America. I guess I see them when I'm in New York city, but I've never seen anyone be outwardly rude to them or ignore them completely.
It was just so frustrating. Tourists bring money to your country, so the last thing you should be doing is making them feel unwelcome. Which they did. And thanks to that, Budapest, you will not get any more of my money.
On a positive note, though, we did see some awesome stuff. My favorite was a museum that had a photography exhibit and an exhibit about the Indians in the Amazon rainforest (and a Hungarian culture exhibit that we didn't go through). Such a random mix, but it was fascinating. The photography exhibit had pictures that this guy took of people in their houses in Southeastern Europe. Every single photo told a story. You could see the people's lives in their faces, in every wrinkle or every laugh line, in their clothes or their possessions. It made me remember why I love photography so much, but especially why I love to shoot people. A photo really is worth a thousand words.
The Amazon exhibit had the biggest beetles I've ever seen. I thought the one we found in our room was big, but I about shat myself when I saw the elephant beetle, which is the size of my entire hand. Ugh.
And the food. OH the food. Even though we had to wait a million years for it, it was so so SO good. My mom and I had a traditional Hungarian pork dish with "flour pellets," which were kind of these little noodle-potato things. Idk but it was great. And I drank a wine called "Bull's blood," so named because the Hungarians used to believe it would give you super strength. (Interesting side note: that's actually what wine was originally used for. People thought it made you work harder, so rich people gave it to their servants/slaves/workers or whatever, like, all the time. Irony.)
So...yeah. That was my weekend.
I'ma bring you guys some reflections on the trip soon...it may be after I get back depending on when I can get free wifi again. But it is coming. And I am coming home in 5 days!!!! I cannot WAIT to see my daddy and my boyfriend : )
Bis später! Wünsch mich viel Spass in Salzburg!
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