Thursday, May 31, 2007

last look at budapest


with this face, i am regularly approached on the streets by people who think i am hungarian, ticket patrollers don't give me a second look, and people give me just a little more respect then they give to the blatantly american students. i call it my hungarian face.

just off kiraly

the cemetary is tied (with margitsziget) for my favorite park in budapest.

the grave of janos kadar, the communist leader of hungary from just after the revolution in 1956 until his death before the fall of the regime in 1989, was recently vandalized and his wife's urn (complete with ashes) stolen. everything was back in order by the time i made it back to look at the damage.

tram storage at the end of baross utca.

the division between shitty roma housing in outer viii and the small, but new, chinese enclave (it's so small and hungarian-chinese, i'm not sure if it counts as an authentic china town). speaking of hungarian minorities (both roma and chinese are among the 13 officially recognized minority groups who have a right to self-government), the jewish minority nearly disappeared after wwii.

a monument erected in 2005. many jews were lined along the danube and shot into the river. just south of parliament was a popular location, and this would have been their last view.

memorial tree behind the synagogue. this was the western border of the jewish ghetto.

open apartment corridor in viii.

urania theater, one of the many art house cinemas in budapest.

cotton candy on margitsziget.

nothin' but the blues, bar in viii.

szimpla, my new favorite bar, ever, is hard to find, but i think it's in vii.

outdoor patio surrounded by ugly brick facades, upper level covered in plants, random rooms with interesting interior.

and that's it for budapest. at least for the next couple of years.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

the sights

between planning our trip, my roommates leaving, and trying to locate my medications, andy and i have been seeing some of the major attractions in budapest

lion on lanchid (chain bridge) and castle

view of margitsziget and parliament from castle

fisherman's bastion

matthias church

inside the national theater

parliament dome (my environmental professor took us on a private tour, he used to be a member of parliament)

rudas baths (by far, my favorite. they're only co-ed on friday and saturday nights, when they're open until 4)

st. stephen's basilica

the main altar looks just like a church i visited in vienna

fun in statue park

more desecration of soviet statues
>
marx and ernst

Thursday, May 24, 2007

last day of classes

the eap budapest program ended with a catered dinner on the danube. the program doesn't pay for alcohol, however, so we got started early with the best cocktails in budapest from menza on liszt ferenc ter.


after the boat ride, a few of us went for dessert with our hungarian teacher erika (sitting to my left) on raday utca.

then we continued drinking on our way to some bars.

we ended the night with the ever-popular drag show.


some were more convincing women then others. it was a good night, and a nice way to cut ties with many people i will never see again. i'm not saying they were all immature, un-inquisitive, and lame, but a simple majority was enough for me.

Monday, May 21, 2007

damn.

internet in this coffee shop is too slow to upload pictures. or maybe it's my computer. sajnos. andy finally arrived in budapest after 5 days in germany (stuttgart, munich, frankfurt) and 5 days in russia (st. petersburg and moscow). we have been seeing some sights, but moreso eating good food and going to trendy bars. my roommates left this morning (for america) so we're all alone now, and have 1 week to see all there is in budapest before we leave on our 2 month journey through central europe. we've booked some plane tickets and are will more or less be following this schedule:

5/29-6/2: Varna, Bulgaria
6/3-6/12: Istanbul, Turkey
6/13-6/17: Sarajevo, Bosnia
6/18-6/26: Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar, Korcula; Croatia
6/27-6/30: Prague, Czech Republic
7/1-7/5: Krakow and Warsaw, Poland
7/6-7/9: Tallinn, Estonia
7/10-7/13: Riga, Latvia
7/14-7/18: Vilnius, Lithuania
7/19-7/20: more of Warsaw
7/21-7/26: Berlin, Germany
7/28-8/1: Copenhagen, Denmark
8/2-8/7: Amsterdam, Netherlands
8/8: New York

we're both pretty excited. just some last details to take care of (drugs, tent, clean the apartment) and we should be ready to leave for bulgaria. de jó!

elté

some photos of my school, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem.



and some photos of the bufe where we get sausage and beer before sleeping through afternoon classes.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

nights in pest

just some of the places we go at night








1: my roommate Christian's family came to visit, they took us to this really nice restaurant on the lake in ciy park. 2/3: belly dancing at west balkan (behind the corvin theater at boraros). 4/5: hookah and belly dancing at shiraz (on raday). 6: drum circle on margitsziget, we didn't actually join this, but there are tons of outdoor bars and clubs when the weather is nice. 7: popcult, just 2 blocks from my apartment, has live music and a nice patio, captain morgan rarely makes appearances. 8: tuesdays will always be reserved for gypsy music at sark: it's fast, it's fun, and it's really sweaty.

siraly





i thought it appropriate to post photos of my favorite coffee shop, since i have been practically living there lately. siraly (pronounced she-ry) is slang for cool, and is located on kiraly (pronounced key-ry), which is also slang for cool. the coffee shop is three stories with a basement for concerts and tons of books in the upstairs portion (where i took these photos). they serve organic, fair trade, strong coffee; and at night, the place has more of a bar feel. either way, the crowd is mostly locals and they don't care if you spend all day using their free wireless. i'm quite fond of it.