western hungary

So sorry about the recent lack of blog posts! I have been super busy, and on the occasions where I do get internet, I’m so busy checking e-mails (and, who are we kidding, facebook), that I don’t get to blogging. Some of my good friends from Tulane who are studying in Prague for the semester were here last weekend, which was a blast, then I had another full week of class, complete with a field trip that I’ll write about later. This has been another weekend. We spent Friday and today traveling through Western Hungary, then tomorrow morning we’re headed off to the Danube Bend. I’m using the internet right now at a friends apartment, so I figured I’d give everyone a quick update on the weekend so far while it’s all fresh in my mind.
We woke up disgustingly early on Friday to meet up with our group at Hero’s square and all load up on the bus. Our first stop for the day was a Benedictine Abby at Pannonhalma. It was a gorgeous tour. We watched a quick video on the life of the monks there, then went on a tour of the grounds. It was on the top of a hill in a very peaceful location with a breathtaking view. We saw the chapel that they pray in, the boarding school that they run, and the most impressive library I have ever seen. It was stocked with books from floor to ceiling and covered with gorgeous art. If all libraries were like that, I might have a chance of actually spending more time in them.
After seeing the Abbey and stopping for a quick lunch, we headed to Veszprem, that’s called the Queen’s City. It was an adorable town with all these cute little squares. While we were there we climbed up into the fire tower, which used to be used to keep a watch of fires in the town, but now just gives a great view. Once we snapped enough pictures, we got to take a tour of the Archbishop’s Palace which was randomly open for the public to see that day. Not only did we get to put on the funniest little booties over out shoes to keep from messing up the floors, but we had the absolute most adorable little old lady as our tour guide while our program director served as a translator. She was so proud to show us all of the artifacts there, and kept saying how sweet we all were. When one of the girls wished her a long life (she was already 81) in Hungarian, she even cried. We all wanted to take her along with us for the rest of the trip.
Unfortunately, we had to leave her behind as we headed off to Nagyvázsony, where we spent the night at an adorable hotel/restaurant. The town itself was also charming, definitely a place I’d love to return to. We went to go see ruins of Paul Kiniszi’s fortress, which were astounding. It’s weird to think of all the history that took place right where we were sitting. Then we were treated by the program to an incredible dinner that we supplemented with a few bottles of wine, before a good nights sleep.
This morning we went to the Herund porcelain factory. We got a tour of a mini factory to see how all the pieces are made, and wow those people have a steady hand and lotsss of patience. Then we got our own try at it while we made some porcelain roses. Let’s just say, I don’t think I’ll be getting a job there anytime soon. We got to go to the museum, which had all of their patterns. I never thought that I’d be someone with much of an appreciation for porcelain, but this stuff was awesome.
After grabbing lunch (and a beer), we went off to a small town that is on the edge of Lake Balaton. We decided to be brave and walk down the monster hill (and unfortunately later back up it) to test out the waters for ourselves. It was freezing. Us girls stuck with just going in up to our calves, but one of the guys, Chris, was brave enough to go completely in. After recovering from the numbness, we shopped around the town a bit. Jacqui and I both got gorgeous Pashmina scarves that we have been lusting after since we got here, and at a price of about $9, I have a feeling there will be more of them in our future. Then we made it to the bus to head back to Budapest before another adventure filled day tomorrow.
This weekend has already been so incredible, it seems weird that there is more in front of us. It was nice to get a chance to get out of Budapest for a bit and be somewhere a little calmer. I didn’t realize that not only would I have to adjust to living in Hungary where there is an entirely different culture and language, but I’m also having to adjust to life in the big city. So many times this weekend we would just step back and realize that we’re traveling through small towns in Hungary seeing incredible things that so few people get the chance to see. The phrase “our lives are incredible” basically sums it up.
However, these incredible lives do get exhausting, so I better wrap this one up, since we’re meeting up at the train station early tomorrow morning. I hope to be better about updating this though, since I already have things from before stored up to blog about. Hope everyone is doing well and I’d love to hear from all of you!
<3 ali