Welcome to Slovakia!

I'm in front of St. Michael's gate. This is the only remaining gate from the 14th century in Bratislava.

Hi!! I slept really late today because I was very tiered. My mon and I went to breakfast, then we went on the hop on hop off bus to the thermal baths. There were lots of different baths with different temperatures. We went to about 6 of them and they were very clean. It was a very good experience and fun to go. Later, we went to the citadel and took pictures then went back to the hotel. 

Over here, I have seen that a lot of people down here are poor. In the past few days, I have seen some poor people dig in the trash cans for food and drinks. Also, people here only use what they need. 

 This afternoon, we went on the hop on hop off  train to different sites. We went up to the church at the palace and went on a tour. Today is the day that Hungary were freed from Communists. The Prime Minister was going to a big church to celebrate while tons of police were around him protecting him. It was neat to see.

Later on, we went to the synagogue and looked around. There, we took a tour to learn about the place. In the 1940's, the Nazis went into the synagogue and took the chandlers, furniture and other items out and used it as a horse stable and a place to keep guns. The synagogue was so messed up it cost 10 million dollars to repair. They got 90% from the government and 10% from other companies.

I finished off the night eating pizza and spaghetti. YUM!!

Today was a beautiful day!! It was partly cloudy and only in the 80's. We walked around the market and bought gifts. The architecture on the buildings were very pretty and had LOTS of details. We went in one of the churches and looked around. Later on, we will go to a hop on hop off train and looked at all the cool sights.

The Adventure Begins

Yesterday, we woke up at 4:30 A.M. and left for Houston at 6:25 in the morning. We were on a very crowded plane with one seat on one side and two seats on the other. Then, we ate and left for Boston.  In Boston, we had an hour layover then we went to Frankfort, Germany. After a seven hour flight to Budapest, we arrived at our destination!

When we got to Budapest it was 9 A.M. on Sunday. We took a cab to our hotel, the Corinthia. We checked in and walked around the city for a bit and looked at the old buildings from the late 1800's. My parents and I got confused when we went on the subway. We went the opposite direction we were supposed to!!! We went to Margret Island and saw a water fountain that played to music! When music played, the water fountain had spouts where the water shot out. It was really neat.

When we got hungry later in the day, we went to Blue Fish and had some seafood. My mom and I had shrimp and my dad had octopus. It was very good. The people are very nice, but the people are very depressed. The food is expensive, and the people wear dark clothes. They haven't renovated the buildings. They have been here since World War II.

My first impression of Budapest are the people are very strict because they were not free for a long time, but they are very nice. If you are confused about something, the people come and help you whether they know English or not. I have not seen one building that has been built in the past 100 years.

Less than one week and counting...

Cant wait to go!

I have a week until I go to Europe! I cant wait to to go all the fun places we will go, but I will miss being home and with my friends. I will also miss Layla and Gigi (my pets). I really cant wait until we go to the ocean because we are miles away from it in the desert (Lubbock)!