For the final weekend of spring break, we were in Madrid. Immediately after checking into our hostel, two other guys from our program walk into the hostel to check in! We knew they were in Spain but thought they would be in Barcelona the whole week but gave them information about our hostel just in case so it was pretty exciting that they actually came. We then went to El Tigre, a bar where you get a beer for 1.90 euros and then you get free tapas! It was pretty cool but after one plate of random odds and ends (as Nicky read in the guide book, for tapas they use the whole pig) Nicky and I decided to order a plate of actual regular food and eat that haha. And I just didn't feel up to drinking enough to get a full meal of tapas! After that, we wandered around Madrid for a bit and then ended up going back to the hostel to sleep.
Friday we went into Segovia, a really cute town about an hour out of Madrid. There is a famous aqueduct there built by the Romans. It was amazingly well maintained for something so old! The whole town looked like something out of a Disney movie. This courtyard area looked exactly like the town in Beauty and the Beast! There was also this castle, which was pretty cool (although it seems like there are castles everywhere in Europe). We then went down to this path below the main town and walked around. It was so nice to get out of a busy city and just walk around in nature for a bit. Segovia was one of my favorite sights of spring break. Friday night we then met up with Frash and some of her friends who were also visiting Madrid and went to this bar where you can get a 6 liter bucket of sangria. An Irish guy in our hostel room came with us and bought a bucket and wouldn't accept any money so that was pretty cool! We then tried to find an inexpensive place to go dancing but the first place we went to, we were told dancing wouldn't start for another hour or two. Then we stopped by this club we heard was expensive to see just how expensive it was but they said we would have to go home to change first! At that point we were ready to give up so we returned to the hostel.
Saturday we went and saw the Royal Palace, which was less impressive than the palace we saw in Vienna. We then went over to art museums. I went into the Thyssen-Bornemisza (missing the famous museum, the Prado, because the line was too long), which had a really eclectic collection. It was nice walking around an art museum, it made me think of museums I had visited with my CMC friends so I missed them a lot. After that, it was raining and we were tired so we went to Starbucks to work on math. It turned out to be an amazing plan because we got a ton done! Plus, I thought it was pretty awesome that I was in Madrid with a group of people who wanted nothing more than to go to Starbucks and do some math! We went out to a Spanish restaurant for dinner and then just hung out for a bit then bedtime.
Sunday was a short day. I basically just met up with Frash for lunch then it was time to go to the airport. Now, I had a 1 hr and 5 minute connection in Paris and I was told my flight to Paris was running about 10 to 15 minutes delayed but I should be fine. But then, on the plane, they said our take off had been cancelled and we couldn't take off until 6 PM, 55 minutes behind schedule! So I called the flight attendant over to ask about missing my flight and he said he would keep me updated. We ended up being able to take off earlier then that but got into Paris about 35 minutes delayed. The flight attendant told me it was a very tight connection but I might be able to make it. He gave me all the gate information and kept just telling to walk very quickly. I did just that and of course set off security for the first time in my life (chapstick container with metal in it in my pocket... whoops...). I got to my gate just as boarding started. I get on the plane and they inform us that the tractor is broken so we sit there for about 20 minutes waiting (it took me the whole flight to realize that the tractor was the thing that took the plane away from the gate, I couldn't figure out why the plane had a tractor haha). I finally made it back to Budapest but when I got to the train station discovered that the next train to the station near my apartment wasn't for 45 minutes- I was not waiting by myself at the dark station in the rain so I splurged and got a taxi back to my apartment. And thus ended my spring break. Overall, Spain was pretty cool but it is good to be back into normal life. Next trip- Geneva, Switzerland to see Greer in two weeks!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Spring Break Continued- Tarifa (Spain) to Tangier (Morocco)
Following my amazing weekend in Barcelona with my CMC friends, I met up with my BSM friends in Madrid but only for a few short hours of sleep because we were out of our hostel before 6 AM to catch a flight to Malaga in Southern Spain. Just from the plane landing, I could tell we were in a beautiful, beachy area. We had to get to Tarifa so we ended up taking 3 buses and go to our hostel in Tarifa around 2 PM. Nice, long travel time... Tarifa was a lot like Santa Cruz- a small, cute town. Our hostel was adorable- it was this house convereted into a hostel and there was no regular trash, everything was sorted (and I am assuming recycled). It might be my favorite hostel I´ve stayed in so far. We wanted to the beach, saw where the Mediteranean meets the Atlantic, and then had some dinner. After waking up so early, we all went to sleep early- definitely not the cool kids at that hostel!
The next day, we went to Morocco! We did a 2 day guided excursion. A really nice ferry took us over and the ads all over talk about how the ferry is 35 minutes but the ferry definitely left like 20 minutes late and then we had to wait 15 minutes because another boat was in the spot our ferry was supposed to go in so we made it to Morocco about an hour later than expected. Our tour basically involved walking through Morocco and being hounded by sales people and stopping at a few places where the tour definitely received a commission that they wanted you to shop at. And AJ made the mistake of asking a guy how much something cost. When the guy started at 27 euros, AJ said he wouldn´t pay more than 5 (even though he had no intention to buy at all) and when the guy finally went down to 5 euros and AJ said he didn´t want it, the guy followed us for another 10 minutes calling AJ an ignorant, arrogant American. But we did get some good Moroccan food! In the evening, they just dropped us off at a hotel (we were worried where they were taking us but it ended up being pretty nice and it was right by the beach) and the next day, they informed us, was just a free day. We had all had enough of Morocco and there was no way we wanted to wander on our own so we asked them to put us on an earlier ferry out of Morocco the next day. We had to wait FOREVER to get on the ferry (at least an hour after it was supposed to leave) but we finally made it back to Spain!
Back in Tarifa, it was raining so we spent most of the afternoon and evening playing cards. We met some other people in the hostel but nothing too exciting. We had planned to spend the morning in Tarifa then bus back to the Malaga airport for our flight to Madrid but while getting up in the morning, we learned that it was Holy Thursday meaning buses would not follow the normal schedule so we rushed out of the hostel. It was another long travel day. We left the first hostel at 10:30 AM and after 3 buses, 1 plane, and 2 metro lines, we arrived at our hostel in madrid at 8:30 PM. Next time I plan a spring break trip, I will definitely travel around less and situate myself in one spot for a while! Now, I have the final leg of my spring break trip in Madrid so I will update on that once I am back in Budapest!
The next day, we went to Morocco! We did a 2 day guided excursion. A really nice ferry took us over and the ads all over talk about how the ferry is 35 minutes but the ferry definitely left like 20 minutes late and then we had to wait 15 minutes because another boat was in the spot our ferry was supposed to go in so we made it to Morocco about an hour later than expected. Our tour basically involved walking through Morocco and being hounded by sales people and stopping at a few places where the tour definitely received a commission that they wanted you to shop at. And AJ made the mistake of asking a guy how much something cost. When the guy started at 27 euros, AJ said he wouldn´t pay more than 5 (even though he had no intention to buy at all) and when the guy finally went down to 5 euros and AJ said he didn´t want it, the guy followed us for another 10 minutes calling AJ an ignorant, arrogant American. But we did get some good Moroccan food! In the evening, they just dropped us off at a hotel (we were worried where they were taking us but it ended up being pretty nice and it was right by the beach) and the next day, they informed us, was just a free day. We had all had enough of Morocco and there was no way we wanted to wander on our own so we asked them to put us on an earlier ferry out of Morocco the next day. We had to wait FOREVER to get on the ferry (at least an hour after it was supposed to leave) but we finally made it back to Spain!
Back in Tarifa, it was raining so we spent most of the afternoon and evening playing cards. We met some other people in the hostel but nothing too exciting. We had planned to spend the morning in Tarifa then bus back to the Malaga airport for our flight to Madrid but while getting up in the morning, we learned that it was Holy Thursday meaning buses would not follow the normal schedule so we rushed out of the hostel. It was another long travel day. We left the first hostel at 10:30 AM and after 3 buses, 1 plane, and 2 metro lines, we arrived at our hostel in madrid at 8:30 PM. Next time I plan a spring break trip, I will definitely travel around less and situate myself in one spot for a while! Now, I have the final leg of my spring break trip in Madrid so I will update on that once I am back in Budapest!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Start of Spring Break- Barcelona
After a stressful last week with my first midterm, I was super excited for it to be spring break. I am traveling throughout Spain with Nicky, AJ, and Jacob for most of the week. But the first weekend of spring break was Barcelona with Frash, Greer, and Jessa. Frash and I flew to Barcelona together from Budapest on Friday. Nothing too exciting there although we flew through Paris and I found in my first visit to Western Europe after living in Eastern Europe for over 2 months a lot of differences between Eastern and Western Europe. Western Europe is much more fashion conscious. People dress so differently! It was really fun people watching. I also absolutely love the sound of the French language and was able to understand some French through reading, which is good since I took French for like 6 years! It was a super long travel day- we left my apartment at 9:30 AM and got to our hostel around 9:30 PM. Flights with layovers and taking public transportation to and from airports will do that...
Frash and I were staying in the hostel without Greer and Jessa the first night (they both came in Saturday morning) and I was totally intimidated by the hostel the first night. It was a 20 bed dorm room, much bigger than anything I´ve stayed in before and I had not traveled in a small group and without guys before. We walk into the lobby to check in and it was a smokey, intimidating bar with drunken people yelling "Chug, chug, chug!" My exhausted, hungry self was not pleased at this point in time... We walk into the room and it just felt like everyone was watching us walk in and I mean, it was a room with 20 beds! After some cheap falafel (yes, I found cheap falafel in Spain after being there for only about an hour!), we went back to the hostel bar and ended up meeting some Portuguese guys. We hung out with them that evening and ended up having a great time. Of course, we made friends with the noisiest people in the room. They stayed out later than us on Friday night and woke us up to talk to us when they came in at 4 AM and then this other group of Americans decided to have a shouting conversation at 5 AM so my first night in Barcelona did not involve much sleep...
Greer and Jessa arrived the next morning and it was so great just being us. We walked to the beach and caught up over some tea and coffee in a cafe. Barcelona had all these cute little stands with beautiful jewelry and clothes and other various things all over. There were also all these artistic statues which were really awesome. We went out to dinner in this vegetarian organic restaurant where I had some great paella. The food and ambience there was absolutely awesome. After that, we went back to the hostel bar and hung out just us and with the Portuguese guys again. Another really fun night. My two nights in Barcelona were both super fun and the closest to the stereotypical "spring break" nights I´ve ever had.
Sunday morning we finally went to do some touristy things and saw a church (Segrada Familia or something like that) and this park that is basically this artistic architectural structure (Gaull park I believe). It was really beautiful and impressive. We then had some more falafel and basically just made fun of each other and acted like us for a bit longer. After that Frash and I traveled on to Madrid where I met back up with Jacob, AJ, and Nicky who I am with for the rest of the week.
Well this internet place is closing now so I will post more later... well when more happens as well... Enjoy spring break for everyone else who is on it!
Frash and I were staying in the hostel without Greer and Jessa the first night (they both came in Saturday morning) and I was totally intimidated by the hostel the first night. It was a 20 bed dorm room, much bigger than anything I´ve stayed in before and I had not traveled in a small group and without guys before. We walk into the lobby to check in and it was a smokey, intimidating bar with drunken people yelling "Chug, chug, chug!" My exhausted, hungry self was not pleased at this point in time... We walk into the room and it just felt like everyone was watching us walk in and I mean, it was a room with 20 beds! After some cheap falafel (yes, I found cheap falafel in Spain after being there for only about an hour!), we went back to the hostel bar and ended up meeting some Portuguese guys. We hung out with them that evening and ended up having a great time. Of course, we made friends with the noisiest people in the room. They stayed out later than us on Friday night and woke us up to talk to us when they came in at 4 AM and then this other group of Americans decided to have a shouting conversation at 5 AM so my first night in Barcelona did not involve much sleep...
Greer and Jessa arrived the next morning and it was so great just being us. We walked to the beach and caught up over some tea and coffee in a cafe. Barcelona had all these cute little stands with beautiful jewelry and clothes and other various things all over. There were also all these artistic statues which were really awesome. We went out to dinner in this vegetarian organic restaurant where I had some great paella. The food and ambience there was absolutely awesome. After that, we went back to the hostel bar and hung out just us and with the Portuguese guys again. Another really fun night. My two nights in Barcelona were both super fun and the closest to the stereotypical "spring break" nights I´ve ever had.
Sunday morning we finally went to do some touristy things and saw a church (Segrada Familia or something like that) and this park that is basically this artistic architectural structure (Gaull park I believe). It was really beautiful and impressive. We then had some more falafel and basically just made fun of each other and acted like us for a bit longer. After that Frash and I traveled on to Madrid where I met back up with Jacob, AJ, and Nicky who I am with for the rest of the week.
Well this internet place is closing now so I will post more later... well when more happens as well... Enjoy spring break for everyone else who is on it!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Greer and Frash do Budapest
So because my friends are totally awesome, they came to visit me in Budapest! Frash is here all week and Greer was here this past weekend! We actually did not see all that much touristy stuff within Budapest and spent most of the weekend hanging out and catching up.
Frash arrived with no problems but of course Greer reminded us of why we love her as soon as she arrived- she got off at the wrong train station. While Frash and I were at the right train station, I get a text message from Greer "Big problem. I'm at the wrong train station. What do I do?" I knew her train went through Vienna so I was worried she was in the wrong country! But no, her mistake wasn't too bad of a mistake- Budapest has a Kelenfoldi and Keleti station and her ticket just said Budapest Kel. Luckily, it was just a 20 minute bus ride away until we were all together again! And my visitors favorite thing was quickly discovered- how inexpensive good food is here! We first found some great falafel and then also stopped for cheap crepes on the way to Fisherman's Bastion, a place with a great view of the river of the city.
Friday evening, I took Greer and Frash to a BSM party with the theme "Spring Break Wooo!" and lots of Sangria. They got to meet a bunch of people in my program (including a guy who knows Kelsey, who lived on our floor freshmen year and a guy who knows Frash's housemate in Spain) and I have even gotten them to admit that math major parties are more fun than they would have expected! After the party, many BSMers headed over to Szoda, our favorite dance club, which was a ton of fun- it is so much fun when 20-30 people from my program all go out together and having Greer and Frash there made it even better!
Saturday and Sunday were mostly the same sorts of adventures- going out briefly attempting to do touristy things, finding great cheap food, and ending up back at my apartment bonding for much of the time. Saturday night, a guy at the hummus bar we went to recommended a bar to go to later that night, which was a cultural experience. It was super smokey, filled with locals, and had a nice outdoor courtyard, which I'm sure will be filled in a bit as it gets warmer. The weekend ended too shortly when Greer had to leave Sunday evening but luckily all of us plus Jessa will be meeting up in Barcelona next weekend and I booked a ticket to come to Geneva to visit Greer in April.
This week will be slightly stressful as I have my first midterm on Wednesday. It sounds like here you are supposed to get like 70% on a midterm to get an A in the class, which is not what I'm used to at all and sounds terrifying. I've got a lot of studying to do over the next two days... But once I get through that, I just have a few more classes (including a number theory class with Chicago high school students visiting so we'll be doing some sort of fun activity) and then it is spring break and I am off to Spain for a week!
Frash arrived with no problems but of course Greer reminded us of why we love her as soon as she arrived- she got off at the wrong train station. While Frash and I were at the right train station, I get a text message from Greer "Big problem. I'm at the wrong train station. What do I do?" I knew her train went through Vienna so I was worried she was in the wrong country! But no, her mistake wasn't too bad of a mistake- Budapest has a Kelenfoldi and Keleti station and her ticket just said Budapest Kel. Luckily, it was just a 20 minute bus ride away until we were all together again! And my visitors favorite thing was quickly discovered- how inexpensive good food is here! We first found some great falafel and then also stopped for cheap crepes on the way to Fisherman's Bastion, a place with a great view of the river of the city.
Friday evening, I took Greer and Frash to a BSM party with the theme "Spring Break Wooo!" and lots of Sangria. They got to meet a bunch of people in my program (including a guy who knows Kelsey, who lived on our floor freshmen year and a guy who knows Frash's housemate in Spain) and I have even gotten them to admit that math major parties are more fun than they would have expected! After the party, many BSMers headed over to Szoda, our favorite dance club, which was a ton of fun- it is so much fun when 20-30 people from my program all go out together and having Greer and Frash there made it even better!
Saturday and Sunday were mostly the same sorts of adventures- going out briefly attempting to do touristy things, finding great cheap food, and ending up back at my apartment bonding for much of the time. Saturday night, a guy at the hummus bar we went to recommended a bar to go to later that night, which was a cultural experience. It was super smokey, filled with locals, and had a nice outdoor courtyard, which I'm sure will be filled in a bit as it gets warmer. The weekend ended too shortly when Greer had to leave Sunday evening but luckily all of us plus Jessa will be meeting up in Barcelona next weekend and I booked a ticket to come to Geneva to visit Greer in April.
This week will be slightly stressful as I have my first midterm on Wednesday. It sounds like here you are supposed to get like 70% on a midterm to get an A in the class, which is not what I'm used to at all and sounds terrifying. I've got a lot of studying to do over the next two days... But once I get through that, I just have a few more classes (including a number theory class with Chicago high school students visiting so we'll be doing some sort of fun activity) and then it is spring break and I am off to Spain for a week!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Prague Weekend
This weekend, I ventured over to Prague, Czech Republic with 14 students from BSM. It was a great trip! The adventure started with a 6 AM bus ride to Prague, meaning leaving our apartment by around 4:45 AM! Yuck! One person overslept and missed the bus and did not end up coming to Prague, but other than that we were all accounted for (except for the 4 people not skipping Friday classes who would meet us later). Our bus was awesome- they served free coffee and hot chocolate, showed movies (only 1 out of 4 had English subtitles though), and got to Prague an hour early! Riding through the Czech republic was beautiful- it reminded me of highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz. There were tons of trees and bodies of water (riding through Slovakia and Hungary were much less exciting...). After we arrived, we checked into the hostel and then had some typical Czech food for lunch. One guy ordered this appetizer that was beer cheese, salami, pickled onion, and a few other things which was disgusting and smelled like feet! We then ventured to Old Town Square, the main center of Prague. It is a really pretty and big square with a famous church and clock tower right off of it. We wandered for a little bit then headed back to the hostel to take advantage of the pool and sauna!
Dinner was at a place that only had a menu in Czech. This one guy at the restaurant was able to translate a few things but we basically looked for a familiar word and then ordered that item. Nicky and I shared this excellent chicken curry with pineapple and bananas and a creamy penne dish. Both were great! By this time, we were exhausted and just waited for the rest of our group to get in. They had had some problems and had almost been on the wrong train and only discovered this minutes before the train left. It also got in hours later then we expected (the bus took a couple hours less then the bus- not what we expected at all) and so finally around midnight they checked into the hostel and it was bedtime for us.
Saturday was a our big touristy day. While eating breakfast, it started pouring rain, which had us worried. The weather reports predicted rain for the whole weekend but after that downpour, we had sprinkles but nothing too bad. We went to the castle and inside a church with beautiful stained glass mosaic windows. We got stuck at a changing of the guard ceremony, which we found boring and pointless (these guards were seriously like practically turning in circles and doing all these traditional things we just didn't get). Lunch was at Bohemia Bagel, an awesome bagel place with great sandwiches. Nicky had been talking about it for weeks and it met up to its hype. It is actually a very American type place but they don't have anything like it in Budapest and we all greatly missed bagels so it was awesome. I got a tofu burger, which made me so happy. I miss being vegetarian!
Following lunch, we went up the clock tower, which offered a great view of the city. The buildings in Prague are very colorful, which provided an excellent contrast to Budapest's gray buildings. The stores also seemed more happy and colorful with lots of toy shops and touristy souvenirs. After the clock tower, we went to the Sex Machine Museum! It was just so different, we had to check it out! There were really old porn movies (which were hilarious), patents of recently developed sexual devices (the creativity was surprising in some cases), devices meant to stop sexual things (chastity belts, a device that would ring a bell in the parents' room if a boy got an erection, etc), and of course devices intended to pleasure. After a quick nap time, it was dinner time at a jazz club with 10 of us around a table definitely met for about 6 people! We had planned to go to this 4 story dance club with different types of music on each floor but most people were feeling tired or sick so we ended up going back to the hostel and played card games at the bar. We were there until the bar closed playing Uno, which was way more fun for a Saturday night then it sounds! So far, on the two travel weekends I've had, we've not wanted to go out Friday night in order to save energy for Saturday and then Saturday has worn us out so much that we haven't made it out to club!
Sunday morning, I walked around the Jewish quarter and saw a bunch of temples with very different architecture. It was really interesting. There were about 6 or 7 temples that looked completely different all within about a 5 block radius. One one block, there were 3 synagogues! After this, it was back to Bohemia Bagel for lunch again. We had to stock up before heading back to Budapest- several people bought a couple dozen bagels to bring back! We then headed back to the bus to return to Budapest.
It was really fun traveling in such a big group. Different groups went and did different things so everyone was able to fulfill their interests. Also, I got to talk to some people from my program who I had known from before this weekend but had never talked to all that much before this weekend and I really liked them. I really do generally like BSM students so it was great to get a chance to get a few more a little better. So we can call Prague another successful weekend!
Dinner was at a place that only had a menu in Czech. This one guy at the restaurant was able to translate a few things but we basically looked for a familiar word and then ordered that item. Nicky and I shared this excellent chicken curry with pineapple and bananas and a creamy penne dish. Both were great! By this time, we were exhausted and just waited for the rest of our group to get in. They had had some problems and had almost been on the wrong train and only discovered this minutes before the train left. It also got in hours later then we expected (the bus took a couple hours less then the bus- not what we expected at all) and so finally around midnight they checked into the hostel and it was bedtime for us.
Saturday was a our big touristy day. While eating breakfast, it started pouring rain, which had us worried. The weather reports predicted rain for the whole weekend but after that downpour, we had sprinkles but nothing too bad. We went to the castle and inside a church with beautiful stained glass mosaic windows. We got stuck at a changing of the guard ceremony, which we found boring and pointless (these guards were seriously like practically turning in circles and doing all these traditional things we just didn't get). Lunch was at Bohemia Bagel, an awesome bagel place with great sandwiches. Nicky had been talking about it for weeks and it met up to its hype. It is actually a very American type place but they don't have anything like it in Budapest and we all greatly missed bagels so it was awesome. I got a tofu burger, which made me so happy. I miss being vegetarian!
Following lunch, we went up the clock tower, which offered a great view of the city. The buildings in Prague are very colorful, which provided an excellent contrast to Budapest's gray buildings. The stores also seemed more happy and colorful with lots of toy shops and touristy souvenirs. After the clock tower, we went to the Sex Machine Museum! It was just so different, we had to check it out! There were really old porn movies (which were hilarious), patents of recently developed sexual devices (the creativity was surprising in some cases), devices meant to stop sexual things (chastity belts, a device that would ring a bell in the parents' room if a boy got an erection, etc), and of course devices intended to pleasure. After a quick nap time, it was dinner time at a jazz club with 10 of us around a table definitely met for about 6 people! We had planned to go to this 4 story dance club with different types of music on each floor but most people were feeling tired or sick so we ended up going back to the hostel and played card games at the bar. We were there until the bar closed playing Uno, which was way more fun for a Saturday night then it sounds! So far, on the two travel weekends I've had, we've not wanted to go out Friday night in order to save energy for Saturday and then Saturday has worn us out so much that we haven't made it out to club!
Sunday morning, I walked around the Jewish quarter and saw a bunch of temples with very different architecture. It was really interesting. There were about 6 or 7 temples that looked completely different all within about a 5 block radius. One one block, there were 3 synagogues! After this, it was back to Bohemia Bagel for lunch again. We had to stock up before heading back to Budapest- several people bought a couple dozen bagels to bring back! We then headed back to the bus to return to Budapest.
It was really fun traveling in such a big group. Different groups went and did different things so everyone was able to fulfill their interests. Also, I got to talk to some people from my program who I had known from before this weekend but had never talked to all that much before this weekend and I really liked them. I really do generally like BSM students so it was great to get a chance to get a few more a little better. So we can call Prague another successful weekend!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
