The blog post to get y’all caught up on what we’ve done / where we are

Budapest - see the town, skip the train station

Oh Budapest… we nearly passed you by. We spent 8 hours in your train station, waiting patiently for our train and unable to leave because we had our packs with us. It was not the best of experiences and based on that we nearly decided that seeing the “Prauge but with bullet holes” was not actually worth the time and effort and expense. We are very glad, now, that we did not pass you by. It was actually a very fun few days.
Our hostel was an easy metro trip and walk away from the train station, pretty much in the center of the city because it was around the corner from St. Stephen’s cathedral. We found it without any issues. The free walking tour was one of the best - we got to see St. Stephen’s (from the outside) as well as a street that Die Hard (5 - 000?) was filmed in, the Opera house that was forbidden from being bigger than the one in Vienna but made up for it by being grander on the inside than Vienna’s. We walked around your Christmas markets, I bought yet another scarf and admitted that I seem to have a scarf problem (some love shoes, I love scarves, who knew?), and we drank your fabulous hot wine… which I still can’t spell. We also went on a river cruise on the Danube which was a lot of fun as well - and I got a little bit schnockered because we could have either 2 cocktails or 3 beers… and I went for the beer. ; )

St. Stephen’s was really cool because the cathedral itself is AMAZING. It was a little funny to see St. Stephen’s mummified hand… but then again, though I am Catholic, I have always wondered about the whole relic thing. If I ever become a saint (St. Mandi of Moshpits and Metal Heads… has a nice ring, right?) I doubt I’ll really care about my mortal remains, but it always kinda creeped me out. “I bless you with this part of St. fill-in-the-blank.” And yes, I know that it’s a miracle that the hand alone was mummified when the rest rotted away… I’m just saying the whole relic thing isn’t really for me. The dome on top of St. Stephen’s has collapsed 3 times, so before you go in, be sure to say a prayer that it doesn’t collapse a 4^th time.

We learned on the free tour that the man who invented the Rubic’s cube was Hungarian and the record for solving a Rubic’s cube is 6 seconds… the record for solving the Rubic’s cube BLINDFOLDED is something like 26 seconds and an Australian holds that record. The Pest side of the city is where Ana and I stayed (Buda is on one side of the Danube and Pest is on the other… and yes, I had that scene from The Expendables in my head the ENTIRE time we were there!). Buda had the palace, which was pretty cool, a cathedral which was awesome and my favorite - the Hilton hotel was built around the ruins of a monastery - and they had to keep the ruins there when they were building. We got some great pictures of the most beautiful building (so far, in my opinion) the Parliament building. Our guide told us that there is an urban legend about Freddy Mercury wanting to buy it.

We did find the bullet holes - they have a building that was the old Ministry of War that still has the bullet holes in it from WW2. We also took a Jewish tour of their synagogue - it was really interesting because the guy said that they were trying to make it look more like a church so that the Jews in the community would be more accepted than they were previously. We found (during our wanderings) a memorial of the people who were shot at the edge of the Danube during WW2, and behind the synagogue there was a memorial to the Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust - it is a weeping willow made out of iron with the names of Hungarian Jews on the leaves, some are also blank because they don’t have all the names. They also have a memorial to the people who helped to save Jews during that time. It was a really cool tour to take and an eye opener - did you know that there are 3 fractions of Jews? I guess Christians shouldn’t think that they are the only religion allowed to have different opinions about the same God.

So all in all, Budapest was a very good experience… and the food. Oh Mylanta the food! So much flavor, such sauces, such goodness! Even Ana was good with it (she’s been despairing of the lack of flavor over here). As it now stands, the best food has been : Fries with mayo and beer in Belgium, the Indian food that Leslie made in Romania, the nachos that Ana made in Germany, the Hungarian food and the food in Bulgaria. Friggin’ amazing! Now Budapest has been endorsed by Mandi - but be careful - if you see a statue of a Hungarian policeman, stand to the right of him for a picture and don’t rub his belly unless you are wanting to get preggers! Our tour guide assures me that you need more than just rubbing his belly to get
preggers, but why take the risk (unless you’re looking to have children)?

Vienna - City of Christmas lights galore!

I feel so cultured - we were in Vienna for a day before we were talked into buying tickets for a concert of Mozart and Strauss. It was a little different than what I am used to - no head banging, no moshpit, no ringing ears. It was a really great concert with 5 violins, a viola, a cello and a piano. Believe it or not, I do enjoy classical music - I just prefer metal. (In case you are wondering, they did a psychological study about personality vs musical preference and they found that people who like metal music actually share a lot of personality traits with people who like classical music.) The guy who pitched it to us gave us a helluva deal - first he offered full price and we said no, then he offered a family discount (10 euros off) and we said it was too expensive so then he said if we did one full price ticket, he’d throw in the second for free. We were good to go for that one - I didn’t want to spend more than 20 euros! And we didn’t have to dress up, which was a very good thing because we kind of lack nice clothes… we could kinda pretend but we would fail.
The hostel was up a hill at the end of a metro line, so while the city center was not too far to get to via metro. However, we had been spoiiled by Budapest. The hostel was kinda shit too - the only wifi was in the lobby and it was pretty cold, there were loud-mouthed kids in the hostel, breakfast was over at 9 am (for seriously), the room was too small for the table and chairs that were in it and they had one, count it, one plug for electronic stuff. To be fair, they did have a shower in the room with us and we didn’t have to share the room with anyone. Thank God for that because if there were 4 girls trying to charge their electronics - craziness. So it wasn’t as bad as it could have been but it was the 2^nd worst after Prauge. You know a hostel is bad when they give you Milka when you check out hoping for a good review on hostels.com. But beggars can’t be choosers, so there you go.

The city center was totally taken over by shoppers, but it was sooo pretty because of the Christmas lights. Vienna totally wins for the Christmas lights - so over the top amazing. Rob Zombie caught up to me in Vienna but I didn’t really want to go to that concert - he was touring with Marilyn Manson who I’m good without seeing in this lifetime. The cathedral was really pretty from the outside - we didn’t go in - but just walking around was great. Ana got a watch and a hat, and I didn’t get a scarf, even though I wanted to, I resisted. The coffee shop that we went to was a little more exciting than we thought it would be because we sat down, and a guy came in and went straight to the bathroom, then his friend came in about 3 times over an hour long period and they guy never came out, so the barrista girl called the cops and 4 cops came in to break into the bathroom to get the guy out and left with the guy and his friend. The guy in the bathroom was sooo on something. And we had schwarma for only the 2^nd time. Soo good.

The downside was that, out of the entire year that the Vienna Boy’s Choir sings at Mass, there are 2 Sundays that they do not… and we were there on one of the Sundays that they weren’t singing. Go friggin’ figure, right? We did go to Mass on the feast of the Immaculate Conception at a beautiful Cathedral of St. Michael. The only down side - it was all in German. So while I knew what was going on, I have no idea what the readings or the homily was about. So now I’ve been to a Korean Mass and a German Mass. What next?!? There was also a massive Christmas market… we didn’t have any hot wine there, because they give it to you in a mug and we didn’t want the mug. We were to learn later how mistaken we were… : )

Munich - the snow found us

We had been lucky - we left Romania right before the snow came, there was only one day of snow in Budapest and while it was snowing we were on the cruise and it stopped before we got off the boat. In Vienna it was cold and snow was already on the ground, but it didn’t snow while we were there. Munich made up for all of it. It was snowing when we arrived and it snowed for the next 2 days we were there. If it hadn’t been for the rail lines messing us about and requiring that we stay there another day, we would have never seen the sun in Munich. Did the blowing snow stop us from going out and seeing the town? Ah Hell
no!

So in Munich we learned a lot about the history of Germany and the reason why you should really know what region you are in when you are there… basically Munich is in Bavaria. Bavaria is like the Texas of Germany - they’ll tell you that they are Bavarian before they’ll tell you that they are German. They do love their beer (for the longest time they had a law that beer could only have water, hops, yeast and malt in it) and when you think of lederhosen and dirndl wearing Germans, you are actually thinking of lederhosen and dirndl wearing Bavarians. They are dominantly Catholic but the further north you go the country becomes more Protestant. And Bavaria is the one part of Germany that has not yet signed the German constitution. Munich is the site of the original Oktoberfest, which was originally for the marriage of one of their kings, but they liked the tradition so much that they continued it every year. Our tour guide, Ozzy, said that the crime rate of Munich goes up something like 50% during Oktoberfest because of all the tourists and those who make their living off of tourists. If you ever go, I highly suggest taking the Oz Tour - it leaves from the Wombats hostel which is just around the corner from the main train station. No joke, it’s like a 2 min walk. Great location, no need to take public transportation at all! He even takes you for food on the tour - we had a Munich sausage, pickle, pretzel and schnapps during the tour. Which was good because the tour was 4 hours and started at 11 am.

After the tour Ozzy took us for hot wine at a medieval-themed Christmas market. BEST hot wine so far… why you ask? Well, they poured the hot wine into a cup (the wine having fruit in it already) then put a sugar cube on a little lip made for the purpose, pour 151 proof rum on top of the sugar cube and lit it on fire. You put the sugar into the wine and stir until the fire goes out and then enjoy your rum-ed hot wine. For seriously, Ana got a little tipsy off the first one and had a bit of a TX accent. Now the wine comes in mugs and to keep them from getting stolen you have to put down a deposit of 10 Euros on a drink that costs 5 Euros and when you give the mug back, you get your 10 Euros back. At another stall where Ana tried some honey wine (which she said was great) it was only a 5 Euro deposit. So it depends on where you get your drinks from. We also had some food there - it was pork or beef on a stick that had bread dough wrapped around it and was cooked on a grill. You dipped it in some kind of sauce that was really good. He also took us for a beer, told us where to go for dinner and wrote out what we should order, right down to the dessert so all we had to do was give the piece of paper to our waiter once we found the place and trust in Ozzy. It was really good - first time I ever had pork knuckle… not really a fan but hey, the rest was good and the dessert was to die for. I have no idea how they made the vanilla ice cream but it was the best vanilla ice cream I have ever had. And I still like wheat beer the best.

We walked around on our own the next day and tried to find the same Christmas market and failed so we went to an Italian place across the street from the hostel that did a really good stone oven baked pizza. It was real Italian pizza and their wine was good too. We had a bit of a stressful day because we were unable to get from Munich to Madrid when we wanted to - we’d arrive a day late and you all KNOW how I hate to be late, but there was nothing to be done. We also had to pay for a high-speed train and a night train and with the limited availability it was pretty expensive. But now we’re glad that we spent the extra day in Munich because we had a day of sunshine after the 2 days of blowing snow, we were able to find the English gardens and the medieval Christmas market again and so had the hot wine. All in all, it was a good time in Munich.

The hostel, as mentioned, was right around the corner from the train station and must have been something of a party hostel - it had a bar in it and they did have happy hour but they also had a sign up where the rooms were. The heading of the sign was “To puke or not to puke” and went down the list of charges for being sick, the last charge being “your soul.” They had a few funny pictures and signs like that - I took a pic of my favorite one.

Spain (Almorox)

How did we find this gig? Well, before we left, I signed Ana and me up on a website called HelpX. It is a website for travelers who can exchange helping their host with whatever needs done in exchange for accommodation and sometimes meals. Ana and I needed something to do over Christmas and New Years because it is REALLY expensive to stay in a hostel during those times of the year (we’re talking for a normal hostel in Madrid for the 10 days around Christmas and New Years - 500 Euros). We found this place on the HelpX sight - we would be housesitting for this lady over the holidays and taking care of her dogs and cats. We decided to go for it and set it up that we’d meet her on the 13^th of December since she would be flying out on the 16^th and would like to get to know us a bit before leaving us with her animals. Well, we got here on the 14^th.

As mentioned, getting here was a bit of a hassle. We started in Munich and took a normal train to Strassborg (I think). Then in order to get to our next train we had to run to get to the platform in time, got on the train and had to evict a guy from our seat (we have become very European that way - but damn it, we got sick of being the ones being evicted). The second train was a high-speed train. We got up to 320 Kph on the run and it only took about 4 hours to get from Strassburg to Paris. In Paris we had to get on the metro to get to the train station that our last train was leaving from, which was interesting because the metro was pretty full and Ana and I had our packs on and I’m afraid that I pissed off a couple people. However, with a pack on the front making you feel like a pregnant lady and a pack on your back making you feel like a turtle, it’s very awkward in a crowd! We got to where we needed to be and the station was under construction, so it was very cold and it was a while before we knew where our train was leaving from. When we went to get on the train it was nice because there were 2 ladies there helping people figure out where their car on the train was, there was a restaurant and a bar on the train and when we got to our room - OMG - the train was like a hotel. We had the room to ourselves, it had a sink, toiletries, hangers for our coats, a place to hang my hat, 2 chairs that of course folded down into a bed when it was time to sleep and the best ladder for the person on the top bunk to use that we’ve seen so far (trust me because I’m usually the one on the top bunk). We had drinks in the bar and breakfast was included, so though it was expensive, it was a pretty good way to pass the night from Paris to Madrid. Once in Madrid, we had to get on another train to another station and then figure out which bus we were taking to get to Almorox. We ended up taking up 4 seats with us and our bags because neither of us wanted to stow the stuff under the bus. I think the bus driver was laughing at us. So we get to Almorox and we call Marjolein to let her know that we were there - she had been waiting at a crossroads for us so we had a short wait in the rain then we drove the 3km to her house which is named “La Vida Es Bella.”

When we get here, we met the other two HelpX-ers who she had also lined up to help while she was gone. Two British guys named Joe and Blake who were driving from the UK to Morocco. Joe seemed really laid back and cool but Blake seemed a little off - obsessive about cleaning his van and not happy about the animals, which was nuts because they were mentioned on the website but I guess he didn’t read that part. We had a good day chatting and decided to go grocery shopping the next day and have tapas and a beer in the local bar before Marjolein had to go. Blake decided not to go shopping with us, trusting Joe to get what he liked. Well, when we got back from shopping Blake and his van were gone, there was no note, email, text message or anything just all his stuff was gone and that was it. So Joe and Marjolein both really felt like going for a beer - we had beers and tapas at one of the bars in the villiage. Tapas are like a mid-afternoon snack before a siesta. We had : mushrooms, tripe (the lining of a cow’s stomach), toast with ham and cheese on it, sausage and bread and homemade sausages, one of which had a lot of blood in it (turns out I’m SO not a fan of that kind) and some bread and cheese for Marjolein because she is actually a vegetarian (and so are her animals…ish). Joe decided to stay for a bit after Marjolein left to figure out what he wanted to do. Ana cooked for us that night making vegetarian enchiladas with mushrooms and squash, lots of cheese and flour tortillas, which was really good! Marjolein left early the next day and we split the duties
between the three of us.

Now, the day starts at 8 am when we let the first dog, Knute, out of the kitchen to do his business, once Knute comes back, Max goes out and once Max comes back we let Tichy out of her van to do the same thing. No 2 dogs can be out at the same time because they might run off and not come back. They are also all dogs that she rescued - Max was found in a dump, Knute was found around the house and nursed back to health from being “skin and bones” and Tichy was rescued from people who cut off her ears trying to make her into a fighting dog. When they are all back, Knute gets 2 cups of food and cooked rice, Tichy gets 1 cup food and 1 cup rice with half a hot dog (since she doesn‘t live inside) and Max gets about half a cup of food. Now the cats generally just get normal cat food except for Peaches. For Peaches, we have to heat up part of a fish fillet. She gets half of a fish fillet and the rest of the cats get the “fish soup.” Peaches also gets special food that we give her when she starts making a fuss. Of course, we have to keep the other cats from stealing her food, so we must be ever vigilant. Peaches gets special treatment because she was the runt and has asthma. I am ashamed to say that we don’t really know any of the other cats names (there are 6) because 3 look just like Peaches, there is one orange one and Q who we know because he’s the only one that is part Siamese. In the evening it’s another half fish fillet and food for Peaches, and mostly the same foods for the dogs except Max gets a full cup of food. The animals live in the kitchen which connects the two houses - hers and the one for her HelpX-ers and guests.

The houses are not on any electricity except for the solar power from the panels, there is a windmill but we’re pretty sure it’s not at all connected to anything, just ornamental at this point. There is a generator (Honda, of course) that needs a new spark plug, but works alright. Heat comes from the stove in the kitchen and the one in the living room of the house that we are living in. Water is from a well and we have to fill the water tank under the porch every other day. The washing machine doesn’t spin the clothes at the end of the cycle, so they are soaking when they come out. We’ve just been putting them around the stove to dry.
She did leave us the use of the car, so we took a day trip to Toledo a couple days ago and we can go into the villiage for food and stuff. It’s a standard which means that Joe and Ana are the ones who drive - I can drive standard but don’t really feel confident doing it and there are a LOT of hills around here. We all survived 12/21/12 without any issues and I hear the rest of the world is still here as well.

Joe has decided that he will be going home for Christmas, so we’re taking him to the bus stop tomorrow. Ana and I have decided that we will have nachos for Christmas dinner and perhaps give the dogs a hot dog each since it’s Christmas and Marjolein admitted that sometimes she does treat them to a hot dog. We are thinking that we may have to take a trip to Avila since it is only 80 km away.
It has been very interesting living without what we consider to be modern conveniences. We’re watching our water consumption, have to hope for sunny days if we want to use the lights without turning on the generator, cooking with a stove that runs on gas and has 2 settings - hot and really hot, with an oven that does not have any temp gauge at all so you just kinda guess. The fridge also runs on gas and we had to switch out that gas can not too long ago and re-light the pilot light. Not exactly in the lap of luxury but definitely having a good time out here as long as we remember to laugh about things and resolve not to take certain things (like hot showers on demand) for granted when we get back to civilization. The animals are really sweet and the dogs love to go for walks, so they are good company and we’ve been able to use the playing cards that we bought in Norway, so WIN! I taught Ana and Joe Kings corner - a game that my family played all the time when we were growing up and I often play with my Grandma when I go to visit her, so that has been fun. It’s a good thing that we get along so well, and frankly I feel sorry for Joe, being left, but I’m really glad that Blake isn’t around anymore. Didn’t really get a good vibe off of him, if you know what I mean. Ana is one helluva cook, so I am slightly nervous that I’ll be gaining back everything that I had lost… perhaps I need to go with the dogs for more walks!

All in all, we’re doing quite well and will be back on the road when Marjolien gets back which will be after the first of the year. I hope you all are doing well and I send you my love from the other side of the pond!

Mandi