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Published: August 28th 2007
Terror
This is in the entrance...So I am back again, class is over for the day and it's only 2:30 which is nice. I thought I would just fill you guys in real quick on some of the fun stuff going on here right now. We are in the process of basically just getting settled right now in the program, we started our language classes yesterday and I got an apartment. We also have two one hour lectures four days a week to introduce us to the different classes we can take, but I already think I have my classes picked out. Our classes start for real next Monday.
So yesterday I picked out an apartment which was quite stressful. I have yet to see the apartment, but apparently almost everyone is in the same position. I saw some pictures which looked decent, and the neighborhood is supposed to be really nice. It's right by a place called Octogon square, which is pretty nice. It is on the Pest side which is a lot more lively than the Buda side, and it's only one busz away from the school campus.
The first whole day I was here we walked around all over Pest exploring. We checked
Huba Tribe
Here's my favorite guy.... out the Saint Stephen's Basilica which is amazing. Saint Stephen was the first catholic king of Hungary, and is thus seen simply as the first king over all. Interestingly enough apparently after he died they found his hand and it is now kept in the basilica for general viewing. All in all it was a pretty un climatic viewing of a dead guys hand, but it does sound pretty cool. After we saw the hand we climbed up to the top of the dome where you can look out over the entire city. We later learned that the Basilica and the Parliament building are the two tallest buildings in the city and no one else is allowed to build anything taller, so when we were up there we could see everything in Pest and lots of Buda. Since Buda is hilly, we couldn't see on forever as we could in Pest. Two of the guys in my group (there were five of us that day) found an unlocked door on the stairway up to the dome and they snuck through and up another hidden stair way to the highest part of the dome. They climbed out through a covered manhole like thing and stood at the highest possible point. If you see pictures of the basilica you can see the big dome, the walkway is around the base and this is where I was. The boys were at the little tiny dome that is atop the large dome. I'm sure that if they had been caught they would have been arrested, but somehow they were able to get back down without being seen. They have some amazing pictures from when they were up there.
After the basilica we went to the Trade and Tourism museum where they had dedicated the entire display to the history of ice cream. It actually sounds more amazing than it was since the whole museum was only one room, and not an huge room at that. The cost to get in was about $3, or around 600 Forint, and we were joking around about it being so pricey, but on the way out they gave us free ice cream! Since it was basically hot enough to melt stone the museum cost suddenly seemed entirely reasonable.
After the ice cream museum we walked down one of the famous main streets here, which I cannot remember the name of right now, to the terror museum. None of us actually knew what this museum was until we were already inside. We thought it was a museum of terrifying things like falling, heights and people jumping out at you. It was quite a sobering experience when we realized it was all about the soviet and Nazi occupation of Budapest. The building itself had been the head quarters of both groups when they were here, and it was probably the most amazing museum I have every been in. It was done amazingly well and was very very powerful. unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside the building, but before we were aware of this I took a picture of the entrance, which I will put at the end of this entry. Most of the classes will have field trips back to the terror museum and I am looking forward to going back again when I have an even deeper understanding of all the different rooms. Each room was dedicated to a specific time, place or aspect of the occupations. Because the building itself was the center of a lot of the action the whole place has a very intense feeling. The bottom level of the building, or the cellar is different cells that people were kept in, there was a cell where the ceiling was only four feet tall and there was no light at all, another one was only big enough for a person to walk into, but they couldn't even turn around in it if the door had been closed. All over the building there are pictures of the various victims of the time. If you look behind the tank in the picture at the wall on the right you can see the pictures, these go all the way up to the ceiling and are also seen in various other places throughout the building. It was an incredible experience!
After the terror museum we walked further down the street to what is known as Hero's square, which is close to where I will be living. There were giant statues which I believe represent the seven different tribes from which the Hungarian people are descendants...? My favorite is by far the Huba which had a really cool horse with antlers on his face. There should be a picture of this guy at the end of the post. After hanging out for awhile we walked into the park that is behind the Hero's square. This is where the giant central baths are. We peeked in, but didn't go into the baths. I am going to have to go back for sure, they looked incredible. This area is also where the Budapest zoo is as well as the amusement park. I'm not sure how I feel about the amusement park, but I feel I will at least have to go check it out further at some point in time. There is also a restaurant by the zoo that supposedly has an amazing pancake desert thing that I have to check out before I leave, maybe I'll go with Mom when she comes if I haven't yet gone before then.
After the park we retraced our walk back towards the river, stopping only once we got there at a GIANT indoor market. We explored awhile looking at all the various unrecognizable meat products. Lots of places had huge salami things hanging out in front of them, and we were all sent to spend a fortune to buy one and split amongst us for four months until we realized that they were fake. After the market we headed back to Buda to our hotel.
Our hotel is pretty nice, except for a few random things. Such as the grasshoppers that flew in when my roommate left the window open. Or the electricity that my roommate blew out this morning when she was blow drying her hair. The rooms do have air conditioning which is a must right now as there is a heat wave and it is basically a million degrees. I guess in Hungary they don't believe in freezing the class rooms to keep the students awake, they just cook them to a crisp so they don't move and distract people. Or maybe they couldn't figure out how to turn the AC on. Whatever the reason I believe I am about medium rare and ready to be served after only having spent two and a half hours in the classroom.
In other exciting news our buddy George (who was one of the guys who climbed to the top of the basilica) took a major blow for the team the other day by being the statistical injury that occurs at the beginning of the program. Apparently it happens every time, it was just a matter of who it would be. George was the lucky winner when the other night he tried to break up a fight at a club. I guess the security thought he was part of the fight, and he didn't realize that the guy who grabbed him was security, so when he tried to get away the security guard punched him in the face. George is now rocking the broken nose and concussion like no one else can. the black eye is fading but apparently the nose will take some time as they had to reset it and what not. The good news is that the entire hospital bill was about $150 or 30000 forints, which is pretty cool for George, as if the broken nose wasn't cool enough.
Anyway, I think I am going to head out now and get some lunch, but I wanted to fill you all in some while i had the chance. I will try to keep updating as much as I can. I hope everyone is doing wonderfully and I miss you all, so I am trying to keep busy, which is probably the best thing to do in a place with as much to offer as Budapest does anyway. So I love you all and I am sending hugs and kisses back to the US where it is only about 6:30AM right now.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Kristin
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Sandee Zech
non-member comment
cooking in class
Hi Sweetie, You adventure sounds amazing. Maybe you are cooking in class so you can be well done. I'll be enjoying your blogs as I can. Love Aunt Sandee