We just finished up our last week in Budapest, I truly can’t believe our time here has come to an end. It’s been amazing, but I guess we’re onto the next adventure! Here’s an update on the last week: I ended my last post on Friday morning after having been to get my ticket, but I’ll start at the beginning of the day. I woke up early (yes that’s right people, I woke up before 8am by choice. Don’t let it get to your head, it probably won’t happen again) to go to the Hungarian parliament building to get a ticket for a tour. The English tours sell out very quickly so if you’re getting one on the day you have to make sure you go early to secure that there will be a spot available. I got my ticket for the 1:45pm tour and went back to the apartment, where I ended the last blog post and promptly fell asleep. But then I woke back up for the tour. I’m so glad I did; the building is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. I tried to pay attention rapturously to the tour guide, but sometimes my mind wanders so I didn’t fully remember everything she said. I’m bullet point some facts for you below, on what I can remember.
Friday ended with going to a palinka and sausage festival at Buda Castle. There were festivals going on in at least two different places almost every weekend while we were in Budapest. How they work is that you pay a certain amount for admission (in this case it was around $8) and then you can enjoy whatever the festival has to offer. In this case, it was food - especially sausage - and palinka. Palinka is the Hungarian moonshine, so to speak, but more specifically it’s a fruit brandy. As part of the admission each person got a tasting glass. I had to try it since I was in Hungary and it is strong, my friends, real strong. But then we ate a lot of sausage so it was fine. Also, there was a Hungarian punk rock band playing a concert too, they’re called Annie and the Barbies. Honestly, I wouldn’t suggest any of their music except for one song that I don’t know the name of because everything was in Hungarian. Still, it was a cool atmosphere and a fun night! Saturday was spent all day with Judit and Marci at another race regatta. Sammie medaled in the 1000m, which was pretty cool. I mostly hung out with Judit and made friends with a super cute toddler. He’s the younger brother of another one of the kayakers in the club that Sammie has been training with. He was very adorable, and luckily the English-Hungarian language barrier is non-existent when the other person speaks mostly in pointing and random noises. It worked well. We hung out. Mostly because he liked to walk really near to the water that the races were being held on and I went into lifeguard mode. But he also gave me a kiss on the cheek when we were leaving, so obviously we will be friends forever. Sammie had one more race on Sunday (the 2k, where she medaled again) and after she was done we headed back to the Urban’s house to relax in the afternoon and to get ready for a barbeque with the Urban’s and the Szalay’s. Sam and Marci had homework to do, I had taking a nap with the cats to do, there was a lot to do. I also helped Istvan with creating his professional Facebook page so I wasn’t completely lazy. The barbeque was great, and a nice final dinner with all the amazing people that I could never possibly thank enough for everything they’ve done for us over the last month. Dinner was concluded with another ice cream cake and, of course, a dance recital by Laura. So, once again to both families, THANK YOU and I can’t wait to see you all again :) I had my last yoga session and my last teaching session on Monday. I am going to miss everyone here so much, but especially Laura. She is such a bright light of a personality. We made a deal that she has to finish the book we were working on by the next time I came to Budapest. In one year. So it’s official: Budapest, I’ll see you in a year! Sam and I also went to Matthias Church, and this time I went inside. It was absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think that any photo I’ve taken will truly do it justice. Apparently having relics is a thing because they also have a whole room devoted to them. Including the right foot of St. John the Almsgiver. A very interesting practice, if I do say so myself. So Tuesday was a weird day. I’ve had a small cold the past few days, so I mostly slept all morning in an attempt to make it go away. Then Sam and I started to pack up the apartment for our Thursday departure (still makes me sad just thinking about it…) before going to Honved Kayak Club for one last training session. This is where strange things started happening. As we were walking up to the club through a grass field, I got out a tissue to blow my nose and subsequently my nose stud fell out. Into the grass. I don’t think I need to tell you just how small nose studs are. Because I’m stubborn, I couldn’t give up that easily so I tried looking for it. After a few minutes of absolutely nothing, I said to myself “Okay, Anya. You’re being ridiculous, you’re never going to find it. Just give up.” Right as the thought ended, I tilted my head slightly to the left and, I am not kidding, there was the stud nestled into a little crevice of a tree root. I am still in shock over that happening. Anyway, Sam headed out to the water and I was about to head out on my run when Balazs appeared out of nowhere and said he was going to play football (this is soccer, folks). I asked if I could play, and he said yes! My day was made immediately. So I’m playing indoor with a bunch of guys, nothing new there, it’s exactly like when I lived in Hong Kong. Except that I totally didn’t realize they were the really good Hungarian kayakers. I’m talking world/Olympic champions. Even one of the older guys I was playing with was an Olympic champion back in the day. Most of them left because they had to do boat things, so Balazs, his friends and I stayed to play a little more when two of the younger kayakers showed up to play again. We played another game with them. I had so much fun, I really missed playing! But then the next strange thing. Or maybe not strange, but definitely sort of embarrassing and definitely something that would only happen to me. So one of the guys who came back to play the second time asked me if I would want to go out for drinks with him and his friends. I said “sure, but I’m leaving on Thursday so that’s not a lot of time.” He then said “okay, find me on Facebook” and then kind of started to walk away. So I replied with “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that when I don’t know your name.” He stopped, actually started laughing and then said something along the lines of “If you really want to know, I think you can figure it out.” (when I wrote it out on paper, it sounds more pretentious than when he actually said it out loud...I promise he’s nice). Come to find out he’s one of if not the best U23 Hungarian kayaker. He was a world champion in 2014. Kind of a big deal. In Hungary, Kayaking is huge. HUGE. Probably anyone else who knew anything about anything would have recognized him. Let me just repeat this so you understand. I told the top Hungarian kayaker that I didn’t know who he was when we were at his kayak club. In Hungary. I’m ridiculous. We’re friends on Facebook now so I guess he wasn’t that offended. But seriously. That would only happen to me. Wednesday we spent the day packing up and cleaning the apartment, which of course you all know is my favorite thing. Wahoo. We did take a little break (if you want to call it a break; it was more of a hike, really) and headed up to the Citadel for one last overlook of the city. Budapest, you will be missed. It was raining when we headed to the train station on Thursday. Titus said Budapest was crying because we were leaving. But if that’s the case, then Vienna is sad that we’re here….hmmmm… That’s right, we’re in Vienna! I’ll tell you all about it next time.
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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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