Buda Pest - get out your reading glasses... there's a lot.

14March2008 - 17March2008

We left Rome early early on Friday morning to begin our adventures in Budapest. After we got checked into our hostel and I got over the initial shock of how much money it seemed like I had withdrawn from my bank account (doesn't 15,000 Hungarian Forints sound like a lot of money?) we began our journey.

Sara and I started off just kind of walking. In the direction of the Danube. The weather was kind of drizzly kind of gray kind of not so happy... but that's how it goes. Made the best of it. The weather all weekend wasn't supposed to be fabulous, but Budapest was still going to be a great trip. :)

A common theme for the weekend seemed to be "Look! A hill! Let's climb it!" So we saw neat things up on a hill when we were down by the Danube, and naturally, we climbed.

And that's the view from Buda to Pest (I think). Parliament is that really giant building with all of the spires (there's some unnecessarily large amount of spires on that building). It's actually the third largest Parliament in the world. I don't know what's on this side of the river, but that gold-ish colored spire, I think that it's some sort of church... but it's pretty, and that's what counts. In buildings, anyway.

Fisherman's Bastion! Really cool place. Some turrets, and tower-y things.
Who wants to learn!? I did some research on this for everyone. You can thank me later.
Fisherman's Bastion has seven towers that represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled the Carpathian Basin in 896. It surrounds Matthais church and it gets it's name from the (prepared to be shocked?) guild of fisherman who defended these city walls in the Middle Ages. And it was really fun to walk around, too.

And here, in front of another tower of Fisherman's Bastion, are some falconers. You know... just chilling. With their falcon. In their ridiculous garb. They never even made the bird fly. And I was there for a while spying on them waiting for something interesting to happen. They were probably waiting for money.... go figure.

Matthias Church is Budapest's first Parish church. It was really pretty. Probably one of the prettiest cathedrals/churches/places of worship I've seen in Europe. And I've seen a lot.

Like this one! A church in a cave on the side of a hill! Because like hills. Cave Church. Pretty nifty. Leave it to the Hungarians to have a church in a cave. However, there was a mass on, so we couldn't go inside it. Yet, anyway. Remember, this was in the side of a hill.... so what did we do?

This is possibly half-way-ish up this hill. Which I would like to clarify for the record, it was more like a small mountain. Honest. This is beyond the classification of a hill. But they call it a hill. They call it Gellert Hill. I'd like to petition them to change the name to Gellert Mountain. Anyway, this is Sara. Smiling. You should know the variety of faces I got before this one... including exhaustion, shock, "big eyes", and complacent smiles.

But onward and upward, as they say!

Stop number two. We're getting kinda high, aren't we?

We reached the top! And we're all excited! Like that woman holding that feather! Less like the guy in the bottom here, beating something up. But this is what awaited us at the top of Gellert Mountain. Statues. And a citadel. And a gorgeous view:

The Danube... This is mostly Buda here. In the back, behind the second bridge that you can almost make out is Margit Island. Which is a pretty nice place, probably much nicer when it's in bloom, I would imagine.


This is Szechenyi Park. The lake isn't filled in. On the other side of the park is a dam. They're hogging all the water. Dam them! Hah... haha... okay, I'll stop with the bad puns. This place was gorgeous. And similar to other places, probably way more beautiful once we officially get the heck out of winter (Happy Spring, everyone! If you're near a Rita's, get some free water ice today ;)
In this park, where we first entered by Millenium Monument, there was a group of Native American Indians playing music. Which didn't sound Native American, it sounded more like gypsy. But they were in their full regalia, head dresses, face paint... and I began to wonder: How do Hungarians see this? For me, I learned about it, it's part of my history. It isn't really part of their's... Are they wondering what they hell these people are doing wearing feathers on their heads? Do they think it's strange? Do they have no idea where it comes from? Also... do they know that this isn't what all Indians look like? Inquiring minds need to know!


After wandering around Szechenyi Park for a while, and eating some lunch, we go back out by Millenium Monument, where they had been setting up for National Day festivities! March 15th, Hungarian National Day. First there was a guy on guitar. He was sort of lame. He had wild hair though, so points for him. Very 80s. Then some speakers, and this one man with a deep, booming voice who recited some sort of poem, we gathered. It was great listening to him speak. I don't understand a word of Hungarian, but I was captivated by this man. And then the Hungarian Dancers came out! It was really cool to watch them dance. Girls came out in dresses, it was really a fun time.

We walked down Andrassy Ut. and walked past the Terror House. We went to Terror House on Sunday, because I could go for free with my International Student Identity Card (such an excellent investment). The Terror House was probably one of my favorite things in Budapest, because I feel like I got a lot out of it. I was moved by this building. Located at 60 Andrassy Ut, it was a major headquarters for Nazi occupation and later Hungarian communism influenced by the Russians. But what made it so powerful, for me, was in the basement, where interrogation chambers and prison cells were held, were the images of all of the people who had been victimizers. Images of victims are powerful, but the actual people that committed such atrocities are so much more so. It makes monsters real people. People that could have lived down the street from you, people that you could have let your kids play with. To commit such acts, it just blows my mind. And the really scary thing is how many of them are still alive and out there.
It also made me realize that I knew the Holocaust happened, and I knew other awful things went on in Europe, and you're in class, and you think to yourself "Damn, that sucked," but then you get to Europe, and you see all the testaments to the atrocities. All the monuments, museums, buildings, and you see all the images of victims, and victimizers, you see the numbers displayed in so many other ways, the means of torture, and you get an idea that it is so much bigger and so much more devastating than you ever learned it was in US history in high school. Yeah.. that seems like a lot. I was just really moved by it. That's all. If you're in Budapest, go to Terror House. It could change your life... or at least make you look at things a little differently.

On a lighter note, Hungarian Food. Which is actually heavy. And impossible to either find, or order. Hungarians seem to like fast food, kebab, Greek, and American food more than the like their own. We got fozelek (this soup type thing) one day at a place that is known for it, and the only way we ordered is because Sara heard the girl in front of us speaking English, and asked her to help. Because at least in other Western European languages, you can kind of glean from spellings what things are... or at least find something to order. By that theory, Sara and I could have ordered soda, chocolate, and ketchup mustard or mayonnaise. But we got potato fozelek a leg of honey chicken, and this turkey thing filled with cheese, and fried. It was delicious. Sara also got a sausage in the park. I got a hamburger... which wasn't a hamburger. I don't know what it was made of. But it was delicious. Oh! And they have pickles in Hungary. I love pickles. And they don't have them in Rome.


So that was Budapest. It was really pretty and a lot of fun. And a wonderful experience. I don't think they get many American tourists there, but if you're ever in Europe and want to do something different, make Budapest one of the stops. It's really a great city... and I wish we could have stayed there longer. We didn't even get to go to the Statue Park (where all the commie statues got moved). But we did go to the Baths. And I looked goooood in my bathing suit. But also blinded everyone in the baths with my glowing white skin.

spring break from the states

Sara visited! She was in Rome for a week, and then we went to Budapest together this past weekend. It was great to see her, made me miss home a bit when she left. But we did some fun things in Rome while she was here.

Like gelato. Lots of gelato. From Old Bridge. Shameless plug for Old Bridge right here. Best gelato in Rome. Maybe all of Italy. Go there. It's delicious.

The first night she was here, she wasn't exhausted. So she got here, and we went to St. Peter's Square, because it's pretty and a good place to eat our first gelato.

Despite threatening rain, the lighting was wicked awesome. St Peter's is really pretty. And we ate our gelato and wandered around. Then we went and checked her into her hostel, which was pretty close to my residence, so it was kind of fabulous.

That night we went back to wandering. We took the Metro out to the Colosseum stop and got off. And I made Sara see the Colosseum the way I saw it the first time.

It is sooooo much better at night than during the day. It just seems bigger, more impressive, and a much more beautiful structure. It's one of those moments where you know you're standing in the presence of something great.


This is Sara. Probably photographing something growing out of a rock. Nerd.


Arch of Constantine? And the Colosseum in the background. Man, I could do everyone a favor and fact check...


Trevi Fountain! The first time I've seen it! Yeah, I'm a tourist slacker. But to be fair, I didn't do a lot of things because I knew Sara would be coming, and doing them with her sounded more fun. At the Trevi Fountain, if you stand with your back to the fountain and throw some coins in, it's said to ensure your return to Rome. So it got a whole 10 euro cents from us.

The next day we went to the Roman Forum. And! It was the last day that the forum was free. Forever. Now they're charging admission. Which is sad, because it's such a cool place to go and chill.

So this might well have been my last trip to the forum. It's all so fascinating. All this was buried. There was a church built behind the temple of Augustino that used his columns to make a portico. Ruins are a pretty fun part of Rome.

We went to the Colosseum next. I finally paid admission and went into it. And I was a little bit underwhelmed. I have to stop expecting things of greatness to change my life. Because I get the impression it just isn't going to happen. But it was still pretty cool.


Daytime at the Colosseum!


Hahahaha, I just couldn't even help myself. This one is for you, Pop. :)


There be lions here. Well, back in the day. And maybe even a bear or two. At least that's what I gleaned from a display case in the upper level of the Colosseum.

And here be Gladiators. Pretty remarkable stuff, the architectural skill involved with making a place of this magnitude. And all without a numeric value for zero. I'm impressed, Ancient Rome. Very impressed.

We went to the Capuchini Bone Chapel. Which was wicked awesome. No pictures were allowed :( But seriously, it was six rooms intricately decorated with the bones of monks. And some of the monks were standing full skeletons in their robes. And some of them had mummified a little bit in an effort to give me nightmares. It was sooooo creepy. But the designs they made with the bones was actually really really cool.

We took it easy a lot. I was in school all week, too, and I was doing my best to get my assignments done (begrudgingly). Sara made delicious food. There was a lot of bread, melty cheeses, exotic veggies, and 2 euro wine involved. And then, Friday morning, we got up at stupid o'clock to get a taxi to Fiumicino to take W!zzAir to Budapest.

More on that later ;)

Amsterdam - PG

February 28-March 1, 2008

So, here's Amsterdam. I have a problem, though, every time I sit down to write this entry, I never know how to... and I've sat down a couple of times to write it, unsuccessfully.

I think it's because we didn't do a lot, but there is a lot in Amsterdam that's the problem. We only had one full day there. And half of that day, it rained. And we were really tired by the time we got to Amsterdam. The break was almost over, and I was sort of aching to come back to Rome for sleeping in my own bed, and making my own food (even though European food is great, it is not cheap, and I can't sit around eating it in my pajamas if I'm not in my apartment...)

Anyway, being in Amsterdam, there are some more canals to be had! Amsterdam is shaped sort of like an onion... or it resembles an onion because of the way the canals break up the land in a horseshoe shape, like an onion.

It was a dreary cloudy day when we got there, unfortunately.

The Dam square was kind of cute, it had the National Monument on one side, and this parliamentary house on the other... that's not it... it's a Palace, sort of. But Napoleon's brother made it that way when the French were there, and they don't really use it as such anymore. There was also a Madam Tussauds, but we didn't waste our money. But there were cute ponies in the square.



This is the weigh station. The canal comes up right behind it and ends right there, so ships can make port, and then they would weight their goods, etc. However, it eventually became a place where groups (I can't remember the proper term) but mason's would be here, or surgeons... their club meetings sort of went on here. They used to have beheadings right in front of this place, and then they would perform the autopsies here. Apparently one leader used to get his kicks by watching the autopsies. What a creep. Now it's a restaurant. Guilds! That's the word... guild member meetings :)

And here it is from down the canal and at night. Kinda pretty.

And walking back from there, I walked past this bookstore with one book in the window. And I couldn't for the life of me figure out why there was one book, and then I look back and discover the whole room has just this one particular book in it. Hundreds of copies. I look closer.

It's Dionetics. Apparently the Dutch enjoy Scientology. Good for them. I walked away quickly before I could be offered a free screening.


Back when the plague hit Amsterdam, this is where all of the orphan children went when their parents died. It started out as all boys, but they changed their minds when all these poor girls needed a place to stay. And above the door, that's the sign for Holland. The three Xs in theory might be three St. Anthony's crosses, who was the patron saint of sailors. Or it might have been the way sailors (mostly illiterate) would sign their names. That's how it goes. That girl, she was our free tour guide in Amsterdam. She was kind of awkward, and really quiet one on one...

This adorable little child was feeding pigeons. I couldn't even help myself.

This is the smallest house in Amsterdam. It is only 1.8 meters wide, and it remains as such all the way back. I don't even know how that works... It's the little red sliver in the middle. Just something interesting.

And of course, the Red Light District. Named as such for the red lights that line the street. It was depressing.

Anyway, I'm getting a migraine again (no way!) so I can't type much more. If anyone wants to know any more about anything, let me know.

Amsterdam was lots of fun, and with more time, and in better weather, I think it would have been an infinitely more amazing time. But we did the best with what we had. And I really enjoyed my spring break. But it was definitely nice to come back to Rome with my own bed and sit around in my pajamas.

Sara comes this weekend and stays until a week from Monday. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures of me and her, prossibly. I can't wait :)

We're ridiculous and we love it - Belgium

February 25-28,2008

That's their motto, up there. Absolutely ridiculous.

Brussels was the most modern city we visited, I'd say. And by modern, I really mean most American city in appearance. A lot of new structures. There were the old structures, too, but definitely a lot of new construction, whereas things in Paris seemed old.

I adored Belgium. I don't know if I adored it in the sense that I could vacation there, but there was a definite feeling of livability there. And the food. Oh gosh. Delish.

We got there and wandered around - our usual new city ritual. We came upon this square, which I'm sure has a name... somewhere.

It was pretty at night. A whole bunch of gothic style buildings on this square, and when they were lit up at night, it was a nice sight to see. We had plans to get some beers one of the nights we were there, and sit in the square, and be Belgian. But it rained, so that didn't work out.

And then some more wandering happened, which led us to Manneken Pis. Which is kind of what Brussels is know for, apparently. It's a small statue. Very small. Of a little boy, you know... peeing. Apparently these things were all over the place, back in the day. They were fountain toppers. At least, that's something I heard. Accuracy is entirely disputable.

But, not for nothing, finding him was how we found our favorite waffle place :)

These waffle were so delicious. I rocked the sugared waffle and the chocolate one. Carolyn went for the fancier ones with fruit and chocolate. Mine were soooooooo good though. Part of it is just the deliciousness of the waffle. And nearby our waffle place was Kebab Street. Let me tell you about my newfound love of Kebabs. I'm addicted. It's taking all of my energy to not go out searching for kebabs in Rome. I had this one called the Pita Hawaii which is a pita with kebab, melted cheese, and pineapple chunks. And I think I could live off of it. I mean it has all of the major food groups in it. And also, since we're on the subject of foods, fries and mayonnaise. That might be a Brugges thing, though. But I liked it. I enjoy ranch and fries, so it wasn't an impossible jump for me to make.



But anyway, later that first night we went up on top of this parking garage, Park 58, for some views of Brussels. It was pretty pretty.


On our second day in Brussels (first full day) it rained. So we went to the Musical Instrument Museum and the Cantillon Brewery Museum. It was a good day for museums. Except Carolyn's umbrella got mauled by the wind and rain...
The Musical Instrument Museum was really interesting (and good for my book). They give you headphones, but you don't listen to any boring descriptions. It's the music that the instruments create. Woodwinds, pipes, violins, etc etc. Music from all over the world.


Yeah, Chinese gong thingy and of course, antiqued violin :) There were violas too, and exciting was being able to look at one and say, with certainty, yeah, that's a viola ;)

And the brewery. They make Gueuze beers. Which is a bitter/sour flat beer. And I really liked it. A lot. We got to sample the regular type, and the fruit flavor-y ones. And I liked them both. I had raspberry Gueuze. Carolyn had cherry. Cherry always tastes like cough medicine to me.

The next day we took our day trip to Brugges. Adorable. That's Brugges in a word.

It had canals and little churches and was just out and out cute. We enjoyed our day there, I'd say. It was a nice excursion.

And there were windmills! Real old-school working windmills! Not like windfarm windmills (they did exist there, though) but adorable windmills that say "yeah, we used to crush grain... not so much anymore, now we're just adorable decoration."

And that night we saw the Atomium

Which is probably my favorite thing of all time and ever. It was made for the 1958 World's Fair, and referred to as Expo 58. It's an iron atom magnified 165 billion times. You can walk in between through the steel beams. We didn't. These things cost money. Plus, I think it was closed by the time we got there. But, this leads me to my World's Fair talk. The Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel in a competition (as countries sure love to do - France in particular: the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower among two of the more famous architectural competitions) for the 1889 World's Fair. As per how these things usually go, after 20 years, World's Fair iconography tends to be removed. And the Parisians haaaaated the Eiffel Tower when it was first constructed. And so they go to tear it down. But Gustave, crafty man that he is, has installed a radio antenna atop the Eiffel Tower. Crap! He's made it useful. Now this landmark that the Parisians find hideous can't be torn down, because it's too fricken useful. However, the Parisians have come to love this, and do you know why? Because in 2007, 6.8 million people visited the Eiffel Tower. Because who doesn't love tourism? It's great for the economy. All those tourists are good for business. The Atomium though, it doesn't seem to have suffered the same disrespect as the Eiffel Tower. In fact, parts of the old aluminum structure were auctioned off to raise money to make it jazzier.

Little known fact, apparently every so many years, they repaint the Eiffel Tower, and they paint it three different browns to achieve the Eiffel Tower brown.

But this isn't about Paris. This is about Brussels/Brugges. And it's random. And I loved it.

je voudrais d'etre parisienne

Paris, France - February 22-25, 2008

Or some such. My French is a bit rusty, but I used it in this beautiful city. This city of light and love and romance. Oh gosh, it was romantic. At night, anyway. With all of the lights and the quiet. Yeah, Paris seemed kind of quiet at night. It was loooovely. I would be Parisian if I could be anything. And the people are nice, alright. Consider this rumor dispelled. There was one woman who was especially cross with me when I asked her for directions, but in all fairness, I do believe she was having a row with her partner or whoever he was. But we were lost and we needed directions. We couldn't, for the life of us, find our hostel. But we did! And it was on Montmartre, and it was pretty great. They had overbooked the Square Caulaincourt, and we were supposed to be in a large dorm room, but we got upgraded to a private suite! With two beds and our own shower! It was kind of a spoiled way to start off the trip.

So, we got to Montmartre, unloaded our stuff, and ran right out to the Louvre. On Friday nights after 6pm the Louvre is free for students. I wasn't so keen on going to the Louvre, I thought it would be all about Mona Lisa and boring French paintings. But it wasn't! There was a whole floor of sculpture! Greek sculpture! And my favorite was there.

I love the story of Cupid and Psyche. It's one of my favorite Greek myths. See Aphrodite gets upset with Psyche, because Psyche is sooooo beautiful, and Aphrodite hates competition. So she sends her son Cupid to go take care of her, if you know what I mean. But then, Cupid falls in love with Psyche! Look up the rest of the myth, it's kind of fabulous.


We saw the Mona Lisa, too. It was overrated. By all means, go see it for yourself, but really -overrated. Maybe her mystique is gone because they discovered who Mona really was, but still. It's small, behind 8 million tourists and a pain of glass, and I wasn't going there to see the Mona Lisa anyway. I feel like people expect to see the Mona Lisa and the great mysteries of life will be answered. Unless your greatest mystery is what room she's in, you'll be okay ;)


Louvre from outside at night! So pretty!

From the Louvre we walked along the Seine to find the Eiffel Tower. And we did! Eventually! We kind of wandered unnecessarily... But it was beautiful at night. And I have at least 20 pictures emphasizing such things.

Never really got back there during the day... Which may or may not have been a sin, but it is really really gorgeous at night. And we saw it from far away one day, and it was a hazy day, and it didn't seem to warrant going back. But we saw it at night a lot. World's Fair monuments are funny things. More about this when I talk about Belgium.

The next day we went on a free walking tour of Paris. The guides work on tips, so they work extra hard to make sure you have a good time. I think it's a great idea. So there were lots of jokes, and the guide was really personable, and it was a fun time. I'm not always a huge fan of tours, because I feel like I never get to spend the amount of time I want to at places. But on tours you learn all sorts of cool things that you otherwise wouldn't have. Ack! It's like a double-edged sword.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe. The real one. Or rather, the one people associate with the phrase Arc de Triomphe.

True story: No auto insurance company will insure you for this traffic circle. It says, explicitly, on all policies that the Charles de Gaulle Place (Place de l'Etoile). Yeah, it's dangerous.

We decided to do cathedrals the next. We went into Sainte Chapelle first. Which was beautiful. Small, but not as crowded, and the stained glass was incredible.

Pretty, right?
And of course we did Notre Dame. You can't not do Notre Dame. It was huuuuuuge and crowded. And services were being held and all the jazz. But this place is epic.

And that, right there, above the doors, is their pipe organ. After visiting so many cathedrals and churches in Europe, I've kind of kept on the lookout for cool pipe organs. And this one, although it's probably a recording, but the organ music was all dark, moody, and gothic, as you would expect. Not the uplifting organ music, but more of an impending doom, Old Testament God sound to it.

And of course, being the good music fan that I am, we went to Pere Lachaise cemetary. Which was really cool. Saw Proust's grave, Oscar Wildes (which was pretty trippy) Chopin was buried here, too. And of course, I had to see good old Jim Morrison.

And promptly felt bad for the poor guy buried next to Jim. No one visits him.

So this is him. Immortalized forever in my journal. However, I don't know his name. It's awfully crowded around Jim's grave.

That night we took a free tour of Montmartre. Our guide, Mary, was so adorable. She was little, but spunky. I had one of those moments where I thought to myself: I would like to be friends with Mary. But then the tour was over, and we left the next day for Belgium. So Mary and I would not be friends.
But! We started the tour by the Moulin Rouge. The one and only, origin of can-can dancers and tragic bohemia.

Then we walked up Montmartre, saw a whole bunch of interesting places, but not visually interesting. We stopped by the house where Van Gogh had lived for a time and where he promptly went crazy. Apparently, instead of cleaning his brushes in water, he used to lick the paint off. Back when it wasn't bad news to have lead in paint. Oh Van Gogh, such an innocent mistake. Ask me about Van Gogh some time. Lots more interesting ness going on here, without the space to detail it without boring everyone.
We also saw where Picasso used to eat, at the Lapin Agile. And he paid his tab in paintings before he was "discovered" and the proprietor retired very well.
We get to the top, and at the top is Sacre Coeur.

It was beautiful. And huge! My word, everything seems to have been built for giants. But Sacre Coeur was built of this white stone that as it gets washed (or rained on) it just keeps getting whiter and whiter. More godly.

Okay, so Paris was kind of fabulous. Kind of my favorite place. If I was to live anywhere in Europe, it would be there for sure. I don't even think I can explain it. Everything was beautiful. Even on a dreary day, it was gorgeous. I could have just wandered forever, taking it all in. The lights, the sound, the boats on the Seine. The monuments. The food! The crepes were delicious, and they had waffles (more on waffles when I get to Belgium).

But, I have to get to homeworking! Because classes are back on tomorrow! I'll get around to writing about Belgium and Amsterdam later. I figure I should space out the writing of spring break by country.

Today, I'm going to the Cat Sanctuary to start project numero 2. I'm excited. And a bit nervous. But the weather here is gorgeous today, so that will help get me out of here and out to the sanctuary.

A bientot!