i want to live where soul meets body

a lot of people really love to travel but not so many people love the airport. i'm going to go ahead and guess that not a lot of people like the actual "traveling" part of traveling - the act of getting from one place to the other, whether it's by plane, bus, or train. i really love it. i love packing (even if it's always, without a doubt, no question about it, done at the absolute last minute). i love going to the airport and walking to the terminal and going through security. i even like going through the metal detector. but good news, europe doesn't travel just by air. europe travels by busses and fast trains and slow trains and in between trains and trollys and it's fabulous.

i'm in the czech republic this week, bouncing back and forth between prague and marienbad, a smaller spa town in the western part of the country. i got to prague by bus and spent the night there. in the morning i took a train halfway to marienbad but had to switch onto a bus because the tracks were derailed or something. then i hopped onto another bus before i was finally here. and you know, i loved it. i met a guy who had just spent a month traveling throughout africa, a funny couple from the czech republic (they're actually the reason i made it to the last train without getting lost), and a weird old man who was missing a lot of teeth. besides the weird old man who wanted to meet my grandma and come visit me in hawaii, they were all really great. and even he wasn't that bad.

i love people watching and wondering where everyone's going, getting onto a bus and wondering who you're going to sit next to, sitting in the train compartment waiting for someone else to come in, making a home away from home. maybe it's just because i'm restless. maybe it's curiousity or just a desire to constantly be in motion, i don't know, but 5 hours on a bus or 3 in a train or a couple in the sky are absolutely fabulous.

it's probably a good thing, because i've been spending a lot of time lately transporting myself from place to place. just before i came to czech, we went to the vineyards about an hour northwest of vienna, past grinzig. needless to say, it was beautiful. while i'll admit don't know much about wine except that it comes in white, red, or pinkish, it didn't make it any less pretty. we wandered down through the maze of vineyards and found a little house where we enjoyed white wine and sunshine.

today i went towards the center of marienbad where there's a fountain that dances to music. it rivals the fountains in front of the bellagio. okay, not really, but it's still cute. there's an ice cream stand next to it that's been there for as long as i can remember. i used to beg my parents to buy me ice cream there all the time when i was younger. i finally realized that parents will say no, but grandma always says yes, so of course i had to enjoy a cone of ice cream for old times sake.

i hardly ever feel that i'm thousands of miles away from the united states and it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that a plane ride home is 10+ hours. i didn't really realize how far i am from home until recently, and then suddenly it hits me that i'm on the other side of the globe. i can't say that i'm out here alone - i'm surrounded by good people and great friends - but when tragedy hits back at home, it's hard to be out here without the friends i grew up with. rest in peace, courtney. your smile and your contagious laughter are missed. your memorial will be beautiful, just as you were, and i wish i could be there. thank you for the great memories and the amazing times in high school.

you do not have a soul, you are a soul. you have a body.

miss you, court.



classical music and coffee

I don’t have much to complain about, I mean sure I’m still waking up at ungodly hours and the whole learning German thing is probably going to be a little harder than I thought, but that's just small potatoes. Well, and the fact that I have to use an adapter and converter to charge my toothbrush. But I refuse to convert to a standard, non-electric toothbrush. No sir, I just can’t do it.

I arrived in Vienna yesterday, after a few days in Marienbad and Prague. Both were beautiful, although I spent most of the Marienbad trip sick in bed, sleeping during the day and wandering around the house during the night. Prague is always beautiful, and it was good to see my grandma, cousins, uncle, etc again. I have to applaud anyone and everyone that lives with their extended family, mostly grandparents, because there’s not a chance I could do it (Sorry to my cousins if you stumbled upon this blog). I love my grandma dearly, don’t get me wrong, but when she started to wrap half her dinner in a napkin so she could shove it in her purse and take it ‘to-go’, my dad and I nearly lost it. She still doesn’t believe that restaurants offer to-go boxes.

My grandma, being the amazing woman that she is, got us two concert tickets for Saturday night. I know, I know, what grandma goes to a concert? Well, when it’s a classical music concert, lots of grandmas do. And grandpas. And old people in general. Oh, and me.

I’d never been to a classical music concert before, and it sounded like something a very classy and sophisticated person would do (it took me three tries to spell sophisticated, even the computer knows I’m a phony), so I told my grandma I’d go with her. Although I did feel very classy using the coat check, I quickly felt un-classy when I realized everyone was in floor length evening gowns and I was kickin’ it in black boots and leggings. And again, I felt fancy shmancy when we sat in the fourth row, and then not so fancy shmancy when I fell asleep five minutes into it and the instrumentalists could clearly see me from the stage. Sorry, grandma! Regardless, it was an experience and I now know classical music puts me to sleep.

I don’t have an alarm clock with me, and I’ve never been one to wear a watch, so I have no clue what time it is here. I’ve found a solution for the time being: I’ve been googling the current time. 8:36 am.

I’ve also realized people here drink a lot more wine than I’m used to. And coffee. And tea. Not so much water. The wine and tea I’ve gotten used to, the coffee I’m still working on. I’m hoping that acquired taste will come with time. But I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about the beer.

I’m moving into my dorm today, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m glad my dad’s here to help me get a cell phone, bank account, speak German for me, etc, but I’m looking forward to meeting my classmates/roommates/people my age.

I really have to pee, but it’s freezing cold and I don’t want to get out of bed. Tough life, huh?

What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.

-William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways