April, abridged

I realize I'm long overdue for an update. It seems like the past 3 weeks have just flown by...

1. EASTER IN BUDAPEST: As you know, Molly, Melissa and I made our triumphant return to the Hapsburg Empire's No. 2 city over Easter weekend. This time around, Alex and Vicki (two of M & M's friends from their TEFL program) decided to join us. A 7-hour train trip is never thrilling, but we made the most of it with the help of some cheese, chocolate, a bottle of Hungarian red wine and a never-ending supply of Sex and the City and Golden Girls trivia. OK, maybe that last part is mostly Melissa & Curtis' thing, but whatever ;-) We had to sort out some issues with the hostel on our arrival, and we eventually got bumped over to a new - and much nicer, albeit slightly more spendy - one.

We were concerned about many attractions being shut for Easter weekend as Hungary is considerably more Catholic than the Czech Republic; however, as it turns out, a tourist trap IS a tourist trap, so we didn't have much of a problem. Spent the next two days sightseeing, which meant taking in some of the sights we hit the first time around as well as some new ones. This time around, we climbed the belltower of Svent Ivstan's Bazilika, which offered a stunning panoramic view of Pest (note: Buda and Pest were originally two different cities, seperated by the Danube River). Other highlights included: an afternoon soaking in the Szechenyi Baths, the smoked cheese and goulash at Soul Cafe, Time Cafe (there seems to be a New Age restaurant trend on Raday Utca - bizarre), and the Fisherman's Bastion, quite possibly my favorite place in the world. I've decided that I want all of my milestone events at the Fisherman's Bastion!!!! Oh, and I dragged the crew to find the riverfront panorama of Parliament, which was just stunning.

2. JENN & DARA CONQUER THE CZECH REPUBLIC'S GOLDEN CITY: So scarcely 2 weeks after I returned from Hungary, Jenn and Dara arrived for their weeklong holiday. It's always great to have visitors. During the week, Prague loses a lot of its magic as I'm darting all over town on trams, buses and the metro...from class to class and student to student. But having a visitor always reminds me just how beautiful and incredible the city (and the Czech Republic) is. And not to mention the fact that I get to spend time with old friends and catch up on what's going on with the rest of the crew back in the Big Apple. You know, who's engaged, who's married, who's coming out of the closet and who's pregnant. Ha ha...just kidding, lately it's more like: who's laid off, who's found a new apartment, who's going back to grad school. Anyway, I had two days off of work - they did the standard tourist route on their own, but I accompanied them on day trips to the wine cellars in Melnik and a hike up to Karlstejn Castle. The weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and warm almost the entire week. Jenn was on a quest for liver-dumpling soup, a Czech specialty which turned out to be a lot harder to locate than you'd think. Apparently, many restaurants change the name to "meatball soup," as the word "liver" turns off many tourists. We capped off the week with a night at Lucerna Music Hall, indulging in Europop both good and bad.