S: Today we packed up and got ready to leave Vienna. It’s been wonderful but we were both ready this morning to move forward! Before we could catch the train there was one last thing I wanted to do, and that was to check out the oldest amusement park in the world, Prater. It was raining and fairly early so we agreed not to go on any big or crazy rides, just to go on the Ferris wheel Wiener Riesenrad and get a good view of Vienna. It was really neat to see from that vantage point because you couldn’t tell from the ground how huge it all was and how tall St. Stephens really is.

We scurried over to the train station and settled in for a short ride. We decided to watch ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ even though we found out that it’s actually set in a fictional country and is filmed in Germany and Czech Republic. It’s a great movie but I messed up a bit when I rented it…

M: Savanna subconsciously wanted to work on her French, so she rented the movie in French by accident. We watched it after a few giggles, even though she said it felt like we were doing French homework again. It wasn’t too bad!

We arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon and found our hostel after walking by it a few times. We were very excited about this one because we’ve had a bunch of different people say that this is where we have to stay. From the second we walked in the door it was a different feeling from past hostels. Everyone was even more warm and friendly than past hostels, which we didn’t know was possible! Savanna excitedly took notes on suggestions for Budapest and on the nightly activities in the hostel. We quickly grabbed some burgers (which apparently people eat here with a fork and knife? We were confused) and joined in the fun for the night.

S: The hostel took a large group of us out to an open mic night where I excitedly tried to get Meaghan to tell one of her jokes – but to no avail. She’s stubborn on this front. I did however convince her to go caving tomorrow so we are super excited for that! It was a great time and we made so many new friends which we are excited to spend the next little while with.

S&M