Final Exams and Final Exploration

This week has been a whirlwind of attempting to study and attempting to do everything Budapest has to offer that I have not yet done.  The studying part hasn't really happened yet, but that hasn't been a problem because my only real final is this afternoon and I'm gonna study for it after going to get cake with Julie in half an hour.  The accomplishing Budapest stuff, though, has been challenging only because it's been necessary to plan around people's exam schedules, and despite everything I've done this week, I still have a lot to do this weekend when most people have left already.  

So, last Sunday we went to Aquincum, the Roman ruins that exist in Obuda.  Rhaelynn, Caitlin R, Julie, Dani, Laura, Matt, and I took the HEV to get there at no extra cost because it's within the city limits. I think it cost us about 600 HUF for admission, which was awesome because we're all running out of money.  The museum part was really cool, and I appreciated that the signage was in both Hungarian AND English, which isn't all too common in Hungarian museums.  There were lots of artifacts (obviously) and information about the archaeological excavation downstairs, and upstairs there were some really awesome mosaics.  Outside were the ruins, which were initially awesome.  They had a few things of which I do not remember the name, but you look through them and it shows you pictures of the excavation- perhaps they were chronographs. Not sure.  Anyways, eventually the ruins became repetitive, but that's perhaps only because it's hard for normal people like me to realize - oh hey! That little wall used to be the kitchen.  It began to just look like a lot of rocks.  Still though, it was a good experience and only took a couple of hours.  

That night, Laura, Dani, Julie, and Caitlin B were planning to see Thor, but I was exhausted from the paperwriting of the other night and took a very long nap. I woke up to a text message from Casey inviting me to Ring for dinner, so I joined him, Z, and Matt there at 7.  My burger wasn't bloody this time and it was actually rather awesome!  We went to Alexandra after to browse books.  That bookstore has Penguin classics for 600 HUF ($3), which is amazing.  We went back to Casey and Z's afterwards and played Scattergories, which was so much fun! I won.  That day was Erica's birthday so many people were at Szimpla with her.  We met up with them and that was rather fun- much better Szimpla experience than my previous one.  

The Memento Park plans of Sunday failed, as many people needed to study, so I ended up going to Vaci utca with Caitlin R and Rhaelynn around 3 to get what I call Unicorn horns, but are actually called something Hungarian (I'll look it up later and tell you the real word). I got one covered in cinnamon sugar and it was delightful!! I also had fun exploring Vaci again, because it's a beautiful, albeit touristy, pedestrian street. That night, I saw the movie Paul with Dani, Laura, Julie, and Caitlin B, which was rather stupid but not altogether awful.

Then it was Monday.  I had a Journalism class during finals week, which was just strange because on the main campus we never have classes during finals week. I met up with Julie after and we ate lunch at Millenium da Pippo, which was affordable and Italian- we shared a pizza.  We got there before it was open though so we killed time at Lukacs, a bakery that Luke recommends because it's his name in Hungarian, but it was kind of pricy so we split a piece of cake and I had some delicious lemon tea.  After food, we took the yellow line to the end, explored Vaci utca because Julie's never been, and then began our walk down the entire metro line, called the Millenium tour by my guidebook. It was really fun and a great way to see a lot of the city for one of the last times.  We walked all the way down Andrassy and saw Heroes' Square again and below you can see a selection of pictures of the adventure!

So that night, I went for a walk and ran into Casey and Z, who picked me up off the street to go to the Hummus Bar.  The first location we went to was closed down so we had to walk elsewhere, and on the way, we found an awesome motion-censored fountain that we played in! Then we found the restaurant and they gave us some awesome tea and we attempted to figure out the complex menu.  I ordered some hummus-filled laffa with a side of rice as a safety net, because I've never had hummus before.  Didn't like the hummus but LOVED the rice because it had lentils in it, which I've also never had but rather enjoyed.  I also had some rather delightful lemonade.  And the student discount made the already good prices even better.

At that point, I was still in denial about leaving in less than a week, by the way.

On Tuesday morning, I met with Peter and Fardin to put Messenger articles online from the final issue, and they're up now but they aren't the correct versions...I met with Mr. Smyth and Joao and Dr. Adamson about that yesterday, actually, to discuss the future of the Messenger as a web-based paper and to figure out how to streamline the process to prevent such issues from happening.  

That afternoon, Julie came over after and I made us grilled cheese and we then explored the area of Budapest dubbed "Watertown" by my guidebook.  I got sunburned a bit but it was otherwise nice.  

We plus Laura and Dani met at the Opera to tour it, but the cost was nearly twice as much as we were expecting, so we went to get pancakes instead.  It's amazing that there's a place in Budapest that realizes that pancakes are not equivalent to crepes.  And it had great prices.  It was rather awesome, actually.  

Tuesday night, a large group of the study abroad students went to Gödör, which was cool because there was live music.  It got boring though, because it was very slow live music and some of us relocated to Instant, where there was an improv band playing that was rather awesome, but soon enough we were all exhausted and went home.

My journalism final was the next morning, and I wrote about the arrest of the head of the International Monetary Fund and it's potential implications.  I think I did well but I'm not sure.  I met with Julie to explore the Castle District, but I was exhausted, so after walking across the Chain Bridge, we went to Margaret Island instead, which was absolutely lovely and flowery!

Luke, Nick, and I went to Casey and Z's for dinner, because Z was making perogies, which I've never had before but were kind of good.  And after, we played Scattergories, which was awesome and I won again! Love that game.  Julie and I met up to possibly go to Morrison's but instead ended up meeting people at a bar called Vitulla just to hang out after a long day.  

And then it was Thursday, and I ate grilled cheese for both breakfast and lunch, and went to the bakery with Julie and Dani for cake, and studied for my marketing final and possibly did well, and then had my aforementioned meeting, and then went to Catherine and Rebekah's apartment for an end of the semester et-together that culminated in what initially was a plan to go to A38, a club on a boat, but ended up actually at an outdoor club that played a mix of Hungarian music, American pop music, and American hard rock. That was really fun, actually.  My neck hurts this morning from crazily dancing to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Sabotage" and "Are you gonna be my girl?"

And now Laura is here so I need to get to work on that constitution!