best hostel: goat hostel - it looks kinda ghetto (walk thru a residential bldg, then across an outdoor sidewalk/ledge to get to the entrance), but it has a really homey feel with a living room where everyone chilled, ate, checked internet, and watched movies at night. what really made it stand out was the service. when we first got there, we were trying to figure out the cheapest way to prague. the hostel guy immediately started calling up ppl and looking up train/bus schedules for us, as well as prices of everything and where to buy tickets. you don't get that level of service in hotels!

oh this was also the 1st time i've really experienced hostels. everyone cooks! its amazing. once 6-7pm rolls around, half the hostel is in the kitchen cooking away. mostly pasta, but one hostel had this thai family that brought a rice cooker with them. but their food looked dang good. i used to think part of travel is experiencing the food culture, but i realized that most of europe seems to eat meat with creamy sauces and fried potatoes... how are europeans skinny?! i'm baffled.

best night tour: this was cool cuz the tour consisted of only us 6 girls, and our guide was really fun. it also consisted of a river cruise down the danube.

worst castle district: on the hilly buda side of the city was the castle district. not only was the hike up strenuous, but we got lost and hit several dead ends within the castle... and there was nothing to see. oh wait, there was a reenactment of the crucifixion though... we think. haven't quite mastered the hungarian language yet.

worst bank: CITIBANK SUCKS. whats the point of having international atm locations and branches if you're still going to charge your account holders a FOREIGN FEE?! i went out of the way to find citibanks in budapest and prague so i could avoid the 3% but in the end, i was still charged. bitterness.

best easter market: at vorosmarty square. it mostly consisted of food. but they had these bread rolls that tasted like chinese bakery bread. super yummy.

(supposedly) best thai massage: i traveled with 2 thai and 1 taiwanese girls from my school - and 2 american girls from church. we mostly split 4-2 and did our own things because of differing interests, which was fine. in big groups its hard to stay together all the time. anyway b&s were not big walking fans, so after 2 days of trekking around budapest, they started looking for thai massage places to soothe their aching feet/back/etc. in both budapest and prague there were tons of thai massage places, surprisingly. at first i was alil sketched out... asian massage places...? hmm. but the women working there were all super nice, and its like the place to get connected to your ppl (if you're thai). in prague, 1 woman even invited us to her house for thai food! anyway, i didn't get a massage due to my aversion of being touched, but if i ever do get one, i'm going thai.

s&b making sure their calves don't get as big as mine...

best political rally: on sun, we noticed a mass of ppl going to heroes square. i thought, oh fun! maybe its part of the spring music festival! when we got there we noticed alot of flags but not alot of music. after asking someone, we found it was a huge political rally protesting the gvmt. after lots of fist pumping and flag waving, we left to go see the thermal baths.


worst tourist trap: prague royal orchestra. do not, i repeat, do not spend any money to see them in concert. we spent about $30 for tickets only to find out that this royal orch consisted of 10 members and no conductor. which meant they consistently rushed and were off. apparently, lots of these small "orchestras" go around and play at different venues in prague - same music, same musicians, same tourist trap. you have been forewarned.

best free city tour: i love free tours! even when they end up being 4hrs long in the hot sun! but our guide had tons of great stories and showed us to the best lunch place.

worst ice cream: beer ice cream. for some reason we thought it was a beer float, which seemed like a good idea at the time (pics can be very very deceiving). i've never met an ice cream that i had to waste before... it was a sad day.


worst for tourist safety: right when we arrived, a's wallet was stolen. we think it was on the tram where these 2 ladies were crowding us even tho there was plenty of other places to stand. we didn't pay attention (our fault) because we were slightly lost and going the wrong way on the tram. by the time we arrived at the hostel, it was gone. well, at least i got to check out the inside of a viennese police station. the policeman was hilarious. he kept calling wallet, wallpaper.

best museums: haus der musik and mozart's house are must goes if you're interested in music. haus der musik is this interactive music museum where you can make your own waltz, conduct the vienna symphony orch, and just play around on everything. mozart's house made me want to start playing those sonatas again and go see his operas... marriage of figaro, anyone?

best palace: schloss schonbrun. prettiest palace ever. at least on the outside, which was free.
 
best clock tower: at least it was the most interesting clock tower. at noon, 12 famous austrian figures glide by to waltzy music. no idea who they were but cool nonetheless.

 
best mozart shrines:
mozart's birthplace

mozart's bridge

mozart's statute

best sound of music tour: extremely cheesy but SO FUN. the only reason i wanted to stop in salzburg was for this tour. no, sound of music isn't my fav movie, but you have to admit that it was definitely a good oldie. anyway it was a bus tour and they drove us around to most of the filming sites in salzburg and outside. did you know the von trapp house actually consisted of 2 different houses? they used the front of one and the back of another. tricky tricky! our guide also taught us the correct version of do-re-mi:

doe, a beer, a german beer.
ray, the guy who serves the beer.
me, the one i buy beer for.
far, a long way to the bar.
so i think i'll take a beer.
la la la la la la la.
tea? no thanks, i'll take a beer.
and that brings us back to doe. a beer...

but no one wanted to frolic around mirabella gardens with me while singing do-re-mi... pourquoi??

best jump: naturally, we wanted to take jumping pics in every city (who wouldn't?!).
failed attempts in budapest...

no attempts in prague...
semi success in vienna due to b's shoe...

major success in salzburg! finally.