Jackie's Visit

The week of March 12 my roommate from freshman year came to visit me. It was really fun, we spent all our time in Budapest and also visited a nice town not that far from Budapest called Szentendre.Me and Jackie taking the metro after I picked her up from the airport.

Jackie on our balcony.


Jackie eat the really good paprika biscuit things from dinner (mom and dad we are going there, I ate 3 of those gigantic rolls)

The next day we went to castle hill. This is me in front of the royal palace, which is now a museum.

They had some medieval actors dressed up in the courtyard but we just could not figure out how this guy fit in with the rest.

The next day we went to Szentendre with Matyas and Lorraine. This is us on the tram/train ride there.

This is the open air museum right outside of Szentendre. Its kind of the same concept as Old World Wisconsin.


Cute sheep with twisty horns. I learned that the twisty horns makes them a special Hungarian breed.


Me and Lorraine on the seesaw. Reminded me of the seesaw in Sister Bay.


All of us in the actual town of Szentendre, on the Danube.

Jackie and I eating our ice cream. I found that while she was here a lot of sweets were consumed. Some days we would go at get desert somewhere instead of eating lunch.


This weekend was the National Day. It is basically a day when Hungarians can all get together and protest what they don't like about their government. This picture is taken right outside our apartment from the balcony. There is a blockade and all those people are police with shields. Down the road a couple of blocks at Blaha Luijza people were protesting and the police were waiting for them.


The next day was really relaxing. We walked around a little and went to the baths.


This is just a picture from after we went to the baths.

The rest of Jackie's trip I had classes so we didn't do as much together during the day. We went to the market and got a lot of fresh vegetables and made an awesome dinner. When I was in class she went to see the House of Terror, which is a really interesting museum about the Nazi and Soviet occupations. She went sightseeing with some of my friends to the top of Gellert hill. Overall it was a really fun trip and I'm so glad she could come and visit me. It was really nice to see someone from home and she had so much fun that I think she is coming back this summer for a couple of weeks to visit.

Hungarian Evening

We had a Hungarian evening at school the night before we went to Eger. They made us goulash and we got to see and try some traditional Hungarian dancing.

Everyone eating goulash.

Rudas Sparty

The same weekend of Eger and Miskolc we went to a spa party. It was on Saturday night in the Rudas Baths. I had only been to the Szechenyi Baths before this so it was cool to see these baths and the differences. The Rudas Baths are the most Turkish baths here. They were built in 1566 and have an octagonal pool, domed skylit cupola and huge columns. It was a really cool party and my friend Matyas has a water proof camera so I figured I would post some pictures because usually there is no way I would be able to take pictures when I'm in the baths.


Lorraine making crepes for everyone at our place before the Sparty.


Everybody at our house before the Sparty.

Then we went to the sparty.

This is what the main room of the Rudas Baths look like normally.

...and this is what it looked like at the Sparty.



There was entertainment too, as well as dancing. There were these synchronized swimmers and the fire throwing man in this picture.


Some of my friends in the pool .


My roommates and I.

Me and Pauline.

Eger and Miskolc

We went to Eger and Miskolc this weekend (March 7-8). Eger is a town in Hungary known for its wine. This is where the famous Bull's Blood wine comes from. It also has a castle that was successfully defended by the Hungarian army (2,000 soldiers) against the Turks (80,000 soldiers) in 1552. Later the Turks came with reinforcements and took over the castle in 1596.

Miskolc is more of an industrial city. We went there for the night to go to the baths inside a cave.

Me sleeping on the train.

Eger train station.


Janne, Mary, Guilloume and Reetta sitting outside eating lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Turkish minaret.


George climbing up the minaret. It was a really small space and a really long climb.

Looking down at everyone from the top of the minaret.

Me at the top with the castle in the background.

Hungarians fighting the Turks in 1552.

The castle.


Me riding a rocking horse inside the castle.


Castle on the inside.

Everybody at the castle.


Cathedral of Eger.

Dome of the cathedral.

Reetta and Guilloume in front of the wine cellars.

The first four who found the best wine cellar ever!

...and then the rest came.

After the wine cellars we took a train that evening to Miskolc to go to the cave baths.

The cave baths.

That night we stayed at a house with a bunch of rooms for rent, it was really nice, a lot nicer than a hostel but the same price.

The next day before we left we walked around Miskolc a little, this is me running into Eline's picture :)

Veszprem

This past Friday (Feb 29) we went to visit Veszprem. Veszprem is a small town outside of Budapest, about 2 hours by train. It is one of the oldest towns in Hungary. It was built of several hills so it has very nice landscape.



The castle. Apparently a castle is just a bunch of buildings with a wall around it.


Everybody about to enter the castle.



View of the town from the castle.

View of the bluff from the castle.

Crucifix at the edge of the bluff.


Megha, Eline, Tuomas, and I at the castle.


Holy Trinity square.

Gold embellished statue/monument in Holy Trinity square.

Everyone at the foot of the fire watch tower.