I just spent a large portion of last night trying to argue to a couple Russian guys I work with about General Relativity and evolution. In Russian, and it was very frustrating to understand what they were saying (somewhat) and not being able to say anything but no, thats not right, and yes, I agree. A lot of good those 4 years I didn't spend in Russian classes at Vandy have done...
As you can see in the 10 or so pictures I uploaded below, I haven't been in Russia the whole time since I last posted (which isn't much of a surprise seeing as its a couple months) 2 months ago I started off my trip, passing through Amsterdam on my way to Scotland. There were reasons I was supposed to be there, something about work... however I didn't see much of that. After Aberdeen, had another flight to Houston, to go to one of our main headquarters for another tech school. It was at this point that I realized the drastic difference between the way we have to work in Russia and how these guys are making out. First of all, they have tennis and basketball courts, football fields (both the European and American) and a track encircling the "campus". But if that wasn't enough to occupy the average persons' 2 hour lunch break, you also have the opportunity of going to the gym, where you can have a private coach, or attend classes for an hour... We have a ping pong table in Russia, but no ball...
Ok, so anyways, got a chance to get home for a little after this with the hopes of spending the next week in Mexico. It did not dawn on me that this was Spring Break time until I actually called up the travel agent. Price for 10 days in Mexico, flying Nashville => Cancun => Los Cabos : $4000... yeah, I'll pass.
Instead I try something different and think about Eastern Europe. Didn't really know much, just a few historical tidbit's, but what better way to learn than be there... My goal was to pay less than 4k. That I did. Without a problem. Well, it might have been if I had to stay in Vienna. Damn the Euro and how it is destroying the dollar. Itenerary was as follows, Budapest => Vienna => Prague (trains inbetween, or at least that was the plan).
1.42 weeks in Eastern Europe. And I almost made my first big mistake 5 minutes after coming off the plane:
Hmm, need money... wonder what its called. And... oh shit, what is the exchange rate? No matter, I'll just push the 3rd from the top, it shouldn't be too much... 50,000 Ft, sounds like a lot. Oops, went over my daily limit.
Was I lucky, saved me about $600 of Florints.. which in 4 days, hell, in 4 weeks, I would have had quite a bit of difficulty spending.
Travelling by yourself is an acquired taste, most people you talk to that don't travel much say they could never imagine going and travelling just by themselves. However, when you stay in a place like a hostel, most of the people you meet are a lot like you.. Travelling by themselves, going from one place to the next, just trying to meet new people they can spend the next day with, and trying to meet a girl to spend the night with.
Previously, especially in Australia, all I met were Brits. This time around, it was Canadians. Good guys, even the French speaking ones...
Not to bore everyone (myself included) I wont give all the details, however I will say that all three cities have unbelievable views upon the river. Prague is old, even by European standards with some amazing architecture, but is also overrun by Americans. I actually think I heard more English than Czech when i was there. Oh, and the church at Stephenplatz in Vienna is fu.... amazing, except for that advertisement that covers the entire top section of the steeple....
