Beauty and the Beard:
Bound to Wander

We woke up this morning still tired from yesterday's climbing. Today was our day to try out some deep water soloing. For the non-climbers out there, that's rock climbing with no rope above deep water. When you're ready to get down, you jump. If you're slip, you fall into the water. It's pretty straight forward, but it's not without it's dangers. We had been warned of people breaking their backs by hitting the water wrong, and large chunks of rock blowing off the side of the cliff. But this is something we've wanted to try for a long time. Watching the deep water soloing in the movie King Lines was one of the things that inspired Aaron to climb in the first place. Of course early in the morning, the thought of canceling sounded pretty appealing, but no! It was finally happening. We ate some breakfast and packed our gear. It was about a 20 minute walk to our meeting point. We walked up to a small sail boat and met our 3 guides. About 5 minutes later, one

Day 25 was our day to get stuff done. We explored the city a bit more, and gathered information for the next few days. The only truly blog-worthy thing that happened was another awkward dining situation. We sat down at an outdoor table of a restaurant that was way too expensive for us. Some of the plates were over $100 USD. We tried to save some face (and money) by just ordering some wine and cheese. It didn't really save us anything. The meal was over $20, and the waiter was judging us pretty hard core. But we ate our expensive cheese with dignity, paid our bill, and promptly ran away to find a much cheaper restaurant. We also felt bad about not having pictures from the beach in the previous post, so we went back for some photos. The next day, we dragged ourselves out of bed to meet our rock climbing guide at 9. It doesn't sound like an early start, but trying to make sure we had everything for our trip was hectic. We didn't know if we had to hike to ou

The old town in split is unlike any place we've been before. It's basically re-purposed ancient ruins right on the coast. It's a jumble of shops, restaurants, museums, and homes stacked on top of each other. You could walk right off the edge of a cobblestone street, and fall 5 feet down to an outdoor table of a restaurant. The streets are much narrower than we've seen, and the city layout is a bit more like a labyrinth. But the people are extremely helpful, and very kind. The first thing we decided to do this morning was check out this old Roman palace called the Diocletian Palace. It was a retirement home for an emperor, built around 300 A.D. It turned out to be like a minute from our Hostel. It wasn't that impressive. We knew what we were looking for, and as soon as we saw it we said "Oh! I guess this is it. Wait... Is this it? Yeah. I guess this is it." We noticed several Roman Centurions standing around, and a large crowd started to gather around a p

So its been three days since our last post. Sorry about that. Days 23 & 24 were pretty uneventful. Kaylea was not feeling well most of the time, so we didn't do much beyond going out to eat. We tried checking out a ruin pub (a popular style of bar in Budapest), but we couldn't find our first pick and the second was just a skeevy looking night club. We opted for another wine-night-in. Sunday we actually got a little bit accomplished. We ate a very late lunch for breakfast and then nailed down our trip to Croatia. After that it was more of Kaylea being sick. We decided to get a few groceries since our train rides to Split wouldn't have food. Unfortunately, all shops bigger than 200 square meters are closed on Sundays in Budapest. We settled for croissants from a bakery and more Pringles and Oreos from a convenience store. We also bought a loaf of bread from the convenience store, but later trashed it when we realized how bad it was. After dinner we walked down to the ri

We arrived in Budapest! Unlike the trip to Vienna, we were prepared to satisfy any hunger with the makings of PB&J's. A Hungarian man (ironically living in Montana) commented on our late lunch and inquired of our travels. The trip was pleasant. We mostly watched a dreadful tv show we've been following and read our second-hand books. We've grown quite efficient users of novel public transit, so we made it to the stop near our hostel without hiccup. From there, though, we could not find the building to our hostel. Aaron had to call the hostel manager, Andrew, who graciously came down across the square to get us. Before we were lead to the hostel Aaron had to pull out 50,000 Hungarian Forint to pay for our stay. 1 Hungarian Forint is worth about 0.0036 US Dollars. To put it clearly, everything here is chheeeaaaapp. Andrew, who Kaylea has dubbed Lord Andrew (Haha, as in landlord? Get it?! Shut up.), lead us through the entryway of a large, old building to a third floor

For our second day in Vienna, we took it pretty easy. We just climbed 200 figgin feet off the ground  at a gym called Kletterhalle Wien. That's pretty much it. Both of us have been climbing for a while now, but we're used to climbing like 12 feet in the air. We walked in, completely intimidated by the size of the walls. Aaron guessed it was around 200 feet. Pretty close. 60 meters. We only climbed easy stuff, but we were totally pumped. After 3 routes, Aaron couldn't really close his hands anymore. Also, most people were lead climbing. It's a different kind of rope climbing than we're used to. Kaylea's certified, but Aaron's only done it once or twice. We stuck to the little top rope we could find. It was a little disappointing that the climbs were so difficult, but that doesn't cross your mind when you're 200 feet in the air. All you can think when you're that high is "I'd really like to finish this route so I can come down."

While walking around, the first thing we noticed about Vienna was the cleanliness. The other European cities we had seen so far had a lot of litter, and a distinct "human" smell. Like a constant crop-dusting. Munich wasn't as bad as the others, but their's something pristine about Vienna. It's almost as if they wash the buildings. No litter. No beggars. No smell. It was also less of a tourist town than we expected. There just weren't as many people here. When we first arrived in Vienna, the receptionist told us about a music contest festival thing that was going on. Apparently it was going to be a pretty big deal, so we decided to walk by. It wasn't as big of a deal as we were expecting. We got there around noon, and there were maybe 100 people walking around. There was live music, but it was only one stage. We were in and out in about 20 minutes. Being from Austin, Kaylea was disappointed. We bought some ice cream, and decided to make our way to a p

As it turns out, it's difficult to keep up the momentum on a two month trip. It gets hard wondering around an unfamiliar city trying to find new things to do every day. This became apparent to both of us in Prague. It was a beautiful city, and while we might not have partied as hard as other tourists, we still enjoyed our stay. Admittedly, we spent a lot of time in our hostel. With live music coming in from the window, and a gorgeous view of the city below, it was hard to leave. We left for food. We left to lay in the grass next to a river. We left to see Mad Max. But we spent more time in our Prague hostel than any other hostel so far. In our defense, neither of us were feeling too well. And our hostel was a good one... for the most part. The live classical music that floated it's way into our third story room from the streets below was often interrupted by grown men screaming at the top of their lungs. We were never too sure what they were screaming about. Some sport t

Ah Prague. First we thought London was the most beautiful city we'd ever seen, then we saw Paris. Crime ridden, but romantic and and awe inspiring. After that we saw Munich; with its luscious English Garden and Gothic architecture, it quickly became our favorite city. Then we arrived in Prague. We can best describe it as Paris meets Munich. The city layout is seems more Parisian while the architecture is distinctly western European. It's also dirt cheap! We had a high quality lunch with beer and extras in a tourist-heavy location for only $20! Hence our staying an extra night. The day began in a rather rough manner, actually. First, let us just say that its is almost impossible for us to read Czech. In Paris and Munich we could at least recognize some of the words we encountered. Here? Nothin'. We had bought sugar and milk to go with the coffee Kaylea had bought. The sugar had been pointed out to us by a helpful grocery clerk. Well that sugar we bought? It was salt.

We woke up to a much quieter Munich. All of the major stores were closed for a national holiday and, as a result, the city was empty. This was unfortunate for us since the top thing on our docket was buying a new selfie-stick and water bottle. But no big deal. We had some last minute packing to do anyway. Somehow, despite loosing all our stuff, Aaron was running out of room in his bag. We've been carrying around a giant copy of the book Europe on a Shoe String that we haven't really been reading. There was a book exchange in our hostel, so we decided trade it for a smaller book. Kaylea also left her copy of Never Let Me Go, which was ironic given the title. She wrote a small sentimental note on the inside cover, and we walked away with the books  Into Thin Air, and Crime and Punishment.  We'll miss Munich. So many people commented on our lack of a Texas accent. Every server we had would offer Aaron a dark beer, and offer Kaylea a lemonade. This is hilarious because Kaylea

So apparently, running errands is a normal part of Travel. We spent the first half of Tuesday running around the station trying to get our tickets for tomorrow's trip to Prague. We also spent a good amount of time in the Post Office waiting to mail home all the documents and memorabilia we wish to keep.  For lunch, we hopped on the metro to Haufbraukeller - Aaron's favorite restaurant in Munich. Kaylea tried veal for the first time and actually enjoyed it. For all you foodies reading: picture a small cutlet of breaded veal served with a lemon wedge and cranberry sauce. It was pretty tastey! The weather was gorgeous, so we sat on the back patio overlooking the beirgarten and a playground. We finished the meal with  a warm apple strudel covered in ice cream and vanilla sauce. It was, by far, the best German meal we'd had. After lunch we decided to walk to the nearest movie theater and try to catch the Avengers. Our waiter pointed us in a general direction and we began o