Just about another week gone, and I can’t believe we only have one more week left in Budapest! Time is moving so quickly, it’s crazy. Not too much to talk about this week, but I’ll try my best. Okay, so, I’ve discovered I’m just as inflexible with yoga now as I was when I was taking the class at Macalester. But it’s been awesome getting back into it and I’m enjoying it a lot; I’ve been three times with Judit so far. I am so thankful that she keeps inviting me to go with her! Also, our yoga instructor is really cool; he speaks perfect English because he studied in both New York and London. Also, he used to be a singer when he was younger and was the singer of the hit pop song entitled Egyedül, which means “alone” (according to google translate). The song was released in 2000 (I think, I’m having to translate wikipedia and I’m not 100% positive) and I’ve included a link to the youtube video here. Obviously it’s in Hungarian, but the main male singer in the video is my yoga instructor, which I think is pretty neat! Anyway, he’s awesome and I’m going to miss doing yoga with him and Judit when I’m gone. After yoga in the morning, I went to kayak practice with Sam on Friday night and went running around the club. I was going to do the sprints that I talked about in the last post, but it was pretty cold and very, very wet because it had rained all day/was still raining and I didn’t want to tear up the field I was going to fun on. Because obviously I can run hard enough and fast enough and long enough to tear up a whole field. Don’t worry, I still went running and did a body weight workout, so it wasn’t all for naught. Then we waited around to help get all the kayaks attached to the trailer, since the club was going to compete at a kayak regatta the next day. Saturday was an early start since the kayak regatta was in Dunaújváros (which means “Danube New City”) and that was about an hour south of Budapest. Sammie was racing the 200m, 500m and 2k races for Honved. She got silver in the 200m and 500m and gold in the 2k. Although there were only 2 other people in the 2k and she was so far ahead that when she forgot to cross in between the two finish line buoys, she had enough time to turn around and go back to cross them again and still won by about 10 seconds. It was a good day for everyone, because Istvan also medaled in his master’s race, getting the bronze in the 200m, and Marci got two medals: gold in the 200m relay and 5th in the 2k. In his 2k race, he was only beaten by boys that were a year older than him, which is pretty good! What wasn’t awesome was that it was cold. And it rained all day. Judit and I would watch a race, then run back to the car and sit in there for as long as possible before running back to watch another race or see a medal ceremony, then back to the car we went. Wash, rinse, repeat. All day. A long and tiring day, but a really fun one too! I also had two fish soups from two different places. They were both amazing, but the second one was better, in my personal opinion. This soup that I’m talking about is called halászlé, or “fisherman’s soup.” It’s another classic Hungarian dish that I’ve gotten to try while I’m here. I think I will have tried almost all of them by the time I leave. Naturally, I’ve had goulash soup (spelt gulyásis in Hungarian) a few times too. It’s a Hungarian national dish and it is really good. I would try and explain it to you, but I think wikipedia could do it better. Just know that it’s delicious. Sunday was spent with the Szalay girls. We had lunch at Champs restaurant, where we were entertained with the singing of some drunk English guys who were probably here in Budapest for a boys weekend. It’s very common for that to happen (a weekend getaway I mean, not seeing drunk Englishmen singing at Champs at 3:30 in the afternoon) since alcohol is much cheaper here than it is in the UK. So I guess maybe in that case it would be common to see people drunk at 3:30pm on a Sunday? I have no idea. Anyway, it was extremely funny. Laura did a great impression of them later on that night. I had an English lesson with Laura and a math helping session with Lily that evening, and Sam and I also got to see Laura’s dance. Her dance team had a national competition on Saturday and they were fourth in their age group, which means they are competing in the final in a few weeks! She was very excited, so as soon as we got back to her house she HAD to show us her routine. So cute. And we had sushi for dinner. I was a happy camper. Monday was yoga and teaching, but Tuesday was a little bit of a change of pace. Sam and I spent the day at the Szechenyi Spa Baths. It opened in 1881, with construction of the building being completed in 1927. It’s the largest medicinal bath in Budapest and one of the largest in Europe. There are 18 baths in total, and 15 of them are fed by the hot springs that run underneath the building. There are also a number of dry saunas and steam rooms to try as well. This place is pretty sweet. Sam and I had a great time exploring and trying all the different baths. It was so nice and relaxing to just sit and soak in all the heat. And on top of that, the outdoor pool has a small lazy river running through it, so that was fun too! After our day at the spa, we stopped to eat a late lunch/early dinner in City Park with a lot of ducks. This man was feeding them bread and they were going at it. Until the man threw a pretty big piece at them. They didn’t really know how to handle it and walked in a circle around it for a while. We then rode the M1 metro line (the one I talked about it earlier, being the oldest line in Budapest) back to the apartment, but we took a pit stop on the way there at the Basilica and got some ice cream from this really cool gelato place called Gelarto Rosa. For about the equivalent of $2.50, you get three flavors of ice cream formed in the shape of a rose. I didn’t want to eat it because it looked so good, but then it dripped on me and I had no choice. Wednesday after yoga, Sam and I went to the House of Terror. This is a museum that is dedicated to the history of the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes in 20th-century Hungary. It’s an extremely eye-opening place, and something that I realize a lot of people in the US might not fully understand given that it’s Europe post-WWII which isn’t always taught in school. The museum also houses a memorial to the victims of both regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the physical building itself. In each room of the museum there were pieces of paper that had information on different parts of the history which you could keep, so now I have almost a whole book on the history. The basement shows the cells that the people were detained, including cells in which you couldn’t stand up straight and “water cells” where the floor of the cell was covered in about 6 inches of water. It was an incredible history to learn about. Thursday (yesterday) I met up with Judit and Sammie for lunch before exploring the Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church. Fisherman’s Bastion was built between 1895 and 1902 in celebration of the 1000th birthday of the Hungarian state. The seven towers of the Bastion represent the seven Hungarian chieftains who had led their tribes to the present day Hungary to settle down in 895. Essentially on top of the Bastion sits Matthias Church. It was restored and redesigned by the same architect that designed the Bastion, so they are made in the same cohesive style. Matthias Church is a gorgeous structure. It has amazingly intricate detail work and the roof has colored tiles that add to the overall impressiveness. By the time I got there it was too late to get a ticket to go inside so I am going to try another time, maybe later today. This morning I got up early (by my standards) and went to get a ticket to tour the parliament building. Their tours, especially the English ones, fill up very quickly so you have to get there early if you want a ticket. My tour is at 1:45 so you will all have to hear about it later, because right now I’m going to take a nap :)
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Meet AnyaHi, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao!
I’m Anya Phillips, a data analyst and travel enthusiast who is always on the lookout for the next adventure! Categories
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