Friday came. I was determined to do the last of my homework during the day so I could just have fun the rest of the weekend, but did that happen? No. I slept until 1 pm, sat at my computer blankly, barely convinced myself to get out of my pajamas and into real people clothes, and then went back to blankly stare at my computer some more. Epic fail. So, tomorrow will be my official homework day.
Last night, we went to Ring Burger Bar and Cafe. I was really excited because it was really good the first time and I was basically out of groceries so I'd barely eaten all day. But then I got my Cheddar Burger and cut it open to find that the meat was basically still alive, despite my request for well done-ness, and I lost my appetite. That sucked but it did inspire some hilarity, I suppose, because I said I was glad I looked at it before eating it so I didn't get "Baby Bear disease" (a disease that turns you into a baby bear, I guess). Don't ask me why that came out of my mouth, but it did, and it resulted in plans to film a B-movie in Budapest with that plot line. Once we get enough teddy bears, maybe it'll happen. We have about 3 so far.
After that, we went to West End Mall for gelato before going to see Red Riding Hood, which was really bad but I loved it anyways. Once again, going into a movie with no knowledge other than the title and the cast proved wise, because I think I would've hated the movie if I'd known anything about it at all.
Dani and I watched Cry Baby when we got home after stopping at the non-stop ABC for food, since I was really hungry from not eating my bloody burger, and it was a lot of fun.
Today, we were supposed to go to Memento Park. It ended up being only me and Julie, and we got on the metro, and then a tram, and then arrived at the bus station to find that we would have to wait an hour for the bus to take us there. We backtracked and went to Arena Plaza instead to go to Tesco, since I desperately needed groceries, and ended up doing some shopping, which was a lot of fun. AND WE WENT TO PIZZA HUT!!!! It was awesome.
And tonight, we're gonna see Scream 4, and I'm so excited!!!
And tomorrow...maybe I'll actually get my homework done.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Vienna: A Whirlwind of Freud, Mozart, and the Habsburgs
Vienna was initially underwhelming. We used Gus as our measurement, which carried over from Venice, when he periodically updated us on his level of "whelm." We arrived there at like 3 AM, but I don't even remember for sure, because the last week was really a blur of travel by bus. The hotel was less confusing than the Venice one, and as Dani put it, she felt like she was staying in someone's house, which I guess is valid if you're only considering the actual room, which was full of wooden furniture and coziness. The hotel breakfast was less impressive here, in my opinion, but most everyone else thought it was better. I'm not the best judge since I'm such a picky eater, but Venice had better bread.
Anyways, our first morning was spent orienting ourselves within Vienna by visiting some famous churches. One of them was really cool, because we could take an elevator up to the dome to see the paintings up close, and the braves ones in our group took the stairs from there to go even higher to the top of the dome, but I was not one of them. That scaffolding was rickety. The second church was a gothic cathedal, which I always think are beautiful. The final one was really strange. It had some modern art exhibition in it that was of some gold table settings underwater, which allegedly had a lot of religious symbolism involved, but what I found more impressive was that this church had a fake dome that looked real if you stood in a particular spot on the floor and looked up. 
We had free time next, so a group of us when to the Freud museum, which was underwhelming. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it sure wasn't the rooms of his books and notes and other things like that, mostly written in German. The next thing we did, though, made Vienna suddenly four times more awesome, and that was seek out Prater Amusement Park to ride its famous Ferris wheel. However, we got there and were distracted by this thing that was like a significantly elevated chair swing, and rode that instead. The park was different from American in two main ways- 1) You paid per ride and 2) They had so many kinds of rides I've never even seen before in American parks. It was awesome, and we wanted to go back later that night but it didn't end up happening.
Everyone gathered at our meeting place at 3 to head over to the Habsburg's summer palace together. Schloss Schoenbrunn was completely awesome, and I learned the value of an audioguide. I think I would've enjoyed Versailles a lot more if I'd had an audioguide, actually. The best part of Schoenbrunn, though, were the grounds, which were vast and green. We spent a lot of time exploring them and climbed a massive hill to get a great view of Vienna.When it came time to leave, though, we thought incorrectly that we knew how to get back to the hotel. We either followed incorrect directions or incorrectly followed directions, which resulted in us getting off two metro stops before the one we should have gotten of at, which resulted in about 35 minutes of walking rather than 5, which disoriented us and ultimately made us really late for dinner. It was really stressful, actually, because while most everyone else had also been late, nobody had been as late as us. It was silly, really, because we'd left with 40 minutes to get back and we should have been early, if it weren't for that metro mistake. Plus, I was developing some more blisters, which seems to be a recurring problem in my travels.
Anyways, then it was dinnertime, and we all went to a restaurant and it was awful, in my opinion, but nearly everyone else liked it. I don't like crepes much in general, but I especially don't like dinner crepes. Crepes are more dessert or breakfast. You can't eat dessert or breakfast for dinner when you're super hungry after a really long day. I can't even eat breakfast for dinner under normal circumstances, actually.
After dinner, a group of us went to go see Mozart's house, which would of course be closed since it was nighttime, but we still thought it'd be cool to see it. After following the strangest directions on a sign I've ever seen, we found it, gazed upon it, witnessed a nearby dogfight, and left in search of something to do. Attempts were made at souvenir shopping, but Viennese souvenirs were more expensive than Venetian ones! I couldn't really buy anything except an overpriced keychain. We all hung out at an Australian pub until some of us got tired and others wanted to go find a club, and we went our separate ways and I went to bed. 
The next morning, after packing up our stuff, loading it onto the bus, and eating breakfast, we all went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, which was overwhelmingly full of art, and we had a packet to do that went with it. I really hate those packets. They take away from the experience of enjoying an art museum. I was kind of miserable, actually, because I was so focused on answering the questions and not running out of time (we only had a few hours before the bus left, you see, and we still had to eat lunch, too). Anyways, we got it done, and Laura and I went off in search of food and bus snacks. We got some really good pizza and gelato before entering a grocery store to get water, because we knew at this point that a bus ride without water is the worst experience ever. I also bought carrots, which I forgot to eat and later got all slimy in my backpack when I found them in Berlin, which was gross. The bus ride home wasn't too long, luckily, and we got back early, which was awesome because we had to leave that night for Berlin and therefore had more time to get ready.
I think I would like Vienna if I had more time there to experience it, and I would love to go back there one day with my sister.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Gondolas, cobblestone streets, and excessive amounts of gelato
Venice is a place I've always wanted to go but never thought I'd actually get to. Even as we were on the bus on the way to Italy, I was in disbelief, because it just felt impossible.
The morning before we left, I'd discovered free Kindle books and had a downloading frenzy, so I was ready for the long journey. I decided to read my the one I paid for, though, which was Stephen King's Under the Dome, for which I'd seen posters in Paris. I couldn't stop. I read that 1000-page novel in about 5 days, which is impressive considering that I was also traveling Europe at the time. It was amazing. I recommend it. We drove through Slovenia, which was absolutely beautiful. If I had the time, I'd go there just to spend a day or two in one of the small towns nestled in the mountains.
We arrived in Maestre at 2 AM and immediately collapsed into our beds. The hotel rooms were really nice, but the hotel layout was really confusing, and different elevators/stairwells took you different places. but it was nice nonetheless. The breakfast was good, too, and I had the most delicious lemon tea.
We left for Venice by public bus, which was about a 20 minute ride, if I remember correctly, which I probably don't. We crossed a really long bridge to get there, and the lagoon it spanned was absolutely beautiful. I've never seen water that color in real life before, even when I lived in Hawaii. We arrived at the bus station that was located at one of Venice's larger bridges. Only 3 or 4 bridges actually cross the Grand Canal, we learned. This one we called the "slippery bridge," because that was how our art professor guide described it to us in a warning of how it could get when it rained. The first part of the trip was a journey across the city to San Marco, which would be our meeting spot for later in the day.
Dani, Laura, Julie, and I went off with Gus, Kasey, Matt, Z, and Casey to go get lunch. I was so excited for real Italian food, but the places we were passing were expensive. Venice is one of the most expensive cities in Europe, but we are college students, so we finally stopped somewhere that looked like a cheap American Chinese restaurant but with Italian food. The photos on the menu were like that of turn of the century digital cameras, with distorted colors and grainy quality, but hey, it was affordable. I rather enjoyed my margherita pizza, but Julie wasn't so lucky with her Spaghetti aglio olio e peperocino. The peppers were so hot that Casey teared up when he ate more than three slices of pepper at once. We spent our free time just exploring without any real agenda, stopping for gelato when the mood struck, because there were gelato stands everywhere!!! We got kind of lost and reached some outer edge of Venice just as Julie's gelato started melting all over her, and in her frenzied hopping around to get it off, I feared she'd fall in the water, which luckily, she did not. She did wash her feet in it, though, which was hilarious and led to a brief photo shoot session.
We met up with everyone back at San Marco in order to walk over to a gorgeous church, after which everyone who was interested went questing for a gondola ride. I was so excited, because I've always wanted to ride a gondola. We finally found a place and divided into three groups. I was afraid it wouldn't happen because it cost 80 euro per gondola, but since up to 6 people could fit into one gondola, it became more affordable once we split the cost. Our gondolier gave us a bit of a tour while on the ride, and we learned a lot about Venice that we otherwise wouldn't have, so it was nice. Afterwards, we took a vaporetto (water bus) to a more central/familiar location so we could find a place to eat dinner, and that was nice. We ate outside, and the waitress kind of hit on Nick, but we were not sure. After the lovely Italian food, we kind of explored for a while at night, which was a lot of fun until we lost Kasey and had to go find him. The group split up around that point, because people were getting tired. We waited for a while at a vaporetto stop before we found that night vaporettos didn't service that one, so we walked down to a different one and eventually made our way back the the hotel.
The next day, our first destination was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which was really interesting, but also weird, because it was modern art. A lot of the stuff looked like a whole lot of nothing to me, but then I'd read the description and it would say stuff like, The three floating bells are a representation of lost childhood... I don't even know. There was a nice garden, though, and it has a wish tree established by Yoko Ono on which one person had asked for a French sugar daddy, which made me think of Rhaelynn and her Parisians. After this, we were free again, but Laura, Julie, Dani, and I got hopelessly lost and it was Palm Sunday so we kept running into parades of people with palm fronds, and I felt guilty that our touristy-ness was kind of interrupting that. Anyways, we ended up taking a vaporetto COMPLETELY around Venice to get somewhere familiar, when we later found out that we could have walked about 10 minutes and done the same thing. Maps are so much harder to read when you're lost. Anyways, we made it to our meeting point on time, and from there, went to a palace that was rather awesome, even though we weren't allowed to take photos. It had a lot of really creepy religious art, though.
In our final span of free time, I ventured alone into a Da Vinci exhibit because the others weren't so interested, but they should have gone with me because it was so cool! I got to play with replications of his inventions. Totally worth it. We also ate our last gelato and last Italian pizza. Our last moments in Venice was spent under the slippery bridge, waiting for everyone to show up so we could go back to the hotel and get on the bus. I'm really glad I got to go to Venice, especially as part of a group trip because I would've been so lost otherwise.
Next stop, Vienna!
The morning before we left, I'd discovered free Kindle books and had a downloading frenzy, so I was ready for the long journey. I decided to read my the one I paid for, though, which was Stephen King's Under the Dome, for which I'd seen posters in Paris. I couldn't stop. I read that 1000-page novel in about 5 days, which is impressive considering that I was also traveling Europe at the time. It was amazing. I recommend it. We drove through Slovenia, which was absolutely beautiful. If I had the time, I'd go there just to spend a day or two in one of the small towns nestled in the mountains.We arrived in Maestre at 2 AM and immediately collapsed into our beds. The hotel rooms were really nice, but the hotel layout was really confusing, and different elevators/stairwells took you different places. but it was nice nonetheless. The breakfast was good, too, and I had the most delicious lemon tea.
We left for Venice by public bus, which was about a 20 minute ride, if I remember correctly, which I probably don't. We crossed a really long bridge to get there, and the lagoon it spanned was absolutely beautiful. I've never seen water that color in real life before, even when I lived in Hawaii. We arrived at the bus station that was located at one of Venice's larger bridges. Only 3 or 4 bridges actually cross the Grand Canal, we learned. This one we called the "slippery bridge," because that was how our art professor guide described it to us in a warning of how it could get when it rained. The first part of the trip was a journey across the city to San Marco, which would be our meeting spot for later in the day.
Dani, Laura, Julie, and I went off with Gus, Kasey, Matt, Z, and Casey to go get lunch. I was so excited for real Italian food, but the places we were passing were expensive. Venice is one of the most expensive cities in Europe, but we are college students, so we finally stopped somewhere that looked like a cheap American Chinese restaurant but with Italian food. The photos on the menu were like that of turn of the century digital cameras, with distorted colors and grainy quality, but hey, it was affordable. I rather enjoyed my margherita pizza, but Julie wasn't so lucky with her Spaghetti aglio olio e peperocino. The peppers were so hot that Casey teared up when he ate more than three slices of pepper at once. We spent our free time just exploring without any real agenda, stopping for gelato when the mood struck, because there were gelato stands everywhere!!! We got kind of lost and reached some outer edge of Venice just as Julie's gelato started melting all over her, and in her frenzied hopping around to get it off, I feared she'd fall in the water, which luckily, she did not. She did wash her feet in it, though, which was hilarious and led to a brief photo shoot session.
We met up with everyone back at San Marco in order to walk over to a gorgeous church, after which everyone who was interested went questing for a gondola ride. I was so excited, because I've always wanted to ride a gondola. We finally found a place and divided into three groups. I was afraid it wouldn't happen because it cost 80 euro per gondola, but since up to 6 people could fit into one gondola, it became more affordable once we split the cost. Our gondolier gave us a bit of a tour while on the ride, and we learned a lot about Venice that we otherwise wouldn't have, so it was nice. Afterwards, we took a vaporetto (water bus) to a more central/familiar location so we could find a place to eat dinner, and that was nice. We ate outside, and the waitress kind of hit on Nick, but we were not sure. After the lovely Italian food, we kind of explored for a while at night, which was a lot of fun until we lost Kasey and had to go find him. The group split up around that point, because people were getting tired. We waited for a while at a vaporetto stop before we found that night vaporettos didn't service that one, so we walked down to a different one and eventually made our way back the the hotel.
The next day, our first destination was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which was really interesting, but also weird, because it was modern art. A lot of the stuff looked like a whole lot of nothing to me, but then I'd read the description and it would say stuff like, The three floating bells are a representation of lost childhood... I don't even know. There was a nice garden, though, and it has a wish tree established by Yoko Ono on which one person had asked for a French sugar daddy, which made me think of Rhaelynn and her Parisians. After this, we were free again, but Laura, Julie, Dani, and I got hopelessly lost and it was Palm Sunday so we kept running into parades of people with palm fronds, and I felt guilty that our touristy-ness was kind of interrupting that. Anyways, we ended up taking a vaporetto COMPLETELY around Venice to get somewhere familiar, when we later found out that we could have walked about 10 minutes and done the same thing. Maps are so much harder to read when you're lost. Anyways, we made it to our meeting point on time, and from there, went to a palace that was rather awesome, even though we weren't allowed to take photos. It had a lot of really creepy religious art, though.
In our final span of free time, I ventured alone into a Da Vinci exhibit because the others weren't so interested, but they should have gone with me because it was so cool! I got to play with replications of his inventions. Totally worth it. We also ate our last gelato and last Italian pizza. Our last moments in Venice was spent under the slippery bridge, waiting for everyone to show up so we could go back to the hotel and get on the bus. I'm really glad I got to go to Venice, especially as part of a group trip because I would've been so lost otherwise.
Next stop, Vienna!
Spring Break: The Aftermath
I fell asleep as soon as I got home yesterday, and slept through both my alarm going off and Dani knocking on the door to tell me that it was going off. When I woke up, I felt really sick from not eating in over 12 hours, and managed to pull together a pasta dinner with the limited food supplies I had. I did not accomplish much at all, unfortunately.
Today, though, I made up for it. I still felt sick so I slept through my Lit class and then got up and started tackling my to do list. The heating guy came to fix our water heater as I was mid-newspaper article, in my pajamas at the table, surrounded by papers and gummy bears, and it was awfully embarrassing how messy the apartment was in the aftermath of our return from Spring Break.
I made a schedule for myself that will help me get my work done these next two days so I can have fun this weekend, which is possibly the last one before finals but I'm not sure at this moment.
Today, though, I made up for it. I still felt sick so I slept through my Lit class and then got up and started tackling my to do list. The heating guy came to fix our water heater as I was mid-newspaper article, in my pajamas at the table, surrounded by papers and gummy bears, and it was awfully embarrassing how messy the apartment was in the aftermath of our return from Spring Break.
I made a schedule for myself that will help me get my work done these next two days so I can have fun this weekend, which is possibly the last one before finals but I'm not sure at this moment.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Last hour in Berlin...
I'm in the hostel lobby, killing time until we head for the bus station for a 14 hour ride back to Budapest. I can tell you right now that I'm gonna be miserable, just because I can't sleep on buses. Meh.
Laura has been reenacting movies super fast and we've been recording her with the remaining space on our collective memory cards, and it's so funny. My laptop started dying, though, so I relocated to a table near an outlet and am therefore away from them, but it's fine because I'm skyping my boyfriend and attempting to get some work done.
Speaking of work, I have so much to do tomorrow, which is unfortunate because I know I'm gonna wanna just sleep when I get back tomorrow. I don't understand why teachers decide Spring Break is an excuse to give out more work. It's not like I have extra time, especially considering that I'm studying abroad and this is the best opportunity for travel.
After dinner at an Italian restaurant tonight (it'd been 5 days since I had pasta and needed it), we went on a Spezi quest, but since it's Easter, most places were closed and the best I could do was a liter of Mezzo Mix from a shop in the train station, which isn't as good but it's similar. I'm gonna miss Spezi.
I'm also gonna miss all the sausage stands. In Budapest, 80% of convenient food is Turkish. They have that here in Berlin, but it's not so disproportionate. I'm probably never gonna be able to eat a bratwurst again without comparing it to the ones here, and it's possible I won't even eat one again unless I come across a sausage stand someday because I'm incapable of cooking meat.
There are only about 3 weeks left abroad, which is awful, because there's so much I have left to do!!! Ugh. I'm gonna leave it at that for now and try to upload some photos to older posts while I have a decent internet connection, starting with Prague, so check it out!! Also, some of the Venice pics are on my photobucket now, but more will be up tomorrow.
Laura has been reenacting movies super fast and we've been recording her with the remaining space on our collective memory cards, and it's so funny. My laptop started dying, though, so I relocated to a table near an outlet and am therefore away from them, but it's fine because I'm skyping my boyfriend and attempting to get some work done.
Speaking of work, I have so much to do tomorrow, which is unfortunate because I know I'm gonna wanna just sleep when I get back tomorrow. I don't understand why teachers decide Spring Break is an excuse to give out more work. It's not like I have extra time, especially considering that I'm studying abroad and this is the best opportunity for travel.
After dinner at an Italian restaurant tonight (it'd been 5 days since I had pasta and needed it), we went on a Spezi quest, but since it's Easter, most places were closed and the best I could do was a liter of Mezzo Mix from a shop in the train station, which isn't as good but it's similar. I'm gonna miss Spezi.
I'm also gonna miss all the sausage stands. In Budapest, 80% of convenient food is Turkish. They have that here in Berlin, but it's not so disproportionate. I'm probably never gonna be able to eat a bratwurst again without comparing it to the ones here, and it's possible I won't even eat one again unless I come across a sausage stand someday because I'm incapable of cooking meat.
There are only about 3 weeks left abroad, which is awful, because there's so much I have left to do!!! Ugh. I'm gonna leave it at that for now and try to upload some photos to older posts while I have a decent internet connection, starting with Prague, so check it out!! Also, some of the Venice pics are on my photobucket now, but more will be up tomorrow.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Ich liebe Deutschland
I'd hoped to get some work done while here in Berlin, since the hostel has wifi, but I can't focus at all. There's some awfully loud and piercing swing music playing in the loud lobby, which is the only place that has wifi, so...no work for me, which means no Venice and Vienna blog post for you, for now.
I love Berlin so far, though. The sausage stands are awesome! We're going to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp tomorrow, which will be emotionally intense, undoubtedly, but a girl we met at the hostel said it was an eye opening experience, which I'm sure it will be.
I can't handle much more of this music down here, so I will have to leave you only with that.
More later!
I love Berlin so far, though. The sausage stands are awesome! We're going to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp tomorrow, which will be emotionally intense, undoubtedly, but a girl we met at the hostel said it was an eye opening experience, which I'm sure it will be.
I can't handle much more of this music down here, so I will have to leave you only with that.
More later!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Four countries in four days
Tonight, in a few hours actually, I will be taking a bus to Berlin with Dani, Laura, and Caitlin. This morning, I got back to Budapest from Vienna, and before that was in Venice. I just finished packing for Berlin after a hurried load of laundry, and had to pack some wet clothes, because we only had about 6 hours between trips, which is more than the 4 hours we were anticipating. Spring break has been exhausting, and while I'm sure it will continue to be, I also think that it will be one of the best experiences of my life.
I can't wait to blog about all of this, but I don't have enough time right now to do it justice. The hostel in Berlin, Heart of Gold, has free wifi so perhaps I'll get caught up there, but if not, expect new posts next Monday!
I can't wait to blog about all of this, but I don't have enough time right now to do it justice. The hostel in Berlin, Heart of Gold, has free wifi so perhaps I'll get caught up there, but if not, expect new posts next Monday!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
tea and langos
I just got back from Tesco, where I bought a bunch of food for our 11-hour bus ride to Venice tomorrow. Not too excited about that, but the actual Venice part should be awesome. My goal is to ride a gondola!
Yesterday, Luke, Rhaelynn, Caitlin, and I went to go get fish pedicures, which I was so excited about, but they didn't have room for us so we had to make alternate plans. We went to a nearby park, which was beautiful, but then started raining. The weather in Budapest has been so weird this week. One minute it's 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the next it's pouring rain, and today I needed to get out my winter jacket because it's windy and cold.
We decided to go to Szentendre for langos. Our pilgrimage was highly successful, as it was the best langos I have ever had (although to be fair, it was only my second time). We sat on the river for a while but it started raining so we went into a gelato shop for cover. It's strange to think that we took a 40 minute train to Szentendre just to eat, but it was a lot of fun. We stopped into a wood shop and I bought my sister the best souvenir ever, and I want to go back after Spring Break if I have money left to get some beautiful wooden Christmas ornaments. They also had some really cool toys and Luke bought a woodpecker one. Anyways, we got back to Pest and hung out in our local cakery (that's what I'm calling it because I can't spell the Hungarian word, and it's not really a bakery because it's all desserts) until 7:40, when we left to see a movie at the same place we went last week to see Womb. Casey, Z, and Dylan met us there. The movie started and didn't have subtitles, though, so we didn't know what was going on, and the people in charge realized that they wouldn't be getting the subtitled version until next week so they refunded our tickets. Not a big deal, but we had to change plans. The horrid weather at the moment prompted us to go to a teahouse, which was Native American themed and had over 100 kinds of tea. It was awesome!! I want to go back tonight, after dying easter eggs with Julie later. My parents sent me an egg-dying kit, and I don't eat eggs, so it was kind of perfect timing that Julie wanted to bring hard-boiled eggs for the trip tomorrow.
We have to be at school at 1 tomorrow, which is nice, because I don't have to get up early and I can postpone packing (like I would have done anyways). It also relieved a bunch of stress I was having over not getting my work done, because now I have time and it doesn't matter if I go to bed early!
About 6 hours after we get back from Vienna next Tuesday, we board the bus to Berlin, which is a 12-hour ride. It'll be an exhausting Spring Break, but I'm really looking forward to it.
Yesterday, Luke, Rhaelynn, Caitlin, and I went to go get fish pedicures, which I was so excited about, but they didn't have room for us so we had to make alternate plans. We went to a nearby park, which was beautiful, but then started raining. The weather in Budapest has been so weird this week. One minute it's 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the next it's pouring rain, and today I needed to get out my winter jacket because it's windy and cold.
We have to be at school at 1 tomorrow, which is nice, because I don't have to get up early and I can postpone packing (like I would have done anyways). It also relieved a bunch of stress I was having over not getting my work done, because now I have time and it doesn't matter if I go to bed early!
About 6 hours after we get back from Vienna next Tuesday, we board the bus to Berlin, which is a 12-hour ride. It'll be an exhausting Spring Break, but I'm really looking forward to it.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
VIDEO: Paris
Monday, April 11, 2011
Less than 2 months left
The time is wasting away!!! And I have so much to do- papers, articles, reading, etc.
More importantly, though, I have so much left to experience in Budapest/Hungary/Europe, and I only have 42 days until I fly back home.
I tentatively scheduled out the remainder of my trip, therefore, and here's what you can expect to be reading about in the future:
Castle District (It's sad but I still haven't explored it.)
Fish Pedicure (Yep, I said fish.)
Venice
Vienna
Berlin
Szentendre, part 2
Medve Otthon (Rehabilitated bears!)
Memento Park
Eztergom
Assorted Museums
The amusement park in City Park (with a really old carousel!)
Aquincum (Roman Ruins)
Botanical Garden
Visegrad
Vac
Forgive me for inaccurate spelling of words; I learned today that Hungarian has 14 vowels, and I don't know how to type them on my computer.
More importantly, though, I have so much left to experience in Budapest/Hungary/Europe, and I only have 42 days until I fly back home.
I tentatively scheduled out the remainder of my trip, therefore, and here's what you can expect to be reading about in the future:
Castle District (It's sad but I still haven't explored it.)
Fish Pedicure (Yep, I said fish.)
Venice
Vienna
Berlin
Szentendre, part 2
Medve Otthon (Rehabilitated bears!)
Memento Park
Eztergom
Assorted Museums
The amusement park in City Park (with a really old carousel!)
Aquincum (Roman Ruins)
Botanical Garden
Visegrad
Vac
Forgive me for inaccurate spelling of words; I learned today that Hungarian has 14 vowels, and I don't know how to type them on my computer.
Szentendre
After about half an hour of unnecessary exploration, we found the HEV, which was conveniently located right where we initially arrived in Buda. The HEV, which reminded me of the RER train in Paris, took Dani and I to Szentendre, a town north of Budapest.
I read my guidebook on the way and learned that the town is too small to get lost in, so upon our arrival, we did not follow the pedestrians and went our own way, which was as rewarding as Frommer's promised. The side streets and alleys were beautifully cobblestoned, but the thing with cobblestones is that they are quite inconvenient to walk on. They do, however, make a nice sound when horses walk on them, and yes, there were a few horses in the streets of this fine town (actually, I think they were ponies, and I'm pretty sure it was just a tourist gimmick, but still).
Our meandering eventually did lead us to the main tourist street, which was riddled with little shops selling Hungarian wares, which were fun to look at, but too overwhelming to actually purchase from because there was just so much stuff to choose from. Dani was rather tempted by a Hungarian military hat from a shop that also randomly had some gas masks. The thing with little shops, though, is that you can't just browse without the well-intentioned shopkeepers approaching you, which makes me (and Dani) feel pressured and therefore unable to form any logical thought process that could lead to a purchase.
We walked along the river for a while after buying drinks from a random little soda bar, and thoroughly enjoyed the river banks of the Danube, which was amazingly beautiful in the first vestiges of Spring that are currently upon us. Dani climbed a tree, which was brave of her considering the masses of ants that existed and kept me away.
Finding someplace to eat was stupidly difficult, as there were restaurants everywhere, but I wasn't in a mood to brave Hungarian cuisine and the other options exceeded my budget, but we finally found a place with Italian food, which is basically all we eat (good thing we're finally going to Italy next weekend, so we can have the real thing). It was really really good, too. It's on the river and the second word of the two-word name was "Trattoria," but unfortunately that is all I remember of its identifying features. We ate outside and it was lovely. The service was also great, which is a change from what we've normally experienced. I recommend it.
Anyway, Dani and I plan to go back the week after Spring Break to eat what my guidebook calls the "best langos in Hungary," because the place was closed today. We also ran out of time to go to a museum she was interested in, and we also wanted to go to an open-air ethnographical museum, so hopefully those things will happen next time.
I read my guidebook on the way and learned that the town is too small to get lost in, so upon our arrival, we did not follow the pedestrians and went our own way, which was as rewarding as Frommer's promised. The side streets and alleys were beautifully cobblestoned, but the thing with cobblestones is that they are quite inconvenient to walk on. They do, however, make a nice sound when horses walk on them, and yes, there were a few horses in the streets of this fine town (actually, I think they were ponies, and I'm pretty sure it was just a tourist gimmick, but still). 
We walked along the river for a while after buying drinks from a random little soda bar, and thoroughly enjoyed the river banks of the Danube, which was amazingly beautiful in the first vestiges of Spring that are currently upon us. Dani climbed a tree, which was brave of her considering the masses of ants that existed and kept me away. Finding someplace to eat was stupidly difficult, as there were restaurants everywhere, but I wasn't in a mood to brave Hungarian cuisine and the other options exceeded my budget, but we finally found a place with Italian food, which is basically all we eat (good thing we're finally going to Italy next weekend, so we can have the real thing). It was really really good, too. It's on the river and the second word of the two-word name was "Trattoria," but unfortunately that is all I remember of its identifying features. We ate outside and it was lovely. The service was also great, which is a change from what we've normally experienced. I recommend it.
Anyway, Dani and I plan to go back the week after Spring Break to eat what my guidebook calls the "best langos in Hungary," because the place was closed today. We also ran out of time to go to a museum she was interested in, and we also wanted to go to an open-air ethnographical museum, so hopefully those things will happen next time.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Prague
(I have no idea why the formatting is so weird on this post and no matter what I try, I can't fix it. I apologize.)
We took Orangeways to Prague. The bus was nice enough, as comfortable as a bus can be, I guess. The ride was long, though, and I didn't bring enough food with me so I was extremely hungry by the time the trip was over. During the ride, mediocre movies I've already seen played, like Date Night, Bounty Hunter, and Prince of Persia. I did enjoy the scenery, though, because there were so many country hamlets all centered around a church with a single steeple, and they were all so beautiful. And I noticed that cities are more visually appealing usually because the buildings are so many colors! I was mentally comparing it to driving through Baltimore and other places, and realized that that was the major difference, plus less pollution. I couldn't sleep at all, however, even though I was exhausted from the late night before, followed by an early morning. I had to get up at 4:30 to pack and shower and get to the bus station early.
We took Orangeways to Prague. The bus was nice enough, as comfortable as a bus can be, I guess. The ride was long, though, and I didn't bring enough food with me so I was extremely hungry by the time the trip was over. During the ride, mediocre movies I've already seen played, like Date Night, Bounty Hunter, and Prince of Persia. I did enjoy the scenery, though, because there were so many country hamlets all centered around a church with a single steeple, and they were all so beautiful. And I noticed that cities are more visually appealing usually because the buildings are so many colors! I was mentally comparing it to driving through Baltimore and other places, and realized that that was the major difference, plus less pollution. I couldn't sleep at all, however, even though I was exhausted from the late night before, followed by an early morning. I had to get up at 4:30 to pack and shower and get to the bus station early.
When Caitlin, Dani, Julie, and I arrived in Prague, we immediately found an ATM to acquire some crowns and then chowed down at the conveniently located Burger King before heading off to find the hostel. The metro wasn’t too hard to figure out, and the hostel had pretty good directions printed on the booking receipt, so we found it with little trouble. The public transportation in Prague is actually pretty good. It has the same number of metro lines as Budapest, but the metro system seemed more up-to-date and efficient, as if the lines were placed better or something, I don’t know.
The hostel we stayed at was called the Clown and Bard. The bottom floor of it was a pub with the reception desk located at the bar, and it was dark but cozy and there were computers we could use for free to get on the Internet, which I didn’t realize until the last day, so I didn’t really take advantage of it. Our room was on the top floor of the hostel, so there were a lot of stairs. We were in a room with 32 beds but only about 10 people, so it could’ve been much worse. The beds weren’t that comfortable, but they were cheap and clean, and we got lockers with interesting graffiti on them. 
The first day was spent in spontaneity. We walked to the old town area after a woman from the hostel wrote some directions and marked important things on our map. It was beautiful. I felt like I wasn’t even in a real place, and while it was overwhelmingly touristy, it was still amazing. I can’t even imagine people actually living there, but there were apartments in the area.
We wandered around, just taking everything in, and saw a Museum of Torture. Of course, Dani and I needed to go there, so the four of us paid the entry fee and descended down the spiral stairs. It was so cool! It reminded me of the project of torture devices I did in 6th grade with two of my friends, and it was cool to actually see the things I read about. It was creepy, I’ll admit, because there were many wax figured demonstrating the use of these things, but still really interesting. Julie and Caitlin couldn’t handle it and rushed through, so we went to a nearby chocolate museum afterwards to be fair. That was fun, because we got to see a guy demonstrate the art of making chocolates, which came with a free sample, but then the experience ended in the chocolate store, where I spent too much money. But they had chocolate covered Belgian waffles…so delicious.
We went up the tower where the astronomical clock was without even noticing that the astronomical clock was there, which was actually kind of dumb of us, but we were excited about going up the tower to see the city. It was about dusk then, and so the city was illuminated beautifully and we could see everything!!
When we got back down, we admired the astronomical clock before eating dinner at an Italian place located out of the hustle and bustle of the main tourist zone, so it wasn’t ridiculously expensive. We did a ghost tour that night, which was so much fun because our guide was inexperienced and therefore kind of hilarious, albeit unintentionally. I took photos of what he said were orbs, but I think that’s bogus. We also did an underground ghost tour with him after, and that was more creepy because it was dark and we had lanterns and people used to be tortured there. We planned the next day before going to bed.
We got up the next morning and ate the hostel breakfast at 9, which was basically stale bread and cereal and boiled eggs (ew). We first went to the Mucha museum because he’s one of Caitlin’s favorite artists, and that was nice. I didn’t have a whole lot of fun there but I could appreciate it. We then went to the Jewish district to see the cemetery, but it was the Sabbath so everything was closed. Bad planning on our part. We set off to the castle, planning to walk across a bridge and through a park to get there scenically, but our plans were kind of thwarted by a half marathon that was occurring that day. We ended up getting stuck in the marathon’s loop for over an hour before finding a metro station to get to the other side of the river that way. We ran into Laura, who was there with her parents, and they ripped out a page of their guidebook with a dinner recommendation on it, which was very nice of them.
The royal gardens were beautiful, but we were running out of time at that point so we hurried over to the ticket office and bought the smaller version of the castle tickets that would get us into three places rather than all of them. The gothic cathedral was magnificent, as gothic cathedrals usually are. The castle part itself, though, didn’t look like a castle at all. I guess it was more of a palace but not very gaudy at all. The inside looked like a castle, though, and there were balconies with gorgeous views of the city. We also got to go to a medieval Catholic church. We were so exhausted after, though, so we sat on a cool looking bench and ate some food from a stand nearby. I hadn’t liked my lunch (obtained in the Jewish district after much exploring to find something that wouldn’t eat my wallet), and so I got something that claimed to be a hot dog but was actually kind of gross. We walked across the Charles Bridge, which was gorgeous but had way too many tourists on it, and made our way to a Czech pub for dinner. I tried garlic soup, which was surprisingly good. We went souveneir shopping after, and some shopkeeper kept trying to get me to buy vodka with a worm in it, which is apparently a thing people drink. It grossed me out and we instead went to a different store, where I bought a Slavic nesting doll for my parents as well as one for me.
The royal gardens were beautiful, but we were running out of time at that point so we hurried over to the ticket office and bought the smaller version of the castle tickets that would get us into three places rather than all of them. The gothic cathedral was magnificent, as gothic cathedrals usually are. The castle part itself, though, didn’t look like a castle at all. I guess it was more of a palace but not very gaudy at all. The inside looked like a castle, though, and there were balconies with gorgeous views of the city. We also got to go to a medieval Catholic church. We were so exhausted after, though, so we sat on a cool looking bench and ate some food from a stand nearby. I hadn’t liked my lunch (obtained in the Jewish district after much exploring to find something that wouldn’t eat my wallet), and so I got something that claimed to be a hot dog but was actually kind of gross. We walked across the Charles Bridge, which was gorgeous but had way too many tourists on it, and made our way to a Czech pub for dinner. I tried garlic soup, which was surprisingly good. We went souveneir shopping after, and some shopkeeper kept trying to get me to buy vodka with a worm in it, which is apparently a thing people drink. It grossed me out and we instead went to a different store, where I bought a Slavic nesting doll for my parents as well as one for me.
We didn’t have much time the next day because we had to be at the bus station by 3. We went to a fortress, and it was amazing. It was located on the river and it was gorgeous and I was so disappointed that my camera was near death and I had brought the wrong power adapter with me. We tried to go back to the Jewish district, but found that you couldn’t get into the cemetery without buying a ticket for a bunch of other places, which we had not budgeted for or left time for, so we gave up on that idea and ate lunch instead before heading back. Prague was beautiful, and it would have been nice to have more time there to do things more slowly and leave time to just wander around the streets without an agenda.
A Zoo, A Wine Cellar, and a Labyrinth
I realize I've kind of dropped off the face of the Earth with this blogging thing, but I have good excuses.
This week was mostly awesome. I didn't accomplish much work, unfortunately, because I'm actually starting to have things I need to do, but I had so much fun.
On Wednesday, I went to the zoo with Luke, Rebekah, Catherine, Caitlin R, and Dylan. It was awesome. The Budapest Zoo is better than American zoos because you can actually feed and sometimes even touch the animals!! This is how I was licked by a giraffe. I also pet a zebra and some camels. Actually, though, we weren't supposed to touch or feed the giraffes, we later found out, because Luke got rebuked by a zoo worker. Oops. There was also a playground shaped like a pirate ship, with an awesome zip line and a whale thing you could climb on. There were lots of things there that could be climbed on or into, actually, like a pole and a cage and some tunnels and stuff. We also saw a seal show, which was fun. Best zoo ever!
After that, I went back with Luke and Dylan to their apartment to figure out where to go to see Womb that night, which is a movie that was advertised in the Funzine. We ended up eating out at Tacos Locos first with Nick and Matt also. It was a sad excuse for Mexican food, but I guess Budapest is far enough from Mexico that I can't have very high expectations. It was still fun, though. Then, all of us except for Matt went to a theater located surprisingly close to my apartment to see Womb. We had no idea what it was going to be about. That was the best way to go into it, honestly, because if you know anything about the plot, it ruins the shock factor. It was one of the strangest movies I've ever seen but I really liked it for that reason.
On Thursday, we had a pre-departure meeting for the Venice/Vienna trip, which will be happening next Friday by bus. I think it actually might be miserable. So much bus time. So much museum time. It's not even like I don't like museums, but I like choosing the ones I go to, and I definitely don't like filling out a questionnaire as I go through them. But hey, it might actually be fun. We also get a decent amount of free time, so I need a moment to consult my Lonely Planet guidebook to figure out what I wanna do besides a gondola ride. I also need to meet up with Laura, Dani, and Caitlin B to make at least a list of what we wanna do in Berlin, since we leave for Berlin about 5 hours after we get back from Venice/Vienna.
I went to Morrison's with Julie on Thursday night, which is really close to where I live, which was really fun. We got there while there was no cover charge and stayed until a bit before 11, just dancing and having lots of fun. We're gonna go back next Tuesday.
On Friday, I went to a wine tasting at Faust Wine Cellar with 9 other study abroad students. We arrived in the Castle District early so we killed time at Fisherman's Bastion, which was gorgeous. The Cellar was located in the Hilton, so we had to walk through the lobby to get there. Then we went down lots of stairs into the wine cellar and I felt like I was in Poe's "The Cask of Amantillado," which was fun. The wine guy, Gabor, welcomed us in and it began. He was really nice and gave great descriptions of the wines, and I learned wine adjectives! I actually really liked most of the 8 wines we tasted. Most of us went to the labyrinths under the hills after, and it was so much fun because it was almost completely dark and we got to use lanterns!
I was supposed to go to Szentendre with Dani today and a hike tomorrow, but I have so much to do still that I'm skipping the hike and going to Szentendre tomorrow instead. There are only 44 days left here, which is weird.
I promise I'll blog about Prague today!! I have no clue when I'll be able to put up photos, though, because my Internet is so awful. It's also so windy that my windows and doors keep blowing open, and it's been like this all week.
Oh, and we're watching Titanic tonight!!
This week was mostly awesome. I didn't accomplish much work, unfortunately, because I'm actually starting to have things I need to do, but I had so much fun.
After that, I went back with Luke and Dylan to their apartment to figure out where to go to see Womb that night, which is a movie that was advertised in the Funzine. We ended up eating out at Tacos Locos first with Nick and Matt also. It was a sad excuse for Mexican food, but I guess Budapest is far enough from Mexico that I can't have very high expectations. It was still fun, though. Then, all of us except for Matt went to a theater located surprisingly close to my apartment to see Womb. We had no idea what it was going to be about. That was the best way to go into it, honestly, because if you know anything about the plot, it ruins the shock factor. It was one of the strangest movies I've ever seen but I really liked it for that reason.
On Thursday, we had a pre-departure meeting for the Venice/Vienna trip, which will be happening next Friday by bus. I think it actually might be miserable. So much bus time. So much museum time. It's not even like I don't like museums, but I like choosing the ones I go to, and I definitely don't like filling out a questionnaire as I go through them. But hey, it might actually be fun. We also get a decent amount of free time, so I need a moment to consult my Lonely Planet guidebook to figure out what I wanna do besides a gondola ride. I also need to meet up with Laura, Dani, and Caitlin B to make at least a list of what we wanna do in Berlin, since we leave for Berlin about 5 hours after we get back from Venice/Vienna.
I went to Morrison's with Julie on Thursday night, which is really close to where I live, which was really fun. We got there while there was no cover charge and stayed until a bit before 11, just dancing and having lots of fun. We're gonna go back next Tuesday.
On Friday, I went to a wine tasting at Faust Wine Cellar with 9 other study abroad students. We arrived in the Castle District early so we killed time at Fisherman's Bastion, which was gorgeous. The Cellar was located in the Hilton, so we had to walk through the lobby to get there. Then we went down lots of stairs into the wine cellar and I felt like I was in Poe's "The Cask of Amantillado," which was fun. The wine guy, Gabor, welcomed us in and it began. He was really nice and gave great descriptions of the wines, and I learned wine adjectives! I actually really liked most of the 8 wines we tasted. Most of us went to the labyrinths under the hills after, and it was so much fun because it was almost completely dark and we got to use lanterns!I was supposed to go to Szentendre with Dani today and a hike tomorrow, but I have so much to do still that I'm skipping the hike and going to Szentendre tomorrow instead. There are only 44 days left here, which is weird.
I promise I'll blog about Prague today!! I have no clue when I'll be able to put up photos, though, because my Internet is so awful. It's also so windy that my windows and doors keep blowing open, and it's been like this all week.
Oh, and we're watching Titanic tonight!!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Moldy Shoes
Did you know that shoes can grow mold? I didn't, until this morning, when I was trying to get ready to go to my first ever press conference. So now my gray flats are no more, and now I also need to replace those as well as my walking shoes.
Anyway, that is not the most exciting thing that happened today, so let's move on to the Housing Forum for Europe Central Asia, where I attended a press conference. I thought it was exciting, because I want to be a journalist and it was a great opportunity, since it was an international forum and I got to experience it within the safety of a class.
I got to Mechwart Liget early and waited with the professor for quite a while, but nobody else from class shower up so Mr. Smyth and I got on the bus and then walked to the conference. We got there and signed in, and I got a press badge! Super cool. Eventually, three other people from my journalism class showed up, and so did other journalists. I saw other McDaniel students at the conference as well, since many of them were volunteering either for an independent study or just because they wanted to. This is the same conference I was going to volunteer at until I found that it overlapped with Prague, which I'd already booked tickets for (more on Prague in a later post).
So, the conference began, and there were four speakers representing Habitat for Humanity Hungary, Habitat for Humanity International, United Nations Development Programme, and the International Federation of the Red Cross, and they proceeded to make their statements before taking questions. I'm excited to write an article about this, although I don't yet know from which angle to pursue it because anything newsworthy that will come from the conference will be happening at the conference's conclusion, since the purpose of it is to bring people together in order to create discourse and formulate solutions to the housing crisis in Europe and Central Asia.
With that said, I have lots to do today, especially since I was gone this weekend.
Here's my to do list (luckily, only half of it needs to happen today):
outline for lit paper
1 page from perspective of secondary character in Tracks
opinion article for journalism class
Housing conference article
McDaniel Europe article
my other article
Messenger website- get archives
Marketing homework
grocery shopping
put photos online
make videos for Paris, Romania, and Prague
scholarship applications
laundry
clean desk
buy new shoes
Anyway, that is not the most exciting thing that happened today, so let's move on to the Housing Forum for Europe Central Asia, where I attended a press conference. I thought it was exciting, because I want to be a journalist and it was a great opportunity, since it was an international forum and I got to experience it within the safety of a class.
I got to Mechwart Liget early and waited with the professor for quite a while, but nobody else from class shower up so Mr. Smyth and I got on the bus and then walked to the conference. We got there and signed in, and I got a press badge! Super cool. Eventually, three other people from my journalism class showed up, and so did other journalists. I saw other McDaniel students at the conference as well, since many of them were volunteering either for an independent study or just because they wanted to. This is the same conference I was going to volunteer at until I found that it overlapped with Prague, which I'd already booked tickets for (more on Prague in a later post).
So, the conference began, and there were four speakers representing Habitat for Humanity Hungary, Habitat for Humanity International, United Nations Development Programme, and the International Federation of the Red Cross, and they proceeded to make their statements before taking questions. I'm excited to write an article about this, although I don't yet know from which angle to pursue it because anything newsworthy that will come from the conference will be happening at the conference's conclusion, since the purpose of it is to bring people together in order to create discourse and formulate solutions to the housing crisis in Europe and Central Asia.
With that said, I have lots to do today, especially since I was gone this weekend.
Here's my to do list (luckily, only half of it needs to happen today):
outline for lit paper
1 page from perspective of secondary character in Tracks
opinion article for journalism class
Housing conference article
McDaniel Europe article
my other article
Messenger website- get archives
Marketing homework
grocery shopping
put photos online
make videos for Paris, Romania, and Prague
scholarship applications
laundry
clean desk
buy new shoes
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