Let's take this one city at a time...BUDAPEST

Alright, first things first...I don't have as many pictures from Budapest because my camera died the first day we had our tours and such but luckily I had my battery charger with me so I continued the next day. Anywho, I just have to get pictures from that first day from a few friends so keep watch for a Budapest part II in the upcoming weeks.

Also, these next three posts are really long, so you may have to click on the 'Older posts' link at the bottom of the page to see all of them...Budapest, Vienna, and Prague!

We arrived in Budapest (pronounced Budapescht because the "s" makes a "sch" sound in Hungarian) late Sunday night on March 9th. Our plane was delayed 2 hours so we received a $15 voucher to spend at the airport and a free drink aboard! We stayed at Hotel Hungarian, which was a Best Western and had an amazing breakfast buffet! Here's our view from the hotel window:


Our Monday started out with a tour on foot and by bus from our guide, Gerda, who was a cute lady that always tried to make things easier for us. For example, in introducing herself she told us that if her name was too hard to say we could call her "G, like Gangster" ...from that moment I knew if was going to be a good tour :)

First stop, Hero's square. This large plaza celebrates important figures in Budapest's history...the two things Gerda told us to remember were King Stephen and the number 96. Stephen was the guy who made Budapest what it is and most buildings are 96 meters tall...



...including this column.


Right before the battery went dead I was able to get some shots of the gorgeous Medieval Castle Hill. This is one of the oldest areas of Budapest and is still in great condition. This particular part is called Fisherman's Bastion; Budapest used to be a large resource for fish. I was all about the angles when taking pictures here.




And, across the river lies Parliament, which is huge! Budapest used to be 3 different cities divided by the river: Buda was on this side of the river and Pest was on the other side where Parliament is. Obuda was northwest of the two until 1873 when the three combined to form Budapest. Still today they differentiate between sides of the river by saying either the Buda or the Pest side.



























Unfortunately, under scaffolding lies Matias' church...with a gorgeous tile roof atop.



And that's where the camera dies for Monday, March 10th...later that day we went to the Market place, around a large park and got cotton candy and checked out Matias' castle (he's a former king of Hungary) and then the Baths! Budapest has about 4 separate bath locations where public baths took place. They used to be open to males and females on separate days back in the day, but now you see men, women, and every shape and size...I saw much more than I ever intended to there! It was so relaxing though, there are a bunch of indoor pools, but we headed to the outdoor pools that were set at a perfect temperature. There were fountains, and people playing chess in the water.

Next, we joined up with the group again for a dinner of Broccoli soup, Chicken with Peach on it, and a cheeseball thing with strawberry syrup drizzled on top. It wasn't an awful dessert, but it definitely wasn't as appetizing as the chocolate cream pie we saw other tables being served! During dinner, we were given a song and dance show that will be shown in the anticipated Budapest II post as soon as I get the pictures!

Other places we visited were the House of Terror, an aesthetically pleasing museum that has recently been created showing life under Nazi reign. The house was the actual Nazi headquarters and was where many were tortured. Talk about a history lesson! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed but I can confidently say that it was the most involved museum I've been too that pulls you along from room to room wondering what you're going to encounter next.


This is the 2nd largest synagogue in the World, and the largest in Europe. (The largest is in NYC). We were given a tour of this and also taken to the Jewish museum in here. I learned and still continue to learn a lot about Jewish culture as many people in this program are Jewish.


No matter how many times I had this sweet bread's name said to me I couldn't remember it much less pronounce it! DIS gave us pieces of this sweet bread that is flattened and then wound around a wide metal rod and cooked over open fire with a glaze on it and either left with just the glaze or dipped in sugar or coconut. We were told it was a traditional Hungarian bread, but they were selling like hotcakes at the market in Prague so who knows where the true origin of this bread lies...none the less, delicious. And by the way, Garrett really isn't grumpy like he looks, he just tries to tough in pictures...maybe to make up for his lack of strength in real life :)


This is the inside of the synagogue:


And, the tree of life. Built as a memorial for the mass amount of Jews lost during the Holocaust. I didn't realize Hungary was hit so hard by the Holocaust...of 800,000 Jews who were living there 600,000 were killed. The small willow leaves on the tree are donated by families who lost loved ones during those times.


And our last night there, I was invited to a Hungarian opera by Melanie (to my right in the sweet bread picture). She booked tickets ahead of time and we lucked out in getting moved up to front row because it wasn't a full house. The opera was in Czech and the subtitles on the LCD screen were in Hungarian...so we had no idea what was going on except that there were two men, one woman, a baby and some sort of witch lady involved. It was my first opera and the opera house was gorgeous as you can see by the pictures.




















A few other tid-bits from Budapest: the city hosts the oldest metro in continental Europe. There is an older on in England but since it's an island Budapest gets claim to the oldest in the continental countries. Also, Magyer means Hungarian in Hungarian.

Let's take this one city at a time...VIENNA

***Pictures are fixed!

Day 1 in Vienna, Wednesday, March 12...first, I was left behind at the hotel shortly after checking in because I was last in line for the bathroom. Luckily I was able to catch up with the group at the train station but, what an intro! :) After a 4 hour bus ride from Budapest, we went for lunch at the Kunst Haus Wien, where we had Weinerschnitzel, kartoffler salad, and apple strudel. I'll break it down:

Weinerschnitzel: a flattened veal (or usually pork because it's cheaper) steak breaded and served with a lemon. (We thought it was a breaded fish fillet at first).
Kartoffler Salad: a regular salad except with potatoes in it and an oil type of dressing.
Apple Strudel: much like what we think of except it had more of a bread pudding texture and was chilled.

Afterward, we had about 45 minutes to look around, but instead of taking a tour of the art gallery, Melanie, Meg, and I walked along the bank of the Danube River which was right across the street from this restaurant/gallery.


Next, we left for our walking tour of the city. I instantly loved this city!! It is the eastern most large city in Western Europe and was a nice change of pace from Eastern Europe. There was historical aspects but also tall buildings made of out of steel and a large amount of people were out and about after midnight! I felt like I was in a real city, haha...which means steel and night owls to me apparently.

This is Hofburg Plaza. It was my favorite place within Vienna (which by the way is spelled Wien in German, the national language, and a person from Vienna is called a Viennese)...I came back here before my bus left on my last day and just hung out for a while watching people and just looking at the square. The balcony in this picture is actually the spot where Adolf Hitler spoke to a packed plaza of Viennese before Nazi occupation 70 years prior, exactly.

So many things were located here. In the distance you can see the building I thought was Parliament, but is actually City Hall. I took this picture during out tour and though it was a great shot until I realized I cut the horse's head off...oops, so...

I went back a few days later and retook it. Luckily the weather cooperated. Horse drawn carriages lined this street waiting to give people rides. They're called Fiacre, the horse is called that, the driver (for lack of better word) is called that and the carriage itself is called a Fiacre...so our guide told us that as long as you remember that word, you're set.

Here's the Viennese Presidential Offices. One point the guide made: You can get so close as to actually lean on the buildings and then asked us how close we can get to the White House. So, I'm assuming that means Vienna's a safe city or they don't have to worry about security as much because their whole country is the size of one of our states.

Next, we took a short stroll to the one of the main shopping/pedestrian streets in Vienna. In the middle, we stopped at a trident statue depicting (a little below the bottom of the picture) the defeat over the Black plague that struck the city. An interesting tidbit I noticed...the Plague was shown as a woman.

St. Steven's church, one of the most historical markers of the city. Unfortunately it had scaffolding around it's tower, but still impressive none the less. I didn't have time but the tower offers great views of the city after climbing up about 150 stairs we were told.

The roof is made of tile and has been restored since the war when it was bombed and the roof collapsed, but the restoration was careful as to recreate the original. You can see the Gothic detailing done on the gables.

Vienna, the city of Music, was home to many famous composers including the most popular, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is the place where he played his last performance before dying in his nearby home. On our way to Vienna from Budapest, we watched the movie Amadeus, which tells the story of Mozart. The movie depicts his life quite well, our guide who is a former music teacher informed us. Along with music, Vienna is known as one of the chocolate and coffee capitals of the world.

First stop after our tour--Hotel Sacher, for the Sacher Torte--the original chocolate torte. This is where it first originated and there is actually a big rivalry between Hotel Sacher and Demels Chocolate Store. The way the story goes is that Hotel Sacher invented the recipe and places a layer of apricot jam in the middle of the two layers, but they sold the recipe to Demels when their financial area took a dip a long time ago and Demels tweaked it and puts their apricot jam under the top layer of icing. Shortly after selling the recipe, Hotel Sacher took off and now the settlement is that the hotel claims they have the original where Demels claims they have the true Sacher Torte. For the record, although it was good I thought it to be a little dry and would probably choose something else next time. :)

Then, back to Hofburg Plaza for a candlelit ceremony commemorating those who lost loved ones to Nazi rule. The city celebrates the anniversary of Hitler speaking every year but this was the first year they added the candles. It was awesome to take part in the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and watch the speakers. They had a lady speak who had been there that day, but unfortunately it was all in German, and although I did have one semester of German 9 years ago, her speech was a little more advanced than what I learned then.

I was all about the horse carriages that day!

After the ceremony, a group of 6 of us headed to Prater, the Giant Ferris Wheel, which turned into more of a journey than any of us thought it would! While we could see the wheel, we couldn't figure out how to get into the little amusement park. After about 15 minutes of following along a wall of construction we finally came to an opening where we found a lot of casinos and this giant pig ATM.

And, at last! The Ferris wheel! The cars are huge, each with a different setting in them. We were placed in one that only had a bench unfortunately, but the one behind us had a dinner table and a party of 8 was actually having a dinner catered in there. Other ones had couches and plants in them.


I was in quite a goofy mood that night, probably because I felt like a kid again.

Day 2, Thursday, March 13, I was left behind once again...that's when I realized the back of the bathroom line was not the place to be! Luckily, I had Garrett with me and we tracked down where our lecture was from a guest speaker at the University of Vienna. I felt bad that we're missing it, but he didn't really care which was apparent as shortly after we got there he fell asleep, sitting up!

Afterward, a girl named Jenna and I saw both of these buildings. I love the church and this is the real Parliament below. We were on our way to...


...The Belvedere!! Home of Gustav Klimt's collection, we stood in front of the original painting The Kiss and saw a lot of his other work. A fellow Viennese, Klimt's work is seen all over the place. The painting was huge and unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures...even with the flash off. That was the first time I was scolded that day for taking pictures! But actually, I think this picture I found online is better than any one I could have taken!


Afterward, I went to the Sigmund Freud Museum, 3 words: not worth it. I was disappointed it wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it would be. Rather than talk about his ideas it showcased where his patients sat and showed a home video of him with his dogs. Big thumbs down...but walking around and shopping made up for it! I stopped at Demels and had one of their little candy bars and watched them make the seals for their chocolates. You can walk back to their glass-enclosed kitchen and watch them make their chocolates! The eggs in their window were entirely made of out chocolate. Oh, and that's the Palace at the end of Kohlmarkt Street, the most expensive street in Vienna.

And, onto the second time I was scolded for taking pictures that day. DIS took us to a symphony that night! It was a beautiful symphony hall and I snapped this as the orchestra came out. I wasn't going to, but I saw flashes all around me. So I turned my flash off and as soon as I took it, an usher was there to tell me I couldn't take pictures...I think they were onto me!

So, some rule of thumbs I made up while watching this... #1) Don't clap too quickly because there are many pauses throughout a single piece and #2) Once you do start clapping, you better be ready to clap for at least 5 minutes as the conductor and the soloist leave the stage and come back about 4 times to take a bow. Then, you clap again when the Composer comes back out to conduct the next piece. That night we met an Austrian guy on the train who was moving to New York this past week. It was funny because he was near us on the platform and when we're laughing at an advertisement we saw him move a little closer to us smirking and then finally on the train he asked where we were from and we talked about New York and Austria until our stop.

Day 3 in Vienna, Friday, March 14: first stop, the Imperial Palace, home of the longest monarchy that took place in Vienna, that of Franz Josef. We took an audio tour of one floor of the palace and it took us a little over an hour. Then, we went out for traditional Viennese food--I think it was Salisbury steak and what seemed like stuffing patties with a Melange (traditional coffee of Vienna) to drink followed by a pastry apple thing sprinkled with powdered sugar.

After lunch we're off to the Museum of Art History, located in the Museums Quarter and former stables and riding ground of Vienna.



Rachel, Garrett, and Matt took one of the large patio umbrellas from the restaurant we ate at since it was a rainy day. Although funny, most of us couldn't believe they actually took it and more over Rachel was going to try to check it onto the plane and take it back to Copenhagen with her. ...kids! I don't know if she was actually able to cause I didn't fly back with the group.

Inside the museum, we walked into a big rotunda before looking ahead to see...

...The stairs leading up to the exhibits. Melanie and I were wondering what these buildings were made for way back when because obviously they weren't built with an idea of a museum in mind...so it's a question for my teacher when we're back in school.

This was one of my favorite rooms because after quite a long day already we were all getting tired, but since I've been looking at oodles and oodles of Greek pottery and statues in my Ancient Art and Archeology class, I was able to identify the meanings and such of many of these pots, which I gave a little lesson to Melanie on. I'm not sure if she really liked it but at least it kept us both busy :)

There was a series of photos like this one that were really cool. The artist basically kept taking pictures of numerous pieces of junk and laying the negatives over each other to create portraits. So, basically like a junk portrait or the flattened version of past art 'junk sculpture' projects I've had.

For our last night, we were taken out to a really nice dinner with wine, soup, DELICIOUS stuffed chicken (with ricotta and eggplant) set on a bed of noddles with a great sauce on them. Then, as you can seen in the picture of Melanie, Meg, Garrett, and me, our deserve was a type of jellied pudding drizzled with wild berry sauce...mmmm mmmm!

Melanie and I had to rush from dinner straight to the Opera House for an 8:00 ballet performance. Thinking ahead, she had gotten tickets before we left on our trip (just like for the Hungarian opera) and invited me to come along...it was one of, if not my first real ballet! So fun, and the best part was that one of the songs was one of Mozart's. So, we officially heard Mozart in Vienna!

Here's the inside of the Opera Hall, our seats were way at the top and the very right hand side, but they were $10 tickets so it didn't bother us, we just leaned forward on the rail ahead of us and looked down.



Ok, you got me...this image is from the internet, i wasn't really on stage but if you look 4 levels up and to the left, that's where we were! I loved the chandelier in this hall, but both Melanie and I agreed that the Budapest Opera house was much prettier.

All in all, Vienna was wonderful!! The streets were immaculately clean (not even cigarette butts from the numerous smokers could be found), it's a very walkable city and the people were some of the friendliest I've encountered! And funny enough I was originally more excited for Budapest and Prague, but Vienna ended up being my favorite! I definitely want to go back here!