An eventful time

So, this is now time to catch up on the week of Oct. 13th until the 26th. This first week, all of our classes taught by our Calvin prof. were cancelled because he ventured back to America for some meeting, so it was just the students and his wife, Marilyn, in Budapest. My art history class was also cancelled, so I only had my Holocaust Lit class. It was pretty great. Many students went on extended vacations, so the apartment was pretty empty as well. At one point, it was just me and my friend Catherine that were left in the dorm and this lasted for a few days. I didn’t travel anywhere on this extended break because I was expecting a visitor, my last roomie from Calvin, Solita was coming to visit me on Thursday!

On Wednesday nights, my prof. and his wife usually have dinners for the students, usually a soup and some bread. Well, because Corwin, my prof., was away, along with many other students, just Catherine, Marylin, and I had soup together. It was very nice and I got to know them both a little better during this time. Plus, because of the small group, we got more special food. We had some great corn chowder, cheesy bread rolls, and even dessert! Marilyn went all out and we even got to take some leftovers home, but I never got to eat them, but that’s ok.

Then, on Thursday, Solita arrived to visit me for 10 days! She is doing a semester abroad program in Romania, so since we were in such close proximity and she had a big break, she decided to come spend her time with me in Budapest. J Our first few days together were rather uneventful. I took her to see some sights like our big grocery store, Auchan, but most of the time was spent doing homework, going to class, or studying for my art history exam, which was on the 20th. On the 22nd, Solita and I had a pretty busy day. Solita and I, along with another girl on the trip, went to the big central market for a bit and then we went to a pretty well known Mexican restaurant called Iguana for lunch. It was decent, probably the best Mexican food they have in Hungary, but Solita and I had made chicken tacos a few nights before and we decided that ours were much better. It was nice to go though. Afterwards, my friend Bree split and Solita and I ventured off to City Park for a bit and also to the Szechenyi baths. It was a pretty interesting experience filled with warm, supposedly healing waters, many old men in speedos, and a super hot sauna. The sauna was so warm that when you released a breath, the air coming out of your body was colder than the air going into it. It created a weird internal feeling that was indescribable. The baths were pretty nice though. There were 3 different pools, one was very warm the middle one was like a swimming pool and relatively similar in temperature, and the last was in between temperatures. We entered the very warm one first, unaware of the difference in temperatures and left the pool having difficulty moving due to feeling super heavy. Then we entered the middle and coldest pool. Brrr. So we quickly left and went to the final pool where there was a fun whirlpool. It was definitely a European, cultural experience.

After the baths, we decided on a whim to go see if we could get opera tickets, even though we were not dressed to attend an opera, were tired, and were still a little soggy from the baths. We ended up getting tickets, but because they were the cheap seats and on the upper level of the opera it wasn’t as bad not to be dressed up. We saw the play Tosca, which at the time was not very exciting, since neither of us had heard of it, but since seeing it, it has come up in discussions often, so I am glad I have gotten to see it. It is a tragic love story, between an artist and a woman and some political figure. I believe it was in Italian, but there was a translation screen that translated the lyrics into Hungarian. Too bad I couldn’t understand that much either! Haha. It was interesting to see though, and the Opera house was beautiful!

On Thursday, we traveled to Prague by train. This was a quickly planned, spur of the moment trip, but I really wanted to see Prague and I don’t think Solita minded getting out of my apartment for a while. The train trip took around 6 and a half to 7 hours to get there, and it left at 5:30 in the morning! We had to get up and get ready so early; even public transportation wasn’t running yet, so we had to take a taxi to get to the train station. I hadn’t gotten to bed until about 3 in the morning before we left, so I mainly slept my way to Prague. Solita had gotten a little more sleep than me, but she slept on the train too. When we arrived, we hopped on some public transportation and checked into our hostel, dropped off our stuff, and went out t o see the town. We walked around the Old Town Square, saw a famous astrological clock, went into a Mucha Museum which was pretty cool (he is the artist that designed some cigarette wrappers, I forget for whih company) and I got some Starbucks coffee to help keep myself awake. (Yes, they had Starbucks!!) It was pretty chilly in Prague, but I luckily brought a few layers to help keep me warm, since I was stubborn and didn’t bring my winter coat.

We saw a little grocery store called IHOG: International House Of Groceries, which had a lot of American brand treats like stove top stuffing, candy bars, apple jacks cereal, etc. I thought about buying something, but the stuff was so expensive, I decided I could go a little longer without having a special American treat since I have made it this long. Next door was a cool restaurant called Red, Hot, & Blues that featured more American cuisine and a performance nightly or either rock, jazz, or blues. This is where we had dinner, and I think there are some of these restaurants in America as well. I had a great chili that was so spicy, Solita had some tortilla soup, and we both got to watch a guy play some blues on the piano and his harmonica. It was a pretty nice way to start our trip. We both agreed over dinner that Prague felt so Western in comparison to Hungary and Romania, which we later heard a differing opinion that made us chuckle. After dinner, we were whipped, so we headed to bed at 9 pm! I know, I know, you can’t believe it, but it’s true. We were both out like lights as soon as our heads hit our pillows. I only woke a bit when 2 more people checked into our 8 person room, but fell back asleep right away.

When we woke in the morning, so did 2 of our other roomies and so we talked a bit with them. They were American students studying abroad in Spain and were very friendly. After that we got our breakfast and hit the sights. We saw some of the Jewish district, saw something Christmas being filmed, saw the river and the bridges, saw some of the castle from a far, and visited some shops. Then Solita and I had some lunch at a place called Bohemian Bagel. It was nice to have a bagel again and the food was pretty affordable, it tasted good, and we got free refills!!!!! Then we ventured around some more, saw a Hare Krishna parade that reminded me of George Harrison and the movie Across the Universe, and ran into a Calvin Alum. (We were both wearing Calvin sweatshirts and I got a picture with him, what are the chances?!) We got to see the once Lenin wall, now Lennon wall which is filled with Beatles lyrics, images of John Lennon, and other peace images. Many people have signed the wall, and I found a few Ohioans that signed the wall and drew a Brutus, so naturally I signed my name near them and of course took many pictures. It was so cool and right up my alley! : )

Afterwards I got to do something that I had hoped I would get to do, but didn’t know if would actually happen or not….I got to meet up with my friend Colleen!!!!! She is studying this semester in Luxemburg and made the long trip to the Czech Republic with a friend. We met up in the evening and went to an Irish pub to talk and have a drink. There I tried my first hot wine, which was pretty good, but odd because it also had orange slices and raisins in it. I got to introduce Colleen to my old roomie Solita and she introduced me to her friend Ryan. It was a pretty great time, even though it didn’t last too long. We got to catch up a bit on each other’s semester and all the places we have travelled too. I even got to hear Colleen’s impression of Prague. This is where you can tell that I have been in Eastern Europe more and she has been in Western Europe more, because she said they could tell instantly after crossing the border from Germany into the Czech Republic that they were in Eastern Europe. This floored Solita and me because we had already remarked how Western Prague was. I mean, it even had some Starbucks stores! You can’t find any of those past Vienna. Haha. Well, it was great to get to see Colleen again, but unfortunately we couldn’t hang out too long, for Solita and I had tickets to a black light show. So, we said our good-byes for now and exchanged excitement over seeing each other when we get back to the states.

So, Solita and I headed off to see our black light show called Cats, but quickly learned it was more about the cats of Prague rather than the Broadway musical. It was so funny to watch because it combined people in cat costumes, hand puppets of cats, poorly translated and heavily accented English music that was lip sung, and of course black lights. It was great to see just for fun, but I probably wouldn’t want to watch it again. Solita and I were the only ones laughing during the show, which was awkward, but great nonetheless. After the show we headed back to the hostel and went to bed.

The next day was our day to leave. We got ready, checked out of the hostel and went to spend our last bit of time in Prague by hanging out at the Starbucks drinking coffee and playing cards. It was a great way to kill some time. In total I went to Starbucks like 4 times on our trip, 2 times for caffeine and 2 times to warm up with a hot chocolate. It was so nice to have a reminder of home so close by! We got on the train and made the voyage back to Budapest. I did some homework and Solita read and listened to her ipod. At one point a guy from Turkey came over and started talking to Solita and I about traveling and colleges. It was interesting to listen to, but very distracting when I was trying to do homework, oh well. It got done.

Then we arrived in Budapest and made our way back to my dorm. After living off of lots of peanut butter for some meals, we fixed some French toast for ourselves and watched a movie that night. It was our last night together in Budapest, for the next day was Sunday the 26th and Solita had to leave, unfortunately. That night, daylight savings time occurred, which was so weird, because I always thought Daylight Savings Time occurred the same day it does in America, but I was obviously incorrect in that thinking. Luckily I had heard about this change for Solita’s travel sake. On Sunday we woke up, had a brunch together, and then Solita started packing. She left in the afternoon to head to Cluj Romania and I resumed my normal life in Budapest. It was great to have a friendly, familiar face around for a while, especially because we were both getting a little homesick. I had a great time bumming around with Solita and was blown away that I got to see Colleen too! A two for one kind of deal! What more could a girl ask for? : )