I underwent the second of my big Easter trips from the 23th to the 28th, this time over the cities of Stockholm, Prague, Vienna and Budapest. It was mad fun but we took the entire tour at a breakneck pace, trekking from monument to monument, determined not to miss a single thing, so at the end of every day my feet were sore and I was so dog tired I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Really, trying to tour 4 cities in 5 days is a bad idea. I had all manner of interesting experiences in the different cities though. In Prague, a lady walked up to me inviting me to watch a strip show, which I declined, and a backpacker bowed before me nearly smashing me in the face with his huge backpack asking for money. While searching for lunch on our first day, we chanced upon a canteen used by local workers, which yielded 5 huge dishes of local food for barely 5 euros per person. There was so much food we couldn't finish it. The only drawback was everything was in Czech so it was pretty much point at food, gesture to stallowner and hope the food tasted good. It did.
And as usual, someone tried to speak to me in the local language again. I can understand French and a smattering of some other languages, but I have to admit Czech is totally beyond me. I have no idea why I always get one person in every country who does that, because I really don't think I have an "international" face. And it's always me, not my friends. Maybe it is because I look kind (gullible) and well educated (nerdy). Whatever.
In Budapest, I saw a guy lying on the floor unconscious before the ticket gantries in the metro, with 5 ticket conductors standing over him nonchalantly chatting. It was strange but you don't really want to hang around in Budapest, especially at night. Saying that the streets are unsafe is an understatement. Even if you were to scream "Help" on the streets, you wouldn't get any because no one understands you.
In Vienna, we met a possibly bigoted ice cream vendor who gave us 5 tiny scoops, when the white lady before us got 5 huge ones for the same price. We were lucky that Vienna was having some festival when we visited though, so there were public performances everywhere. And you can't really find cinemas in Vienna. Apparently people there would rather watch operas. The opera I watched, Manon, was not too bad, but at the end I was willing the female lead to hurry up and die because I was tired from standing for 3 hours. If you want to sit in a Viennese opera, you pay anything from 40 to 168 euros. If you are a penny pinching tourist like me, you can pay 3-4 euros to stand.
Nothing much happened in Stockholm because Stockholm is shit boring. If you want to know what its like to travel in a city that is ridiculously expensive and yet boring, go to Stockholm. The only plus is just about everyone there is tall, blonde and blue eyed, so instead of trying to look at nonexistent or ridiculously overpriced tourist attractions, you can look at the locals.
I don't have pictures yet because my camera decided that it could take no more punishment from my incessant traveling and broke down in Budapest, so all my pictures of that day are with other friends. Once I actually get a break long enough to sit down, collate pictures, and post them, I might do it. Mysteriously though, after the trip I found out the camera was working again. I never believed that machines could go on strike, but in this case, I'll make an exception.
Now, I'm just so damn tired. I've slept 4 hours on average for 6 straight days, my room is in a mess, there's work to do and no time to do it, and I have to start thinking of what to do when I get home. The life of an exchange student. What's new.