Packing

I think I have everything I need. I've got 5 days worth of clothes, shower shoes, headphones and an iPod, chargers and an adapter, a rain jacket and a light hoodie, toiletries, a travel book, sunglasses, catch-22 and Adventures of a Female Medical Detective for train rides, my passport and Eurail pass, a laundry bag, two locks, and a money belt. My flight leaves JFK at 11:59 tonight.

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Planning

For years, my parents have always put an emphasis on traveling and experience over things. They've always said that experiences will last longer. For this reason, they always encouraged me to study abroad. Unfortunately for them, I decided to apply as an RA and I got the job, which means no studying abroad for me, at least not for a semester. I looked at summer programs but everything was way overpriced and too uninteresting to justify the absurd cost ($8,000 for two weeks, not including airfare, food, tourism, etc.). It was coming to Christmas/Hanukkah time and in her classic fashion, my mom was bugging me about what I wanted. I jokingly told her to send me to Europe for the summer. The crazy woman said okay (love you mom). It was my job to find tickets, plan dates, and of course plan the itinerary.

I am a month and a half away from hopping on a plane and flying to Copenhagen. As I write this, I have more days in Europe than I do before I leave. That's a terrifying prospect. …
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Arctic circle

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Getting here isn't easy. In fact, it's damn near impossible. You can spend a lot on one of the few daily flights, you can shell out even more for a boat, you can drive for 17 hours, or you can get the once daily overnight train from Stockholm. The train apparently fills up pretty fast. Fast enough that I was sitting in a chair for the whole thing. No couchettes left. No wifi either. But there were plugs which was nice. So two years ago, camp's most infamous meal happened. It happened thanks to me and my co-counselor. This co-counselor had to leave halfway through that session because he his mom is swedish and they visit the country yearly. While I was sitting in my seat, he walked by. He wasn't going all the way to Narvik, but staying in Sweden somewhere. He invited me to his couchette for a while until he and his friends went to sleep. What a small world. 
After sleeping for like four hours at best, I woke up. It was bright out and I thought it was late and all this t…
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Budapest

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Fantastic city. So much to see, so much to do. I went up to the citadella today. That's a long walk up a big hill, 230 m high according to Wikipedia. I visited a 2000 year old Roman church that was on the front lines as a Garrison and in the basement of a modern church. One of the guys there was from Texas and effectively gave me a tour. There was something unlabelled in the altar and he told me it was a saint's heel bone. I also had the opportunity to tour parliament. What a beautiful building inside. There were labeled  cigar holders for each member of the house of Lords. After all the touring I went to Margaret Island to relax and wait for darkness to see Budapest lit up because it is a beautiful place at night.

WiFi here is a hit or a miss. Uploaded all the pics yesterday in like three minutes. Not they're not uploading at all.




Citadella up on the hill

Heel bone of some saint












View from the citadella

Buda Castle

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