So the train to Budapest was delayed two hours sometime early in the morning. Lena and I slowly got ourselves ready in our tiny sleeping car and laid on our beds as we watched the Hungarian country-side slide by. We finally got off the train and made our way to the hostel. Budapest's architecture is a lot different from Prague's. There are many more tall buildings, not necessarily modern, but newer than Prague's classic old European look. Budapest is also a lot bigger than Prague and the streets are a lot wider. It is split by the river Danube into Buda and Obuda on the west bank and Pest on the east bank. The city was united many years ago, and we thought it was interesting that they used to be two cities.
The hostel was the best hostel we have ever stayed in. It was in one of Budapest's many tall buildings near the river and had its own kitchen! The room we stayed in had 9 or 10 beds in it, with three up in the loft. Lena and I were the only ones in the room for the first night, so we took two of the loft beds. We put our stuff down and decided to walk around. Budapest was still absolutely freezing, but was a better than Prague (at least I wasn't shivering the whole time).
Across the street from our hostel we found a nice shopping street and we sat down to eat breakfast. The money in Budapest is especially confusing because one U.S. Dollar is about 188 Hungarian Forint, so we were spending thousands of Forint, and that just seemed outrageous to us. We left the cafe and discovered a Christmas market in a square down the street a little! We looked around for a bit and decided we would come back the next night and do our shopping then. Next we walked across the Danube, via the Chain Bridge, to Buda. Buda is set on hills, so we took a journey up the hill to the top where Buda Castle (which used to be a castle, but is now just a museum) and Matthias Church are located. They both had amazing views of Pest to the east and to the west had amazing views of the rest of Buda (mostly homes). There was a little village on top of the hill, called the Castle District, and we walked around it for a while, enjoying the views.
After our journey to Buda, we decided to save money on food, since we had a kitchen, and we went to buy stuff for dinner for two nights and a little something for breakfast for the next two days. We went to a little mini grocery store and bought some pasta, cereal, yogurt, popcorn, water, and wine. It was the most inexpensive four meals for two anyone has ever bought (the wine was around a whopping 80 cents), and it was a little bit of a struggle to buy because way less people in Hungary speak English than we were used to in other countries. We finally got out of the store and made our way back to our hostel, where we cooked dinner and drank some wine. We had bought a tiny bottle of Absinth in Prague (come on, you know we had to) and decided to take a swig of it to see just how strong it was while we were in the safety of our hostel. Turns out, Absinth is extremely strong. After one swig each, we felt like we had had about 4 shots of normal liquor. I was sick, so I couldnt really taste or smell things, but I could feel the burning death of the Absinth. Needless to say, by the end of the trip we never finished the Absinth and I poured the rest of the devil drink down the drain.
The next day, we had our lovely breakfast in the kitchen and began our tour of Budapest. First we went to see Dohany Street Synagogue, the second largest synagogue in the world (the largest being in New York). From there we walked over to St. Stephen's Basilica, which is named after Stephen, the first King of Hungary, and whose mummified fist resides in the reliquary. The cathedral looks a lot like St. Paul's Cathedral in London and is beautiful.
Next, we headed to Hungarian Parliament, and on our way we found a square that had a memorial remembering the rule of Communism when the Soviets had control of Hungary, another statue of an American soldier who did something important for Hungary during a war, an old building which used to be the national bank and acted as a kind of stock exchange (I think), and the headquarters of one of Hungary's most prominent broadcasting stations. Parliament was absolutely beautiful, even more so than English Parliament. Across from Hungarian Parliament was the Ethnography Museum, so we went in to learn about Hungarian culture. We saw some beautiful clothing and artwork that are part of Hungary's history and decided that we needed to find some homemade cloth to buy and make into something.
We then headed up one of the main streets in Budapest where, conveniently, most of the attractions are located. We saw the Opera House, which is very ornate, with lots of statues decorating the building. We saw the Terror House, which is where the Soviet Secret Police took people to interrogate them. Once a person went in to be interrogated, they almost never came out, and the bulding is now a museum where people can see how these victims were treated and learn about the communist regime in Hungary. Lena really wanted to go in, but I knew if i went in I would be upset the whole day, so we didn't. Next came the Oktogon, a big octagonal shaped intersection where the buildings surrounding are full of nice stores. After the Oktogon, came the embassies. Down this end of the street, there were many, many embassies from various countries of the world. The tall buildings ended and beautiful, large suburban homes lined the street.
At the end of the street is Heroes Square, with a big monument in the middle. Next to the monument are the National Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, and behind it is City Park. City Park is home to an outdoor Hungarian Bath, which resembles a large man-made lake, but was of course drained since it was winter. Farther back in the park is Vajdahunyad Castle, which was built during the millennial exhibition in 1896 out of cardboard and wood, but was so popular that they re-built it with stone . Inside the castle grounds is the statue of Anonymous. The statue is of a hooded figure hunching over writing something, and no one really knows who this statue is. There is another bath farther back by the castle, and it is one of the many indoor baths open year round that uses the natural heat from thermal springs. We didn't go in it because it would have been much too cold to walk around with wet hair. These baths are part of the reason we want to come back to Budapest during the summer, when we can use the indoor and outdoor baths and walk around the large city without being frozen.
After all this we had a late lunch in a cafe and resumed our walking tour of Budapest. We walked around some cute street and just wandered for a while. Everything is beautiful in Budapest, so we were happy to just bide our time and enjoy the sights. After semi-aimlessly wandering for a while, we made our way back to the Christmas market near our hostel. There were so many awesome booths with homemade pottery, cloth, jewelry, food, and other trinkets. We got some delicious mulled wine to try and warm up as we did our Christmas shopping. I got a lot of stuff and we bought this delicious cinnamon bread that seemed to be a specialty of that region of Europe.
After cleaning out the Christmas market, we went back to the hostel and ate our dinner. By this time, all the beds in our room were filled and we had a full house. As we were watching the news (which conveniently was showing a special on Istanbul, our next stop) in the living room area after dinner, a young guy sat down and we started talking to him. He was an American from somewhere in the mid-west who was on break from his year abroad in a small town a few hours north of London. The peolpe who were running the hostel came to tell us that later there would be a wine and club soda party in the hostel lobby and we just hung out talking until it was time to go down there. The party consisted of two Hungarians who worked at the hostel, two Australians, us three Americans, and was joined for a short time by two Brazilians and a guy from, I think, Poland. It was a cool experience to be in the company of such a diverse group of people, so we hung out for a while talking, and once we were ready for bed we went upstairs, packed for our last stop on our trip and went to sleep.
The next morning we got up, made our way to the airport via a subway train and a bus, and got on our flight to Istanbul!
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Czech Me Out, I'm In Prague
So on our last day in London, Lena and I packed up our backpacks for our adventure week, packed the rest of our things into our suitcases, and took the suitcases to the storage company we would be storing our things at for the week. That night, Lena and I pushed our beds together and a few of the girls came and watched a movie in our newly created giant bed. It was a precious end to the semester and a nice goodbye.
The next morning, Lena and I got up, went to the airport, and headed to Prague! We got to the hostel, which was kind of set up like an old boarding school or something, dropped off our stuff and set off to explore. Prague was FREEEEEZING. I have never been so cold in my life, so we walked around for a bit and then went inside for a long dinner. When we got back to the hostel, we saw that we had another roommate. There were 16 beds, but only three of them were taken, two by me and Lena and one by an Argentinean guy in Prague on business.
The next day, Lena and I got up to walk to Old Town Square, where we were meeting the Sandeman's tour group. The Sandeman's tour is a free tour, where they have the participants pay for what they think the tour is worth to them in the form of a tip at the end of the tour. We took the Sandeman's tour in Scotland and Ireland and enjoyed the one in Scotland, so we were excited to learn some history in Prague. In Old Town Square, we saw the Astronomical Clock, which is a big clock in the square that has been around since 1410, and has been added to and improved since then, including 12 apostles that pass by the window above the dial when the clock strikes every hour. We also saw St. Nicolas Church, Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, and the Jan Hus Monument. There was also a little Christmas market in the square, complete with Christmas tree and manger with real (and smelly) animals.
From Old Town Square, we moved on to the Stavovské Theater, where Mozart performed his operas and rose to fame, and where he premiered Don Giovanni- specifically written for the city of Prague. We then went to moved on to see a few sights in New Town, including the Jewish Quarter. The Europe's oldest working synagogue is in Prague's Jewish Quarter. There is so much history in the Jewish Quarter, unfortunately most of it being heartbreaking. Our tour guide explained that Prague was the city held under Nazi control for the longest amount of time, and was essentially on the border of the agreement between the Soviet Union and the democratic Allies (mainly the United States). When Allied powers liberated Europe from the Nazi's, American forces were not allowed to enter Prague because it was set to be Soviet territory, which forced the citizens of Prague to liberate itself and wait for the Soviet forces to come and take control. The arrival of Soviet forces ushered Prague into another horrible and violent phase in its history- that under communist control. *disclaimer- if any of this information is wrong, don't blame me, blame the tour guide (or my faulty memory).*
After the tour, we walked around and bought tickets for 8 Euro to see Carmen at the State Opera Theater the that night. By that time it was time for dinner, so we ate something, walked around some other parts of Prague (which is a very small city, so didn't take us too long), bought some absinthe to save for later, and then went to the opera. I am definitely not a big fan of opera, but the whole thing was such a cool experience because I was sitting there, in Prague, watching an opera set in Spain, but sung in French. It was such an expression of the amount of culture and all the unique experiences I was able to encounter during my semester.
The next day, we went to the part of town across the river where Prague Castle is located. The bridge we took to go across the river is called the Charles Bridge and is a wide walking bridge lined with beautiful religious statues. We learned on the tour that one of the statues has two plaques on it. the plaque on the right side is good luck to rub, and the plaque on the left side is bad luck to rub. We rubbed the good luck plaque and made our way across the bridge. The other side of the river was set on a hill, and Prague Castle was on top of the hill, so the streets were a little steep. We slowly made our way to the top, where we were rewarded with an amazing view of Prague. The castle itself was kind of hidden, so we glimpsed it and continued walking around on the hill. There were many beautiful buildings, but again it was absolutely freezing and windy on the hill so we made our way back down.
Our friends Jacqui and Elise were doing a similar trip and were arriving in Prague that day, so we got some hot chocolate while we waited for them to arrive. We met up with them in Old Town Square and moved inside to warm up and talk about our trips so far. We saw some of the same sights again with them as we walked around Prague. Elise really wanted to see the John Lennon Peace Wall, which is on the Prague Castle side of the bridge, so we walked over there, showed them the bridge, and found the wall. The wall was really cool. It reminded me of the East Side Gallery in Berlin, but much, much smaller and more graffiti-like than murals. There was a paining of John Lennon flashing the peace sign, a big peace sign, and signatures and graffiti covering the wall. We signed it and admired it before setting off back to New Town to get dinner. After dinner, we said goodbye to our friends, and went to pick up our stuff from the hostel before setting off for the train station, where we got on our overnight train to Budapest, Hungary. We got a sleeping car to ourselves, which was awesome, and where we had our own sink and mirror next to our bunk beds.
The next morning, Lena and I got up, went to the airport, and headed to Prague! We got to the hostel, which was kind of set up like an old boarding school or something, dropped off our stuff and set off to explore. Prague was FREEEEEZING. I have never been so cold in my life, so we walked around for a bit and then went inside for a long dinner. When we got back to the hostel, we saw that we had another roommate. There were 16 beds, but only three of them were taken, two by me and Lena and one by an Argentinean guy in Prague on business.
The next day, Lena and I got up to walk to Old Town Square, where we were meeting the Sandeman's tour group. The Sandeman's tour is a free tour, where they have the participants pay for what they think the tour is worth to them in the form of a tip at the end of the tour. We took the Sandeman's tour in Scotland and Ireland and enjoyed the one in Scotland, so we were excited to learn some history in Prague. In Old Town Square, we saw the Astronomical Clock, which is a big clock in the square that has been around since 1410, and has been added to and improved since then, including 12 apostles that pass by the window above the dial when the clock strikes every hour. We also saw St. Nicolas Church, Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, and the Jan Hus Monument. There was also a little Christmas market in the square, complete with Christmas tree and manger with real (and smelly) animals.
From Old Town Square, we moved on to the Stavovské Theater, where Mozart performed his operas and rose to fame, and where he premiered Don Giovanni- specifically written for the city of Prague. We then went to moved on to see a few sights in New Town, including the Jewish Quarter. The Europe's oldest working synagogue is in Prague's Jewish Quarter. There is so much history in the Jewish Quarter, unfortunately most of it being heartbreaking. Our tour guide explained that Prague was the city held under Nazi control for the longest amount of time, and was essentially on the border of the agreement between the Soviet Union and the democratic Allies (mainly the United States). When Allied powers liberated Europe from the Nazi's, American forces were not allowed to enter Prague because it was set to be Soviet territory, which forced the citizens of Prague to liberate itself and wait for the Soviet forces to come and take control. The arrival of Soviet forces ushered Prague into another horrible and violent phase in its history- that under communist control. *disclaimer- if any of this information is wrong, don't blame me, blame the tour guide (or my faulty memory).*
After the tour, we walked around and bought tickets for 8 Euro to see Carmen at the State Opera Theater the that night. By that time it was time for dinner, so we ate something, walked around some other parts of Prague (which is a very small city, so didn't take us too long), bought some absinthe to save for later, and then went to the opera. I am definitely not a big fan of opera, but the whole thing was such a cool experience because I was sitting there, in Prague, watching an opera set in Spain, but sung in French. It was such an expression of the amount of culture and all the unique experiences I was able to encounter during my semester.
The next day, we went to the part of town across the river where Prague Castle is located. The bridge we took to go across the river is called the Charles Bridge and is a wide walking bridge lined with beautiful religious statues. We learned on the tour that one of the statues has two plaques on it. the plaque on the right side is good luck to rub, and the plaque on the left side is bad luck to rub. We rubbed the good luck plaque and made our way across the bridge. The other side of the river was set on a hill, and Prague Castle was on top of the hill, so the streets were a little steep. We slowly made our way to the top, where we were rewarded with an amazing view of Prague. The castle itself was kind of hidden, so we glimpsed it and continued walking around on the hill. There were many beautiful buildings, but again it was absolutely freezing and windy on the hill so we made our way back down.
Our friends Jacqui and Elise were doing a similar trip and were arriving in Prague that day, so we got some hot chocolate while we waited for them to arrive. We met up with them in Old Town Square and moved inside to warm up and talk about our trips so far. We saw some of the same sights again with them as we walked around Prague. Elise really wanted to see the John Lennon Peace Wall, which is on the Prague Castle side of the bridge, so we walked over there, showed them the bridge, and found the wall. The wall was really cool. It reminded me of the East Side Gallery in Berlin, but much, much smaller and more graffiti-like than murals. There was a paining of John Lennon flashing the peace sign, a big peace sign, and signatures and graffiti covering the wall. We signed it and admired it before setting off back to New Town to get dinner. After dinner, we said goodbye to our friends, and went to pick up our stuff from the hostel before setting off for the train station, where we got on our overnight train to Budapest, Hungary. We got a sleeping car to ourselves, which was awesome, and where we had our own sink and mirror next to our bunk beds.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
The End.
So the last week of the semester is here. I had my last film class, and then it was time for one last final paper and a presentation. I finally had time to go to the British Film Institute and choose from their selection of free movies and watch a few during an afternoon. My presentation was about the movie viewing experience in different venues, so I went to the BFI to review the experience. It was such a great venue with a great feel to it and I wish I discovered it sooner.
I spent the week doing a little last minute exploring London and getting everything together for my end of semester trip. Everything that week went by in a blur and it seemed to end as quickly as the semester went by. This semester was the best of my life and I got to experience things I never thought I would get to do. I met some great friends, who I will continue to be friends with when we get back to Boston.
Now it's time for my extravaganza week with Lena!!
I spent the week doing a little last minute exploring London and getting everything together for my end of semester trip. Everything that week went by in a blur and it seemed to end as quickly as the semester went by. This semester was the best of my life and I got to experience things I never thought I would get to do. I met some great friends, who I will continue to be friends with when we get back to Boston.
Now it's time for my extravaganza week with Lena!!
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Berlin: Blumen Pflanzen
Germany: the land of the Kuehns. My roommate Kelly and I flew to Berlin early Saturday morning, so early that we only slept for like an hour. We left the room at about 3:30am to catch the bus to the train station that would take us to the airport (sounds fun, right?). We got to Berlin and made our way to the hostel, while stopping on our way to get pastries and coffee (Kelly was suuuperrr excited that they had Dunkin Donuts). The pastries were so so so so good, they were our main food group for the weekend. After we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we started sightseeing. The Christmas markets were our main concerns, so we went to the biggest Christmas market first, in Alexanderplatz. On our way, we encountered a group of Santas caroling in German on the train, which was unnatural sounding to us, the songs not being in English. One of the Santas came up to us to ask us if we knew who saved humanity and was born about 2,000 years ago, and of course we answered that it was Jesus. She wished us a Merry Christmas and gave us chocolate coins (which look the same in Germany as they do in America).
Alexanderplatz is a big area in Berlin with a tall TV tower, a beautiful church, and some open spaces where the Christmas market was set up. The Christmas market was huge, and it had three sections. There was a section with a bunch of booths where people were selling a variety of things and foods, another section by a beautiful church with a ferris wheel and more booths, and a third section resembling a mini state fair.We stopped and got sausages at one of the booths and took a bunch of pictures before frolicking in a park-y area. Next to the frolic park was the Berlin Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. We took some pictures before moving on to a different part of the market. I bought some silly finger puppets and we marveled at the German-ness of the market.
Next we went to the East Side Gallery, which is a preserved section of the Berlin Wall covered in beautiful murals. The murals were of course themed in subjects having to do with communism, the Wall, and their effects on the population of Berlin. Most are grim, or abstract representations of the emotions people must have felt during the time, but some are hopeful or even triumphant. Some didn't even seem to have much to do with the Berlin Wall at all, though I don't really know enough history to make that judgement.
Next we made our way back to Alexanderplatz and explored the carnival part of the market. It looked great lit up in the dark. We went in and got some hot wine, which I didn't like much, before walking around a bit more. We then headed to another Christmas market in Potsdamer Platz. The market was a lot like the other ones, so we looked around for a bit, got some pastries, and then went into a mall to get warm and rest our feet before we headed back to the hostel early.
The next day, we got up and decided to take a long walk to Charlottenburg Palace. On the walk, we got hungry and decided to stop for some breakfast. We got some "pommes frites"- french fries and continued our walk. The palace stood out beautifully in the snow and against the grey sky and there was another little market there too. We got a few gifts at the market and then took a stroll around the palace. The back of the palace had a big garden, but as there was snow everywhere, we didn't see what it looks like in all its glory.
Next we went to the Brandenburg Gate, which is at the edge of Tiergarten, a big park in Berlin that also holds German Parliament. We made our way down Unter den Linden, a main road in Berlin, to Friedrichstraße, a main shopping street. We looked around Friedrichstraße and made our way to another market in Gendarmenmarkt. This market cost one Euro, which was annoying, but had a stage with some entertainment. There were little performances going on, and we saw some child ballerinas performing a cute little ballet play. The market was in a little square surrounded by one German and one French cathedral. The square was awesome, and once we were done exploring we went to another mall to defrost and get something to eat. We wanted to see one more market and when we walked outside it was snowing! We did some more frolicking in the snow, and made our way to a market on Unter den Linden. One of my favorite things about Europe is walking around and unexpectedly finding these beautiful buildings. This aspect of Europe did not let me down in Berlin, and on the way to the last market, we stumbled across a beautiful museum and a pretty, little church.
The last market, like the others, was awesome. We browsed some booths and took some pictures, and were then in for a surprise. We were walking, and saw a stage with two men getting ready to perform. They started singing and we were immediately surprised to hear that they were singing in English. They were singing classic American songs, and they were pretty good, so we stuck around. In between songs, they started speaking, and they were American. They spoke both German and English, but Kelly and I thought it was funny that we stumbled upon some American performers, who we learned were called the "Soul Protectors," while we were in Germany.
We headed back to the hostel to get some rest before our early flight the next day. On the way to the airport, we of course stopped for some pastries and hot chocolate, which I then spilled while struggling on the train.
Alexanderplatz is a big area in Berlin with a tall TV tower, a beautiful church, and some open spaces where the Christmas market was set up. The Christmas market was huge, and it had three sections. There was a section with a bunch of booths where people were selling a variety of things and foods, another section by a beautiful church with a ferris wheel and more booths, and a third section resembling a mini state fair.We stopped and got sausages at one of the booths and took a bunch of pictures before frolicking in a park-y area. Next to the frolic park was the Berlin Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. We took some pictures before moving on to a different part of the market. I bought some silly finger puppets and we marveled at the German-ness of the market.
Next we went to the East Side Gallery, which is a preserved section of the Berlin Wall covered in beautiful murals. The murals were of course themed in subjects having to do with communism, the Wall, and their effects on the population of Berlin. Most are grim, or abstract representations of the emotions people must have felt during the time, but some are hopeful or even triumphant. Some didn't even seem to have much to do with the Berlin Wall at all, though I don't really know enough history to make that judgement.
Next we made our way back to Alexanderplatz and explored the carnival part of the market. It looked great lit up in the dark. We went in and got some hot wine, which I didn't like much, before walking around a bit more. We then headed to another Christmas market in Potsdamer Platz. The market was a lot like the other ones, so we looked around for a bit, got some pastries, and then went into a mall to get warm and rest our feet before we headed back to the hostel early.
The next day, we got up and decided to take a long walk to Charlottenburg Palace. On the walk, we got hungry and decided to stop for some breakfast. We got some "pommes frites"- french fries and continued our walk. The palace stood out beautifully in the snow and against the grey sky and there was another little market there too. We got a few gifts at the market and then took a stroll around the palace. The back of the palace had a big garden, but as there was snow everywhere, we didn't see what it looks like in all its glory.
Next we went to the Brandenburg Gate, which is at the edge of Tiergarten, a big park in Berlin that also holds German Parliament. We made our way down Unter den Linden, a main road in Berlin, to Friedrichstraße, a main shopping street. We looked around Friedrichstraße and made our way to another market in Gendarmenmarkt. This market cost one Euro, which was annoying, but had a stage with some entertainment. There were little performances going on, and we saw some child ballerinas performing a cute little ballet play. The market was in a little square surrounded by one German and one French cathedral. The square was awesome, and once we were done exploring we went to another mall to defrost and get something to eat. We wanted to see one more market and when we walked outside it was snowing! We did some more frolicking in the snow, and made our way to a market on Unter den Linden. One of my favorite things about Europe is walking around and unexpectedly finding these beautiful buildings. This aspect of Europe did not let me down in Berlin, and on the way to the last market, we stumbled across a beautiful museum and a pretty, little church.
The last market, like the others, was awesome. We browsed some booths and took some pictures, and were then in for a surprise. We were walking, and saw a stage with two men getting ready to perform. They started singing and we were immediately surprised to hear that they were singing in English. They were singing classic American songs, and they were pretty good, so we stuck around. In between songs, they started speaking, and they were American. They spoke both German and English, but Kelly and I thought it was funny that we stumbled upon some American performers, who we learned were called the "Soul Protectors," while we were in Germany.
We headed back to the hostel to get some rest before our early flight the next day. On the way to the airport, we of course stopped for some pastries and hot chocolate, which I then spilled while struggling on the train.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)