How I almost suffocated at the Vienna Opera

Day 17:
Schonbrunn Palace. The only European Palace to rival Versailles. Stealing this word for word from Rick Steve's Eastern Europe book. I think not so much, but ok Steve, I mean Rick. We arrived at the palace, bought the Classic Pass ticket that includes palace grand tour, the maze, the viewing terrace, the gardens, and the strudel show. Strudel Show, Strudel Show! The interior of the palace was full of gold, green, red and ugly tapestry....everything you want in the monarchs' vacation palace. The strudel show however was extremely tacky, touristy, but unbelievably fun. Kat was picked out of the millions in the crowd for her strudel talents (it shows in the eyes if you look closely) to help put the strudel on the pan and butter it up. Check her out, master strudel maker (literally, she has the certificate).

Here is the castle from the viewing terrace.

We were also pretty pumped about the palace maze. Little did we know that getting lost on the way to the maze was going to be part of it. We were less than excited to be lost in the maze and finally made the destination. Happiness, pure happiness.

Note: if I went to high school with you, I met Mr. Lieberman at the palace with his entourage of 85 band members. They praised my sister. It was good.
As per Rick Steve's suggestion, we decided to be cultured and go to a classy Viennese music experience, the Opera. Little did we know, we might die trying. He suggested we get standing room tickets for 4 euro. A backpacker's dream really. We find the secret entrance to the standing room ticket office. We get excited. We buy tickets for the section right under the emperor's box. We find the box, think that our spaces are marked and go try to find food as we were hungry yet again. I decide to stay and get our seats anyway. If you're reading this and are planning on doing the same, don't. Bring scarves, trash bags, loin cloths, small animals, whatever you have that you can tie to a pole as those seats are gone gone gone within seconds. People get there, tie a scarf to a pole and that means their seat is saved. I get there and stand on a stair trying to pretend I know what I'm doing while the people in the know tell me even the stairs are saved by these elusive scarves. I was like a lost puppy. Might have been the most scary/angering moment in my life, or this trip. I finally secure a stair that can fit 2 people comfortably for 3. Katie and Kat come back from the snack time to help me man the stair as people were starting to crowd me. A man tries to explain to me that the napkin with a twig tied to the pole next to me means that that stair is his. WHAT. I think my face turned red I was so angry. I didn't move and he ended up not seeing the Opera so I was happy. We stayed for 30 minutes as there were 5 of us on that one stair, a tall Austrian man with a huge head was right in front of me, I couldn't breathe or move, the Opera was in German and we understood nothing, and it was steamingly hot. Great experience, but when I have money I am paying for a freakin chair. It might be worth it.
A nice lady let us walk through the opera after we left, these are faces of fear.

After that we went to eat at a Viennese style cafeteria and I met Freddy, a nice Nigerian man who at the end of the conversation was calling me his sister and telling me to visit the Nigerian ghetto when I go back there. Love it.
Vienna was good to us with torrential downpours, a whole lot of second hand smoke, efficient subways (or U-bahn), and croissants filled with hot dogs and cheese (Katie's favorite part).

Tomorrow....the West Virginia of Eastern Europe (Slovakia) and its Detroit (Bratislava).

Day 18:
We took a train from Vienna to Bratislava. Torrential downpours once again and even a non-mistakable tornado on the way. Eastern European weather has just been way too good to us. We arrive in Bratislava and the first thing we notice: no tourists. Success! We have finally gotten away from the zombie tourists. We stowed our packs and went sightseeing. Little did we know that we could have covered the entire city within 1 hour. Oh well, at least the tourists weren't there. Bratislava provided a nice getaway from the hectic, modern, European cities. It had charm, history, great souvenirs, and remnants of communist life. Here are the highlights:
The presidential residence, or the white house if you will.

A "0" km mark where all distances from Slovakia are measured. Here I am, by the holyland mark...fitting.

Highly-regarded-by-locals chocolate shop that serves melted chocolate as hot chocolate. Ok in my book.

The most famous statue in Bratislava of a working man. No good story there, just a statue.

And another scandalous approach to a statue.

All in all, Bratislava was nice. We had some excellent food at a poor man's pub and continued on our way that very same day to BudaPest (said Budapesht).
We arrived in Budapest at evening time to find no ATM's, cabbies that hassle you for a ride, a lack of metro signs, and extreme teenage PDA on the subway. Our hostel is a little, ok a lot, outside the main tourist areas....consolation, it's nice, clean, we have it all to ourselves and the manager is an attractive Hungarian mountain biker. We settle in, get a free shot of unicum, the traditional Hungarian liqour, and start our plan for food. We get ready to leave and once more, without fail, torrential downpours. But this one was different. Lightening, thunder, and massive, I mean massive amounts of rain. It was starting to flood. We were hungry. So Kat and I put on our rain jackets, got our safety whistles and flashlights, and rolled up our pants to go scour for food.

We get outside and it's not really raining anymore. Such is life. Acceptance please.
We get some gyros and falafel, along with hazelnut wafers with a questionable aftertaste. World Cup Game with a strange archeological fellow housemate and sleep.

Day 19:
We awake to the smell of brewing coffee, the attractive mountain biker, and fresh granola. Always the way I want to wake up by the way. We get ready for the day, eat a whole lot of this delicious Hungarian Muzli and plan our day of fun. First off, a market full of meat, produce, cheese, souvenirs and lots of paprika (both as a spice and pepper). Beautiful.

Also, Kat was magnetized once again to the fur hats. Summer essentials guys.

After a nice stroll in the market we embarked on our leisurely 10 km stroll down
Vaci Utca, Andrassy Ut., towards the Museum of Terror and the Szechenyi Baths. Leisure.
Actually, the whole thing was pretty leisurely and here are the sites we were able to witness.
Vaci Utca and the ridiculously toursity side of Hungary. Complete with the most famous restaurant/bakery in Budapest called Gerbeaud. Delicious and full of pigeons walking the floors. Not for the light hearted or those scared of pigeons (Katie).

The second largest synagogue in the world. Breathtakingly beautiful and it had what I think is the most touching Holocaust memorial I have seen to day. It's a willow tree monument that is supposed to look like an upside down menorah. Each leaf has the name of a victim and the words at top are truly meaningful.

The Budapest Opera. Another of Rick's recommendations for the city that we decided would be a most painful experience if we were to try it once again. But here I am showing my talents to the people of Hungary. Well received I would say.

And...last but not least strolls through parks with lots of candy and pastry stands, more palaces, and the Szechenyi baths. Rick gave it 3 stars so it was a must. We get there 1 hour before it closes. Oops. We don't get the promised off peak discount and we pay more than the book listed. We get confused by the immense amount of staircases, changing cabins, lockers, and doors. We get told to be back within 20 minutes. We get into a pool and it's not as warm as our showers. There are potbellied Hungarian men everywhere and a whole lot of nakedness. The building is beautiful though.

Maybe it's because we are seasoned thermal bath bathers, but Blue Lagoon....much better, less ugliness. Budapest is wonderful though. I would live here too. Great food, environmentally friendly atmosphere, less smoke, and more culture. Besides....the paprika is really the reason I would move. Sweet and spicy.
PS Budapest is divided by the Danube River into Buda and Pest. We did Pest today. Buda's castle hill tomorrow and then a 9 hour train to Ljubljana, Slovenia in the afternoon. Good thing we found an English bookstore here.
Also, we are currently enthralled by a Hungarian movie that includes the following: the mating of horses, dog shootings, betting of some sort, anger, and no English.