If you haven't ever heard anything about Croatia, read the next 3 posts. If you haven't bought a plane ticket to Croatia by the end of them, you're doing it wrong. Croatia is BY FAR the most beautiful place I've ever been. Plus funny stories. Here we go. Kathleen (who works at my school) and I woke up wicked early on Thursday morning. We had this awkward spring break from Thursday-Tuesday. Yay Easter! We got to Deli Palyaudvár at 5:45 am with our bags and snacks. We got on the train and slept. We had a group of obnoxious Britss sitting behind us. While everyone was trying to sleep, some of these conversations happened. Guy 1: How are you guys falling asleep? Guy 2: I find it's easiest to sleep with my mouth shut. (Guy 1 ... read more

Búsojárás is sort of the Hungarian Carnival. It happens on the first weekend of March every year down in Mohacs, which is on the Danube close to the southern border of Hungary. Men dress up in sheep skin everything and scary wooden masks to chase away the winter demons. Let's go! OH BOY. When I was little I had a sheepskin that I LOVED. I called it a "mysaw" for reasons that still perplex my family. My brothers followed suit and we all had "mysaws" that we ripped apart as we grew older (except for Duncan). I assumed this festival would be a slightly traumatic experience for me with terrifying men dressed in mysaws walking around everywhere. It was traumatic, but in other ways. I met Darcy, Alicia, and Kenzie at the bus station at 8:30 ... read more

Let's start with Friday. My super inconvenient day of school happened (just kidding-I only work from 8-10:40 on Fridays). We celebrated Farsang on Friday, which is basically Carnival for Hungary. My kids all dressed up in costumes like Halloween. Except in Hungary, Halloween means scary costumes and Farsang means silly/cool costumes. Therefore my kids ranged from Flamenco dancer to football player to Zorro to Superman to Fairy to Trash can to Jungle. I wish I could post pictures. Sorry. After school I rushed home, packed my bag, met Kenzie downstairs with her bag, and headed to Arriba Taqueria: The Budapest Mexican Food. There we met Darcy and Alicia. Then Cindy showed up with her CAR and we all piled in. Since I was the navigator (as per usual), I got to sit in the front. YAY. ... read more

3 weeks in Budapest makes me stir-crazy. Also, I never thought I'd be spoiled enough to utter those words. But here I am, and here we are. In January I had to spend $200 to get a new computer battery because mine died, and Apple products in Budapest are expensive, and the postal service isn't reliable enough to order a battery from the states. Therefore, I was poor. But also stir-crazy. Compromise? Bratislava. On Saturday morning, Darcy, her friend John, and I boarded a train (for 17.5 euros round trip), got a car, and chugged towards Bratislava. In typical fashion, Darcy booked everything, and I had no idea what was going on. However, we got to take the train during the day, which was a first for us! We passed small villages and mountains, and everything ... read more

For the record: Cologne does not smell like cologne. Darcy had the brilliant idea to do a road trip while we were in Amsterdam. Because who can stay in the same country for 6 whole days? NOT US. FOUR AMERICANS. THREE COUNTRIES. ONE DAY. We got up way too early for life on January 2nd. We took a bus to the airport and then had to take another shuttle to our car rental place. We (Darcy because she's old enough) rented a car, which was so tiny it barely qualifies. But it was awesome. We drove to Cologne, Germany. It took 3 hours. I can't drive a stick shift. Darcy, Adam, and Noah can. So I navigated. By my handy dandy skills of screen-shotting directions on my iPad and guessing at road signs, we got to ... read more