Vienna Part 2 and Western Hungary

I'm so sorry it's taken me forever to post! I've been having issues with the site lately.

The weekend after I returned from Malta, my friend Rachel and I took her friend Abby who was visiting Budapest on a jaunt to Vienna. We saw some more art exhibits and had what has got to be some of the greatest chili in my life. (In a little pastry shop by the Viennese Opera of all places. Who'd have guessed that one?) More importantly I finally managed to snap a few pictures!

St. Stephens Cathedral

Various Unknown Viennese Buildings

Creeptastic angels in the Cafe

Pooh Bear!!!

Due to the fact that I apparently never spend full weekends in Budapest, the next weekend was the program excursion to western Hungary and Lake Balaton. I'm going to be honest here. My expectations were somewhat low. The first excursion was enjoyable, but I generally prefered the trips I had taken out of country with friends. When I was told our first stop was the Pannonhalma monastery, my expectations plummeted. Silly Silly Kristy. The moment we started hiking through the woods up to the monastery,  I couldn't help but be flooded by this wonderful feeling of peace. It's amazing how leaving the city can remind you how much you really like nature. The monastery is on top of this woodsy mountain, and the air just smells so clean and full of trees and spring blossoms. Pannonhalma itself is also a very simple but beautiful building that clearly belongs in it's serene surroundings. It also happens to have a library straight out of a fairytale, so for me it is basically heaven.

After our stop at Pannonhalma, we journeyed on to the city of Veszprem, the city of the Hungarian queens. We poked around a bit, climbed back on the bus and ended our journey at Nagyvarad, where we had a lovely wine tasting at a very nice vineyard who made us delicious snacks to keep us from getting utterly sloshed. (There was some local green that tasted kind of like spring onions that they baked into the pogacsa biscuits and bread bits. It was incredibly delicious) The wine was also excellent. Unlike in Eger I actually bought a bottle willingly. My particular wine was a white wine called Sheeps Tail or more affectionately "Wedding Night Wine" due to its  traditional usage at weddings by Hungarians and the Hapsburgs of Austria. According to the vitner it produces sons.  I'm a bit skeptical about this claim, but I can vouch for it being very nice and dry for a white wine.
The next day we drove to the Herend porcelain factory, where we saw porcelain I can never ever ever afford and tried our hand at making porcelain roses. It did not go well. After Herend, we drove to a little town on Lake Balaton and had some free time. The lake was very nice, and I finally tried real gulyas soup. It's quite tasty.
After a night back in Budapest, we got back on the bus on Sunday morning and drove to Estergom to see the famous Basilica. It's very big, but I didn't see much of the insides as there was an actual Palm Sunday mass going on. The big treat of the day was lunch. The restaurant they took us too was renaissance themed with dressed up waiters and old decor. We ate  renaissance -esque food on typical renaissance clay plates and goblets.  To top it off, we also all got paper crowns. It's a very amusing site to see a bunch of young adults sitting around looking like five year olds at burger king, I'm sure.

Fortress on route to Veszprem

Szent Istvan and Queen Gizella

Veszprem

Esztergom

I'm off to Transylvania tomorrow, but I promise big updates on Paris and Transylvanian peasant life when I get back!

The Maltese Hungarian

My friend Cindy asked me way back in February if I would like to meet up in Malta. I knew nothing about Malta at the time, but it sounded fun, so I booked a flight. I am so glad I did. Malta is so beautiful. It's warm and sunny and even though it was still just a little too cold to swim in the Mediterranean, it was the perfect little tropical mini-break to get me through the sometimes cold, sometimes hot, always crazy Hungarian spring.

Street view of Valetta

One of the many cathedrals on the Islands

A little bit of the tropics for you

The maltese language (It's so strange!)

Helmet at the Royal Armory

Crest in the Palace

These Vintage Buses are the only way to travel in Malta. Luckily they're cheap and cute!

The aptly named Blue Lagoon

Malta is very quiet and peaceful. In hindsight we probably should have done far more research about what we wanted to do before going, because we ended up wandering around aimlessly, vastly over-paying for transportation. We spent all of Saturday  shopping and seeing the sights in Valletta, the capital, because we had to be near a wifi connection in order to select an apartment for the coming school year. On Sunday, we decided to do water related activities, which started with a ride on the front of a little boat over to the blue lagoon, and ended with us climbing around in sea-caves after being semi-stranded on the practically deserted island of Comino. In spite of our poor planning, I had a blast catching up and getting into trouble with one of my best friends. I miss home and F&M , so seeing a familiar face was just great. (The fact that we were on a sunny island didn't hurt either!)

Eger mini-break

This past weekend, I went on an excursion with my study abroad program. The general destination was the small city of Eger about two hours from Budapest, but they also wanted to show us as much of Northern Hungary as possible, so it was quite late in the afternoon before we actually got to the city. Our first stop on Friday morning was the tallest mountain in Hungary. This is far less impressive then it sounds. Hungary is an incredibly flat country, so any elevation counts as a mountain.

After "attacking the peak of Hungary" as our program Director Elizabeth called it, we went to the Soviet era work camp of Recsk. The communists did a very good job of destroying all the evidence of its existence, so with the exception of the memorial commemorating the victims of the camp, it just looked like a harmless little mountain meadow.  I feel really guilty about saying it, but in all honesty it was really pretty. The weather was gorgeous, there were little yellow flowers blooming by the stream in the foresty areas, and on the whole, it was very hard to believe that such a pretty place could be the site of so much suffering.

From Recsk, it was on to Szilvasvarad, where we visited the stables of the Hungarian Lippizaner horses. We got to see the stallions, but sadly were not allowed to touch them. We also walked through the national park and found ourselves at what seemed to be a gypsy carnival or something. The rides were air-brushed with the faces of celebrities, but the only recognizable one was Nicholas Cage oddly enough.

Weird Pokemon themed Merry-Go-Round at the Gypsy Carnvial

We finally arrived at Eger around five and after setting our things down in our rooms, we were hustled off to the nearby "Valley of Beautiful Women", the valley where all the wine cellars are located. I have never been wine tasting before, but it was quite enjoyable. My Hungarian comprehension, it turns out, is much better when I've had some wine. However, my friend Rachel and I were conned into buying more wine than we can ever drink. We had gone ahead of the group to other wine cellars and each bought a little plastic barrel of a wine we liked before returning to the first cellar to try one or two more things. Now our program director was there, as she happened to be friendly with those vitners. She practically forced us to buy everything the women offered us. I enjoy wine when I'm with people, but I don't drink much on my own, so I am at a loss about what to do with the three extra barrels and one bottle Rachel and I were bullied into purchasing.

After the best sleep I have had in a very very long time. (One my roommates snores, and the other one keeps very odd hours.) we went to explore Eger for the day. We took a tour of the fortress which successfully held off an Ottoman siege, only to be taken a few years later. (Hungarians are not known for winning) We also saw the Cathedral and took a tour of the underground wine cellars. The cathedral looked more impressive in the photos in Art History. The underground tour was amusing because it mainly consisted of dark tunnels and a guide telling us about the exhibits they would like to put there.

View of Eger from the fortress

 
I just got back from a trip to Malta, so expect another post in a day or two!

With Love From Wien

As my friends and I were boarding the plane on Tuesday to fly back from Istanbul to Budapest, on of my friends asked if we wanted to go to Vienna for the weekend, and we decided to do just that. Attila, my Hungarian History professor, was recently telling us about the importance of seeing as much of the world as we can while we're young and can spare the time and money, so I am doing my best!

Sadly I have no pictures from the weekend. It was very cold and rainy so we spent most of the weekend inside, but I think I'll be going back at the end of my program, so I'll get some nice springtime shots for you.  Weather aside, the short time I spent in Vienna was lovely. We got standing tickets to see Arabella at the opera house on Friday night. It was the first opera I'd ever seen, but I found it incredibly enjoyable. The cast was exceptionally good and I love just about anything that involves costumes. 

On Saturday, we wandered around the art museums since it turns out my friend Rachel and I both have a passion for modern art. I saw an excellent exhibit on Art Nouveau jewelry at the Leopold museum, but the Albertina Museum was by far the superior of the two we went to. There was a decent collection of the Liechtenstein pop-art comic book paintings, but it was the Kandinsky/Jawlensky Blau Reiter exhibit that truly blew me away. I've always loved Kandinsky, but I didn't think or even know much about Jawlensky really. His painting Girl in a Flowered Hat  was mesmerizing. 

I also discovered a new favorite modern artist at the Albertina. The museum had an exhibit by the painter Mel Ramos. He's very skilled, but more importantly, he actually seems to enjoy painting and takes a very refreshing tongue in cheek attitude about it. (Maybe it's all the Hungarian literature I've had to read, but it's just so nice to see an artist who actually enjoys what they do.)

Vienna is expensive, so for Saturday night and most of Sunday we were in Bratislava. It's still not a place I'd recommend planning a vacation around, and the train station is very scary and Eastern European at night, but if you have a few spare hours in your day, it makes for a nice side trip. The old town is surprisingly enough, very sweet, and the castle has some lovely views of the city and a very nice traditional Slovak restaurant which makes and excellent cheesy/leeky/gnocchi(ish) concoction. 

I had a lovely weekend, but right now I am so glad to be back in Budapest. Two nights in a row of hostel beds, and the worst snore-ers I have ever heard makes me very sleepy!

Adventures in Istanbul

I just came back from Istanbul yesterday. It may have been the most amazing experience of my life. Istanbul is so beautiful and old. Its got the perfect east-meets-west cultural fusion that I think I had hoped to find in Budapest.

My friends and I flew in to Attaturk airport around 2 am on friday morning, and once we woke up spent the day exploring the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia.  It's so hard to believe places like that are real. My photos barely do them justice, and certainly can't capture the sheer vastness of the mosques, but here's a small peek.

Obelisisk in the Hippodrome

Ablutions fountains

Blue Mosque

Interior shot of the Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque and some lovely palm trees

The Hagia Sofia

The Dome of the Hagia Sofia

The second day in Istanbul we wandered the Archaeology museum and the covered Bazaar which was touristy, but an interesting experience. (I am not made to haggle)
Sunday we finally made it to Topkapi Palace after having tried and failed to get there before closing the previous two days. We had been warned the day before by some tourists we met in a coffee house that it would take a while. We didn't believe them, but they were very right. The Palace is huge. The Harem was less exciting than it had been made out to be, but the jewels in the treasury were breathtaking. I wish i could have taken pictures of some of them.

Statue from the Roman/Byzantine era

Another incredibly realistic Roman statue

Trojan Horse model (Sadly I couldn't go inside)

Topkapi Palace

Entrance to the inner courtyard

Harem entrance

View of the Hagia Sofia from a restaurant terrace

Spice Market Stall

Gulls on the Ferry over to Asia

I loved Istanbul. I loved the architecture and history, I loved the food, I loved waking up to the sounds of the Muezzins. Everything about the place was magical and in spite of the fact that I spent five days doing nothing but exploring, I feel like I have so much left to see. If I could, I would fly back in a heartbeat. I'll be doing a quick trip over to Vienna for a day or two this weekend, so I'll post again soon!

Exploring more of Budapest

This weekend, I stayed in the city. I spent most of a very cloudy Friday nestled in Praga Kavehaz with some tea and homework. The coffee house is very cozy with excellent tea, antique decor and lots of pictures of the ever lovely Prague. The kavehaz and Lord Tennyson's tea shop are quickly becoming favorite haunts of mine. Saturday was sunny and warmish for the first time in weeks, so naturally I had to be outside. My friend Ana, her roommate Csilla ( pronounce Chee-la), and I walked down Andrassy Ut. Budapest's equivalent of the Champs Elysee and then made our way to Margit Island. Margit Island is a giant car free park. The island a sport arena, running trails, and outdoor concert venue, and apparently a small zoo. It's full of people walking their dogs and playing rugby. I saw what looked to be a pug convention. (Dogs are shockingly well behaved here. Even in the park.) I'll post photo's of the island in the spring when it's prettier.
On Sunday it was colder, so Ana and I decided it was museum day. We went to the House of Terror, a museum in the building that housed the Hungarian Nazi and Communist regimes. It was quite the experience. You enter and there is a giant soviet tank that they've turned into a fountain with a wall of photos of victims of the regimes behind it. The museum is very modern and conceptual with music accompanying each room and lots of video footage. Occasionally it was hard to tell what was going on particularly due to the lack of english subtitles, but it was very well done on the whole. I really have to give  these people credit for trying to make history interesting and accessible to the masses.

I'm jetting off to Istanbul on Thursday, so expect a much more interesting post and many pictures very soon!

Prague

I have just come back from a weekend in Prague, which in my humble opinion may be one of the prettiest cities in the world. Budapest is lovely, but now having been to Prague, I understand why it is the less visited of the two cities.

Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, and the Vltava River

I arrived very late on Thursday night after a seven hour bus ride. Nothing was open, but the city looked lovely on the walk to my hostel. I spent all of  Friday and Saturday touring the old city. Our tour guide was excellent and told us a good deal about Czech history, which for me was fascinating.

The Famous Astronomical Clock

One of the few cubist style buildings in the world

Franz Kafka

The Spanish synagogue 

The Vltava

View while climbing to the castle

Stained glass window in St. Vitus

Outside St. Vitus

The Jewish Cemetery

Although none of my traveling companions agreed with me, I loved Prague. I love the history and the architecture, and the cleanliness. Admittedly it is very touristy. I had lunch at a place called Bohemia Bagel one day, and it was filled to the brim with the stupidest american students known to man. Similarly the old town is full of European tourists. All this aside, I felt very at home in Prague for some reason and wonder if I would have enjoyed studying there.

As a final note, there is no reason to ever go to Bratislava. You can see the two famous landmarks driving through it on a bus.