Where was “Fireworks” by Katy Perry shot? Or “Diamonds” by Kanye West?

Yep! Budapest and Prague, respectively. Alex and I have been trying to watch a movie shot in each of the places we’ve visited, Gladiator, Munich, Da Vinci Code, etc., but all we found for Budapest, Hungary and Prague, Czech Republic were music videos, which is almost as cool of a place to see the cities you’ve been.

So after Vienna we headed to Budapest. After getting settled into our “Homemade Hostel” which was another one of our favorites because it had such a homey feel, Alex, Kyle and I went to the Szechenyi Baths, which is just a big bath house that people go to to relax and swim. There are indoor baths of different temperatures throughout the building. Sounds kind of like the old Roman Baths that my family and I visited in Bath, England! That night we walked along the Danube River to see all the bridges at night, it was so pretty!

Alex and me at the baths

The first place (since the ports on the cruise) that didn’t use Euros.. it was kind of exciting!

Green Bridge

Chain Bridge and the Royal Palace (The courtyard of the palace is at the end of Katy Perry’s video which we saw the next day)

Chain Bridge again, sorry there are so many of the bridges, but bridges on a river at night make the prettiest pictures!

The next day we did a walking tour of the city. We saw St. Stephen’s Basilica, the castle and learned about how one side of the city is called Buda and the other side across the river is called Pest, which actually sounds like Pesht. We also hiked up a large hill to the Citadel, a fortress, and later got food at their Central Market Hall which was just a huge market. We tried Langos, a flat deep-fried dough with toppings similar to pizza. It wasn’t the best; I was thinking one with some powdered sugar would be good, like a funnel cake. :)

We crossed the river so I am on Buda side and you can see Pest in the background

Their Liberty Statue at the Citadel

After Budapest we took our second sleeper car to Prague! On our first day we roamed around the city and got a walking tour again. We saw Old Town Square with the Astronomical Clock. I tried a langos again with nutella, a chocolate spread, this time. It was so good with the sweet chocolate on it instead of the pizza toppings like we had in Budapest. Here are some pictures from the first day.

The Astronomical Clock

Charles Bridge and the Castle Quarter (up on the hill)

We were there during Easter weekend so this is the Old Town Square with all the Easter décor

Alex and I walked along the river that night and saw Charles Bridge by night

The next day we decided we would check out the Castle Quarter and on the way we saw a sign for sky diving. The guys were all excited and called the number, while I sat there in my dress thinking, this is not what I planned on doing today, weren’t we headed to the castle, guys? But they got it all lined up for us to go later that day so we still went to see the castle then I got a chance to change, aaannnd.. we went sky diving!

Me headed to the Castle

Getting all buckled up

Me, Alex, Dylan and Kyle, ready to jump out of an airplane about 13,000 feet above ground.

Alex and me afterwards

We all went tandem, which is when you’re buckled up to someone who knows what they’re doing with a parachute. We got in a little plane and got up to 4000meters (about 13,000 feet) and started jumping out of the plane. It was so crazy, I almost couldn’t wrap my mind around what I was doing as I was doing it. At first it was a little uncomfortable; when I was free falling at the beginning we were going so fast that my eyes were watering really badly so my vision was blurred. It was also pretty cold up that high! Then once my skydiving buddy (who didn’t speak very good English, by the way) pulled the parachute, it was a lot more pleasant. I got to turn us by pulling the cords to the chute. On the landing we both just lifted our legs up and skidded to a stop on our bums. It was an awesome experience, but now that I’ve tried, I was thinking I probably wouldn’t pay to do it again. We met some guys, though, who had skydived over the Alps, so I thought maybe if I got a chance to do that, I would consider doing it again because that view would be so amazing!

Only three more cities on my spring break, so those will be coming up soon!