Last day of vaca! Sunday 4/11
Erin and I decided the night before that we would sleep till 9 or 930ish and then get up and peace out of the hotel. Except that something woke us both up at 7:30 and I mumbled "we have another hour and a half" but I had my retainer in, so E heard "I wish we had another hour and a half" so I went back to sleep, to look up 20 minutes later to a showered and dress Erin telling me to wake up. Lol good start to the morning. So I looked at her, looked at the time and then went back to sleep. She looked at the time, got back in pjs and went back to bed. We both got up an hour later at the right time haha. Then we both dressed quickly and packed up to check out. We went by the bfast room and snagged some food the last 10 minutes it was open. I think we actually stole bfast because I'm not sure it was included in our room, but oh well, the hostel wasn't worth 20euro each, so we got our money's worth with the bfast :)
So we checked out, left our bags there and headed to the museum we tried to go to yesterday, the Archeological museum. It was pretty cool, it chronicled the different peoples who had lived in Greece and specifically the Thess area from prehistory until present day. It was a little bit wasted on us, though, because we were absolutely exhausted from the night train, not really sleeping the day before and just being busy for the previous 10 days. Thus, we decided we needed an iced coffee. Greeks love their iced coffees apparently, and I love them for loving that, because I haven't found iced coffee ANYwhere else! So we got our coffees and people watched a bit. I guess I could describe the Greeks at this point: guidos. They seemed straight out of Jersey Shore, the MTV series. I mean, all the guys had greasy, slicked back hair, orange fake tans, too-tight shirts and big beefy upper bodies supported by scrawny legs (my favorite was when I saw one of those guys walking a teeny tiny little dog on a teeny tiny little leash haha). The women were all wearing jeans that were too tight, high heels and too much make up, often times with fake blonde hair. It was not what we were expecting from Greece (although, to be fair, we were expecting paradise, aka the islands, and we were in Northern Greece which might be more industrial).
After our coffees, we wandered around a little more, just kind of wandering on streets that we hadn't wandered before (most of them) we decided to grab a late lunch and so we started looking for restaurants. Most places were only serving coffee at this time, but we found a really neat little place tucked into a side street. It was all in Greek and the waitress barely spoke English, but she was really nice so we decided to sit and eat there. All over the inside were pages of the Shell Silverstein story the Giving Tree, which was another reason we decided to stay - it was just a neat little place! And it seemed much more authentic than the places along the boardwalk. We got the "salad with vegetables" and "chicken, it is delicious" not knowing what either came with, how it was cooked, or anything. The salad was amazing, though, it was just a lettuce salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and feta cheese, balsamic and olive oil, but it was really good! The waitress laughed at us at how quickly we finished and assured us that the chicken will be "perfect" Which it was, it was hunks of white meat chicken and bell peppers marinated in something and then grilled. We finished that just as quickly, sopping up all the sauce with the bread she brought us. And then when the check came, that was the best part - the bread was free (a first) and the total for our meal was only 11euro!! that's less than we each had to pay for every other meal! So, for anyone going to Thess soon, go find this place! (not that I could tell you where it was... lol)
After that delish meal, we wandered slowly back to the hotel and Erin got some ice cream along the way lol. At this point we were majorly struggling and I was getting cranky (sorry, E) because we were both just exhausted. We got our things from the hotel and went to the train station to meet the girl I'd be staying with that night, Laura. She's from Germany, studied in France and is now teaching in Thess, and she was great, she was a really nice host and even made me dinner! Oh, Erin found her on a network website called couchsurfers.com, where people volunteer to host travelers for free to save money on traveling! It's a really cool thing. So Erin went and got on her train and I went home with Laura. She said she was really tired and I was too, so we just watched Sex and the City for a few hours and then went to bed.
I got up a few hours later (at like 5 ugh) to catch my cab to go to the airport. My cab driver was hilarious, if you've seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, he was just like the dad. He kept telling me how all english words come from greek words, don't worry, he's writing a book about it haha. For example: "mother comes from "mum" which is the sound a baby makes when it wants food, so "mother" comes from "mum" which means food. and disaster comes from the word for "difficulty" and "stars" (astro), life/live comes from via, etc etc. I don't remember most of the examples he gave but those were a few, and they were just funny lol
So I got to the airport safe and sound thanks to my lovely cab driver, got on the plane, landed in Stuttgart, got my bag, found the metro, took that to the train station, waited around for my train and then took that to Strasbourg, where I got in around 2:00. Then I came home and crashed for about the next week (in between writing and editing my 19 page history paper, of course! haha)
And so, that is the end of my Grand Adventure. I'll blog more about my recent rediscovery of Strasbourg in the springtime (its absolutely beautiful) and then coming up, I have trips lined up for Colmar (just a day trip), Berlin (to see Courtney!!!!) and hopefully Heidelburg, the castle and maybe Nancy.
Only a month left until my family comes, but I plan to make the most of it! so stay tuned haha :) love love~
Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
rocked by rakı
Ok so I fail at updating consistently. Sorry! But I do have a good excuse - Dani came to visit! Dani is a BC student studying in Paris right now and due to the volcano, her spring break plans got severely changed... as in a week of them got canceled :( so she came here for a few days instead! It was so great having someone come visit and the timing couldn't have been more perfect - I finished my paper last week, finished my exam Wed morning and she came Wed night. The weather was amazing - sun and warmth without any rain - and the length was just right too - wed night to friday afternoon. We saw basically all of downtown Stras on Thursday, went up to the top of the cathedral, had a picnic lunch of bread, cheese and wine along the river, saw my school, and then came home and napped/read in my little yard. Then today we saw the European Institutions, walked through l'Orangerie (the park) and stumbled onto the zoo :) basically, she was my guinea pig for when my family comes! and it went really well! It was also so fun to have someone to show off "my" city to.
anyways, back to my trip to Istanbul.
Tuesday 4/6
We woke up late again and Erin had class so Caitlin and I had instructions to amuse ourselves with the Palaces: Dolma Baçhe and Topkapı. We went to the Dolma Baçhe, which we found out was the president's house and where Atatürk died, and Caitlin promptly made friends with a turkish guy around our age (I think) while waiting in line for tickets. He found out we were studying France and that we speak french and brought his cousin over. His cousin was actually pretty cool - he was a little bit older (around 30) and actually wasn't interested in us, it was so nice lol. He and I talked while Caitlin tried to avoid giving out any personal information to her new Turkish boyfriend. The cousin turned out to live in Metz, which is about am hour north-west of Strasbourg, so it was really fun talking to him. We got into the Palace (using a very sneaky ID handoff for a 9 YTL discount!) and evaded our new bfs, took a guided tour through the palace and then wandered around the grounds a bit. The Palace was really cool, with lots of beautiful paintings by mostly Italian painters, but it felt like we breezed through it and didnt really get to see a lot of them. Although, I guess the tour was supposed to be about the palace and not the paintings... but oh well.
After that we walked to Taksim, which is the main shopping/bar/restaurant area in Istanbul and we walked the main street there because Caitlin wanted to find Top Shop and I wanted to shop. Neither of us ended up getting anything but the street was cool anyways. From there we walked to a bus stop, got on a bus to go back to Erin's. We also stopped along the way and got breakfast supplies (since we just about killed her yogurt and cereal) and hummus. Oh my gosh the hummus was sooo good. I haven't had any since December I think, but it was amazing. We got home and obviously dug into the hummus with bread and veggies. Then we decided we wanted a more substantial meal, so we ordered in and got 2 chicken dishes and 2 salads for the 3 of us. It also came with bread and the chicken was delightfully spicy :) then it was time to get ready to go out! So we were all getting ready and Erin and her roommates "graciously" gave us the last of their rakı, which is the turkish liquor. It's mixed with water and it turns from a clear liquor into a milky white drink that tastes like black licorice with the burn of liquor. Delicious, let me tell you... (feel the sarcasm). So we had that before heading out. We went out in Taksim, stopping at a bar for some cheap drinks, then going somewhere else for better, more expensive drinks, and then finally going to Ritim Roof for some dancing.
The next day, Wednesday, we got up late again and Caitlin and I decided to go to a Turkish Bathhouse for a traditional turkish bath. What an experience. We went to Cagaloglu, the 300 year old historical hamam and got kind of ripped off (somehow the prices doubled from what we saw somewhere else... oh well), but we paid and got shown to our changing room. From there two LARGE turkish women took us to the hot room, where there were little alcoves all around with faucets of hot and cold water and basins. Oh, and LOTS of naked women. Like I said, experience. We're not used to that. But anyways, we sat by one of the faucets and basins and basically splashed ourselves for awhile, all the while getting more and more dehydrated. Eventually the LTW (Large Turkish Women) came back in and took us to the middle of the room, where there was a big marble slab. We laid down and they scrubbed all the dead skin off of us, then soaped us up and gave us a massage. It was kind of funny to be rolling around on the marble slab while these LTW soaped and suds us up lol, then took us to an alcove and rinsed us off, washed our hair and gave us "face massages" I'm not actually sure what my face massage was, but I think it was her wiping water off my face. Anyways, after that the LTW wrapped us in fluffy towels and took us back to our changing room. They gave us each a free gift of soap, a comb and Q-tips, and then sat outside the room while we changed. When we left, they were still sitting there and we thought they might've been waiting for a tip, but I honestly had no more money left and even if i did, I'm not sure the bath was worth the price, let alone an extra tip. But oh well, they were nice and we said thank you and left.
After that we walked to the Hagia Sofia, where we would've had to pay 20 YTL for a 30 min tour of the museum. No thanks. So instead, we went to a hotel cafe and got a snack :) Although, I'm pretty sure the hotel was probably a front operation for the turkish mafia. While we were there, a bunch of older turkish men in black suits walked into the hotel, said something the manager and walked down the stairs through a partially hidden door. Mafia, I'm telling you. lol
So after the once-in-a-lifetime (literally, never paying that much to be scrubbed and soaped by LTW ever again) and our snack in the Mafia hotel, Cait and I went to meet Erin and Beria at Kabataş and got on the ferry to go to Asia! So we cross the Bosphorus river, got coffee and baklava in a cafe, and then went back, but I have now officially been to 3 continents! Only have to get 4 more... lol
From there we went to a really neat part of Istanbul called Ortaköy. It's along the river and is a LOT less touristy than most of the places we'd seen. They had some street vendors selling jewelry and scarves, but nothing on the scale of the Grand Bazaar and it was just a lot calmer than the rest of the city. I really enjoyed it, it was probably my favorite part of Istanbul that I saw. We got dinner in a restaurant there too, I tried the mantı, which was good, but it was like ravioli and it had ground beef :( so I ended up disecting my meal... :/ because the sauce was a good yogurt sauce and the pasta was good. Erin got pieces of ham and fries (very healthy lol), Caitlin got chicken with veggies and Beria got Kumpir, which is a baked potato with tons of stuff in it. It was really good, she got it with corn, pasta salad, cheese, ketchup, carrots and pasta salad I think. After dinner, we asked to smoke Nargile and play Tavla again, but the restaurant didn't have tavla, so we moved over to a different place and set up there. The nargile was stronger than Monday night when we smoked it (either that or my lungs hadn't quite recovered) because I had to stop smoking pretty quickly - it went straight to my head lol
After that, we went home and Caitlin packed because she was leaving the next day for Madrid! I just hung out with Erin since I wasn't leaving till Friday.
Thursday morning I woke up with the bed to myself since Cait went to catch her flight and Erin didn't have class till 2, so we had a nice lazy morning. We left together at 1:30 so she could get to class and I could meet Beria, who was going to be my tour guide for the day. She and I walked to Rumeli Castle, which was really cool and right on the Bosphorus river. It's one of the oldest castles in Turkey and you can go in and clamber (literally) all over the walls, which is a great workout - my calves were sore the next day! I loved it, the views were amazing and it was just really neat how you could wander all over the stairs and walls of this ancient castle. Some parts were a little questionable, though, because some of the staircases were narrow and of course there weren't guardrails, so you could be a few stories up with nothing but air between you and the ground (at times like this I realize I'm really my father's daughter. He wouldn't have liked that and I didn't either). Besides that, though, it was a really cool place, very quiet with beautiful views and scenery with green lawns, blooming flowers and green trees.
Then we walked along the river to Bebek, which is just another area of Istanbul, walked through a park, played on some "exercise" equipment in the park (think elliptical type things, but without any resistance) and then caught a bus to meet Erin at home. We all chilled for a little bit, ate some more hummus and then I cooked dinner :) I made pasta tossed with olive oil, sautéed garlic, tomatoes and a little bit of pesto sauce and we had veggies dipped in olive oil and balsamic or hummus and then chocolate for dessert. It was really good if I do say so myself. After dinner we chilled more and made some plans for Greece, it was basically a really nice, needed chill day.
Friday was my last day in Istanbul, so I wanted to go make sure I got in everything important I needed to see. First of all we woke up and worked on cleaning out Erin's fridge, so we had eggs and toast and then I went to go get the train tickets to Thessaloniki. After that I walked to Sultanahmet to go to the Hagia Sofia, determined to get in free using Erin's friend's student museum card (you get into museums for free or cheap with it) but the guard asked me for back up! Obviously I didn't have any, so they kicked me out and kept the card. I still kind of can't believe I got caught with a fake ID and all I was trying to do was go into a museum lol oh well. After that I fled to the Grand Bazaar to pick up some things: a Ronaldo jersey for a friend, and a new fake designer bag because mine was breaking :( I ended up getting a scarf, some ceramic pottery, two pairs of earrings, postcards a new bag and the jersey. oops? or good job? haha I don't know. Either way, from there I made my way back to Wonderland to meet Erin and Beria for lunch. Then E and I went back her appt to pack up for our weekend in Greece! We got to the train station early and got in our car and got excited about the prospect of a night car. That lasted about an hour of the 12 hour ride... lol The ride itself wasn't that bad (except the thermostat kept trying to sweat us to death - I swear that thing was possessed, we tried to put it on 20 degrees C (around 70 F) but it wanted to be at 30 C (~90 F). Whenever it was cool it was actually fairly comfortable, I was on the top bunk and she was on the bottom. The other not so fun part were the passport checks - we were woken up 4 times for passport checks. Twice leaving Turkey (once to take our passports, once to give them back an hour later), and twice entering Greece (again, once to take our PP and once to give them back).
We finally got to Thess around 11 on Saturday, a few hours later than we were supposed to get in, so we booked it to the hotel, dropped our things, changed and headed out in search of COFFEE. and food, but mostly coffee. We found a Starbucks and each got a frappe. I don't think I've ever tasted a more heavenly taste like ice cold smooth, creamy coffee after a 12+ hour train ride. From there we went in search of food, and found it without too much trouble. We got fried zucchini and tzatziki for an appetizer and I got chicken and fries (I didn't actually want fries, for some reason I thought they were going to be baked potatoes or something) and it was all reaallly good. Then we walked along the boardwalk to the White Tower to take pictures, which was cool, there was a good view. From there we walked through a park to a museum, but it turned out to be closed. so instead, we got coffee again, walked along the boardwalk again and then sat in the sun for a bit to wait for dinner time. While sitting, we got hit on by a 30something Nigerian man - that was fun - and I'm pretty sure my face got some color :) We decided we were hungry so we tried to find a taverna, because we heard you can bargain with them, but we didn't find any where we could bargain. So we just went to a restaurant and got dinner. I got a cucumber and tomato salad and then chicken souvlaki and fries. Once again, I didn't actually want the fries, but they came with it so I guess I had to take them lol. So from there we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Ok, well I'm almost caught up. I only have one more day of vaca to blog about and then I am all caught up!! However, I do have to get ready to go to dinner, so the grand finale shall have to wait. But I hope you enjoyed the novel (props if you read all the way thru!) peace out! :)
anyways, back to my trip to Istanbul.
Tuesday 4/6
We woke up late again and Erin had class so Caitlin and I had instructions to amuse ourselves with the Palaces: Dolma Baçhe and Topkapı. We went to the Dolma Baçhe, which we found out was the president's house and where Atatürk died, and Caitlin promptly made friends with a turkish guy around our age (I think) while waiting in line for tickets. He found out we were studying France and that we speak french and brought his cousin over. His cousin was actually pretty cool - he was a little bit older (around 30) and actually wasn't interested in us, it was so nice lol. He and I talked while Caitlin tried to avoid giving out any personal information to her new Turkish boyfriend. The cousin turned out to live in Metz, which is about am hour north-west of Strasbourg, so it was really fun talking to him. We got into the Palace (using a very sneaky ID handoff for a 9 YTL discount!) and evaded our new bfs, took a guided tour through the palace and then wandered around the grounds a bit. The Palace was really cool, with lots of beautiful paintings by mostly Italian painters, but it felt like we breezed through it and didnt really get to see a lot of them. Although, I guess the tour was supposed to be about the palace and not the paintings... but oh well.
After that we walked to Taksim, which is the main shopping/bar/restaurant area in Istanbul and we walked the main street there because Caitlin wanted to find Top Shop and I wanted to shop. Neither of us ended up getting anything but the street was cool anyways. From there we walked to a bus stop, got on a bus to go back to Erin's. We also stopped along the way and got breakfast supplies (since we just about killed her yogurt and cereal) and hummus. Oh my gosh the hummus was sooo good. I haven't had any since December I think, but it was amazing. We got home and obviously dug into the hummus with bread and veggies. Then we decided we wanted a more substantial meal, so we ordered in and got 2 chicken dishes and 2 salads for the 3 of us. It also came with bread and the chicken was delightfully spicy :) then it was time to get ready to go out! So we were all getting ready and Erin and her roommates "graciously" gave us the last of their rakı, which is the turkish liquor. It's mixed with water and it turns from a clear liquor into a milky white drink that tastes like black licorice with the burn of liquor. Delicious, let me tell you... (feel the sarcasm). So we had that before heading out. We went out in Taksim, stopping at a bar for some cheap drinks, then going somewhere else for better, more expensive drinks, and then finally going to Ritim Roof for some dancing.
The next day, Wednesday, we got up late again and Caitlin and I decided to go to a Turkish Bathhouse for a traditional turkish bath. What an experience. We went to Cagaloglu, the 300 year old historical hamam and got kind of ripped off (somehow the prices doubled from what we saw somewhere else... oh well), but we paid and got shown to our changing room. From there two LARGE turkish women took us to the hot room, where there were little alcoves all around with faucets of hot and cold water and basins. Oh, and LOTS of naked women. Like I said, experience. We're not used to that. But anyways, we sat by one of the faucets and basins and basically splashed ourselves for awhile, all the while getting more and more dehydrated. Eventually the LTW (Large Turkish Women) came back in and took us to the middle of the room, where there was a big marble slab. We laid down and they scrubbed all the dead skin off of us, then soaped us up and gave us a massage. It was kind of funny to be rolling around on the marble slab while these LTW soaped and suds us up lol, then took us to an alcove and rinsed us off, washed our hair and gave us "face massages" I'm not actually sure what my face massage was, but I think it was her wiping water off my face. Anyways, after that the LTW wrapped us in fluffy towels and took us back to our changing room. They gave us each a free gift of soap, a comb and Q-tips, and then sat outside the room while we changed. When we left, they were still sitting there and we thought they might've been waiting for a tip, but I honestly had no more money left and even if i did, I'm not sure the bath was worth the price, let alone an extra tip. But oh well, they were nice and we said thank you and left.
After that we walked to the Hagia Sofia, where we would've had to pay 20 YTL for a 30 min tour of the museum. No thanks. So instead, we went to a hotel cafe and got a snack :) Although, I'm pretty sure the hotel was probably a front operation for the turkish mafia. While we were there, a bunch of older turkish men in black suits walked into the hotel, said something the manager and walked down the stairs through a partially hidden door. Mafia, I'm telling you. lol
So after the once-in-a-lifetime (literally, never paying that much to be scrubbed and soaped by LTW ever again) and our snack in the Mafia hotel, Cait and I went to meet Erin and Beria at Kabataş and got on the ferry to go to Asia! So we cross the Bosphorus river, got coffee and baklava in a cafe, and then went back, but I have now officially been to 3 continents! Only have to get 4 more... lol
From there we went to a really neat part of Istanbul called Ortaköy. It's along the river and is a LOT less touristy than most of the places we'd seen. They had some street vendors selling jewelry and scarves, but nothing on the scale of the Grand Bazaar and it was just a lot calmer than the rest of the city. I really enjoyed it, it was probably my favorite part of Istanbul that I saw. We got dinner in a restaurant there too, I tried the mantı, which was good, but it was like ravioli and it had ground beef :( so I ended up disecting my meal... :/ because the sauce was a good yogurt sauce and the pasta was good. Erin got pieces of ham and fries (very healthy lol), Caitlin got chicken with veggies and Beria got Kumpir, which is a baked potato with tons of stuff in it. It was really good, she got it with corn, pasta salad, cheese, ketchup, carrots and pasta salad I think. After dinner, we asked to smoke Nargile and play Tavla again, but the restaurant didn't have tavla, so we moved over to a different place and set up there. The nargile was stronger than Monday night when we smoked it (either that or my lungs hadn't quite recovered) because I had to stop smoking pretty quickly - it went straight to my head lol
After that, we went home and Caitlin packed because she was leaving the next day for Madrid! I just hung out with Erin since I wasn't leaving till Friday.
Thursday morning I woke up with the bed to myself since Cait went to catch her flight and Erin didn't have class till 2, so we had a nice lazy morning. We left together at 1:30 so she could get to class and I could meet Beria, who was going to be my tour guide for the day. She and I walked to Rumeli Castle, which was really cool and right on the Bosphorus river. It's one of the oldest castles in Turkey and you can go in and clamber (literally) all over the walls, which is a great workout - my calves were sore the next day! I loved it, the views were amazing and it was just really neat how you could wander all over the stairs and walls of this ancient castle. Some parts were a little questionable, though, because some of the staircases were narrow and of course there weren't guardrails, so you could be a few stories up with nothing but air between you and the ground (at times like this I realize I'm really my father's daughter. He wouldn't have liked that and I didn't either). Besides that, though, it was a really cool place, very quiet with beautiful views and scenery with green lawns, blooming flowers and green trees.
Then we walked along the river to Bebek, which is just another area of Istanbul, walked through a park, played on some "exercise" equipment in the park (think elliptical type things, but without any resistance) and then caught a bus to meet Erin at home. We all chilled for a little bit, ate some more hummus and then I cooked dinner :) I made pasta tossed with olive oil, sautéed garlic, tomatoes and a little bit of pesto sauce and we had veggies dipped in olive oil and balsamic or hummus and then chocolate for dessert. It was really good if I do say so myself. After dinner we chilled more and made some plans for Greece, it was basically a really nice, needed chill day.
Friday was my last day in Istanbul, so I wanted to go make sure I got in everything important I needed to see. First of all we woke up and worked on cleaning out Erin's fridge, so we had eggs and toast and then I went to go get the train tickets to Thessaloniki. After that I walked to Sultanahmet to go to the Hagia Sofia, determined to get in free using Erin's friend's student museum card (you get into museums for free or cheap with it) but the guard asked me for back up! Obviously I didn't have any, so they kicked me out and kept the card. I still kind of can't believe I got caught with a fake ID and all I was trying to do was go into a museum lol oh well. After that I fled to the Grand Bazaar to pick up some things: a Ronaldo jersey for a friend, and a new fake designer bag because mine was breaking :( I ended up getting a scarf, some ceramic pottery, two pairs of earrings, postcards a new bag and the jersey. oops? or good job? haha I don't know. Either way, from there I made my way back to Wonderland to meet Erin and Beria for lunch. Then E and I went back her appt to pack up for our weekend in Greece! We got to the train station early and got in our car and got excited about the prospect of a night car. That lasted about an hour of the 12 hour ride... lol The ride itself wasn't that bad (except the thermostat kept trying to sweat us to death - I swear that thing was possessed, we tried to put it on 20 degrees C (around 70 F) but it wanted to be at 30 C (~90 F). Whenever it was cool it was actually fairly comfortable, I was on the top bunk and she was on the bottom. The other not so fun part were the passport checks - we were woken up 4 times for passport checks. Twice leaving Turkey (once to take our passports, once to give them back an hour later), and twice entering Greece (again, once to take our PP and once to give them back).
We finally got to Thess around 11 on Saturday, a few hours later than we were supposed to get in, so we booked it to the hotel, dropped our things, changed and headed out in search of COFFEE. and food, but mostly coffee. We found a Starbucks and each got a frappe. I don't think I've ever tasted a more heavenly taste like ice cold smooth, creamy coffee after a 12+ hour train ride. From there we went in search of food, and found it without too much trouble. We got fried zucchini and tzatziki for an appetizer and I got chicken and fries (I didn't actually want fries, for some reason I thought they were going to be baked potatoes or something) and it was all reaallly good. Then we walked along the boardwalk to the White Tower to take pictures, which was cool, there was a good view. From there we walked through a park to a museum, but it turned out to be closed. so instead, we got coffee again, walked along the boardwalk again and then sat in the sun for a bit to wait for dinner time. While sitting, we got hit on by a 30something Nigerian man - that was fun - and I'm pretty sure my face got some color :) We decided we were hungry so we tried to find a taverna, because we heard you can bargain with them, but we didn't find any where we could bargain. So we just went to a restaurant and got dinner. I got a cucumber and tomato salad and then chicken souvlaki and fries. Once again, I didn't actually want the fries, but they came with it so I guess I had to take them lol. So from there we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Ok, well I'm almost caught up. I only have one more day of vaca to blog about and then I am all caught up!! However, I do have to get ready to go to dinner, so the grand finale shall have to wait. But I hope you enjoyed the novel (props if you read all the way thru!) peace out! :)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Easter in Budapest!
Well I apologize it's taking me so long to get everything from my notebook to my computer, I've been lacking in motivation lately. And I've been doing school work. sort of.
Anyways, I decided that blogging is a great method of procrastination and since I don't want to study anymore (because, really, the test I have to study for is annoying, I'm not being tested on my knowledge of anything, just on my quality of writing in French, so I really can't study anyways! boo.) so here's another day. What is this, day 4? Yeah, ok day 4 of my vaca (day 4 of... 11ish, 12 if you count the day I came home).
Sunday, 4/4 Easter!!
Yayyyy Easter. We all woke up at or around 830 and got ready to check out, showering, eating bfast, packing, etc. We got dressed for church (I wore a cute little sundress with leggings and a cardi) and we checked out. In addition to my church clothes, I also brought jeans and my brown shoes with me in a plastic bag so I could change after church because I didnt want to be running all over Buda (our plan for the day) in my flats and dress. So then we went to Mass at 11 at a Scottish Church because it was in English and we were all dying to have a service in our native language. However, it turned out to be Presbyterian. Oops! Oh well, it was a good service and the priest (is he still a priest in the Presbyterian Church?) and congregation were *so* welcoming. It was a rather long service and I actually didn't really like the homily (it was more like a Bible study of the passage, line by line interpretation. I'm a fan of the "big picture" type sermon à la the Catholic Church), but oh well, it was cool nonetheless. During the service, the priest took out some puppets and put on a little show for the kids so they would understand what was going on too - that part was in both Hungarian and English so it was funny and adorable. After mass there were cookies and coffee and tea and a free lunch that we were welcomed to stay for. However, as much as I love free food (a LOT) and as much as I wanted to stay and talk to the people who were so incredibly nice to us, I really wanted to see the other side of the city, the Buda side. So Caitlin, Olivia and I decided to forego the free food and head for the hills instead. Well, we changed first, then we headed for said hills.
We started by walking to the Chain Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Budapest (or something like that) and then we walked across, snapping pics along the way of course :) We walked to Fisherman's Bastion, which had amazing views, but was under construction so I was a little disappointed :( Oh well. While we were there, we saw St. Matthias Church. We didn't go in because at this point, all the big beautiful churches and cathedrals and basilicas are starting to look alike. We basically walked from the middle of Buda starting from Fisherman's Bastion, to the Southern end, the Liberty monument and hit most of the major tourist attractions along the way. After the bastion and the church, we walked by the Palace (we think) and the Parliament (we know). We were walking by ruins and we were supposed to be walking by the Palace, so we assumed the ruins were the Palace. That's why we weren't sure. Then we climbed to the top of the Liberty monument and man, I am out of shape! That climb was rough... i'm not looking forward to climbing up the million dollar stairs again after that embarrassment. But, the view was pretty spectacular. You could literally see everything. And the visibility was good too, sunny, not too many clouds and no fog or anything obscuring the view. We had some time to kill then (mostly because we booked it through the earlier attractions of Buda) so we decided to pretend we were (don't judge) models/flower children and took "artistic" pics of ourselves. It was funny and amusing and great and all that because we were just being ridiculous (go check out my pics to see what I mean). From there we walked back down, all the while taking pictures of flowers or picking flowers to put in our hair or just generally continuing our "flower children" state of mind. We got to the bottom and walked back to the Pest side via the green bridge (I don't know its real name lol). Funny story: the three of us are just walking along in Pest, minding our own business when Olivia runs across someone she thinks she recognizes. She does a double take, just as he's doing a double take also, then they both realize who the other is and go, "Oh my god it's you!" It was a guy who used to go to BC but transferred to Columbia after freshman year. His name was Kyle and I actually met him a few times, but it took me awhile to remember where (in the Choco Bar). Hilarious. He's currently studying abroad in Budapest and said he loves it. Funny how small the wold is, sometimes.
Anyways, we continued walking to the restaurant where we were meeting Erin and Beria. We were about 5 min late, as usual, but its ok they were right on time so not waiting long. Caitlin and I had found a restaurant that was a Hungarian buffet the night before, so we decided to eat there for our Easter dinner. We got a bottle of champagne and shared it and then we started going at the food. They had appetizers, sides, meats, cheeses, a grill where you could get all different kinds of meat cooked (I got some beef, venison, chicken and turkey I think) and DESSERT. They had tiramisu, some kind of custardy thing, little pieces of different kinds of cakes, chocolate sauce, fruit, and oh jeez I'm getting hungry all over again just from thinking about it! so yeah, we stuffed ourselves and then rolled back to the hostel to pick up our bags to get to the airport.
We got to the airport in plenty of time and sat around talking for awhile. Then we went to our respective gates (Erin, Caitlin, Beria and I to ours and Olivia to hers because she was flying back to Spain). Our gate contained annoying, loud women who I swear were in their 30s but dressed like they were 15. Think, Juicy monochrome velour jumpsuits with teddy bears. Oh and they had bleach blonde hair, about an inch of make up on and were *blaring* techno club music. The cherry on top was when they glared at us like we were doing something wrong when all we did was sit there. We weren't even glaring at them! although I did have the urge to go sit with them and chit chat, just to see their reaction. But I didn't want to get on their pimp's bad side, so I refrained. (I really think they were either escorts, prostitutes or were with members of the Hungarian mafia. not quite sure why... but oh well).
We got on our plane, flew to Istanbul and landed without any major incident. In the Istanbul Airport we got our visitor's visa and picked up my bag then got a cab back to erin's where we all passed out.
[Flash to real life:] Still refusing to do work, now I'm sitting outside on the porch because its a beautiful day and I figure I'll just keep going.
Monday, 4/5 Istanbul!!
We slept in pretty late (till like 11ish I think) and then got up to meet Erin's friends for lunch/our breakfast at a café called Wonderland, where its based off of, you guessed it, Alice in Wonderland. it was cool inside and they had really good food. I got a chicken wrap that was nice and spicy (I feel like I tried to get everything spicy that I could find on this trip because we never have spicy food in France). After that we went to get Erin's ID card, we saw her school, and I am so jealous because not only does she have the most amazing view of the Bosphorus, but she has a campus! With green areas! And students lounging! Lol, it really reminded me of the dustbowl at BC. Anyways, we realized we needed caffeine, so we got some coffee and then headed to Sultanahmet, the touristy area. We went to see the Hagia Sofia, which was closed because it was Monday, so we walked about 100 yards to the Blue Mosque. I've never been inside a mosque before so that was really cool. The architecture is really different also, its all about domes and those pointy things on the outside (the name escapes me right now...) and not about arches and towers, like Catholic cathedrals. To go inside, we had to cover our shoulders and take off our shoes, which we carried in little bags until we exited. Then from there we walked like 200 yards to the Cisterns, which were cool too, but not really my thing. They used to pump water to the Palaces, I think. Anyways, check out the pics for both the Blue Mosque and the Cisterns.
After that we met Beria, who took us to the Grand Bazaar. It was amazing, it was huge and you could get lost in there, but we didn't because we had Beria :) the people there are funny too, they try to hit on you to get you to buy their goods and their favorite line to Caitlin was, "wait, you dropped something! [pause] My heart!" and then they'd crack up. After that happened about 3 times, after they said you dropped something, she replied, what? your heart? and they stopped laughing. Yeah, so that was funny, and bargaining was a different experience, especially if you picked up something that you weren't actually interested in. I picked up a fake Gucci leather wallet which the vender originally tried to sell to me for 30 YTL (new turkish lira) and I wasn't actually that interested in buying it, but he kept lowering his price whenever I tried to say no thank you. Most people only went down to maybe 60% of the original asking price but he went all the way down to 10 YTL as I was finally walking away. I did buy some things, though. I got a pretty blue scarf and some gifts for people. Caitlin got 3 jerseys and 2 scarves, Beria got silver earrings and a ring and Erin got a scarf for her mom.
From there it was another short walk to the Spice Bazaar, which I might've liked even more than the Grand Bazaar because there were free samples of turkish delight! We bought two boxes of them for later that night too :)
Then we walked across the Galata Bridge and took pics of the pretty sunset. At the end of the bridge, we got on the tram and took it to Tophane, where we went and smoked Nargile (hookah) and got wraps and some kind of cheesy bread type thing, both of which were really good. I also learned how to play Tavla (backgammon) and played against Beria a few times. We also got çay (tea, pronounced chai) and the Nargile lasted awhile, we were all feeling it when it finally ran out and we headed home.
All in all, a great first day in Istanbul, much more to come soon, I'll try to update again tomorrow :)
bises~
Anyways, I decided that blogging is a great method of procrastination and since I don't want to study anymore (because, really, the test I have to study for is annoying, I'm not being tested on my knowledge of anything, just on my quality of writing in French, so I really can't study anyways! boo.) so here's another day. What is this, day 4? Yeah, ok day 4 of my vaca (day 4 of... 11ish, 12 if you count the day I came home).
Sunday, 4/4 Easter!!
Yayyyy Easter. We all woke up at or around 830 and got ready to check out, showering, eating bfast, packing, etc. We got dressed for church (I wore a cute little sundress with leggings and a cardi) and we checked out. In addition to my church clothes, I also brought jeans and my brown shoes with me in a plastic bag so I could change after church because I didnt want to be running all over Buda (our plan for the day) in my flats and dress. So then we went to Mass at 11 at a Scottish Church because it was in English and we were all dying to have a service in our native language. However, it turned out to be Presbyterian. Oops! Oh well, it was a good service and the priest (is he still a priest in the Presbyterian Church?) and congregation were *so* welcoming. It was a rather long service and I actually didn't really like the homily (it was more like a Bible study of the passage, line by line interpretation. I'm a fan of the "big picture" type sermon à la the Catholic Church), but oh well, it was cool nonetheless. During the service, the priest took out some puppets and put on a little show for the kids so they would understand what was going on too - that part was in both Hungarian and English so it was funny and adorable. After mass there were cookies and coffee and tea and a free lunch that we were welcomed to stay for. However, as much as I love free food (a LOT) and as much as I wanted to stay and talk to the people who were so incredibly nice to us, I really wanted to see the other side of the city, the Buda side. So Caitlin, Olivia and I decided to forego the free food and head for the hills instead. Well, we changed first, then we headed for said hills.
We started by walking to the Chain Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Budapest (or something like that) and then we walked across, snapping pics along the way of course :) We walked to Fisherman's Bastion, which had amazing views, but was under construction so I was a little disappointed :( Oh well. While we were there, we saw St. Matthias Church. We didn't go in because at this point, all the big beautiful churches and cathedrals and basilicas are starting to look alike. We basically walked from the middle of Buda starting from Fisherman's Bastion, to the Southern end, the Liberty monument and hit most of the major tourist attractions along the way. After the bastion and the church, we walked by the Palace (we think) and the Parliament (we know). We were walking by ruins and we were supposed to be walking by the Palace, so we assumed the ruins were the Palace. That's why we weren't sure. Then we climbed to the top of the Liberty monument and man, I am out of shape! That climb was rough... i'm not looking forward to climbing up the million dollar stairs again after that embarrassment. But, the view was pretty spectacular. You could literally see everything. And the visibility was good too, sunny, not too many clouds and no fog or anything obscuring the view. We had some time to kill then (mostly because we booked it through the earlier attractions of Buda) so we decided to pretend we were (don't judge) models/flower children and took "artistic" pics of ourselves. It was funny and amusing and great and all that because we were just being ridiculous (go check out my pics to see what I mean). From there we walked back down, all the while taking pictures of flowers or picking flowers to put in our hair or just generally continuing our "flower children" state of mind. We got to the bottom and walked back to the Pest side via the green bridge (I don't know its real name lol). Funny story: the three of us are just walking along in Pest, minding our own business when Olivia runs across someone she thinks she recognizes. She does a double take, just as he's doing a double take also, then they both realize who the other is and go, "Oh my god it's you!" It was a guy who used to go to BC but transferred to Columbia after freshman year. His name was Kyle and I actually met him a few times, but it took me awhile to remember where (in the Choco Bar). Hilarious. He's currently studying abroad in Budapest and said he loves it. Funny how small the wold is, sometimes.
Anyways, we continued walking to the restaurant where we were meeting Erin and Beria. We were about 5 min late, as usual, but its ok they were right on time so not waiting long. Caitlin and I had found a restaurant that was a Hungarian buffet the night before, so we decided to eat there for our Easter dinner. We got a bottle of champagne and shared it and then we started going at the food. They had appetizers, sides, meats, cheeses, a grill where you could get all different kinds of meat cooked (I got some beef, venison, chicken and turkey I think) and DESSERT. They had tiramisu, some kind of custardy thing, little pieces of different kinds of cakes, chocolate sauce, fruit, and oh jeez I'm getting hungry all over again just from thinking about it! so yeah, we stuffed ourselves and then rolled back to the hostel to pick up our bags to get to the airport.
We got to the airport in plenty of time and sat around talking for awhile. Then we went to our respective gates (Erin, Caitlin, Beria and I to ours and Olivia to hers because she was flying back to Spain). Our gate contained annoying, loud women who I swear were in their 30s but dressed like they were 15. Think, Juicy monochrome velour jumpsuits with teddy bears. Oh and they had bleach blonde hair, about an inch of make up on and were *blaring* techno club music. The cherry on top was when they glared at us like we were doing something wrong when all we did was sit there. We weren't even glaring at them! although I did have the urge to go sit with them and chit chat, just to see their reaction. But I didn't want to get on their pimp's bad side, so I refrained. (I really think they were either escorts, prostitutes or were with members of the Hungarian mafia. not quite sure why... but oh well).
We got on our plane, flew to Istanbul and landed without any major incident. In the Istanbul Airport we got our visitor's visa and picked up my bag then got a cab back to erin's where we all passed out.
[Flash to real life:] Still refusing to do work, now I'm sitting outside on the porch because its a beautiful day and I figure I'll just keep going.
Monday, 4/5 Istanbul!!
We slept in pretty late (till like 11ish I think) and then got up to meet Erin's friends for lunch/our breakfast at a café called Wonderland, where its based off of, you guessed it, Alice in Wonderland. it was cool inside and they had really good food. I got a chicken wrap that was nice and spicy (I feel like I tried to get everything spicy that I could find on this trip because we never have spicy food in France). After that we went to get Erin's ID card, we saw her school, and I am so jealous because not only does she have the most amazing view of the Bosphorus, but she has a campus! With green areas! And students lounging! Lol, it really reminded me of the dustbowl at BC. Anyways, we realized we needed caffeine, so we got some coffee and then headed to Sultanahmet, the touristy area. We went to see the Hagia Sofia, which was closed because it was Monday, so we walked about 100 yards to the Blue Mosque. I've never been inside a mosque before so that was really cool. The architecture is really different also, its all about domes and those pointy things on the outside (the name escapes me right now...) and not about arches and towers, like Catholic cathedrals. To go inside, we had to cover our shoulders and take off our shoes, which we carried in little bags until we exited. Then from there we walked like 200 yards to the Cisterns, which were cool too, but not really my thing. They used to pump water to the Palaces, I think. Anyways, check out the pics for both the Blue Mosque and the Cisterns.
After that we met Beria, who took us to the Grand Bazaar. It was amazing, it was huge and you could get lost in there, but we didn't because we had Beria :) the people there are funny too, they try to hit on you to get you to buy their goods and their favorite line to Caitlin was, "wait, you dropped something! [pause] My heart!" and then they'd crack up. After that happened about 3 times, after they said you dropped something, she replied, what? your heart? and they stopped laughing. Yeah, so that was funny, and bargaining was a different experience, especially if you picked up something that you weren't actually interested in. I picked up a fake Gucci leather wallet which the vender originally tried to sell to me for 30 YTL (new turkish lira) and I wasn't actually that interested in buying it, but he kept lowering his price whenever I tried to say no thank you. Most people only went down to maybe 60% of the original asking price but he went all the way down to 10 YTL as I was finally walking away. I did buy some things, though. I got a pretty blue scarf and some gifts for people. Caitlin got 3 jerseys and 2 scarves, Beria got silver earrings and a ring and Erin got a scarf for her mom.
From there it was another short walk to the Spice Bazaar, which I might've liked even more than the Grand Bazaar because there were free samples of turkish delight! We bought two boxes of them for later that night too :)
Then we walked across the Galata Bridge and took pics of the pretty sunset. At the end of the bridge, we got on the tram and took it to Tophane, where we went and smoked Nargile (hookah) and got wraps and some kind of cheesy bread type thing, both of which were really good. I also learned how to play Tavla (backgammon) and played against Beria a few times. We also got çay (tea, pronounced chai) and the Nargile lasted awhile, we were all feeling it when it finally ran out and we headed home.
All in all, a great first day in Istanbul, much more to come soon, I'll try to update again tomorrow :)
bises~
Saturday, April 17, 2010
budaaaa encore
The next day, Saturday 4/3, we woke up and had a great breakfast! The hostel people make waffles every morning! it was awesome. They also had coffee, tea, bread, jam, butter, nutella, cereal and milk. It was great. I love free breakfasts lol. We planned our day (sort of). Our plan for the day included going to the Market, walking down Vaci Utca, buying cute clothes for cheap, hitting up the Museum of Terror and finally taking a bath in the Hungarian bathhouse. As you will see, our day didn't quite turn out like that, but it was still a great day :)
First all of us went to the Market and just walked around there, looked at souvenirs and things, everyone got a few things. Then we walked down Vaci Utca, the fashion street where we stopped for lunch (I got goulash and it was so good!). We continued on our way down Vaci Utca and lost Erin and Beria to the Hop on/Hop off tour lol so they saw all of the city for a few hours while we wandered around randomly, stopping in stores when we wanted, getting hot wine at markets that we stumbled upon, etc. From there we walked down Andrassy, which was the "Champs Elysées" of Budapest, and also the street on which St. Stephens, the Opera House and the Museum of Terror (Museum about the occupation of Hungary by Communism) are located. The Opera house was Olivia's stop since she was meeting some friends to see a show there. Caitlin and I continued on our way and decided we weren't going to make it to the bath, but we might as well go into the Museum of Terror. However, we got there at 5:30, thinking it closed at 7, when in reality it closed at 6. The woman working the desk was also rude because she wouldn't give us the advertised student discount. So we said oh well and left and continued on our merry way down Andrassy. The street ends at Hero's Square which also connects to a park so we went into the park, found a random castle (I love how you can run into castles and cathedrals and other gigantic buildings in Europe. Like in Strasbourg, while walking around the centre ville, you can just turn and be like oh, well hey there enormous cathedral. lol) and then realized we were again going to be late to meet Erin and Beria for dinner. So we turned back and walked back to the hostel.
We met up with Erin, Beria and Olivia (who realized earlier that her Opera ticket was for SUNDAY night, not SATURDAY night... oops!) and started on our way to find this restaurant that Erin's prof had recommended to her: Rosé. We found it on this little side street and went in to be immediately greeted with live music by a violin and weird piano-esque instrument (it looked like someone took the top of a piano off and he was playing with a modified drumstick with soft material wrapped around the top by pinging the strings. I just butchered that description but if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please let me know what type of instrument it was, I'm curious). Anyways, we ordered and were *starving* by the time the food came (that's not to say the service was bad, it was very good, but you know, in Europe, they eat on different schedules). I got chicken wrapped in bacon stuffed with sundried tomatoes with capers a mixed salad on the side. Ohmigosh it was divine. Maybe not the most Hungarian of meals, with the vegetables and lack of sour cream, but still, it was SO good. I only wish I got more of it because I wasn't full at the end. So I promptly offered to finish anyone's meal who needed help and Caitlin offered me her plate, which I gladly accepted and then shoveled into my mouth. After that, we decided that our meals were great so we might as well keep going and get some dessert. We ordered 2 desserts to share: tiramisu and spongecake. We finished both of them in oh... I'd say 86 seconds. Or less. lol it was a little ridiculous, but they were just so delicious!
After dinner we sat and digested for a little and planned our next moves. We had a meeting with 2 other BC kids at the Opera House (in the opposite direction from our hostel), so Caitlin and Olivia decided they would walk there and get them and meet the rest of us (me, Erin and Beria) at the bar across the street, Old Man's Pub. So we all headed off in our respective directions. E, B and I found a table and sat down and since we were sitting, we kind of had to buy a drink, so we each got a beer. We waited for a while, then we decided the others probably were there and so we started making sweeps of the bar. We waited a little longer and the place started pumping, playing 80s american music and all these girls who looked about 15 were coming in will belly baring shirts and skin tight jeans and about then we decided we could've made that place fun... last night. Tonight we were too tired and just wanted to sleep. So we went back to the hostel and did just that.
And now, its time for me to enjoy the sunshine in Strasbourg because i finished my paper so I'm going to go sit in the sun and read :) bises à tous
First all of us went to the Market and just walked around there, looked at souvenirs and things, everyone got a few things. Then we walked down Vaci Utca, the fashion street where we stopped for lunch (I got goulash and it was so good!). We continued on our way down Vaci Utca and lost Erin and Beria to the Hop on/Hop off tour lol so they saw all of the city for a few hours while we wandered around randomly, stopping in stores when we wanted, getting hot wine at markets that we stumbled upon, etc. From there we walked down Andrassy, which was the "Champs Elysées" of Budapest, and also the street on which St. Stephens, the Opera House and the Museum of Terror (Museum about the occupation of Hungary by Communism) are located. The Opera house was Olivia's stop since she was meeting some friends to see a show there. Caitlin and I continued on our way and decided we weren't going to make it to the bath, but we might as well go into the Museum of Terror. However, we got there at 5:30, thinking it closed at 7, when in reality it closed at 6. The woman working the desk was also rude because she wouldn't give us the advertised student discount. So we said oh well and left and continued on our merry way down Andrassy. The street ends at Hero's Square which also connects to a park so we went into the park, found a random castle (I love how you can run into castles and cathedrals and other gigantic buildings in Europe. Like in Strasbourg, while walking around the centre ville, you can just turn and be like oh, well hey there enormous cathedral. lol) and then realized we were again going to be late to meet Erin and Beria for dinner. So we turned back and walked back to the hostel.
We met up with Erin, Beria and Olivia (who realized earlier that her Opera ticket was for SUNDAY night, not SATURDAY night... oops!) and started on our way to find this restaurant that Erin's prof had recommended to her: Rosé. We found it on this little side street and went in to be immediately greeted with live music by a violin and weird piano-esque instrument (it looked like someone took the top of a piano off and he was playing with a modified drumstick with soft material wrapped around the top by pinging the strings. I just butchered that description but if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please let me know what type of instrument it was, I'm curious). Anyways, we ordered and were *starving* by the time the food came (that's not to say the service was bad, it was very good, but you know, in Europe, they eat on different schedules). I got chicken wrapped in bacon stuffed with sundried tomatoes with capers a mixed salad on the side. Ohmigosh it was divine. Maybe not the most Hungarian of meals, with the vegetables and lack of sour cream, but still, it was SO good. I only wish I got more of it because I wasn't full at the end. So I promptly offered to finish anyone's meal who needed help and Caitlin offered me her plate, which I gladly accepted and then shoveled into my mouth. After that, we decided that our meals were great so we might as well keep going and get some dessert. We ordered 2 desserts to share: tiramisu and spongecake. We finished both of them in oh... I'd say 86 seconds. Or less. lol it was a little ridiculous, but they were just so delicious!
After dinner we sat and digested for a little and planned our next moves. We had a meeting with 2 other BC kids at the Opera House (in the opposite direction from our hostel), so Caitlin and Olivia decided they would walk there and get them and meet the rest of us (me, Erin and Beria) at the bar across the street, Old Man's Pub. So we all headed off in our respective directions. E, B and I found a table and sat down and since we were sitting, we kind of had to buy a drink, so we each got a beer. We waited for a while, then we decided the others probably were there and so we started making sweeps of the bar. We waited a little longer and the place started pumping, playing 80s american music and all these girls who looked about 15 were coming in will belly baring shirts and skin tight jeans and about then we decided we could've made that place fun... last night. Tonight we were too tired and just wanted to sleep. So we went back to the hostel and did just that.
And now, its time for me to enjoy the sunshine in Strasbourg because i finished my paper so I'm going to go sit in the sun and read :) bises à tous
buda buda buda budaaa
So, eastward adventure blog post #2.
Only because certain people (*ahem* Joanie *ahem*) keep pestering me to write more (haha kidding, thanks for the emails, they keep me motivated lol)
Thus, Friday 4/2 Caitlin, Olivia and I woke up in Budapest! Before going we had had a little trouble booking our hostels because we booked one for Friday and Saturday with Erin and her friend Beria, but then when we tried to get it for Thursday night also, it was somehow already filled up! So we had to book a different one for Thursday night. Anyways, when we woke up Friday morning, we had breakfast (free from the hostel - we only stay places with free bfast haha), and we had to strip the beds and check out of our first hostel so we could go and check into our other hostel lol. We checked out by 10 and got to the other one, Aboriginal Hostel around 1030. That one was great. It had all these cool decorations inside and a common room with couches and lounge chairs and a TV with movies and games! It was definitely the nicest one I'd stayed in. And the people who ran it were awesome as well - we couldn't check in right away because the other people hadn't checked out yet, but we could leave our bags there and the guy there gave us a "virtual tour" of Budapest. It was really cute because he had just finished giving the *exact* same virtual tour to a group of girls before us (american girls studying abroad - one was from Connecticut and knew some of the same people as Caitlin and Erin, who are also from CT haha), but he was so enthusiastic about his tour lol. So we sat down and he circled the major spots to see on the map. Afterwards, the map was barely legible because apparently ALL of Budapest is something to see (I swear, there were circles and X's and underlinings everywhere, we literally couldn't use the map anymore lol). So we kind of just headed out. We had planned on taking a walking tour at 2, but we couldn't find it so we gave ourselves a walking tour. I was the tour guide with my Let's Go Europe 2010 book haha, so whenever we went somewhere, I'd look it up in the book and read the little blurb.
I guess before I describe exactly what we did, there are two sides to Budapest (really, three, but we only saw two sides) - Buda and Pest. Buda is on the hill, across the Danube from where we stayed all three nights. It's where the Parliament, Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church are located; I got the impression that Buda is the richer, more historical side while Pest is the more industrial, working class side. That's not to say Pest is the slums, not at all, Pest was really cool also! But there was more construction and more "communist" looking buildings in Pest. There was also less green space in Pest, it was very much a city (at least, where we stayed it was).
Anyways, the first day we stayed around Pest and saw things there: the Opera House and St. Stephen's Basilica, complete with the 1000 year old mummified hand of St. Stephen -- sweet... lol not that you could actually see it, it was on "display" in a dark little box and you had to pay to turn the light on. So, we waited for a few min for someone else to turn on the light. fail. I think everyone else there had the same idea as us lol. Then we went up to the top where there was a panoramic view and took lots of pics and just kind of hung out admiring the view (I was actually recovering from my vertigo due to the 13 million winding staircases to the top, you know, the old ones that wind around a pole and make you all dizzy from walking in circles a thousand times? yeah those all the way to the top of the Basilica. no fun lol) So yeah, we hung out up there and then we saw a little café called "California Coffee" and were like we need to go there! So we headed back down and went to the coffeeshop where the menu was in English and they had things like mochas and filtered coffee. It was amazing. I got a mocha, which I don't usually get at home but I got it there because it was the first place I'd seen it (besides Starbucks, where everything is insanely overpriced - 7 euro for a latte? no thanks.)
So we all had our coffees and were sitting and enjoying then when an... elderly gentleman... sat down next to us and started talking to us. Well, more specifically, started talking to Caitlin. Apparently he's a former pro hockey player who played for the Czech Republic (although I suppose it would've been Czechoslovakia when he played for them) in the world cup, twice. And he has an oil business in Canada, which he started after he finished his career as a doctor. He also told us/her that he has a private jet, used to have a 23 year old girlfriend, and a Canadian passport (I'm not sure of the importance of that one, but he was really into his Canadian passport...). He also offered to fly Caitlin to Cancun in his private jet and then fly her back to Strasbourg. It was hilarious. The girl has a serious magnet for potential kidnappers. His friends were funny too because they were so normal! I was talking to one guy who seemed pretty legit, he had hockey camps on the Cape I think and he had a few in Aspen. He said he was a former pro hockey player (but I actually believed he used to play, as opposed to the Cait's boyfriend, we weren't sure what to believe) and talked to me about his camps. But he didn't talk to me in the creepy way that Caitlin's boyfriend talked to her lol. Their other friend just sat there silently, looking mortified that his 60+ year old friend was hitting on a 20 year old girl. All in all, he was harmless, but amusing and kept offering to buy us things from the café, but we kept trying to leave so we didn't profit at all (well, Caitlin got his business card and hotel address LOL).
From there we went to the Great Synagogue, but it was closed, so we just took pics from the outside and then went back to the hostel to check in for real. We met Erin and her friend Beria there, and it was SO great to see Erin again. I really like all the people in my program, but it was soo nice to see a friend from BC again (I consider the people in my program friends from BC, but I didn't really know them before I came to France, so it was awesome seeing her since she and I hung out a fair amount at school before going abroad). We all met up and then went to dinner at a place the hostel guy recommended for us called Stex. Honestly it was just alright, not quite up to par with what we expected from Hungarian cooking. But thats ok, the wine was good and company was great :)
Then we went back to the hostel and there we re-met the girls from that morning and they were really coo! they were backpacking across Europe (a day in Prague, day in Vienna, day in Buda, etc kind of thing) and so we all decided to go out together with an really cool couple. The couple were a man and woman (he was mid 30s I think and she was early 40s) finishing up a 7 month long tour of Europe with Budapest and a few days in England with their friends. They took us to this really cool ruins pub called Szimpla. A ruins pub is kind of hard to describe, but its an old building that's going to be torn down soon, but someone buys it and turns it into a pub. They don't really fix it up, just make it safe and suitable for a drinking atmosphere and maybe add some decorations, but it really has the feel like you're drinking beer in a building that's been bombed. I'm not sure how to describe it but it was really cool. I also talked to the couple a little while we were there and they were so cool! I hope when I'm in my 30s I'll be like them - really laid back (they took like 12 20-22 year olds out to a bar with them!) and they travelled the world just for fun. They were also from San José I think and they were asian! haha I feel like I notice minorities (especially asians) so much more now just because I never see them! Anyways we all hung out there and had a drink or two and then we decided to go to this club, Gödor, but it ended up being closed so we just went back to the hostel and slept.
Anndddd... now I'm sleepy haha so I'll continue tomorrow... why do I make such detailed lists of my trips? it makes it very difficult to post about it in a timely fashion because it takes so long! Oh well, Joanie I hope you enjoyed this one since I wrote it especially for you :) nighty night!
Only because certain people (*ahem* Joanie *ahem*) keep pestering me to write more (haha kidding, thanks for the emails, they keep me motivated lol)
Thus, Friday 4/2 Caitlin, Olivia and I woke up in Budapest! Before going we had had a little trouble booking our hostels because we booked one for Friday and Saturday with Erin and her friend Beria, but then when we tried to get it for Thursday night also, it was somehow already filled up! So we had to book a different one for Thursday night. Anyways, when we woke up Friday morning, we had breakfast (free from the hostel - we only stay places with free bfast haha), and we had to strip the beds and check out of our first hostel so we could go and check into our other hostel lol. We checked out by 10 and got to the other one, Aboriginal Hostel around 1030. That one was great. It had all these cool decorations inside and a common room with couches and lounge chairs and a TV with movies and games! It was definitely the nicest one I'd stayed in. And the people who ran it were awesome as well - we couldn't check in right away because the other people hadn't checked out yet, but we could leave our bags there and the guy there gave us a "virtual tour" of Budapest. It was really cute because he had just finished giving the *exact* same virtual tour to a group of girls before us (american girls studying abroad - one was from Connecticut and knew some of the same people as Caitlin and Erin, who are also from CT haha), but he was so enthusiastic about his tour lol. So we sat down and he circled the major spots to see on the map. Afterwards, the map was barely legible because apparently ALL of Budapest is something to see (I swear, there were circles and X's and underlinings everywhere, we literally couldn't use the map anymore lol). So we kind of just headed out. We had planned on taking a walking tour at 2, but we couldn't find it so we gave ourselves a walking tour. I was the tour guide with my Let's Go Europe 2010 book haha, so whenever we went somewhere, I'd look it up in the book and read the little blurb.
I guess before I describe exactly what we did, there are two sides to Budapest (really, three, but we only saw two sides) - Buda and Pest. Buda is on the hill, across the Danube from where we stayed all three nights. It's where the Parliament, Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church are located; I got the impression that Buda is the richer, more historical side while Pest is the more industrial, working class side. That's not to say Pest is the slums, not at all, Pest was really cool also! But there was more construction and more "communist" looking buildings in Pest. There was also less green space in Pest, it was very much a city (at least, where we stayed it was).
Anyways, the first day we stayed around Pest and saw things there: the Opera House and St. Stephen's Basilica, complete with the 1000 year old mummified hand of St. Stephen -- sweet... lol not that you could actually see it, it was on "display" in a dark little box and you had to pay to turn the light on. So, we waited for a few min for someone else to turn on the light. fail. I think everyone else there had the same idea as us lol. Then we went up to the top where there was a panoramic view and took lots of pics and just kind of hung out admiring the view (I was actually recovering from my vertigo due to the 13 million winding staircases to the top, you know, the old ones that wind around a pole and make you all dizzy from walking in circles a thousand times? yeah those all the way to the top of the Basilica. no fun lol) So yeah, we hung out up there and then we saw a little café called "California Coffee" and were like we need to go there! So we headed back down and went to the coffeeshop where the menu was in English and they had things like mochas and filtered coffee. It was amazing. I got a mocha, which I don't usually get at home but I got it there because it was the first place I'd seen it (besides Starbucks, where everything is insanely overpriced - 7 euro for a latte? no thanks.)
So we all had our coffees and were sitting and enjoying then when an... elderly gentleman... sat down next to us and started talking to us. Well, more specifically, started talking to Caitlin. Apparently he's a former pro hockey player who played for the Czech Republic (although I suppose it would've been Czechoslovakia when he played for them) in the world cup, twice. And he has an oil business in Canada, which he started after he finished his career as a doctor. He also told us/her that he has a private jet, used to have a 23 year old girlfriend, and a Canadian passport (I'm not sure of the importance of that one, but he was really into his Canadian passport...). He also offered to fly Caitlin to Cancun in his private jet and then fly her back to Strasbourg. It was hilarious. The girl has a serious magnet for potential kidnappers. His friends were funny too because they were so normal! I was talking to one guy who seemed pretty legit, he had hockey camps on the Cape I think and he had a few in Aspen. He said he was a former pro hockey player (but I actually believed he used to play, as opposed to the Cait's boyfriend, we weren't sure what to believe) and talked to me about his camps. But he didn't talk to me in the creepy way that Caitlin's boyfriend talked to her lol. Their other friend just sat there silently, looking mortified that his 60+ year old friend was hitting on a 20 year old girl. All in all, he was harmless, but amusing and kept offering to buy us things from the café, but we kept trying to leave so we didn't profit at all (well, Caitlin got his business card and hotel address LOL).
From there we went to the Great Synagogue, but it was closed, so we just took pics from the outside and then went back to the hostel to check in for real. We met Erin and her friend Beria there, and it was SO great to see Erin again. I really like all the people in my program, but it was soo nice to see a friend from BC again (I consider the people in my program friends from BC, but I didn't really know them before I came to France, so it was awesome seeing her since she and I hung out a fair amount at school before going abroad). We all met up and then went to dinner at a place the hostel guy recommended for us called Stex. Honestly it was just alright, not quite up to par with what we expected from Hungarian cooking. But thats ok, the wine was good and company was great :)
Then we went back to the hostel and there we re-met the girls from that morning and they were really coo! they were backpacking across Europe (a day in Prague, day in Vienna, day in Buda, etc kind of thing) and so we all decided to go out together with an really cool couple. The couple were a man and woman (he was mid 30s I think and she was early 40s) finishing up a 7 month long tour of Europe with Budapest and a few days in England with their friends. They took us to this really cool ruins pub called Szimpla. A ruins pub is kind of hard to describe, but its an old building that's going to be torn down soon, but someone buys it and turns it into a pub. They don't really fix it up, just make it safe and suitable for a drinking atmosphere and maybe add some decorations, but it really has the feel like you're drinking beer in a building that's been bombed. I'm not sure how to describe it but it was really cool. I also talked to the couple a little while we were there and they were so cool! I hope when I'm in my 30s I'll be like them - really laid back (they took like 12 20-22 year olds out to a bar with them!) and they travelled the world just for fun. They were also from San José I think and they were asian! haha I feel like I notice minorities (especially asians) so much more now just because I never see them! Anyways we all hung out there and had a drink or two and then we decided to go to this club, Gödor, but it ended up being closed so we just went back to the hostel and slept.
Anndddd... now I'm sleepy haha so I'll continue tomorrow... why do I make such detailed lists of my trips? it makes it very difficult to post about it in a timely fashion because it takes so long! Oh well, Joanie I hope you enjoyed this one since I wrote it especially for you :) nighty night!
Friday, April 16, 2010
been guilted into blogging...
so with all these people clamoring for my blog I decided it was finally time to unveil the happenings of my EASTer break. Haha, ok so people really aren't clamoring and there isn't really anything dramatic to "unveil" but I do want to procrastinate my paper another hour and figure this is a good way to do it :)
Once again I was my little nerdy self and brought along a notebook in which I jotted down notes of everything we did (well, close to everything). But here's the basic outline:
Thursday 4/1 Caitlin and I took a train from Strasbourg to Stuttgart, then a plane from Stuttgart to Budapest, where we arrived ~9:20 pm we staying in a hostel with Olivia for a night then switched hostels and met up with Erin and her friend Beria.
We were in Bupapest until Sunday (4/4) late night and then took a 11:15pm flight to Istanbul where Caitlin and I stayed with Erin. Olivia went home (to Madrid) on Sunday night from Budapest and Caitlin went to Madrid from Istanbul on Thursday morning. I stayed with Erin and then on Friday night (4/9) she and I took a night train to Thessaloniki, Greece for a few days. Erin went home (to Istanbul) on Sunday night and I flew to Stuttgart on Monday morning, and then took a train back to Strasbourg. Thus, now I am here :)
And so, without further ado, here commences my journey eastward.
Thursday (4/1) wasn't really an interesting day, just a day of traveling, but it was exciting nonetheless because we were finally going on our adventure East! I'm not sure why I'm so interested in Eastern Europe, maybe because it has a really different history and feel from Western Europe (although its becoming more and more Westernized as time goes by) and I love seeing different places than what I'm familiar with, but at any rate, awhile ago I decided I wanted to go East for Easter break (so it was my EASTer break- lol sorry that was bad I know), especially since I loved Prague, I figured I would enjoy other places in Eastern Europe also. Plus, its SO much cheaper there. I think my whole weekend in Budapest, souvenirs and hostels included, I spent less than $150. Alright shoot I'm off track. Ok so Thursday, Caitlin and I had a 1:45 train from Strasbourg to Stuttgart, Germany. So we got on, had a rather short ride there (only about 1:15 long) and then took the Stuttgart metro to the airport. European metro systems never fail to impress me. The US really needs to get on that. Well, maybe some cities have pretty good public transport, but the T in Boston is definitely lacking for the number of people that use it.
Jeez, I really can't focus this morning, I should probably go back and edit this post (but I probably won't lol). So we took the metro (illegally -- we didn't buy tickets - shhh!) and got to the airport. We both checked in and I checked a bag because I figured we were going to buy souvenirs and I wanted room to bring them back. Then we had a few hours to kill before our flight so we hung out, got dinner and a bretzel (german bretzels are SO good) and then finally got on our 7:50 plane. We took that for around 1:30 I think and landed in Budapest around 9:20. We got my bag and then went to search for the bus to the hostel. We also got money out of an ATM. I swear, monopoly money came out. I withdrew 10,000 forint (the equivalent of 50 USD) and it came out in one bill. One bill for 10,000 forint. seriously? haha Caitlin and I just looked at eachother and laughed. After that we went and waited for the bus. We took the bus to the metro stop and then found out the metro was closed - Welcome to Hungary! Ugh that was a hassle, especially since between the two of us, we spoke about zero hungarian. So we followed other confused looking people onto a different bus driven by a large, angry looking man who refused our money and took that bus to a different metro stop. Then we got to the metro and realized we had yet another problem: we had 2 10,000 forint bills and needed to get 200 forint coins to use the metro. So, obviously the easiest way to do that would be to buy something and I was hungry so we bought a snack. Then we realized the ticket machine was broken. Then a sketchy looking man sold us his ticket and showed us how to punch it (thank you, sketchy looking man for saving two confused American girls!) and finally, we got on the metro.
And then when we disembarked from the Metro, we were confronted with Budapest at night: changing street names, hidden doorways, lots of cars, multi-lane streets that we found ourselves running across (don't worry, we got pretty good at dodging traffic in France), but we eventually found our hostel where Olivia was waiting for us. We checked in, paid and settled in. Then we were hanging out with Olivia and another girl sleeping in our room who was from Lyon, studying in Paris, and spending a semester in Slovakia! She was really cool, we had a really funny conversation in Franglais with the three of us (me, Cait and Amanda- the French girl) switching back and forth into French and English. thennnn we all went to bed :)
Wow so maybe thursday was an interesting day. Haha well it was just the start to our adventures... more after I finish my paper ;)
Once again I was my little nerdy self and brought along a notebook in which I jotted down notes of everything we did (well, close to everything). But here's the basic outline:
Thursday 4/1 Caitlin and I took a train from Strasbourg to Stuttgart, then a plane from Stuttgart to Budapest, where we arrived ~9:20 pm we staying in a hostel with Olivia for a night then switched hostels and met up with Erin and her friend Beria.
We were in Bupapest until Sunday (4/4) late night and then took a 11:15pm flight to Istanbul where Caitlin and I stayed with Erin. Olivia went home (to Madrid) on Sunday night from Budapest and Caitlin went to Madrid from Istanbul on Thursday morning. I stayed with Erin and then on Friday night (4/9) she and I took a night train to Thessaloniki, Greece for a few days. Erin went home (to Istanbul) on Sunday night and I flew to Stuttgart on Monday morning, and then took a train back to Strasbourg. Thus, now I am here :)
And so, without further ado, here commences my journey eastward.
Thursday (4/1) wasn't really an interesting day, just a day of traveling, but it was exciting nonetheless because we were finally going on our adventure East! I'm not sure why I'm so interested in Eastern Europe, maybe because it has a really different history and feel from Western Europe (although its becoming more and more Westernized as time goes by) and I love seeing different places than what I'm familiar with, but at any rate, awhile ago I decided I wanted to go East for Easter break (so it was my EASTer break- lol sorry that was bad I know), especially since I loved Prague, I figured I would enjoy other places in Eastern Europe also. Plus, its SO much cheaper there. I think my whole weekend in Budapest, souvenirs and hostels included, I spent less than $150. Alright shoot I'm off track. Ok so Thursday, Caitlin and I had a 1:45 train from Strasbourg to Stuttgart, Germany. So we got on, had a rather short ride there (only about 1:15 long) and then took the Stuttgart metro to the airport. European metro systems never fail to impress me. The US really needs to get on that. Well, maybe some cities have pretty good public transport, but the T in Boston is definitely lacking for the number of people that use it.
Jeez, I really can't focus this morning, I should probably go back and edit this post (but I probably won't lol). So we took the metro (illegally -- we didn't buy tickets - shhh!) and got to the airport. We both checked in and I checked a bag because I figured we were going to buy souvenirs and I wanted room to bring them back. Then we had a few hours to kill before our flight so we hung out, got dinner and a bretzel (german bretzels are SO good) and then finally got on our 7:50 plane. We took that for around 1:30 I think and landed in Budapest around 9:20. We got my bag and then went to search for the bus to the hostel. We also got money out of an ATM. I swear, monopoly money came out. I withdrew 10,000 forint (the equivalent of 50 USD) and it came out in one bill. One bill for 10,000 forint. seriously? haha Caitlin and I just looked at eachother and laughed. After that we went and waited for the bus. We took the bus to the metro stop and then found out the metro was closed - Welcome to Hungary! Ugh that was a hassle, especially since between the two of us, we spoke about zero hungarian. So we followed other confused looking people onto a different bus driven by a large, angry looking man who refused our money and took that bus to a different metro stop. Then we got to the metro and realized we had yet another problem: we had 2 10,000 forint bills and needed to get 200 forint coins to use the metro. So, obviously the easiest way to do that would be to buy something and I was hungry so we bought a snack. Then we realized the ticket machine was broken. Then a sketchy looking man sold us his ticket and showed us how to punch it (thank you, sketchy looking man for saving two confused American girls!) and finally, we got on the metro.
And then when we disembarked from the Metro, we were confronted with Budapest at night: changing street names, hidden doorways, lots of cars, multi-lane streets that we found ourselves running across (don't worry, we got pretty good at dodging traffic in France), but we eventually found our hostel where Olivia was waiting for us. We checked in, paid and settled in. Then we were hanging out with Olivia and another girl sleeping in our room who was from Lyon, studying in Paris, and spending a semester in Slovakia! She was really cool, we had a really funny conversation in Franglais with the three of us (me, Cait and Amanda- the French girl) switching back and forth into French and English. thennnn we all went to bed :)
Wow so maybe thursday was an interesting day. Haha well it was just the start to our adventures... more after I finish my paper ;)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
pics up!
pics up on both facebook (Budapest and Istanbul, Thess coming tom) and photobucket (Budapest, Istanbul and Thess coming tom)!
Monday, April 12, 2010
home... sort of :)
Back in France, loving that I understand (mostly) the language (after Hungarian, Turkish and Greek its so nice to get most of it). will update more and post pics sometime after I sleep, eat and shower.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Grand Adventure Update
Well, just wanted to let everyone know that I made it to Budapest safely, had a great time and am now chilling in Istanbul (!!!!) with Caitlin and Erin and Erin's friends. Obviously, much more will come when I get back to France and my own computer :)
love love~
love love~
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