Thursday, March 19, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
An Elegant Art Affair
Imagine the fanciest five-star hotel you've ever seen. Now add an entryway made entirely of roses and huge vases of bright colored tulips everywhere. Champagne bars and sushi stations were scattered throughout the venue and servers carried around trays of wine. Men were dressed in suits and ties, women wore dresses and heels, and even babies were sitting pretty in their strollers. Scattered throughout the galleries were people on the phone with their investors, men seated at laptops crunching numbers, and vendors mumbling prices under their breath. It was a fascinating scene, almost comical. Joanna, Brittany, and I enjoyed playing the "spot the millionaire" game. It was fun to imagine peoples' life stories and pick out the wealthiest of the wealthy.
There was SO much to see and after spending two and a half hours there, we'd only seen a fourth of it. The fair exhibited Van Gogh, Andy Worhol, Picasso, and Rembrandt, just to name a few. We saw a famous piece of work by Mondriaan, a simple canvas of black lines and three squares (red, blue, and yell0w), that sold for a whopping 21 MILLION EUROS. Are you kidding me?! I'm breaking out my canvases and paint brushes when I get back to Waco...
I think the most impressive aspect of the fair was that everything constructed for the event was temporary. It looked like a permanent venue, when in reality it was built inside of a giant convention center with concrete floors and a warehouse ceiling. The way they transformed the building was phenomenal!
Feeling a little more sophisticated with a greater appreciation for art, I now find myself in the midst of final papers, presentations, and exams. This weekend I'm off to Amsterdam to see the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank's House, and the tulips at Keukenhof Gardens. School will wrap up on Thursday and then I'll begin my backpacking adventure the next day!
[Since I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the rest of the Tefaf fair, you can take a virtual video tour at www.tefaf.com.]
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Luxembourg and Belgium
Instead of traveling great distances this weekend, we decided to stay close to home and take a few day trips. We only have two weeks left in Maastricht before we take off for a month of travel, and we needed a little bit of a break from night trains and hostels.
On Friday we went to Luxembourg to do a bit of castle hunting. Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the world but boasts the second highest GDP! It is also the only remaining sovereign "Grand Duchy," ruled by a Grand Duke. The souvenir shops even sell postcards with a portrait of the royal family, which I thought was pretty hilarious. In one of them, the family is wearing jeans and white shirts, posed on a hillside. I guess when you have half-a-million people in your country, a post card is more or less your Christmas card photo.
It took us three and a half hours to get there by train and then from Luxembourg City we took a train to Diekirch and a bus to Vianden. The journey to Vianden was so beautiful! Both the train and the bus took us through the countryside, and the 6 of us were snapping pictures left and right. Everything was so green and lush, and we were surrounded by hills. We arrived in Vianden, and when we got off the bus we looked up a cliff to see the Vianden Castle! The castle was constructed from the 11th of the 14th century and was restored to its former glory in the 1970s when the Grand Duke transferred the castle to state's ownership. We've seen many palaces in our travels, but not one right out of a fairy tale like this one!
I was absolutely in heaven! The town was so quaint and rustic, and I had so much fun playing with my new camera. The streets were all cobblestone and each building was a different color with a different door. I have a new found fascination with the doors in Europe - they make American doors look so boring.
Once we finally reached the castle, we had the entire place to ourselves. Wandering through the rooms and climbing from level to level, it was fun to pretend we lived there. Every little girl dreams of being a princess, and we certainly had our fun exploring!
We went back to Luxembourg City that afternoon and walked across the Viaduc Bridge to see Notre Dame Cathedral (not as impressive as the one in Paris) and the Royal Duke's Palace. Lexi claims she's going to marry the next Duke, which would be nice because I'd always have a place to stay in Luxembourg! But no joke, the palace was beautiful, just like the rest of the country!
We grabbed some dinner at the cheapest place we could find (besides McDonald's), and had pizza and pasta for 10 euros. The sun was starting to set, and we walked back to the train station enjoying the scenery.
____________
We woke up on Saturday and caught a train to Bruges, Belgium. Colin Farrell said in his latest movie In Bruges, "if i grew up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't so it doesn't." Well Mr. Farrell, I beg to differ.
The day was so enjoyable and I loved Bruges! We arrived just before noon and ate a quick lunch at the train station before exploring the city. The town was picture perfect... cobblestone streets with horse-drawn carriages going by and chocolate shops every few feet. With Spring starting, tulips, pansies, and daffodils were beginning to bloom, and there were swans swimming and boats cruising through the city's canals.
After taking pictures in a beautiful park, we stopped at a bakery to get authentic Belgian waffles. Oh goodness, the waffles in Maastricht don't even compare to those in Belgium! I had one with whipped cream and strawberry sauce, and could have easily eaten two more!
Next, we went to the Church of Our Lady, where we saw the statue "Madonna and Child" by Michaelangelo. It is his only piece of work outside of Italy, and was brought to Bruges in 1516 by the merchant Jan Van Moeskroen. The church was beautiful and it was really neat to see something created by someone as well-known as Michaelangelo.
From the church we continued through the city, stopping in several chocolate shops along the way. I got 2 pieces of chocolate for 0,75 euros - a praline and a whipped cream filled one... sorry America, but Hershey's will NEVER taste the same.
We found our way to the Market Square where we saw the Provincial Courthouse and the Clock Tower, and then we went to Old Burg Square to the Church of the Holy Blood. Before venturing inside I imagined a piece of cloth with blood droplets on it, but in reality it was a red crystalized substance in a tiny glass tube. People would climb up to the relic to lay hands on the encased tube and some even kissed it before crossing themselves. One of the Gospels mentions that Joseph of Arimathea preserved Jesus' blood when cleaning his body, but I guess I kept thinking, "okay, but why Bruges?" The story says that Count Diederik van den Elzas brough the blood to Bruges from Jerusalem after the second crusade. Others say that it didn't arrive in Bruges until later and that it came from Constantinople. I thought it was very interesting, whether or not it really is true.
From there we found our way back to the chocolate shop (where I purchased even more chocolate) and then to a restaurant where we sampled some of their fries. Though in the States we call them French fries, fries actually find their origin in Belgium. The French recognize this as well! For people to have called them "Freedom fries" after anti-French sentiments a few years ago seems even more foolish now. They weren't as amazing as I thought they'd be, but it's fun to say we've tried them in their birthplace.
It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and now I'm having a lazy day to catch up on laundry, schoolwork, and studying for finals. Missing you all!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I Miss the Swiss!
This weekend was amazing! As silly as it may sound, traveling can be exhausting and I needed a weekend of rest and relaxation after all of my adventures.
We left Maastricht at 8:45 Thursday night and took a night train from Cologne, Germany to Basel, Switzerland. From there we had a train to Lausanne and then to a tiny town called Bex, where we were supposed to take a cog rail train up the mountain. Just after 9:00 Friday morning, we got on a little trolly car sitting in front of the train station and the conductor said the train wasn't going to Gryon. Thinking ours was coming later, we exited back to the station where we waited for another hour. Come to find out, the cog rail wouldn't go all the way to Gryon because they'd gotten so much snow but it would take us to a bus that would take us the rest of the way.
Twenty minutes later we arrived in Gryon and followed the signs to Chalet Martin, in the SNOW! Everything was white and it was so beautiful! Chalet Martin is the cutest little lodge and was quite a hike up the side of the mountain. On the first floor there is a movie room, ski shop, sitting area, and a shoe/coat room. Upstairs - reception, kitchen, dining area, living room and bedrooms. Third floor and the attic - bedrooms. The nine of us stayed in the attic which was a lot more fun that it sounds! With the slanted ceilings and skylights, it was a very cozy place to call home.
[Rachel in the attic]
Since we didn't get much sleep the night before, we all decided to take a nap. Brisa was sweet enough to buy pasta from the reception and she cooked lunch while we slept. After eating, we bundled up and made our way into Villars, a town 20 minutes from Gryon. It was a more ritzy, touristy scene with a bunch of shops, restaurants, the Club Med, and other ski resorts. We went to the market and bought food for the weekend and then returned to the Chalet to make dinner.
Now, we all know how much I love to people watch. A lot of kids had just gotten out of school and got onto our bus back to Gryon. They all seemed to congregate at the front to chat with the bus driver. He'd pat them on the head, they'd talk to him in their cute little-kid French! It was really neat to just sit back and watch - the kids seem so independent and polite. It just goes to show how close-knit this small community is. Plus they all looked so darn cute in their snow gear, waddling off the bus.
Pretty much everyone staying at the hostel cooked their meals, so it was fun to cook dinner at the Chalet Martin! At times I understood the "too many cooks in the kitchen" phrase, but we had a really good time meeting other people. In honor of the Swiss, we made cheese fondue for dinner followed by Lindt Chocolate fondue! Oh wow, it was delicious!!
[Kitchen at Chalet Martin]
That night, we decided to rent and watch "Slumdog Millionaire." I don't know how they got their hands on a copy of it since it's not out to video yet in the States, but it was amazing!! The cinematography was genius and I can see why it won the Academy's Best Picture!
Since we arrived in the snow, we couldn't tell what our surroundings at the Chalet looked like. On Saturday morning we woke up, ate a quick breakfast, and then headed outside to grab our skis. We all had a little freak out moment when we saw the view from the front door! It was indescribable - and yes, I did start singing Chris Tomlin. :)
We left Chalet Martin and caught the cog rail to Barboleuse. From there we took a gondola ride up to the top and enjoyed a full day of skiing! The weather was beautiful for most of the day, until fog and clouds rolled in and the visibility was terrible. At one point there were kids sitting down, crying all over the slope. We kept losing sight of each other and falling because we had no depth perception. Inclines would increase dramatically, but we couldn't tell the difference between the sky and the snow. We ended up getting separated from one of the girls in our group, so that made for a fun adventure. Luckily we all had cell phones, and we reunited back at Barboleuse. The rest of the day was picture perfect - blue sky, sun, and beautiful powder. It also wasn't crowded at all, which was nice in comparison to places I've been skiing in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.
[When we went to Crested Butte as a family for Spring Break, I learned to snowboard and absolutely loved it. I remember the instructor telling me that once I snowboarded, I would never go back to skiing, and now I see why. I really wanted to snowboard, but since it has been a few years I figured I didn't want to spend my only day in the Alps relearning. My reasoning was, why spend all day struggling when I already know I can ski just fine? Wrong. I had to relearn how to ski! I found myself sitting back on my heels like I do when I board and the thought that I had to control BOTH skis instead of just one board was slightly terrifying. I kept thinking how much I wanted to trade my skis in for a board, but after a few hours I was peachy keen and had the best day ever!]
I know you're all waiting anxiously to hear about my wipeouts. There were several, but I'll only include the most memorable ones. At one point, we stopped to take pictures with the Swiss Alps in the background and I tried to hand someone my camera. Side stepping up the slope proved too difficult, and I started skiing backwards before I tumbled down a few feet - there's a picture of it in the video. My epic wipeout happened at the very end of the day. Rachel and I found a straightaway and assumed the professional skier position - skis pointing forward, bent over, poles parallel to the ground. We kept gaining speed and then went over 2 hills, catching some serious air with each one. The third hill came along and the incline suddenly increased... we were flying! Once I landed I tried to slow down by skiing side to side but I lost control and crashed into a snow bank, rolling about 5 feet before finally coming to a stop. Rachel died laughing and once I finally emerged from the deep, powdery cave I created, I looked like the abominable snowman.
The lifts closed at 4:45, so we caught the 5:00 cog rail back to our snowy lodge. Maxey, the professor sponsoring our trip, was in Gryon with us with and when we got back to the Chalet he was already hard at work in the kitchen making soup for dinner! We ate together as a big ol' family, and then spent the rest of the evening resting and spending time with people at the hostel.
I LOVED Chalet Martin and will forever send my recruits their way! It was recommended to us by Baylor students in the past, and it was hands down the best hostel we've stayed in. I think anything after this will be a huge let down, because we loved Chalet Martin so much. The best part was that I didn't feel like I was in a hostel; I felt like we were staying in someone's home. The Chalet is owned by a husband and wife who live next door, and some of the people we met have been staying there for months on end. I can see why; I didn't want to leave! Switzerland is very popular with Australians so we met a whole bunch of them. Also, we met a group of Americans who are studying in Bologna, Italy. One of the girls is originally from Albuquerque, NM where my grandparents live, and she was amused with Mom's UNM socks that I wore for skiing. We hope to visit them when we go to Italy, and it was fun to come home and add friends on Facebook. Felt a little bit like summer camp!
On Sunday morning, Kaitlyn, Brittany and I decided to wake up early and play for an hour in the snow. The view was even more breathtaking than the day before, and we had so much fun! All good things must come to an end, and we went back inside to pack up and check out. Our train didn't leave until 7:30 that night, so we left our bags at Chalet Martin and went to Villars for the day for lunch and shopping. It seems to happen to us every weekend, but everything was closed since it was a Sunday. We did find one shop open and I bought a few Toblerones and some other Swiss Chocolate. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to take our coats off, so we sat in the sun and enjoyed sandwiches and sorbet from a nearby bakery.
We were so sad to say goodbye, but we all know deep down that someday we'll be back. I fulfilled my dream to ski the Swiss Alps, and I really couldn't have asked for a more an unforgettable weekend!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A Week in Eastern Europe
Tuesday - Thursday
Day #2 in Prague was absolutely incredible! The sky was blue and the weather was warmer than usual. After breakfast we went to Old Town Square where we met up with the free walking tour. Now, the New Europe company we've toured with in Berlin and Paris warned of "imitators," and now I can see why. Our tour of Prague was run by a Czech company with the same idea, free for anyone but tips are encouraged. However, we weren't as impressed. The tour guide spoke English but was difficult to understand, and I didn't feel like I learned as much about the city's history. But nonetheless, seeing the beauty of the city was enough for me (and my camera)! I loved the red tile roofs on all the buildings. Everything is painted in warm colors - orange, yellow, pink. The streets are all cobblestone and the architecture is impressive.
- St. Nicholas Cathedral Old Town Square: white facade with red roof and green spires, contains the organ that Mozart played on while in Prague
- Church of our Lady before Tyn: Gothic style church, can be seen from just about anywhere in Prague
- Astronomical clock: ornate clock tower - there is usually a crowd gathered to watch it go off every hour and it's a common meeting place for locals
- Church St. James: contains 23 chapels, was originally built in Gothic style but was rebuilt in Baroque style after destroyed by fire
- Powder Tower: one of the original 13 entrances into the Old Town, stored gunpowder in the 17th century
- Wenceslas Square: part of town for shops, hotels, cafes, and casinos - the square is named after St. Wenceslas who was a Czech king in the 10th century
- Communism Museum: we didn't get to go inside, but when we stopped to see the museum building our tour guide told us personal stories of growing up in prague during Communist times
- Estates Theater: one of the most beautiful theaters in Europe, where Mozart introduced his opera "Don Giovanni"
- Jewish Quarter: remains of Prague's Jewish ghetto
- Staranova Synagogue: oldest preserved synagogue in Central Europe
- Bethlehem Chapel: medieval time period, birthplace of religious reform in Prague
After the tour, we went to lunch at an italian place called Modra Zahada, recommended by one of Chris' friends who had been to Prague before. I had fettucine pesto and a slice of Joanna's pizza - it was delicious!
We left the restaurant and walked over to the infamous Charles Bridge over the Vtlava River. Joanna had a friend studying in Prague who met up with us, and we all enjoyed a leisurely stroll across to the other side. There were a lot of artists sitting on the bridge, sketching the beautiful scenery, and Kathy was excited to see a "monkey man," playing one of those hand-cranked organs with the toy monkey dancing on the side.
From there, we went to the John Lennon Wall where people painted Lennon-inspired graffiti during Communist times. Western pop songs were banned throughout Eastern Europe and people were jailed for playing Lennon's songs about peace and freedom. After Lennon died, students and young people desiring social reform came out to the wall to pay their respects. Police tried to paint over all the graffiti, but the next day they'd return to find just as decorated. The wall still stands today as a reminder of free speech and non-violent protest.
While taking pictures, I spotted an interlocking BU near the bottom of the wall and we all got so excited! It was probably left behind by past Baylor students with the Maastricht program, and we didn't miss the opportunity to throw up a "sic 'em."
We left the wall and went back across the bridge to get gelato. This gelato was pretty stellar, but I'm so looking forward to gelato in Italy! A few other Baylor girls were in Prague at the same time and I had just made a comment about not running into them yet when we saw them down the street. It was fun to catch up with Kathryn, Jessica and Hannah and swap stories about our day.
Souvenir shopping was the next order of business and I purchased a beautiful red and gold pashmina scarf. Every time I wear it I'll think of Prague! After that, we went back to Old Town Square where we watched as the sun set and the square become lively with traditional Czech musicians, blacksmiths selling jewelry, and various food carts. I enjoyed some warm cider and a trdelnik - a Czech dessert, dough wrapped around an iron rod and cooked over an open flame before being rolled in sugar, almonds, and cinnamon.
We were all very excited for the evening's event - "The Best of Mozart and Strauss" concert at the Hybernia Theater! Tickets were purchased the day before and a few of us were nervous about their validity, but not to fear - the tickets were real. However, we did feel just a little bit
ripped off. We were told it was the Prague Royal Orchestra which sounded amazing, but there were only 8 or 9 musicians on stage. The theater was beautiful, but the nine of us made up about 1/4 of the audience. I guess we just imagined the concert as more elaborate and regal, but the music was still beautiful! The musicians wore traditional costumes and wigs and there were two opera singers and two ballet dancers. The first part of the program was Mozart - pieces from Don Giovanni, Magic Flute, and Le Nozze de Figaro. Johann Strauss was the second part, and we heard the Emperor's Waltz, Tritsch Tratsch Polka, Pizzicato Polka, Redetzky March and the Blue Danube Waltz. All in all, it was an enjoyable show!
Vienna, Austria
Thursday and Friday
Thursday morning we woke up in Prague and went to the train station to catch our train to Vienna! We left around 11:00 and arrived a little after 3:00, and went to check into our hostel, the Vienna Meininger. After settling into our rooms, we took the metro to the Hapsburg Imperial Palace, where Kathy had been Monday night for a masquerade ball! It was beautiful, and Kathy snuck us inside to see just one of the ballrooms they danced in earlier that week.
Leaving the Imperial Palace, we wandered for a little bit and saw Parliament and a bunch of other beautiful buildings. Vienna is one of the safest cities in Europe, and it certainly felt that way. Everything was clean and the people were so nice. At one point, we were standing on a street corner, fumbling with the map to locate the nearest metro, when a man approached me and started talking in German. I assumed he was asking me a question and I said "I'm sorry, I don't understand." He then smiled and said "Do you need assistance?" He was so kind and pointed us in the right direction! Kaitlyn and I were talking earlier about how the Germans were the nicest people we'd encountered so far, and the Austrians are just as helpful and courteous!
Deciding it was time for dinner, I pulled out directions to an Austrian restaurant I'd found on TripAdvisor.com. I'm not so sure I'll be blindly trusting of those reviews ever again, because it was a huge let down. By the time we actually found it, thirty minutes after getting off of the metro, the menu boasted 40 euros an entree. I'm sure it was delicious, but the whole reason I wanted to go was because it advertised an average price of 10 euros. We struck out there, so we wandered until we finally found some place that fit our price range. It was called Centimeter and was what looked like, at least from the outside, a cozy little pub. My lungs freaked out on me when we entered... it was dimly lit but I could see cigarette smoke rising from every table. Though I was skeptical, the experience wasn't so bad. They put us in a private room at the back where the air was much cleaner and the food turned out to be very filling. I had Mish Mash, a mixture of macaroni, ham, cheese, and dumplings (an Austrian favorite apparently) and it was pretty good.
Our stomachs full, we headed over to the Rathaus where we ice skated for the rest of the night! The Rathaus is Vienna's City Hall, although we all thought it looked like a Gothic-style cathedral. The huge building was all lit up... blue, pink, yellow, purple, and red. It was stunning! All of the trees were lit and they even had a giant disco ball. There were two ice rinks on opposite ends of the lawn with a long ice trail winding between the two. It reminded me of the Austin Trail of Lights, but on a much grander scale + ice. We skated for about two hours, and then enjoyed crepes... they were even BETTER than those in France! It was one of the best nights we've had in Europe! I kept thinking "I'm ICE SKATING in Vienna!" It was a perfect winter wonderland!
The next morning we grabbed breakfast at a little bakery near the hostel before heading out to see more of the city. Unfortunately we couldn't leave our bags at the hostel, so we were forced to carry our heavy backpacks with us all day. That made for a miserable morning. We tried to go to the National Art Gallery (Kunsthistorisches) but the ticket was much too expensive than we were willing to pay. At most museums in Europe, we get a significant discount with our student ID card, but the man at the ticket counter insisted we needed an International Verification Card. Feeling just a bit dejected, we went to St. Stephen's Church and welcomed the opportunity to admire the interior while sitting down.
From there, we went to see the Vienna Opera House, grabbed some lunch, and then went to the Hotel Sacher to try the infamous Sacher Torte! It was the richest chocolate cake I've ever had, and instead of frosting it had a hard chocolate shell all around. The recipe is a well-kept secret, but Joanna and I think it must have some orange or apricot in it. Definitely worth the 5 euros and the hassle of having to check our coats at the fancy hotel!
That afternoon we left Vienna to head to our last stop, Budapest! I slept for a good 2 hours on the train, and we arrived just after 7:00.
Budapest, Hungary
Friday through Sunday
I guess I didn't realize just how far away Hungary is until I looked at a map. In my mind, I imagined the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary pretty much on the same longitude, but Hungary is much farther to the east than I thought!
Budapest just felt different than most of Europe. Being that close to Slovakia, Ukraine, and Romania, I could definitely feel a different vibe. Rather than Gothic-style architecture like in most of Europe, buildings and churches in Budapest were done in Baroque style - much more ornate and elaborate. In the touristy parts of the city, it was clean and beautiful. However, much of the town just felt dirty and I didn't feel as safe as I have in many other European cities. People are allowed to put their trash in the streets twice a year to be picked up for free, and we just so happened to be there the night before trash pick-up. Seeing boxes, trash, old furniture, and people riffling through the piles was not a good way to be welcomed into the city. In addition, Budapest has a huge homeless population, and there must have been 8 or 9 homeless people that we saw all weekend long, camped out in the metro station near our hostel.
All that being said, I really did enjoy Budapest! It's not a place that many people talk about visiting and I really didn't have the desire to go, but I'm so glad I did. We saw some amazing sights and I ended up loving our time spent there!
Friday evening when we arrived, we navigated our way from Keleti Train Station to the Hostel Maverick. The Danube River separates the city into two sides - Buda and Pest; how clever. The hostel was in the Pest Side and we found it relatively quickly. It is part of an old renovated mansion and we were able to get a 10 person room for a really good price! There were 7 beds downstairs and then a little loft with 3 other beds. The architecture was beautiful and we got free internet as well!
After checking in, we ventured out to find dinner. We always seem to find the coolest little hole-in-the-wall places to eat, and Friday night was no exception! The owner of Central Cellar was standing outside of the restaurant, and after perusing the menu we followed him through the front door... he took us down a tall winding staircase into a dark room and then a little bit further down we came to the entrance of the cellar. It was so fun! It was warmly lit with live music and traditional Hungarian cusine. A bunch of us tried Goulash, which was amazing, and then I followed it up with a salad almost too beautiful to eat!
On Saturday morning, we went to a local coffee shop to grab breakfast. Budapest is known for its cafes so we spent a good two hours there, enjoying coffee, muffins, and bagels. I think after the whirlwind week we'd had so far, we need to just sit for a little while and refuel for sightseeing.
We spent the entire day in the Castle Quarter on the Buda side, which is on a hill overlooking the Danube and the Pest side.
(chain bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica)
We took a ton of pictures and admired the view for a good hour before moving on to see the Buda Castle, the Marcipan Museum and this amazing place - Fisherman's Bastion. I saw it in a tourist book and said, "guys, we HAVE to go to the sand castle!" It's a beautiful terrace that looks out over all of Budapest, but it felt more like a playground for adults. We climbed up and down stairs to the different towers and climbed through windows for fun pictures, which I'm sure was the tourist thing to do.
After lunch, we found the entrance to the labyrinths underneath the castle. We were all pretty excited about it, but it turned out to be a little tourist trap. They had "ancient" wall art which looked like it was no more than 10 years old, and million-year-old fossils of Coke bottles, cell phones, and a laptop computer... come on, really? We still had a lot of fun, but I think after a week of traveling together we realized that the 9 of us could have fun doing just about anything!
We came up from underground and were welcomed by this beautiful sight - nightfall over Budapest.
For dinner, we went to a super fancy restaurant called Hemingway's - GO IF YOU'RE EVER IN BUDAPEST! Oh my goodness, the food was a little pricey but worth every penny... er, I mean forint (that's a different story altogether). I had a chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella and mushrooms, served atop 2 corn pancakes.
The currency in Budapest is in forints [1 euro = 304 forints] and they were the cause of much frustration that weekend. We got the bill for our dinner - 72,400 forints. Yikes. All we had were big bills that we had taken out of the ATM the day before, so paying individually was a difficult task. We also couldn't figure out the tax/service charges with the bill - it said service was included but then after we asked for change, we continued to sit for 20 minutes before we finally realized our waiter wasn't coming back. Not knowing if we had paid too much or too little for the tip, we hurried out of the restaurant, confused and a little embarrassed.
We woke up Sunday morning to a text message with Sing results!! It was seriously like Christmas morning. I was up before everyone so that I could shower, and it took every ounce of self-control not to open the text until they were awake. Kaitlyn, Kathy, Lexi and I jumped up and down and screamed when we found out that ADPi made it to Pigskin, a huge honor for half of the Baylor Sing Acts!!! We were bummed about missing out on Sing this semester, but we get to perform with our sisters in the fall during Homecoming weekend, and we couldn't be happier! Tri Delta got first place, so Rachel was excited too!
Our first stop of the day, the Hungarian Parliament building. It was modeled after the British Parliament and is the second largest in Europe (after the one in London). It was beautiful, and like I was saying about the different vibe in Eastern Europe, there were evergreen trees everywhere. We couldn't go in, but we took a picture of us celebrating our Pigskin invitation in front of Parliament! Congratulations ADPi, we love you girls!
We hopped back on the metro and went to see St. Stephen's Basilica. Beautiful beautiful, inside and out! Oh my goodness, the interior was absolutely majestic. In contrast to the Gothic-style cathedrals I've seen so far which are dark with ironwork and stained glass, this church had big windows with light pouring in. Everything was rich red and gold, and there were marble columns and floors.
Being on a tight schedule, we had to run back to the hostel to pick up our bags since they closed on Sundays at noon. From there, we tried to eat at a restaurant that advertised a 6 euro 3-course-meal, but it was closed... along with every other restaurant in town. We had to settle for lunch at McDonalds, which I wasn't too happy about. I'm not a huge fast food fan to begin with, and I feel like I'm cheating myself when I eat at an Americanized restaurant in a foreign country. After lunch, we went to spend the rest of our forints on souvenirs and then headed to the train station to begin our 18 hour journey back to Maastricht.
It was a phenomenal, tiring, but oh-so-worth-it weekend!
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