Hey everyone, I am sitting here with the knowledge that one month from today I will be gone. I am going to try and make the most of my last month here, but most of the time will be spent with friends or will be spent studying. I do not have anymore major plans ahead. However, I do need to update you on the past two weekend trips I have taken.
Budapest/ Szeged
I took this trip awhile back when Fanni invited me to go see her home town. We stopped in Budapest and stayed with her brother for two evenings before going to see her hometown. Our trip began with the first and only mishap I have ever had with the Linz public transportation. There was an accident on the tracks and we ended up being a whole 20 minutes later than we expected to be in arriving at the train station. We had missed our train by 5 minutes and therefore had to take a later one. However, on arriving in Budapest, Fanni and her boyfriend Laszi took me around to see the city lit up at night. I was rather tired doing this at midnight, but still glad I did do it.
The first full day we were in the city was their “labour day”, and in honor of that day there was an air-show over the river with trick planes and trick helicopters. There was also a race between two cars, they kept calling it formula-1, which was odd to me. I don’t know I am just so used to hearing the term nascar, I don’t recall hearing a race called formula-1. After enjoying the show provided, we saw a big church, had some good food ( and some gelato), and wrapped up our afternoon with Hero’s Square and the House of Terror. The house of Terror is a museum dedicated to the victims of both the communist and the socialist regimes that once ruled in Hungary. I had no knowledge of Hungarian history before this museum and I am now at least aware of some of the trials the nation had to go through.
My second day in Budapest consisted of seeing Hungarian movie stars 🙂 and going to the Parliament. I read about a bear-conservatory from my go to travel site Frommer’s. It read that many of the bears had been rescued from Hungarian film sets, and when I jokingly told Fanni I wanted to see it, I learned it was really close to where we were staying. So we ended up going! Something that was awesome is that they allow you to feed the bears honey on long wooden spoons. They encourage the feeding of the animals, something that would never happen in the U.S. So I have my favorite photo of the trip below.
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- Licking his Chops
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- Eating the Honey
I’m feeding a bear! Possibly old hungarian movie star! However, after the bears we went and saw the Parliament, it was a simple tour, but a truly beautiful building. We did not get to see much of the building, but were told it also offered salons, shops, and multiple restaurants for the members. The significant parts we did see were the meeting hall and the hall that houses the crown and scepter. After this beautiful stop, we were off to Szeged. In Szeged, I had the privilege of meeting both of Fanni’s parents and also Laszi’s parents. When greeted by Fanni’s dad, I was immediately offered a shot of Pálinka (Hungarian Liqueur). Her household was warm and welcoming, after dinner with her family, we all went to Laszi’s. His family again offered me Liqueur and cakes they had picked up from a local bakery. Both Fanni’s Mom and Laszi’s mom spoke some English, but neither of their dad’s did. I was asked quite a lot of questions, but I enjoyed helping both their mothers with their english.
My first full day in Szeged, Fanni and I went around her home University (even though a lot of the buildings were closed for the holiday). She took me to her favorite Döner (like a turkish gyro), and I even got to see the inside of the local Cathedral when we took shelter their from the rain neither of us were prepared for. The best part of the day is when Fanni attempted to teach me how to drive a stick shift in a local parking lot. She has never had any experience with an automatic, so the first thing out of her mouth when she was teaching me was “All the pedals are the same.” I just started laughing I couldn’t help it, I said, “No, you don’t understand, in an automatic there are only two pedals.” The next hour consisted of Fanni learning how to be a teacher and me getting all the way up to 2nd gear. No one was hurt, and I am very grateful I have an automatic waiting for me when I get home. The trip wrapped up with an evening at a local spa, which consists of different types of saunas and hot pools. I enjoyed the time spent with her family, but the trip was soon over and it was back to work.
The other city I will tell you about is Prague. I saw Prague just last weekend with a friend from College of Charleston. Lydia stayed in Linz for a couple days with me on a borrowed air mattress, then we both enjoyed a weekend together in Prague (only 4 hours from Linz). I will keep this section short and sweet. We used a guidebook I had purchased and went around and saw a lot of the interesting buildings of the city from the outside. I will list them, but each building is properly captioned in the photos. We saw the old town square with the astronomical clock and the Tyn Church, the powder tower, the Charles Bridge,the Palace,the opera house, and the St. Vitus Cathedral. Out of all these sights the Cathedral is the breathtaking one. I could not get over the stained glass windows, nothing was overdone, and it was all simply gorgeous. I now have a new favorite church, it was the Cathedral in Pécs for the longest time, but I just loved this one. Our time in this city was spent, enjoying an occasionally fruity drink and catching up.Our last night together was spent going to a local beer festival. We soon discovered it wasn’t a touristic thing as nothing was offered in English and everyone there was really into the soccer match that was being shown on TV’s throughout the massive tent.Lydia and I did try some interesting beers I had a pink cranberry beer (that tasted more like a spritzer), she had a blueberry beer, and we both had beers with a hint of lime in them.Overall, I enjoyed Prague, but have loved other cities I have visited much more.
Now to close this post I will let you all know I am officially caught up on my travels. I do only have 30 days left in Austria, and part of me cannot wait to be on American soil again, and the other part of me knows I’ll be leaving some pretty good friends I have encountered soon. There is a lot of school work between now and then, so for all those enjoying a relaxing summer, keep me in your thoughts in prayers.
Until something else interesting happens!- Alexis
Abroad in Austria 