"Not All Who Wander Are Lost"

Cześć!

Boy, have I been busy. Last week was crazy: I got home from Budapest on Tuesday morning and left for Vienna Thursday evening. (Read that sentence again. Relish its awesomeness. It blows my mind that I can write a [nonfiction] sentence like that.) (And, yes, I have taken to calling Kraków “home” – but don’t freak out; I plan to return to the USA… eventually.)

I’ll start with Budapest.

First, I should explain that I’m studying abroad with a company called Academic Programs International (API). API has two programs in Central Europe: one in Kraków and one in Budapest. A few weeks ago, the Budapest students came to Kraków for the weekend, and we went to Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine with them. On 7-11 Listopad (November 7-11), it was our turn to visit them in Budapest. November 11 is Independence Day in Poland, so classes were cancelled on the 10th and the 11th (a Monday and Tuesday), giving us a nice long weekend to travel.

To get to Budapest, we took a night train – a train with beds instead of seats! Taking a night train felt so exotic, even if it turned out to be less glamorous than I expected. I didn’t get much sleep on the train [and, no, I have not kidnapped the real Emily who falls asleep during any car ride over ten minutes long; just keep reading] because the train stops – no, comes to a screeching halt – about every twenty minutes. However, the night train was still a great experience and a convenient way to travel…in theory.

During our visit, we took a walking tour of the city, went to an all-you can-eat Hungarian restaurant (in which you reserve a three-hour time slot and are allowed to eat as much as you want during those three hours), and went ice skating. I also went shopping at Budapest’s covered market, where I ate some traditional Hungarian goulash.

One of the highlights of our trip was our visit to a Turkish bath. Hungary has many natural hot springs, and the Turks built many baths (also called “spas”) when they occupied the territory in during the 16th and 17th centuries. The spa we went to is called Széchenyi. I had a relaxing time (I essentially got to sit in hot tub for two hours) and a ton of fun! The building is also beautiful!

We also went to the House of Terror, a museum about twentieth-century Hungarian history. The museum’s name should give you a good idea of what kind of century this was for Hungary. During the 1900’s, Hungary experienced three totalitarian regimes – first two rounds of fascism and then communism. The museum even stands on the site of a former communist prison…prison meaning torture as well as confinement. Today, you can tour reconstructed prison cells and interrogation chambers in the museum’s basement.

On that note…here are some interesting facts about Budapest and Hungary!
*Budapest actually consists of two cities, Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube River. They were officially united in 1873.
*The Hungarian language does not belong to the Indo-European language family – it is neither Germanic, nor Slavic, nor Latin-based. It also does not have genders (no separate words for “he” or “she,” for example) and has only three tenses: past, present, and future (no “past perfect” or anything like that). However, when our tour guide, a native Hungarian, told us about the tenses, she said, “So far, that has been enough for us.”
*Budapest proudly possesses the oldest subway system on the Continent of Europe. Yes, London’s subway system is older…but England’s not on the Continent.
*Budapest is home to the second-largest Parliament building in the world.
*At the Turkish bath, almost everyone wore bikinis or speedos…

And now...pictures!

Turkish Bath