Praha

Prague has to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Even though the bus ride was about 7 hours, it was so worth it! The day we arrived in Prague, we walked around the area of the city that our hotel was in and then had dinner. We all made plans to go out that night, but Anabel and I took a nap beforehand and did not end up waking up until the next morning!

The second day, our entire group did a walking tour of the city. We went up to the Prague castle and then inside of the St. Vitus Cathedral. We then worked our way down the side of the castle towards the Vltava River and crossed the gorgeous Charles Bridge.
After crossing the bridge, Anabel and I realized that we could not find anyone from our group, so we began looking in the small souvenir shops. We eventually found ourselves in the beautiful, old town square of Prague, with the Tyn Church, a tall tower with a historically famous astronomical clock, and many restaurants and shops, including some old-fashioned wooden booths selling cool things in the middle of the square. Dissatisfied with the over-priced meals all of the restaurants were offering, we opted for $1 hot dogs (that were REALLY good!!) and then decided to give ourselves a Valentine's Day treat by going to a nice cafe and having some coffee and a delicious pastry.


View of the Charles Bridge and Prague from the top of the castle


Another gorgeous view of the city!


A group shot at the castle


St. Vitus Cathedral


In front of the cathedral with Anabel


Jump shot with Zsolt and Anabel!


On the Charles Bridge


View of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge


View of the square and Tyn Church


Astronomical clock! Each hour is assigned one of Jesus' twelve disciples, and so every hour, a statue of one of the disciples emerges from the clock! In addition, a boy goes to the top of the tower and plays the trumpet at every hour.


Valentine's Day treat

We eventually ran into others from our group, and then decided to go up to the top of the astronomical clock tower, so that we could see a view of the entire city. By this time, it was evening, and Prague looked gorgeous at night!
After coming down from the tower, we bargained at one of the wooden stands for fresh, hot kurtos kalacs (a type of Hungarian pastry).


Nighttime view


Another view of Prague at night!

After this, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out. We had been hearing about a famous dance club that many people had recommended we go to. Apparently, it is the "Biggest Dance Club in Eastern Europe", according to a very, very large sign on the side of its building. Dancing in Prague was a great end to an amazing weekend in one of my new favorite cities!

Wein Day 2

Our second day in Vienna was just as packed as our first. We started out by visiting a house designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian architect and artist. The building was extremely unique. We then went to the Museum a few blocks away, which was also designed in a very similar manner.




After this, we ate lunch and then went to the Sigmund Freud Museum. The location of the museum was in Freud's old home and where he used to practice, before he and his family fled to London during WWII. Some of Freud's personal items, or copies of personal items, were in the museum. The one thing I did not know about was the love story between him and his wife. They were apart for several years of their engagement, but wrote to each other consistently throughout those years. Another neat thing was that Salvador Dali had visited Freud as a patient and sketched him (2nd picture down).





After visiting the museum, we briefly visited a second-hand store and then headed back to the hostel. After picking our things up from the hostel, we went to the bus terminal, and were on our way back to Budapest!

Wien Day 1

We had been planning to go to Vienna sometime soon, and finally decided to go this last Thursday. Christine, Anabel, and I took a bus there (only a 2.5 hr bus ride!) and then met up with Lisa, Chelsea, and Chelsea's mom. Since we had arrived in Vienna around 9am, we had the whole day to explore the city. We first went and checked in to our hostel (Hostel Ruthensteiner). Apparently this hostel is abnormally nice and clean relative to other hostels. I completely recommend anyone to stay here if they are visiting Vienna!

Our first destination after the hostel was Schonbrunn, the Imperial Palace of the Habsburgs. Also, I found out in my Contemporary Culture class last week that the name of the dynasty is correctly spelled "Habsburg" and not "Hapsburg", which is how I have always been taught to spell it. My professor said he thinks it's really weird that Americans are taught to spell it that way, so I've decided to start spelling it the "right" way from now on. Anyway, the palace was gorgeous, but after finding out that the entrance for a tour was almost 10 Euros (approx. $14), we decided to just wander around the gift shop and public area of the palace instead. I love going to places that embody history and historical events (yes, I am a history geek), so I completely fell in love with this palace.





After visiting the palace we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant. I had liver dumpling soup (one of my FAVES) and we all had weinerschnitzel. We then went on to our next place of interest: Palace Belvedere. Not only is this a gorgeous palace, but it is today an art museum. AND the featured artist was Gustav Klimt. So, most of his amazing artwork was up, including the famous The Kiss painting. While the guards in the room weren't looking, I even took a sneaky (though imperfect) picture of it! I also love another of his pieces, called The Maiden . His artwork was amazing.





As we left, Chelsea's mom persuaded us to go to Opera. So we went to the opera and bought standing tickets for 3 Euros to watch Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, a play based on Shakespeare's Othello. After buying the tickets, Christine convinced us to go to Cafe Sacher and try their famous chocolate torte cakes. The cafe (which is part of a hotel) is right next to the opera, and it is gorgeous! After the desserts, we went back to the opera to watch the show. Although standing for over 2 hours turning out to not be very great, the show was completely amazing. This is the first opera I have seen in a long time, and I think I have come to appreciate it much more than I did in earlier years.






After the opera, we headed back to our hostel, and then Anabel, Christine, Chelsea, and I decided to go out to the nearest pub and meet some other traveling students. We definitely met some characters: an eccentric Irish guy, a guy who also worked at our hostel (Franz!), a few French students, a very sweet girl from Vietnam, and guy from New York studying abroad in Prague.

Debrecenbe kene menni....

Last weekend, David (my cousin) drove Zsofi (another cousin) and me to Debrecen. The last time we had all been there together was for a family reunion right outside of the city. This time, we were going mainly for a youth conference event, which we were really excited for. However, most of the conference was not organized very well, so we ended up mostly just hanging out all weekend. Andris (David's brother) and Theo (our second cousin) also came for Debrecen for a day. If you know this group of people, you also know that you are in good company and will never be bored.

We stayed at David's friends' house and went out with David and his friends from Debrecen both of the nights we were there. It was definitely fun to experience another Hungarian city.

BP Tour

There are two main people who run our program USF in Budapest program at Pazmany: Marcel and Andi. Not only are they extremely intelligent people (both are lawyers) but they are also such amazing people!! Marcel and Sharon (our study abroad coordinator at USF) took us on a tour of BudapestOur amazing professors (talk about Marcel, Andi, and Sharon) and those leading our program took us on a tour of BP.


Halaszbastya


Szent Jobb (holy right hand of St. Stephen (the first king of Hungary)...yeah, it's real)


Inside of St. Stephen Basilica


Outside of St. Istvan Bazilika (St. Stephen Basilica) with Marcel, Christine, and Anabel


Hosok Tere (Hero's Square)

First Day at Pazmany

I am so excited to start classes, mostly because all of the class I am taking sound really interesting:

Contemporary Culture
Nationalism and Ethnicity
Contemporary Issues in Central Europe
The History, Philosophy, and Development of the EU
Humanitarian Law

All of the professors I have met so far seem really experienced, and I am beyond excited to be learning new things in a new environment!
The first three classes are part of the USF in Budapest program, and contain mostly USF students (with the exception of one Hungarian student and two girls from St. Louis). The last two classes on the list are Erasmus classes. So, there will be both Hungarian and Erasmus students from around the world in the those classes. I can't wait to start those classes and meet new people!!

After class, Anabel and I found out that the UPC guys who are installing our internet had already shown up at our apartment, and we had missed them! And of course, they were busy and could not come back in a few hours. Sooo we had to schedule yet another appointment with them for Wednesday!! We are both ready to have internet again- we are at a new coffee shop, using their wifi, almost everyday. Although, I have to admit that it is super fun to walk around and explore, and we have a few favorite places already. One of them is called Praga (Prague) Tea and Coffee, and it has a very warm and antiquey feel to it. Another favorite of ours is a dessert/pastry shop that sells bomb Hungarian pastries, and is entirely pink and sparkly on the inside. Anabel calls it the "Pinky Barbie place". We've tried their dobos torta and raspberry rice pudding cake with a nice glass of white wine. Spectacular.

Anyways, after our first day of class, we met up with everyone from our program (that's right, all 21 of us and two mentors) and headed to Morrison's 1 for karaoke and dancing. That place was POPPING. They had a deal where you get three tickets for three beers at the door for 500 forints (about $2.50). The only thing is that you need to cash them in before 11pm, so it gets really packed around 10pm when most people show up. The place was full of students from all over- Hungary, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Portugal, and the U.S. I ran into two Portuguese guys I met last week when I was at a concert place with two of my cousins. So random! I also met up with an old cserkesz (scout) friend and two other friends I met through my friend Hannah, who studied in BP a few semesters ago. That night was really fun, and we definitely plan on going back!

Budpest Week 1!!

This last week has been so crazy!! In between flying to Hungary, visiting relatives, looking for apartments, I have had no time to go online. In fact, we are still waiting to get internet at our apartment.

Anyways, let's start from the beginning. After arriving in Hungary with my mom and little brother, my aunts Andi and Lila helped Anabel and me find an apartment in downtown Budapest. Not only is it inexpensive (relative to Bay Area housing prices), but it is also gorgeous!! It is newly remodeled and has cute antique pieces lying around and really comfy furniture. We are currently loving everything about it! (Except maybe for not having internet, because we always have to go to coffee shops for free wifi.)

So, since my mom and brother are only here for about a week, we have been going around visiting as many family members as possible. We are staying with my mom's brother, Jozsi, and his lovely family, and have visited my mom's brother Peter and sister Edina.


With my mom, Richard, and Aunt Andi


With my Aunt Edina and her family

After we secured the apartment thanks to Andi's negotiating skills, we went and visited my maternal grandparents in Bekes. This was really cool, not only because I got to see them, but also because Richard and I ended up walking around with my mom and uncle Peter, and they showed us the schools they attended and neighbor's house they set on fire in their childhood. Some of the houses in that town were built in the 1920s, and my mom and Peter said that today they looked the same as when they were kids.


My mom and Uncle Peter in front of their elementary school


My Grandma, Mom, and me


Richard and I with our Grandparents

The day after we got back to Budapest after visiting Bekes, my uncle Peter drove us to Miskolc to visit my dad's family (his sisters, mother, my cousins, and second cousins). My godmother, Marika, made an amazing meal, and it was so great to hang out with that side of my family as well.


Picture with almost everyone on my dad's side of the family (minus my cousin Attila and his wife Piroska).