And just enjoy life.

(St Stephen’s Day in Budapest, Hungary.)

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Critter Care Instructions

Cats –
Their food is the one on top of the washer with the green top labeled “Gay Mafia Food Source”. Inside you’ll find a Dixie cup. Fill it with their food and distribute between the three bowls once a day. They will try to convince you that they need fed more but they’re liars. Fat liars. Replace their water once a day. Also, to note, there is a bowl of water in the bathroom. Bucky loves this. He’s kind of a spoiled brat.

Actually… they all are spoiled brats.

I’ll move Bucky’s Personal Water Bowl onto the counter in there since he will complain if this isn’t changed a few times a day. You only have to change it once a day. Make him grow some backbone.

Also to note: they love looking out the window in the front (perched on the couch) so if you close the blinds be sure to pull them up again else they will mess with the blinds. They also like the window looking at the back yard above their litter box. They’re not allowed on the counters or tables. They will try to ignore this rule. Beat them as necessary. This is, of course, a joke. Put them on the ground and immediately feel guilty and coo at them at their general adorable-ness.

See point above about spoiled brats.

You might not really see Bucky and Brutus at first. This doesn’t mean they got out but they’re big babies. They’ll probably come out after a few hours. If not feel free to throw taunts directed at them. This won’t do anything but maybe deflate their overinflated egos.

Sugar Glider –
Fed once a day. His food and water are on the sides of the cage. Feed him a tablespoon of yogurt and some cheese (not mixed together). Check his water daily as well. Make sure the blanket is covering his cage since he’s nocturnal thus might melt in sunlight. We think he’s part vampire.

Chickens –
Fed once a day, generally in the morning. Keep them in the coop for simplicity. They will complain about it but just ignore them. We do. There is a big container of food on the washer. Fill it full of the feed and go inside the coop to spread it in the dirt. Check their nesting boxes (the ones on the right that look like boxes) for eggs in the afternoon. They’ve been producing about one egg a day due to the cold. You can give them treats (in moderation) of sunflower seeds (container on top of their feed) or the bread in the ziplock bag. They will love you forever if you do this. Their water is the metal container. Check this daily! They like to put dirt in there that gets muddy. They’re jerks like that.

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For those of you who know me must know Nutella is one of my most favorite things ever thus this cruise? A gold star times a thousand in my book for that alone.

The planned morning activity was to take a bus tour around Buda and Pest sides and see much of the touristy spots to see. First stop? Heroes Square.

We weaved around a lot of both the Buda and Pest sides of town and, unfortunately, I had a lot of reflection on my window which made taking pictures a major pain and a half. That is okay, however, since I did thoroughly enjoy seeing Budapest and hearing a lot of their history from our local tour guide.

The second stop where we actually got out of the bus was in the castle district… again.

That is okay since my friend, the Giant Falcon, made another appearance and made my life.

I want like 10 of him.

After the castle district (which I saw another stray cat there which made Mom comment “You have some sort of freak cat radar! Always have, always will, be able to find cats no one else would see”) we headed back to the boat for lunch and set sail on the not-blue-anymore Danube.

And the bronze shoes monument that commemorates the Jews who were shot and pushed into the Danube river there during WWII.

As we traveled down river we saw some amazing buildings…

and some neat bridges…

And a house/structure I personally don’t think I’d really want to go into…

Eventually the sun went down and dinner was had and we went to bed knowing that, in the morning, we’d be arriving in Vienna for another busy day full of mighty adventures.

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This is where I’m going to show my American Water Buffalo nature (thank you for that, Dave Berry Does Japan) and ask: is personal space a really American concept? I think I, more than other people I know, really don’t like it when strangers touch or brush up against me. I think, with the heat, it really got to me that day… plus I’m sure I was still really, really jetlagged.

Anyway, onto the next day, day three: Budapest (again)! This day we met up with people from the river cruise to do some exploration of the city outside of the castle district. The planned activities? A tour of the large market (Grand Market Hall – Nagyvasarcsarnok) and an art nouveau museum.

The market was full of lots of produce and meat stands on the main level which, in certain parts, made it smell amazing.

Since Mom and I aren’t huge shoppers we decided to make the most of our hour and a half free time and went and wandered around the street to get a few pictures.

And stopped by Burger King to get a Coca Cola Light.

Next we stopped by the Art Nouveau museum.

Then stopped at a charming cafe for some coffee and dessert. Afterwards we were taken back with the group to the hotel where we were separated and those of us just starting our journey were whisked away to the boat to get our cabins and learn of our new home for the next eight days.

We were given a few to get situated (and giving me an extra awesome view from our window of a creepy shirtless man) we heard over the loud speaker that there was going to be some sort of tour. Now, Mom heard it was going to be a tour of the boat while I heard we would be going outside to explore somewhere close by. Naturally, being the good daughter that I am, I decided to listen to my Mom and not lead the way (thus hoping we wouldn’t run into hobos as is my habit) and found that ultimately I had heard right and we were going off the ship. I didn’t, of course, take my camera since I thought we were just looking at the boat.

We explored this long avenue that was full of lots of shops and basically where the young people come to hang out. The heat was oppressive at that point so Mom and myself, along with a few others, followed the tour guide back to the boat where we proceeded to bask in the fine appreciation of man-made AC.

Later in the evening we had a meeting in the ships lounge to meet our tour director and hear safety instructions before a grand meal and enjoyment all around.

After a long day full of many activities Mom and I were very happy to go back to our cabin and fall asleep in our beds.

… unlike the cabbie we saw earlier resting on the job:

I bet he wishes he was in bed, too.

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So… obviously there was a hitch in my plan to blog about the cruise everyday… I guess I should start with a breakdown of why the lack of posts, catch up as to what’s up, and the contest details.

• So, why didn’t you blog everyday you lazy slob?
  Funny story, that. We were told going into the cruise that we’d have Wifi available on the ship. Oh the excitement I felt and anticipation! Made hauling my laptop around airports and hotels totally worth it equipped with that knowledge! Unfortunately what they didn’t tell us was that it was satellite internet connection which meant that if a) we weren’t docked and b) you looked at it funny or c) there were mountains over a foot tall you were pretty much screwed internet wise. Also, totally ageist of me to say, but the old people totally hogged the internet. I mean, I felt mildly bad about trying to upload a few small pictures and doing blog posts. I came to find out, through various discussions with people on the boat, that some people were emailing full size images back to the states. This, of course, meant I was S.O.L. if I wanted to do anything. What limited internet I was able to get (usually really early in the morning or late at night) I used to chat or email Mack. I’m sorry but my boyfriend means more to me then the negative ten (since I’m convinced the number of people who read this blog reach into the negative numbers) people who might have read the blog who could wait until I got back to the states.
• How was the trip?
  Awesome!  Lots of stories to tell and pictures to show. I have four memory cards (one of which is 8GB) full of pictures I need to download and process. Trust me that you’ll see them here on the blog in the near future… once I have a chance to catch my breath that is.
• I saw you complain about jetlag on twitter. Seriously, it’s probably not as bad as you made it out to be.
  I’m weak! What can I say? My body didn’t handle the nine-hour time difference well. You should have seen me with the seveteen-hour time difference shock when I got back from Japan. My Mom still laughs about it to this day. Last week I went immediately back to work the following day and, erm, women stuff came up. Needless to say I fell asleep at 7pm and was usually up at 5am and my body was angry. Angry I tell you!  I also didn’t sleep well on the trip for some reason. Lots of weird dreams including, but not limited to, a dream I was a greek goddess who had to choke the life out of one of her possessed horses. I blame all the beef goulash I ate.
• You sure offer a lot of excuses.
  I’m really good at that. I think it comes from being the youngest child.
• What about that contest you were running?
  I decided to axe it. There was just no interest what-so-ever. Two of the comments submitted were my godmothers who I love dearly and made me feel loved. So yes, obviously next time have to figure out better prizes to see if anyone would care that way.

So that’s it. You’ll see posts about the cruise slowly get posted. I have two I wrote while on the cruise that, frustrated, I gave up on attempting to post. The photos being posted with them will still be SOOC (straight out of camera) to create the full superior glory of it all.

In the words of Scar from the Disney movie “Lion King” (I grew up on it, shut up): Be Prepared!

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A thing to note with pictures posted on these posts is that they’re SOOC (straight out of camera) from my old Panasonic. My “better” shots will be posted when I’m back state-side with time to process and make them gorgeous.

The day started for us at 7am after we slept for almost a solid twelve hours. What can I say? Traveling and lack of sleep eventually takes a very nice toll on you. After we got dressed and ready for the day we went downstairs and had our complimentary breakfast before heading out to check out the days festivities.

The previous day we were surprised to discover that we happened to be in town for a big festival here in Hungary. August 20th is King St. Stephen’s Day which commemorates the foundation of the Hungarian state 1000 years ago. On this day the new bread is also blessed and “countless exciting programs await both locals and tourist the day round” (totally swiped the text from the Hilton Budapest flyer on the occasion).

First thing Mom and I did was wander around the castle district to look at some interesting buildings. At that point in the morning there weren’t that many people awake and on the streets thus we were able to observe and enjoy this in relative peace and quiet. We were fortunate enough to go by a cathedral when they were ringing bells and another one when they were playing the organs. Being the American tourist that I am I, of course, tape recorded these sounds since I thought an audio representation of this trip would be amazing to have with the visual.

My Mom trustingly followed me as I led us in front of the castle in what looked to be a park. We wandered down hill a ways and, on our way back up, happened to run into a few of the homeless of Buda who barely acknowledged us passing.

Let me pause a moment and point out holy shit look at this size of this falcon.

He was chilling here in the Castle district being awesome in his sheer majestic nature.

We wandered around the castle some more taking photographs before heading to the Festival of Folk Arts (or Mesterséqek Ünnepe).

We wandered around looking at some booths before paying to get into where the actual event really is happening (or so we assumed for 1500 Hungarian). We made our way to the stage and were able to watch (and again tape record) some traditional Hungarian bagpipes and watch the dancers weave their stories on the stage.

Unfortunately at one point I had my camera down so I didn’t take a shot of one of the dancers going after the group (and being held back by the other group) with a big knife. I assume it was all apart of the dance but who knows, I could be wrong… though they kept dancing so let’s just assume it was apart of the number.

After watching the dancers we wandered around some more and looked at the seemingly endless craft booths and the many views that various places offered.

We also enjoyed some traditional Hungarian drinks.

It is now afternoon and we’re back at our hotel room cooling down and relaxing a little before re-joining the huge masses of humanity who are out on the streets celebrating. Before that though here is a shot for Mack’s Mom, Lynda, who loves to photograph her feet in various locations:

I know they’re more my legs than just my feet but I’m following the spirit of the thought at least!

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A thing to note with pictures posted on these posts is that they’re SOOC (straight out of camera) from my old Panasonic. My “better” shots will be posted when I’m back state-side with time to process and make them gorgeous.

Wednesday morning came rather “early” for me. You see, this weekend before this trip the crazy notion got into my head that if I stayed up most of Tuesday night I could perhaps have a chance of actually sleeping on the plane. I’m by no means an easy flyer thus I figured if I was to the point of pure absolute exhaustion it would be a good thing for both my Mom and my sanity. That said Mack and I made it until about 3am watching the mini-series “The Pillars of Earth” before I got extra whiny having been up almost 21 hours at that point.

I know, I’m such a pleasure to be around sometimes.

Before heading to the airport I stopped by the bank to pick up some American currency so I could hit yet another bank to get some Euros. The day before I had had Mack call around to various banks (having run out of luck at my bank since their policy is they special order foreign currency) and found that Wells Fargo actually has Euros on hand. When I went into Wells Fargo they remembered my boyfriend had called and said they were “expecting me.”

Not creepy at all, really.

After those last errands Mack dropped me off at the airport where I met up with my Mom at the Air France counter. After checking in and going thru security we went to find out gate at the other terminal and determined that specific terminal kind of had no real food selection available. Back tracking we went back to Seateac’s main terminal and were both able to get food (and snacks for the plain ride) before going back with about half an hour to spare before our flight.

I guess since it has been nine years since my last International trip I had forgotten the sheer size and mass of those airplanes used. I felt my legs had plenty of room for the 10-hour flight… until the guy in front of me leaned back all the way and the woman behind me started playing knee hockey with the back of my seat. I was, though, in heaven since Air France has quite the selection of movies available to watch which I did almost the whole flight.

Yes, I attempted to sleep but as you all probably know well enough: airplanes are not comfortable to sleep on.

Finally, almost ten hours later, we flew into France and I was blown away by a) how beautiful the country was and b) how rural a lot of it still was.

I know this paragraph might sound a little narrow minded but realize these thoughts came when I was severely tired and confused. The Paris airport we went into was a little confusing in the way that it was marked. Also? It smelled heavily of body odor. And, silly American, I forgot about the squatter toilets that is a main feature of bathrooms in here. Although I became really well versed in squatting in Japan it was still, er, a surprise to discover when we took a pit stop after the flight.

When we went through passport inspection for some reason they lingered on mine for the longest time. There was a whole lot of looking from my passport to me and back again with rapid French spoken in the meantime. Now, my passport picture is a few years old and the difference between passport picture Anne and traveled jetlagged Anne is a) Glasses b) hair pulled back and not as beautiful as picture and c) I was smirking in real life. Eventually they decided that, indeed, I was the girl from the picture and we were let thru to find out way to the different terminal for our flight.

This sign amused me too much not to take a picture.

Our flight to Budapest was delayed by an hour so when we finally got on the flight both Mom and myself were past the point of exhaustion and ready for a nap. I think the flight had hardly taken off before both she and I were passed out.

I remember at one point during the two hour flight we hit turbulence and I thought to myself “This airplane isn’t like the Air France one and is held together by popsicle sticks.”

I think next time I’ll sleep the night before a flight…

We were met at the airport by a representative from the cruise and were taken to the hotel here in Budapest. First thing I did was try to figure out the wireless Internet situation since I had promised Mack that I would skype him to let him know that we were safely in Budapest. An hour later I got it figured out and was able to let Mack know we were here safely and had a kick ass view from our hotel room.

The Hilton is on the site of a 13th-century convent in the heart of the Castle district. This, of course, means there is lots of interesting stuff close to our hotel that we were able to check out without having to walk that far.

And of course, to wind down the long and busy day, we stopped by and had a traditional dish of beef goulash with dumplings and Hungarian beer.

Afterwards, after a long day of travel, we went back to our hotel room and we both asleep by 7PM.

We are such party animals it hurts.

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While I wish I could put you all in my pocket and take y’all on this grand adventure I’m about to go on (and am still slowly packing for) unfortunately my pockets aren’t large enough to fit even one of you, let alone both of you, that read my blog. To get you over that bitter disappointment I thought, instead, I’d throw a contest.

I estimate I can throw it at least 20-feet! Huzzah!

… sorry, that was all Mack.

Whatever you do don’t google search “old time muscle performers”. Trust me. (image source).

Over the course of this trip I’ll be visiting the following cities: Budapest, Vienna, Melk, Passau, Regensburg, Nuremberg, and Prague. The contest is to post a comment and tell me what place you would love to visit in one of those cities and why. The other option is to post something cool in those cities that I should know about and try to check out. We’ll be taking “official tours” but if your recommendations are awesome then we’ll make time for that too!

RULES:

1. Post your suggestion here, as a comment on this post.
2. List the name and the reason for your suggestion. Links to more info (Wikipedia, for example) rock!
3. You can post multiple times, but only the first one will count.
4. Use a valid email address so I can get ahold of you if you win.

PRIZES

The winner will receive a trinket from my European adventures and a framed 11×14 photograph from the the city where your suggestion is located (remember: one of those 7 cities!).

BOOST YOUR CHANCES TO WIN

Since I want to hear as many awesome ideas as possible I’d love for you to get your friends, family, and hell! even your enemies in on the fun. All you have to do…

• Tweet the following message: “CONTEST: Share what you love about Europe with @thewhoahgirl ! Check it out: http://bit.ly/a8urok“

OR…

• Drop by my facebook page and hit “LIKE” and leave a message on my wall!

DEADLINE

The contest will run for most of my trip. The last day to enter, tweet, or “like” into the contest is August 28th at 9PM PST. I will announce the winner on September 2nd.

I’m really looking forward to reading about the awesome places in Europe that you guys love!

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In T-minus 3 days at this time I’ll either still be in the air en-route or on the ground at the airport in Paris. My Mom and I are headed off on a cruise and start our epic journey in Budapest where we’ll be spending 2 days before meeting up with the Viking River Cruise line to start our almost two week excursion.

I don’t think there are words enough to really describe what I’m feeling right now. Stress? since I haven’t really packed that much. Elation? I haven’t been out of the country (minus Canada but that doesn’t count) since I was living in Japan so I’m psyched to be checking out the world again! Supreme happiness and/or giddiness? You bet!

The last time I was in Europe was a visit to England and Scotland in 1997. My brother Mark was doing a semester abroad over there and my parents latched onto the opportunity to visit and show their supremely picky daughter a little culture.

Oh boy you can imagine how pissed I was when I found out ketchup (one of my main food sources at the time) tasted funny and not right. Don’t worry though: I’ve since developed taste and an enjoyment of food. Being an exchange student does that to you real fast since you don’t really want to offend your host family… that and you just learn not to ask what they are feeding you.

The past few weeks this trip has kind of been a dull roar on my radar of things to do. I started a contract position a week and a half ago (finally! A source of income!) so I’ve been adjusting to 40-hour weeks again and actually commuting to a job which I haven’t done since early 2009.

I know, such a spoiled girl I was.

While I’ve been gathering stuff that I will need in Europe (read: memory cards for my camera) I think the whole concept of this trip has just been that: a vague notion of an event to come that will happen sometime in the future. Mom and I have been talking about it for a year now and have had the tickets for eight months. This cruise has always been something to look forward to and way down the line in my scope of time.

And now? Now I leave Wednesday early afternoon and am gone the rest of August. Yikes!

The panic really started to set in today as to all I need to get done. I told Person X I’d do this project for them, Person Y I’d do this other project for them, and Person Z is expecting a, b, and c before I leave the country. This is on top of the packing and prep work and everything else that must get done.

Must… breathe…

I’ve been told that the cruise will have Wifi and I’m planning on taking my laptop so that I can do daily (or every-few-days with the promise of more when I’m back state side) posts with a few pictures with, again, the promise of a lot more to come when I have high speed internet and aren’t in awe of the majestic sights, sounds, tastes, and experiences that my journey is going to take me on. So, please, check here through the end of the month as I share my journey, stories, and pictures of this wonderful opportunity and experience I’m going on with my Mom as we take on Europe and all the sights to see!

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I know the writing is bad and the relationships in the books are unhealthy at best but you know what? It’s good escape literature that you love to hate. I also hate to love it.

What’d I tell you? It’s complex.

Last week Hayley text me and asked me if I would want to take an epic journey to Forks, WA next (now this) week. “Heck yes!” I replied. “It’s not like I have a job or anything going on in my life!”

That’s my typical response now: “It’s not like I have a job or anything happening.”

Wednesday morning came and Hayley showed up at the ridiculous hour of 7:30am. Doesn’t she know I have no job thus like to sleep till noon? (I’m half-joking!). She patiently waited until after I had a phone interview for a (potential) contract job and then we loaded up into the car and hit the road.

Oh boy can you sense the excitement?

After two hours of driving through the Olympic Peninsula and a whole lot of nature we hit Port Angeles and knew we were getting close.

And if Super 8 wasn’t helpful enough there was always road signs:

About 45 miles outside of Forks we hit some epic road construction by a lake that had us sitting there for 20 minutes. It was all fine and dandy since hey, at least we had a view! We managed to eventually escape that joy and within another fifty minutes we hit Tourist Spot #1:

I won’t tell you how many tourists were gathered around to pose by the sign but at this point I started loudly proclaiming “I have no shame” and “I embarrass myself.”

Driving through Forks itself was very… interesting since obviously their sole purpose is now catering to the rabid fans who descend in masses to be somehow apart of the series.

And I’m not even talking to the specific areas of town specifically catered to objects/places in the books.

Yes, that includes the Visiter Center.

This was just awesome: capitalizing on the madness:

“Twilight firewood”. Yes. I’m sure it’s wood from trees the Cullens broke while playing vampire baseball. I had to give whoever did that props since I’m sure someone will buy it since it’s from Forks and has Twilight written above it.

Even heading out to the reservation they got into the Twilight madness:

Here’s some overcast beach shots for those who are under the misconception that Washington state only has grey skies:

Overall I have to say that I had a good time but it was kind of sad how tourist trap the town now is. Like, you couldn’t walk down the main drag without Twilight being shoved into your face… especially as you go by the store Dazzled which, of course, sells only Twilight related apparel.

If you’re a hardcore fan who wants to go “experience” Twilight I’d say make the trip to Forks, WA since they cater to making the fans happy. I enjoyed my time with Hayley (despite a few times of refusing to get out of the car to take pictures due to embarrassment). Now when I tell people that I live in Washington state I can tell them yes, I have been to Forks, WA, and hopefully watch them explode in a dazzling display of diamonds.

Or whatever those vampires do.

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