pecs and riots: a hungarian weekend

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