this moment is the sweetest memory

i just got back from budapest, hungary. i went for the weekend with 3 friends and it was definitely an adventure. we stayed at a hotel on the buda side - the city has two sides, buda and pest, divided by the river - fun fact! we went to the parliament, saw the castle and spent the day walking around the city. i would love to put up pictures but they're on my friends camera - mine was lost/stolen earlier in the week. i'm still hoping it will turn up somehow.

on the pest side there's a memorial to the jews that were shot and fell into the river. it's 60 pairs of empty shoes along the river, made out of iron. it's my favourite memorial i've seen out here. there was also a photo contest earlier in the year and the winners photographs were blown up onto posterboards and displayed in front of the parliament. i could've spent all day there, there were some really great pictures.

vienna has been beautiful otherwise. the weather has been great and we've been spending a lot of time outside. before i went to budapest we went to the donauinsel, or danub island. it's a long, narrow island in the danube river. the next day we lounged at a beach bar before cooking class. they have sand and lounge chairs and it was almost as if i was back in hawaii.

a friend celebrated her birthday last week and we had dinner at a fabulous mexican restaurant and i couldn't have been happier. i am so excited to come back to delicious mexican food and real sour cream, although i will miss schnitzel dearly.

i have a lot of traveling planned for the next two months: linz, brussels, oslo, krakow, milan, and alicante. needless to say, i'll be needing a job the second i come back to vegas, but it's definitely all worth it. i'm thankful my school schedule isn't that intense. i tend to have classes only two or three times a week, and i'm almost done with most of my classes. it's weird that people are already going back to vegas for the summer, because technically i have school until the end of june. but i'm not complaining :]

i've borrowed some books to read from friends and am so incredibly happy to be reading again. i absolutely love getting lost in books and cannot wait to get into bed and read tonight. i've recently finished outlander and it was amazing, i definitely recommend it. it's about a woman who is transported back in time 200 years, into the middle of war in scotland. she struggles with the new life and isn't able to go back to her 'normal' life for months, and then isn't sure if she even wants to. it's a little strange but so captivating. today i started ravens, i like it so far but i'm not that far into it yet.

"we read to know we are not alone"

cs lewis