MY WEEKEND IN BUDAPEST (Oct 26-28)

Friday, October 26
This weekend, the international students had the opportunity to sign up for the Buddy Network trip to Budapest, Hungary. We got up very early on Friday morning (about 6am) so that we could catch the morning U-Bahn (Vienna = underground train). Connie, Nirveen, Julie, Candy, Christine, and I met the rest of the group out front of school, and loaded the bus at around 7:45. There was a pretty big group of students going, so we got a double-decker tour bus! This thing was huge! My group of friends hurried to the upstairs part, and got seats in the very front, so we could see out the big window and be close to the movie screen. We are a quite diverse group of people:
Candy, Julie, Connie, Vanessa = Asian background from Canada
Nirveen = Indian background from Canada
Al = Indian background from Texas
Christine = Vietnamese from Texas
James = New Zealander
Patrick and Nick= Atlanta, GA natives
Will D.= From PA, but goes to school in Georgia
Me = Kentucky kid
Evan = Canada
Gabby = Australia
Will T. = "skinny little Englishman"

We arrived in Budapest around noon on Friday. The first thing that we did was stop at this huge shopping center to get a bite to eat. Christine and I were determined to be cultural, so we went to the craziest looking food stand and ordered. We were quite proud of ourselves, because everyone else seemed to be getting McDonalds or pizza..... until we later learned from Candy that we had actually eaten a Hungarian version of Greek food..... so much for the Hungarian experience! :)

After eating lunch, we got back on our bus and took a 3 hour bus tour of the entire city! We passed around the largest park in Budapest, saw Parliment, took crazy pictures in Heroes Square (where there are several statues and monuments celebrating important Hungarian figures in history), saw some beautiful views from the chain bridge (of the Danube river, which seperates Budapest into its two parts: Buda and Pest). The coolest part of the tour was when we went up on the big hill and saw the Citadel fortress and the Fisherman's Bastion in the Castle District of Budapest (Budapest is actually pronounced "Buda-pesht" by the locals). The scenery from on top of the mountain was absolutely beautiful! We had the best panorama view of Buda and Pest!

After our awesome city tour, we headed to the Rila Hotel where we would be staying for the next few days. Nirveen, Connie, and I were on the top floor. When we got up there, our room was kind of split into two seperate rooms. Not wanting any one of us to sleep alone, we took charge of the situation and moved one of the beds out the door and into the larger of the rooms. Who needs men?! We executed the furniture removal perfectly! Way to go, girls. The bad thing about our room was the shower. After taking a nice, long, relaxing shower before dinner, we realized that the drain didn't work.... and we (well.... it was actually just me... but girls stick together!) flooded the floor.... and some of the hallway... whoops. It wouldn't be a trip if Amanda didn't break something, after all!!! :)

After showering and swimming out of the 4th floor, we headed out to dinner. Only a few people in our big group signed up for the Buddy Network's optional meal, so we (along with Joe, Steve, and Ralph = The Bostons) just explored along the river in search of a place. A man on the street pointed us in the direction of a little restaraunt called Oliva. We walked inside, and Oliva turned out to be a very beautiful two-level restaraunt. We were a little concerned about the price, but decided to sit down and check it out. The menu looked good and was VERY CHEAP! We were pumped. Nirveen, Christine, and I decided to order a few things and just split it. We got a Veal and dumplings dish, grilled honey mustard chicken with fries, and the traditional Gulashe Suppe (Gulash soup!). The meal turned out to be some of the most amazing food that I've had in years! It was perfect! :) -- The funny part came when we were paying for the meal. So, in Hungary, they use a currency called the Forint. It is very colorful little money. 1000 Florints are worth 4 Euro... so a little less than 6 US Dollars. Our final bill ended up coming to 27,000 Florints!!!! I felt like I was spending SO much money, but when I figured up my personal bill, I only spent 5 Euros total! Our entire group got out of there for about $150 US dollars... and there were about 13 or 14 of us! It was so cheap and VERY delicious. We were hungry in Hungary!

Coming back from dinner, we ran into three guys who study at Tulane University in New Orleans. They were wearing the same shoes (Wallabys) as Joe, so they all thought that was awesome, and we stopped and chatted with them for a bit. We also walked along this random street, and ended up smack dab in front of St. Stephen's Basillica (named for the first king of Hungary). At night, the huge church looked amazing! After walking for a while, Jess (originally from Vegas, but studying in Atlanta), and I were a little too tired to go to the club, so we just decided to walk around the city for a little longer and see more if it at night. We consulted our trusty map and found the Synagogue of Budapest. This synagogue is the 2nd largest in the world, and was also just breath-takingly beautiful. Jess is Jewish, so she really really loved seeing it. After that, we successfully navigated our way back to the hotel, hung out with Canada Julie for a bit, and then headed to bed around 2am.

Saturday, October 27
The next morning came pretty early! P.S. -- Happy 55th Birthday, Dad!!!!!!! We got up and had the regular European breakfast of ham, bread, and funny eggs before heading out on another adventure. At 11am, I met up with some of the people in the buddy network group (including Jess and Anna from Canada) to go to the famous Budapest Thermal Baths called Spa Szechenyi. Well, in the spirit of un-modest Europeans, this bath house was NO different. We had to change into our suits in this very open room..... ugh. That was probably the fastest that I've changed clothes in my life!!! :) Now, at first I was a little apprehensive of getting in a bathing suit in front of a bunch of strangers, but once I got there.... I was completely comfortable.... and didn't look too bad compared to the tons of old people! :) I looked pretty good, haha.

When we were leaving the baths, we randomly ran into two guys that Jess goes to college with who are studying in Prague this semester..... RANDOM! I love running into people like that. So cool! :)

After leaving the baths, I headed off to meet up with my people at the crazy market. Anna, Jess, and I navigated around the city and ended up in this huge building with every kind of food that you could ever want, and some of the most random little trinkets. In Budapest, they have these deserts (that dad told me to look for) that are a cone-shaped thing with honey and nuts on the outside called Kurtoskalacs. It was very yummy (as was the strudel that everyone had... yum), and I even got the recipe for dad to try them out.

We had a nice walk around the market, and then decided to go learn something! We went to the other side of town to the Terror Hàza (the House of Terror). The House of Terror is a museum now, but it used to be home to two different and tragic things in Budapest. In 1944, Hungary was dominated by the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party, and this building was known then as the "House of Loyalty," but was actually the headquarters for the Hungarian Nazi party. Then, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this building was home to communist terrorist organizations. Since then, it has been known as a house of "terror and dread." The museum was set up to commemorate all of the millions of victims of the communist and Nazi occupation, and serves as a reminder to the Hungarian people about the terrible acts of the terrorist dictatorships of the time. -- We got to see several cells in the dungeon of the Terror House. Once cell really freaked us all out, because it was completely dark, and you couldn't stand up in it. The victims put in there would just have to sit or lay down all day. Also, one fact about this place was that a lot of people committed suicide, because conditions were so bad and crazy. We also saw a lot of Communist propaganda, the china set that the leaders ate off of, an actual Nazi army tank, real uniforms, etc. This museum was VERY powerful, and I'll definately never forget it. The main quote of the Terror Hàza was by Attila Jozsef: "A mùltat be kell vallani" (Which means, "The past must be acknowledged."

For dinner that night, we all went with the Buddy Network to the Mongolian Barbecue, which was an all-you-can-eat place. This food rivaled the food from the night before! It was delicous! The coolest part was that you picked out what meats you wanted, and then the cooks prepared them right in front of you! We could choose from rabbit, horse (I know!), beef, duck, chicken, and a few others. I ate with Evan, Julie, and Patrick. Beside us were Connie, Candy, Christine, and Nirveen. When they told us All You Can Eat..... we took them at their word! Those 4 teeny-tiny girls ate a total of 13 desserts together! The waitress just kept coming, and they just kept eating!!! It was halarious! Afterwards, James said he had a completely new outlook on all women. :)

After dinner we went to the Soho London club, where they played a lot of random American music. A guy who looked like Bob Marley kept trying to dance with me, so Evan became my wingman and kept me safe the whole night... thanks, buddy!

Sunday, October 28
We got up early again and had a wierd ham and rolls breakfast. The group got together and headed out to the HUGE Parliment building on the river. We all laughed, because of the level of security that we had to go through. Evan (who looks a lot like Ryan Cabrerra, a cute blonde pop singer), got searched by a buff female guard. You should have seen his face! :) To keep track of all of us, they put these red watch-looking things on our wrists. We all started talking in "hushed tones" into our watches and pretended to be CIA agents. Then we got some wierd looks from the actual security guards, so we stopped. :) We got to see the main meeting hall, the dome room, the original crown of the first king of Hungary, and a few other beautiful rooms. This had to be the prettiest Parliment building that I've ever seen. The conference hall where all of the deputies meet is done almost entirely in gold. Even the flat screen TVs had gold around them! :) I want one!

To get around Budapest, we had to take the old subway system, which was the first underground system in Europe. Since this line was so special, a cute little song would play at every stop.... but after a while, we wanted to kill the little flute that would play! It was the wierdest subway ever, because it kind of sounded like a carnival ride. Every time that the song would play, it sounded like somebody had won a prize! haha.

My friends and I split off from the main group after Parliment and headed back to the Castle District. I had a very hard time communicating with the locals (since not a lot of them speak English), but finally we figured out how to take the bus up to the top of the hill. Once we were at the top, we went into the Budavàri Labirintus (Buda Castle Labyrinth). These Budapest people must have been on something when they built this place underground. It was like a huge cave with random rooms in it that twisted and turned everywhere. In one room, there was a HUGE stone face in the ground, and in another a wine fountain that you could taste. Some of the different themes included: Labyrinth of another world, labyrinth of love, of courage, the ivy grotto, and the prehistoric labyrinth (complete with cave paintings!). At one point, the caves got pitch black, so our group all held hands and made a train, with Evan leading the way. We definately bonded in this very strange labyrinth! It was a lot of fun, though!

We met back up with the entire group to get on the bus at 5:30pm. While on the bus, we got to taste several different Hungarian wines, which was fun (some people had a little more fun than others, lol). We finally arrived safely back in Vienna at 10pm. This trip was great!