continued

Here we are. Its now Saturday, and I'm doing nothing all day, so I think I can probably manage to actually finish this up.

So, we're in Florence. Florence turned out to be, without a doubt, one of my favorite cities ever. I was slightly skeptical, as I'd heard a few times that the city was overrated. I couldn't disagree more.
We spent four days in Florence, so I don't want to give a play-by-play, but I'll leave you with a few of the highlights for me.

One was, without a doubt, our campground. We were staying in a house-tent, which is basically a very sturdy and thick tent. Now, it was late October and early November, so this wasn't exactly the warmest situation. However, we got a whole bunch of blankets so it turned out pretty well. And the view, as you've seen, made everything worth it. We also met some pretty cool people there - we ended mostly hanging out with three Australians and a New Zealander - a couple in their early twenties, then two 30-somethings. Every night we'd meet up for Uno, then a couple times we ventured out to find a wine cellar.
Another was the wine - I had the first white wine I've ever liked, as well as some delicious reds. Mediterranean wine is somehow really different from Hungarian wine. The whites were without a doubt better - Hungarian only has one white-growing region, and I find it really quite mediocre. Too sweet. I do like Hungarian reds though; I was happy to return to my Egri Bikaver. Yes, I'm becoming a bit of a wine snob.
One of the other things I loved, and I know this is a bit unspecific, was just the nature of the city. One afternoon I ended up wandering the city by myself. I have no idea where I ended up, but I found this beautiful little outdoor flea market.


It was closed, but I could still peer into the shops, which were just packed with tons of fun junk.


The city just seemed to be packed with gems like this. I'm a big fan of cities where it feels like people actually live, as opposed to cities that seem to be simply vacation spots or tourist destinations. Now, around the Duomo (we'll get to that), of course Florence was simply a tourist destination. However, unlike Prague or even Dublin, I felt that I could find the part that wasn't that. It wasn't even hard to find - it was there for anyone willing to stroll out of the Piazza Duomo and open their eyes a little.
Okay. The Duomo.

Now, to me, for whatever reason, this seemed like a place that was totally fake - it just existed in Art History books or something. But, actually, its a real place. I've been there. I've been inside.

I even went to mass there. On All Saint's Day. Actually, it was my first mass, which was quite an experience. It was a really fascinating and, to me, fairly incomprehensible combination of ritual, religion, performance, show, and splendor. I had this bizarre feeling of being included in something ancient combined with my skepticism about the Catholic Church. I really enjoyed it.
Another highlight, and I'm sure this goes without saying, was the food. Our best meal was in this tiny little hole in the wall. You walk in and you're seated with whomever happens to have an open space. The first half of our meal was with two other American tourists, and the second half was with Italian businessmen. The pasta was amazing. Dan's meal was great - fried beef with an absolutely incredible sauce. I don't like tomatoes much, but Italy can feed me tomatoes any time it wants. I ordered tongue. Like that thing in your mouth. It actually ended up being pretty good - hard to get used to, and the parts that weren't very meaty were kind of gross, but there were sections in there that were absolutely to die for. We also had biscotti with sweet wine which was a really nice light dessert. Our second best meal was in Siena, where they made the most delicious homemade pasta I've ever had. I had ravioli. No ravioli will ever be the same again.

Now for my favorite part of Florence. I don't have any pictures of this, so I'll just include my favorite online image.

Yes, Michelangelo's David. This completely surprised me. I knew going that I wanted to see him. However, I didn't expect to be so impressed.
Now, the David is HUGE. He's probably 1.5-2 times the size of a normal human being, and he's placed up on a pedestal. He's also absolutely gorgeous. Michelangelo knew how to make a man. Alone, I know I'd be impressed. However, I think the that the Galleria d'Academia, where he is located, knows how to do art. David is located at the end of a fairly long corridor, which is lined with six unfinished Michelangelo sculptures.

This setup definitely enhances the experience. First of all, the unfinished sculptures are incredible. They seem to be coming out of the stone just like a ghost would walk through walls or a person would walk through a waterfall. I snuck into a bit of an english-language tour, and one of hte main parts I heard was the tour guide explaining Michelangelo's theory of sculpture, which was that you simply needed to peel away the stone to allow its true shape to appear. Looking at his unfinished sculptures, some of which were unfinished because he died and others because he simply abandoned them, this was definitely the sense I experienced.
Also, looking at the unfinished works made the David that much more impressive. I really realized how incredible it is that any of these scultpures came out of one block of stone. These stones are HUGE. Also, David looks real. He doesnt look like any work could have possibly gone into him. He looks effortless. The contrast is amazing.

Alright, enough of my little art history paper. Lets move to Siena.

I, honestly, was not impressed with Siena. I had heard amazing things, but it seemed to me to be more touristy than Florence, with less reason. The central square was beautiful with all its burnt sienna coloring, but packed with people.

The main church was beautiful. It was zebra striped, which was just cool, and the entire floor was covered with marble arranged in scenes, which is amazing.


However, the lines were long, it was a bit expensive, and one cool church is not enough to warrant 839289214 tourists covering an entire, tiny city. I feel like such a spoilsport saying that, but hey. Maybe it was just the contrast between Florence and Siena that didn't quite work for me. Who knows.

That night we took a night train back to Milan, which consisted of spending from 1AM-4AM in the Bologna train station, then flew out in the morning.

Italia

I enjoy the following things: the ocean, the mountains, good wine, homemade pasta, beautiful buildings, windy streets and famous art.

So, I went to Italy.

Last week was my program's fall break, so we had an entire week off. A friend from Carleton was in Prague, so he came to Budapest and we flew to Milan. From Milan, we took the train to Genoa, where we spent our first two nights and one day.

Genoa was incredible. It's an old port city built into a huge hill.
The first thing I noticed?

Yup, them's palm trees.
The second thing I noticed: San Francisco may have lots of switchbacks, but its got nothing on Genoa. The view from most streets looks something like this:

The view from our hostel looked something like this:

We spent most of our time in Genoa just walking around and exploring, although we did make a tourist stop at the Aquarium. It was huge. They had lots of weird-looking fish and some dolphins.
Genoa, overall, was really great. At first I thought it was the kind of place where I would like to grow up - there was a bunch going on, but it wasn't so large that you felt overwhelmed at all. Then I realized that my growing up was done. I'd like to retire there. Ocean, mountains, palm trees, and I saw enough old Italian ladies on the bus that I know I wouldn't be lonely. I would be worried about hiking up that hill though.

Our next stop was Florence. However, before we could get to the train station we had to march in a protest for who knows what, see Genoa's version of the Arc de Triomphe, which is backed by a garden picturing the Nina, the Pinto and the Santa Maria. Columbus was born in Genoa. We didn't find his house. Its hard to take pictures of gardens on hills, but here's my best shot.

Then, we went from Florida

to Colorado

in three and a half hours on a train.
Italy is, apparently, a country with wide-ranging climate.
We arrived in Florence late in the afternoon, to a lot of drizzle and no clue where our bus to the campground was. We eventually made it. Please, look at the view.


Yes, that's the Duomo. Like, for real.

I'm going to take a break from blogging right now, but I was informed that my aunt was anxiously awaiting an update, so Kristin, here you go. Florence and Siena to be continued.

riot gear and poland

Fridays, I often only have about 10 minutes of class. The way my program is set up, we have an entirely different class, taught by a different professor, every week. This is great in some ways, as I am getting an overview of cognitive science, and bad in other ways: Fridays are always test day. Even this is generally not too bad. This semester is notably easy, especially in comparison to Carleton, and the tests never require too much preparation. They're just a pain, and they are all oral, which can be difficult. The best part, however, is that this means that usually, I simply have a short oral exam on Friday and that's all.
Today, I had a test from 9:30-9:32, give or take. I then chatted with some girls from my program, and headed home with the intention of picking up orange juice, swinging by home to grab my suit, and going swimming (which I have NOT been doing enough). I get to the grocery store, grab my orange juice and paprika chips (the best food on earth - I'll be petitioning Lays to start selling them in the US), and walk back outside. The square is covered in police in full riot gear.
This requires some explanation. Hungary, at this point in time, is not the most stable. I'm sure many of you remember the Budapest riots last fall that got a fair amount of press. As it turns out, every year on October 23, which is both the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolt against the Communists and the anniversary of the 1989 founding of the Hungarian Republic, Hungarians riot. The current government is extremely unpopular, due in large part to a scandal involving the Prime Minister admitting that he had lied to the electorate and troubles with police corruption, misconduct, etc. We were told to be out of the country on October 23. On October 23, little happened. There were more police than protesters. However, protests will be continuing for awhile. There have been reports of emails leaked from the police saying that on a particular bridge today, police will not stop rioters. The police deny saying this. And now, my square is covered in riot police. I'm going to stay in for a little while longer - although I'd love to see a riot, I heard that they recently changed their rubber bullets for stronger tear gas. I like my eyes how they are.

So, I'll report on Poland. Last weekend we were given a 4-day weekend in honor of October 23rd, the national holiday. We were also strongly encouraged to leave Budapest. My friends went in many different directions - Serbia, Prague, Munich, and for me and my friend Dan, Krakow.
We took a 10-hour overnight train up on Friday night. We arrived at the train station just in time to hop on the train and grab a compartment. However, we didn't realize until later that this compartment was first class. We went back to second class and found every compartment entirely full. So, we sat on the ground and waited. After a difficult "conversation" with the Hungarian tickettaker, we were fairly confident that eventually people would get off the train at stops before Krakow and we could take their seats. This worked out, and eventually we ended up with a compartment to ourselves. When we woke up at about 4AM and looked outside, we saw SNOW. Yes, the fluffy white stuff was falling from the sky. We arrived in Krakow at 5AM and had 9 hours to kill until our hostel would allow us to check in. It was freezing. The flowers were covered in white.

It being too cold to walk around outside and too early to go anywhere, we sat in the train station, then a mall connected to the train station until the snow was melted, it was light out, and we could stroll through Krakow to our hostel. We dropped our stuff at the hostel then went to grab some sandwich gear for lunch. When that was over, it was late enough that we could check in and take a long, long nap. Trains are not the best for sleeping, even when you do have an entire seat to yourself.
The next day was the day for exploring. It was still freezing, and neither of us had packed enough warm clothes. However, that was not going to stop us. We bundled up in everything we owned and wandered around the city. I'm going to warn you right now - I was absolutely terrible at taking pictures during this trip. I took a grand total of 15, most of which are terrible and/or repetitive. Sorry. The looks of Krakow will, I guess, have to remain a mystery. I'll tell you though. It was beautiful. It's smaller than Budapest, and less cosmopolitan. In many ways it feels like an overgrown town, but in a good way. The core of old town is a central square with a market and the church where Chopin's heart rests. Around the old town is a narrow ring of park, which struck me as a great way to design a city.
We eventually made it down to the old Jewish Quarter, where we found an outdoor market that was, unfortunately, just closing up. However, we also found some nice bars and cafes and... drumroll... a BAGEL/TEX-MEX PLACE!!!

Budapest does not have bagels. These were delicious. I miss bagels. I mean, I miss bagels when I'm in Minnesota, where they manage to even ruin Bruegger's, but here, there's absolutely nothing. So this was a huge treat.
We also stumbled across the castle, where Dan took pictures (which I'd like to post, Dan, can I have them?) and I followed my friend Joanna's advice. Joanna had told me that every Pole has a picture of them with the Krakow Dragon. So, now I do too.

The next day we went to Auschwitz. I'd never been to a concentration camp before, and I felt that it was really important to go. It was unbelievably intense. This I have no pictures of, as I didn't think it was okay to take a picture of me walking under the Arbeit Macht Frei (Work shall set you free) gate. I saw other people doing that - ugh. Auschwitz was as I expected, I guess - intense, scary, terrible. I guess there's not that much to say about a concentration camp. The camp is still its original plant, but the barracks are set up as exhibitions. They were all very well done - in particular, there is one building in which all the rooms are full of people's possessions - a room of combs, a room of suitcases (one of which had the address of my street in Budapest - I live in the Ghetto), and, probably most movingly, a room of shoes. I mean an entire room of shoes.
While the exhibitions were moving and overwhelming, the worst part for me was the gas chamber and crematorium. You walk through this very small building - just three small rooms: preparation, gas chamber, crematorium. It was at this point that I realized not only that millions of people died, but that other people killed them. After that, I was done. We headed home on a bus so crowded that we actually sat in the stairwell.
Our last day, it rained. It was still freezing, and it was raining. We decided to ignore the fact that we were in an unknown city and go to the movies. So, we found an english movie with subtitles - Stardust. I really enjoyed it. I haven't seen a movie since I've been here, so it was kind of fun. We also ate at an American restaurant - I had a burger where they actually asked me how I would like it cooked, and Dan had baby back ribs. Not exactly a Polish experience, but a really great rainy day far from home.
That night we came back on a night train, and arrived just in time to start school again!

I'm hoping the streets are safe now. I'm going to go swimming.

where am i?

I thought I was coming to Budapest. As it's been turning out recently, I've come to Budapest for the week, and the countryside for the weekend. Last weekend was our second excursion, which was to Eger, the red-wine growing region of Hungary. It was beautiful, and fun, but not particularly eventful, and I was not feeling particularly camera-happy, so I'll leave you with just one picture. This is why Hungary reminds me of home.

wine and the fourth of july

This past week has been crazy. I've just been going and going. I'm not doing anything important, of course. Just having fun.

My class last week was the first one that I've disliked. I guess it had to happen sometime, but I was disappointed, especially since the topic should have been very interesting. The professor, however, was absolutely abysmal. Too bad, but I guess it had to happen eventually. This week should be a lot better.

After the terrible exam of the terrible class, I decided it was time for weekend. I kicked it off by attending the:

That's right. Budapest is hosting the Rubic's World Championships. Not only that, but I am rather well acquainted with the 133rd runner up. Paulina and I headed over after class. We sweet talked our way into a free guest pass then watched for awhile. We saw some really fast cubers and witnessed a world record being broken - 15 cubes solved blindfolded. He was fourteen years old.

Saturday, the majority of my program, along with my roommate David, hopped on a train to Tokaj, which is a city in the countryside famous for its sweet white wine. This weekend was their harvest festival, complete with wine tasting stands. I've realized that I'm not a huge white wine fan, however, the experience was still great. First of all, the Hungarian countryside is beautiful. Parts of it remind me of the Pioneer Valley, actually, which can be kind of fun. I didn't get too many pictures, as its hard to get any good shots through a train window, but here's the best I could do.

I had two favorite moments during the festival. The first came when a marching band started playing. Great, I think. I love marching bands. Then, I hear what they are playing. It's the 4th of July song! The one that also has the words "be kind to your web footed friends, 'cause a duck may be somebody's mother...". I always thought this was American. Apparently, Hungary loves it too. I guess there aren't that many rousing marching band songs around. The best part? About an hour later, they played it again.
My other favorite moment was a little less bizarre. After strolling around the festival for awhile, one of the Hungarian students who was with us suggested that we go to a wine cellar just outside the center of town. It was so cool. Again, this was hard to get pictures of, but it looked a little something like this.


We hung out there for quite a while. I got some attractive pictures of my friends.


The best part, and the part that I absolutely could not get a reasonable picture of, was that there was a tradition of sticking coins into the wall for good luck. The wall was, therefore, covered in little dots of metal, mostly 1 and 2 HUF pieces.

Since then, I've mostly been home. Julian, who is one of my friends from high school and is spending a semester traveling around Europe, showed up at my house for the second time today. He had been in Budapest a few weeks ago for quite awhile with another of our friends, Cale. Then, Cale flew back to the US and Julian continued on his way. However, after a rough experience in Romania, Julian showed up on our doorstep again. It's been great - my apartment is rarely empty.

Prague

This weekend, I went to Prague with three girls from my program. We decided to be slightly crazy, and take an overnight bus up to Prague Friday night after school, spend Saturday and Sunday in Prague, then take an overnight bus back on Sunday night, which arrived in Budapest just in time for me to run home, shower, take a (very) quick nap, and go to school for Monday!
Saturday morning, we got in to Prague at 6:30AM. We made our way to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and walked over to Bohemian Bagel, a recommendation from the hostel, for breakfast. Bohemian Bagel, I must say, was EXACTLY what I have been craving. "Heaven for Expats" was the guidebook quote, and though I feel a little bad about it, being here to experience the culture and all, I was in heaven. I got a breakfast sandwich bagel - egg, cheese and sausage. It's very difficult - potentially impossible - to find a good, hearty, American breakfast in Budapest, so I was absolutely ecstatic.
Then, we went over to the astronomical clock tower in Old Town Square.

We climbed up, and got some beautiful views both on the way:

and on top:

We then wandered around Old Town, which was jam packed with more tourists than I've ever seen in my entire life (and this was at 10AM - it only got worse as the day went on) and eventually made it to Charles Bridge, which put Old Town to shame. How many people can you cram on to one bridge? Well, I didn't take many pictures then, as I was too overwhelmed to move, but later, I took a picture of the Charles Bridge from the safety of another bridge.

See all those little dots? Those are people. Ah!

That afternoon, we ate a delicious lunch at a restaurant nearby the hostel that had been recommended as "cheap". My meal? Steak tenderloins with blue cheese. The total? $18. Now, maybe I've just been in Eastern Europe for too long, but when a hostel recommends somewhere as cheap, I was thinking gyros or burgers. I'm thinking somewhere around $3. However, I must say, the meal was worth it. Absolutely delicious.
We then headed to the hostel for a much needed nap.
At night we went to a club called Lucerna for 80s and 90s night. I had a great time, dancing to the Macarena.
The next day, we left with the vague plan of making it to the castle.

We never exactly made it there. However, we wandered around that side of the city. (Prague, like Budapest and Northfield, has a river running through the middle of it. Like Budapest (and Northfield too, but probably in a different way) each side is fairly different from one another - one is more cosmopolitan and bustling, the other more peaceful, and with a large, imposing castle. That's something Northfield could use. Olaf should start working on their castle on the hill.
We did, however, find several exciting things.
The first was an H&M. We did a little shopping.
Second, a memorial to victims of Communism. Pretty intense.

Third, a beautiful view in a beautiful orchard.

Fourth and most importantly, my new favorite statue. It's currently placed in the backyard of the German Embassy, but I'll be taking donations for its replication and installation in my dorm room.

At this point, our legs were tired and we needed to sit. We went to Wenceslas square for some tea, had dinner at an absolutely amazing Thai restaurant, and headed to the bus station for our ride home.
At 6AM, we arrived back in Budapest, and I have to say, I was happy. Prague is beautiful, and in many ways a constant party, but it's a vacation spot. It's americanized, and english-speaking, and touristy. Even when we ventured out into the areas of the city that I thought should be more residential and Czech, it still felt like the city was a display, not a place to live. I've grown kind of fond of the fact that even buying an extra camera battery here can be a multi-lingual experience (me, translating a teenage girl's English translation of the cashier's Hungarian into Russian for the German in front of me). Budapest is a lived-in, liveable city. It feels real in a way that Prague didn't. Don't get me wrong, Prague is an absolutely remarkable vacation spot - beautiful, fun, active. And I'm sure that if I spent more time there, I would find the place where people really lived. However, it seems to me that in Budapest you can't HELP but find those places.

Margaret Island

It's tough for me to think that the world is anything but perfect when I am going for a run on the most beautiful fall day in recent memory around a pristine little island in the middle of a bustling beautiful cosmopolitan city, watching pairs of old women who have obviously been friends forever sit watching the Danube and chatting. Then, after one and a half times around the island - 4-5 miles, impressive for me, I'm a swimmer, NOT a runner - I stopped to do some abs, pushups, etc., where a pack of toddlers surrounded me, chattering away in Hungarian, trying to get me to play their game (to the chagrin of their very Hungarian, and thus frowny, mothers). I then proceeded to walk, fairly leisurely, back to my tram. Past the old Franciscan nunnery (where Saint Margaret lived, and Margitsziget - Margaret Island - got its name) I found a fountain playing the Sugar Plum Fairy song, complete with water show. After stopping briefly, I almost literally ran into a woman wearing a shirt that said, in English:

I want to have your love baby.

It's tough for me to think that the world is anything but perfect when translations can be that funny.

Oh, and the back of her shirt? Well, that said CIA.