Hola Family and friends!

I say hola because I have ended up in Spain, to my surprise.

I´ve been traveling for 16 days and I have 12 more days of adventure. I began my trip in Vienna where I stayed with the niece of a friend of my grandparents. Their flat was only five minutes on foot to the center of town. I loved Vienna and I have added German to my list of languages to speak so that I can go back to Austria and spend more time there. Vienna is a city full of architectural and artistic beauty. I went to many museums and I did quite a bit of walking. I went to a museum with many works from Gustav Klimt who happens to be one the artists I love. I saw The Kiss and before arriving, I didn´t even know that Vienna housed so much of Klimt's work. It was also really fun to stay with someone my age and go out to dinner with her and her sister where I got to get advise from some real Austrians and have good laughs and make new friends.

I popped into Bratislava for a day before heading to Budapest. Bratislava was an interesting place but I didn´t quite get the feel of it and also spent too much time getting on wrong buses and ending up in the middle of no where. I did get to meet a local who was very excited to use his English. I headed to Budapest the next morning and had a really great time. I stayed in a hostel and right after I checked in, I met a really nice Hungarian guy and had a great conversation right away. I met a lot of people in this hostel and it made traveling alone not feel lonely. I also visited the traditional Turkish bath and spent a long afternoon there.

From Budapest I flew back to France and stayed in Paris with Mikka and Sonya (my dad´s good friends) for one night and then went to Caen with Heather, an American friend from Strasbourg. We CouchSurfed, meaning we slept in someones home for the three nights we were there. Her name was Dorothee and she is such a nice person. She took us to the Normandy beaches, she cooked dinner for us twice and invited her friends. It was really great to meet some extremely friendly french students and keep practicing french.

Heather went back to Strasbourg and I headed to Bordeaux. Bordeaux is beautiful. Contrary to my early notion that I would be arriving in a city surrounded by vineyards only steps away, I found myself in a quite substantial city. I would love to be able to return to Bordeaux and experience outside of the city. I occupied myself by going to all the beautiful Cathedrals and Theater and all the spectacular architecture that is protected bu UNESCO. People in Bordeaux are incredibly friendly and I got approached multiple times by people wanting to strike up conversations. There were so many friendly people that I even got a ticket to a wine tasting for free! It was all in french, with many french couples but I learned quite a bit and next time I have a wine from Bordeaux I might be able to say something about it.

I am now in San Sebastian, Spain. This was a completely unexpected adventure but a decision that I am truly happy to have made. It started out rocky as I came with only 60 euro left to my name and a credit card (Now don´t get scared. I am not running up my credit, I´ve just forgotten my debit card). The first night I pretty much just went to hostels until they had room and then have to pay in cash. The next night I made my way to a hostel where I could pay with card and I love it there. The first day I talked with the owner and after 20 minutes we made plans to go hiking.

We went on a 15 minute bike ride along the boardwalk, then we went on a 2 hour hike and had lunch on a clif that looked out into the ocean. This man works for six months then travels for six months and has lived his life this way since he graduated university. We took the bus back to the city and it was a load, air conditioned, packed bus, the complete opposite to our tranquil afternoon. I´ve been pretty much just relaxing on the beach and getting horrible sun burn but it is a great change of pace.

Tomorrow I am off to Montpillier and from there I am not sure yet.

All my love and a really big hug. This is something that I miss most about America. I miss really good hugs... The french just don´t get it.

XOXO