Central Europe trip!

Well there are some pictues from my trip! I don't know why it came out so small - click on it to make it bigger!

Krakow was really really beautiful. My parents didn't believe me, but it's true! The first day there was so sunny and fun to walk around and explore. We bought nuts and apples and dried fruit from an old lady with a stand and sat on the base of the statue in the main square in the sun! And watched little kids chase after huge bubbles. It was so so nice. The next day was gross again, though, and then the day after that I went to Auschwitz. It was...intense. There were huuuuge crowds which was bizarre. I don't really know what to write about it except that it was just sad. That night was Erika's 21st birthday and then we left for Bratislava at 6 am the next morning.

Bratislava was cool to see, but it's sooo small and there's not really that much to see. I wish I could've had another day in Budapest and 1 less day there. The weather was disgusting and hailing and snowing. But I went to see the national ballet with Crystal and Sam and I ate lots of cabbage soup and went to a workshop where I made lots of jewelry out of recycled computer parts and fabric and things.

On Friday morning, Erika, Crystal, Sam and I set off for an adventure in Budapest! Our hostel worked out fine even though the water wasn't consistantly hot and we didn't have towels. We didn't have to share a room with anyone which was great. On friday after our long train ride getting set up at the hostel we had a delicious lunch and went to this old old hotel that's famous for it's thermal baths! We went to the all-women bath area and realized that we had forgotten to bring a change of underwear to swim in...so we all just decided to go for it and be european, 'cause we figured we'd all be the silly americans in our underwear anyway. And we saw a bunch of women walking around naked in the changing area. So we walk into the bath room in these sheets that they'd given us and oh! Turns out we're the only naked ones! Turns out Europeans DO like to wear bathing suits apparently. It was just hilarious and silly and there were some old saggy women walking around naked. Anyway, it was quite the experience and we all had a lot of fun. We went for dinner and then walked to another place for dessert and explored a little more and then went home.
The next day was one of the most wonderful days I've had all semester. We just wandered all over Budapest and the sun was out and it was great! We ended up going to all these major places to see and just stumbling into a lot of them too. We had coffee and croissants at an outdoor cafe, shopped in the famous market and bought food for a picnic, stumbled into another cool market area and had our picnic there, saw the parliament buidling and tons and tons of other beautiful buildings while we walked all down by the river, walked all around Margeret Island and climbed trees and bought a huuuuge cotton candy, walked down the river from the other side and happened to find this amaaaazing fort thing on top of a big hill right at dusk, walked around there and found a beautiful church with the ruins of the old foundation in front of it and a beautiful view of the other part of the city and hills behind it, walked across another bridge at night, stumbled upon some festival/celebration/demonstration in front of a huge church where everyone had torches and music was playing, had really good dinner, and went to the famous New York Cafe for dessert which is another old old old and fancy hotel there.
I had such a great time and I wish we had longer there, but I feel like I got as much as I possibly could out of the 1.5 days there! I want to go back in the summertime!

Now I'm back in Prague for my last 3 weeks of class. After that I have 5 weeks all to myself for my independent study project! I'm going to do a photography project and do non-digital and develop my pictures myself - I can't wait to start. I think it'll focus of portraits and people in their environment and be anthropological/documentary/art photos with a focus on the artist process and photo ethics. When I have decided more details about the project I will post them. My camera from home is coming in the mail, but until then Sarah lent me her manual so I can get used to carrying it around everywhere and taking pictures of everything. I took it on the trip with me and I can't wait to develop them!