Johannes was a friend of mine from UNO, whom I spent a lot of time with last semester. He currently has a flat in the city. He took me out to cake and coffee, which is an essential part of Austrian culture. He also showed me his flat, accompanied me to a traditional Austrian restaurant and gave me a tour of the city. On the day of our departure, he said that he knew of a museum with an exhibition of Monet and Picasso. (Ha Mom! Didn't even have to go to Paris to see Monet's Waterlilies)!
As a side note, I have to write why we arrived late. . because it's a good story and I know I'll forget. Before I start, I'll have all of you know that I did not drink in Budapest. Each night, I went out to dinner with friends and then came back to the Hostel. With that said, I can only say that this is the version of events as they were given to me. A bunch of the guys with our group decided to go out. They ended up at a small pub, taking shots of liquor. They decided to leave when one of the guys puked on the others. One of the guys (not the one who puked) got very drunk and had to be carried home. As the rest of the crew was carrying him, he decided to sprint in front of everyone else. As he was running, he tripped and fell. He was too drunk and didn't put his hands out in front of himself, so he fell flat on his chin.
His chin split and he hit the side of his head fairly hard. His ear drum burst from the collision. The other guys picked him up and tried to see how bad the damage was. At this point, he started puking from a concussion. They knew they had to flag down an ambulance.
The ambulance came but the EMTs would not let the rest of the guys ride with him to the hospital. He was sent to the hospital by himself, while the rest of the guys walked back to the hostel. This all happened around midnight. The guys get back to the hostel, but were unable to contact our teacher. The next morning, they make our teacher aware that the one guy is in the hospital. All of us pack our bags as scheduled and get on the bus to go to Vienna.
Before departing for Vienna, we stop at the hospital to pick up our guy. It turns out he had no passport or insurance card at the hospital, so they were not going to let him leave. He woke up in the middle of the night not knowing where he was. He said there was blood on his pillow and he was wearing someone elses clothes. Around 8am he decided to leave the hospital and try to return to our hostel. When our bus arrived at the hospital, we were told that he had left in the middle of the night and that they had alerted the police.
This particular guy has been to Europe several times and is very street smart. We called our hostel to see if he had returned. We were told that he had already left 5 minutes before. At this time we decided that he would probably just get a train to Vienna, so we left Budapest. All the time our Czech tour guides were making jokes like "Good thing there's not border control," and "Now we will be touring the Budapest prison." It sucked to be late to Vienna, but it's a somewhat entertaining story.
P.S. We're pretty sure his jaw is broken.
Now the part you're all waiting for. . photos!
Johannes made me climb this crazy little ladder up the side of his roof. It was really scary because I could see the ground and it was like 7 stories up. His roof however, had a great view of Vienna!
Coffee in Europe comes with a side of water. This is like. . the best idea ever! No more coffee after taste!
Having coffee and cake at Cafe Mozart
Statue & False dome ceiling at Renaissance museum
Crown of the Hapsburg Emperor
Supposedly a blade that was used to strike Jesus on the cross.
Supposedly the wood in the center was made from the cross.
Before they had photographs - family pictures were carved into pearl. This is the Hapsburg family tree.
The mantle of the Emperor
Somehow my "American breakfast" included corn on the cob.
So. . I made Johannes eat it. Note the Nebraska sweatshirt. Actually, two people in Vienna talked to him about Nebraska. One Austrian guy at the art museum had been to a Husker game :)
After breakfast we went to an open air market.
Here Mom, to prove that I went. Don't worry - I bought post cards of some of the paintings we saw!
Tomorrow I leave for Egypt from Prague at 1pm. I won't be back until the 14th. Unfortunately, I will not be able to post again until then. Don't worry!
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