Backpacking in Budapest

It is 5am and we are currently sitting inside a very cold, old, sketchy bus station on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary. Remember in my last blog when I said that I didn't need WiFi to survive? Alright well Google Maps has always gotten me from point A to point B, not always soundly but at least safely. Nobody appears to be getting a strong enough signal to figure out how we're going to find civilization, so in my only defense and because it's still 5am, I just lay there like a slug. I can't tell you how, why, or who decided to just start the march from the bus station, but I feel myself being heaved upward and before I know it we're out the door and facing the cold. I begin to notice that every time I swallow, a sensation of oh I don't know, 54 little push pins have been lodged in my throat and I realize that I have somehow managed to contract the sore throat from hell during this wonderful 5am excursion towards the heart of Budapest. George Ezra, you never mentioned how long the expedition was from the bus station to where all forms of life are. Due to my sore throat, I cease from speaking and let the rest of the group decide which street to pick at this fork in the road. Paige Kristensen (aka PK) looks between the two roads, and says "How about this one?!" As the rest of our travel group agrees with "Sounds good to me!" That's right, she and the group literally eeny-meeny-miny-moed that decision, and my fate now lies in their hands. For the readers back home, I would like to announce that we walked for two. solid. hours. from the boonies of Budapest to the bustling city center at the crack of dawn in the cold. To say that I am half asleep is an understatement. My soul is still snoozing, and I am literally walking with my eyes closed. I can feel Zach holding my hand but before you say 'aw' or throw up whichever, he's only holding my hand as a means to tug me along so that I don't fall over. In between this march through the dreary fog towards civilization, everything the rest of the group is saying or doing is all a blur, however I'm sure Sheyenne and PK are joking about how surprised they are that we haven't yet gotten kidnapped along the outskirts of Budapest during these wee hours of the morning. I now realize that my aching feet are no longer moving, so I assume we have come to a stop and I open my eyes.
                       
A church! If there's anything that gives me peace and serenity during any situation it's a church. I thank God for protecting us and give a shoutout to our Guardian Angels because I'm sure they're uber annoyed with all of us for just walking aimlessly around in a foreign country. I look to my right and spot a bridge. We all gravitate towards it and march on to the city. Oh happy days are here again!

Upon crossing and covering a bit more distance, we spot another establishment that has grown to also give me peace and serenity. Yes that's right, those big beautiful golden arches can only mean one thing- we can now bask in the warmth, WiFi, and nourishment that McDonald's has to offer! However there's one problem, this is Europe not America and MickyD's aren't open 24/7. Bummer.
Onward.
Shortly after retrieving money from a corner ATM, we stumble across a local bread shop and we all pile up inside.
We all point to unknown pastries as we order what we want, settle down, and fill our stomachs as we warm up and rest. After I power-up with the yummy strawberry flavored things I finally tune in to what our group is saying. We have to somehow find Wombat's City hostel, and again I am embarrassed to admit that yet again, I let them do all the work. My throat still feels like I drank a cup of acid the night before, and my body just feels helpless. I accept the fact that I may be getting sick, (in freaking Budapest, Hungary, for crying out loud) stand up, and follow the group outside
to continue the what at this point is the march of eternity in pursuit of our hostel. Okay so we're
walking, walking, walking- and then someone spots it. By some God-given miracle, we just randomly find our sleeping quarters without WiFi! (I mean I don't think anyone had wifi... I was sleepwalking remember?) As we all eagerly walk inside, I can only think of falling in a bed and sleeping till goodness knows when. If I haven't mentioned it before I'll mention it now, we all decided that it would be best to backpack while we're here, and at this point I'm sure that my spine has curved to meet the weight of my backpack. I would also like to point out here that in reference to our whole laundry fiasco back at the dorms, PK and I couldn't dry anything because I don't even know, nor do I want to talk about it... but long story short we were carrying around wet towels with us. WE CARRIED THESE DAMN THINGS AROUND THE WHOLE WEEKEND AND THEY NEVER DRIED. EVER! I have slight PTSD from the wet towel incident, so we both bought travel towels so that we -never- have to deal with a similar situation ever again.

I realize that none of you needed to know that, but I wanted you to know that. Because it just added to the ambiance that was this whole trip - we were always wet whether that be from the rain, the thermal baths, more rain, or the snow, we nor our towels- were ever dry. But it's really fine, because this weekend excursion set the bar high for all those to follow!

Some of the things that we had our hearts set on that day included of course, the infamous thermal baths and some Irish bars in light of Saint Patrick's day. We had some time to kill because we couldn't yet check into our room, so Sheyenne, Paige, Jenny, and PK went off in search of new swimsuits  meanwhile Zachary and I napped in the hostel's lounge area of their lobby. That's right. My stuff could have been stolen, I could have been stolen, Zach could have been stolen, but apparently none of that mattered for I needed to catch some major Z's, and that I did. After the girls got back we still had time to kill so we walked some more and found a bustling Hungarian restaurant where Paige Phillips and I discovered the world of Paprika flavored everything and we all devoured our fine Hungarian cuisine.

I'd like to fast forward to all of us at the thermal baths later that evening, mine and PK's wet towels in tow, both of us forgetting flip flops so yeah, we wore socks as a pathetic means to avoid contracting  heaven knows what from the wet floors. Ma if you're reading this I'm sorry. Don't worry, I bought  sandalias so that this will never happen again!
                                    
Considering the freezing temperatures surrounding us, the warmth of the baths were an exhilarating experience that many of us agreed to only do once! Why do you ask? Well, we were in a giant bathtub in very warm waters with hundreds of other complete strangers :) Future MD Paige Phillips held herself together as I begged her to not tell me what else was swimming among us in those waters! All germs and jokes aside- the baths were an amazing experience that I highly recommend anyone to do at least once!

Later that evening, our troop was pooped. But it was St.Patty's day, and we all took an oath to go out for Jenny Belsan because she brought face tattoos and gems. We love Jenny Belsan. So, we all got tatted and gemed up for Jenny- and dragged ourselves to the Irish bar. We later wandered into a club where they played one Latin hit after another, including Gasolina. We thrived.
                      


The following day was one of my favorites, because we had the privilege to visit the largest Synagogue in Europe, (however not the largest in the world- we learned that the largest in the world is in NYC!) We had an excellent tour guide, for he explained the different architectures of the synagogue because it was handed off from architect to architect as the times changed and as the money was available. On the right is the inside of the Jewish synagogue, and our guide explained that many observers might mistake this for perhaps a Christian church because of the high altar in the front and the organ in the synagogue. On Saturday's, Jews are forbidden to do any sort of labor or work and the argument with the Organ was that technically because it's behind the altar and the little room behind the altar that holds the Torah, it's not really IN the synagogue therefore it's kind of bending the rules.... that and they just get a non-Jew to play it! Also - if you're casually walking down the street one day and you're curious as to whether or not you've stumbled across a synagogue, a way to tell is not by the star of David- no no. It's if you see the ten commandment tablets anywhere, then you know it is religious and holy. The star of David is more of a cultural symbol than religious, our guide explained. There was so much more we learned but I figure if you want to know more about this Jewish synagogue, DM me.

Later that day we tried to go to a restaurant that served all day breakfast. We still haven't had old fashioned eggs since forever ago, so we were all as the kids say 'Lit.' This was our second time visiting this restaurant because the night before for dinner they had apparently "run out of all food." You're reading this and thinking uhh...is that some kind of sick joke? We figured "well it's dinner time and the people here have big lunches and small dinners so maybe it's a plausible claim." Okay well day two we trod in for lunch, smiles spread across our faces, beaming that we're all going to finally have an old fashioned Hungarian style American breakfast. The waitress comes around and lo and behold- they again "ran out of all food." How in the actual flying flick do you run out of all food, not ever restock, and still make money?! There were other people in this restaurant! This place was bustling and you're trying to tell me that you only have bagels and ham sandwiches?! BUDAPEST I AM CONFUSION. HUNGARY I AM HUNGRY. My mind is completely boggled and I'm still not over it because now I'm convinced that they just didn't want to serve us for reasons unknown to me. ALL WE WANTED WERE EGGS. It's fine I'm fine I'm done talking about it because the ever so wonderful Sheyenne Kiesel said Fear not! And found us this scrumptious little restaurant with excellent Hungarian food.
                             
After dinner, we all marched on to see things like the chain bridge, a few palaces and castles here and there, and the parliament building which was absolutely breathtaking.               



After all of this incredible sightseeing, we all trudged yet again through the streets of Budapest to a local Costa Coffee to warm ourselves up before our long trek back to the bus station. (It's a chain like Starbucks) After our prep session we all bundled up to face the cold and headed south. Just kidding I don't know what direction we're going, I'm useless navigating over here, I just follow the pack!

Again - Thank you for being loyal and reading this all the way through, once I get on a roll I just can't seem to stop! I had to wrap things up rather quickly because yep, I'm about to go to Belmundo - it's Portuguese night!

Farewell until next time!

Wait, our bags are where???!

Yes that's right, you read the title correctly, the evitable happened. "Pack a carry-on with a few changes of clothes just in case your checked bag gets lost!" "Don't worry, the chances of you actually losing your luggage is slim!" Um, Wrongo. Great advice, but Zachary and I were forced to check our carry-on bags in Omaha from the very start of the trip, so basically we were doomed from the very beginning. I'm sure that a majority of my friends back home assumed that I was just beside myself regarding the whole incident, but I would like to announce that I was as mellow as my character would allow me to be in a situation such as this, believe it or not! 

Upon our arrival in Prague, after realizing that all we had in our possession in this foreign country was everything that we had in our backpacks in addition to the clothes we were wearing (which smelled like airplane and a day’s worth of travel), we decided that oh well, what was done was done. We put in a missing property claim and prayed for the best. We then met up with the rest of our travel group for our transportation courtesy of Sophie's Hostel in Prague. Paige Kristensen, Paige Phillips, Sheyenne Kiesel, and Jenny Belsan all packed into one shuttle while Zach and I rode in a separate car. The ride was pretty quiet because a) our driver didn’t speak great English and b) we definitely didn’t speak any Czech... yet somehow this is the first thing our driver decides to ask us as a means for smalltalk. "So tell me, why do all Americans hate Trump?" You're kidding. Why God why. I physically bit my tongue, chuckled, nodded, and changed the subject. Once we arrived at the Hostel, we told the other girls about our awkward drive and they swapped stories of how easy going their driver was and to say the least, Zach and I took a big fat "L" that day! 

The next two days in Prague were really just about exploration and testing our limits. How successful could we be in a completely foreign city where the written language might as well be equivalent to hieroglyphics? Being bilingual is all fun and games until you realize that reading and pronouncing everything in a Spanish accent just simply cannot be applied to the Czech language!  So, as one might imagine I basically just mooched off of everyone else's intuition because I had no idea what was going on ever, at all. We wandered and weaved through parts of Prague, introduced ourselves to the public transportation, avoided a pick pocket (credits to my mom for teaching me to look out for my belongings in unknown areas), and encountered some interesting people along the way. (Ask for Zach's rendition regarding the gnome guy). The day we decided to tackle train transportation, was the day we rode it from early afternoon until late at night. We had one destination - which was to see the Bone Church in Kutna Hora. Long story short, we made it to the city but missed the church's hours by about 35 minutes. It was back to the station we walked, and waited for what seemed like an eternity for our train back to Prague. Once back in Prague we headed straight for Burrito Loco, where I will admit I lost my patience with our server who refused to put pico on my burrito for reasons I'm not going to dive into for your sake, and ate our authentic as can be, Czech made Tex-Mex burritos. Here it is also worth mentioning, that on the third day, Zach and I received our luggage all safe and sound! It was an action packed day that ended quite pleasantly!

Now I’d like to fast forward to our arrival and settlement in Olomouc, Czech Republic. It had become apparent very quickly that very different people on this trip decided to study abroad for very different reasons. I came here to study, learn, and experience differences, and I have been very eager about it from the get-go. I have been blessed with a wonderful group of friends here that I believe are acting as true ambassadors of the United States. I’ve been running into a lot of stereotypes that Americans are often considered stupid. Clearly that’s not true, yet the small percentage that do act in this manner allow for the broad brush of prejudice and stereotypes to be painted over everyone. It has also become apparent that I am traveling with some very high maintenance people. It has come to the point where I would gladly trade my Wi-Fi access to those without it because quite frankly, I don’t need it to survive. I have written and re-written this blog several times debating on whether or not I should include the type of information that I am including right now, but I’m supposed to blog my thoughts right? I’ve come to the realization that not only do I have to cope with the whole culture shock situation, but also with some of the behaviors in our study abroad group. Some of the attitudes and behaviors that have been expressed has only motivated a drive for me to experience and gain as much as I possibly can from this journey.

After the decision had been made to make the most out of this opportunity, I must admit that it was all fun and games but as the days continued to fly by the realities of culture shock had begun to nudge and nip at me. Currently, it’s not exactly the distance away from home that’s eating at me but rather, it’s the inability to communicate efficiently. This is where I am going to insert an important piece of information, so pay attention. What I'm going through here now regarding the language barrier, is only a small speck of what many immigrants in the United States go through on the daily for years until they themselves pick up on the English language, which is by no means easy. I can only hope that for those on this trip here now including myself, in addition to those in the past, can take home at least an ounce of understanding on behalf of immigrants at home once they arrive back home in America. Okay- stepping off of my soapbox.

In regards to class here, I will openly admit that it’s not what I expected. I shut down during Czech language class and quit taking notes because I was beside myself when our professor instructed us to ask questions in Czech. For reasons unknown to me, Czech grammar was taught prior to Czech pronunciation. Czech Republic I am confusion! (Remember the ‘America I am confusion’ vine? That was a reference not intentional bad grammar.) My mouth and mind were simply just not made for Slavic languages and my biggest weakness is being a perfectionist. As my roommate Paige Kristensen said: "It's kind of funny when you pronounce everything with a Spanish accent, so I can’t imagine what you’re going through- but what’s worse is that I’M even doing it, so I try to insert the most American accent I can!” So yeah I think the language is hard and kudos to all those who are understanding from the get-go! I would be lying if I said I didn’t envy you!

Another disappointing reality that I am trying to come to terms with is this: I am actually not in fact, made of money… which is problematic because I can’t visit every single city and every single country here and now on nickles and dimes! My big plans to do the Pope thing during Easter fell through because plane tickets/board cost mucho dinero, my before I die desire to see the northern lights in Sweden (substitute for Easter in Rome) got crushed after researching the national park that almost guarantees the lightshow- is 15 hours away from Stockholm. AND IF OUR MOOSE SAFARI PLANS FALL THROUGH I WILL RAGE!!!

           In regards to history class, there was a day that my anxiety levels rose. Class was a bit difficult because the professors speak really quickly with an accent that I’m not quite yet used to hearing, so I’m extra attentive and soaking it all up, it’s really no wonder Paige Kristensen turned to me and whispered, “Fav, your pen is going to spark a fire!” four classes in and I’ve already filled a notebook more than halfway. As ashamed as I am to admit it because I didn’t want to feel this way so soon, I've realized that things are just different here and culture shock is real people! As the classes go on however, each lecture is just as fruitful as the last. It is so refreshing to receive European history from well, Europeans. People who lived through it who have different perspectives than how I’ve been taught all my life. I would like to include that nearly every professor has prefaced with, “Thank God, that you nor your country has ever been and hopefully never will be, occupied by soldiers from another country.” Tonight it hit me that the histories I’ve grown up learning about, taking notes over, and studying for the tests with, were the REALITIES that people lived through on the daily just a short time ago. Words cannot express what I was feeling after a lecture and movie about Nazi occupation in Czechoslovakia. It hit me hard, and it reminded me to thank God for all of his blessings for me, my family, and all those around me for I wouldn't even wish the evils that many Europeans faced throughout history on even my worst enemy.

            I’d be lying if I said things are going smoothly here, I’ve cried three times because I’ve been riding a roller coaster of different emotions but I know that after I get through all of this culture shock hullaballoo, I’ll be thriving. If you made it this far reading, congratulations!

           

            INTERLUDE: By the way, I realize that I’ve written a small novel but it’s my blog and it’s helping me cope! So the important stuff was written all above, and some extra stuff will be written below! Hopefully not all of my blogs will be this lengthy!

Here are some negative European side effects that I am not down with:

Dryer sheets. Where the flip are they at in Globus -> AKA Czech Republic Walmart.

-       Mayo does not exist. Only sometimes. At Globus.

-       I WANT TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE BECAUSE I FEEL INCOMPETENT.

-       Did Europe never have the D.A.R.E. program in schools? Because all I inhale is second hand smoke and I have the asthma.

-       I would just love for our dorm pod to not reek of weed!

-       Cobblestones are not my friend.

-       I don’t understand the tram system. And nobody better comment “Fav it’s so easy all you do is this” like after the whole laundry fiasco.

-       Speaking of laundry, I don’t want to talk about that either.

-       I can’t work the locks in my dorm. That’s mainly just an operator’s problem though, but it still upsets me.

Okay so now for all the things I thoroughly enjoy in no particular order:

-       I love dumplings. I love gulash, I love the bread. Beer is also good here.

-       I love the people I’m fortunate enough to travel with!

-       The history here is SO rich and I’m on cloud nine.

-       McDonald’s here are ‘boujee’ and frankly, I think taste better.

-       The architecture and all of the colors are breathtaking.

-       The immaculate Catholic churches! Yowzas!

-       I HEART KOLACKIES.

-       The views are phenomenal.

-       All of the cherished memories that I am making with various friends here are already treasured.

-       Getting the opportunity to do this whole thing with Zach is also a blessing.

Please enjoy a few of these photos from across the way!

                   

        Translating our order from English menu’s to Czech!

                          

St. Michael’s is my favorite church!

                          

As explained to us, the church was built over a Pagan water spring, and naturally St. Michael the archangel was chosen for the job of driving out whatever evils had resided there.