Oh so nice things happening for you there, jacob! I really hope this teaching job will pay off :) Also, sounds great that you can possibly sell your mag on a bigger scale!!

Chrizine, that is amazing, well done, I am happy for you!

I see, so you explored the castle, that's nice! I haven't been there cause my friend who I was with did not feel like looking at it so we did not do that in the end :3 But another reason to come back for me :P

I don't know how and why, but I somehow unsubscribed from this topic and realized it just now XD
I'm back you guys, and got nasty aphtosis in my mouth and then the next day (aka today) I got my period earlier and I'm dying QuQ But I'm still glad to be back at home. Warsaw rocks, we have the best metro ever, Vienna is gray, Budapest is for smokers and Prague hurts my feet. #IloveWarsaw #homesweethome I'm never ever leaving this city XD
But yeah, we kind of enjoyed our trip. Prague was the best I have to say, the prettiest and nicest, very climactic. Vienna didn't have that special feel, but the tourist pass was the best thing in the whole trip. It shows they are Germans under another name, everything was very well organised. No standing in lines even though you have the pass (like in Prague, ugh), special lines for tourists with the pass, etc. And the transportation logistic is wonderful there. And the toilets were free where they are supposed to be (unlike Prague! I mean, paid toilets in a shopping center or inside a fast food? Prague was a nightmare when it comes to toilets x.x). Budapest is nice when it comes to architecture, although they could try more renovation... But that's not the bad part. Everyone smokes in Budapest. Or at least every second person. And even though the city is greener than Warsaw - it stinks. And homeless people are everywhere, it's unsettling and terrifying. I mean, we saw some in Prague, not so much in Vienna, and of course we have homeless or very poor looking people here as well, but Budapest beats that altogether, by far! Plus a lot of attractions were either closed or paritally closed. Not to mention half of the ones included int he tourist card wasn't really that interesting. And generally Prague and Budapest aren't very organised about tourism, Vienna gets the first place on that. Budapest was pretty boring tbh, idk, maybe we were just too tired, but there wasn't really that much to see XD
So, the final ranking:
1. Prague, because despite being slightly disorganised, it's the prettiest city and there's something magical about it.
2. Vienna, because museums. Oh, the museums! And the organisation. But it's gray and not that magical.
3. Budapest. Pretty, but dirty and stinky. And kind of boring. But also with a nice vibe.

Also, *confetti rain* for @Chrizie for passing everything nicely and also for @jacob for making awesome plans and decisions and succeeding :)

@Julez: There isn't that much in the Old Royal Palace in Prague, at least Ash and I were a little disappointed. Just a few rooms open for visitors. The most interesting for me personally were the regalia. Unless you mean the whole complex on Hradcany, including St. Vitus cathedral and st. George's basilica, those are definiely worth seeing.
Gosh, Prague's churches are too beautiful, no other church have had such an impact on us in any other city we've been to. We really did our trip all backwards, should've gone to Budapest first, then Vienna and then Prague, but oh well xD

Wohoo, welcome back then, glad that you arrived safely!

So sad that you did not like Budapest that much and thought Vienna to be gray. Haven't been there yet, but I really wanted to see both cities actually ._.
I guess we can say the we all like Prague a lot :P
At least everything went alright, no complications :)

Oh really? Glad to know I did not miss that much xD
Tbh my friend and I haven't been to any church :D
The churches in Germany are really nice, I think. Also the ones in Italy.

I haven't been to Warsaw yet (not really, just drove through by train), but I know that Merrymaking has been there a while back and I think she actually did not like it thaaat much. But I might be mistaken here.

Welcome back mem!

I personally meant the whole complex including the churches, although we ended up only visiting the basilica, not the big cathedral. The line was freaking long and we didn't feel like waiting that much. We went a bit into the gardens instead and found some birds of prey that you could hold and take photos with for a small fee and that was really great :) The birds were super cute and there was a really nice lady that told us all about them and was very sweet.
I was a bit disappointed by both the basilica and the old royal palace though, the palace really doesn't have that many rooms you can see and they are not very furnished, mainly there are some nice wall paintings and the overall architecture of the building.
The basilica was just too full and loud, it seemed like it could be impressive if it was empty or a mass was held in it, but all the people completely destroyed the impression of it for me.
We visited another church in the city as well, that was a bit better, but it didn't excite me. Just not my style, I think :D
I was more impressed by the synagogues we visited, those were really beautiful with a nice athmosphere and gorgeous decorations.

mem, did you have bad weather in Vienna? I didn't find it gray at all when I visited it some years ago, but I remember Paris as very gray because when I was there the weather was just all gray and rainy and then everything looks gray.

@Julez: I found that Prague's churches were breathtaking. After that no other church would impress us, really, what was kind of sad XD

Oh no, don't get me wrong, Warsaw is a shitty city for tourists, there's nothing in here for you to see if I'm being honest. It's mostly because the whole city was completely destroyed to the ground and everything had to be rebuilt. The prettiest places would be Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, Nowy Świat Street, Warsaw Uni main campus. I honestly can;t think of anything else, maybe tyhings like national museum and stuff, and maybe it's worth going to the Palace of Culture.
BUT, I really missed our clean and more advanced metro system, our buses, the seats, the familiar places, the language, being able to actually cook something instead of going to fast food... You know, I got homesick after just visiting Prague, so now Warsaw is the bestest for me, lol XD

@jacob: Ah, see, Budapest is the only place I've been to that has so many homeless people, so probably that's why.
Ash likes to have everything planned ahead and hates waiting in lines, it would drive him nuts (and it did in Prague, where we still had to wait in some stupid lines despite having the passes... it's really infuriating when you've bought a pass just to aoid the lines and they still make you wait in them, ugh).
But with Budapest we didn't really research it that much, only hoped it would have more interesting museums but well, we arrived on Monday, got our cards, signed them etc, and then read in the guide that... all museums are closed on mondays. Like, fuck us, if we had known, we would've signed the cards from Tuesday but whatever So we were a little discouraged about Budapest from the first day. Then things were closed anyways or had bad reviews and the dscouragement grew and grew.

In terms of Paris, I've heard it's seriously overrated in general. There's even a condition, mostly seen in Asian tourists I think, but I forget how it's called. But in general they go all hyped up about going to Paris and then they see the grayness, dirt and all the terrible stuff and are seriously so disappointed and shook they get something like depression I guess.

@Chriz: Oh, but the cathedral was the best part of the complex! Too bad you ddin't see it, it's really worth it. The basilica was less impressive, that's true, but considering it's age, wow. I guess I had fewer tourists inside at the same time maybe. Or didn't pay much attention to them, I'm a geek and I got hyped about the old church xD
I don't think we've seen any synagogoues, just the Spanish one. We generally weren't interested in the Jewish thingies or WWII museums and sites. Maybe that's why we found Budapest boring, it has a lot of WWII stuff to see.

Oh, you have no idea about the weather, it was unbearable. As much as in Prague it was very warm, but otherwise okay.... in Vienna and Budapest it was a terrible sun, 30 C. We had the so called "beautiful weather" (we were legit dying), and as much as maybe in the city center Vienna isn't as gray, other parts of the city: gray. All the buildings in the same color, the same height, all the roofs are black or dark grey. Metro trains - gray. Metro stations - gray. Buses - gray. Okay, some buildings do have colors... with gray in it. The city didn't have the flavor like Prague did. Maybe we just have different tastes in cities

We only saw two synagogues as well, the spanish one and the Jerusalem one. I liked both a lot, but they were very different. The Jerusalem was really colourful, not as dark as the spanish one. And the organ was playing there the whole time, that was great for the athmosphere.

Well, it's quite possible we have different tastes there :) But I do agree that Prague is a very pretty city when it comes to the houses, so many really elaborate facades in different colours. Maybe I was also more in the city center of Vienna if you say that is less gray, I don't really remember where we went since it was so long ago.

@Chriz: We didn't have time to get into other synagogues, but maybe next time we will Was the organ playinf specifically for the visitors? Ash effing loves organ, he takes photos of every one he sees, wants to hear them all play, always, and gets a little disappointed when he can't see some in a church/temple/whatever and then gets all excited like a small kid when I show him where it actually is (cause he's blind: first glance - "aww, no organ" - me *looks around, notices, taps his shoulder* - "there" - *Ash makes his childlike, cute AF happy face and snatches a photo* - now he's whole XD). He's such an organ lover that when we enter some temple, I usually search or the organ first only to see him all excited and shit, because I know that's what he's looking for XD

Yeah, we had a hostel outside the city center (actually somewhere in the western part of the city, I think) so we saw quite a picture of grayness XD Also, Warsaw has better lighting at night >:3 I was surprised to see singular, circular lamps above the streets, hanging on wire, and not stationary lamps on both sides of the sidewalk, it was weird in my eyes XD And made the streets pretty dark and gloomy... ;____;

@jacob: Hah, Japanese are worse, you can speak to them in Japanese, but they'll still try to talk in English to you, even though your Japanese is fine and their English sucks xD
I had no idea it's a thing! I wonder if we have something like that in Warsaw, 'cause it's crazy XD I'll google it tomorrow if I don't forget... I'll probably forget... ;>_>
I don't think we had any lines in Budapest. Maybe for the bell tower in the cathedral, but I'd consider that normal. The museums were pretty empty but as I said, some had unavailable exhibitions at the time etc., so maybe that's one of the possible reasons. Plus September and maybe people have different interests than us. *shrug*

I'm not sure about my nation in general, but for sure Ash and I are both too impatient to wait in long lines. I'm able to get over it, if I know I absolutely must wait in that line, but most of the time Ash will just say that maybe we should skip that one, because the line, look at the line! ;>_>

Wow that was a lot of text to catch up with xD

I've never been to Paris before, but I also heard that it is overrated and only the touristic area is nice, the rest rather disappointing, as you said.

Oh I remember seeing the Jerusalem synagoge, we really liked it! But we did not go inside, there was a ceremony or something going on and we did not want to interrupt. I don't think we've been to the Spanish one.

Indeed, many museums are closed on Mondays and some restaurants, too. Or they choose Tuesday.