I just got back from one of the bath houses they have out here, and my god! the thermal baths were around 70 degrees. so relaxing. i soaked for around 3 hours and turned into a prune. the gellert thermal bath is one of the more famous of the bath houses here. the hot spring water contains calcium, magnesium, sulfate-cloride, and floride ions. being in the open air pools outside, just made me want to go right to sleep. unfortunely its a holiday and the massage rooms were all closed. that would have really capped the whole experiance. the steam rooms [View Full Entry]

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Budapest. it looks good so far. i got up this here this morning and its really neat. i treked up this pretend mountain and took some wicked pics. unfortunately the web service isnt so great so ill up load later. so today is mothers day. happy mothers day linda, lisa, jeanine, and jennifer. you are the best moms in the whole world. im sorry im not around to be with the kids for a while but im really needing this experience out here. jeanine tell the boys that super man illw b e back as soon as he can. gigi and [View Full Entry]

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Täällä ollaan jo kuin kotona! Jaana käy Kauppahallissa ostoksilla ja kokkaa kaikenlaisia dieettiimme sopivia keitoksia... Eilen tehtiin Co au vin a la Montignac, paellaa ja uunikasviksia. Kaikista tuli oikein onnistuneita. Huomenna syötetään kukkoa Mamalle ja Nagy Mamalle. Mammat saapuu klo 13... Maanantai on täällä II Helluntaipäivä ja siten Pyhä. Kaikki on kiinni! Tänään oli Helluntai ja äitienpäivä. Me tehtiin retki Tonavanmutkaan Zebegenyn kaupunkiin. Sää oli ihana ja lämpöä autonmittarin mukaan 22 astetta. Filmattiin paljon. Käveltiin myös Kiraly Rét -reittiä ylös Börzsöny-vuoristossa. Jaana satutti varpaansa ja nyt siinä on mustelma... ei kuitenkaan murtunut! Tosi kiva päivä! Illaliseksi syötiin kukkoa... ja todettiin sen [View Full Entry]

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So, my second European holiday destination was Hungary, or more specifically, Budapest. I headed over there a few weekends ago with another Australian exchange student. I’d heard a lot of good things about Budapest, so my expectations were quite high and not only did it live up to those expectations, it far exceeded them. I loved Budapest, it was wonderful! I think part of the reason I enjoyed it so much in Budapest was the weather. I know talking about the weather is a bit mundane, but to go from Prague, where it’s been averaging about 15oC and is often cloudy [View Full Entry]

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Sorry folks for the delay in posting. Internet access in Eastern Europe is not as cheap (as in free) or accessible as we had hoped. Anyhow....Buda and Pest are split down the middle by the Danube River. Our hotel is on the Buda side atop Castle Hill. Near our hotel is an old church under going some repainting. There are great views from the top of the hill. The weather here is delightfully warm and sunny, a treat after nearly a week of chilly rain and drizzle in Poland. Perfect walking weather and so we took advantage. North of town is [View Full Entry]

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I tried really very hard. I thought maybe I was just struggling with being back to staying at smelly backpackers and having to lug my crap around with me everywhere and feeling like a bit of a sitting duck being on my own... But, in hindsight, I just didn't love Budapest. Parts of the city are really beautiful and the people are very friendly and helpful. I absolutely loved the castle and some of the architecture is completely amazing. There are some stunning park areas and the museums are fantastic... most importantly, I had some really good food, the weather was [View Full Entry]

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Pictures for this section are located here: http://picasaweb.google.com/blakelundstrom/Budapest Note about language It is a strange feeling hearing and seeing a western language written out and literally having no idea what it means. In the western languages that I have been exposed to, because of their latin roots, there are many similar words and you can pick up words here and there that are the same. Hungarian, reputed to be one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn, uses the same roman alphabet we are used to, but with accents on different letters and a grammar completely different from most [View Full Entry]

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April 17 - 21 BUDAPEST, Hungary April 17 Arrived here late afternoon after the less than 2 hour flight from Kyiv. Our hotel is close to the center of town so we took a short walk about and had a very good typical Hungarian dinner in a small local restaurant. April 18, 2008 Today we took the local “City Tour“ bus to get a feel for the city. This is a “Hop on - Hop off” bus that operates all day throughout a set route. ( Exactly what Kiev needs ). This was a very good way to see the city [View Full Entry]

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The Jouney Starts Both the Eurostar and Thalys train journeys were horrible; full and hot. Even worse the train to Cologne ran late so instead of having a pressurised 20 mins to get connecting overnight sleeper to Vienna we ended up with only 6mins. Having run from train with the heavy bags and eventually finding the right platform, our deluxe (!) overnight train was running 50 mins late! Excitement in hearts as we awaited our first sleeper - a modern carriage with en-suite shower and toilet. It didn’t disappoint and happy Phillips’ were tucked up early after a tiring day. [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone! Yes, it has been at least a month since my last entry and I feel horrible. Have gotten a few emails from concerned friends wondering if all was well here...the answer is 'yes'. I have been busy since the last blog....Habitat work has been increasing as teams have now started to arrive, my good friend Liz visited from London (we were at Queen's together), I finally got to meet Suzanne and Pierre who are teaching English over here (they have visited Budapest a couple of times and made use of 'Hotel Kim'), spent a weekend in Bratislava with Suzanne [View Full Entry]

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