Am sitting in Budapest now, will be here until early this afternoon, when I will be taking a train north through the Czech Republic.

My Eurail pass has expired, so I had to spend a bit of time yesterday finding the international train station office that sells them. I had hoped that being in Hungary would net me a cheaper ticket, but no; 100,000 Florint for a four country 10 day pass that starts today for my train through Czech lands.

I feel that funds are a little low, but I hope I can make it through Berlin at least for the five days that I am there until I come back east where its cheaper.

Well, this whole trip into Romania has been a huge disappointment.

I thought I might be able to find some nice atmosphere here, maybe meet some new and interesting people and even find a party on Halloween night.

This citadel is a mess, all the streets are under construction and the mud has frozen to my lower clothes. And after a couple of nights in bars and wandering the streets, I feel like a mess. I did think last night I would be going somewhere with a girl but she never showed up to our meeting spot. I feel like a fool.

My phone is broken, so I am without watch or calender for the next few days until I get a replacement.

I usually take out a good chunk of money whenever I come to a city or move to a new country. Sometimes its enough to get me by for a week, other times I have to keep getting money every few days.

Nearly two months, now.

The climate is definaetly changing. When I arrived in Europe, in Frankfurt, things stayed steadily sunny for a while; there were brief thundershowers in the montains around Innsbruck, but by and large things were generally pleasant.

Prague and other parts of the Czech Republic, though, started to bring slightly cloudier weather. I began taking my jacket with me whenever I went out, and abandoned my cap in exchange for my scarf. Things remained smply cloudly until my last days in Olomouc, when things began to get decidedly chilly. My brief stops in Hungary and Romania have convinced me to do some rearranging of my baggage.

For one, I have picked up some woolen undergarments for the nights that are starting to turn nasty, and a heavier, knee length coat for the icy wind and snow that I expect. When I was living in Saint Paul one of my biggest problems with trying to keep warm was the fact that my torso and arms were fairly snug but my extremities were not. I have made out a certain arrangement for the legs though, with the coat and multiple layers of pants. I exchange, however, I have sent some stuff back to my family, in particular my other, torso only coat and some books that were taking up space.

Decided to try and upload some more pics today after a night at bars and a concert here in Bucharest. Had some nice pictures of me and the people I was with, among other things like interesting architecture and funny moments.

So I plug in the camera to the computer here at the hostel and nothing happens for a second. Then everything goes aqua.

Im irritated for a few seconds here, nothing is working so I manually unplug it and then try again.

I access the files and what do I see?

about 15 piucs left.

Just a quick update, am posting from the hostel in Bucharest, called Unity hostel, and has private rooms for 14 euros, so its nice. Everythings worked out without a hitch.

Since the amount of pictures I am taking has swelled to larger proportions then I had planned for, I have introduced a new album solely for the shots of inspiring mountains and forbidding castles, that sort of thing.

Poland is out. As is Slovakia.

What I had hoped to do and thought I could do are being re-evaluated, and I think 'tis best to stick to my chosen path.

So my time in Olomouc is wrapping up. Havnt done much, relaxed, wrote some things, been to a few bars. Nothing special, really. Will be taking a few daytrips in the next few days, and by tuesday I hope to be on my way north, towards Poland.

Hmph.

Well, Austerlitz was kindof a waste of time. The so called battlefield is nothing but a mess of fields and dirt patches. Nothing to see, and I was walking in the rain and the mud too.

The hotel I stayed at was the cheapest that I could find, but it wasnt all that great, they did have breakfast but I think it wasnt worth it. I was sick for the past week as well, nothing much just a minor cold, but that plus everything else made sure that my trip down to Austerlitz was not much fun.

Ah well, you cant win em all, right .questionmark.