My European Escapades

Goodnight Budapest

2007-06-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

Our final dinner in Budapest was at Pozsony Restaurant, a recommendation by a colleague who lives in Budapest. Jesse was right. I know why it's his favorite restaurant now. I ordered some sort of pork with peppers (its officially my favorite Hungarian entree now!) and potatoes with parsley. The food was perfect and the wine was great. It really is a small little restaurant right in the middle of

Budapest, Physically

2007-06-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

So just a couple of observations about the city of Budapest. 1: The women in Budapest have the best legs! Whether they are tall or short or even a bit chunky with a gut, they have gorgeous toned legs. Very jealous!! 2: Budapest is home to some of the most beautiful men I have ever seen. The business men, pub waiters, ticket takers...all beautiful. It's absolutely insane. And they all have that

Final Night in Budapest

2007-05-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

Our time in Budapest feels like it went by so fast. Tonight is our final night in the city. One of the guys that I used to work with lived in Budapest now. Unfortunately he's out of town on business but he's recommended a couple of places for us. Tonight we will be having dinner at his favorite restaurant, a cute little mom and pop kind of place afterwards we'll head over to Szoda, a beer garden

Hangover update

2007-05-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

The Hungarian hangover is finally gone!! We went to the Opera and bought tickets for tonight's performance. Four dollar tickets for slightly off-center balcony seats. Talk about a great deal. The most expensive seats in the place cost around 70 US dollars. I'm excited for the show. No idea which opera so that will be interesting. We are on our way now to the Market Hall, one of Budapest's huge

Hungarian Hangovers

2007-05-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

Many half liters of beer, three bars, eight hours of sleep, four bottles of water, two advils..... My head still hurts. Hungarian hangovers suck!!!!

Buda-Pest...two sides to one city

2007-05-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Budapest is my kind of city: beautiful men, great architecture, lots of theatre options and an ice cream shop on every corner!! My first view of Budapest was not the best. Our train finally arrived in Budapest at midnight Sunday night. Train stations are never pretty places usually, especially late at night. This one was no exception. We hit up an ATM and tried to but metro tickets. Come to find

Oh where oh where did my little train go?

2007-05-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Fours hours late, our train to Budapest has finally arrived!! It stopped for a total of five minutes to let everyone off and some of us on before it took off again. Seven cars later, we found a spot in a mostly non-smoking car. But then...it wouldn't be a Jill Escapade through Europe without at least one travel incident! So here I am on the train for the first time this trip. It's been very "

Bratislava

2007-05-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

Bratislava is a really cute city. Well, let me correct that...the Old Town is really cute. The rest (regular part) of the city is just your regular city. A lot of it built in that post-war, square concrete style construction. The Old Town has great architecture and little alleyways which I love. It's the perfect little place to wander and get lost in since you can walk one end to the other in

Fancy meeting you here Mr. President

2007-05-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

After touring Schonbrunn Palace and its grounds, we had a nice little picnic dinner by its park while we waited for the concert. Bored with staring at the trees, we moved to a bench at the front of the palace where we people watched after our picnic.People started showing up slowly along with the VIPs in dresses and suits. There were some police and undercover security hanging aound one of the

I could live like this

2007-05-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we decided to continue our theme of living like royalty. We took the subway out to Schonnbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburgs (and Napolean during the French occupation). The palace is everything you would want from royalty: beautiful gardens, great fountains, the wow factor when you first see it, etc. The palace has 1400 rooms, 40 of which are open to the public. At one

Is that red carpet for us??

2007-05-25T01:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we visited the Royal Treasury Museum at the Hofburg Palace. When we arrived they had the red carpet rolled out for us...literally!The police were starting to set up barricades and the red carpet was receiving its finally sweeping. The Hofburg is still home to the offices of the President of Austria, so we figured something big must be going on. We stood around for about 20

Another sign?

2007-05-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

Just as my nightmares were a sign from God when I was younger, I might have gotten another sign yesterday. When we left St. Stephens, the bright sunny sky had turned grey and rain was falling. Our apartment was right next door so we decided to wait out the little rain shower there were Mom insisted "it'll be over soon and clear up". Instead of clearing up, the thunder began and the rain became

Walking the City

2007-05-23T00:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we started the day with a walking tour of the city. It was a great way to get a feel of the city's history and to put into context some of the amazing buildings that we had seen the night before. It was a good tour and it did help to bring the city to life, especially the influence of the Hapsburgs, vienna's ruling emperial family until the first war when Vienna became a republic.After

Vienna at a first glance

2007-05-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

I've been in Vienna for about five hours now and I absolutely love this city. The architecture is more than I could have imagined and I've only seen it at night so far!Mom and I found our apartment that we rented and it is outstanding. Huge bedroom, chandelier in the living room, small balconies overlooking St. Stephens Chuch, etc. I've already decided that I want to move in here.After finally

Lax

2007-05-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

So we made to lax with plenty of time to spare. Thanks for the ride Lova!! We made it through security with our 80 miniature-under-three-ounces bottles of shampoo and toothpaste among other things. Security left us alone this time for a change! Now the airport boredom begins. Its kind of quiet in the tom bradley terminal. No interesting people to ease drop on...yet. Maybe things will liven up a

How many Dollars for how many Euros?

2007-05-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

I went to American Express to exchange my money yesterday…same thing I do every year before I travel. It's puts a bit of local currency in my hand for when I land, and saves me some of those "non-Bank of American" ATM fees that I hate so much. Well, that damn Euro and its value. I handed over $400 and was expecting to get back around 300 Euros. Hahahaha…

2007-05-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Just found out that my work blackberry is set up to work in europe!! This means that I can stay in touch with everyone easier and cheaper by not hitting up internet cafes everyday. Saving money...big fan...plus not having to use a foreign keyboard...even bigger fan!! So try not to miss us too much while we are gone. Stay in touch and email me at my work account if u have it!!

Hotels....Tedious Details

2007-05-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

I love traveling, especially the whole planning process. But, there is a point where some of the details just become tedious. Spending two weeks trying to find a hotel room/apartment in the part of town that I like for a price that I could afford that offered me the option to walk everywhere started to look hopeless. I would get frustrated and stop searching. Start fresh a couple of days later.

It Has Been Decided

2007-03-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Dates have been set. Places have been locked down. Tickets have been purchased. Mom and I are spending two fun-filled weeks in Europe this May. She's going to fly to LA, and then together we are going to fly to Vienna. I know it seems odd for her to fly here and then back across the country, but there were reasons. We couldn't find any flights that connected us before we got to Vienna. Plus, if

Where to go next

2007-01-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. It's time to start planning another trip over to Europe. I've decided to bring my mom along for this journey. We still haven't decided where we are going though. Some of the places on the possible itinerary include: London, Paris, Budapest, Vienna and Bratislava.Plane tickets are really expensive this year, so we might have to save London and its pricey British Pound

John Lennon Wall

2006-07-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

On our way to a picnic in Prague, Honza took us by what is known as the John Lennon Peace Wall. To stand freely in front of this wall was breathtaking. To think that people risked inprisonment to come and scribe a message of love or peace or freedom. It just confirmed my belief that music can touch people's souls.Below is an excerpt from bagism.com about the wall:Lennon was a pacifist hero for

Vrtbovska Gardens

2006-07-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Down the street and around the corner from our hotel we found the Vrtbovska Gardens, built in 1715 for Jan Joseph the Earl of Vrtba, the highest chancellor of Prague Castle.The gardens are built on terraced floors which are connected by curved staircases which give views of the gardens below. The garden is also filled with statuary and urns.View from atop the terraces of the Vrtbovska Gardens. I

Cafe Signs

2006-07-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite cafe signs. Things were constantly misspelled on signs....but it only made it that much more endearing to me. Note "sendwiches" and "toust", the latter being a grilled "sendwich".

Views from St. Nicholas Church

2006-07-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

Some great views of Prague's Mala Strana area (where our hotel was located). The red roofs reminded me a lot of Tuscany. I love them sooo much!!

Hotel Pictures from Prague

2006-07-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, thanks to some great friends from the Prague tour, I have some pictures from the trip. Yeah!!! Below are the hotel picsStreet leading to our hotel, The House at The Big Boot . .. uphill, and cobblestones all the way. We became very accustomed to the sounds of luggage wheels, high heels and car wheels on the street below our window. This is the street that killed us late at night after the

Back in the States

2006-07-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

I'm officially back home and back at work. Reality has set in and the vacation is officially over. I started unpacking a little last night. Mostly, I just wanted to look at the cool souvenirs that I bought.I got a water painting by a local artist of the Prague skyline. The colors are so exquisite! Can't wait to have it framed and put it on a wall somewhere. I also got a beautiful black and white

I have to shower where?

2006-07-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

When I was planning my trip to visit Craig in Germany, we decided to spend a couple nights in his town of Friedberg. He got permission from whoever to have me sleep in his military barracks on base. Awesome!! Didn’t even think about what sleeping in a guy’s military barracks would entail. Naïve little Jill.It’s basically like a dorm in college. Guys usually share a room with somebody and there

What beat are they clapping to??

2006-07-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Julie and I decided that a must see while in Madrid was a flamenco show. The only knowledge I had of flamenco up until this point was when our college roommate Yomarie was cast in a play and had a couple of flamenco lessons for a dance sequence. I had images of women wearing dresses with ruffles and men in the traditional Spanish suit. I was excited. I have a cd of flamenco guitar music that I

¡Muevelo! ¡Muevelo!

2006-07-07T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hola chicos y chicas. yeah, that´s about the extent of my Spanish here for now. Happy to report that Julie made it to Madrid safely. We had a great time last night. We went to this cool little salsa club called El Son about a five minute walk from our hotel. The place was dark and the music was blaring. A dj played salsa, merengue and reggaetone all night while everyone danced the night away.

Madrid...Seeing how the other half live

2006-07-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

Today, I began my travel in Madrid with a stroll around town. I decided to get lost and began wandering little side streets. It was about 10am and there were no tourists in sight...beautiful!! I meandered through little neighborhoods with cobblestone streets, and beautiful ornate front doors with tile and iron. The side streets were also much cooler cause they were mostly in the shade. I wound up

Germany Lost.....awwwww

2006-07-06T03:35:00.000-07:00

Craig and I decided that we would spend our last night in Berlin (my last in Germany) with a couple thousand of our fellow World Cup fans. There was a huge festival (for lack of a better description) going on. The streets were shut down for a mile in one direction and a couple blocks wide. Huge jumbo tron TVs were set up all down the street and vendors were selling beer, food and t-shirts.

Reality happens

2006-07-06T03:28:00.000-07:00

So, I came into the internet cafe yesterday to write a blog, but i wasn´t really sure where to begin or if i even wanted to blog about this, but i think i will. Get it out there and move on. As some of you know, while I was in Berlin I was robbed. Craig and I stayed in a nice hotel in the business area of the city. Our room was one of 5 that got hit within four hours, during the Germany-Italy

Germany

2006-07-04T02:59:00.000-07:00

So, I made it to Germany after a slight train incident. Well, I guess technically I was already in Germanz when it happened. We're riding along, about an hour from Frankfurt where I was meeting Craig. All of the sudden the train stops....in a field. Ok, no worries...I'm good. It's daylight out this time. I am showered. I am already ahead of the Venice situation. Long story short....70 minutes

Good bye Prague

2006-07-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm in Germany...Berlin to be exact. You are going to have to bear with me on type o's cause i'm using a german keyboard that obviously hates me. keys are all switched around and everything! aaaarrrrrggg!My last days in Prague were great. I spent Friday morning buying a couple of gifts that i'm really excited about...one of which was for me. My mom gave me some money for my birthdaz and

Birthday then rain...

2006-06-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I wasn't planning on doing anything special for it (sorry mom). Honza, our tour guide, had taken us to Prague Castle and some other sights. Honza was born and raised in Prague. He's about 30 years old and is in university right now studying, of all things, Chinese. He just finished spending two weeks with Rick Steves updating his tour books. Afterwards, we went to lunch

They say its your birthday

2006-06-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

So, I have a bit of a beer buzz going on and it's only 3:30 in the afternoon here. We got up early this morning to explore the Prague castle and the cathedral next door. As most churches in Europe are, this one is exquisite in detail and in size. Amazing. There will be pictures to follow some day. After all of the site seeing, I went to grab an afternoon birthday drink with a woman from my group.

Prague!!

2006-06-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have been in Prague for about 24 hours now and the city fits perfectly. The people are all extremely friendly, even though most do not speak English!! awesome! The architecture is ridiculous and there is no way to capture its beauty on film...although I keep trying.My flight on Air France went fine. I got on board, ate dinner and then passed out. Woke up seven hours later as we were flying over

Michael Ballack

2006-06-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

I am in love with footballer Michael Ballack. It's official. He's a midfielder for the German team during the World Cup. He plays for Chelsea FC during the regular season. He's a libra and has a degree in German and History...all things that matter when you're crushing on an athlete. I know!But seriously, he's really cute. He's German. I'm German. I'm gonna be in Germany in two weeks. It's only a

Madrid

2006-06-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, I've narrowed down my Madrid hostel choices to three. Depending on if Julie can meet up with me, I'll book it now or maybe just wait till I get there to do it. I figure worse comes to worse, I can stay here at the Royal Palace right? I'm sure they won't mind if I just crash in one of the 2800 rooms there. I also just found out that the Museo de Prado (Prado Museum) is having a huge exhibit

Czechs beat US in World Cup Game

2006-06-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Now don't get me wrong...I'm all for Team America, but I really want the Czech team to make it to the semi-finals. I'll be in Prague during those games, and I think there will be a great feeling in the air if Czech is still in the game. Czech and USA played each other this morning and the Czechs won. yeah!!! It's sad for the USA team though cause now there is almost no chance of them advancing to

German hotel

2006-06-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

Craig and I finally decided on our hotel room of choice for Berlin. We'll be staying at the Mercure Hotel Berlin Mitte. I booked the reservations today. Because of World Cup, there are no changes or cancellations allowed, so now I guess we have to go. The hotel looks really nice and it's in a great part of town. It's in the new city center of Berlin, within walking distance to Potsdamer Platz and

My Own DaVinci Code??

2006-05-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

So, I was doing some reading on Berlin. Found an interesting little tidbit of information. Berlin's Tempelhoff district has a medieval heritage as an outpost of the Knights Templar, the warrior monks who gave that part of town its name. Anyone who read the DaVinci Code knows about the Knights Templar. For the one or two of you that haven't, here's a quick history from "Time Out Berlin."The

Madrid - Bullfighting

2006-05-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing some research on Madrid. I hadn't really planned on going anytime in the near future, so I wasn't too informed about the place. One thing that came to mind immediately was Spain and bullfighting. I'm a huge animal rights person so I have major issues with this Spanish tradition. Put it this way, when I see roadkill, it makes me want to cry. To the left is a picture of the Plaza

You Know It's Time to Go Home When...

2006-04-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the Lonely Planet blog and liked it. Enjoy....You know it's time to go home when...No shameYou think it´s perfectly normal to wash your underwear in the shower (with shampoo) and hang them out the dormitory window to dryCleanliness is subjectiveYou have rationalized the contents of your washbag to the point that even the soap is starting to look dispensableAll your conversations are

Velvet Revolution

2006-04-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

Just read a little bit about the Velvet Revolution that happened in Prague in 1989. A group of 30,000 students peacefully marched to mark the 50th anniversary of the suppression of student protests by the Nazis, which had led to the closing of Czech universities till the end of WWII. It's an interesting situation and I am looking forward to being there and standing in the places where these

Craig in Germany

2006-04-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to post a pic of my friend Craig who I will be meeting up with in Germany. We met years and years ago (wow I feel old) back in St. Louis when we were working at Six Flags.I thought it only right (and extremely embarrasing) that he not know that his pic is up here until he reads this and sees it....haha!! I think this picture was taken when he was in Iraq.

Preparing for Prague

2006-04-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

My hotel reservations are made for the Prague portion of the tour. I'm staying at a hotel right across from the German Embassy and around the corner from the American Embassy. The hotels there try to maintain the residential feel of the area by not posting signs with their hotel names on them. So, all I have is the address and the fact that it's right across the street from the Embassy. I hope

The ticket is bought!

2006-04-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

I am officially going to Europe. I bought my plane ticket, and I am locked in. I spent $1477 on the ticket. Yeah, I'll wait for you to recover from that one..... All I can say is, God bless the World Cup.Yeah, I've never loathed soccer so much in my entire life. I'm going over right at the end and the final games of the World Cup. It's all good though. They are in Germany this year and I have