Europe From My Window

It had been a long journey to Hungary, but once we were there I was totally excited since I had heard a lot of great things about Budapest! We were also staying at a hotel instead of a hostel, which was also pretty exciting in itself. So once we settled in a bit and got bundled up (it was cold!), we went out to grab some dinner and already I could tell our location was spot on. Around the corner we stumbled upon another packed row of restaurants where everyone was eating outside and chatting, watching sports, and having a good time. 

Oh, and we also had to switch currencies--this was our first country along the trip that didn't use euros! Apparently Hungary is in the process of converting to the euro, but until then they are still using their national currency of forints. Forints are both a pain and completely awesome, in my opinion: they're a pain because the conversion rate to the US dollar was something like $1=225 forints, which definitely freaked us out a few times when we saw things like a bottle of water going for 450 forints! Haha, but this is also why forints are so awesome, because you feel like you're loaded! At least I did when I pulled out 12,000 forints from the ATM. Crazy!

My favorite forint bill was the 500..the mustache says it all.

This is what my dinner looked like! It was by far the BEST dish I've had since I've been abroad. I never would have ordered it if it weren't for my friend Kat, who happens to be Hungarian and is used to having this dish at family gatherings and whatnot. It's called chicken paprikash, and it's absolutely delicious. The stuff next to the chicken are noodles, but I'd describe them more like small clouds of deliciousness that melt in your mouth. I made Kat promise to teach us how to make this one back in the states.

The next morning, my small modern architecture group and I got a little more familiar with the town and decided to visit one of our three required museums for history class. 

The museum was called the House of Terror, which instantly made it seem like it would be less exhausting and dry than some of the other informative places I have visited. The building itself had 'terror' carved out of its roof plane, which already made it halfway intriguing.

And it was well done, as it turns out! There were a lot of diverse exhibits, with actual artifacts from the communist and nazi parties, sprinkled in between video and audio clips, photos, antique media, and more. The only problem was that it was nearly all in Hungarian, which we didn't speak a lick of, and unfortunately it's so far from English that even a stab at it would've been pitiful. Either way, there were still a lot of things to be gathered from looking at some of the exhibits.

It was really surprising to come across certain rooms which were completely composed of a single material, like propaganda posters or lard blocks. (We all thought this room was made out of soap at first..just glad I didn't pick at the walls like some of my friends did! I actually had to Google what the room was made out of since all the blocks were engraved in Hungarian, go figure.)

The House of Terror had a smaller room at the end where it showcased a series of monuments/exhibits that had been chosen from a contest for their respective year. This contest has been running annually, and it was really neat to see the construction drawings of some of these exhibits. One of my favorites was a monument of chains, doubtlessly representing the iron curtain. It was huge, probably about 8 or 9 feet tall, and stood outside of the building.

Ultimately, I was glad I went to the museum. I know it was required and all, but I think it was important to gather information about a political regime whose wrongdoings are often overshadowed by the nazi party. It was informative to consider the two within the same context, compare the two and think about how they may have fueled one another, and ultimately reflect again upon Europe's dense, complicated, and broken political past. It all makes America seem so straightforward sometimes.

Next stop was lunch at another Doner Kebab place (which I was slowly beginning to realize populate at least half of Europe!) and our hotel to get ready for photography class.

Later that night, my small group and I tried to check another museum off our list, but found out it was closed so we decided to cut our losses and head for the next best thing: the top of the hill that overlooks Buda and Pest! This was a fairly lengthy metro ride from our hotel, but we were already halfway out so we crossed the river via metro and started climbing a ton of stairs to get to the top!

 There was a gazebo marking the perfect place to look over Pest! And by sheer chance and luck it seemed we made it at the end of a beautiful day, so we got some great sunset shots! It was so pretty.

We wound up asking a couple to take a few group shots as well, and they mentioned to us that the view on the other side was even better. I just remember thinking how could it get better?! I already felt like it was incredible watching the painted sky sink into Pest, but we were curious and eager so we meandered throught the streets, stumbled upon a beautiful church and finally onto the edge overlooking Buda:

 In both of these shots you can see the Parliament building, which was very neat to point out from the top of the hill. Looking over the Danube River was unreal. Looking at these photos now, I almost might think that these sets of shots were taken on different days but in reality the sky was just a completely different color on this side of the hill. It was stunning and I consider myself very lucky to have been able to catch both at such a great time, and take in all of Budapest on a beautiful summer night.

And time flew and before anyone knew it we were hungry. So it was time to eat again and we wandered back to somewhere in the middle of our two viewpoints and found an artsy, eclectic looking cafe that was actually inspired by Joan Miro! 

After having a lot of luck with the random paprikash dish earlier, I decided to go for another bizzare choice and ordered duck. I've never had it before, and once again got lucky because it was soo good! What's funny is that the photos do the dish justice: it looked absolutely strange and gross to the point where I was beginning to wonder what the heck I had gotten myself into. But we all shared and soon everyone was asking for seconds and third of the duck. Who knew? Second favorite meal on the trip, I'm thinking.

 All in all, an absolutely great first couple of nights in Budapest. It was a great experience and a defining moment of the city hands down, and I remember waiting anxiously to see what else it had to offer!

Hope y'all are gearing up for a fantastic fourth of July! It will officially be my first Independence Day abroad, and I am bracing myself for what will surely be an independent celebration on my behalf in a country that looks at it as just another random Wednesday! (: