When Will You Realize...Vienna Waits for You?

Me on the Viennese Ferris Wheel.

Self-Discovery in Vienna. 

This may sound rather cliched, but it's rather true. Last weekend (October 18th-20th), I took a solo trip to Vienna, and it almost didn't happen. I cannot even begin to put into words how glad I am that it did happen now. The reason that I mention that this was a self-discovery trip is because that's really what it turned out to be. I learned a lot of important things about myself on this trip... And also a lot about making assumptions about things before trying them, and being a "Debbie Downer."

At first, I asked a few of the other CIEE American students if they wanted to go to Vienna. Many said yes, but already had plans, had gone in the past, or some other reason. I had made good friends with two Scottish girls while here, their names are Fiona and Ayla, respectively. Both of them are awesome and I just get along really well with both. Shout out to you two, by the way! ^_^ Originally, I was going to go to Vienna with both of them. However, both had to back out for reasons beyond either of their control, so suddenly, five days before my desired departure date for Vienna, I found myself without a travel partner, and not finding any of my fellow Americans to go with, I was feeling rather down in the dumps, and I began having upon returning from Transylvania what one could certainly classify as a mini-meltdown.

Now, before any of you start giving me puzzled looks, allow me to defend myself. I am a major extrovert, like, majorly, okay? I mean, I'm not the stereotypical extrovert (Cue tumblr: PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY), but I thrive in environments with lots of people and big cities. I'm not a fan of doing things alone. When I was younger, I did, but things changed because of some personal events in my life and I really honestly detest spending lots of time alone in solitude and doing things on my own. I enjoy being in the company of people. Due to not living on campus for the first 2 years at ASU and going to a rather cliquey high school, a lot of that company was online, but I still desired company and spoke to people online to fill the void I felt (And still feel at times) in real life. You'll almost never see me curled up with a book, collecting my thoughts. I love a good book, but really it's not my thing. And I sure as hell had never heard of anyone traveling alone by choice. Well, except those loners who have no friends, that is.

Now, I apologize to anyone I offended. I do NOT think people traveling alone are  loners. However, at the time of this mini-meltdown, that was the rhetoric I was unabashedly spouting to the choir.  As my roommates and a couple of the other Americans walk in on me swearing up a storm in my room with the door open, they ask me what's bothering me, and I explain what's bothering me, and that I had never heard of anyone traveling alone, except for losers and people with no friends, so it must mean I'm a loser and have no friends. Well, that's not exactly what was said, but that was the general message I was preaching off my never-traveled-alone-before soapbox. This perplexes those in my room, and for good reason. My roommate  then explains to me that he's traveled alone before and loved it, and that people do that all the time and it's not uncommon at all. I'm simultaneously messaging Ayla profusely on Facebook writing out my frustrations, and she's telling me the same thing. After continued talks with the other guys in the dorm, I kind of slowly realize how absolutely ridiculous and irrational I was sounding, took a few deep breaths, and calmed down, but I still wasn't sure if I would book my train ticket to Vienna or not.

The next day, I continue to vacillate endlessly on going to Vienna or not, and relay the events to my friend, Kristin. She replies by saying "You're seriously, seriously an extrovert, aren't you?" half giggling. The answer is yes. As she puts it, I thrive on people. I continued vacillating, but after a great, head-clearing conversation with Gaby, who is another friend of mine here in this group, along with a conversation minutes later with my best friend, Ashley, over Facebook, convinced me to grab the bull by the horns and go to Vienna.  Because they both made me realize something: I would regret not going to Vienna more than going and hating it, because then I'd wonder forever and ever what could've been on that trip and how fun/not fun it may have been if I did  go. So, still with some reservations, I bit my lip and booked my tickets for Vienna, Austria.

I want to once again thank everyone who I spoke to over those 24 hours who helped me calm down, refocus, and realize that I needed to put things in perspective and grab the bull by the horns and, basically, for lack of a better word, "do me", and do what I want, and not wait for others. If someone comes along for the ride, great. But really...I'm here to go to school and also to have my own adventure. What adventure is it if I just wait for others to follow? If I want something, I need to go for it. When I took off for Budapest August the 28th...There were two destinations on my "Must-see-them" list...Vienna and Prague. I only have a finite amount of time here, so I seized the opportunity.

Now, that that is out of the way...Maybe I should get to actually going to Vienna. I took off in the early hours of October 18th from Budapest Keleti Railway Station on a Railjet train to Vienna. It took only a matter of minutes for me to relish traveling alone. I got to the train station that morning, and suddenly realized that I had three days in a foreign country to do whatever I wanted, when I wanted. And a chance to meet new people is  never a bad thing. This was the first time I had ever traveled alone. Suddenly, it felt empowering. I was going to a country where I knew no one and barely spoke the language, and I was going alone. Instead of nervous, I was ecstatic.

The excursion into Vienna started on a high note and never looked back. At first there was some confusion with my train ticket, but my ticket was good for any train for three days, so I was off to Vienna. I sat in an unreserved seat as the train was two hours before my reserved seat, and I wanted to get to Vienna ASAP, and I got a seat next to a fellow Hungarian-speaking American named Julia. She fled Hungary in '56 during the Revolution and carved a decent life for herself working in the oil business. We had a very long conversation, sharing some of our travel stories and our pasts. She even was nice enough to take a mom-like role on the train and bought me a bottle of mineral water and said it was on her. We spoke almost the entire three hour train ride into Vienna, and I told her I was traveling alone for the first time. We both mentioned that it was a pleasure to meet the other, and a realization dawned on me. Traveling alone, if anything, is amazing because you get to make bonds with people, sometimes really close bonds with people, and get to really know someone, with full knowledge that you are never going to see this person again. It is extremely bittersweet, but it is also really cool to get to know someone super well in a microsecond of time like that. That person is a part of your life for the few hours you're in close proximity, and then they're gone, gone, gone. But those people leave a mark on your life, and you never forget that person.

Immediately upon arriving into Vienna I was greeted with an absolutely stunning city. And I just felt like I was in a dream. Here I was, an American alone on the streets of beautiful Vienna. The weather was perfect, and I was free to do whatever I wanted for three days. No holds bars, no one to pull me in another direction. Vienna was my stomping grounds for three days. I still had two hours before I could check into my Hostel...And I had a very heavy backpack on my bag, so what was I going to do? Treat myself to a Viennese lunch, of course.

Sachertorte. Need I say more? No. I don't. ^__^

The meal was fabulous and hit the spot after that morning of train food and black pepper chips. I checked into my hostel at precisely 2PM after walking around the beautiful streets of Vienna, just soaking in the fact that I was in Vienna, Austria and taking in its breathtaking scenery. I wasn't able to really do anything, however, since it was already near evening, and so I simply went to Schonbrunn and looked around...And naturally I was mesmerized.

I didn't go in until the next day...But the view of the beautiful palace, with the clouds in the background, in the cold Viennese evening, were well worth the picturesque 20-minute walk and subsequent getting lost three times and mistaking the technological museum for it well worth it.

That night there was a party at the Wombats City Hostel I was staying at, and I got to really get to know my Hostel-Mates, two British guys from the UK who wasn't even aware that the US government shut down. Naturally, pre-party I went on a long, one-hour profanity laced rant against the incompetency of the Tea Party faction of the US Government. The UK guys were rather happy to hear my views. It was a nice intellectual conversation to have, then we went down to the bar, found a group of girls from New Zealand, and went and chatted with them. And, I got rather drunk. Three cocktails and three shots. I slept like a rock that night, despite sleeping on a bunk bed not even remotely long enough for 6-foot-5 me. I bid my British Hostel-mates adieu and safe travels in the morning, and went on my way. I only remember one of their names, but the conversations we had that night I will take with me for a long time.

Then the next day truly capped my entire experience. Although it was forbidden to take pictures inside Schonbrunn (This time I bought my ticket for 17 Euros and spent a good two hours there), it was absolutely stunning to view the riches the Habsburgs once lived in. And the views of the city from Schonbrunn weren't exactly shabby, either. I basically spent a day there, took the walk back (instead of the tram), and sat back down in my Hostel bedroom, hoping to greet my new Hostel-mates. They weren't there, however, having just come in themselves, they were probably out exploring all Vienna had to offer, themselves. Realizing the night was young, I heard about this Ferris Wheel in Vienna where you could get a stunning view of Vienna while riding in a cabin to the top. It was something I couldn't pass up, and took about a 1-hour train ride from Wien-Westbanhof to the end of the suburban railway line (S-Bahn) to go to the Viennese Ferris Wheel. Known in German as the Wiener Reisenrad. The view was stunning, even under the shroud of night. I could only imagine what it looked like in the daylight...

Vienna at night. ~

I felt so elated and so happy getting to just take in that view. But what really put the cap on Vienna was what happened after I returned to my hotel room that night. I went back down to the Wombar (The bar at the Hostel), and there were these British friends just having drinks. I go sit down by them, and one of the girls in the group, her name was Becky, beautiful, blonde, and friendly, struck up a two-hour conversation with me. It felt really nice to meet someone and just talk to them about life and share stories. I will never see her again, of course, but two hours talking to a pretty girl in Vienna is a pretty good cap off to the weekend, no? 

The next day I prepared to head home and checked out of my Hostel, but had a few more hours to explore Vienna, so I took a one-hour Hop-on-Hop-Off tour and also took a guided tour of the world-famous Viennese Operahouse. (Must see this! I won't post pictures, simply because you need to see this for yourself.)

I came home to Budapest feeling on absolute cloud nine. I had an absolute blast and my entire outlook on traveling solo and what that means has changed. Traveling solo does not mean you're a loner, or reclusive, or antisocial, it in fact oftentimes means you're the opposite! It means you want to see the world, you're tired of waiting for someone else to take the leap for you, and you want to meet fellow travelers backpacking like you. All these things I did on this trip, and this will truly be a highlight of my life for years to come. I entered Vienna unsure of myself and lonely, and I left it completely fulfilled and overjoyed. Sometimes you must truly seize life by the horns and grab it. 

I know I'll never forget that I did, if only for four months out of my life. Or maybe even only for an unforgettable Viennese weekend.

Teaching a Fish to Play Basketball - The Romania Story

Johanna, Jesse, and I in the salt mine's lake. I rowed badly. 

A Weekend Back in Time - Transylvania and All it Has to Offer

When I say going to Romania is kind of like jumping into a time machine, I'm not pulling your leg. That's the complete truth. It's both good and bad, but this blog is going to focus on the GOOD of that! And some of the crazy up and down adventures we as a group (And I especially, of course) had in Transylvania. Which, for those of you unaware, is in fact a real place. And no, the people aren't all deahtly pale, and there aren't vampires in every town, and people do NOT nail garlic to the door to ward off vampires. Although I'm sure they'd have valid reason to. Transylvania is in the Carpathian Mountains, and so there are lots of peaks and valleys, and I'm not surprised the vampire legends originated from his region. And yes, I still have a pulse, and I don't suck blood. So you can actually get out of Transylvania alive.

Last Thursday, we took off for Transylvania at the crack of dawn. Like, literally. The bus fired up at 6 AM and took off at 6:30 AM for a day long trip into Transylvania. Immediately upon crossing the Romanian border, it feels like you traveled back in time about twenty to thirty years. There are some positives of that (An Old World Charm) and some negatives (It is clear these people do not live very well. But nonetheless they manage). The small Hungarian communities are small, everyone knows everyone's name, and many people are self-sufficient. They have to be, because they have no true way to get into the main hubs of the cities without a long commute (Sometimes five or six hours). The Carpathians in fall are breathtaking, by the way. Take a look! 

Scenery of Transylvania

Before we reached our final destination, we stopped in the market village. There is a large week-long open air market where the Romanians can simply buy everything they need basically for the next year. There was, quite literally, everything under the sun at this market. Take a look for yourself:

Plates, furniture, nonperishable food, golden clocks, and many trinkets of all shapes, sizes, and qualities were on sale at this outdoor Romanian market. We made two trips to it. 

We then arrived into Kalotaszentkiraly, the village in Romania we were doing homestays at. The house mother I got assigned to was named Kati. She was extremely kind, and I really enjoyed the homestays because the families only spoke Hungarian, so it was an opportunity to really speak Hungarian and not be able to use my English. They fed us substantial meals, and also got us rather drunk. They had their own home made Palinka, which I drank healthily the first night. I had six shots, and it was twice as strong as normal Palinka, so it was like drinking twelve shots. With the amount of food I ate...Big mistake.

The next day, we got treated to another large meal, this time a breakfast. The breakfast was a lot of typical stuff. Eggs, sausage, etc. But one thing that WAS special was this jam. It was, I kid you not, pig's blood jam. Yeah. That's right. Pig's blood. I had some on my bread. Big mistake. It actually tasted surprisingly good. But with my heavy drinking night, and the ingestion of a completely foreign substance, my body started to react adversely. I didn't feel right at all from the second I finished trying the jam. I knew things would go south at some point on this Friday. But I wanted to go to Torda and see the salt mine, and also hike with the group, so I forced myself to soldier on.

Arriving into Torda, we were given a tour of their vast salt mine. There was enough salt in this mine to supply the rest of the world with salt. And I'm not just saying that because they claimed it. The validity of that was immedaitely questionable because why wouldn't they claim that? But no. They were serious. Dead. Fucking. Serious. I've never seen so much of any substance just lining every wall, lining even the crevices in the walls, and so on. It was nuts. The coolest thing, though, awaited us at the bottom of the mine.

A 92-Meter salt waterfall.

No. The 92-meter waterfall-looking thing of salt was NOT the coolest thing. At the bottom of this mine, was a lake.

Yeah. A lake.

Yeah. A lake. With boats. This looks like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, does it not? You get those vibes, too? GOOD.

Naturally, every single one of us wanted to take a pleasure cruise on this Romanian lake at the bottom of the salt mine. I was no exception. The boats costs 10 Lei (The Romanian currency) to rent out. I wound up finding close friends Johanna and Jesse, who wanted to ride but had no Lei, and so I paid for them. It's a good thing I did, because if I didn't, I'm pretty sure I'd still be stuck out there in Romania, never to return.

The boats were not motorized, they were simple rowboats. Now, for those of you who DON'T know. I live in Arizona. There's like, no water there, okay? I added it up...Prior to this experience, I had been in a non-motorized boat twice in my life. I had been in a boat that needed to be rowed once. And that wasn't even a boat. It was a piece of cardboard that my dad and I basically duct-taped together, gave me an oar, and was told "DON'T DROWN!" for a science project in eight grade. Jesse and Johanna, my rowboat mates, were a former boat crew member and a former camp counselor, who knew all rowing positions, respectively. 

My first thought was, "I cannot row this boat. One of them needs to." However, upon sitting in the back of the boat, and Johanna getting in the middle, the boat nearly sunk. The Romanian boat master person, speaking limited English, basically yelled at me to get my oversized ass into the middle of the boat before I sunk as all. I did as instructed. Jesse and Jo got in on either side of me. And off we went, ever so slowly.

Now, this is where the title of my blog post comes into play. I explain to Jesse and Jo, apologetically, that I don't know the first thing about rowing. They start trying to explain it to me, but I still can't do it right. I nearly hit a few other boats, sometimes move us back towards the dock, then this way, then sideways, while trying to go forward. It was bad. Half the time, I'd start rowing with the technique Jesse showed me, only to have one oar in the water, and one rowing air. I'm sure that internally, Jo and Jesse were simultaneously rolling on the floor in laughter as the poor desert boy had to row, while also wanting to facepalm multiple times over as I steered us on a crash course with disaster. 

This photo was taken by Paige a few minutes after we got away from the dock. I already posted it, but please take a look at it again, and pay attention mainly to Johnana's expression. It is timeless and priceless (She is the girl in the blue jacket.)

I could only imagine the things going through my friend Johanna's mind as this was snapped.

Seriously. I want to pause this entire blog post for a second and just analyze her expression.

Seriously, her face is a wonderful mix between the following emotions:

"Oh my God! I'm in Romania!"

"But holy shit! The desert boy is rowing! I'm in Romania and this is probably where I'll stay!"

"YAY! We're NOT wet!"

"We're still afloat. I consider this a victory."

"YAY! We're not dead!" 

"The fish is playing basketball! It's a miracle!" 

"Not wet!"

"GO US WOOT!"

"LOL"
"YAY! We're going...nowhere. If only Peter could row!"

"WOOT! Thumbs up! My phone still works!"

And I'm sure some other emotions along the lines of "Is this real life?" and "TROLOLO" mixed in.

We continued to flirt with disaster as I hit the wall a few times, and nearly got us stuck in a shallow pot of water. Eventually, poor Jesse had to take over because I was going to lead us straight to our deaths if things continued as they were! Things worked out okay, though. And this is something I will remember for the rest of my life. I mean, who else can say they got to row a boat? Sure, lots of people. But who else can say they got to row a boat in a salt mine? In Romania? Yeah, thought so, bitches! ^_^

Unfortunately, things went downhill fast from this high point, as my stomach caught up with the rest of my body, and I spend the last day and a half of the excursion rather ill and unable to participate in the traditional Hungarian dance on Saturday night or the hike up to a castle. But we saw many gorgeous Churches and got to meet some wonderful people and have some wonderful experiences. But nothing will top the salt mine. Nothing.

The fish played basketball. It wasn't pretty, but he did it.

Now this weekend I take a solo trip to Vienna. Things are coming up roses here in the final chapter of the greatest year of my life.

Molly, Gaby, and I in one of my rare out-of-bed appearances after the salt mine.

Recsk, Eger, and Preparations for Transylvania

A memorial erected at the Soviet Death Camp of Recsk. 

So, it's now been six weeks since I departed home and arrived here in Budapest, Hungary. In that time I have adjusted to life here, had some #firstworldproblems moments, ventured into Slovakia, as well as into Butt-Fuck Nowhere for two days near the Serb border, made some friends, and also met people from Slovenia, Scotland, Holland, France, and other countries. Oh, AND I got an Internship! GO ME! :D

On the last weekend of September, the majority of us went to Oktoberfest. I was one of the few American students who stayed behind for our excursion into the Hungarian town of Eger. Now, don't get me wrong, as much as I WANTED to go to Oktoberfest, my family and I have seriously deep roots in Eger. My grandfather, Lorant Domotor, was born there, not to mention our family has a plot in the Greek Orthodox Church in Eger for our family. I'd basically be giving my entire family (ON both sides) the finger if I ditched Eger to go drink. Like, I couldn't do it, okay? I mean, really now, like, no. Eger was a lot of fun, but a bit bland for me, since the main attraction of Eger is not only its wineries but also its famous fort defending the Turks...Which I saw when I came here in June. 

Before we went to Eger, however, we made a pitstop in the small Hungarian town of Recsk, where we came face to face with one of the darker sides of Hungarian history: The Soviet Death Camp in Recsk, which was built in secret in the 1950s. The prisoners there were viewed as lowly slime, and were literally sent there, in no uncertain terms, to die. No one knew where they were. No one even knew the death camp existed. 

The pictures below will give you an idea, but the camp was truly extremely chilling to see. The huts that were at this camp were made of wood, and in the freezing of winter people often died. They had to mine with lackluster tools and in dangerous conditions. If they ever had meat, there were already maggots in that meat. This camp was literally a camp to kill off those in Hungary whom were enemies to the Communist Regime. Human cruelty never ceases to amaze me anymore, but even still, it's just unbelievable the amount of suffering people can inflict unto others. 

The most damning, daunting, and haunting thing I came across at Recsk was the punishment cell. This was a little tiny cell that you could barely crouch in that was built into the ground near a creek. The creek would often flood and seep into the prison cell, and you would sometimes be locked in there for 24 hours or more. I will unabashedly admit right now, if I was ever punished with something like that, I would find some way to simply kill myself. It's literally a fate worse than death. I can't blame anyone who tried to. I really can't. 

The Solitary Confinement Cell at Recsk. 

After the sobering images of Recsk, we made our way to our final destination of the little mountain town of Eger. Famous for its wine and its successful staving off of the Turks in the Middle Ages, it felt very rewarding to see a place like this after the pilgrimage to Recsk. The town is small, quaint, but beautiful. Many churches (Including that Greek Orthodox one. Seriously, pay it a visit! ;) ) dot the landscape. Also, at the top of the town is the stronghold against the Turks, where many men and women, outnumbered about 30 to 1, held off the Turkish invasion with primitive means. Their willpower won them the day. Nearly five centuries later, all that remains is a beautiful fortress with a stunning view:

Just some of the many pictures from Eger. The day there finished off with a venture into the Valley of the Beautiful Women and tasting of Bull's Blood (Bikaver) and "Eger Star" (Egri Csillag) white wine. The day was fabulous, and since then it's just been preparing for the next big trip out to Romania, which begins Thursday morning at the crack of dawn, 6:30 AM.

I'm also locking up plans to go to Vienna and hopefully Prague, as well, so keep your fingers crossed for me! But in the immediate plans is a four-day undertaking into Transylvania, which is in Romania and was once part of Hungary. We are going to be doing homestays, staying with host families for our four days there while this small Transylvanian town has its outdoor market. I cannot wait to do this, and also use my Hungarian, because they don't speak English! :D