Oops, We Did It Again

(Back when Britney was popular, that would have been a great title.) Sorry we haven't posted in a few days, and a few countries. Here are the highlights:

Ljubljana, Slovenia

*flew in from Greece and stayed at our first hostel of the trip, and Kelly's first ever--supposedly the place was a former prison, but it was actually really nice
*visited Ljubljana Castle and the Ljubljana City Museum, which had a great Marc Chagall exhibit along with some less-than-stellar permanent exhibits featuring fake Roman ruins and activities that might appeal to Slovenian children, but probably not
*did a day trip to Bled, where we spent several hours walking around a lake in the pouring rain. It was beautiful, and we bought cappuccinos and long underwear, but it was really wet and cold. We did meet a really nice American couple, Jim and Dottie, and we spent the better part of the walk chatting with them about the homeland.
*returned to Ljubljana from Bled in need of some serious rain-recovery food. Usually, Kelly cooks lentils or pasta and we fill up on healthy food for cheap, but we took to the streets and inhaled falafel sandwiches and a slice of pizza. Mmmmm!
*yanked a glob of Kelly's hair out of her head--her hair was really matted from the rain, and we (yes, both of us together) couldn't manage to brush it out all the way

Zagreb, Croatia

*Jacob said there were no highlights from Zagreb because it was too cold and rainy. But how often do you get to hang out in a city that starts with Z? Okay, we're scraping...
*braved the cold rain to walk around the city for a while, then decided to nap in our hostel instead
*spent more time than we'd like to admit trying to buy cheap umbrellas--why didn't we bring them? Finally, we decided we would have to wait and look in Budapest. Zagreb is expensive!
*went for a nice run when the rain cleared up
*visited Mirogoj cemetery and walked up toward Medvedagrad, where we had a nice view of the city

Budapest, Hungary

*finally spent three nights in a private room instead of a hostel dorm, as Budapest turned out to be much cheaper than Zagreb or Ljubljana. Hungary hasn't gotten on the Euro yet, so I assume that its affordability is subject to change.
*walked up to Buda and saw Varhegy (Castle Hill), Matthias Church, and Halaszbastya (Fisherman's Bastion), where we saw a guy in medieval dress with a falcon perched on his hand. Kelly tried to adopt the falcon, but those things are expensive.
*visited two museums, but upon comparing the price of admission with a description of the exhibits, decided that our money was better spent in the cafe. Mmm, espresso. Mmm, cheese toast.
*visited the Budapest Jewish Quarter, including Dohany Street synagogue, an enormous, arched, cathedral-style building; the Jewish Museum with a Holocaust exhibit; and Holocaust Memorial Park, which features a shiny metal monument in the shape of a tree with the names of all of the Hungarian Holocaust victims carved on its leaves
*walked to the castle that now houses an agricultural museum, and ate a pretzel outside instead of trying to learn about Hungarian agriculture. The castle is beautiful, though.
*went to Gellert baths, a Roman-style bathhouse full of steam rooms, saunas, and pools

Bratislava, Slovakia

*arrived by train from Budapest. This train trip included a brief but quite hostile encounter with a Slovakian rail official who informed us that our Eurail pass was no good in Slovakia, which we knew, but which the Hungarian rail officials swore would not be a problem.
*checked into our hostel, cooked dinner, and then spent an hour searching for chocolate
*in the morning, the maid was trying to tell us something, and Jacob thought he recognized some German words. So he had a "conversation" with her. Kelly was impressed until he revealed that he had counted to four and then said, "I don't understand."
*walked up to Bratislava Castle this morning, where we ate PB&J sandwiches, checked out the lovely scaffolding on the building, and practiced our German out loud in preparation for tomorrow's journey to Vienna. Kelly's favorite phrase is, "Ich liebe apfeln und brezeln."
*went to the American Embassy to get more passport pages. Kelly refrained from shouting, "I am an American citizen," but we felt very patriotic. Also, they had a West Virginia poster inside the embassy, but the guards had confiscated our camera, so we can't prove it.
*had a lovely visit to Tesco, a Wal-Mart-like department store where we bought lotion, pants, and cheese all in one visit!
*went for our longest run of the trip so far, but we're embarrassed to admit that it wasn't actually that long. Chicago 2009, anyone? Maybe 2010.

That's all for now. We're heading to Vienna tomorrow.