Friday in Budapest

Friday morning we went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. There was a Rembrandt exhibit and a Carvaggio exhibit. It was just off of Heroes’ Square, and I was happy we got to see the square again. I think I enjoyed it more than I have other art museums in the past. We were there for several hours, and afterwards we went and saw the Opera House. It looks much like the one in Vienna.
Afterwards, we went over to the Buda side and took a cable car up to the castle. We wanted to go to the Labyrinth, but we were lost, so we ended up seeing much of the Buda Castle as well. After getting directions from at least five different people and wandering all over, we finally found the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is a bunch of man made caves all under the castle and the side of the hill that the Hungarians waited out sieges in. They also used them to house many of the people during WWII bombings. And they were creepy. Low ceilings, extremely damp and humid inside, not very much lighting, and of course, they added eerie music that sounded like you were going to go sacrifice someone to the gods when you heard it. I kind of felt like I had walked into a movie. There was also part it that had no lighting whatsoever and you had to feel your way around the winding caves. That part was a little scary. The oddest part, though, was that there was a random fountain of one in one of the dead end areas. I still can’t figure out what it was doing there.

St. Stephen’s Basilica

The largest church in Budapest is that of St. Stephen. It, too, was decorated in burgundies, olives, and golds, but the marble was white and the windows were large, and the way the light came into the cathedral was no less than heavenly. It was very different than many of the other churches we have seen. Inside they had the right hand of St. Stephen, all shriveled and preserved in formaldehyde. Kind of gross, but the church was beautiful.

Parliament

On Thursday morning, we were instructed to meet at parliament, but until then the morning was ours. We decided to sleep in a bit (as that is a very rare occasion on this trip), and then we headed down to parliament. To get there we had to take the Metro. The Metro is their subway line, and though it is the oldest on continental Europe, I think it is still one of the most primitive. The cars looked like old boxcars, and they were very beat up. The first time I saw them I was scared to get in them. They were not smooth at all: they went really fast and they jerked a lot. They are also the place where the most pick-pocketers are, so you had to be extra careful.
We decided to get off the Metro a stop early and just enjoy the day on our walk down to parliament. It was a beautiful day- we have been very lucky with weather this whole trip. When we arrived at parliament, we knew we needed to get around to the back, (since that was where we were meeting), but we really weren’t sure how to go about doing such. There were gates and fences everywhere, but we finally found an opening. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by Hungarian hippie-looking people camping out in tents decorated with “what democracy really is” signs. Yep. We had walked right into a protest. Apparently it’s been going on for three weeks, but that most of it had calmed down. We weren’t the only tourists in the area, though. WE made it through, met our group, and took our tour.
The parliament building is HUGE. It is so ornately decorated inside, all in beautiful colors of burgundies, olives, and golds.

Elizabeth’s Bridge!

Yep. They named a bridge in Budapest after me. He he. I thought that was pretty sweet.

Capital Hill (I think…)

The last stop of the tour was at a place that I think was called Capital Hill. They had their version of a liberty lady statue up there, and it was a very good view to take pictures from. There were also these old army artillery things that looked like they were from one of the world wars.

Fisherman's Bastion

Our next stop on our tour was Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Well, okay not really, it was Fisherman’s Bastion, but for all it was it could have been. There wasn’t a whole lot to it, other than Matthias’s church up behind it, but it was some fun architecture. I don’t remember a whole lot about what our guide told us about it, since we were there at 4pm and I was wistfully thinking of a nap. But it was really fun to see the architecture and just to be there.

Heroe's Square

After the church, we hopped back on the bus and started on a city tour. Budapest is hard to see only on foot, so a lot of it we just saw from the bus. The first stop we made was at Heroes’ Square; here there is a tomb for the unknown soldier, several statues of kings/rulers, and statues symbolizing labor, war, peace, and victory. My favorite part was that there was just so much space, and I had fun spinning around and feeling the cool breeze.

Serbian Orthodox CHurch

We arrived on Wednesday about noon, and we were given an hour before our tour to eat lunch. I took off with Stephanie, Marinda, and Jessica, and we weren’t really hungry, so we went to explore instead. Budapest is a large city (2 million), so we explored fairly close to the bus. We found the University Church, a very dark gothic church, first. But after a little bit more wandering we found a Serbian Orthodox church. It was kind of out of the way, and it was on a little back street. There was something about it that was just cute. So we went inside and there was a Hungarian worker who told us all about it. It was seriously damaged in WWII as well, but the foundation has been there since the middle ages.

Budapest!

Okay, I think this is weird. I have been to Hungary- to Budapest. Who does that? Salzburg? Sure. Venice? Absolutely. Budapest? Nope. But it is a beautiful city. Budapest was originally three (but mostly two) cities named Obuda, Buda, and Pest, all separated by the Danube river. Buda was the nicer part of town, but now they are all one city. I learned a lot about what the city went through, and to be honest I am amazed it is still a city at all. It seems almost every place we went we heard that it used to be different, that the building was bombed so much in WWII only the foundation remained. Communism has only been gone for 15 years or so, and the effects can still be seen. Budapest is similar to Vienna in some ways, but Vienna is much nicer because of how long democracy has been in place. People in Budapest are still trying to get back on their feet after such a terrible government. It made me all the more grateful for what I have and for what I didn’t have to go through.

The Ambassador's Reception

I attend the Austro-Amerikan Institut of Education here in Vienna. The AAIE has now been open for 80 years. To celebrate this event, the American ambassador here in Austria held a reception, and we were all invited. We all dressed up in the nicest thing we own and headed to the ambassador’s residence for the evening. I don’t think I realized at the time how big of an event it was to be invited there. We mostly just mingled with people, heard people make speeches, and ate appetizers, but it was fun all the same. My favorite part was that there were turkey and chicken appetizers, and I think I ate every turkey one that I saw. I have gotten so sick of ham here, and turkey is really hard to find. A lot of famous people walked the halls that I stood in, and I did get to meet the ambassador. I used to want to be an ambassador, and when I met her it was almost like I could have been here. It was weird to think that that was really something I could have done. But I am very happy with where I’m at and where I’m going. I love it here.

I feel cultured.

Last week I went to the symphony on Tuesday. They were playing Handel’s Water Music- it was so beautiful, and we had a crazy conductor. HE had the mad-scientist looking fly away hair, little glasses, crooked teeth, lots of wrinkles, and he jumped up and down during the dynamics of the music. We only paid four Euros for standing room, but because the front row didn’t sell, we sat in nice 50 Euro seats.
On Friday night we went to a ballet at the state Opera House (the one across the street from our school). We saw Onegin, a ballet by Tchaikovsky. It was SO good, SO intense, and so dynamic. And we paid 2 Euros to get in! I truly think it is the best deal in the world. Sure, you have to stand, but the show is so good you don’t even notice that you’re standing most of the time, and the seats that are worth buying are 75-200 Euros.
I had originally planned to go to the Opera on Saturday as well, but when we were out walking on Saturday afternoon, we passed an American movie theater and the second “Pirates” movie was playing in fifteen minutes. We had a small “I miss some things about America especially English” moment, so we stopped and saw it, then went out for cheeseburgers and milkshakes afterward. I really love it here, but there are a few things I miss.
Yesterday I also went to a ballet, standing room. I saw Coppelia, another amazing work. I just love how things like that are all over the place here and highly accessible, especially with the standing room tickets. You can barely walk down the street without seeing an advertisement for some sort of cultured event, or walking by some piece of architecture that has been there for 500 years or more. Before the ballet I went to a memorial park that I just happened to find to read my book. There was a huge fountain and beautiful flowers, but it wasn’t like it was even anything that special (though I thought it was). It was just typical. Too cool.

LEaving VEnice

We didn’t have much time on Saturday morning, so we decided to have a little fun and go shopping ☺ We were proud of ourselves for shopping as little as we did and exploring the city instead. A little after noon, we headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage and catch the water bus back to the train station. We made it with time to spare. We all got on the train and waited for it to take off. A few minutes before it left, our director came around counting everyone to make sure everyone had made it. “26, 27… “ No, he hadn’t miscounted again, we really were missing people. Three of them. The train took off. And we had left three of the girls in Venice. Yep- they were stranded in Italy since they missed the train. Luckily they were together and they caught the next night train (they had taken the wrong waterbus to get to the station, and it drove right past the station without letting anyone off- they made it five minutes after the train left). But the rest of us made it home safely, after seven long hours. The drive home was beautiful, though. We drove through the Alps and made it home to Vienna safe and sound.

The Islands

Venice has four islands surrounding it, and on Friday we set out to explore them. WE took a ferry to the first island, the island of Lido, and headed straight for the beach. It was SO fun. This was probably my favorite thing that we did. The Aegean Sea water was warm yet cool, clear, lacking waves, and filled with seashells. I felt a little bit like I was home again, playing in the ocean. We stayed for a couple hours, playing in the water and burying a couple of the guys in sand, and I enjoyed myself so much.
We then headed to Burano, an island famous for its lace. I was so exhausted from being sick that I actually fell asleep on the boat, sitting up and all. It was a good hour before we docked at Burano, so it was past 2:30, and we were starving, so we went to eat. Afterwards we walked around, saw some women make lace, and admired the quaint little houses on the canals. In some ways the houses looked like the houses in San Francisco- bright, tacky colors, no room in between, tiny, vertical, and quaint. We ended up skipping the other two islands, Torcello (which just had a church on it), and Murano (famous for its glassblowing), because we were so tired and it was getting late in the afternoon (plus it took an hour to get back to Venice).
That night we ate dinner at McDonald’s- kind of sad, I know. But McDonald’s has never tasted so good. I was full for the first time since we had arrived in Venice. The food was good, but portions were small and there wasn’t a whole lot of variety, so a Big Mac really hit the spot. It was a good day, though. I had so much fun playing in the Aegean Sea.

Exploring the CIty

On Thursday, we met as a group to go see the L’Accademia Museum. There were art pieces in there that I recognized from art and history books, pieces that I never imagined I would ever see in real life. Afterwards we headed to the Guggenheim Museum, a collection of a bit more modern art. Here again I saw original pieces by artists I had studied in school but never dreamed of seeing originals. There were a few Calder and Pollock pieces that I really liked in particular. Sadly, it was at about this point that I realized I had done a brilliant thing- I had brought two sets of dead batteries to Venice. So I apologize for the temporary lack of pictures, and it is due entirely to my brilliance. My friend Stephanie, (one of my favorite people on this trip), was with me almost the whole time, so as soon as I get pictures from her they will be posted.
But pictures do not do Venice justice anyway. We went up to the balcony of San Marcos after the Guggenheim where there was a beautiful view of the square and the ocean. We were also able to go up to an observation tower from which we had a 360-degree view of Venice. AMAZING. You can see all the pictures you want of Venice, but it’s splendor is something that has to be experienced. I felt like I was staring at a cover of National Geographic from up top.
We found a little grocery store after, and I had Italian chocolate milk. I would have to conclude that Italian chocolate milk is pretty much the best chocolate milk in the whole world. After eating we took our gondola ride! It was too cool. I was looking forward to it most, and I was not disappointed. Our driver took us through little canals that you can only see from a boat. The ride was so smooth, too, and the weather was perfect. Our driver was really interesting and was telling us all about life in Venice- he grew up there, and for as long as he could remember, gondola driving was a family tradition. Too cool. That night we took it easy and just enjoyed the city. We discovered Venice tends to die at about 8pm, but tourists are still out, and it was so nice to just see the lights, bridges, and canals. Perfect evening.

Venice!

On Tuesday night we took a night train to Venice. We left about 8:30pm and arrived in Venice at 9am on Wednesday. Sleeping on such a train is not quite an experience I ever really want to repeat again. With all of the stop and go of the train, lack of pillows and blankets, and I slight case of claustrophobia I might have, it was a little hard to sleep. But we went to Italy! When we got there we took a water bus to get to our hotel. Afterwards, we wandered around the narrow alleys and up and over bridges for a while, till it was time for our tour of the Doge’s Palace and San Marcos.
The Doge was the elected Monarch-like figure of Venice, and the palace was beautiful. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. The palace contained one of the biggest ballrooms I have ever seen. All I wanted to do was start dancing in there. (Unfortunately I had a fever most of that day and the next, so I wasn’t quite myself and didn’t- otherwise, I probably would have.) San Marcos was next, and because of high tides it was a little flooded. The mosaics in there are beautiful, and I can’t even imagine how many millions of tiles they used to make them.
That night we took it nice and easy. We found a little place overlooking the water and ordered… hamburgers. But they weren’t really hamburgers. They were pork burgers or something weird like that. They were, however, covered in some real Italian mozzarella. The best part of stopping there was the dessert. We had apple and pear sorbet, and I cannot recall ever enjoying a dessert more ☺ We ate as the sun set, and I was so content to just be there. The sun was orange, the sky was pink, and the water was blue. Beautiful.