Budapest Day 2

March 25: Today started off with a missed alarm clock. I ended up sleeping in until about 10am, but Jorde (the hostel owner) was still waiting to make me breakfast. I hurried up so that I could enjoy the day while the sun was still out, and decided just to wander the city a bit. I started walking, and managed to find the grand market in southern Pest. It was fun - filled with fresh foods, as well as LOTS of paprika and souvenirs on the top floor. I tried another Hungarian specialty that my friend had suggested. It's called Retes, but it's basically a strudel filled with sour cherries and curd cheese. It sounds a bit strange, but like everything here... was pretty good.

From there, I decided to check out the WestEnd mall. It was about 4 blocks from where I was staying and is about a third of the size of the Mall of America. Mostly, I was looking for a swimsuit, since I intended to go to the Hungarian baths, but forgot my suit at home. No luck since it's still relatively cold there, and spring clothes hadn´t really come out yet.

Then, I was supposed to meet up with another friend that lives in Budapest, but I was a little early and it was cold out. I decided I would just ride the metro around for a while and people watch before meeting Csenge at Heroes Square. This is in the northeastern part of the city, and is a large plaza filled with statues of heroes in Hungarian history... including St. Istvan (the first king) and Kossuth (a leader in the latest revolution).

From there, we decided to go up to Gellert Hill. This is on the southern part of the Buda side of the city. It's virtually a small mountain, covered in parks, and we just walked up to the top. When you get there, they have their own statue of liberty commemorating the lives lost fighting for their independence in 1956. It was really windy, but the view from the top was amazing. I felt like I was floating directly above the Danube.

Finally, it was back to the hostel to make some dinner. I ended up just hanging out at the hostel that night, getting to know some of the other people staying there. There were a couple teenagers from Singapore there who were really excited about Jerry Springer. I thought it was kind of bizarre, until I started talking to them and found out that all media is censored there. They had never seen anything like it. It really is crazy the things that we don't know about other cultures.

Budapest Day 1: Buda

March 24: This morning I got up and made myself some breakfast before heading out in search of an ATM. I took out 15,000 Forint which seemed absurd until I realized it was only 60 euros. Then, it was off to buy a metro pass for my Tour de Hungary. For the record, Budapest was originally 2 cities - Buda and Pest, and they are on either side of the Danube river. Today was my tour of the Buda side and Castle Hill.

As it turns out, Easter monday is a national holiday in Budapest, so all of the museums were closed. However, I did wander quite a bit of the city, including Matyas Cathedral -which will be under restoration for the next 10 years (right, top), the Fisherman's Bastion-it overlooks the Danube and has a tower for each of the 7 Magyar tribes who settled inthe Carpathian Basin in 896 (one tower on left), and finally stumbled across the Royal Palace on the far end of Castle Hill. Since it was also the beginning of spring, they were having a medieval festival (booths shown on right) inside the castle courtyard complete with hog roasts, sword-fighting, themed tents, and traditional dress. I decided that there was no better time than a festival to try a traditional Hungarian funnel cake. Mmmm...

From there, I headed back to the hostel to rest for an hour or so before meeting up with my Hungarian friend Zsuzsi. We walked around some of the Easter markets, and decided to try Gulash(beef, potato, and paprika soup) for dinner. According to her, it's just about the most Hungarian meal there is. She gave me a tour of Pest by night, which is absolutely beautiful. Parliament in itself is enough to take your breath away, but unfortunately my camera is getting old and doesn't like night pictures.

Finally it was off to Club Simple, one of the popular bars in the area. I guess the newest style of nightspots is to find a building that should be condemned, keep the lights low, add a variety of delapitated furniture, and call it trendy. It was a good time though, and we tried traditional spirits: Futyulos, which is a kind of Palinka.... which a very common fruit alcohol.

A few hours later, I made it back to the hostel. Jorde was there, and his brother had stopped by with his family's Easter leftovers. It was not an acceptable response that I was full, so I tried some Hungarian holiday foods. I quickly learned that Hungarians like their food... and with good reason! It doesn't look fancy, and actually usually looks kind of disgusting, but it's soooo good. Yum.

Getting to Budapest

March 23: Here is a little teaser of my spring break trip. I will fully update you when I don't have to pay for internet. Just for the record... I was wearing pink on Easter. Oh.. and that backpack is all I brought with me.

I had quite the adventure gettting to Budapest. I ran into some friends at the train station who insisted they knew a better way of getting to the airport, and since I was alone, I decided to head with them. Turns out they were wrong. The train was slower, but I could deal with that. Then we missed our connection at the other train station. I could deal with that. Then, we got to the bus station and found out that the bus wasn't leaving for another 40 minutes because it was Easter. That put me at the airport after my gate was closed, so the guys were nice enough to join me and pool our money for a taxi.

Once I finally got to the airport, I hurried up and checked in, only to find out that the plane was going to be delayed for about 2 hours. I started talking to this family at the airport, who happened to be from Antwerp (which was one of my favorite cities in Belgium if you've been following along). They wanted to give me a ride, but they didn't have enough space in their vehicle. Instead a guy (Pieter from Germany) at the airport overheard and happened to be going to the exact same street as me, and offered to walk me to the hostel, since I wasn't sure when I was going. We sat with this guy from Romania on the plane, and I got about a 2 hour eastern-european culture lesson. Anyways, we landed around 9:30 or 10, and Pieter and I headed off towards the hostel. He gave me a tour and a little background along the way, and bought all of my tickets for me since I had not changed any money into Forint yet. He walked me to the door and dissappeared almost as soon as I thanked him.

When I got to the hostel, I met the other people who would be sharing the room with me. It turns out we went to the same middle school at the same time, but never met each other until Budapest. It was a crazy coincidence. The hostel I was staying at was basically a flat in central Budapest that two guys had turned into a place to stay. It was really nice because it felt like I was staying at a friend's place instead of the typical hospital feel of other hostels. I had a little closet, end table, etc. which was a good surprise after a long afternoon of traveling. Off to sleep!

Around the world and back in time

Soo... I've been pretty sick for about a week now. :-/ Here's to hoping I get better, because I'll be in Budapest on Sunday! After all is said and done, I will be in Budapest until the 27th, in Rome for just one night, and then in Barcelona on the 29th. I still haven't boughten a ticket from there. I think I might just see where the cheapest place to fly is around the 1st and go there. Adventure, anyone? :)

Well, with being sick, I've been cooped up in my kot (that's what they call student apartments here) quite a bit. BUT, I did manage to get out to check out the Global Village. It's this festival where students from every ethnic background set up a booth to educate people about their country. They bring information, food and drinks, music, and each is supposed to teach a traditional dance. It was really alot of fun, as alot of my friends were doing them and were really excited to talk about home. The picture on the left is me and my friend Maria from Greece. They were giving out shots of Ouzo which is a black licorice flavored liquor. The pic on the right is the stand from Peru. They had soooo much information for everyone.

Well, the whole reason I decided to venture out into the real world was because I hadn't been grocery shopping in about a week and a half. Considering that I usually go every day or two here, that meant that all I had in the house was rice and noodles. So, I was on my way accross the town to the grocery store, and I stumbled across another festival. I still have no idea what it was really all about, because there was no advertising for it, but it was definitely interesting. It was like a mini Renaissance festival, complete with a tavern, fortune telling, pig roast, etc. You never do know what you'll see in this city!

Laying Low

So, the past couple weekends, I've just been staying around Louvain-la-Neuve. I had a little sticker shock when in London and decided not to do too much traveling for a bit. However, that's because there are plans in the making. I have 2 1/2 weeks off for Easter vacation, beginning on Wednesday evening the 19, and then I'll have class again on April 7. As of right now, I'm looking at 3 or 4 days in Budapest, Hungary. I have a few friends there who promised to show me the town, so that's essential. From there, I think I'll either fly to Frankfurt, Germany or Venice, Italy for a day or two on my way to meet some friends in Barcelona, Spain. From there, I may travel somewhere else with a friend or two, but I'm not sure. I'll still have 6 days left before school starts up again, and it seems like a shame to let it go to waste! Anyway, it's all tentative because I don't think I'll be buying my tickets until tonight or tomorrow. For those who are curious, other potential future plans include long weekends in Krakow, Prague, and probably a trip back to somewhere in France. Beyond that, who knows. :)

So what have I been doing if I haven't been traveling? Well, I know it may be a shock to some, but I have classes here! Mostly I've been catching up on school, and getting together with the friends I've made here. I won't "bore" you with too many details about the get-togethers. ;) Although, we started one night rather calmly at the creperie in town. I tried a "crepe a la cassonade" which has a homemade dark caramel filling. Soo good, but so rich that I couldn't eat dinner.

Yesterday I finally ventured off to find a church for Palm Sunday. I took the train to Brussels. From there, I got on the metro going in the wrong direction, switched directions and made it to the right station. There was a sketchy shuttle van waiting at the bus stop outside to bring people to church from the stop. My friend and I got in, along with 10 other people in a van for 8, hoping this wouldn't be the end of us (only kidding!) and made it to church - in ENGLISH! It was really good, reminded me of home, and someone invited us back to their house for lunch afterwards. We agreeed, and found out it was their tradition for young adults. This meant we met a ton of people in their 20s from all over the world, and got to eat some amazing homemade Korean food!

We stayed there for a while getting to know some people before heading back to the train station. We had intended to visit a different part of Brussels to get a waffle from this really good shop, but the timing wasn't going to work out for the trains. Instead, we wandered around the area we were in, and came across a little festival - or so we thought. It was more of an anti-American, peace rally. They were giving out propaganda products, having concerts, and whatnot. Good think I spoke enough French that they apparently couldn't tell I was American. Yikes!

We didn't spend too much time there once we figured out what was going on, but instead got some ice cream from a little shop and wandered around the Park Cinquantenaire near the train station. This is a pretty urban area, and always seems to have cranes doing work there, so the park is kind of out of place, but it's nice. There's also a pretty interesting monument there.

History lesson: because of its location near the center of Brussels, near Parliament, etc. this area used to be the military exercising grounds. However, for the world exhibition in 1880, and to celebrate 50 years of autonomy, they began to build the arch that you can see. It's a triumphant arch (like the arc de triomphe in Paris), but it's construction wasn't supported by Parliament (they thought it was too expensive) and had to be funded privately. Later, they added the rows of columns on each side. Ehh.. there's more boring info I could tell you about it, but I don't feel like it! ;)

Oh yeah, later that night I met up with some of the guys to watch a Finnish movie - the man without a past. While I love getting to see bits of different cultures, I'd just like to point out that Finnish movies are definitely a bit strange. It was fun all the same.

(Looney) Toone

March 8: Man oh man do I have great luck. A friend invited me to a play last Saturday, and I was dying to do something outside of the typical college scene, so I gladly accepted. We decided to meet early so we could catch the train that stopped nearest the theater. However, for whatever reason, I was convinced that it was not the right train and insisted that we check the schedule. As we realized we had been on the right train, it drove away. Sooo... we grabbed dinner quick in Louvain-la-Neuve and caught the next train that left in a half hour. Unfortunately, that train didn't stop where we needed to go, and I had only gotten directions from the station at Etterbeek. In any case, we got to the nearest stop on that train's path at 7:10. The play started at 8, and we were a couple km away, with only a general idea of where to go, so we started walking. Past the European Commission, through the large park and halfway across Brussels. Something didn't seem right, and according to the little map I had drawn from the other station, we realized that we had actually gone too far. This was at about 7:50. We turned around, walked awfully fast in the opposite direction, and finally made it into the theater at 7:55. I think we got the last 2 tickets and made it in just in time to see the beginning of Pygmalion. (We had a friend who was acting in it)

The show was great, but when it ended, we realized we had missed the last train back to Louvain-la-Neuve (LLN). We searched out our friend, Jean-Charles, and he agreed to drive us home if only we went out for a drink with him. Happy to oblige! :) He took us out to this place called the Toone, which has done marionette theater since 1830. I guess they still do a show once a week or so, but it was really just an old bar with a lot of character. We tried some different Belgian beers, and enjoyed the ambience - including a cat that decided to join us in the window! All in all, it was quite an adventure, but a great night!

London Day 3

March 2 (and 3): This morning, we didn't wake up and get out in the city until nearly 10. Our first stop was the Princess Diana memorial in Hyde Park. We had brought part of our breakfast with us, so we just sat near the running water, and relaxed in the London sunshine for a while. The memorial fountain itself was just opened in 2004, and is really pretty simple. It's a big oval with water flowing in different directions with different types of currents. If it's warmer outside, you can wade around in it, and it's supposed to inspire people to be reflective and whatnot.

After spending an hour or so at the memorial, we went off in search of the Kensington Palace, but got sidetracked along the way. We saw the Albert house and memorial. The memorial was opened in 1872 by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband. The focal point of the memorial is Albert, seated and covered in gold. From there, we tried to find Kensington Palace, but Hyde Park is HUGE, so I stopped a nice British man to ask for directions. We were headed in the right direction, but before making it to the palace, we found a nice little statue of Albert's wife - Queen Victoria.

Anyway, we kept walking and eventually made it to Kensington Palace. We just walked into the reception hall, as it was something like 18 pounds (or 36 dollars) to go in, and that just seemed absurd. We saw that it was really elaborate and ornate, and were all satisfied with that. Instead, we left to go to Harrods. It is this HUGE luxury store, where I swear some of the things cost more than your average house. We walked in long enough to see that it was too expensive, and to experience the enormity of the place, and then left for some cheaper shops along the streets. After that, we spent about an hour and a half on buses trying to make our way to Abbey Road (from the Beatles song) but eventually gave up as it was getting darker and colder. Instead we went to King's Cross station to see platform 9 3/4. For Harry Potter fans out there, you should understand the significance of this. It was nothing too special, but we were happy to actually see something after failing at finding Abbey Road.

At that point, it was starting to get pretty late, so we started in the direction of Victoria station. We met up and decided to have dinner at a pizza place in the train station. We stayed there just chatting for a while, and eventually took the last coach bus to the airport at around 11:30. This put us at the airport around 12:45, and our plane didn't leave until 6:40 in the morning, but we decided it was best just to get to the airport early and try to catch some sleep than to try to get there in the middle of the night. That left us all having an awkward little slumber party on the floor of the airport, catching our plane, bus, and train back to Louvain-la-Neuve and sleeping practically all day on Monday. Great trip!

London Day 2

March 1: After another long night, we didn't manage to get up and going as early this morning. However, we did go to see quite a few things. We hauled ourselves out onto the bus bright and early to go see the marble arch. It was originally built at the entrance to Buckingham Palace and only the royal family and the royal military were allowed to pass through it. It's now been moved to a new location near the edge of Hyde Park. (near where we were staying) We checked it out, but there wasn't much to see, so we hopped back on the bus and went to Trafalgar Square, which is in the picture on the right. It's a monument to remember the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 when the British were victorious in the Napoleonic Wars. It was so nice outside so we just hung around the square climbing on the statues and whatnot. We took a photo with some of the goofy looking policemen who are all over the city, and then took a quick look inside the National Gallery. The Gallery's stairs lead up to it from the square, so it was pretty convenient, and also free! :) We checked out a few of the famous paintings, but then decided not to waste the rest of our nice day inside so we kept on walking to see some more things.

As we were walking, we came across the Tower of London, which was really strange to see. We're in the middle of London, with cars buzzing by and all of the sudden, there's the huge old castle along the river. The original building in the middle was built in 1078, but has added more buildings, two protective walls, and a moat since then. It was used as a prison, court, execution location, as well as now housing the royal jewels of England. Just a few hundred meters further is the tower bridge, which is what most people think of when they think of the London Bridge. The London Bridge itself is just an ugly concrete thing a little further up the river.

We decided to walk along the river for a while, and after passing the large national maritime museum, came across this little thing. It's called the Golden Hinde and it's the world's first maritime museum. It's pretty small, but I thought it was pretty cute, so you know.. you get a picture. We kept walking, past the millenium bridge, and came across Shakespeare's Globe Theater. This is where many Shakespearean plays were performed in the round, which is a totally different experience than watching something on a basic stage.

Finally, as we were making it back to our hotel for the evening, we checked out St. Paul's Cathedral. We took a little rest at the hotel, and then met up with some friends on the other side of London to do to the O2-which is like a giant metrodome turned into a mall. We had dinner there, and then - despite the ridiculously high cover charges in London, went to a club. We made it back to the hotel around 4 or 4:30 with NO intentions of getting up early in the morning! :)

London Day 1

February 29: Actually, our trip started the night before. About 2 weeks ago, we found round trip airfare to London for 11 dollars, so we just HAD to go. I mean come on... it's 11 dollars. The catch is that we have to fly out from the smaller airport south of Brussels at 10:30 at night. So, all of us met at the train station in our little town of Louvain-la-Neuve, took the train to Charleroi, and from there took the bus to the airport. It's surprising how much I miss my car at times like this. Anyway, we got to the airport, a couple hours early since this was all of our first flights out of Belgium and we wanted it to go smoothly. It did, and we were in London less than one hour after we left the ground. Unfortunately, we also flew into a small airport, and had another hour bus ride into the center of London. We were dropped off at Victoria station, which is a central bus, tube, and train station. Too bad none of us knew where to go from there. We wandered around London for a while at about 2 in the morning before figuring out which line to take to our hotel. We finally got checked into the hotel and made it to bed around 4 in the morning!


Even though we didn't get to bed until late, we had to get an early start because really, how often are you in London? So we asked breakfast to be delivered at 8. The first thing we did was go to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. We got there around 10:30 and thought there weren't many people there, so we wandered around the park and monuments there while we waited. Before we knew it, the people had all filed in and we had lost our spots near the gates. Bummer. Anyways, the ceremony is kind of cool. The guards are ushered in by two "royal bands". Then, the new guards march towards each other and the old guard ceremoniously hands off a key to the new guard before marching off with the rest of the soldiers. Too bad we didn't go see it on Sunday or we would have seen the red costumes with the big fuzzy hats!

Well, after the ceremony was finally done (we were there for almost 3 hours!) we decided to head off and see some other sites. First along the way was the Westminster Abbey. Wikipedia says it's the traditional location of coronation and burial of Monarchs. The original was built around 1045, but was renovated and restored in the 1500s. However, the two tower weren't built until the 1700s. Basically it's really regal looking from the front, really beautiful from the side, and houses a ton of really old, important dead people.

Next on our route was just walking by a couple of things. We didn't actually go in, but we walked by Big Ben and the Parliament buildings along the Thames river. As a reference, Big Ben is 96 meters, or a little over 300 feet tall, with the largest 4-faced chiming clock in the world. It wasn't completed until the late 1800s. Also, from where we were, we could see the London Eye. It's basically a 450 foot Ferris Wheel that gives you a great view of the city. As a guide, each of those little cars holds 25 people. However, it was starting to rain by this point, and it was 15 pounds to ride it. We opted out, and instead decided to grab some lunch since it was already approaching 2 o'clock. No photo for this one, BUT I did try fish and chips in London. Not the best, but not terrible, and at least I can say I tried it, right?

Well, it was still raining after lunch, we we decided to check out the nearest museum. That ended up being the Museum of London, which like all the museums in London, was free. It was all about the history of London, which was a good way to start our trip. We were all kind of exhausted from not sleeping, so we took advantage of the displays for children. That picture on the left is supposed to be a replica of some of the original housing styles in London from hundreds of years ago. From the museum, we left and headed to Picadilly Circus, which is not a circus. It's like London's version of Times Square. We walked around for a while, and eventually ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe at around 10:30. We missed the last tube that left at around midnight, so we wandered around trying to figure out which night bus to take home and made it back to the hotel around 2 again.

Turkish Dinner

February 27: That night, my friend Serhat from Turkey invited some friends and I over for a traditional Turkish dinner. This guy is awesome, he likes cooking so much that I swear he packed half of his suitcase full of traditional foods when he came over! Anyways, we got there and helped cut some things up, and then he served us our meal. We started with bread and tarhana corbasi which is like a really good tomato soup with garlic, herbs, and spices. With that, we drank ayran, which is like a drinkable yogurt. Then he brought out the main meal which was kofte (a traditional beef sausage), salata (a salad of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon, oil, and salt), pilaf (rice and vegetables), and tursu (a type of pickle). Finally, he brought out a dessert, which I don't remember the turkish name of. Basically, it was baklava with pistachios and Turkish tea. So good, but I'm pretty sure that is the fullest I've ever been in my life!

Luxembourg - the Country

February 25: This Saturday, we visited Luxembourg. We got up early in the morning since it is supposedly about three hours south of Louvain-la-Neuve by train. As a sidenote, that's further than Paris or London. Anyways, we hopped on the train and took it to the last stop in Belgium. From there, we caught a local train into Luxembourg city. It's kind of confusing because Luxembourg is the province in Belgium that borders the country of Luxembourg, who's capital is also Luxembourg. Ayayay.

Anyways, from there, we decided to grab lunch at the grocery store since the city is so ridiculously expensive to get to. Then, we wandered for a while and came across Notre Dame de Luxembourg, where we took a little tour of the inside. We stopped and just sat in the sanctuary for quite a while. This church had an amazing pipe organ, and even more amazing stained glass. When we were rested and content, we headed out to see the rest of the city.

We thought there was supposed to be a museum pass, but when we got to the art museum, the lady told us there was nothing like what we were looking for. We left because that wasn't really the museum that we wanted to see, and decided to stop at the Nature museum along the way to the Bank Museum (which we really wanted to see). Of course that museum is like the children's science museum, so we spent the day playing with displays for children. When we left, we came across a playground. To continue the trend of the day, we were sure to play for a while before leaving to go to the bank museum, but it was unfortunately already closed.

Instead, we walked through the city quite a bit, saw the royal palace, the river, and some other local sites. Then, instead of seeing any more official sites, we decided to enjoy the sunny weather and sit outside at a cafe for a while. When we finished eating, we hopped the train for another 3 hours back home.