Budapest is the Best

For my first weekend trip (and the first out of the program excluding Oktoberfest) me and 6 other girls got together and traveled to Budapest, Hungary.

We took a train, which was about a five or six hour ride. It was awesome, mostly because it was my first experience with European trains. We went on the OBB, which is Austria's train system, for the trip there. It was nice and clean and not too full, thankfully. Though it did arrive 10 mins late, and through the travel and after a 20 min "breakdown" we arrived just over an hour late in Budapest.

Since we pulled in so late (10pm) we just dealt with heading to and checking in at the hostel, showers, and sleep.
This was my delicious meal that I got made to order on the train ride. So delicious!
On or first full day in Budapest we grabbed a breakfast of pastries at a bakery nearby. We tried to go to the Synagogue, but it was the Sabbath, so only Hungarians were let in.

We then opted for a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour which we used for the entire day. It was great because it ran us by and let of get off at all the main tourist things to see in the city. With our ticket we also got an hour long boat tour on the Danube which we did at the end of the day.

Fisherman's Bastian was build in 1901 and was named because that part of the city was historically defended by the fisherman's guild. It was my favorite piece of architecture that we saw in Budapest.

 On our second day in the city we went to the great Synagogue, which happened to be just a few blocks from our hostel. It was beautiful. Some neat features were that inside there were a few details that usually only show up in Christian churches, like the cupola above the bema. And there was a pulpit on either side of the main floor area. These were added because of one of the local sects of Jews which only developed in the Hungary area were trying to slightly assimilate with the Catholics.

 Another feature was the number of holocaust memorials in the synagogue. The "garden" was filled with mass graves of the dead from the ghetto who were storied there until Budapest was liberated and then were buried there. All the headstones around the mass graves mark those that are buried there, and later those locals that were known to have died during the Holocaust. For the 20th anniversary of the liberation of the ghetto they planted the trees and ivy over the graves.

This Tree of Life is a memorial to all Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust. Each of their names are engraved on a leaf. It was such a moving place. The also had memorials to those non-Jews who risked their lives to help save their Jewish neighbors, friends, or even complete strangers.

 I also dragged the whole group to this super cool "ruin" bar that was in one of the girl's guidebooks. We went on Sunday at 5pm so it was pretty empty, but that just meant it was easier to get good pictures. I really loved it, so unique. If it wasn't such a rainy day I would have sat in the outside back courtyard, but instead I wandered through the two inside levels.

 Overall the city was Amazing! I really loved it. I'm hoping that at some point in my life I'll have the opportunity to return and live there for an extended period of time.

For all of  the pictures I took while in Budapest find them on Facebook or through this link: http://bit.ly/b1OoXV

Football

I've always heard that Football(soccer for those of you who aren't hip and European :p) is much more popular in Europe compared to America.  My main experience with soccer was the few times I went to my little brother's soccer game, which was eight or ten years ago. Beyond that, even when my friends were watching the world cup this summer I don't think I saw more than 10 mins total. But when we'd been here for less than a week and Manchester City was here to play against the local Salzburg team, I decided I had to go.

Let's start with this. Manchester fans are crazy. We all piled into a bus with a ton of them as well. It took us 10 minutes or more for them just to get the bus doors closed so we could get moving. And the whole time the City fans were yelling and chanting and banging on the ceiling. Their chants ranged from just repetitions of "City, Manchester City" to really lewd ones. Possibly my favorite one they sang is below:

On away days, my girlfriend says

"Stay in bed and I'll give you head"
Sorry Love, I must refuse,

I'm off to see the Mighty Blues!

34 Years and we're still here
34 Years and we're still here
34 Years and we're still here

Lewd, right? But so funny. And so, about 10 mins(walking) from the stadium the bus broke down, I'm guessing from too many people. So we all had to walk the rest of the way, and the guys in front of us for some reason were singing Taylor Swift "Love Song" over and over again.

The actual game was pretty cool. We got student tickets and spent the first half standing at the back of all the crowds in the student section, but at half time we sneaked our way down to second row goal side. And that was amazing. Since the Salzburg team is sponsored by Red Bull we all got cardboard that was made to be folded into fans to be used as noise makers with large Red Bull Salzburg logo's on them. I didn't bring my camera but here are a few pictures others took at the game.

    

All photo's c/o Michelle M.

London Tour Part 2

Walked past the Tower of London, but again, they wanted an arm, a leg, or a head, for entry. Though, this green area around the tower used to be a moat! And on the left is Tower Bridge as we walked across it. Lower left is another view of the Thames festival from across the river.

    

    

We were dropped off for lunch at Covet Gardens(above right). It was a great array of shops, food, people and street performers. After a delicious sandwich and tomato soup we walked down to Trafalgar square.

      

There were no pictures allowed but we did also wander through the free galleries at the Tate Modern. Which were very cool, if not a little too modern for my enjoyment.

      

London Bridge opening. More street performers and a beautiful covered plaza at the Thames festival, and Millenium bridge (aka: the one in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

And, speaking of Harry Potter, I of course had to make it down to Platform 9 3/4. Finding it was tough though. We followed the book's directions, but to start with there is no pedestrian area between platforms 9 and 10. Secondly, there is a lot of construction currently going on those platforms. So, I finally found someone to point me in the right direction, ignoring Brian & Jess telling me to give up. But, sadly, it's located off of platform 8.

    

Then there's also the super steep escalators of the tube stations. And a beautiful gate: I don't know what it is about Europe but they have unicorns everywhere.

    

So London was great! ALL of the pictures I took while there can be found on Facebook, or through this link if you don't have a facebook: http://bit.ly/daDfWh
*photo of my taken by Jess

London Tour Part 1

Our full day in London started with an early wake up so we could have a bus tour of the whole city.

We started in much more posh neighborhoods, where prices were a million pounds and up. They were beautiful but kinda discouraging to the vague idea I've always had of picking up everything and moving to London. We, of course, visited some of the more notable destinations:

Buckingham Palace. And the great thing is because the Union Jack is flying above the palace it means that the queen was not at home. So the palace was open for touring but it cost an arm and a leg to get in, so we just got the view from the outside. The bad thing about the queen being gone is that the full glory of the changing of the guards didn't happen.

              

  Westminster Abby. And below, The Clock Tower, which houses the bell, Big Ben. As well as a super cute yellow car!

Next: St. Paul's Cathedral (from the bus), The Globe Theater across the river from the millenium bridge, Jess & Brian, the Thames festival!

     

    

This was something really neat that we got to experience. The Thames festival was going on so all along the Thames there were booths with merchants, music, food, and activities. It was such a cool part of London culture we got to see.

Hello Helicopter

Let's start with this: Cantelope is very juicy and takes a long time to cut up. But the ability to eat this delicious little fruit is way worth it. On our shopping excursion yesterday, we browesed through the Interspar in the Europark. I've had this idea to look for cantelope for a day or so now, and suddenly it was there! Which is wonderful since I haven't seen it anywhere else. I've also learned that I have no idea how to tell if a cantelope is ripe. I was looking it over. Kinda squeezing it. Smelling it. Really hoping that I would have the sudden realization of what I was looking for. But overall, it turned out to be a fine pick, if only just a little bit over ripe.

Backtracking: London

My trip began last Thursday so early in the morning. My flight left Boise at 6:40ish am, and I finally arrived in London the next day around 1pm. Most of that trip was boring. A lot of sleeping. On my international flight I got to watch Iron Man 2, finally, as well as Letters to Juliet. I got to wander around the area our hotel was in for a few hours then, cause our rooms weren’t ready yet. That night we had a meet and greet with everyone on the trip and then all broke apart to get food. I ended up with a few others at an Italian restaurant just down the road. We then headed to Piccadilly Circus for a night out on the town. While others headed to a club we ended up wandering into a giant Irish pub. It was great. Not oh too packed, and the music selection was ridiculous. Within a half hour I have happily sung along to MC Hammer, The Killers, and Bon Jovi. Luckily we called it an early night so we could catch the last subway home.

And here's the messed up contents of my main suitcase. For an entire semester, I think I did pretty good at packing light.