The journey winds down

So the last post was in Prague... quite the time has ellapsed since then, we can blame the time lapse on a city called Valtice, and its small population and therein lack of internet cafes. So where were we... ah yes pretty much the wedding. Well Pat and I successfully explored Prague, a solid city, went back to Vienna to meet up with the family, which we found eventually. A note to that is don't rely on text messages going through, especially internationally. So Pat flew out the next day, sad times we had to end our time here, but it was tons of fun. So yeah then spent the next while with the family... which was.... interesting? Personalities are an interesting thing to mix given enough unknowns + big wedding plans... nuff said there. Anyways onto the fun stuff.

The WEDDING. It was pretty amazing. We were staying in a city called Valtice in the Czech Republic, where my brother Brian stayed when he lived there teaching and coincidentally met Betka who lives in Lednice (a city about 7 km apart, which can in fact be walked at midnight, and yes we did test this). Thus the wedding was in the city of Lednice in a beautiful and quite touristy chataue. We arrived for the nooner wedding at about nooner on the dot, my brother was sorta frazzled as most grooms get day of when there has been no wedding rehersal. We arrived to find the entire church all packed and ready to go, with Betka arriving pretty much at the same time so I had to heard my brother through a swarm of tourists to a church whilest ensuring he did not catch a glimpse of his bride to be (and yes this stage might have consisted of telling him to turn around and stand still while I ran over and had Betka hide behind a door so we could walk Brian up to the church) but hey, it was eventful. Then my mom and the rest of my family was still coming (this was due to us having a huge 9 passenger van, which does not really fit in Czech streets and its a beast to park / drive around) so I had to leave Brian for abit and go run to get my mom so this could start (which was all done in a very very white tux I might add). We tried to hold the wedding until my whole family arrived (parents, g'parents, aunt) but they had to start so, the music started and off we went.

The service itself was beautiful, they read stuff in Czech and English, so for once I knew what was going on! I sort of stood up there awkwardly for abit, and sat down once I figured I should. (I was the best man / witness, don't think I just stood up there for no reason :-) ) But yeah, the church was quite beautiful, my brother was just all smiles, Betka looked beautiful, the flowers, the family, everything was quite perfect. One onlooker even claimed that it looked very well rehearsed so, go us! The reception after the wedding was fun too, lots of food (Betka's dad apparently owned a cow, and had it slaughtered for the wedding, so we got to eat some of Charlie...) and it was fun to get to talk to everyone, often in broken english. The Czech side did very very well though with the english overall, it was quite impressive. I talked a long time to Betka's younger brother Jan (said yahn), hes an incredibly smart and cool kid. His english was pretty amazing, he wants to go into Math and Biology so we had lots to talk about (aka hes a nerd much like myself). My little brother (Matthew) and I then stayed and hung out with some of the kids who were at the wedding, Jan, Marika, Yvetta, and wandered around the grounds of another Chataeu in the area until dark, and then after spending an hour or two leasurely walking, we decided to walk home (~8km or 1.25 hrs) arriving home around 1230, perhaps the most terrifying walk I have ever had, just so dark and creepy.... and creepy. We sang some rediculous songs though so it passed the time / kept us from getting creeped out.

So yeah we then decided to come to Budapest (me and Matthew) so here we are. This city is pretty awesome, the buildings across the Danube river are all built up on this large mountain ridge, predominately the Buda Castle which encompasses the Mattias Church, soooo many stairs! But so architecturally impressive! (Side note, I promise when I get back to the states I will make a huge photo album of everything with stories attached for all of you) This city feels much like Prague, since both are built with a larger river in the middle, but the buildings are more impressive here, and the hilly side of the river is much more hilly (getting all technical, I appoligize).

We return to Wein (Vienna) on wednesday, then fly back to the states early thursday morning (early = I wake up at 4 am). I am so pumped to get back home. Europe has been a great time but, I want to see my friends at home / start preparing for cali. All sorts of big things ahead, such fun :-) Well, that is all for now, people reading this, leave a comment! Do it now... íim curious who is reading this. Oh and please put your name in there too, otherwise I have nooo idea who you are :-)