Budapest, Hungary!

Hey! Its been awhile since I updated this thing so time to fill people in again. It is now March.. and it is still cold and snowing. Not okay. According to the locals it is "crazy" to get even one snowfall a year.. It has been snowing since we got here it seems! Hopefully we get to see the tulips before i leave again in eight short weeks.. getting sick of biking in the cold..  Everything else is still going splendidly.. host family school bible studies excursions.. everything is awesome!

Education

The education system out here is vastly different.. So i decided to cover briefly just a little bit about it before I get into Budapest, of course this is all my understanding of it.. To start the private and public schools out here are both funded by the government- that was a huge surprise. When kids are around the age of twelve they are tested and the parent's together with the kids decide what school to send them to the following year. The smartest kids go to one school, most kids to a middle school, and then the kids that need help to another. Already at that young age then kids need to decide what field they want to go into, and they start learning that. In the grade school equivalent we were in the kids were learning how to weld, work with metal, woodworking, business situations, you name it and they had an entire setup intended to practice it! The kids then can go on to high school(college) specifically to learn that skill.. the school we are at out here is actually for nurses, social work, and theology majors. A few of the elite can go to university which is more like what the American college is like. There are lots of positives and negatives to the system, and of course I am sure that I have stated some things slightly different and left things out.. it gets really confusing. In brief though, I am glad that i was educated in America! Here you need to pick where you are going quite early in life, even when i was eighteen i didn't know where i was going to end up! I also love having a liberal education in college, which is not offered out here. I did read an article recently that some colleges are starting to lean that direction here though. The positive is obviously that they produce a lot of people that are ready to work at a young age. Personally though, I feel that potential is stifled when people are classified. If one is excellent in music but can't pass math they are not allowed into university! Finally, the other thing that is vastly different is that all "special" kids are segregated into a school of their own. This means that we peeked into a classroom that was all ADD and ADHD kids.. Again, there are positives and negatives. They are getting an education catered to them.. but I think it would be better if they worked harder to fit in with the rest of the class personally so that they don't feel different or labeled!

On to travel! The class visited Utrecht.. but i have not had a chance to look at my pictures yet so I will cover that later!  Last week the business class had a trip to Berlin to go to a conference.. and sadly I'm not part of that class. So Ashleigh and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go on the cheapest trip we could find, which was Budapest, Hungary! We booked on Sunday and flew out Tuesday afternoon!

Flying with "wizzair" was an experience! The plane landed and everyone clapped as soon as the wheels were down safely, we didn't realize why until he bounced the plane drastically when we landed on the way home and no one clapped!

Hostels are always an experience.. We buzzed the door and a man with dreadlocks down to his waist answered. It turned out to be an awesome place, despite whatever the people who worked there were smoking;) We got plenty of Hungarian culture that is for sure!

We took advantage of a free walking tour of the city the first day and learned so much! It was also the only english speaking people we met the whole trip... which made it quite difficult to navigate!

As always.. street artists are my favorite!

We ate with the group after the tour.. I had paprika chicken.. I think. It was tasty and cheap!! One dollar is equal to 226 forints.. so thankfully food and everything was quite affordable this trip. Walking around with 5000 forint bills was a new experience. We dined with a group of people studying in Finland, from Ireland, Greece, New Jersey, and Australia.. very exciting!

St. Stephen (pronouced steven.. made me miss ya dad!) was the first king of Hungary.. and the city places him on a pedestal even with Christ himself. Also interesting that most of the country is Christian!

On Fisherman's Bastion with their parliament building in the background.

Hopefully you can click and enlarge.. this is a panoramic taken from the Bastion.

That afternoon we decided to find the Elizabeth Lookout tower.. the highest point around and supposed to be easy to find.. after two buses a tram an ancient train a lot of backtracking.. some scary places (see above).. maps from people who didn't speak english.. and more walking than I care to think about.. we finally did find what we were looking for, and it was well worth the walk!

The entire city behind us! 

St. Stephens Basilica.. second largest church building in Hungary.

The next morning we got up bright and early to see the Central Market.. three floors of food souvenirs and shops!

The Rock Church had a lot of history behind it.. but the coolest thing for me was when Ashleigh told me that the cave is naturally heated by the streams running through the pillars in the cave.

Epic Bridge from the top of Gellert Hill.. by far my favorite bridge of the semester so far!

After a long climb we made it to Lady Liberty! Iconic she is always lit and above the city. She is one of the few remaining statues from the communist era. Hungary was communist until 1989, and after that all of the statues were torn down, but people liked her to much so she was instead covered with a white sheet for three days to cleanse her and now she remains standing.

The city behind us..

Their royal guards were almost as cool as London's!

Buda Castle

Found Aslan again on the Chain Bridge.. first bridge to connect Buda and Pest, yes they are two separate and completely different cities.

More Hungarian food! Langos made in the fire.. Sourdough bread with garlic sauce and cream cheese, then bacon and cheese.. We had some later that were fried instead and both varieties were awesome and filling! A typical hungarian meal can be up to 3000 calories.. yes the old men have big bellies.

Typical snack.. we were told it was like cheesecake.. they lied.

Following morning we went to city park and saw the Millennium Monument

 Budapest is known as the city of spas! We visited Szechenyi Bath. It is the largest medicinal pool in the Europe made up of 18 pools. The big outdoor one behind us is still around 80 degrees because they are all spring fed. They contain all kinds of minerals that are good for joints and illnesses and such too. We spent about three hours here and tried all the pools.. warm hot and freezing.. along with the saunas and the whirlpool. Sitting in a pool in the middle of a palace.. I can not complain!

These guys play chess in the pool year round.

What's a trip without an awesome candy store

Hungary is an extremely poor country. There was homeless laying all over the place all times of day. The subways and buses were.. old is putting it nicely! The trams were interesting though.. we rode the #7 tram in the world according to national geographic! Another thing we noticed- people here are not afraid to show affection to each other in public, at all. Everywhere we went there was people all over each other, which made for some awkward bus rides!

Graffiti absolutely everywhere.

After two days a few wrong buses... ya wow this place was hard to find. To further the experience it is open until sunset.. notice how the sun is up and we are not inside? Enough said. Monument Park is outside of the city but where all of the communist statues were put in 89. We were told not to even ask the locals about the communism.. apparently it is a very touchy subject.

Stalin's boots! The rest of him was torn down.

Lenin..

Waiting for the bus back in the awesome bus stop

The synagogue is the 2nd largest in the world.

Weeping Willow tree.. each leaf is full of inscriptions of people murdered during the holocaust. "Whose Agony is Greater than mine"

We had a few hours to kill as we had to be at the airport at four in the morning.. so we went to city park for a few hours and managed to catch a Mumford and Sons concert for free! The entrance was so close to the stage we were able to enjoy the music and then get to the bustop.. where we saw a dead man on a bench nearby being tended to by police. Quite humbling. Overall it was a fantastic trip and we were blessed to make it there and back safely! The last picture is a full 360 degree taken from Buda Castle.. Left to middle wall is 180 degrees.. then to the right wall is another 180 degrees... Hope that makes sense! Miss everyone! Ill be home in eight weeks!