Alright, well since my last entry in Rome, I've been to Florence, Geneva, Interlaken, Zurich, Vienna and Budapest. All that in 6 days. I told you I was going to pick up the pace of my trip. In Florence I actually ran into a girl whom I had known in college only very briefly. She was more of a friend of a friend but surprisingly she recognized me and even remembered my name. Turns out she is in the exact same situation, having just finished med school and now travelling in Europe with a friend before residency starts. In Florence, I went to the Uffizi after waiting 2 hours on line. I can't say it was worth it. I also walked up the cupola in the Duomo early in the morning before it was crowded and had a nice view of Florence. By the afternoon I didn't know what else to do before my night train to Geneva, so I took the one hour trip to Pisa, which was surprisingly nice. It had become sunny so I sat out on the grass for at least an hour in the shadow of the leaning tower. Geneva was pretty much a dump, like Brussels. Dirty and disorganized. Somehow I had thought these international cities with organization headquarters of the UN, Red Cross, European Union, etc., would be very clean cosmopolitan places but actually they're quite dirty with lots of traffic. It was also ridiculously expensive in Geneva. I spent 30 dollars on a lunch at a Thai restaurant which wasn't even that nice. I also rented a bike and rode around the old city. I went to Rousseau's old home as well which had a nice little exhibit about his life. I have to remind myself to read Emile, and Reflections of a Solitary Walker, when I get back. After Geneva, I had planned on going directly to Vienna on the night train, but there were no seats or beds available so I stayed in Interlaken. At Interlaken I paid 120 dollars to take the train up to the top of snow-capped Jungfrau mountain. It was quite amazing to be that high up and very beautiful. It was worth the money. After Interlaken, I went to Zurich and spent the day walking around waiting for the night train. In Zurich I walked through the old town, went to the Zoology museum, and bought a pair of shorts. For most of my meals in Switzerland I ate sandwiches from the grocery to save money but I did have one great fish sandwich from a place called Nordsee near the train station. In Zurich I also (YAHOO, I JUST GOT CONFIRMATION FOR PRAGUE) ran into 2 people from the hostel in Interlaken. They were planning on stopping in Zurich overnight but couldn't find a room so they decided to take the overnight train with me to Vienna. I also ran into them at the hostel in Vienna. At the Zurich station they had converted a part of it into a movie theater and were showing Jet Li's Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It was sold out though. In Vienna, I had probably the best day I have had so far. In the morning I went to the Albertina which had a neat exhibit on Edward Munch and another on photographs and drawings of Freud's old apartment. Then I went to Freud's apartment itself. In the afternoon I walked around a bit more and then I saw an opera for only 2 Euro. I had to stand in the balcony but I could hear the music and see most of the stage. It was fantastic and 5 hours long. I also met a woman who had been born in Austria but grew up in the states. She was standing next to me and went to the opera for 2 Euro all the time. She was dressed up in a strapless dress and wearing pearls, while I was wearing a sweaty tshirt and dirty jeans. After the opera I took a little walk around the cathedral and ate a chicken rolled in pita bread. Then I went back to the hostel. Today I am in Budapest for the day and will return to Vienna tonight. So far I have spent all my time in Budapest in this internet cafe but I am now leaving since I got confirmation for Prague. BYE!!!!!!!

Alright then, so I'm in the frenzied process of securing my accomodations in Prague and frankly it's looking a little grim. Every single hostel I called (at least 5) were fully booked out, and every cheap hotel/pension was booked up as well. Every place I called seemed incredulous that I was asking for a reservatoin for tomorrow as if reservations needed to be made weeks in advance. So ultimately in the end I had to use a travel service to book a regular hotel for about 60Euro per night. Except the only thing is that I'm still waiting for email confirmation from the travel service. If it turns out that the service can't find me a room either I may be screwed. That would suck because I'm supposed to be meeting 2 of my friends in Prague on Thursday. It's all very frustrating because I'm not sure whether I've committed to this travel service or whether I can still continue to look on my own. If I don't receive an email by the time this internet account runs out in 30 minutes I will start looking on my own and then if I don't find anything I will just show up at the hotel in the morning as if I had received confirmation.