I know I've been slackin on the blog end of things for the past two weeks, but I promise I will update again soon about my memorable last experiences here in BP.
much love,
Val
Thursday, December 3, 2009
A typical 'jo reggelt' in Budapest!
Scroll down to #1 (probably have to click on 'older posts; there are 9 videos) to see what a typical morning is like for me!...I realized I always talk about all the big things that happen during the weeks but don't ever share the everyday things. And they're just as fun!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Belgrade Pics
Like I said, whole pieces of building missing. View of Zemun district and the gardos (hungarian tower :)
5am Monday arrival back in Budapest YEAAAA
Fifi and Greg in Belgrade!
Probably the best part of our night...they knew we were foreigners but decided to befriend us anyway.
Belgrade Pics
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Belgrade Pics
Playing at the Fortress !
This scene looked too much like something out of Lord of the Rings for me not to take a picture.
Belgrade Pics
The Bohemian Quarter.
To purchase or not to purchase?
Busy market..a surprise find on our way to the Old Town!
The pastry selection.
Belgrade Pics
St. Mark's Basilica...from the park.
Oh hey there gorgeous temple right down the street from our hostel!
This kitty reminded me of my Chilipepper:)
In DisSerbia with Megan!
Sziasztok!
Now I know you were probably stressing out all week...."When is Val going to tell us about Serbia?? I can't handle the suspense!!" So sorry to keep you waiting, my friends. It's semi-difficult to sum up an entire city from a mere weekend, but here's what Megan and I got ourselves into...
Friday our train arrived at night in Belgrade. It's pretty nuts hopping off a train into a completely unfamiliar city and not knowing the layout, the language, or really anything at all. Luckily, I had Megan by my side, who has spent 50 days camping and hiking in the Arctic...pretty sure that makes her qualified to handle just about any situation. So, like the confident, wise travelers we are, we asked a taxi driver for directions (not to be mistaken for a ride!) and found our way to our hostel, fittingly called the "Chillton." First thing was first; GET A MAP. If there's one thing I've learned, always always always get a map asap. After the shock of being seven hours south of our beloved Budapest wore off, we realized how hungry we were, so we took our hostel host's advice and went to an artsy little pizza joint nearby. After our delicious late night dinner, we made it back and collapsed into our beds (actually, that's not entirely true; we were both on the top bunks, so it was more like a climb up and then a collapse).
Saturday morning, Megan and I continued composing song lyrics for our version of Rhianna's "Disturbia:" DisSerbia! Explorin you tonight...DisSerbia!....I-can't-speak-the-language.
As you can see, it's a bit incomplete, but we're going to keep adding on:) We decided to start off walking through what I guess you'd consider the city's downtown, through the "new" and "old" towns. Said hello to St. Mark's Orthodox Church, Parliament, the Republic's Square, and then made a pit stop for some pastries (Apparently, Serbs are known for their pastries; they definitely did not let us down). Our next stop was the Bohemian quarter, which we prefaced with a stroll through a local market where merchants sold things like honey, fruits, veggies, costume jewelry, sports equipment, and saws. From the Bohemian quarter, which mainly consisted of lots of photo-ops of adorable kittens, we made our way to the "old" town to check out Belgrade Fortress (gate was built 1404). This was really neat to see and actually seemed a lot more in tact to me than the hungarian castle Viségrad. And just to continue the trend of sharing embarrassing weekly moments...I fell off one of the walls. Yep, I was taking in the view from one of the little turrets and went to step down and did not see the lone rock perfectly positioned on the ground below for my destruction. My butt was pretty sore the rest of the day, and the rest of the week for that matter. No permanent damage, though. Anyways, after having some Forralt Bör while watching the sun set on the junction of the Sava and Danube Rivers, we made our way to one of the main pedestrian streets. Along the way, we made some canine friends and named them Fifi and Greg. These stray dogs followed us for about 20 minutes. Literally. No exaggeration. Fifi was definitely pregnant, and Greg was large and in charge. If you don't look at anything else after reading this sentence, PLEASE please please look at the video of these two adorable puppies! After splurging and purchasing a pair of ankle boots so that I can finally kind of fit in to the european fashion trend, we engaged in a bit of café-hopping, as we like to call it. This basically involves going into any café that looks welcoming and is reasonably priced..I think we went to 5. After the last stop and some unfortunately watery milkshakes (but still tasty), we returned to the Chillton happy and exhausted :)
Sunday we took a bus across the Sava River and into another section of the city. Our goal in doing this was seeing the Zemun Gardos, which is a tower that was built by hungarians, for hungarians. A taste of home! Unfortunately, the tower wasn't open, but we at least got to check it out from the outside. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Zemun, philosophizing by the riverside, eating a delicious lunch, and just trying to get a feel for the Serbian culture.
So, some thoughts on Belgrade:
1) Main language is Vlach (Romanian dialect I think), which Megan initially thought was a form of math
2) It's a ginormous city and cannot be seen in one day
3) Dirtier (street-wise) than Budapest
4) Probably shouldn't travel there alone, especially as a young girl (two women at our hostel told us about pick-pocketing and near pick-pocketing experiences they'd had that day). Gypsy population was more prominent than what I've seen in Budapest.
5) Underdeveloped in terms of architecture, if that makes sense. Several buildings, had whole pieces missing! We wondered how much of that was still untaken-care-of damage from the bombing in 1999.
6) There was that same down-trodden essence in the air: a result of the post-communist era.
7) Traveling with Megan was the best:) I couldn't have asked for a better tourist buddy!!
We ate a traditional Serbian dinner to celebrate our great weekend and then took a night train back to Budapest. Time of arrival: 5 am. Took a brisk walk up to the Citadella to watch the sun rise over our home and then went off to class. Fabulous morning!
Whew. I'm tired just writing about it! But it really was a fun experience...it's just so cool to be able to hop on a train and travel to another country with the sole purpose of adventure/exploration. I'm so blessed I get to do this!
This past week's synopsis soon to follow-
love,
Val
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pics past two weeks
Meg and I bought a pumpkin and named him Jo reggelt sziasztok, which translates to "Good morning hello all." Unfortunately, people thought it would be fun to stick him with some body art in the form of paper umbrellas :(
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pics past two weeks
Allie and I lovin on our favorite planets at the Planetarium:)
Inside the Planetarium.
Left: Just to give you an idea of how hot it was at folk dancing! Pretty steamyyyyyyy
Right: Allie, Avery, and I at Allie's Bday outing
Monday, November 16, 2009
Beginning November...
Jó reggelt over there!
Yes, I've been slacking a little bit on the blog end and now have to condense two beautiful weeks in Budapest into one entry:( So forgive me if it's a tad bit long compared to my previously posted Budapest lovefests..I'll do my best to be concise!
The Monday after Fall Break called for some serious grocery shopping, especially because Meg and I go through an entire container of Keifer in basically 2 days. Hence, Monday was pretty much dedicated to assimilating back into the non-break routine. Tuesday night involved two of my favorite French things...weird films and crêpes! To my delight, the French Institute of Budapest shows French movies with English subtitles for free EVERY WEEK. Maybe I won't forget all of my French afterall! Wednesday was my friend Allie's 21st, so, naturally, we had to make a big Budapest fuss :) With a party of 18, it was difficult to find a restaurant that could take us all, but, luckily, our favorite default Indian joint agreed to take us in. We ended the night at a cute little bar that served probably close to 20 different kinds of Belgian beer. Now, picture this: 14 American college-age students all sitting lined up at a bar, 7 of us wearing pink party hats. Needless to stay, there was a decent amount of the classic hungarian staring we've come to know and love. ish. Thursday night I got my act together enough to study earlier in the afternoon so that I could go folk dancing! This was probably one of the most memorable experiences I've had here, mostly because it was so extreme in every possible sense. Allow me to paint another picture for you: a large, dark, "basementy" room filled mostly with hungarians from ages 18-45, live music played by some eccentric-looking musicians, and so much sweat that you'd think we were all running a marathon. Even though I had no clue how to do any of the dances, the steps were simple enough that I could watch a few sequences and then join the circle. I even got asked to dance by a guy with a crazy beard ponytail who really seemed to know his folk dancing. BUT the best part of the night had yet to come...after Meg and I had tried out some couples dancing, a young british woman approached me and asked me if I spoke English. "Of course!" I said. She responded, "Do you know that your skirt is tucked into your underwear?" [pause for my look of shock and embarrassment] Seeing my face, she quickly added, "But don't worry you look brilliant out there! You couldn't really see anything." Let's just say I'm glad I won't be seeing all of those hungarians again who were no doubt laughing at my little American fashion statement. Friday-Sun included a Michael Jackson laser show at the Planetarium, a nice, long late Saturday morning run, Ben & Jerry's ice cream from a small grocery store that sells some comforts from the good ol' USA, a group tasting of the Hungarian dish Fözelek, church, and rain.
This past week started out rainy as well but ended on a comparatively warm and sunny note, which I think made everyone feel a little better about the jump from Summer to Winter. It even seems like the trees are finally changing color as if to say, "Don't worry! We didn't forget about Fall altogether!" In terms of activities, a bunch of us went out on the town Wednesday night: first to a bar/restaurant that some of the kids had already been to and said was definitely a must-see. Szimpla had a pretty cool ambiance, not to mention a nice-sized glass of forralt bor (the beloved hot wine) for a great price. As we all sat crammed shoulder to shoulder at the table, I realized just how much these people mean to me. It's still so amazing to me that a group of people from all over America who met not even 3 months ago can sit together and talk and laugh together like old friends. I mean, does it get any better? I really don't think it can :) Afterwards, the boys went home, and the 7 of us girls......went dancing, obviously! Dancing to techno music for almost two hours straight just gives you a new appreciation for the music you love (unless of course you love techno in which case I make no offense). Still, we were dancing, we were laughing, and we were together, so of course it was a great night! The next night I had a really cool opportunity to attend a school play sponsored by the drama team of the International Christian School of Budapest. One of the children of the missionary family that runs events at the church I've been going to invited me to come see their rendition of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so, once again, I got my butt in gear and studied earlier in the afternoon so that I could take the evening to sit back and enjoy some adorable acting. Not only did it warm my heart just to watch the kids perform such a classically great story, but it was also such a breath of fresh air to be in a room with at least 100 Americans or native English speakers! I didn't realize how much I missed that! I sat next to a woman who has been teaching in Hungary for 19 years and got to hear her story about how she came to live in Budapest. It never ceases to amaze me for how many different reasons Americans have moved to Budapest/Hungary AND have stayed. So, you see, there must be some element of truth to all the gushing I do over this place..... :)
This past weekend, my friend Megan and I went to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, but I'll save that for the next post..until then!
Much love,
Val
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Fall Break Pics
Traditional Polish white sour soup..it's actually delicious.
Front of the one synagogue we went inside.
River Vistula
The Jewish Quarter.
The Jewish Quarter.
5 lovelies stopping to pose on our Sunday morning walk :) Thank you to Jackie, our American friend we met on the street, for taking the picture!
Fall Break Pics
Playing in the leaves in Krakow, Poland :)
Enjoying some forralt bor (hot wine)!
Meg pointing out the ridiculously small sign for our classy hostel called "Goodbye Lenin let's rock!"
The market square and famous cloth hall..unfortunately under some kind of construction.
St. Mary's Basilica.
Fall Break Pics
Memento (Communist statue) Park."In the shadow of Stalin's boots"
Monument to the Hungarian Socialist Republic.
Monument to the Hungarian Socialist Republic.Workers' Movement Memorial. Ball represents the perfect ideology for which the people were striving.
Left: Béla Kun Memorial (leader of short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic).
Right: Liberating Soviet soldier (1945).
Fall Break Pics
The Baltic Sea and its lovely beach.
Leaf-lined road connecting grounds and Rhûndale Castle.
<-- Castle gardens. 
Inside the palace's courtyard.
Greta and I at the entranceway/what I perceived as the would-be moat.
Fall Break Pics
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