Köszönöm.

I speak Hungarian. Kur-sur-nurm. Thank you.

I must say, the people here in Hungary have been so nice and welcoming, for the most part. There were tourist information people walking the train and handing out maps and asking if anyone had any questions; every time I've attempted a Hungarian thank you (Köszönöm), people have smiled and nodded, all encouraging (as opposed to when I said "Hvla" in Slovenia); an old man came up to us asking for directions to the market and I looked through Rick Steves, trying to help him, and he asks where I'm from, and I say "America" and the old man with him starts singing "America the Beautiful" and the other man goes, "Tila Tequila!" and my eyes sorta bug out and I say, "Um, yes?" and he says, "My nephew was on her show, he came in four" and he holds up for fingers and I -- I am just in awe that I say I'm from America and the first thought someone has is "Tila Tequila!" and I also sorta want his autograph and to hug him, because, um, how cool is that, eh (I am faking being Canadian, on and off, a bit, since I have a Canadian moose and, eh, why not, eh?); and on the bus today, on the way to Statue Park, an old man pressed the stop request button, turned around, looked right at me, said "Statue Park" and pointed -- I was so baffled, I thought maybe he was talking to someone behind me, so I just stared, but then he repeated it, smiling, and another person looked at me and nodded, and then a lady in front of me goes, "Yes, here" and we totally didn't miss our stop and would have had no idea we were supposed to get off otherwise -- so, so nice.

Budapest is not all amazing, though, folks. I have some very, very unfortunate news to post. I have encountered my first thievery -- someone stole my pineapple juice. I am oh so sad, sad.

Also, I want to say, before I forget again, that I love Rick Steves. We didn't have a Rick Steves book with us for the first 2-3 weeks of the trip, since we only brought out Eastern Europe version with us. But now we've had him at our fingertips for Ljubljana, Plitvice, and Budapest, and oh! Oh, the comfort I feel, knowing he is there to guide me. He tells us where to eat and what to do and he has great maps and helpful information on where internet cafes are and how to use Hungarian baths (which we didn't do, but whatever), and yes, yes, Rick Steves -- he is amazing.

OK, so now I am posting the pictures I have posted on Facebook, since my mother has requested photos. I will include some amazing stories here, exclusively here, so um, enjoy.


Spanish water was very cheap. This was amazing.

For some odd reason, I decided to try to scale walls on Krk. This was pre-Croatia hat, as I am still wearing my amazing, and now sorta retired, Brussels hat.

It was windy on Krk, Tuesday morning. Kinda chilly, since it was morning. But I still wore my capris and tank top, expecting Plitvice to be warm and sunny. I was very, very wrong. The farther we inched up the mountains, the windier and colder and colder it got and oh, oh, I was so cold in this picture! So cold and old-lady-like.

Plitvice Park. Gorgeous! Fun pictures, from above. I had wised up by then and put on my coat and my new, amazing Croatia hat. Jealous much?

This is Rijeka, as we waited on our train back to Ljubljana. I found this amazing hat thingie in a department store. I am a huge Croatian football fan, obviously. Check out that maniacal expression.

This is our sobe on Krk. This is Brittany's amazing Croatia hat, too. For some reason the only pictures I have where she's smiling are ones where she has on a hat.

This is the cold, cold scenery we passed on the way to Plitvice. Oh, so cold! Windy! Apparently Croatia gets very, very windy. Our driver said that they often have to close roads because it gets dangerously windy. This was a surprise to me, because, um, it was already dangerously windy, this day, wasn't it? I mean, check out those waves, holy cow, eh. Also, I will paste this from my Facebook caption (sorry, guys, not all original content here, eh):

According to our bus driver (more van driver), God made Croatia last and just sorta rubbed the crumbs off his hands and splat, there's Croatia, all rocky and scattered -- and surreal and beautiful and windy, windy, windy!

OK, hello.