So we arrived in Budapest.  In fact on the train ride we had a "hostel representative" make us a reservation from the train and arranged a free shuttle straight to the hostel.  This guy had the right idea about getting on the train and arranging these things while we were traveling. Because soon as we got off the train there were 6 other "hostel representatives" who were hitting us up to stay at their place. I was a little shocked when we got off the train as I didn't know what really to expect about Eastern Europe.  It looked like a lot of movies I've seen, and in its own way it's quite beautiful.  We got dropped of at our hostel which was right in downtown Pest.  Budapest is actually two cities Buda and Pest.  Buda is more of the historical side leaving Pest to take on the more modern atmosphere.

 

We were a little worried when we arrived in our hostel because the place was a wreck. There was a carton of eggs, old milk, cereal, a dirty pan and all the sheets were filthy.  We decided we get what we pay for and would just tough it out.  (It turns out that they just hadn't gotten around to cleaning our room). Well we locked up our bags and hit the town.  We were able to take in both Buda and Pest in the same afternoon stopping at several churches, some amazing architecture and all of the eastern European flavor we could take.  They even had some old Hungarian dancing in one of the squares. After a little nap we had a nice dinner in a small cafe around the corner from the hostel.  The next morning we packed up and caught the first train back to Vienna.  

 

When we arrived in Vienna we headed to a hostel Felipe had picked up a flyer on that looked great.  It was great.  The place is beautiful and much, much more than what you would expect of a hostel. But they were full.  We didn't know it but it turned out to be a national holiday on Thursday and all the hostels in town were full.  So we spent almost two hours trying to figure out if we could just leave and go to Bratislava that night or get a hotel or even just leave for Munich.  It turns out all the hostels in Bratislava were full too.  Just when we were about at our wits end one of the hostel workers came and told us a lady across the street will rent out beds in her apartment if we were just looking for a place to sleep.  The lady was nice enough to put us up in one of her rooms with about 7 other people.  It wasn't quite a hostel, but not bad at all.  Luck was on our side.  

 

Vienna was beautiful with all types of amazing architecture.  We saw the historic part of town that night and watched some of the soccer match at a nice little cafe.  

We had bought tickets to Bratislava for last night and today we woke up super early and added another country to our trip.  Bratislava turned out to be nice and a perfect day trip.  We spent about 8 hours there and saw all we could.  The most impressive being the giant castle that sits high on a hill above the city.  

 

Now I sit in our hostel in Vienna (we put our name on the waiting list early this morning and got in).  This hostel is beautiful and while I haven't met any of the people here yet they all seem super friendly.  

 

Tomorrow is more Vienna and off to Prague where we will meet up with some of Brandon's friends from last summer in Yellowstone.  Ciao.