I found a gem!

Thus far, I've noticed that it's really rare to walk into a place in an unfamiliar country, in which your language is typically a burden, and feel immediately comfortable. Kiadó Kocsma és Étterem is a little cafe/bar in Lipótváros with chill music, cheap drinks and snack, and an artsy setting. I'm saying all these great things about it, but I just read some reviews explaining the bad service and food sickness from their stew. Regardless, I'll still give it another try!

A lot of Budapest is under construction right now. At first, I was a little disappointed because of my visual implications, but I realize that it's great for the Hungarians to have updates to their city. Besides, I'm sure it takes a lot to maintain buildings that are hundreds of years old.

There are bikes everywhere, and they even have these precious stop lights for cyclists as well!

I went for another solo wander and ended up at Hősök tere, which means Hero's Square. I've never been to any sort of historical monument with nobody else there, so it was slightly eerie. In the center is a statue of the archangel Gabriel looking down towards seven mounted knights charging into battle which represent the chiefs of seven Magyar tribes.

Oh look! I found a reader and a skateboarder! Both who turned their backs on me when I tried taking photos of them...

The Hungarian Countryside

This past weekend I took a trip to an area of Hungary called Balatongyörök, which is about a three hour drive southwest of Budapest. Myself and around 200 other students from all around got to know each other (very) well during our two day retreat out of the city, and I feel really lucky to have been able to see this new area of the country.

Corvinus University had 4 buses full of undergraduate and graduate students. Luckily we all had one thing in common: English. Sure, that's great for us Americans, but it also makes us feel like total doofuses. We actually weren't supposed to go on this trip because it was organized by an exchange program that deals with just about every country in the world besides the United States (because we're elitists, perhaps? Unwilling to compromise, maybe?) but were allowed to attend because all the spaces didn't fill.

After our bus ride beginning at 08:30am, we arrived at Lake Balaton. I didn't really take any photos because I didn't think it was that interesting. From there, we went to a place called the Abbey Church, a 250 year old monastery and crypt.

We had a tour guide, which was nice because we could listen and look at the same time. I probably would have found it more interesting if I was religious, though. I was most compelled by how old the place was. It seems like it's really hard for myself and the other Americans I've spoken with to grasp how  young of a country we come from.

In the Benedictine Museum next door, there were a lot of great surrealist sculptures. Some of them were even demonic, in a way.

My new friends and I posing with central Europe's only body of water, Lake Balaton, in the background.

One thing I will try to establish when I come home is dessert after every meal, like crepes after lunch, for example.

The next day I went to the Helikon Kastelymuzeum which is the former palace of the Festetics family. It was built in 1750, and they take such good care of it that you have to wear felt booties while walking around inside to preserve the wooden floors.

An amazing library, and really detailed wallpaper.

Fell in Love at the Ludwig Muzeum

Birth of a Nation - Robert Capa

Planting Potatoes - Theo Frey

I went to the Ludwig Muzeum today also known as Budapest's museum of contemporary art, which housed two of the most inspiring exhibits I've ever seen in my life: Robert Capa and Things are Drawing to a Close.

The Robert Capa exhibit was a personal favorite of the Hungarians, as he is from Budapest. He eventually moved to the United States and worked for Life magazine in the thirties until his death while reporting the beginning phases of the Vietnam war. He stepped on a land mine and was the first American photojournalist to die while on assignment. The second exhibit had photos from numerous photographers, but the ones by Theo Frey were my favorite. He photographed poor families living in Switzerland, Amsterdam, and the US during the thirties. The most compelling work I've ever seen. The problem is, neither of these photographers have a justifiable online library. I guess that's what happens when you do all your work decades before the internet was even invented. As soon as I get home, I'm going to buy these photographer's books and look at them over and over again.

Zsido Negyed

Amid the din of radio sets and bulldozers, Budapest's Jewish quarter is slowly recovering itself after the nightmares of WWII. It had been home to the close-knit community since the late 19th century, before the Nazis walled it up in 1944, deporting the inhabitants.

Chicago has the Bean; Budapest has the Breast.

Ashley and I came across a found-object dress display. There is one with a lop-sided top and bank receipts - how revolutionary.

An altitude of 1700 feet

My friends and I took a trip to Budapest's hills today. On Sunday nothing in the city is open, so you have to entertain yourself in non-consumerist ways. Go figure - we're definitely not in America anymore.

We saw a campground that looked cute. But I have a stiff mattress and pillows with yellow stains, so I don't need no campin'!

There's a ski lift contraption that you take all the way to the top of hill. It's beautiful because you can see the entire city from a distance. 

The view of Budapest on the Pest side from the highest point on the hill, which is on top of the building above.

There's Chuck, representing Hungary.

A whole section of trees had carvings on them in all different languages.

A walk through Buda

Since today was my first day that I actually felt like an alive and functioning person, I decided to do a solo adventure. I took the Metra (aka subway) across (more like under) the river to the Buda side of Budapest.

The escalator down to the Metra is literally the steepest escalator I've ever seen in my life. You get vertigo just riding on it. It takes 2 minutes to get as far underground as the Metra is, and I heard that it was built that way under Communism to be used as a bomb shelter. 

Budapest also has a tram system. They are rail cars on the streets attached to these electric wires. I haven't been on one yet, but they look cool. The only down side is, the wires get in the way of taking photos of cool buildings, like this:

However, when a tram does drive by, it's kind of an interesting juxtaposition between past and present. 

There's a lot of graffiti in the city, especially on phone booths.

A creepy statue in a kid's playground. A little creepier than me being in a kid's playground with a camera. But hey, I was there to see a free photo exhibition of students' work from around the Roma area. It was interesting because the photos were good but they were printed on paper and put behind plastic at a construction site. Some of them were really pixelated and disappointing, hence, not worth showing. :(

I then ate lunch at a place called Cafe Miro that was inspired by, not suprisingly, the Catalan painter Miro. It was really delicious. I had this huge soup with bread (white bread - I don't know yet if wheat bread exists over here) and it was only 790 forints, or $4.24.

Zellers burgonyakreimleves piritott baconnal. Known in English as potato soup with celery and bacon. And grease, but they didn't say that on the menu. 

I ended up in a really residential area and there was barely anybody around. 

Beep beep.