Vienna and Budapest

       I wrote half a blog three days ago, but for some reason I'm not able to open it to edit it, so I got frustrated and decided to write a new one another day.
       This last week has been a good one. The hostel I was staying at in Vienna had its own bar with a pool table, so I spent the evenings there playing pool and getting to know other travelers. I met a lot of really fun and interesting people there.
       On Monday I took a free walking tour of the city. It was pretty boring and long, but it gave me a chance to meet some more travelers. After that I went to Saint Stephan's Cathedral in the center of Vienna's old town. The church itself is amazing architecturally and I was able to climb the 330-some steps of the spiral staircase to the top of its southern tower. There was a great view from the small gift shop at the top. I also decided to take a tour of the catacombs beneath the church. The first part of the tour went through the older part of the catacombs that looked newer because they have recently been renovated. Inside were the coffins of Vienna's bishops and royal family with all of there organs taken out and put in many metal urns. The next part was the newer section of catacombs. They were much darker, colder, and creepier because they have never been renovated. We entered into an arched hallway of old bricks lit only by very dim industrial style lights. The tour guide led us into a large open space and informed us that the catacombs had been the location of many mass graves during the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Vienna. There was a pit and several rooms literally filled with scattered human bones. In one, prisoners had been made to clean and neatly stack the bones of hundreds of bodies. I left the catacombs feeling a bit dark for how fascinated I had been with them. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Vienna and admiring the architecture before returning to the hostel for a night of pool and drinking in the bar.
       The next day I went to the Schonbrunn palace. It was huge and I decided not to pay to tour the inside. Instead I explored the vast gardens that surround it. After walking around the gardens for quite a while I ventured into the palace's three separate labyrinths. From there I went to the palace zoo. It was a very extensive and well laid out zoo and I spent a few hours there. After that I headed to Vienna's central cemetery. It was massive and had every sort of crazy head stone you could imagine. Then I went back to the hostel. My feet were quite sore after that day.
       The next morning I went to a museum with a couple others from the hostel. It was a museum that focused on music and sound and how we perceive it. There were also some sections on different famous composers. It was very interactive and I enjoyed myself very much. After that I parted ways with the other travelers and went to the Shmetterlinghaus (butterfly house). It was a large greenhouse full of tropical plants and many different types of butterflies. It was a really nice and relaxing place to hang out for a while. From there I went to a couple other museums. One was like three smaller museums in one. It had a section with weapons and armor, one with historical musical instruments, and another with artifacts from ancient Ephesus. With the purchase of a ticket to this museum I was given admission to the nearby art museum, so I went there next. It was huge and also had artifacts from ancient Egypt and Greece.
       On Thursday I took the train back to Budapest. I had quite a bit of fun in Budapest and met some really great people. The hostel I was staying at had a guitar that miraculously had all its strings and tuning pegs, so when I got there in the afternoon I spent some time just relaxing and playing it. Later on I took a walk around the Pest side of the city (Budapest is made of of two former cities, Buda and Pest, that are separated by the Duna river). I found a store that sold exclusively Lego's, which was exciting to me...
       Later that night I did a pub crawl with several different people from different hostels. The night was pretty fun and crazy. We spend a lot of time in some of the ruin bars, which are old run down soviet era buildings that have bars/clubs in them and often have no ceilings and many random rooms. They are definitely a thing to experience when in Budapest, especially one called "Instant". I got back to the hostel as the sun was just coming up.         
       The next day I walked all around the Buda side of Budapest. That evening I met up with some people from the night before. We went to a ruin bar and there was a rockabilly band playing. We spent some time there and then went to another pub before things sort of spiraled out of control again. It was another fun night.
       I'm participating now in this program called Angloville about an hour and a half outside of Budapest. I met another guy in the hostel I was staying at in Budapest who is also participating. On Saturday we were given a tour of Budapest and lunch by the program coordinators. The rest of the day was pretty laid back.
       Yesterday we got on a bus to a motel out in the Hungarian countryside. So far the program has been good. I have one-to-one hour long talking sessions with at least four Hungarians a day and we discuss different topics. Their English abilities vary from one person to the next and its mentally exhausting to hold a conversation with them and help them to understand new English terms and phrases. It is enjoyable though, to talk to so many different types of people, including the other native English speakers. We have periods of free time throughout the day and I spent the yesterday evening playing ping pong and cards with other participants.
       I'm on my midday break now and so far the day has been great.
Sorry, still no pictures...