We woke up at 7AM, had breakfast (made oatmeal in their kitchen with some of their honey and walnuts. Then we showered and talked with the owners. We learned:
-Work begins between 6-9, factories are 6-2 and offices can open anytime between 7-9. Sarah the woman in the house we stayed said she gets to pick what time she goes to work, any time between 7-9. She said this is because they have public transport she called it. If she wants to sleep in she can and start at 9 and work until 5 or she can go in early and get out early. She must be at work from 9-3, but whatever time she beings determines the time she ends.
-Everyone wears sneakers, not gym shoes, but sneakers
-News makes the citizens of Austria say they should feel guilty b/c their leader supported Hitler
-Cell phone cost in Austria is 5-9 Euro/month which is equivalent to $5.48-$9.87/month
-Soccer (Football) is really really common
-Trains/buses/trams works on a honor system-no ticket checking (so we rode the bus and trams for free and paid 4.4 Euro for the subway(: / )
-Being too patriotic here they will call you a Nazi.

Then it was off to the bus/subway. We got to one station which wasn't the right one so we got back on the subway to the right station. We found the correct train to Bratislava-man at the info desk was not very helpful at all, he had such a stern face and when I asked about our train he repeated 10:16 (Which was the time of the train, not where it was)! Thanks jerk! We found it on our own though.
We did try to use the bathroom in the train station but it cost 2 Euro to do so. This drove Alex insane! It was ridiculous to pay for a natural bodily function, but they sure made a lot of money I am guessing.
It was an hour to Bratislava-we walked from station with our directions/map. Got a little turned around, but found the town center eventually. We stopped and ate at Merica (brunch place). They were all out of bagels which was our first choices, so Alex got coffee and sausage and eggs, and I got a spinach omelette. This omelette is usually served with goat cheese and bacon inside, but I ordered without. However, it came out wrong and had to wait for another one...We got toast and hash browns too (rather tasteless compared to Americas). Waitresses were all female and they knew a little English, but the cafe had WiFi so we brainstormed there where to go next.

First impressions of Bratislava:
Felt safer here then where we stayed in Vienna. It felt like a mix a mix of a downtown area and small town of Italy (old town, rundown, had better English speaking, petite town, and lots of American music).
We toured the historic center for 2 hours-(Devin Castle, Blue Church, St. Michael's Tower and Street, and Old Town). There were lots of cafes and stores. Even a subway and McDonalds. Lots and lots of smoking which has made me feel really gross. Parents don't yell or reprimand their kids here. They just talk to them. We sat down outside at a McDonald's to use their wifi for a bit and walked a family next to us. The family was a mother, father, and one child (about 3 I would say). The parents were eating McDonalds, but they wouldn't give the little daughter any. She cried for some, but they gave her the food from her container and 2 fries. She wanted more and walked over to get some from dad she thought, dad quickly ate his meal so there was no more to be seen. We laughed watching this play out. The parents were doing it a loving manner--joking with the daughter saying there was no more and hiding it, or really telling her there was none b/c they are it all. It was interesting to see that they would eat it themselves, but not feed it to their daughter. Rather humorous from our seats.
We kept on walking then went back toward the train to back our train to Budapest. We got subway to eat on the train and then sat in a large open park for a bit. It was an interesting park, lots of trees, benches, and a ton of graffiti--looked very defaced. We hung out there for 45 min, finding a Slovakian Lilly walking by. We just sat and relaxed, talking to one another! Then it was back to the train station.
Got to experience many interesting goodbyes at the train station waiting for ours. One very intense make-out session with a 16-18 year old couple. They made out on the steps leading to the train right in front of everyone. I was embarrassed for them. It was a very wild make-out-for about 3 minutes. She went to leave and then he pulled her back for more face action. It was unbelievable and I was a little grossed out.
After watching this mess of a good bye it was time to find out train. The train to Budapest was 2.5 hours. Nice and smooth train ride-we both read a book "Love & Respect"on his kindle. We would take turns reading a chapter and then handing it over to the other person. We ate our subway and soon enough we arrived in Budapest.
Right away we could tell we were in a much bigger city. It was very clean, actually spotless metro. We took the metro 2 stops which was very easy to figure out. Once we got off the metro we got a little lost finding our hostel. We circled a block before we realized we were in the wrong spot. It was very dark so it was hard to find/search for the place, but we eventually found the hostel.
The hostel was really loud because they were having a party in the common area for a staff member, but we checked right in and were shown the bathrooms, showers, our room which was 6 bunk beds, and kitchen. Alex slept on the bottom and me on the top, they were very comfy beds. When Alex went to brush his teeth, one of the girls from the party tried to get him to come join the party and get some pizza. He kindly declined! Hahaha---you have a wife now so can't be playing those games Lol! When I went to go brush my teeth, I didn't have anyone ask me---how sad! Just kidding--my husband is a stud and of course girls want him to come to the party!! We shared the first night at the dorm with just one Chinese girl, or so we thought. In the middle of the night, we had 3 Indian people enter who were really loud so Alex and I were up for quite some time because of that. They went in and out of the door and our room being right off the kitchen was loud when they kept opening the door.
Then to make things worse one of the guys snored really loud later in the night once they decided to go to sleep. I got my earplugs and face mask because I couldnt fall back asleep for 30-45 min.

When we woke up at 8, all 3 Indian people were gone. We had breakfast at the hostel-oatmeal, bread and jam, salami & turkey plate, cheese plate, cucumber & tomato plate, apple & banana plate, and cereal. It was a great spread and we even made sandwiches for lunch while we explored.
It was about 58-degrees so started with jackets this morning. We just wandered at the beginning trying to understand the map. We saw this really high cool looking monument and it happened to the famous Citadella. It was a huge hill which we of coursed climb. We got the blood pumping quickly today-felt like we were back in NC at the Mountains. It took us about 30 min straight uphill to get to the top, but what a beautiful overlook of the city. Then we climbed down which took us about 10 minutes. Again the bathrooms around were pay to use so Alex peed over the side of the hill hidden by me.
We continued on to see the Buda Castle, Fisherman's Bastion, St. Stephen's Bascilica, Parliament, St. Martin's Church, the famous Chain Bridge, and Castle Hill which we climbed too! We had a lovely picnic lunch with the sandwiches we made from breakfast in a nice park.
First impressions of Budapest:
-Lots of smokers, lots of dyed hair (red is #1 choice)
-Very city-like, large old buildings, beautiful architecture
-Easier to navigate, lots of people, less people spoke English
-Pay for all public restrooms-pain in the butt!!
-More stylish, guys not very attractive in central Europe
-Days are always cool in the morning (7-11am) and then heats up quickly between 11-1PM and then goes back to cooling down at 4PM.
-Some places have public water spickets which was necessary for our long days and convenient too. (We brought a water bottle with us and shops/restaurants don't give water like they do in the U.S.

After walking for hours, we made it back to the hostel to rest before dinner. We rolled out our calves and feet. We researched the best places for dinner and decided to go to the #3 restaurant called Bors GazstroBar. They made stuffed sandwiches. They were such a unique thing---looked like french bread-sticks with meat/cheese/dressing inside. Alex had beef and pork and me chicken of course! Lots of flavor and very filling. After dinner, we went to a few grocery stores (Aldi's, Teslo, and Eurostar (Means $1 store)) to get our lunch for the next day. We also got Alex a donut and me what we thought was a chocolate croissant, however, it turned out to be prune/fig. It was delicious though so since I love both of those fruits. I really enjoyed it! Then we had to spend the leftover Forints (money in Hungary) and we spent like 20 min trying to figure out what we could buy with the change we had left. We went to the cash register 3 different times to figure out if we had enough---the reason we had a problem, was because they round up their prices because they don't do pennies. We got these chocolate rolls that were in the fridge and they were horrific. Just nasty things-tasted disgusting, but we got rid of the Forints at least.
Alex has done most of the navigating thus far and he has done such a great job!! He really knew Budapest by the end of the night and felt very comfortable with any map and any direction given to him.
We headed back to the hostel because we were pooped by this point.
We were woken up in the middle of the night again but this time it was by 3 Chinese students. They came in and turned on all the bed lights which are like spotlights basically--they were very noisy, repacked their bags it sounded like and turned off a fan Alex was using which woke Alex up instantaneously. So both of us were up for about an hour before getting back to sleep.