The Jack Noodle Journal

We are now riding on the bus to the city of Prague.

I really liked Vienna.

This bus ride is going to be good because we will be able to look at the landscape as it goes by. It has been very hard to keep a journal on this trip because most of the time has been spent being busy and experiencing things. I am having a very enjoyable time. It has been so fun.

It’s hard to write while you are looking out the window. There are lots of open fields and ranges.

We just got back from visiting the Tugendhat Villa by Mies Van der Rohe in the town of Brno. It was very cool to go inside and check it out. It is a very good example of modern architecture. I think some of my fellow travelers are tired and unimpressed with Tugendhat. I thought it was cool though.

When we arrived in Prague we got our new hotel rooms and then went out and had a pretty good Bohemian meal.

Today was a very amazing day of art viewing, We went to the student art museum and saw some great pieces and then we went to the national art museum and saw some more wonderful artwork.

The student modern applied arts was very cool. The MAK.

I was very intrigued and inspired by the Wiener Werkstatte thumbnails and rough sketches of their graphic designs.

Today is our last day in Vienna.

We went back to the Secession Building and went inside. It was very cool. Down in the basement we stopped and looked for a long time at Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. It is quite beautiful. The Secession building really gave me some good fuel for creativity.

We went to our Strauss concert in the evening. It kind of seemed like a tourist trap to me. I thought we were going to go to some big concert hall. The place was nice I guess but it sure wasn’t a concert hall. The music was divine though. I closed my eyes on several occasions and tried to picture old Vienna when this music was first being played. I had the hardest time staying awake. I must be very tired.

The last shirt has no pockets.

Happy birthday to the lovely K. I really miss the young lady.

Today we went on a walking tour of Vienna. I really like this town!
We looked at lots of architecture today. The museums were closed today so we did non-museum activities for the first time this trip.

We saw the Wagner Pavilions, Karlskirche Church and yes I finally got to see the Secession Building! It was closed today but I am going to go back there tomorrow when it is open.

After the walking tour I sat in outside a café and had a coffee with my friend Donavan. We hung out there for a while it was very nice.

I went back to my room after that and had a 6 hour nap to catch up with my sleeping.

In the evening we went to an excellent dinner at a vineyard outside of town. The food was marvelous.

When we got back from dinner I called K and wished her a happy birthday. I really missed her then. I was feeling a tad bit homesick.

We went out to the Corny again and had drinks.

After Corny I went with my friend Marilee to another place.

Hello, hello there! Yes my friends, I am here now in Vienna. It is really pretty cool. I got up early this morning because I wanted to regroup and get on the right track to seeing this city right. The night of Diablo really did me in for the rest of the day yesterday.

I am now going through my maps and books trying to mark stuff on the map that I want to see. I really like my hotel room. It lends itself well to writing, reading and thinking.

The people of Vienna partied on pretty late into the night last night while I slept. I had the window open and enjoyed listening to the going ons down on the street below. There was a gay pride parade in town yesterday and everyone continued partying from that. I stayed in and tried to catch up with my sleeping. I feel great this morning. I had a very good rest.

Evening:
Today we saw the Schonbrunn palace. It was very impressive.

We went to the Hundertwasserhaus. A funky looking building that was built to be low income housing. This was the first eco house? That doesn’t seem right.

At the Belevedere I was really inspired by the beatiful paintings and artwork. I got up close and personal with “The Kiss� by Gustav Klimpt.

Later in the evening we went to Corny.

Late in the evening it rained and some of the travelers and I were stuck running in it.

WIEN!

We didn’t go to sleep last night. The thinking at the time was that would be able to sleep on the boat ride to Vienna today. We were all having such a fun time in Budapest that I think we thought that if we slept we would be missing something. The Jet lag is doing some weird things to me also.

Our boat trip took us down (or up?) the Danube river. It was a very interesting and fun way to get to our destination. The plan for sleeping on the boat was not a very good plan. It is very hard to sleep. I am very tired. I wish I was more awake because I feeling like I should be taking in all that is passing me by as we journey down (or up) the river.

We are now in Vienna! Vienna is a very cool city. It is more of a Western European city then Budapest is. Everyone here is so hip. The buildings are very cool looking. It is very interesting to me how the old buildings are mixed with the new. The architecture is outstanding. There is art everywhere. The hotel is right in the middle of the downtown area.

Everyone on the trip is tired and grumpy. I am very sleepy from partying all night in Budapest. I think that I will try not to do that again until our last night of the trip. It makes it hard to write in the journal if you are trying to recover from no sleep.

Once in Vienna we went and checked into our hotel. I got a very nice room once again. It is quite a bit smaller than the room in Budapest. Since I am the oldest male of the travelers I have been getting my own private room where as the rest of the travelers have been sharing rooms. I think I paid an extra over 25 years old fee though so I deserve my own room.

I am looking forward to seeing quite a few things while here in Vienna. I am very interested in seeing the Secession building and going to a café.

German band on MTV Europe: Funf Sterne Deluxe.

Seeing the sites in Budapest.

I woke up today and felt totally refreshed. Budapest is a very cool city. We went to St. Stephen’s Basilica and saw the church. It was very majestic. High ceilings. It is amazing how well the architects are able to capture the huge feeling of God in these Cathedrals.

We also went and saw Matthias church after that and explored Fisherman’s Bastion, Crown Hill and Citadella.

Towards the afternoon I went with the group that was going to the spa, hot springs. We went to the Gellert Hotel and Thermal Baths. The baths were very beautiful buildings. It was a wonderful time for me to relax and get refreshed. It was an unusual scene for me. The men’s thermal baths were very cavernous and there was a low rumbling echo of men’s low voices all speaking languages that I didn’t understand. It seemed like a scene from a strange foreign film.

After the baths we discovered that we were short a few girls and we weren’t sure if they knew how to get back to the hotel or not. We eventually hoped for the best and headed back on our own. We then got lost ourselves and spent quite a while trying to figure out where we were on the METRO. We were lost for a while but eventually found our way back. Some people in our group seemed a bit flustered but I thought it was an interesting adventure and memory to keep.

After dinner in the evening I went out with a few new friends from the group. We found a dance club and did some dancing. The club we found was called Incognito. There were a lot of kids there dancing. Everyone was very young. They were all dancing to hip hop music from the United States. I don’t know what kind of music I was expecting from the people of Budapest, I just found it interesting I guess that everyone seemed so preoccupied with U.S. Music and culture. The girls found some boys to dance with and it turns out that they were from Manhattan. Westerns are attracted to each other like magnets I guess.

After the dance club we were in the mood to keep going. We found a strip bar called Diablo. It was a pretty seedy scene and the only good that came from visiting that place was the memories that we would take with us and closer friendship with my travel mates.

It was nearing the morning hours by this time and we eventually began heading back in the direction of the hotel. On the way back we ran into some boys from India and had a good conversation with them. They were in Budapest doing some computer work for some company who’s name I didn’t catch.

Well I think it is Thursday now. I am now sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for our transfer flight to Budapest. This is a fairly interesting airport.

I guess for part of our school assignment that is attached to this trip, I am supposed to say something about this airport for some reason. It is sort of space agey but not. It’s kind of dirty and grimy. It reminds me of a combination of Los Angeles airport and Cancun airport. It’s 2:00 PM now. It has been kind of fun people watching.

The members of the travel group are all a little groggy. I have found it quite amazing that we have already made some good connections and friendships even before the adventure has even started.

The flight in to Germany was really bumpy and lame towards the end. Some of the passengers actually got air sick and puked in their air barf bags. I didn’t know that happened in real life.

6:35 PM:
We have made it. We are now in Budapest. Now the trip can really begin. Our flight in from Germany was much better on the landing. From Germany to Budapest it was only a hour and ten minutes which is far less of a chore than the 9.5 hours to Germany from the US. I sat in the window seat so I got to see the land as we flew into Budapest. I took a picture.

Now we are driving in a nice tour bus and checking out the scenery. I should hang up here and keep looking.

We went out at night in Budapest with our tour guide Arne and had drinks. There was a big outdoor market place. Everyone was watching a football match and you could here cheers going all the way down the park.

The Triplets of Belleville. Noodle’s grades. First C.

Hello have you missed me? Hey! Hey! On the plane! Yep. Hello peoples. I had to hold out a bit with the last few entries because I was in heavy anticipation of the Europe trip. I am on my way. I have had a few drinks and am settling in and getting ready for our in-flight movie which will be the movie “50 First Dates�. I am quite excited because I didn’t want to have to pay fro a ticket to that movie but wouldn’t mind seeing it.

Okay the details. I think for this journal writing trip I will spell the words the best I can and then correct it when I enter these scribbles into the computer.

I am now sitting on Lufthansa flight number 469 and we will be in Frankfurt Germany in 9 hours. They just served us our meal. It was pretty unremarkable. They keep the drinks coming which is very nice. I have had a whiskey and coke, a beer, and a glass of wine so far. I am looking forward to the next time the drink cart comes around.

This plane is so big it doesn’t feel like we are flying. I set my watch to German time. It’s now 4:15 AM German time. This doesn’t count for missing a journal entry. It’s the 24th in Germany now but I started this entry in Portland time.

Yes, what a weird world this traveling business is. It’s a pretty fun world I must say. I wish I wouldn’t have changed my watch now that I think about it. A few hours into this flight and I don’t know what time it really is. I think I am in between times now. The Sun isn’t going down outside the plane so it is hard to gauge the time. The in-flight movie just started so I think that makes it 8:00 PM Portland time. Maybe I will try to sleep after the movie.

Well the movie is over now. “50 First Dates� was fairly good. It wasn’t the best Adam Sandler movie but it wasn’t bad. It had a halfway decent premise that teetered on nonsense throughout the movie, then fell apart entirely at the end.

Gosh, being trapped here for 9 hours able to write as much as I want should be a good thing. I don’t have much to say today though. This Sun staying up thing is a tad bit weird. Perhaps I will say this June 23rd entry is over and continue this when I am in a hotel room on the 24th.

Oh yes. The two things I was going to mention today, or I guess it would be yesterday now, was that we saw the movie “The Triplets of Belleville� last night at home and I found out what my grades for last term were. The movie was really good. The animation was done really well. My grades weren’t as good as the movie. Not so good not so bad. Two A s two B s and my first C! Yep. I know I have let all of you down. A C was bound to happen eventually right? Web Scripting! Damn it! I tied my all time low GPA from Summer 2003 which was a 3.2. Don’t worry I’ll get back on track next term.

Oh My goodness! The post yesterday was insane. I was so sleepy last night and worn out after bridal shower fun that I was falling asleep as I typed here. I don’t know where that line about wearing leg warmers to help you ski better came from. Sounds like a secret message that I was sending out over the internet airwaves. I’m a bit more awake this evening. Not much more awake actually.

It wasn’t as sunny today as it has been the last few days. The clouds were pretty heavy throughout the day. I dressed for the sunshine and found myself a tad cold. That is quite a change from Yesterday’s scorcher.

I went in to work today. It was just alright. Not too much happened of note there today. I got really sleepy there around mid-afternoon. I listened to some tunes for a while and then mostly the news for the rest of the day. Work is for suckers. I would love to be able to live a life of travel and leisure and not working.

The 2004 Project continues on people! A journal entry for every single day of 2004. One event of note for the history books was the first privately funded spaceship took flight yesterday. It almost went up out into space but I don’t think it quite got there. 62 miles up is pretty darn high though. I predict that flying cars will be here soon!

I am loading up my suitcase for my Europe trip. Vienna, Budapest and Prague. Should be fun. I am pretty much done gathering stuff together to take. I just need to throw it all in the suitcase now. I’m trying to pack light. We’ll see how that goes.

YES yo! Monday in the house. No just kidding. Monday NOT in the house.

Okay, here’s the thing, I haven’t caught up on my sleep at all! Damn it! I tried to sleep in this morning and it just didn’t work. I woke up bright and early at 7 AM today. Maybe It’s because I am so old. Old people don’t need as much rest you know.

It was a pretty good day again today. I think that it got into the 90s again. Summer is totally here kids!

I went and got a few more items that I need for my impending trip. I got a 250 MB Compact Flash Card for my camera which amazingly will hold 175 high rez photos compared to the 32 MB card that came with the camera that now holds 21 photos. Just a few more photos to help me capture my time over there.

Gosh being a rich person that didn’t worry about money would be cool just because you could go in and buy leg warmers that allowed you to ski better. Wow, This guy is sleepy. That didn’t make any sense. I was trying to type as fast as I could before my eyes fell shut.

Typing like this doesn’t work. I should go to sleep.

Too many spaces and returns.

K and her friend Beth, hosted a Bridal shower thing over here at the house. The bridal shower was for a lovely lady named Shelby. Good fun had by all. K’s school mates are good folk.