Hmm, the beginning of the week was actually pretty nondescript.
Grocery shopped on Monday, volunteered on Tuesday. Oh, on Tuesday, we had our "Seminar on Living and Learning in Budapest" after a three week hiatus. More of the usual: Elizabeth explaining away things we've observed around Budapest, with a few helpful pieces of cultural information. That night, I met a bunch of friends at Arriba to catch the happy hour drink special...margaritas at 5:30, love it. I also managed to convince nearly everyone to give me their limes, which meant I had at least 10 to enjoy on the the tram back. LOVE IT! I am eating so much citrus here, what with all the lemons and limes in drinks that no one but me ever actually eats. Scrumptious.
On Wednesday, I watched an episode of Six Feet Under with Sam. (Mini-gloat: She is actually watching it! I am so proud. I have never before hooked anyone on SFU, even though it is the BEST SHOW EVER.) After, I went to Buda to watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia while we waited for Megan's friend to arrive for a visit from Spain. (Remember: saying champagne in a round, which made Lauren laugh until she cried and recording the Jo Reggelt wake-up call.)
When friend Morgan arrived, a little before midnight, we took a caravan down Danube-side to sip on some wine and munch on some "flattened bananas" (given to Sam by her father, but they gave her a tummy ache, so I brought them along). It was lovely to sit and chat and listen to tunes, which watching the glittering buildings along the river. Hoooowwww romaaahntic.
Szabadság (Liberty) Bridge. Sam calls this "our bridge" and I have started to do so as well. We are technically closer to Petőfi (one bridge south of here), but Szabadsag is infinitely prettier. I decided on this evening that it is my favorite bridge, though Lanchid (Chain Bridge) comes in as a very close second. Also, Johna!
That's the main building of my school, right across the way. So beautiful. And Lauren's grumpy (/drunk) face. Also beautiful, of course.
I REALLY like this picture. Meghan laughing. This is the best picture coming from me asking everyone to look back for a picture--I guess I'll take it.
Thursday brought another BEAUTIFUL day in Budapest! I don't know what it is about Thursdays lately, but they have just been stunning. We had a field trip for Art History (Architecture), to the Schiffer Villa, off of Andrássy. This stretch of Andrássy has lots of huge and beautiful villas/former palaces, many of which are now museums or embassies.
On the way there.
I love this.
This is the Schiffer Villa, built in 1911.
Inside.
Beautiful stained glass painting.
Sisa showing us some Zsolnay ceramic tiles (they're everywhere!)
I really loved all the bird decorations.
Walking back, it was still a beautiful day on Ráday. Yeah, can't believe I live on this street sometimes.
After Hungarian, I had a few hours to burn before Lit, so I went and got a kókuszos kakaós csiga (coconut chocolate snail, mmmmm) at the market and strolled down Váci utca (the biggest and most touristy pedestrian street in Budapest). They were putting up bow decorations to be lit. I cannot wait for everything to be lit up for Christmas. Christmas and decorating comes so early here, because in Hungary, Santa (Szent Mikulás) comes on the night of the fifth of December. It's basically a separate holiday from Christmas, so the entire month of December is super festive. We've already cajoled our Hungarian teacher, Orsi, to let us have a party in honor of Mikulás's visit on the first class after the fifth.
Anyway, decorations in progress.
More general beauty of the day. I also heard the sunset was glorious, but unfortunately I had to go back to class.
That evening, I went over to Buda dorm to enjoy some breakfast for dinner. So cute and delicious.
On Friday, some Buda friends and I set off for Memento Park, the outdoor exhibition of huge Communist statues that formerly lived in the city. I LOVE this kind of stuff. I've recently realized my passion for propaganda. We took a bus to the Budapest boonies, after a little trouble finding it. The park was really foggy, which kind of made it a little eerie (cool), but I wish it had been nicer weather. It was all very manageable, though. We saw every statue, taking our time, in just over an hour.
Fogarific.
Julie and I posed like this one--we decided it looked like they were doing calisthenics. Not on my camera, though.
We had two different guidebooks, so we got plenty of information about each statue. Megan presenting to us. (This reminded me of H.Kay being tour guide Barbie in Ireland.)
One of my favorites to look at.
Afterward, very cute and very white, waiting for the bus and planning the rest of the day.
When we got back into the city, a group of us went back to my street to eat soup and hot drinks--we were pretty chilly. We went to Jaffa, which is right on my block and fairly enjoyable. I had a hearty meat soup and a hot wine. And there was table bread to soak up the soup. Mmm.
After, we weren't quite done eating, so we went to the top level of the market to get crepes. I love this place--the same one I went to with Em. They make the crepes right in front of you and have a bunch of delicious flavors. Lauren and Julie and I shared a stracciatella crepe: they actually flavor the dough stracciatella, mixing in chocolate bits, and then put vanilla pudding and more chocolate bits inside. Topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. SO GOOD. I'm really glad we shared it, too, because though I could have eaten all of it (obviously), it would have made my stomach hurt!
In a few hours, the same group ventured back out to the Budapest Jazz Club for a classy evening with the Juhász Gábor Quintet. We got music for two hours, and it was wonnnderful. You could tell I majorly zoned out because my hair was a frizzball afterwards from lots of curl diddling.
Oh hey.
Other side--prime people watching here. I love watching people listening to music they enjoy.
So classy.
I came home, ate an inordinate amount of pasta, chatted with Lydia for a while, then went to sleep.
On Saturday, I was going to join friends for a trip to the National Gallery. However, when I agreed to that, I forgot that I had not yet completed the anthro assignment due on Friday--so I had to stay in and take care of that. Several hours and much grumping later, I was done, so I headed over to partake in the SCAVENGER HUNT that Megan Schleck and friend Morgan wrote up for us. SO MUCH FUN.
My team did many things, including:
-used the bathrooms at the Gellért Hotel
-photographed a bride
(There will be more pictures later, probably. Everything is on Val's camera, and there are some real silly ones.)
-observed much PDA
-spelled "nem" with our bodies in front of the Fine Arts Museum
-drank three mugs of forralt bor
-rode the swings and posed on the slides on Gellért hill
-found misspelled signs in English
-found books in languages other then Hungarian and English
-didn't buy Pál Street Boys
-posed with many Santas and Christmas trees
-consumed an entire bottle of honey pear pálinka
and...
-swam in the Danube.
Yes, that happened. Extremely dirty, cold, exhilarating, and illegal. It was worth the most point on the scav hunt, so we decided to go for it. Lauren and I went in first, then Val and Carley. Val and I went under (might as well go all the way, right?) AHH, it was so great. I'm really glad we did it. It made me so happy. TEAM DUNABAN!
Here's a photo, snagged from Miss Carley. We look so happy! Love it so much.
I also ended up cutting up my feet a little scrambling out, I think...but the adrenaline made me not notice until we got back and my socks were kind of...bloody. I also twisted my ankle on the trip back, which is bad news bears. It kept me up on Saturday night, but I've been on painkillers since then and I think it's feeling a little better.
Anyway, after I went home to shower and tipsy eat several things in my fridge. I got SO sleepy, but ended up getting up again because we had plans to go to a Hungarian restaurant in north Budapest. Everyone was really sleepy, but it ended up being a good time. The waiter spoke very little English, which is actually kind of rare here, and we had to wait a while before we got a couple of English menus. Always interesting trying to decode the Hungarian/German menu.
Upon return, Allie, Lauren, Julie and I watched Away We Go, plagued by some of the normal struggles that come with online movie watching. I really enjoyed it, though, and downloaded most of the soundtrack yesterday. Such great mellow music, perfect for a mellow Sunday. I ended up missing the last tram, though, so I slept in Meghan's bed (she's away with a group in Amsterdam this weekend). Like I said, my ankle did disturb my sleep a little, but it was nice to co-sleep with Val, even though she did fall asleep while I was talking!! <3 <3
On Sunday, I hung around there for a while waiting for Val to get back from church, but after a while I had exhausted all my entertainment possibilities in their room (Meghan's Budapest Panorama Book is awesome), so I ended up going home. Food, then lots of lounging and icing my ankle for the rest of the day. It was really a very enjoyable weekend. The fact that I hung out with Buda friends all weekend is kind of significant because the two people who I knew in any way when I first came here, Meghan and Johna, were both gone this weekend. Yet, I still can't stay away from Ménesi út. Everyone in the group has become really important to me. I'm really lucky to have them. Great weekend, guys.
This week brings my MAMA! Arriving on Wednesday. AND she even has a place to stay, now! Let's hope my ankle is ready for lots and lots of folk dancing...
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