Note: Due to the length of this journal entry, I will be giving subtitles by days. Yes, this journal is a full week.
Wednesday
Well well well, yesterday was quite interesting! First off, mini problem in the morning: Nate and I were heading to class, and go figure, we get checked on the tram. Again. Who would've thought they actually cared about the trams?! But really, it was unfortunate because it was right at my stop, so I was trying to get off, and I told the ticket checker: Uh, this is my stop. I need to go. And he was all stubborn and wouldn't let me get off as he waited for his machine to ring, and it wasn't ringing up! Argh! But finally it did, and I just rushed off the dumb tram, aggravated that go figure, they check right as we tried to get off. But onto class. In Poland in the 20th Century course, we discussed how Communism effected Poland, from both sides. Aka, the peasants who were treated better as well as the fact that Intelligentsia was being killed left and right. Also, if you could manage to get to someone before they got to you, hoorah, you're better in the system. Really, it made me so sad how much Communism ruined things... It was like George Orwell's 1984. They had a censorship committee. So ya know. You couldn't publish books on things. Or reviews on books that HAD to be published, because it was a "bad book." Although, amusing joke: There are 2 running principles of Communism: 1) The Party is always right. 2) If for some strange and very unusual reason the Party is wrong, look at Point 1. ... Yeah, that made me giggle. (:
Secularization was all right. Many of us didn't do the reading, so he found it a bit difficult to have the normal discussion he would like. Besides that the presentation was on Islam in England and France, and they're approaches to working with it. Both are quite opposite in their approach, which made it very interesting, and I really wish we had more time to focus on it, because that could've been a fun discussion. Although, they'll be having that exact topic in a few mere weeks, soooo Stan didn't want to go to deep into it. Unfortunately, us Americans, minus Kasia, will be gone. :c However! Due to our early retreat, Professor Stan asked us if we wanted to do the Poland Case Study, and so he switched two of the lectures around for us! Super awesome! :D I really appreciated it, though I was really the only one who avidly said yes please.
After class, though. That's when it got interesting. I returned home and came into the kitchen to see Nate beating pumpkin with the electric mixer. Monika and him were prepping the pumpkin for the piiiiiie! :D Hoorah! I was so glad they found a pumpkin, first off, and figured out a way to work with it despite the fact we had no blender. However, it was quite messy. There was a pumpkin skin on the counter, three bowls of pumpkin, and yeah... our kitchen is not appropriate for this kind of work. Hehe. Eventually, Monika, Kasia, and Gosia all went to Carrefour to get some more supplies (and I napped, because I was exhausted yet again), and when they came back, well, they couldn't find the evaporated milk for the pie. So to the internet I went! Either evaporate the milk itself, oooor get powdered milk to make the evaporated milk. Well, no one did anything until everyone came back, just in case.
Monika bought this cloth to further strain all the water out of the pumpkin juice as well, so while she was spending hours on that, I was cutting cloves up into tiny pieces because there are no ground cloves here. Each process took us respectively at least an hour, if not two. Although, it was quite amusing and enjoyable, particularly with the radio! Whenever we decided to get powdered milk, I made Nate a proposition I knew he couldn't deny. Bwahahha. Essentially, I'm such a hermit. I told him he could either cut the cloves (which I knew he loathed) or go pick up the dry milk from Carrefour. I knew he'd choose the latter, and hoorah, I won, cause he did! Therefore, I became very grateful for three things yesterday: ground clove, canned pumpkin, and canned evaporated milk.
Whenever all of the cloves were cut, I mixed the rest of the spices, and the pumpkin had been completed as well. Monika and I started combining everything into one as Nate made the wonderful pie crust recipe his dad sent him. We didn't have a normal pie plate, though, so we used our cake pan, and made half the amount more of everything to reassure we'd fill the pan. It was so much fun making. While we were doing this, Gosia and Kasia were in the other apartment (because one kitchen was far too small) making the turkey cake things (sort of like latkes, actually!) since we planned to have Thanksgiving lunch instead of dinner. It was hilarious, because we all kept going back and forth, trying to find supplies, such as plates, bowls, utensils, and we had to keep washing things in order to make use of them again, and so on and so forth. Essentially, our kitchen is far from well supplied. Kasia would come over bearing gifts of lemon Ptasie Mleczko and telling us of their incredibly dance party in the other kitchen! I rolled out the pie crust since I enjoy such rolling, and then Nate and I formed it together for the sake of a square pan (yesssss, it was quite interesting). We had to take bits and pieces and connect them together. Ya know, we had to form it to the square pan, and lifting it was just super complicated, particularly in putting it into the pan. Monika and I taste-tested the filling, and it was superb! Honestly, greatly recipes I found, but really, we did a lot of mixing between the two, which was awesome. Finally, when the pie crust was prepared, Nate poured in the filling and then made the Warsaw Uprising sign on top of the pie and we threw it in the oven!
Mind you, amongst all of this I had no dinner, so luckily, Kasia and Gosia had bought a lot of turkey, so they had enough to make Nate and I some small pieces. Goodness gracious, it was delicious. Seriously, the recipe Gosia uses is absolutely wonderful! Delicious as heck! Whenever we visited the other apartment, we had to dance with the music as well. Apparently, they had people across the street watching them have their dance party. It was epic. Monika and I had our mini dance party in the kitchen while prepping the filling as well. xD The filling was a bit stringy, but there was nothing we could do about it thanks to the fact that well, we didn't have a blender. It still tasted absolutely phenomenal! But yes, back in their apartment, when the pie was just sitting and baking, they gave us some of the tea they grabbed from London or Dublin, this super sweet fruit tea. It was delicious. So while that dinner was very simple and more of samplers, it still did its job for the evening.
Ah yes, so all of this was written on Thursday night before I had to run to class before going to get on the train to go to Budapest. Thus, no blog posts this weekend. So now, I get to give you a full load of information from my absolutely wonderful weekend in Budapest as well as today! :D Ready for it? Yeah, it's gonna be a loooong read.
Thursday
Thursday morning was interesting. I had to continue translating my presentation in Polish while Kasia prepped the potatoes for Thanksgiving. I also had to get ready for Budapest since my day was booked otherwise. Kasia started boiling the potatoes and did not cut them, so they ended up taking forever. Whenever everyone got back, they laughed a bit at her cause she's never made mashed potatoes before (neither have I, though, in her defense!). Before that, Monika, Kasia, and I started pulling out the table into the main room and setting it up for 8 people: for the amount we invited, really, though we had no clue who else would be joining us. We barely had enough plates and utensils, too! It was such a mash up, but fun! At this point, I was stressing about my presentation, and they had to tell me to work on it while they continued working on the preparation for Thanksgiving. It was during lunchtime, due to schedules.
So finally, the potatoes were bashed by Nate and all was prepared a bit later than I would've liked, but we sat down. We went around saying our thank yous as well, half serious, half joking (like my thankfulness towards prepared ingredients. (: Piotrek even joined us! We invited him, so that was super awesome. Our meal was delicious. Monika made pumpkin soup which I greatly enjoyed. We shared Oranżada as well, a delicious soda like drink. The potatoes had garlic powder in them, which gave them that extra flare. It was good, and quite filling for what we could do in such the time we had as well as with our minimal equipment! ^_^
Unfortunately, I had to rush out for class, which I was super stressed about. I printed what I need and sat through the lecture, falling asleep, unfortunately. I was horrible about sleep last week. Afterwards, I glimpsed at my presentation in panic, got into the more workshop/interactive section, and dear lord... I have not felt this nervous about a presentation since the 8th grade (which my parents will certainly remember... maybe...), when I broke down the night before. This time, I felt quite unprepared as well as nervous about the language, and yeah... Stomach was flipping, and honestly, I was ready to cry. ._. Horrendous feeling.
I did not go first, so I waited in panic, and then my professor called on me, the Scots. He then said, in Polish obviously, "I believe You have prepared it in English, correct?" I nodded, but I quickly explained I had some in Polish as well, and I could do the presenatio in Polish. But then he said, "Well, you can say it in English. After all, all of you are taking English, right? You won't mind? Good practice? Great! Go on." ... God bless him. I am truly fortunate in how understanding he is. Could not. Have been luckier. So I apologized for my horrible Polish, and some people smiled at that. I typically sit in the front, and these "presentations" were more like you prepare a written report and read directly from your paper in your seat, so that actually worsened my nerves, because I prefer presenting to the class. However, the reading definitely helped. I started in Polish, then switched over when I rant out of time to translate the English earlier. I could've read and translated along the way, but I was missing about 15 words, and it would've taken far longer, and perhaps have been even further confusing.
I have to say, I felt wonderful afterwards. Oh sure, two of the girls behind me were totally talking through it, but Professor Zięba referred to it a lot whenever doing a follow up. (Either to reassure the other students of what I said, or to confirm I brought up excellent points.) Absolute. Bliss. Seriously. I felt so much better and relaxed. It. Was. Done. That's what mattered!
Back at home, I had leftovers for a quick dinner and made sure my suitcase was easy to grab for Nate since I didn't want to lug it to my language course. Headed on to class, where I received my writing back, and my teacher's only comment was, "Keep writing, writing, writing..." ... Well, duh... My writing is horrible stylistically because I write the way I learned how to speak. I've never had any sort of official language course before now. Although, we did an interesting argument exercise. I was paired with... Krystiana? She was the mother, I was the daughter, and our argument situation was that the mother constantly visited the daughter (as in weekly), while the daughter was trying to make her stop so that way she could continue being independent. We had to discuss the upcoming weekend. I was trying to argue that she didn't need to come out, and that she should spend more time with "dad," and just that I needed to deal with things on my own and live alone. I tried to compromise that I would come in two weeks, and at the end of the conversation, she asked me: So, you're going to spend the weekend alone?
Me: Well, no, of co- YES. YES I WILL BE ALONE.
Haha, I totally caught that. Saying no would've been offensive as hell cause I'd be spending time with other people, and thus furthered the argument. The argument ended on a compromise where I'd come in two weeks. It was a fun exercise, though. Very amusing.
After class, I realized I had to run for my tram to the train station. I mean, another one would've come in another 3 minutes, but I really didn't want to wait outside whenever there was a tram heading that way in front of my very eyes. Good thing I ran, too, because I chanced into Monika! She had left her class at a perfect time, since we ran into each other, like that. (: We got to the train station, I picked up some money from an ATM, and we met up with everyone while waiting for Piotrek.
Piotrek brought Starbursts from the US for Kasia and Gosia, which they freaked out over, and we went to Platform 1. We were in sleepers, too! Second trip on a sleep for meee! However, this time, it was 4 to a room, where it could be 6 if you flipped down the beds in the middle. So it was super comfy to just sit and chat. Piotrek, Nate, Monika, and I were all in one room, while Kasia, Gosia, Michelle, and Angelika were in another. Piotrek ended up showing his postcard-worthy pictures from his trip to the US as well, all of us in one cabin, and we just sat and chilled, talking about God-knows-what while eating lots and lots of Starbursts. It was quite the pleasant train ride. After a while, the girls in the other cart left, and the four of us chatted for a bit before heading on to bed, primarily because I was tired, oddly enough. Afterall, I had been falling asleep in class, so I guess it was only smart to try and get some sleep. I took the top bunk, because being tiny, it's just easier to sleep up there.
Friday
I woke up the next morning a bit on my own, I guess from the rustling of people waking up below, which was fine, and we were in Hungary. I had received a gajillion texts going through countries that said: YOU ARE IN A NEW COUNTRY, YOUR NEW RATES. (Surprisingly enough, on the way back, not once did I receive said texts...) Ah! The cool thing about this train: you get on one train heading to Prague, Budapest, and Vienna, and then the carts separate in the middle of the night and take their separate paths. Super cool, really!
In the morning, we got off the train, met up with Reka (the Budapest program Resident Director) who gave us our public transportation passes for the city, and then we headed to our hotel, the Ibis Hotel. It was in some sort of restaurant district. Once we all checked in and put our stuff in our rooms, we headed back out in order to enjoy some delicious breakfast at an absolutely wonderful cafe. The decorations inside were gorgeous, and the food, even better. For example, I ordered some extraordinary cocoa, which for whatever reason, just tasted great. There was also another hot chocolate option, in which you were given hot milk and chocolate on a stick, then stirred it in to melt! I got Hungarian scrambled eggs, which had this sort of crumbly, spicy sausage in it, and then I also ordered an elderberry lemonade, which just had sugar and mint leaves in it. Delicious as heck. <3 At this restaurant, our tour guide, Gabi, met us there. We also found out, that unfortunately, due to family issues, Piotrek had to go back to Kraków that night. :( All we could do is hope that all is ok for him, but still, it was very heartbreaking... So we finished up our food and headed out for our tour while hoping all is well for Piotrek.
Our tour guide, Gabi, well she introduced herself as a very talkative person, which fits her name. She took us all around Budapest (primarily the Pest side, though). We went up to the Castle (I think), and we went to a beautiful cathedral, which had been changed to a mosque, and back to a Catholic church. She gave us a ton of history of Hungary in general, such as the fact that it was founded in 896, officially, being Christianized, I mean. That was definitely hammered into our minds. Then we learned about all of the people that came through Hungary and settled down, such as the Tatars, the Turks, the Austrians, eventually Communism, how Hungary had this epic empire, as we all know, and then how it lost 2/3s of its land, and if I remember correctly from both history course and this tour, about 3 million Hungarians were forced to live outside of Hungary during this downsize. It was about a two and a half hour walking tour, with a few bus and trams and metros here and there. Ah yes, they do have an underground metro system. Three lines, and get this: it was built in the late 1800s, I think as a celebration of the millenia. The yellow lines underground architecture and decor was stunning as well! Not your typical stingy sub lines, honestly.
Trying to understand Hungarian was a big challenge, honestly. It really is a language of its own. At most it had up to 5 words similar that I could really recognize. Which makes it super cool, and it sounds wonderful, but this was my first time I was in a country where I really didn't understand it for a longer period of time. (I understand enough Spanish to not feel mind-blown.) It was a very interesting experience, and enjoyable! I had no problem with it, but I definitely want to try my hardest to learn a few more languages. Yes, a few more. Not just Spanish, but we'll see what else. Perhaps some German, particularly if I want to spend my next May in Germany. We'll see! Or Russian; that'd be an easy one to pick up, at the very least.
After the tour, they guided us back to the hotel so that we knew how to get around, and of course, we were given nice maps of the city. Very useful. At the hotel, we took a quick break, and Monika and I went to exchange some money, and we even ran into Maya on the way! But then we went back to rest, and from the hotel, we walked over to the National Museum. It was literally right there. Monika, Kasia, Nate, and I went in, and the cashier was quite awkward about selling us the tickets. Although, I realized after we paid that I could've gotten free because I have a disability. I need to get some sort of ID or documentation I can carry on me at all times, because you really never do know... Of course, the price was far from expensive, so it didn't matter. Ah yes, money! Hungarian Money. The Forint. So cool! It's really just money with 3 additional zeros. That's all you have to think of it as! So yes, no cents or further division like that. It makes everything seem really expensive, but on a global scale, it's not. I didn't know what an average salary is, though, so I can't compare prices from Forint to Forint like I can sort of do with Złoty to Złoty or USD to USD (obvious one). The designs of the money was pretty, and their coins were nice and big, so it was easier to handle as opposed to some of the Polish groszy. Honestly. There should be no 1 grosz, or a penny in the US for example. It just complicates things. lD' But let's move on!
The Hungarian National Museum was quite interesting. You enter to a temporary exhibit decorated in black, full of paraphernalia from an important Hungarian historical figure, who shot himself and died. I think this happened in World War II, as it was quite the complicated situation for Hungary, as they supported Germany, but only due to the fact they did not want Communism, and it was a difficult decision, so he killed himself. We were in the exhibit when Gosia eventually joined us, and then we headed upstairs. First, we started with the first 1000 years of Hungarian history, so of all of the kings, and of the basic equipment they used, and from medieval times. Very few signs were in English, though, so it made it difficult to understand certain things... There were some, but we were just really gazing through everything. A lot of the time, Kasia and Gosia were commenting on how they wanted the old time dresses. Oh! And we also compared ourselves to suits and if they'd fit us: we even found one that would fit me. ;D
The second half was up to modern times, and that was really interesting. Particularly because towards the end, there was a lot of Communism relics and how it really screwed over Hungary. You just headed from room to room, designated for certain time periods. One of the flags we saw was quite interesting. If I remember correctly, it was one with three triangles at the end, like a war flag you would carry out onto a field. We left there in order to meet back at the hotel in order to head out to our very expensive dinner, that we actually had to pay for. Unfortunately, none of the Budapest kids showed up to share the evening with us, cause it was optional, but we all still went! The restaurant was gorgeous, and the food was even better! I started off with a pumpkin soup, and then a Goulasz soup. Eventually, I got some grilled pineapples and some chicken breast, some with sesame seeds and a nice sauce. Then I just loaded my plate with some veggies, and I even tried some of the duck! As well as the mulled wine. At first, it was all right, but towards the end of it, it was too alcoholic for me, so Nate enjoyed the rest. Monika, Nate, and I all tried the Tatar, as did Michelle. My final thoughts? Tastewise, it's not bad, but goodness gracious, the texture of raw meat is just too much for me. I also tried a few delicious desserts at the end, but at that point, I was absolutely stuffed. Therefore, that meal was most definitely worth the price: all-you-can-eat buffet style, so quite enjoyable.
Most of us headed to the Christmas market just to look around, and I got super inspired for presents at that point. (: It was really pretty, and it was so cool to see all of the merchants and the homemade stuff, as well as all of the food stands. There were so many great things, and even better, there was two girls who had "Free Hug" signs. After Monika came back, I was like: Whatever! I want a hug! So I gave one of them a hug. Good hug, too! Haha, but I have never really encountered anything like that, so that was super cool. I don't even know if they were actually Hungarian, or just tourists or what. At this point, my legs were sore, though, so we slowly headed back to the hotel. At the hotel, Monika and I quickly looked at the gift shop and bought a few things as well, much to the owner's satisfaction, despite the fact that she was closing shop. Nate, Monika, and I hung out in the hotel for a short bit, just chatting and relaxing. Between exhaustion and pain, I was acting a bit loopy. Seriously, slap-happy, giggle fit, where everything made me laugh. I don't even have to drink! Although, I went to bed early, and Nate and Monika walked around town afterwards to try and find the palinka-tasting place Monika had found out about.
Saturday
The next morning wasn't too early of a morning. We had the chance to sleep in a bit, go downstairs to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and yes, the food was very enjoyable, and then we all met up in order to start our next day's journey in Budapest! Particularly since this day was jam-packed with fun plans! We had to fill a backpack with our stuff for later on in the day, since we really had minimal time to go back and forth from activities to the hotel. Once we left the hotel, we were gone. Our first stop? To the mall, which has an outdoor ice rink on the top of it! :D Oh god, I was sooooo pumped for this, because I haven't been ice skating in what I'd say is far too long, and I love ice skating! I ended up with figure skates (and this is significant because you did have an option of figure skates of hockey skates, and they do differ in skating methodology). All I could hope was that my legs wouldn't give me too much trouble through it, thanks to the fact that the day before was also a heavy day for my legs.
At first, skating was quite difficult, because for whatever reason, my left skate was severely bothering my leg, and so I asked Nate to come and help me fix my skate, since ya know, I am super inflexible and need help with anything that aren't Birkenstocks... So after that, it was awesome to just skate around! Unfortunately, with my legs being tired from the day before, the pain and exhaustion got to me far quicker, but I stayed out on the ice the entire time! I refused to get off. I'd stop at the walls and what not, but hey, that's not a problem. Particularly since I know how to stop without just slamming into a wall. I played crack the whip for the first time, which is a skating game where you make a line and literally the person in the front tries to take tight turns that'll throw off the last person. Not only that, but Kasia found it quite enjoyable to just push me around on the ice, particularly since I'm so tiny and light. So she tried twice. Except the second time, she started going faster... and faster.. and I really wasn't prepared for that speed, and a bit nervous about my own balance, and eventually, I just fell straight forward and landed on the ice, and Kasia said that as soon as that was happening, she hurled herself to the side to make sure she wouldn't fall on me. Meanwhile, my only thought was: Oh no, she's going to fall too! It was hysterical. I haven't fallen on ice in ages, and this fall was just absolutely epic. I really wasn't hurt at all, despite everyone's constant urgency to insure I was a-ok, and panic that I wasn't, but really, it didn't hurt at all, and the worst that happened was that the camera in my coat pocket sort of hurt my stomach, but that was it. Kasia kept apologizing, but yeah. Such a fun time ice skating! We plan on going here in Kraków as well, and I really hope we can pull through on that plan, because I love it. I just need to get my own skates one of these days.
Eventually, we headed on out from there, and we grabbed some fast food in the food court. I got some Thai food, cause the man at the stand was offering samples, and they were really really good. From there, we headed onto the next plan for the day: the spaaaa! That's right, a lovely thermal spa in Budapest, in a lovely styled building from who knows when. Even the Budapest kids (finally) joined us! It was partially outdoors, and partially indoors. I started off with the outdoor bit, and the water was marvelous. On the other hand, getting out into the freezing cold was not. So you'd grab your flip flops and towel and speed across the courtyard to get to another pool. The second pool was colder, but it had a whirlpool in the middle. Eventually, some of us decided to go inside and try the sauna. Goodness gracious, that was phenomenal. Seriously. Great warmth. Menthol in the air to help you breathe, though it was still difficult for me. You're technically supposed to jump into a pool of cold water after being in a steaming sauna, but considering that would just ruin my legs, I cooled off by standing outside of it. After awhile, we ran around the indoor area, trying to find the mud baths, only to learn we didn't have the right bands for them. Although, instead we swam in some sort of water which contained who knows what kind of chemicals, and at the end, we just sat in some of the indoor thermal pools to chillax. From there, we headed to the sauna again for a final warm up. Let me tell you, that sauna helped you go across the cold air to get back to the other building in order to change.
Speaking of cold air. Kraków is not cold. Budapest is cold. I realized there is something I dislike about coldness. If it is a wet cold, I can't stand it. It'll get to my very core in an instance, and even worse, bother my legs. So the cold air was miserable, as opposed to my typical: I CAN BREATHE. No. I need dry cold. There is a difference. I have learned.
Back to the events. At this points, due to the amount of walking as opposed to sitting and relaxing I did in the spa, my legs. Yeah. They were a lost cause. Monika stayed back with me to make sure she could see the group. Had she not done that, well, I would've lost the group, because I am far too short to see people over a crowd. We hopped on a metro and went to the House of Terror, which is a museum that commemorates those who suffered through Communism in Hungary. It was set in the building where who knows how many people were tortured and killed trying to find information or to make the Communist Party feel safe. We were given audio guides, and unfortunately, those audio tours killed the museum. As in, the lady was apathetic in tone, stuttered at times, and you really couldn't determine when she was done talking about a room before walking into another room and having the recording interrupted, at which point you couldn't do anything to go back. Every single chaired room, I sat in and listened through the whole thing to rest my legs, but for other rooms, after a while, I just gave up. I feel like it would've had so much more meaning and really touched me more had I gone through without the audio tour. The papers at each room had the same exact information as the audio tour guide as well. I left the museum not really having a full understanding, but nothing could be done.
That was the end of our planned day. Nate, Monika, and I went to Alexandra's Bookstore, though. Apparently, when Monika mentioned it was on her list of places to see in Budapest, Gabi got super excited. The cafe is reasonably priced and beautifully designed. In fact, the interior was designed by the same person who designed the Opera in Budapest. And you can't go to Budapest and not see either the Opera or the Parlament building, so by going to Alexandra's Bookstore, we saw the Opera. Honestly, absolutely gorgeous. Live music by a pianist as well. The pumpkin soup was delicious, and I also ordered a banana hot chocolate. BANANA! Yes, it was divine. As well as the blueberry mousse I got. I can honestly say I wish I had that recipe, because it was to die for. The three of us enjoyed our food over a game of word association as well, which actually ended in a full circle, interestingly enough! Hungary is the same way in waving down waiters in order to get service, which is always fun trying to figure out. When we finished eating, we went downstairs and looked around the book store a bit.
From there, we headed back to the hotel once again. Back in the hotel, Nate, Monika, and I just chilled in our room for a bit and really didn't do too much. Eventually, Gosia and Kasia joined us as well, and we just played some simple games and talked and what not. Of course, I couldn't catch onto the games. They were the games where one person said something and the rest had to figure out how to say it correctly. I always look far deeper into those games than I need to, and therefore, I suck at them. I had another laughing fit while chilling on my bed again, which ended up with my declaration that "this bed is full of drugs." Yes, yes, everyone found that greatly amusing. But I swear! I would lay down and start cracking up over the littlelest of things. Oh well! I called Reka as well in hopes of getting a wheel chair for the next day, just so that in our tour spot, I'd have a way to rest my legs and be able to do more through the day. At the end of us hanging out, we really just paid attention to the equestrian world cup thing going on the TV, and finally everyone headed out and went to sleep.
Sunday
This morning I got to sleep in! Yes, it was quite nice. Monika and Nate went to church in the morning, and I just slept in and packed stuff in order to check out from the hotel. I was anxious by the time Monika got back, because I knew we had to rush to Parliament so that we wouldn't miss the tour, and she was cutting it close in time. Finally, she got back, we met everyone else downstairs and stored our luggage at the hotel. We headed out from the hotel in order to get to Parliament. Oh, we were fine on time. We even got to visit a bridge that had the statue of some significant Hungarian historical figure, as well as to walk by the building which had iron casts in it representing the first shots of the Hungarian revolution. The wheel chair thing did not end up working out at Parliament, because just as I figured, it's not like America where they have the chairs prepared, as well as the fact that they needed further notice as well. Ah well! Whenever we were inside, I sat when I could, and Reka and I used the elevator; aka, we got to see a few of the back hallways in the building, so that was even new for Reka! Haha. The building was absolutely stunning. Quite some significance in its building as well, such as the fact you go up 96 stairs (896, the foundation of Hungary), and how the main dome is 96... feet tall, I think... That doesn't sound right, but it had something with 96! The crown is in the main dome as well, and there are always two guards around it, and they salute it every 5 minutes. Yes, they had legit swords that would be ready for action if something were to happen. Oh what else. Ah! In the dome, we saw all of the statues on the top of important Hungarian leaders, starting from the beginning one and going in a circle, obviously. The tour guide did a great job explaining everything. We also got to see where Parliament actually meets and how they take votes. Even back in the day, the building was very high tech, as the main meeting room had installed air conditioning and heating, via ice and steam. I must say that the tour was quite unexpectedly short, so when we got outside it was like: Oh... that's it?
All of us then headed to some foreign store which had some chocolates and what not. Most people bought some stuff, but I didn't. I had no need. It was a food store, so it even had Lucky Charms (at an ungodly price, though). From there, we headed back to the city, and Nate and I headed off to the palinka-tasting restaurant they had scoped out a few nights before, while Monika strolled her way back taking pictures of the river and other things instead of taking the tram. Therefore, when we called, we told her the menu, and she "ordered" via the phone. Which was a wise decision, because it took them awhile to prepare the food! I ordered Chicken Paprika with Dumplings, and it was absolutely delicious. The dumplings were just thrown dough, essentially, boiled of course, but still. Scrumptious!
After dinner, we all ordered some tasters of Palinka, which is Hungarian's specialty alcohol. Monika and Nate both got three samples, such as pear with honey, blackberry, black current, plum, apricot with honey, and black cherry. I ordered one, because guess what: I don't like alcohol. But I still thought it'd be a good experience. I got plum with honey. ... Yeah, I still didn't like alcohol. Therefore, Nate got to finish off the half I didn't get to. The warmth in the chest was awesome, yes, but that's it. However, the shocking thing about palinka: all of them were a light, white color, like white wine, even if they were darker fruit like the blackberries and what not.
Finally, when done with our experimentation, we left the restaurant and headed down the street it was one. I needed a few more gifts, and fortunately, one of the first shops we stumbled upon had just what I needed, and I quickly decided what to get! Without a doubt, too. While in the shop, though, the owners were so convincing, that Nate got a chessboard, and Monika got something as well. We left soon after we realized there was more stuff we wanted, and we just walked down the street, and as we went into each shop, we realized we had to avoid it as much as possible, because many of the owners were all convincing and there were so many cool things. Monika got herself a Hungary scarf, as well, like the sport ones that are made for each team. Eventually, Nate even bought a commie hat! After passing up 3 stores at the same price, and then seeing the fourth one at a cheaper price, well, it was inevitable, particularly since people claim he looks like "the perfect Communist." Yeah, he wasn't too happy with our pestering him about getting the hat.
Once we left that money trap (it was an awesome money trap), we headed to the mall early to meet up with everyone to eat. Ya see, when we got there, I told Nate and Monika they were more than welcome to walk around, since I literally could not walk much at all at that point, but they were more than happy just chilling around as well. We found Kasia and Gosia in the food court, and everyone went and got food before the train ride. I, for example, bought a yogomeal. I want these in the states. It was a huge bowl, which the worker filled with every fruit I requested, which was essentially all the fruit they had, along with some sort of toppings, like almonds, coconuts, and a granola mix. All this with yogurt. No limit. It was delicious.
Not much else happened, besides the fact that we headed back to meet at the hotel early, since we didn't have much else to do. Reka met us with the person taking us back, Robert, Gabi's son, actually, since API needed to send someone back to Kraków with us (Piotrek left, remember). Reka and I took a taxi for my legs' sakes, and then we all went to the train station, met up, and we realized that our groups were divided weirdly. It was three, three, and two. The girls split into two groups, and the boys together. I was with Kasia and Gosia, and Nate and Robert hung out in our room for a short while on the train. Unfortunately, Gosia felt sick thanks to the rough tracks in Hungary. :( I felt so bad, cause we really couldn't do much. Not only that, but Robert didn't really help out any as well, despite being our temporary director... Eventually, she took the top bunk, which you couldn't really feel the movement on as badly. We were in one of those smaller, three person cabins like I had on my way back from Gdynia. Really, the entire division was just oddly done, but I guess not too many people were traveling back on that night train...
Monday
We arrived back in Kraków at around 7 am. All of us headed back to the apartment via bus from the Galeria, except Monika and Robert who had to walk, since he had no bus ticket. We had to take lead once we were back, since we knew the area more than he did. Although, we didn't really see him the rest of the day. When we were back in the apartment, I just sat and relaxed. I wasn't certain whether I could join everyone else in going to the ghetto or not, but my legs felt well rested by the time we left, fortunately enough. Therefore, we headed to the old Jewish Ghetto, where we first visited Schindler's Factory. The museum was incredibly powerful. I tried to read as much as I could, and I really wouldn't mind returning to try and read more. You learned all about the pre-war context, and pre-ghetto, and everything. It was really rough reading some of the notes children left about their lives in the ghetto, too.
Monika and I were the last ones out, so we caught up with the group, and we quickly stopped by "Apteka pod Orłem," which was the pharmacy that ran in the ghetto, and the man in charge used it as a way to help Jews out of the ghetto, actually. It was a very small museum, quick and to the point, but yet again, powerful to know that at one point, that was an escape point for who-knows how many people. Nate, Monika, and I joined Gosia, Kasia, and Angelika at the pizza place once again, and we waited their for a bit before Monika and I tried to find the fragment of wall from the ghetto. ... Now that was an adventure...
You see, Monika read a map and saw that one stop away would take us very close to the fragments, which would help my legs. However, later we realized, she misread the stop, thanks to it being a semi-circle on the opposite side. So we took the tram one side, looked at the map, quite confused, and we hopped onto another tram and went to the next stop, further confused. I'll admit, on the way to the first stop, even, I saw the junction of the roads which made me wonder if we were going to far, because it looked like the junction we needed, based on the map. But yes, at the second stop, we got out and started walking. Just walking. We both felt that we were far out, and that the ghetto could not have been that big, nor did it feel like it had once been a ghetto, to me, at least. We saw far ahead a Lidl, McDonald's, and Shell station, so we laughed it would look like America if you took a picture of the McDonald's and Shell. But yes, we walked an entire tram stop distance, to the next tram stop, and we realized something was way off. So we turned around, I looked at the map, and I quickly figured out our issue of the misread map.
Yes, it was hilarious, and would've been more hilarious had I not minded thanks to my legs. However, we finally did find the wall fragment! It's quite frightening... The wall was designed to look like tombstones. Plus, it was super tall, so there really was no way to get over it without being obvious. Thick, concrete wall. It must've been particularly horrible to live on the edge of the ghetto, at the top of any apartment, because then you could see the rest of the city, and be further reminded how you are to be isolated from the world, because you are not worthy. Yeah... depressing, isn't it...?
Therefore, we hit up all of the places we knew I needed to see for my Holocaust class, though I still need to double check that it really was everything. We took the tram towards Kazimierz in order to grab some zapiekanki, because at this point, we were both hungry. However, Nate told us that it was "right there" from a tram stop. Right there, for both of us, meant we could see it, but when we got off at the tram stop he told us to get off at, we saw nothing. Further more, we had to walk yet another tram stop, in order to find the right street to get onto. Yes, Nate completely mislead us, but at least he did finally tell us the address. That address helped us so much, because we actually found the square we wanted. At the very least, the zapiekanka was delicious, mostly. I got one with chicken on it, and the chicken was ok. I wouldn't get it again, but I was happy to finally get food.
Finally, with the day still at an early time, we returned to our apartments and planned out the rest of our evening. You see, that evening was booked. First off, we went to E. Wedel for some lovely dessert! (Well, to be honest, that was my dinner... Bad, I know.) I grabbed a strawberry sundae of yumminess, and after that, we all headed to the movie theatre!!! Why? We wanted to see Listy do M!!! :D Yeah, I was super excited to see it again. I got some popcorn, walked into the theatre late, because surprise surprise, since this was a smaller, more individual theatre, they don't have a million commercials and previews before hand. As always, I greatly enjoyed the movie, and I even teared up quite a bit in it. I just really really want to get it for some sort of holiday. It would make my world if I got it as a present from someone. That was it for the day, though. We headed back home, ran into a homeless guy begging us for money in poor English (who was drunk as hell) at the tram stop, and yeah, at home, just relaxed and went to bed. It was a good day back, despite being tired, haha.
Tuesday
Goodness gracious, today was quite the enjoyable day as well! I certainly did not want to wake up this morning. At. All. However, my Holocaust course was interesting. This time we talked about the victims perspective, particularly the Jewish perspective. I took a ton of notes on it, and I sort of realized, I really don't need to, but I repeat, I really do find this study interesting. I just want to dedicate my life to it and preventing other such tragedies from occurring.
Post-class, walked to the tram stop, ran into Kasia, Gosia, and Angelika, waiting for the tram. The reason I share this, is because a little after the next tram stop, we see Nate sprinting on the sidewalk by the road in order to catch the number 3 tram. The best part? He actually made it! He sprinted from one tram stop to the next. Back in the apartment, Monika and I discussed plans for our pierogi making party tomorrow!!! Super pumped for that! :D We'll only have ruskie, some z serem, and jabłkami. But oh well! ... I just wish we had jagody. Meh :( Sadness. Ah well... What else can be done?
For lunch, Nate and I headed out to the Rynek because... get ready for this: over the weekend, they set up and opened the Christmas market! Hoorah!!!! So I went to the Sukkienica, got some present shopping done, looked around at the wonderful stands, and while we were waiting for Monika, a random big man came up to me and put his arm around my shoulders and said: "Cześć." I was a bit baffled as to what to do, but I said cześć back, just in case I knew this man. Hey! You never know! But he was wearing old-time Polish attire, so I figured out then he is one of those guys on the streets trying to teach some people about Polish history and give them that extra flare. We started talking, and he asked us where we're from, considering we spoke English. He really couldn't speak too much English, but he ended up taking pictures with us, which was awesome. :D He also asked me if Nate's my boyfriend. Why must boy and girl always be assumed a couple. When I said no, we're friends, he asked if I had a boyfriend back in the states. Yet again, no. So he asked, "How could such a pretty girl not have a boyfriend?!" So that was rather nice. We stood around and talked about reenactments as well. He told us about a reenactment that takes place in September just outside of Kraków, which has like 35 armies represented their, mostly from the 17th century, and how if Nate came in his reenactment attire, even if it didn't fit, he'd still be welcomed as a reenactor, hahaha. He also told us that his costume cost about 9000 złoty. I mean, it was absolutely wonderful in appearance and in usability, as well as the fact it was all genuine. Real fur, wool, lenin, even a feather for his cap, for crying out loud! It was a nice and unexpected surprise in the square, that's for sure. (: Oh, also, he called himself Jan Sobieski, which I found epic. :D Look him up!
We ended up finally ordering something from one of the grills. I sat down first and eventually, Monika made her way to meet with us as well. As this was all happening, a smaller English group sat down at our table. We ended up talking with them randomly; they were from England, Ireland, and Scotland, so it was really nice just chatting with them and seeing how they like Poland. They commented on how fortunate we were to study here, and then they told us all they had done thus far in Poland, as well as how tour guides or audio tours can make or break any museum or historical monument. We talked about our lives a bit, took a break, and as we were leaving, a bit of US politics came up. They asked us about Obama, to which we all replied, Obama's doing fine, it's just Congress that's wasting time on voting on whether pizza is a veggie or not.
We said our quick farewells and headed onto the history course. Today, we discussed Poland after Stalinism, and how some of the restrictions were loosened up. Once again, I was dozing (damnit), but hey! I still managed to take my normal amount of legible notes, which I thought was impressive. Hehe. After class, we went back into the market and found the stand that we noted earlier. It's a fresh fruit stand, which had fruit covered in chocolate. Oh god... I bought a pear covered in chocolate. It was perfect. Not too chocolatey, and the pear was delicious, and yeah... It was wonderful. For my hour break in between, I just studied for the mini test I had in my language course. Honestly, it was a bit nerve-wracking. I dunno. It's complicated stuff! It really really is. You have to know how to speak with certain words, as well as how to decline them (I think that's the appropriate word) based on their genders as well as if they're alive or not in some cases. Along with the fact that you have a ton of differences based on how the words end. I've always sucked at grammar too, so yeah. Although, when I got the test back at the end of the class, I got an 8 out of 10. I was quite satisfied, and said, "Dobrze!" (Good), and my teacher was like: Um, no, that's not good. And I was like: Wait, no, I thought I was going to do a lot worse, so this is good for me! We also get a second chance to make it up next week, so I think I'll definitely give it a shot to improve my grade.
The lesson was interesting as well. We talked about, get this, superstitions. So we just went through class, doing exercises and discussions on superstitions and magic and whether we agreed with ideas such as ghosts being the people who have not left earth after death, and if horoscopes are valid, and other fun topics like that. We also learned about the origins of certain things, such as bad luck if a black cat crosses your path, and other such wives tales. Not only that, but at the end of the class, I finally scheduled my final exam for the course! Unfortunately, it's on the same day as my only other final, but, well, what can one do? One will be in the morning, and the other in the evening, so that'll help.
Got on the tram, went back home, didn't do anything but talk to my dad and Stephen for a bit (finally), as well as got a call from my uncle whenever I wished him a Belated Happy Imieniny! (: It was really nice to hear from them, and I hope it works out so I can see them for a bit longer than just that final day in January. ._. Tonight, I had yogurt for dinner, or well, really a snack, considering when Monika came back, we went over to her apartment to eat some of the pasta she made. It was simple, but delicious. I was going to bake scones tonight, but laziness got the best of me. I should go to bed earlier tonight, that's for sure. We'll see how that goes! Hehe. :)
Wednesday
Goodness gracious, I cannot believe this one blog entry contains information from an entire week. Yes, I know it's a novel, and yes, this took freakin' forever to type out. Seriously, since I got back from Budapest, I slowly added a bit every single day to try and catch up. And you know why? Why am I being so precise? For the sake of my parents. Honestly, they read this blog religiously, and I want them to know exactly what's going on in my life, and it's also a good way to keep up a memory of what all happened during this epic journey in my life. So yeah. All of this precision, usually unnecessary and undesired in a blog, but hey, it's my blog, and if you're reading it, you are a phenomenal person who deserves millions of kudos for your patience and love. <3 So here's my love! Hugs for all!
So let me finish this novel now with today. 20th Century course was interesting this morning. What did I learn, you ask? Well, Gomułka was an idiot. Hahah, really, that's how Professor Basista concluded the class. So yes, we learned about post-Stalinism, obviously in Poland, but we also learned a bit about Hungary and Kadar. Kadar went from hated to tolerated if not liked, while Gomułka went from loved to loathed. I had no problem staying awake this time! However, Secularization, after the first bit of class, I started feeling my eyes droop. Honestly, I should've gotten enough sleep last night, so that bothered me. But after today's presentation on France, I was wide awake! We discussed the EU and its politics towards religion. See, we talked about how the EU really doesn't have any religious powers, but it does have a role in insuring individual's rights, as it's a human right. Although, at the same time, the EU is trying to be diverse and secular, so some of the tougher cases, well, you have to choose secularism or pluralism, and it is truly a unique situation in each case. So much contradiction! Therefore, I'd say that was quite the enjoyable class for the latter half! We even ended earlier.
When I got home, it was another day of cooking! Why? Well, we decided to do our pierogi party today. (: So when I got back, I immediately started working on my variation of the pierogi dough. Monika made some, and I made some. She worked on the cheese filling and the ruskie filling, while I did the apple filling. Nate observed us making the dough, and after a while, they all had to leave for class, except for Nate. So in this time, I made some apple cinnamon scones, which ended up being a good hit with everyone, actually! :) Super exciting!
Once everyone got back home, we finally started putting the pierogi together. The apples were a bit on the wet side, so everyone was getting frustrated in making the pierogi with them, as the dough kept on getting far too wet to really stick together. We were dumb and didn't put flour on the plates we were resting the pierogi on. I made a ton of dough to use, and actually, it was the perfect amount. We just had some apple filling left over, but that can be easily used. My dough was harder to stick together than Monika's, which isn't surprising, as it's always been a firmer sort of dough. It really is interesting to see the differences in pierogi methodology. Finally, after a while, though, we filled and made up all of the pierogi. Lots of leftovers for tomorrow, which is wonderful! Quick and easy meals for the entire day, hoorah! Oh, and everyone was involved in this party! It was absolutely wonderful! Really, just a ton of fun, sitting and talking with everyone about all sorts of different things while trying to make the pierogi.
Although, we tried to finish quickly in order to head out to Alchemia to what we thought would be an Andrzejki celebration. Of course, we missed it by one day. Yes, today is Andrew's name day, but unfortunately, the actual celebrations (including fortune telling) are the night before. Which really sucks, considering the minute I heard about this holiday was when I determined I absolutely wanted to participate. Yet we missed it. And I really won't be in Poland to experience it again for quite a long time. Argh. It was really just a matter of misinformation, unfortunately, and I really should've personally looked into it to make sure that we all had the chance to be involved in it... But what can one do? Instead, we just sat in Alchemia, a bit disappointed, and then headed back out, grabbed some zapiekanki, and left. I got one with some veggies, and honestly, it wasn't all that great. At least, I don't like fresh veggies on the zapiekanki, and I now know for sure that I like the kinds that really are baked on completely, such as some of the cold cuts, and other varieties. Monika and I split it, actually, since they are so huge, and we were all stuffed from pierogi.
After that, though, we headed back home, and that's that! You have read an entire week of my life. Yes, it was an absolutely wonderfully enjoyable week, and this took forever to type up. Now, I shall try my hardest to return to my daily blogging, as I have found it is far more efficient. I hope for those of you who read this novel, well, that you enjoyed all the madness and my commentary. Hopefully, tomorrow we try and do some of our fortune telling! Like today, Nate had us throw apple peelings over our shoulders, and he read the first letter of the men we would all marry. Obviously, this is all in good fun and not serious, but hey! It's a blast! Well, good night! I really really do need some sleep.
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