September 30, 2009

Friday, 02 October 2009 13:17


 

I know it may seem as if I have fallen off the end of the Earth but I’m still here! I haven’t written for all of August and most of September because my life has been very hectic lately. It’s just finally slowing down or I’m just getting used to my schedule. There’s no way to give a complete update of what has happened in the past two months but I’ll do the best I can.

It August I had two friends visit and along with them, Viktor, Ulana and I headed to Budapest. It was for a long weekend and it was so much fun. By far, the most memorable part of the trip was the thermal baths. We went to the Széchenyi baths. They were absolutely gorgeous and not to mention humongous. There were baths at all different temperatures some were so cold I couldn’t dip my toes in them though old men would plunge right in and some were so hot that it took me about 10 minutes to get all the way in. The saunas were wonderful. I could only last about 4 minutes in the hottest one, some people were reading and napping, or maybe they passed out. I have asthma which really only bothers me in extreme conditions such as weather or heading up steep hills. Maybe I was just overreacting but I felt like I couldn’t breathe rather quickly so had to leave there.

The building itself was complete with exquisite Roman architecture and the outdoor area had two large pools and one smaller one. The smaller one had a whirlpool in the middle! Being a swimmer helped me none. I got smashed into the wall and some kids who thought he was their friend tackled Viktor. In retrospect it was pretty funny but while it was happening I couldn’t help but think, who are those kids jumping on my boyfriend’s head? Then my lifeguard past came back to haunt me when I saw a little girl go under, the water was moving fast! She was fine but after that I kept on worrying that a child would get trampled b/c of course, I was the only lifeguard there. After Viktor and I were battered enough from the small pool we moved on to the largest/hottest pool, which was nice, but in the sun, wow. It was intense. So I am pretty sure that the best part of the entire trip was seeing my boyfriend and an old Hungarian man who didn’t speak English playing chess in the pool. The man had this amazing little sun hat that was balanced off by a beautifully large beer belly but serious about chess he was. Viktor almost beat him the first game and asked to play a second where he actually beat him! The old man congratulated Viktor with a handshake and a nod, packed up his waterproof chessboard and headed out. It was also time for us to go being that it was time number two that day that I thought I might pass out. I don’t know how these old people spend the entire day in there!

So trip number two which lasted over two weeks was to Barcelona. I really wanted to go back to NY to see my family and friends but it was $1000 and then Viktor and I found 50-euro tickets to Barcelona. We bought them right up and Ulana decided that her European vacation to end her time here needed to start with us in Barcelona where her boyfriend Tom would meet us and then they would head on from there. Tom came a day after we got there; we were staying close to the center with Ulana and Tom’s friend. Their flat was amazing, we ended up sleeping on their balcony that had a nice enclosed bed; it was perfect.

The nightlife there was a bit too much for me to handle! I don’t know how people would be out until 5,6 then head to work in the morning. The siesta though, totally necessary, unless you were at the beach or in an air-conditioned museum, it was impossible to be walking around at that time. We did our fair share of tourism, seeing as much Gaudi as we could. Viktor and I really wanted to go to the Picasso Museum. The first time we headed there was 30 minutes after it opened and the line was so long that we couldn’t see to the end so we went to another wonderful installation and vowed to come back the next day, 30 minutes before it opened and we did! The museum was expansive and almost everything but the newest part was in English, the rest was in Catalan and Spanish. Oh, I forgot the mention that the second day that Tom was there he proposed to Ulana and we had a huge feast to celebrate!!! That was really exciting and I was happy to be there with them.

While everyone went to Valencia, Viktor and I went to France to Marseille to visit our friend Natalia; she lives in Prague and was visiting some friends there. We couch surfed two nights with a really great kid that actually left us his keys when he went out of town. The next day we camped out on the beach, Viktor and I shared a ‘tent for two’. When he was stretched out it buckled and I felt like I was in one of those Cabbage Patch bed top tents from our childhood. We had an amazing feast for dinner and fell asleep soon thereafter only to be awoken by the police telling us that were weren’t to camp on the beach, whoops. So we packed up and moved onward towards the water and took turns sunbathing and swimming. We spent the entire day in the sun so it was important for us to swim and drink water to keep cool; luckily we had an umbrella, which was very helpful. When we got back to Marseille, Viktor and I headed back to Barcelona for our last few days.

 

 


 

When Ulana and Tom moved on, Viktor and I resigned to our true love, being beach bums. Viktor had never been in the sea before this trip. He is after all from a landlocked country and ended up vacationing up north in Finland and Sweden and I guess beach time there has to be perfectly timed unless you are a polar bear. So me being from an island and not having seen one since the few days before I left NY in January and participated in the Polar Bear Swim in record cold weather, this was my dream come true. Viktor was addicted right away too. We didn’t do much but eat and swim. Our favorite beach was Sitges, it’s just outside of Barcelona and it is beautiful! Jutting rocks cut the beaches off from each other. We found a nice quiet beach that you had to wade through thigh high water to get to. This kept people with children or too much stuff from heading to, it was perfect. If we could find jobs I’m pretty sure we’d both just live there, maybe we’ll open a taco stand one day. Ha! So my Spanish was pretty helpful though I don’t know Spain Spanish and words like zumo- (juice) confused me while words like jugo- (juice) confused them, we got along. Catalan was interesting because it looks like a mixture of Spanish and French yet sounds a bit more Spanish.


 

So when it was time to go, we were sad, tan and exhausted. We made a quick stop in Brno and Moravia for a birthday party and then had to head home because I started work the next day.

So you can see why I haven’t written, right? I’m just so tired because I went from vacation to working Monday to Friday. It’s Monday, a Czech holiday so I guess that’s the only reason I have time to write. Viktor and I were going to go to Slovenia or Krumlov but his work schedule was messed up. I think it’s ok though because I needed this, a weekend of me getting to sleep at a reasonable hour and instead, we had a girl only day and headed to Karlstejn for the day. The worst part of my new job is that on the weekends I wake up at 8:30 the latest, it’s habit now. The best part of my job, so many, I teach in a preschool, my kids are 3-4. The kids are wonderful, the garden is gorgeous, the trampoline, also wonderful and I’ve made a new friend, another teacher, she’s from Chicago and we get along great. Worst part of September is that Ulana has gone back to Philly. I miss her a lot. I have a new flatmate, Nicole. Small world, she’s a vegan girl from New York. Also my friend Jess who had to leave is coming back in a few days so slowly but surely things are coming together!

So much going on, I need to stop now but I’ll try to write regularly from now on! October should be a good month and slightly less hectic now that I’m better adjusted. Happy autumn!

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 

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