Why did Austria invade turkey?

Because it got hungary!!! hahahaahahaa

Well, I am currently on day 4 in Budapest, and on our last full day here. When we arrived on Thursday we checked into our hostel, and I'm not gunna lie, I was a little scared when we first went into the building were our hostel is, and walked up about 100 stairs in pitch black, luckily our hostel is actually super cool. Its really small but has awesome people. We went out for dinner at the place across the street, but they forgot our order and had closed the kitchen. So we ended up at a small turkish place down the street with pizza for 380 forints, which is like 1 euro. Everything here is so cheap! So then we just went to bed, and got up relatively early. We walked around the whole city, over to the Buda side which is very hilly... we went to the Royal palace and the Fishermans Bastion, wehre there were two guys with a hawk and a golden eagle to take pictures with. I just looked at them though. We also walked along the Pest side on the river. We saw the only Communist Statue left in the city, most of them have been removed. We also got caught in a little mob, there was some sort of demonstration of about 500 old people, and they kept saying "demokratica". Then we went caving, which was definitely the highlight of my weekend so far. We took a bus upto some place where there was a lot of snow, and we were given helmets and coveralls, and then a CRAZY guide took us into the caves, which luckily were really nice and warm! I was a little scared, and had to overcome my claustrophobia, because we went through some very small spaces. Two of the guys actually got stuck, which was scary cause i then had to go through after them. our guide was awesome though, he made lots of innappropriate jokes and didn't really understand some of the stuff we said, and im not sure he realized we were laughing at him, not with him. Anyways, then we went and had amazing thai food, and then me and Rees went to some underground pubs with some people from our hostel. Then we got horrible lost, and had to take a ridiculously expensive (for budapest at least) cab to get back to the hostel. The next day was rough, after the two bottles of wine and not very much sleep... But we went to the Terror museum which was really cool, but i didnt feel very good so i didnt really get to take full advatnage of it. It was all about the nazi reign in hungary and all that stuff. It was a really cool though. Then we had a much needed nap, and went to the turkish baths, which was sooo cool but really confusing because none of the signs were in english, and there were lots of nude people! but in the baths it was amazing, it was basically just a giant hot tub. After that we went to Arriba, a mexican place that was sooooooooooo good. Then today, we slept in, and went back over to Buda (where it snowed again!) and we climbed up to the top of the citadel which had an amazing view over the whole city. Then we went to a church that was in a cave which was really cool. Then we jsut spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and looking at all the pretty buildings. Now were just trying to find some free things to do, as were down to our last few thousand forints. Tomorrow we're flying to brussels to meet the rest of our school which is going to be super fun. Anways, im sure there's more stories, but i cant remember them right now . Anyways- keep your eye out for my crazy caving pictures in the near future!

Miss you all.

SCHWEIS!!!!

Well, I have my first real travel update to share with you guys. I just got home from Basel, Switzerland. Its right on the border of France, Switzerland and Germany. We arrived on Friday morning, and spent the first 3 hours trying to find our hostel that was nestled in the middle of a complex that we walked around about 4 times before find it. So upon arriving, we saw that we were sharing a room with two german women that had to be in their 60's which was somewhat disconcerting. so after a little nap, we got our free transport cards which were life-savers. We wandered around the city a bit and went to a small restaurant for a beer and nachos. Everything in Switzerland is soooo expensive!!! After that we were so wiped out we went to bed early. We woke up early the next day and took a train to Luzern, which was an awesome city! It was so beautiful. We spent a couple hours just walking around the old town, across the many bridges and then caught a bus up to Kriens, and then took a gondola tram up to Pilarus, one of the main mountains. It was so cold and so foggy, we couldn't see much, at one point it was completely white all around us. We got to the top and then walked to the tallest point, which we later found out was a cliff (but due to the fog we didn't know we were standing on the edge!) it was really cool. Then we went back down and walked around Luzern until late at night, and then headed back to Basel. The next day, we pretty much rode the trams all day long from about 1130-630. We found out how to get to Germany so we took a tram and then a bus into some random town, that was pretty dead and sketchy. But we went to 3 countries in one weekend, because the airport in Basel is actually on French Land. Then we made our way to the airport, where we spent the night. I read an entire book and didnt get any sleep, but we atleast saved some money on the hostel, and saved ourselves from having to get up at 4am to get to the airport. So now I am exhausted, and have a TON of work to do before I leave for Budapest on Thursday!

Miss you all lots.