les vacances, the first: dublin, london, budapest

Well, I survived. On the shuttle from Milan's central train station to the airport yesterday, Colleen and I debriefed the past 12 days, laughing about currency exchange, flat tires, hostel experiences, and everything in-between. I think both of us are surprised that A.) We didn't kill each other, B.) Mini mishaps remained mini mishaps, and C.) We're now left with very little time to enjoy studying abroad.

The weekend seeing all the family in Dublin was a really nice way to start off my trip. It seems very long ago now, but the delicious meals and unbeatable family hospitality was a breath of fresh air before twelve days of running around. I arrived to Nana & Granddad on Thursday evening, and Matt got into Dublin on Saturday morning. I think he enjoyed meeting everyone and hanging around. We took a tour bus around Dublin on Saturday (and part of Sunday), did the obligatory Guinness Storehouse visit, and got treated like royalty until our departure on Monday morning. We managed to book flights that left within twenty minutes of each other, and even though we both flew to London, we ended up in different airports, so I had to say goodbye until I see Matt again in June.

I spent about 24 hours in London, and went straight from Heathrow to Sudbury to spend time with the Egan-Hanlon clan, who I didn't get to see last time around. Aforementioned overstuffed backpack had already been abandoned in favor of a wheely suitcase by this point, and as I got off to switch Tube lines, the zip on the suitcase opened and my clothes fell out onto the track, so a close eye had to be kept on it.
Paula made a delicious dinner, and I really enjoyed seeing the house, and Semiole, again. It's been four years since I was there, and Rosie and Aron are not the little cousins I remember from a few years ago!
After hoisting the suitcase onto the Tube, I spent the night in East London with Colleen (once again), and we went to her local pub for "quid night" before settling down to sleep. The next morning, I repacked once again, as the pesky suitcase was traded for a duffel bag. It turned out to be less than ideal for carrying around, but at least my clothes stayed inside!
Our flight to Budapest was on Tuesday afternoon, and Colleen had booked us an "easybus" to get from the center of the city out to Gatwick. We were a bit delayed and missed our reservation, but thankfully had no problem getting onto the next shuttle. Little did we know, we were in for a very nauseating, rough drive through the English countryside. The driver decided not to drive on a motorway until the last 10 minutes, and Coll and I were both green and holding our stomachs as we got off. We settled our nausea (sort of) with an English breakfast of Meditteranean flavor in the airport, before boarding and leaving for Budapest.

As well-traveled as we both are at this point in our lives, Budapest came as a surprise. Neither of us had been to Eastern Europe (a.k.a. behind-the-iron-curtain-at-one-time) before, and the metro station where we were dropped off by the airport shuttle was quite an eye-opener, to say the least. That being said, we enjoyed free public transportation each day we were there, as there seemed to be no ticket checks of any type in the land. Our hostel was amazing, the best I've ever been to. (Endorsement: www.lofthostel.hu) Upon arrival, we were branded with luminous orange wristbands, and told that if we decided to go Hungarian wine-tasting, we could just show that wristband to a cab driver, and we'd get home in one piece. You think I'm joking...
That night, Farci, the owner (affectionately known as "dad" to Coll and I) and some of his friends made goulash for everyone to try. It was a real treat, as we were tired and glad to eat for free. Colleen's friend Will, whom she met in London, happened to be traveling at the same time as we were, and so we coordinated plans and hung out together quite a bit. Although he didn't stay at The Loft with us, we did have two charming roommates from Miami, who farted in their sleep and thought that buying us drinks was a ticket to a relationship. After spending about an hour at a club in the basement of a building that looked like City Hall, Coll and I went back to our tenement building that housed The Loft.
The rain seemed magnetically attracted to us throughout our trip, so our trek around Buda (on one bank of the Danube) and Pest (on the other) on Tuesday and part of Wednesday was less enjoyable as a result. Tuesday, we wandered aimlessly around Pest and saw St. Stephen's Basilica, stopping for lots of coffee breaks. We then took the funicular up the side of a hill to get to the old medieval part of town, and the rain stopped for a little which was nice. I was doubled over laughing most of the time, because Colleen's shoes weren't particularly suited for the weather, and thus fell apart mid-trek. As we were closely examining the hole where her big toe poked through, a German man poked her toe with his umbrella while his wife simultaneously muttered, "Ah! Da Schuh is Kaput!" After crying from laughing so hard, we stopped for beer and the best french fries I've had in a while before climbing back down to Pest.
Before catching our bus to Prague on Wednesday afternoon, we packed up at The Loft, kissed "dad" goodbye (literally), and climbed up another high point in Buda, the Citadel. The sun shone, of course, as we were due to depart that day, but we enjoyed the view and bid goodbye to Budapest with sandwiches and more beer. After another scary but free ride on the metro, we loaded our duffel bags onto our backs and wandered around a Planetarium on the outskirts of town, where we were due to take the bus to Prague. Luckily, we found it and pulled out of Budapest on time. The bus ride was surprisingly comfortable, minus the lack of bathroom for the first hour. About 2 hours into the ride, as Coll found two empty seats and lay down to take a nap, a thump shook the entire coach, followed by a burning rubber sort of smell wafting through the vents. With nothing but the Hungarian countryside around us, we attempted to figure out what the Czech hostess was announcing, and with the help of a nice man across the aisle, found out that we were experiencing an Eastern European flat tire.

To be continued.