On Thursday everyone completed their Theology midterm exam and you could feel the excitement in the air. After the test everyone was running around
campus figuring out their last plans for ten day and packing. After I finished packing I made a call to my parents at home to say goodbye before I left. So Grace Andrew Ainslie and I got our bags together said our goodbyes to everyone and headed to termini. There were tons of UD people hanging around Termini for their trains to depart. Andrew and I got a kebab for dinner before the train arrived. We finally boarded our train. We were in a compartment with two other American students who were also on their ten day. After hanging out a while we set up the beds in the compartment and went to sleep. The best thing about sleeper trains is you go to sleep then when you wake up your in another country. We were waken up by the boarder patrol and were excited to be in Austria. At our stop in Vienna we found a bunch of UD people there on the platform. They didn't sleep so well because they had the seated compartments without beds 
and were interrupted throughout the night. After stopping by the ticket office and checking out our options to go to Budapest the next day we walked to our hostel. Along the way we stopped by some churches and a cool park filled with red hammocks. The hammocks covered the entire park it was kind of cool. Once we found our hostel we checked in and dropped our bags off. We were a little to early to get into our rooms so they held our bags at the desk. So we hit the town. Vienna has so much beautiful architecture. There is a lot of tall buildings that have almost a modern gothic style. Our hostel was kind of outside the city so we had a little ways to walk. It was nice though because we got to see pretty much the whole city. Along the way to the city center we noticed people sliding down a huge zip line into the inside of the courtyard of what looked to be a palace. So we walked over there and they were having a huge military exposition.
It was really cool. There were tons of helicopters and tanks and jets that we could look inside and check out. They had a table of all the different types of guns that they use laid out on a table that we could hold and check out. Then they had a big demonstration with a tank maneuvering it around and then a medical vehicle came rushing in and they demonstrated how they would handle the situation. A couple army guys came out of the tank with a bazooka and loaded it while the medical vehicle got someone out of the tank. It was really impressive how well they could maneuver these huge vehicles, they could move really fast and stop on a dime. After the military expo we walked down the street a little while and found ourselves at Mozart's theater right across from the town hall. Both were impressive buildings. The town hall had huge towers and was constructed with an elaborate gothic design. We were still on the outside of the city center so we decided to keep going on. We walked through some shops picked up our Austria patches and found the city center. There were a bunch of open markets all around. I got some spicy sausage from a stand outside with hot mustard which was amazing! In the middle of the walkway there were a bunch of guys break 
dancing. They were really impressive flipping around head spinning and holding crazy positions. One of the guys hair was balding in a little square on the top of his head because of his head spinning. After that we walked through a church that was having an organ recital. The church had beautifully decorated in gold and had great paintings. The church was packed with people listening to the organist playing beautiful pieces. We left after a little bit and went to St. Stephens cathedral. This cathedral was huge. It was again a gothic style with vaulted ceilings and gargoyles and stuff on the towers. They were having some singing thing going on inside. We lucked out with cool expositions this day. After the cathedral Grace was pretty hungry and not feeling well so we got some one euro burgers from McDonalds to hold us over until dinner. After getting some food in us we took the metro to our hostel and got our bags in our room and freshened up. 
The guy at the desk gave us some free drink coupons for the bar so after we settled in we got a beer at the bar downstairs and got some chips and salsa. Some other UD'ers were staying at this same hostel and hung out with us down there for a little while. After hanging out a while we got our coats and hit the city again. We took some great pictures of the same buildings we saw during the day lit up at night, it was beautiful. We walked around some more and found a place to eat some dinner. We ended up having a great meal at what was said to be the oldest restaurant in Vienna. They had a description at the front of their menu saying that Mozart and Bach and Brahms had all eaten at this restaurant. I ended up eating some great pork with dumpling and sauerkraut with gravy on top which was amazing. We finished dinner off with apple strudel and called it a day. We took the metro back to the hostel and went to sleep excited to head to Budapest the next day.
10-25,26-09 Budapest
We got up early this morning and took the metro to the train station. The train to Budapest was smooth. When we arrived to Budapest we withdrew some money to spend 
for our time there. So we looked at the exchange rate and it was insane. I ended up withdrawing 5,000 Forint which is about the equivalent to 20 Euro! It was a little unsettling to have a 5,000 bill in my wallet haha. After we all got money we got directions to our hostel from the tourist information center. So we walked from the train station to our hostel. Grace always prefers to walk instead of taking the metro so we can see the city. To get to the hostel we walked through a pretty run down part of Budapest. We stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant which was pretty good accept for Graces plate- it had some uncooked chicken so she didn’t eat it… After lunch we
finally made it to our hostel. It was a pretty shady place. The only sign for it on the outside was a piece of taped paper with the name of the hostel. We rang the bell on the outside and the door opened n front of us. We walked inside and it was dark and looked abandoned. We had to ring another bell to get inside another gated area and we finally made it up. The owner opened a door for us and we had to walk through a huge pile of hanging laundry to get to the desk. The woman was very nice and gave us some suggestions of what to do in the city. She walked us up to our room which was on the top floor of the abandoned looking apartment building and showed us our room. We unpacked our stuff and got ready to explore the city. We decided to check out the public baths of Budapest it is one of the mane attractions of the city. So we gathered our things and walked through the city again. We walked by huge WWII 
monuments and different museums along the way. We found the baths and paid to get in. This facility was huge! They had about 30 different pools with different temperatures and sizes. The place is just like how history books describe the public baths of ancient Rome. We put on our suits and went in the main pools first. There were old men sitting in the water playing chess and tons of people hanging out in the water and having a good time. After a while we went to the sauna's and steam rooms. In the steam room there was a guy with a strigil scraping his dead skin from his arms and throwing it on the floor just like they did in ancient Rome.
After spending some time in the different pools we headed out and searched for some dinner. We ended up going to burger king and getting huge meals for the price of about 3 euro. After dinner we walked down to the river which separates Buda and Pest. Each side of the river is one city and together they are called Budapest. As we walked down we saw some beautiful buildings. The Parliament building had the colors of the Hungarian flag projected on the walls of the building. After a little while we stopped at a café and had some traditional Hungarian wine and tiramisu. We hung out for a while then headed back to the hostel and went to bed.
The next day we woke up at a reasonable time and got ready for the day. We had to check out by ten so we packed our bags and stripped our sheets. When we went to
the office to check out no one was there… So we left a note with our keys. Unfortunately because there was no one there we couldn't leave our bags in a luggage closet so we had to carry our bags the rest of the day. We had an overnight train to Krakow so we had a long day ahead of us. It was Sunday so we needed to find a mass. In the hostel we found a brochure about St. Stephens cathedral. We also found a brochure for a bunch of things to do in the city so we grabbed it to check out later. We found the church and luckily there was mass. So we got a coffee for an hour then went to mass. It was a beautiful mass with a great choir. After mass we looked at our options for the day one stuck out to me. A free walking tour of the city, with a list of the places we would see. It sounds like a no brainer, it is based on tips so we choose the price we want to pay. So as a group we decided it was a good idea we had some time to kill so we walked down to a square with a bunch of shops and restaurants.
Grace and Ainslie got food at a grocery store and Andrew and I got gyros at a Hungarian fast food joint. It was really good. After lunch we hung out in the square until the meeting time for our tour. We got some gelato and sat by a fountain. The time had come so we walked to the meeting spot and this is where we met Adam our tour guide. He was a really friendly Hungarian man who has lived in Budapest for most of his life. He lead us through the city explaining the History of Budapest and Hungary. As we walked through the city he explained the significance of all the major sites and statues. He talked a lot about the struggle in history with the German occupation and the communist "liberation" from the Nazis. These struggles effected the city tremendously. Towards the end of the tour he took us to the castle on top of the hill on the Buda side. From the top of the castle we had a beautiful
panoramic view of the entire city. It was breathtaking. After the castle he took us over to the building where the president usually is and while we were there. There was the remains of a protest for the president to pass a certain law. Adam talked with some of the people there and explained to us there plans and ideals. While we were there Adam pointed out to us a guy who was a Hungarian cowboy. The guy was decked out in a weird outfit with a huge whip on his hip. Adam asked him to show us how he whips his whip. So the guy asked everyone to stand back then he pulled out his whip and flipped it around his head and in the air the whip broke and flew across the grass. He was a little embarrassed so he redeemed himself by tying it back and doing it again and he was successful. After that Adam showed us another church and a statue and one more great view before collecting his tips. After the tour he showed us to a bakery that makes traditional Hungarian cakes. We got a few to share they were really good. We thanked him for everything and went on our way to the train station. We took the metro and got to the station. We got some dinner then got on the train to Poland.
10-27-09, Krakow Poland
We arrived to Krakow Poland around 6:30 in the morning. It was really foggy and misty. We were really nerves for the weather on this portion of our trip so I packed a lot 
more warm cloths than I would have. Fortunately when we stepped outside it wasn't to cold at all! It was a good crisp cold and not freezing. We walked to our hostel which was about 5 minutes from the train station. Our host
el was right next to the mane square. We arrived to our hostel on the hour and we heard a horn playing from the top of the Church in the mane square. The melody stopped in the middle and did not complete the song it was playing. Our history professor from last year, Dr. Hanssen, told us about this in her class so it was really neat to see it first hand. Right when we walked up to the door of our hostel Stephen Lester was at the door and had already checked in. We planned on meeting him here originally and we were happy it worked out so well. We checked in also and they let us into our room which is unusual hostels don’t usually let you in until about 2 when they have everything cleaned. This hostel was really nice
it felt homey and had great serves. Because of how well our free
walking tour went in Budapest we looked one up here and found one. So we unpacked our things and left the hostel to explore a little bit before the walking tour met up. Grace and I walked through the little market places where they sell little souvenirs and things and met everyone in front of the church just before the tour. There was a good sized group who showed up for the tour waiting for the guide who came a little late. When the tour guide arrived he began to show us around. He talked about the history of Poland and the stages it went through in history and how for a while it didn't exist on the map. We walked around and he showed us the original fortification of the medieval city and took us back to the square on the hour to hear the trumpet player. He described the reason for the tradition and the story 
behind it. He said that the firemen of the city use to be up there and look over the city to look out for fires and when there was one they would play the horn to warn everyone. But on night the Mongolians came to attack the city in the middle of the night and the fireman saw this on his duty so he played the trumpet to warn the city and in the middle of his song a Mongolian archer shot an arrow right through the horn and into his head and the melody stopped. The city was saved and they were safe because of the warning. So from then on every hour a trumpet player plays the melody and stopped it in the middle of the song. From there our guide took us to the church of the bishop of Krakow, who use to be JPII. He showed us JPII's old church and his quarters and told us about the reverence Poland has for him. He said that when JPII died the people placed candles around his quarters and there were over 2 million candles that spread out over the whole grounds. After the church the guide took us up to the castle and talked about the Nazi power and the Communists coming in after them and the destruction that both of them did. After the Castle we walked through the Jewish quarters and he showed us a few places where they filmed scenes from Schindlars list and took us to a few important Synagogue. About half way through the tour he took us to a place to eat,
it was Polish fast food which was really good. They were these really good pizza like things that were called zapiekanki. They were a whole loaf of French bread cut in half and covered in cheese and mushrooms then had whatever topping you want on it with a sauce spread over that. I got the meat lovers one and it was sooo good. After eating he took us to another Synagogue and then to one of the largest Jewish symmetries next to the one in Prague. It was a really moving site. The Jews had to burry the dead and were only granted a certain amount of land to do this so they had a lot of tomb stones laid out. After this he showed us one more site that was filmed in Schindlars list and then it was over. We gave him our tips and thanked him for a great tour. We were all pretty tired after the tour so we went back to the hostel to take a nap. After resting Grace and I went out to dinner 
together and planned to meet up with everyone for drinks later. On the tour the tour guide recommended a place in the Jewi
sh quarter that was supposedly pretty good. So we planned to meet there after dinner. For dinner Grace and I found a small pierogi shop and got pierogi ruski which was really good. And only the equivalent of about 2 Euro. Grace was instantly hooked and begged to go back many more times throughout the trip. After dinner we walked around and saw a lot of the same sites we saw during the tour lit up at night. We got to the bar a little bit before the others and asked for a menu. They had a menu of over a hundred beers! It was a little overwhelming. So Grace and I each picked out a Polish brew and waited for our friends. When they arrived they got there drinks and we hung out for a while. After drinks Grace had to take the guys to the Piergi place to try it out. So we got a second round of Pierogis that night and headed back after our second dinner haha.
The next morning we gathered our things and prepared to visit Auschwitz. We walked to the bus station and got our tickets. We saw one of the guys from our walking tour on the same bus which
was pretty crazy. It was an hour and a half to get there. When we arrived we kind of went our separate ways through the concentration camp. They did a really good job exhibiting the events that happened there. As we walked through the different barracks they explained what happened in each part of the camp. It was a really m
oving day going through the actual places that these horrors occurred. They first portrayed the living quarters and conditions for the victims. Then showed the extreme workload for men women and children then took you through the extermination and prison cells. Each part of the camp had detailed explanations of what happened. I can't even explain how it moved me. I thinks its important for everyone at least once in their lifetime to see
a concentration camp to fully understand history. Anyways once I finished going through and walking around the concentration camp I found Grace and Andrew outside. We waited for the bus to go back and we couldn't find Ainslie so Andrew and Stephen waited for her. Grace and I headed home. It took two hours to get back this time. When we got back to Krakow Grace begged to go back to the Pierogi shop to get something to eat so we ate there again before everyone else got back. Once everyone got back we took a little nap then hit the city looking for dinner. We tried a few restaurants that only accepted reservations so we were out of luck for a while. We finally found a place to eat. It was a traditional Polish restaurant. SO we each got a plate that was a sampler of a bunch of Polish specialties. Everything was really good accept for the blood sausage which most of us put to the side. After dinner we walked around the city a while then went to bed. Auschwitz took a lot out of each of us.
We had one more day in Krakow which we took pretty easy. We checked out of our rooms and stored our luggage at the hostel. Each of us split off and walked around the city. Grace and I found
her a leather journal at a book store to keep her daily notes and things in. Then we walked around some more and checked out the markets and stuff then met everyone at the hostel to go somewhere for lunch. Guess where we all went to lunch. The pierogi spot. It was a little overkill for me but Grace loved it and everyone complied. After lunch we were walking together in search for Stephen's famous Polish Kolochki cookie which we couldn’t find anywhere. In the search we got split up again. It was Andrew Ainslie and me. We spent a little time looking for Grace and Stephen and gave up. So we walked down to the Jewish quarter to check things out again. We ended up
going to a bagel shop and we got some bagels with cream cheese accept for Ainslie got the famous obama momma bagel which consisted of a cinnamon bagel with cream cheese nutella and walnuts on top. It was amazing. After we enjoyed our bagels we walked home. We found Stephen and Grace at the hostel making pumpkin pie. So we played cards and ate pumpkin pie and had a good time. After a while everyone decided to go back to the Pierogi place one more time for dinner I decided to get a Kebab outside. My Kebab was insanely huge! We dubbed it the 'manbob'. We only had about an hour left before our train departed so we wanted to spend our remaining change and we all got mcflurries at McDonalds and then headed to the train station. We took an overnight to Prague and arrived there at 7 am.
10-29-09
When we arrived to Prague in the morning our hostel was only a short walk away so we were hoping that maybe we would have the same luck as we did in Poland with the hostel. Unfortunately
the hostel was closed until ten so we had some time to kill. So we ended up walking to a McDonalds and got some breakfast and waited for our hostel to open. Ten o'clock rolled around and we went back to the hostel and the office was still empty… Then the guy came from behind us and opened it up. We settled into our rooms and got ready for the day. We found another free tour flier so we planned on doing it again. We walked down to Old Square where there was a big clock tower and a huge gothic church across the way to meet up with our tour. While we were there we ran into a huge group of UD people. We were all happy to see each other and told some quick stories of our travels and adventures. We saw the tour group meeting up so we had to go but it was fun to see them. Once the guide collected us we got placed into a mu
ch larger group and then got split in two. There were two guides to lead the groups separately. To begin the tour our guide walked us to a corner of Old town square and gave us a 
history of Czech Republich in an interesting way. He was very passionate and shouted everything- he was pretty crass but really funny. After the brief history he explained the three main buildings in Old town Square. He then walked us around and explained the clock on the tower because it was a Astronomical Clock with tons of circles and symbols all over it. We then walked down to Wenceslas Square where he told some of the history of Czech Republic's involvement in WWII when they avoided battle in their cities by changing the names of every city to the name of the president so the Nazi's couldn't find Prague. After the the square we walked by some buildings with different styles of architecture like cubism, art nouveau, and art deco. After walking through and explaining
all the types he took us to the Church of our Lady before Tyn. After that we enjoyed a nice lunch at Bohemian Beagle and then he took us to the Old Jewish Quarter. Here he showed us a few Synagogues and also the oldest Jewish cemetery. This was a neat sight where the tombs were really close together and the hill was really high because this was the only place they were permitted to bury their dead so they buried them on top of each other for many years. After we walked around the Jewish quarter he concluded the tour by showing us the Charles Bridge and a view of the Prague Castle. After the tour we asked him for dinner recommendations and he showed us this really good place and we had a great meal for really cheap. After dinner we walked around some more then headed back to the hostel.
10-30-09
The next morning we got up and went to the square. We all wanted to see different things so we agreed to meet at the Charles Bridge at 12:30. Ainslie and I chose to go to the Dali 
and Mucha art exhibit and the others visited different churches. So I bought the ticket for both exhibitions and went into the Dali one first. His work
is really fascinating in a lot of ways. It is all very crazy and almost dream-like. Some of the most interesting pieces to me were his pieces on Dante's Divine Comedy. They had three rooms filled with his pieces from the different cantos in Dante's work. He created images of his depictions of the various scenes in the poem. It was a really neat thing to see his interpretation. Another piece I really liked was his woman at
the window who from a distance makes a portrait of Abraha
m Lincoln. It is crazy how he can create a double image like that. Up close is an image of a woman looking out to the Mediterranean and when you step to the other side of the room the image changes dramatically. Anyways after really enjoying Dali's works I went upstairs to the Mucha exhibit. Mucha's work is dramatically different from Dali's works. Mucha has a lot of images that are for advertisements in the early 1900's. He often has detailed drawings of women serving drinks or standing in a mysterious way.
It took me little while to really get into his work because of being in Dali's exhibit. After about 15 minutes in my mind finally turned and I saw the greatness of Mucha. His detail with lines creating these images is really amazing. Anyways after I was done I met up with Ainslie outside when she was done going through the art gallery and we had some time to kill. So she and I went inside the Gothic church the tour guide pointed out the previous day and also checked out the protestant church as well. After that we walked to the bridge and met up with everyone. We crossed the bridge and searched for a cheap place to get a bite to eat. We ended up at a subway and had some good sandwiches. After lunch we went up into the Prague Castle and walked around in there. After the castle we split up again and set a time to meet for dinner. 
10-31-09
The next day was a long one. The train ride to Munich left at 9 in the morning and we got in around 5. We found our hostel right away and saw a ton of UD people there. We got mass times 
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