so as weird as it sounds, this weekend was a pretty relaxed one. it was our first long weekend, so jacque and i were the only ones on the program who were around and not traveling. my friend courtney from tulane was in town from brussels, so we had a great time showing her around the city.
she got into town on thursday night, so we took her out to dinner at marxim- our favorite pizza place. it's quite an experience. the restaurant has a communist theme, and the pizza's have names like "pussy pussy monica and bill." but the pizza is awesome and the beer is cheap, so it has quickly become a favorite of ours.
friday we did a lot of site seeing around pest. it was absolutely freezing though - the coldest it's been yet. saturday we decided to go for a change of scenery, so jacque, courtney, and i woke up at 5 in the morning to make our way to the train station. we headed to pecs, a city in the south part of hungary, about a 3 and a half hour train ride away.
pecs was an adorable little town. it was fun to wander around a new place with no guide book to tell us where to go. we got there starving, so our first priority was to find breakfast. "breakfast" ended up coming in the form of incredible desserts and the largest coffees that i have seen since i've been here, so we were pretty excited about that. after that we made our way to a mosque that had been transformed into a catholic church. it was cool to see the combination of both types of symbols in one building. after that we found the big basilica, which was amazing how beautifully and elaborately decorated it was. one of the main attractions in pest is the early christian underground burial chamber. we saw one, but i have a feeling we didn't get the full experience since we left not entirely sure what the glass covered room was.
after that we wandered around a little more before meeting up with garret and tyla, who were spending the weekend there. we headed to lunch and ice cream with them, before taking the train back.
sunday courtney and i spent wandering aroud margaret island and buda. along the river in buda we saw the craziest little outdoor art exhibit. using a panoramic shot of the city, secondary and university students had created what they imagined the city would look like in 2056, a hundred years after the 1956 revolution (more about that later). the best part of the display was the music - while we were looking at it, we heard the beatles, frank sinatra, and some kind of indian music. once we saw that and got our fill of buda, we met up with jacque and made our way to the szechenyi baths. it was about 6:30 when we got there, and cold and dark, so the idea of changing into our bikinis was slightly horrifying, but so worth it. the outdoor baths are heated, and the steam looks gorgeous in the courtyard of such a beautiful building. we hit up the indoor ones and the sauna too, and left feeling incredibly relaxed and refreshed.
courtney left yesterday morning, and then jacque and i spent the day at her apartment catching up on work and the internet. things got interesting though when we headed back to figure out what the McCafe was right by my apartment. as we were walking in we noticed tons and tons of police cars and ambulances rushing a couple of blocks away, but we didnt pay them much attention. but as we were leaving, we noticed the tram line and a lot of streets were shut down so we knew something was going on. we hurried the couple of blocks next to my apartment and turned on the t.v. to see that hundreds of police officers in riot gear were right where we had been ten minutes before. today is the anniversary of the 1956 attempted communist revolution, when hungarians overthrew the communists, then the soviets brought in tanks and stopped the revolution. last year the riots turned crazy- the t.v. station got overtaken and a lot of tear gas was used. we called our RD to find out what was going on, since all the news is in hungarian, and she basically told us everything was fine but not to leave our apartment.
as of today things are a lot calmer, but i'm at jacque's apartment which is outside of the city, so i'm not sure what's going on back where i live.
anyhow, among all this craziness, i have a history midterm tomorrow, so i better get back to studying! it's hard to believe that 2 months from today i'll be back in the states. time is definitely flying (and having a 2 day week this week should help!) it should be a good week after i get through with the midterm - poland on thursday, i can test the pierogies already!
<3 ali
more pictures
this weekend:
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067536&l=80439&id=2808002
random budapest: http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067541&l=04b19&id=2808002
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
transylvania: vampire count = 0
i haven't fallen off the face of the earth! things have just been insanely busy, so blogging has lagged behind. but before it gets too far in the past, i better get my act together and report on the trip of transylvania!
after waking up insanel
y early and taking a insanely long bus ride (with pee breaks wayyy to frequently) all the way to transylvania, our first stop was a big outdoor market, one that is only open for a week of every year. to be completly honest, i could have turned around and gone home right then and there. it was absolutely freezing and it was raining, and our bus was parked way far away, so we had to walk down the side of a narrow street with semis blowing past us. but after a miserable couple of hours, the trip perked up. we made our way to a small hungarian village we were staying in, and there split up into our host families. i ended up staying with a woman named ibi and her husband istvan. they were absolutely incredible, even though we had a hard time communicating, as it was all based off of our tiny hungarian vocab
skills. they had a pig, which we decided to name norbert after they laughed when we asked his name, along with some chickens, and a dog who was actually named rex who was chained to the outhouse. and yes. i did say outhouse. and transylvania's temp averaged around 0°C during the day. so going at night was always an experience. not only would you wake up the rooster and have him "cockle doodle doo"-ing at 3 in the morning, but it was absolutely freezing. and i of course had the extremely smart (and possibly palinka influenced...) decision to go out there in shorts and a t shirt. times like that i was glad steph, jacque, and i were all stuck in the same bed, thank god for body heat.
during the trip we did a lot of sight seeing. lots of churches, as always. we went to another market place where we got to see a man make chess sets, and then we did a lot of shopping a
round. transylvanians are into beautiful textiles, all made by hand. 2 families invited us into their houses to see their "clean rooms" where they had gorgeous beaded and embroidered textiles and clothing. another night, a family had us in to see them do a traditional hungarian dance performance. another major site for us was seeing people skinning a cow on the side of the road, and deciding that we should stop and watch. intenseeee. i'll spare everyone the site of that (but it is in the photo album) but we saw the cutest old lady there.
every morning and night we were given some of the absolute best food ever home cooked by ibi. breakfasts were huge spreads of cold cuts, jams, breads, and cheese. dinner she'd make soup, cabbage rolls, or potatos with pork chops. it was definitely an authentic and hearty dining experience. and of course every meal started with shots. our last night there was istvan's 55th birthday, so we got to celebrate with him by having an even bigger feast than normal, plus more palinka and beer from the bar. we were sad to have to say bye to our family, and we exchanged gifts with them. they gave us cutting boards that istvan made himself, and we loaded them up with chocolates and wine.
on the way back to budapest, we stopped in the same place we stopped on the fir
st day for the market. the last day of the market, it turns into an animal market. it was a wild experience. there were trucks everywhere carrying cows and sheep, and horse drawn carriages running around. andrew even got his foot run over by a truck, but luckily it turned out to just result in a bad bruise. the market was fascinating, but at the same time hard to take in. there was a sheep being skinned right next to two other live sheep. it was insanely dirty, and the animals weren't all in the best shape. but it was one of those things that we couldn't look at through american eyes.
overall, transylvania is nothing i expected, but so much more. there were no thunderstorms and vampires, but instead an incredibly different society from anything i've ever experienced. it was a place where it was entirely normal for cows to be wandering our street in the morning, and for horse drawn wagons to be the main form of communication. it's weird how the things that i take for granted and assume everyone does is not the way at life at all for people in other parts of the world. transylvania is a place i'll never forget, and not just because of the outhouse...
<3 ali
p.s.- pictures:
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066898&l=e3998&id=2808002
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066904&l=149e9&id=2808002
after waking up insanel
y early and taking a insanely long bus ride (with pee breaks wayyy to frequently) all the way to transylvania, our first stop was a big outdoor market, one that is only open for a week of every year. to be completly honest, i could have turned around and gone home right then and there. it was absolutely freezing and it was raining, and our bus was parked way far away, so we had to walk down the side of a narrow street with semis blowing past us. but after a miserable couple of hours, the trip perked up. we made our way to a small hungarian village we were staying in, and there split up into our host families. i ended up staying with a woman named ibi and her husband istvan. they were absolutely incredible, even though we had a hard time communicating, as it was all based off of our tiny hungarian vocab
skills. they had a pig, which we decided to name norbert after they laughed when we asked his name, along with some chickens, and a dog who was actually named rex who was chained to the outhouse. and yes. i did say outhouse. and transylvania's temp averaged around 0°C during the day. so going at night was always an experience. not only would you wake up the rooster and have him "cockle doodle doo"-ing at 3 in the morning, but it was absolutely freezing. and i of course had the extremely smart (and possibly palinka influenced...) decision to go out there in shorts and a t shirt. times like that i was glad steph, jacque, and i were all stuck in the same bed, thank god for body heat.during the trip we did a lot of sight seeing. lots of churches, as always. we went to another market place where we got to see a man make chess sets, and then we did a lot of shopping a
round. transylvanians are into beautiful textiles, all made by hand. 2 families invited us into their houses to see their "clean rooms" where they had gorgeous beaded and embroidered textiles and clothing. another night, a family had us in to see them do a traditional hungarian dance performance. another major site for us was seeing people skinning a cow on the side of the road, and deciding that we should stop and watch. intenseeee. i'll spare everyone the site of that (but it is in the photo album) but we saw the cutest old lady there.every morning and night we were given some of the absolute best food ever home cooked by ibi. breakfasts were huge spreads of cold cuts, jams, breads, and cheese. dinner she'd make soup, cabbage rolls, or potatos with pork chops. it was definitely an authentic and hearty dining experience. and of course every meal started with shots. our last night there was istvan's 55th birthday, so we got to celebrate with him by having an even bigger feast than normal, plus more palinka and beer from the bar. we were sad to have to say bye to our family, and we exchanged gifts with them. they gave us cutting boards that istvan made himself, and we loaded them up with chocolates and wine.
on the way back to budapest, we stopped in the same place we stopped on the fir
st day for the market. the last day of the market, it turns into an animal market. it was a wild experience. there were trucks everywhere carrying cows and sheep, and horse drawn carriages running around. andrew even got his foot run over by a truck, but luckily it turned out to just result in a bad bruise. the market was fascinating, but at the same time hard to take in. there was a sheep being skinned right next to two other live sheep. it was insanely dirty, and the animals weren't all in the best shape. but it was one of those things that we couldn't look at through american eyes.overall, transylvania is nothing i expected, but so much more. there were no thunderstorms and vampires, but instead an incredibly different society from anything i've ever experienced. it was a place where it was entirely normal for cows to be wandering our street in the morning, and for horse drawn wagons to be the main form of communication. it's weird how the things that i take for granted and assume everyone does is not the way at life at all for people in other parts of the world. transylvania is a place i'll never forget, and not just because of the outhouse...
<3 ali
p.s.- pictures:
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066898&l=e3998&id=2808002
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066904&l=149e9&id=2808002
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
eger wine cellars are amazing.
So we survived another group excursion! Those things are always a good time – you put 20 incredibly random Americans on a bus together and send us traveling through Hungary and it’s bound to be interesting.
After a superrr early morning meet-up at Hero Square, we got on our bus. This bus wasn’t as big and luxurious as last time, and our bus driver didn’t seen to be able to drive much faster than 50 kph, but amazingly we eventually made it to the Aggtelek caves. They were hugge (Europe’s largest under ground network), and we took a tour of them. There were tons of cool formations and everything, but the highlight was probably this huge underground performance hall. It was basically a big room of a cave, with a “stage” full of cool rock formations where they do concerts and even weddings. To give us a feel of what the acoustics were like, our tour guide put on an Enya song that went along with a light show. Pretty wild to say the least.
After grabbing lunch by the caves, we got back on the bus and headed to Szilvásvárad to see the Lippizaner horse farm there. Unfortunately it was really rainy and gross, but we looked through the museum and then got to see the horses, which of course I was incredibly excited about. The horses were gorgeous. The ones there are used for the carriage competitions, so it wasn’t quite as cool as seeing the dressage ones would be, but I still enjoyed it.
Next we headed to Eger, which is where we spent the night. We checked into our hotel (our room had 6 girls and 8 beds in it), then headed down to the Valley of Beautiful Women. Eger makes tons of wine, a special kind of red wine, called Bull’s Blood, and the valley has lots of different cellars where you can go and taste the wines for really cheap. Our favorite one was the first one that we went to. The woman who ran it made it a blast. We tried 5 wines, a white, a rosé, a Portugeuser, a Bull’s Blood, and a dry red. To serve the wine, she had a huge glass siphon type vessel, that she’d fill with wine from the barrel, then basically just shoot it into the glasses. As if it couldn’t get cooler, she then would have us lean our heads back with our mouths wide open and then she’d shoot the wine straight into our mouths. Basically the beer bong of wine. Awesome. After having dinner and visiting a couple more cellars, we ended up calling it a fairly early night.
In the morning after hitting up the hotel breakfast buffet, we went and saw some more sites around Eger. First, we stopped at the Cathedral, which was beautiful. Then, across the street, we climbed tons of stairs to see the camera obscura, basically a huge old pinhole camera that could project scenes from the entire city onto a table. It was amazing how well you could see that city from it.
Then we headed to the Eger castle, where parts of it were still standing from the Turkish occupation. There were tons of kids there playing all sorts of games and doing competitions along with people dressed up in costumes. It reminded me of some sort of Hungarian Renaissance Festival. We got a tour around and learned about some of the strategies they used to protect themselves from the Turks, some of which were pretty clever.
After a quick lunch of chicken paprika, we got back on the bus and headed to Recsk. Recsk was a death/forced labor camp that was open for 3 years during Stalin’s regime. As they ran out of room in prisons for people who most likely did nothing wrong, they’d be sent to Recsk where they’d have to do intense labor with little foood and awful conditions. It was weird being there and knowing what happened, because the site itself is in a peaceful and gorgeous area that looks more like a summer camp than anything. Learning about Stalin’s regime is shocking, especially since I knew so little about it before. It’s weird how common to not know much about it is though, considering more people died under his regime than the total number of people who died in WWII.
Last, we took the winding and slowww ride to Kékestetü, where the highest point of Hungary is. We climbed up a little bit to get to it, and saw the view there. By that time though, we were pretty ready to make it back to Budapest, so we got back on the bus after seeing it (and having a glass of mulled wine) and headed home.
This weekend in Budapest is the first annual Palinka and Sausage Festival, so we decided to rally and make it to that last night too, instead of going today. Palinka is one of Hungary’s signature drinks, a fruit brandy with all kids of flavors. We tried a few kinds (the honey peach was the best) and ate some incredible sausage. As cool as it was to try the different kinds of palinka though, Jacqui and I ended up with a beer in hand and felt a lot more satisfied. It was fun being at Castle Hill at night – we could see so much of the city there all lit up and glowing on the river.
This week should be a pretty standard one. We’re taking today to head to California Coffee Company (big coffee cups!) for some American comfort and to catch up on work. Then we’re all looking forward to this weekend – our 4 day trip to Transylvania! On the subject of traveling, I’m heading to Rome in December! Rome at Christmas time – can’t wait! It’ll be a good last trip before making the way back to the States.
<3 ali
After a superrr early morning meet-up at Hero Square, we got on our bus. This bus wasn’t as big and luxurious as last time, and our bus driver didn’t seen to be able to drive much faster than 50 kph, but amazingly we eventually made it to the Aggtelek caves. They were hugge (Europe’s largest under ground network), and we took a tour of them. There were tons of cool formations and everything, but the highlight was probably this huge underground performance hall. It was basically a big room of a cave, with a “stage” full of cool rock formations where they do concerts and even weddings. To give us a feel of what the acoustics were like, our tour guide put on an Enya song that went along with a light show. Pretty wild to say the least.
After grabbing lunch by the caves, we got back on the bus and headed to Szilvásvárad to see the Lippizaner horse farm there. Unfortunately it was really rainy and gross, but we looked through the museum and then got to see the horses, which of course I was incredibly excited about. The horses were gorgeous. The ones there are used for the carriage competitions, so it wasn’t quite as cool as seeing the dressage ones would be, but I still enjoyed it.
Next we headed to Eger, which is where we spent the night. We checked into our hotel (our room had 6 girls and 8 beds in it), then headed down to the Valley of Beautiful Women. Eger makes tons of wine, a special kind of red wine, called Bull’s Blood, and the valley has lots of different cellars where you can go and taste the wines for really cheap. Our favorite one was the first one that we went to. The woman who ran it made it a blast. We tried 5 wines, a white, a rosé, a Portugeuser, a Bull’s Blood, and a dry red. To serve the wine, she had a huge glass siphon type vessel, that she’d fill with wine from the barrel, then basically just shoot it into the glasses. As if it couldn’t get cooler, she then would have us lean our heads back with our mouths wide open and then she’d shoot the wine straight into our mouths. Basically the beer bong of wine. Awesome. After having dinner and visiting a couple more cellars, we ended up calling it a fairly early night.
In the morning after hitting up the hotel breakfast buffet, we went and saw some more sites around Eger. First, we stopped at the Cathedral, which was beautiful. Then, across the street, we climbed tons of stairs to see the camera obscura, basically a huge old pinhole camera that could project scenes from the entire city onto a table. It was amazing how well you could see that city from it.
Then we headed to the Eger castle, where parts of it were still standing from the Turkish occupation. There were tons of kids there playing all sorts of games and doing competitions along with people dressed up in costumes. It reminded me of some sort of Hungarian Renaissance Festival. We got a tour around and learned about some of the strategies they used to protect themselves from the Turks, some of which were pretty clever.
After a quick lunch of chicken paprika, we got back on the bus and headed to Recsk. Recsk was a death/forced labor camp that was open for 3 years during Stalin’s regime. As they ran out of room in prisons for people who most likely did nothing wrong, they’d be sent to Recsk where they’d have to do intense labor with little foood and awful conditions. It was weird being there and knowing what happened, because the site itself is in a peaceful and gorgeous area that looks more like a summer camp than anything. Learning about Stalin’s regime is shocking, especially since I knew so little about it before. It’s weird how common to not know much about it is though, considering more people died under his regime than the total number of people who died in WWII.
Last, we took the winding and slowww ride to Kékestetü, where the highest point of Hungary is. We climbed up a little bit to get to it, and saw the view there. By that time though, we were pretty ready to make it back to Budapest, so we got back on the bus after seeing it (and having a glass of mulled wine) and headed home.
This weekend in Budapest is the first annual Palinka and Sausage Festival, so we decided to rally and make it to that last night too, instead of going today. Palinka is one of Hungary’s signature drinks, a fruit brandy with all kids of flavors. We tried a few kinds (the honey peach was the best) and ate some incredible sausage. As cool as it was to try the different kinds of palinka though, Jacqui and I ended up with a beer in hand and felt a lot more satisfied. It was fun being at Castle Hill at night – we could see so much of the city there all lit up and glowing on the river.
This week should be a pretty standard one. We’re taking today to head to California Coffee Company (big coffee cups!) for some American comfort and to catch up on work. Then we’re all looking forward to this weekend – our 4 day trip to Transylvania! On the subject of traveling, I’m heading to Rome in December! Rome at Christmas time – can’t wait! It’ll be a good last trip before making the way back to the States.
<3 ali
Thursday, October 4, 2007
I know, it’s been forever! I’ve been keeping myself busy and that has led to fewer blogposts. But today I’m home in bed thanks to some kind of what I hope will only be a 24 hour bug (no worries, I’m fine), so at least the good part of this is that I can finally update this.
Last week was pretty uneventful. Classes are still going well, and are actually starting to feel like real classes as our books are showing up. Thursday night my apartment (Jacqui basically counts as our third roommate) threw a dinner party for one of the apartments of guys. We provided the food, they provided the desserts and wine. Jacqui and I had quite the adventure running around the market trying to find all of our ingredients. Luckily we found a cute little stand that had everything we needed, and the guys working it were very nice and played along with our attempts to communicate only in Hungarian. The cooking itself was kind of an adventure too, since we don’t quite know how to work everything in the kitchen, so there was a good amount of guess work to it. But we pulled off in my opinion a good meal of pasta, salad, and garlic bread. And the boys provided plentyyy of wine and incredible pastries, so I’d consider the evening a success.
This weekend we did a lot of taking it easy, since we had traveled the weekend before, and are traveling the next two weekends. We did some more exploring around, hit up 2 different H & M’s, went to IKEA for 100 forint hot dogs, and our biggest accomplishment was probably finding an incredible Indian food restaurant really close to my apartment. Jacqui and I had been craving Indian, so we decided to try a place we had just seen a sign to, and we were not disappointed. It’s weird that you can feel at home eating Indian food in Hungary, but we totally did.
This week I started one of my volunteering programs. One of our Hungarian teachers, Maria, also teaches at a college across the bridge from us that is mostly attended be Hungarian students from smaller towns. I’m working with students there who are taking English so they can practice their conversational skills. The students are all very nice and are trying so hard to learn the language. It’s amazing, so many of them can speak like 3 other languages. It makes me feel spoiled to have grown up with a language that I can get by with basically anywhere in the world. It feels good to be doing volunteer work in my “host country” though, like I’m getting more involved and giving something back, as small as it is.
I’m incredibly excited for this weekend. We’re leaving at 6:45 Friday morning (eek) to go on our second group excursion, this time to Northern Hungary. Our first stop is the caves of Aggtelek, then we’re headed to Szilvasvarad, what I’m the most excited for. We get to go to the Lippizaner horse farm and museum, which should be incredible. After that it’s off to Eger, where we’re staying the night. We’re making a trip down to their wine cellars, where they have their famous wine, “Bull’s Blood.” The next morning we’re doing more sights around there, then heading to Recsk (the site communist death camp) and then climbing to the highest point in Hungary before we get back to Budapest Saturday night. Wine, horses, and sites, what more could I ask for?
<3 ali
Last week was pretty uneventful. Classes are still going well, and are actually starting to feel like real classes as our books are showing up. Thursday night my apartment (Jacqui basically counts as our third roommate) threw a dinner party for one of the apartments of guys. We provided the food, they provided the desserts and wine. Jacqui and I had quite the adventure running around the market trying to find all of our ingredients. Luckily we found a cute little stand that had everything we needed, and the guys working it were very nice and played along with our attempts to communicate only in Hungarian. The cooking itself was kind of an adventure too, since we don’t quite know how to work everything in the kitchen, so there was a good amount of guess work to it. But we pulled off in my opinion a good meal of pasta, salad, and garlic bread. And the boys provided plentyyy of wine and incredible pastries, so I’d consider the evening a success.
This weekend we did a lot of taking it easy, since we had traveled the weekend before, and are traveling the next two weekends. We did some more exploring around, hit up 2 different H & M’s, went to IKEA for 100 forint hot dogs, and our biggest accomplishment was probably finding an incredible Indian food restaurant really close to my apartment. Jacqui and I had been craving Indian, so we decided to try a place we had just seen a sign to, and we were not disappointed. It’s weird that you can feel at home eating Indian food in Hungary, but we totally did.
This week I started one of my volunteering programs. One of our Hungarian teachers, Maria, also teaches at a college across the bridge from us that is mostly attended be Hungarian students from smaller towns. I’m working with students there who are taking English so they can practice their conversational skills. The students are all very nice and are trying so hard to learn the language. It’s amazing, so many of them can speak like 3 other languages. It makes me feel spoiled to have grown up with a language that I can get by with basically anywhere in the world. It feels good to be doing volunteer work in my “host country” though, like I’m getting more involved and giving something back, as small as it is.
I’m incredibly excited for this weekend. We’re leaving at 6:45 Friday morning (eek) to go on our second group excursion, this time to Northern Hungary. Our first stop is the caves of Aggtelek, then we’re headed to Szilvasvarad, what I’m the most excited for. We get to go to the Lippizaner horse farm and museum, which should be incredible. After that it’s off to Eger, where we’re staying the night. We’re making a trip down to their wine cellars, where they have their famous wine, “Bull’s Blood.” The next morning we’re doing more sights around there, then heading to Recsk (the site communist death camp) and then climbing to the highest point in Hungary before we get back to Budapest Saturday night. Wine, horses, and sites, what more could I ask for?
<3 ali
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