I hate my roommates at the hostel. I told both of them that I had to be up by 3 a.m. in order to go to the airport. I even apologized for waking them up so early. And what do they do? They decide to have a conversation about the different prices for train tickets from Budapest to other countries in Europe. The problem was that they were across the room from each other and I was in the between them. Instead of sharing a bed or one person sitting on a truck so they could talk quietly they decide to shout across the room at each other. They did this from about 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. I was so tired that I faded in and out of the conversation until they finally fell asleep.
I still woke up before my alarm, and rather than letting it go off and waking them up, I turned it off. I should have let it ring for a while to they could get as much sleep as I did. One of my roommates had mentioned that a couple in the hostel was leaving on the same flight as me. I heard them moving around in my room and go downstairs, so I rushed to get ready. I was hoping that we could share a taxi, but they were taking a bus to the airport. One of my tour guides had given me a number of a reputable taxi company, so I called them. The first person I got only spoke Hungarian, so she transferred me to another lady who spoke English. I tried telling her my address, but she couldn't understand me so she transferred me to a guy. He couldn't understand me either so I started spelling out the street name. "V as in Victor, etc." He went "Oh! V." I guess my V sounded like a B. After I hung up I went outside to wait. While I was waiting the receptionist came back from showing the other people how to get to their bus. I told him that I had already called a taxi, and he was like "you know how to do that?" We talked for a little while and he waited with me for my cab. It took about 5 minutes, and then my cab came and picked me up. The guy only spoke a little bit of English, but we were able to communicate. He took me to the airport and it only cost about $25. It was worth it. I got to the airport at about 3:45 a.m. There were a lot of people standing in the Wizz Air line, but I didn't see where the line for Ryanair was. My flight was supposed to leave at 6:20 a.m., so I had plenty of time to figure it out. I found the information station, but it didn't open until 5 a.m., so I sat on some stairs and read Lost in Shri-Lanka. At 5 a.m., I still couldn't find the Ryanair line, so I went to information and they told me which station was Ryanair. It still wasn't open, so I sat on some more stairs to wait. Ryanair finally opened at 5:15 a.m., and I was one of the first people in line. They only had 1 station open, and they were going really slow. Another Ryanair employee came up and pulled people out of line who weren't checking a bag. So I got my visa checked and went to Security. Security only took a couple of minutes, and I got out quickly. Then I checked the message board to find out my gate number and it said "46 minutes until gate announced." So I went and sat on one of the couches for 40 minutes reading my book. Then I got up to check the announcement board again, figuring that I would stand there for 6 minutes for my gate. Right beside my gate was the number and the word "boarding." I bolted toward my gate, worried that I was going to miss my flight. I got to where my gate was, and they were not boarding. I waited about 3 more minutes and they let us through the gate. Then we had to walk to another building and wait about 15-20 minutes. Then we finally got to board the plane. The flight back to Rome was pretty uneventful. There was a lot of turbulence, but we landed safely. I went and bought a Terravision bus ticket to take me to Termini. It was supposed to leave at 9, so I was like okay only a 30 minute wait. It was a 45 minute wait because the bus was late. Something must have happened to that bus, because I think they called up a new bus. Usually a bus comes from Termini, it unloads passengers and then the people waiting get on and the bus goes back to Termini. The bus that came had no passengers on it. Anyways, we filled up the bus and went to Termini. Then I had to wait for the H bus to come to finally take me to my apartment. It took about 2.5 hours. When I got back, Olivia and Marella were at the apartment. We talked for a little bit, and then Olivia went to class. Marella stayed at the apartment. After a while I went to the school library where I was supposed to study for my Art History test, but I ended up just working on my blog. Then I walked 30 minutes to MADE cupcake shop. Olivia has been having a lot of family issues lately, so I wanted to surprise her with cupcakes. The cupcake shop was located by Piazza Navona and little pricey, but I bought 4 cupcakes. Then I walked all the way back to the apartment, carefully balancing the cupcakes. I really needed to go to the store, so I walked to Conad still balancing the cupcakes. I bought the ingredients for my meat sauce, then went back to the apartment and made it. Everyone was out when I got to the apartment, so I was able to hide the cupcakes. Laura was the first one back. Eventually Olivia and Marella came back, and then Marella left to return to London. I let Liv vent about Marella for a while, and then brought out the cupcakes. Laura, Liv, and I ate the cupcakes while Liv told us about her weekend. I didn't think the cupcakes were that good, mostly because the frosting wasn't buttercream. She and Marella went to Venice, San Marino, Bologna, and a couple of other places. Liv spent a lot of money, and Marella told her that she would pay her back. Marella gave Liv 50 euros. 1 of the many train tickets cost 56 euros. In total, it was about 400 euros, and Marella gave Liv 50. Liv didn't know what to say, so she just took the 50. We told her that she had to email Marella and tell her how much it really was. Liv just felt bad because she was supposed to study abroad with Marella in Copenhagen, but because of family issues Liv is going to stay in the U.S. But she hadn't told Marella yet because she knew Marella would freak out. She is going to email her sometime this week and break both bits of news to her. After talking for a while I went to bed.
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I got another roommate early this morning. I was just laying in bed, thinking about getting up when she came in. She made no effort at being quiet, which I didn't mind because I was already awake but I don't know how my other roommate felt. She was from Australia, but she looked asian. She seemed nice. She is backpacking across Europe. We talked for a little while, and I recommended some places to visit. Then I left to explore some more.
I walked back to Elizabeth's Square and took a picture of these locks. It is the same theory as the Lock Bridge in Paris. Couples put their names on the lock and seal it to show their undying love. I just wonder what they do with the keys. I know on the bridge in Paris they toss it over into the water, but there was no river close by to toss it. Maybe they walked the 10 blocks to the river and then tossed it. Who knows?
I took the metro to the stop by my hostel, but when I left the station I was completely turned around. I wondered through the streets lost. I had to backtrack several times, but I eventually found my hostel. Along the way I saw a McDonalds and I decided that I needed some comfort food, so I went up and ordered a chocolate cookie. I had only intended on ordering 1, but when the server asked if I wanted 2 I had to agree. They would have been better warmed up, but they were still good. Afterward I walked to my hostel and got ready for bed. One of my roommates came back and we talked for a little while. I apologized to her in advance for waking her up early in the morning when I left for the airport at 3 a.m. Then I went to bed to get some sleep. At that time, my other roommate was still out. I woke up around 8 a.m. and took my time getting ready. Today is the day that I will be doing a lot of tours of Budapest. While I was getting ready I talked to my roommate. She was from South Korea and is backpacking around Europe. She didn't speak English very well, but she recommended me a place to eat. Specifically she recommended a dessert, but it was expensive so I decided not to get it. I left to go to the meeting place for my first Free Walking Tour of the Day. It didn't take me long to find it, and I got there about an hour early. I was hungry for breakfast and I saw a sign for McDonalds so I started walking that way. I eventually found it and went in. I have noticed that McDonalds in Europe are different from the U.S. In the U.S. McDonalds are usually for kids, but that is not the case in Europe. I have yet to find a McDonalds with a play area or offering toys in their kids meals. I ordered a Sausage and Egg McMuffin. The lady misunderstood me, she thought I was ordering 2 instead of 1. I told her it was fine and ate both of them. Then I left to go to the meeting place. It was still early, so I wondered around a little bit. I went in H&M and looked around. I walked around the square a little bit. Then I went back to the meeting spot. There was a HUGE crowd at the meeting point. I joined the crowd and waited some more. There were 4 guides, and they broke us into groups of about 20 people per guide. My guide's English name was Sultan, and he was very funny.
The next place we walked to was St. Stephen's Basilica. Sultan told us that the building used to be dark like this one. It is made out of limestone which absorbs pollution. The European Union gave Hungary money to restore the basilica, which is why it is white and pretty today. We started walking toward the river and found this policeman. He has a big tummy because he is well fed and Hungarian food is so fattening. If you rub his belly like Sultan is doing, it means you will have a good meal. When I passed I rubbed his belly while juggling my camera, water bottle, and whatever else I had in my hands at the time. I could only spare a few fingers, so I don't know if it worked or not. After passing him, Sultan pulled us to the side and recommended food to try while we were in Hungary.
They told us a lot of stories about life under Communism and how it still affect them today. Communist governments were not fond of religion. Religion was not forbidden, but if you participated there were consequences. Your whole family was blacklisted, so you didn't get the good jobs or your apartment would be on the bad side of town. To protect their families, many people hid their religious views, even from their children. Priests had it pretty bad as well, because they were blacklisted and they also had penalties laid on them. One of things Roman Catholic priests had to do was report to the government the things discussed in confession. The government would send spies to confession to make sure that the priest was reporting to the government. Now, very few Hungarian people are religious. They also told us about vacations. Everyone had a red passport, which means they could go to other Communist countries freely. Very few people had a blue passport, which meant they could go to non-Communist countries. It could take years to get a blue passport and it was extremely expensive. The passports were only given to the trusted Communist officials. Our guides have a friend whose family had a blue passport and traveled to a non-Communist country. They could not believe what all that they saw. As souvenirs they bought 10 kilos of bananas to bring home for family and friends. The border guards were jealous and would not let them bring the bananas into the country, they were given the choice of giving the bananas to the guards or eating them. So the whole family ate 10 kilos of bananas in under an hour. To this day, our guide's friend refuses to eat bananas. Corruption is rampant in Hungary. They have very high taxes to pay. These taxes pay for things like free health care for everyone and a pension plan. The problem is that the general population only makes about 500 euros per month. Doctors make about 600 euros. Doctors could go to any other country and make double, and that is what they do. A friend of one of the tour guide broke her arm and she had to wait for 5 hours in the ER before she was seen. Hungary has a huge shortage of doctors because they get an education and then leave. So people have to bribe their doctors so they will stay. Our tour guide needs surgery for a minor sports injury. It should be free, but he would have to wait 7 months to get the surgery. He gave the doctor a gift of 100 euros, and he is having surgery next week. Their are websites devoted to how much to bribe a doctor to get moved up on the waiting list or to get better medical care. There is also a statue that I didn't get a good picture of because it was dark. It is of a eagle swooping down on a sleeping angel child. The eagle represents Nazi Germany, and the sleeping child represents an innocent Jewish child. The statue was commissioned by the government and a lot of people protest against it. It is the government's way of rewriting history and saying that Hungarians had nothing to do with the Holocaust or persecution of the Jews, that was the Nazis. That wasn't the truth, the Hungarians also persecuted the Jews and willingly shipped them to work and death camps. Our guide thinks that the government will eventually remove that statue because of the controversy.
Ronald Reagan is in Budapest. He is facing one of the few monuments left of Communism. By the time we got here it was really dark so I couldn't get a picture of the monument. The Monument commemorates the Soviet Union soldiers who died freeing Hungary from the Nazis, which is why the government has allowed it to remain. Right behind the monument is the US embassy, so the Americans see it everyday when they go to work there.
I didn't have time to eat dessert with lunch, so I decided to stop on the way back to my hostel. I stopped at McDonalds and tried their cake. I didn't think it was very good. I don't know if it was because it was McDonalds, or their version of cake is just bad. I finally made it back to my hostel and settled down for the night. I had the whole room to myself, so I switched beds to be closer to the outlet so I could charge my electronics. I also decided to FaceTime home since I was alone for once. After talking to Mom and Dad I went to bed. Sadly, right after I went to bed my roommate decided to show up. I think she tried to be quiet because it looked like I was asleep, but she didn't succeed. If I wasn't still awake, she would have definitely woken me up. Today is the day that I travel to Budapest, Hungary. I had agreed to meet 2 girls so that we could share a taxi to Ciampino Airport. We agreed to meet at 6 a.m. I still needed to pack, so I set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. I woke up every hour worried that I was going to sleep through my alarm. So around 1 a.m., I woke up in a panic, looked at my phone and saw I still had 3.5 hours left. Then repeated this process about an hour later until my alarm finally went off at 4:30 a.m. Every time I woke up it was raining. Then I got ready, packed, ate breakfast and walked down to the taxi stand in the rain. There were no taxis at the taxi stand. Megan (one of the girls I was meeting) and her roommate showed up about 3 minutes after I got there. They are going to London for the weekend. My apartment building was right around the corner so we waited in there while I texted for a taxi. I waited and waited, but I never got the confirmation text. We finally decided to walk to another taxi stand. As we were walking, Megan's roommate happened to look back and saw a taxi turning around and started heading right for us. It was the taxi I had texted. He took us to the Ciampino Airport. I almost didn't recognize the inside of the airport. Every time I have gone there it has been packed with the lines for Security and check-in backed up to the door. There was almost no one in either line when we got there. Freaky. We went our separate ways at the gate, and I waited for my plane. When my plane got there, it was still sprinkling. Luckily, they bused us over. I boarded and sat in the very last row. We took off okay despite the wet run way. In the air we hit a lot of turbulence and it was shaky going for a while, but we finally made it to Budapest safely. I exchanged $10 for Hungarian florints. Then I found the bus stop, bought a ticket, and took the bus to the metro station. At the station I hopped on the Blue Line to central Budapest. There was this weird guy sitting next to me on the train. He kept staring at me. When I would look around in his direction he would avert his eyes, but when I was looking down at my map I could see him watching me and smiling. Creepy! I thought about getting off and catching the next train but I didn't want him to follow me. My stop finally came and I left, he stayed on the train. My hostel was only about a 5 minute walk from the metro stop, so I didn't have problems finding it.
In Budapest there are 3 branches of Judaism: the conservative that keep strictly to traditions, the ones that merge metropolitan life with traditions, and the one in between. The first place we went was the Dohany street Synagogue, the ones in between. To go inside any of the synagogue there is an entrance fee, so we stuck to the outside.
Next we tried to got through a little walled courtyard by the synagogue. We passed the entrance and then an older Jewish man said something to our guide in Hungarian. They got into an argument, but I have no idea what they said to each other. Two younger men came and escorted us off the property. Our guide said the argument was over the religious ceremony. The Jewish day of rest is on Saturday instead of Sunday. It also begins at sunset on Friday evening, right when we were trying to enter the courtyard. So we got kicked out. The next place we went was to the Simpla Bar. It is a ruin bar. Our guide didn't really explain what it was. I learned from a later tour that a ruin bar is situated in an abandoned building. The owners remodeled it and then added funky decorations. Our guide just showed it to us, said it was the most recommended ruin pub in Budapest, and then we left.
That was the worst free walking tour I have ever taken. It was supposed to be 2.5 hours, and it only lasted 1.5. The guide new the basic facts of the history, but didn't offer anything else. Usually the guides are engaging and keep up a running conversation with everyone as we walk from place to place, which she didn't do. When it came time to tip her, I didn't give her that much. Usually I tip the equivalent of $10, but she wasn't that good. She wasn't bad, but usually the guides are great. I only had 2,000 florint notes ($10), but I had 500 florint ($2.5) in small change, so I gave that to her. Now I feel really bad because that wasn't very much, but she didn't deserve more.
When I got back to my hostel I tried to upload the pictures from my memory card to iPhoto, but it didn't want to load. I tried for a while and then gave up. I'll try again later when I am not so tired. Then I read a little bit and went to bed.
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June 2022
AuthorThese are details from my adventures around the world. |