Alright, so let me see. It's been nearly a week so time to backtrack as best as possible...
WEDNESDAY: The usual routine with classes. In Soc, Camilla (the author from Italian class) talked with us about becoming a cosmopolitan traveler. It was actually an interesting class. Italian was fun, per usual. Afterwards, I just wandered around Florence and got some Carraia gelato with the girls. My favorite kind of day.
Fast-forward to Wednesday night and that means...POTLUCK! I brought all of my ingredients to Kaila & Diana's apt for the potluck. I even picked us up a bottle of red wine to make it too perfect. I made Roasted Eggplant Dip. Shoutout to Nicki for making me obsessed with this fantastic dip. It's just roasted eggplant, peppers, feta, lemon juice, onion, and olive oil. BAM! Healthy, addictive dip. I made the dip and the roomies all made some pesto pasta and pasta with sauce. Eventually Sarah & Nicole arrived and brought us some fruit salad. We ate everything but the plates. Such food babies! Everything was delicious and successful! It was a fantastic potluck - we'll definitely be repeating these throughout the next month and up at PSU.
After dinner, we all made our way to YAB around midnight. Got in for one-euro cover and had a great time dancing. It was a lot of fun and I fell right to sleep afterwards.
THURSDAY: Woke up nice and early for our Art History trip to the Uffizi. Everyone in my class was on the same level, especially since most of us had been dancing our feet off at YAB the night before. A little panino and Gatorade later, and I was ready for some art! The Uffizi was interesting. I really love La Primavera by Botticelli. Afterwards, Diana and I made our weekly trip to The Oil Shoppe for lunch. It's so delicious and so cheap. I tried a new sammich and had the Tuscan sausage with mustard. New favorite. That was easy.
After Italian, I scrambled around to get packed, get food, and get ready for Budapest! Ari and I left our apartment and met up with the Bus2Alps group at the train station. A little while later and we were on the bus, driving to Buda.
I prepared myself for the 13-hour bus ride, found a cozy position, and half-slept until we arrived at 9am in Budapest, Hungary.
FRIDAY: We checked into the hostel and quickly ate breakfast at a cafe right next door. The man working seemed nice enough. I quickly learned that Hungarian (or Maygar actually) is an extremely difficult language. I did, however, learn to say Thank You! It's pronounced "ker-ser-nom."
After breakfast, we all went on a walking tour. We met out front of St. Stephen's Basilica. We went inside and even got to see the mummified right hand of St. Stephen himself. It was pretty sick. Juts recently they cut off his little pinky and sent it to Australia for the Hungarians there. Awesome.
Afterwards, we wandered over the Chain Bridge. This bridge is the very first bridge linking Buda and Pest (for those that don't know, Buda is the more cultural side where the Castle area is and Pest is the more hip, modern side). We walked across the bridge from Pest to Buda and walked throughout the Castle hill area. We saw a statue of a man on a horse. Our guide, the wonderful little lady that she was, told us that the balls on the horse are gold and shiny because so many people have climbed up to rub them. Rumor has it that if you rub them, you'll get good grades...and have a good sex life. A bunch of us (Ari and myself included) jumped right up and gave those two a good rub. We may have also gotten yelled at in Hungarian by a passerby. Worth it? Definitely. I need good grades!
After the statue, we walked to one of the best views in Budapest: the fisherman's bastion. It was INCREDIBLE. We could see Parliament, many landmarks in Pest, and the entire Danube river. A few photos later and we were on our way to lunch. Our TG took us to a self-serve type of restaurant that reminded me of lunch in middle school. She interpreted the wipe-board menu for us and we all debated about what to choose. From the entire menu, I chose to try the chicken stomach. She highly reccomended it so I was feeling adventurous. I got the stomach and potatoes. A bite into the chicken stomach and I knew she was right. It was fantastic!
After lunch, we went to the caves of Budapest. TIME FOR CAVING! Yep, that's right. Caving. As in wandering around underground in tunnels. We got our wonderful suits and helmets on and headed into one of the caves. I thought it would be scary but it actually wasn't. Our guide was fantastic. She was so agile in the cave! It was pretty cool.
We went through the various "rooms" such as the "theater," the "bar," and the "library." We saw some stalactites growing too. We jumped, crawled, leaped, and twisted to get through the entire route...but we did it. We were down there for about 3.5 to 4 hours. It was just enough time. We even got to see a bat flying around! I was so happy too because a cave isn't a cave without a bat!
After caving, Ari, Annsleigh, Catherine, Alexa and I showered up and then went next door for dinner at The Hummus Bar. Starving from a grueling workout in the caves, we feasted on kebab, hummus, and rice. I know it doesn't sound like a feast but it was so much food! Oh, plus a beer. A fantastic start in Budapest. I was already in love with the city.
After dinner, we wandered through the streets and eventually found a highly recommended ruins-pub. Budapest is famous for the ruins-pubs, which are not-so-noticeable bars that aren't advertised and are highly concealed. Good thing a friend was just in Buda last weekend and gave me the hint. We found Szimpla Kert and walked inside with our fingers crossed. The outside really did look terrifying and we walked through huge plastic planks to reach the inside.
However, once inside it was all fun and games. It was definitely the most unique bar I'd ever been to, with the friendliest atmosphere. There were netting and lights all over the ceiling, old pieces of cars and such throughout the floors, and hookahs on every other table. We met a group of guys from Sweden. They were entertaining to say the least. "Why don't you just buy a plane and fly it to the Galapagos Islands?" A very interesting encounter, definitely.
SATURDAY: Woke up pretty leisurely and headed next door to breakfast. Afterwards, the girls and I walked to the market. What a market!! It's about 10x bigger than Florence's central market. It made me so jealous! The place was huge, just filled with produce, vendors, and souvenirs. It was amazing. We did a little shopping - I even bought some sand thing - and then we grabbed a bite to eat. Ari and I split a Lángos which is a typical fried dough of Budapest. We had a sweet one with fried bananas and nutella. Nom nom nom. Perfection.
After our fried dough, we walked along Andrássy Avenue which is filled with high-end shopping. The nearly 2-mile avenue led us straight to Heroes Square. It was so massive and bare that it was really impressive. We walked right through towards City Park. In the park, we found the Szechenyi Baths, the largest medicinal baths in Europe. The water is supplied by thermal springs below the surface. The five of us went into about 10 different baths, of all different water temperatures. I loved it. The hottest bath we went into was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We also tried one of the hotter saunas, at about 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Too hot for me! My body didn't not like it one bit. It was an experience though. I'd consider the bath houses very successful...I want a membership!
After a leisurely dip, we walked back down the avenue and stopped for a quick lunch of Subway for Annsleigh and Starbucks for everyone. Delicious. Ari and I quickly got ready and headed out with a dozen other people for our Hungarian dinner river boat cruise!
We boarded the boat at just before sunset. Our group had the best table (maybe...) in the entire place. It was right in front of the stage where the band was playing. Wonderful! We were greeted with a glass of champagne and a glass of wine. We quickly took our wine to the upper level for the most perfect photo op. Sunset. River. Wine. Parliament. Gorgeous pictures, gorgeous people. It was perfection.
After the photo session, the buffet opened, and we piled our plates high. Such Americans and I love it. The food was delicious! I learned that I love stuffed cabbage. I didn't think I did. We ate til we could eat no more. And then we had dessert.
After the cruise, we all hung out in the hostel. Some people went out, some people stayed in. It was a wonderful time. The entire group was a lot of fun.
SUNDAY: Up, packed, and had breakfast. We spent the last of our Forints (HUFS). The currency is so bizarre to me. I could never figure out the conversion rate either, so that was of no help. Oh well. Ari and I got the best seats on the bus and we had our own too! Good thing, because the bus ride home lasted 15 hours. At one point, we were reversing in Budapest for about 15 minutes straight. Ridiculous. We were also driving in circles for awhile because apparently the highway we needed to take was closed. It would be. We stopped for lunch at Mickey's in Austria somewhere so that was kinda neat. I got back to Florence around 1:30am. We left Budapest around 10am. Such a crazy journey!
BUDAPEST - I LOVE YOU. I WILL BE BACK. It was definitely one of my favorite places to visit and two days just doesn't do it justice. I can't wait until next time.
MONDAY: Somehow, I got up early enough to get to the central market with Kristie. I stocked up on my veggies and kielbasa. Classes were just the same old. It being Monday, I got to go to the elementary school to hang out with my buddies. It was awesome, as usual, and I helped them draw school supplies and say the names in English. They've improved so much in pronunciation I can't believe it! Then we learned a new song: "The Finger Family." It's cute, they seem to like it. An hour later and it was time for goodbyes. I love the school, it just sets me in such a great mood.
After that it was just about time for cooking lessons with Mrs. F! I was so excited for lessons. We made the best meal yet: Pane Siculo (Sicilian sesame bread), Peperoni Marinati (marinated sweet peppers), Tagliatelle ai Fungi (Pasta with mushrooms, Coniglio e Patate Arrosto (roast rabbit & potatoes), & Tiramisu! We made the pasta from scratch and got to use the pasta-maker machine. It was so fun. Of course, the tiramisu was delicious. My favorite food, I was in heaven! Cooking lesson #3 was very successful. We finished off the wine and called it a night. I love Italy.
TODAY: Art history: Check. Then Kristie, Diana, Rachael, and I decided it's time we find the Tuesday Market. We walked all the way past the American Embassy and Luna Park. Just when I was about to give up hope, we smelled some food and saw a bunch of white tents in the middle of the park. THE MARKET. It's so similar to Rice's back home, I was in heaven. Shoes, clothes, food, animals...all for cheap! It was great. I got a fantastic yellow scarf and some nibbles to eat.
After the market, I went to Italian. It was an interesting class sitting next to Justin. UCONN won the March Madness Tourney and since half of my program here are students from UCONN, they too were celebrating the victory. It was a laugh.
Later in the afternoon, I met up with Diana and Kaila and we climbed to the very top of the Duomo. It's something that's been on my To-Do List for about, hmm, two months now. SO WE DID IT! The climb up wasn't that tiring at all. It went by pretty fast. The view from the top - incredible. I love just looking out and seeing all of Firenze. However, I did enjoy the view from Campanile a little bit more, I think just because I could see the Duomo in front of me (and not be standing on top of it).
Duomo climb, check. We grabbed some canolis and just sat in Piazza dell Republicca. It was nice. I quickly checked into my apartment, got ready, and walked back up to the girls' apartment. We all went out for Aperitivo at a new place near their apartment, Kitch. Unfortunately, we were a little late and this place was packed. No worries, we wandered all the way around Florence until we found the rive and just crossed it to get to Zoe's for their aperitivo. Fantastic! We ordered our drinks and then helped ourselves to the appetizers. Some were great (like the gnocchi) and some were strange (like the rice dish). Overall, a great night with great people.
So now I'm home. I finally unpacked from Budapest (oh, and it's actually pronounced Budapesht, with a SH sound). My room is semi-clean, laundry done, and now it's time for bed. I'm exhausted and lots to do tomorrow!
Buonanotte!
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