Eleanor and I are so behind in updating this, but we're doing as best we can. This first bit is a continuation of the previous entry, as we ran out of time to post it earlier.

Belli -- As Bizi mentioned, we arrived today in poor spirits. Last night we talked, ate, and drank with the remaining CYA people until 10pm or so, and then we went back to 51-55 Kleomenous for the last time to nap until 1:30am when we walked to Syntagma Sq. We were able to nap somewhat on the plane, but we arrived tired, lost, and confused. First and foremost we had to covercome the language barrier, no small feat, and then deal with the money difference. $1=206 Hungarian forint, so the numbers get REALLY big. WE got to the hostel and napped for 1.5 hours, which didn't help lessen our disorientation (or discombobulation, as I apparently like to say).

We walked around with out having had lunch -- we'd had a bit of breakfast on the plane -- until about 1630. Biz and I think that our not eating a meal for so long contributed to greatly to our bad mood, because we felt much better immediately after eating. While we were waiting for our late lunch/early dinner we reviewed what we'd done and what we wanted to do. I think that refining our plan helped too -- everything is different on paper -- not a concept we thought we'd have to deal with.

For me at least, it's hard to believe I've left Athens. That was one, long, fabulous dream, and this is even more so a figment of our imaginations. It's also hard to fathom that, for the first time in our lives, we've gone somewhere that neither of our parents has been. They can't give us advice, so are truly on our own. It's our chance to grow up.

20 May
Bizi -- Eleanor and I left the hostel bright and early this morning and stopped to buy lunch at the local CBA (a supermarket) before taking the metro and tram to Parliament. We made it in time for the English language tour, which was great because it was cold and raining.

Parliament was spectacular. It's 3m longer than the British Parliament, and too large for the number of MPs ever in existence. It's quite beautiful and ornate, with painted walls and ceilings, just like every old building in Hungary. After the tour we wandered the area and had breakfast (yogurt and crackers) before going on to St. Stephen's (St. Istvan's) Basilica, another grand building. The inside was pretty, but similar to many Catholic churches in Europe, except for the splendor of its dome. We paid a small fee to see the vista, 200 stairs up, which was quite the view. We stayed a few minutes until the noon tolling of the bells, which ring for minutes across the city to commemorate a the Hungarian triumph by Jan Hunyadi against the Turks.

We took another tram (I love trams) to the Great Market Hall, which is a large, open-air buliding, with fruit, vegetables, meat, and linens for sale (Hungary is famous for its linen). On the top floor among the linen sellers we enjoyed Langos, a traditional Hungarian pastry -- fried dough filled with sour cream. Mmmmmm, yummy.

Belli -- Today is much nicer that yesterday, with hardly any rain -- it's even sunny! We're definitely in a much better mood than yesterday. One thing we noticed is that no one seems to buy or validate transportation tickets. We've seen one man besides us validate his ticket, but we couldn't tell if he were Hungarian or a tourist.

We also forgot to mention that we saw a Vietnamese couple get married on Castle Hill, among the old Palace buildings. The bride wore a Western-style wedding dress, but her bridesmaids were wearing traditional Vietnamese dress. We were reminded of this wedding when we later saw another wedding party in cars go down the street, honking in celebration, and that same day, we saw another wedding car, also honking the horn.

Also, when people go to the supermarket here, they don't take their purchases home in plastic bags, instead using brown wicker baskets. This is especially true for the older crowd, and in smaller markets, as the big supermarkets are too Western.

It seems that bikes are a popular mode of transportation here, as there are bike lanes everywhere and one must always look twice before crossing a street: once for the cars, and once for the bikes!

After the Market Hall and lunch, we headed to Keleti Train Station to enquire about trains to Vienna (Wien). The train station, one of the two older stations, has only 4 track and traditionally handled the East-West routes. The trains going for Vienna leave at 0605 and 0920, so Biz decided we should leave on the earlier train, after promising no more early departures (we actually ended up taking the 0920).

Next was the National Opera House (Magyar Allami Operhaz) to take a tour. It was designed by the same architect who did St. Stephan's Basilica. They are equals in oppulence, but the Opera House isn't as awing, friendlier to the common man (and sinner). It was built from 1875-84, and had one of the first AC units in Hungary, right after Parliament. It is also in the top 5 for best acoustics in the world and the stage is about twice the size of the seating area in the auditorium.

We entered Sissy's (Austrian Hapsburg Empress Elisabeth) favorite parlor which had portraits of Hungarians in their most famous roles. Esther, our guide, asked ifanyone could identify two of the portraits -- Biz was the only one to guess both correctly, which were Carmen and Aida. We aslso got to visit the royal box and the Grand Buffet (a foyer) and accompanying smoking corridor, aka the lover's corridor. We then asked about Sunday's Opera, Cinderella in the morning and a ballet in the evening, we may still go, who knows. If not, we're definately going in Vienna. By the way, the state is the second largest in the world, second only to Covent Garden in London.

It's now evening, and we\'re sitting at a cafe/restaurant called Togana on Raday Utca. After the opera house we took the metro up to Vorosmarty Ter to go to the House of Terror, the HQ of the Arrowcross, the Nazi version of the gestapo. We got there and decided our feet were too tired so we got back on the metro (Thank God for the Budapest Card!) and went back to the opera metro stop. Near the stop is Discover Hungary, a tourist information place for backpackers. We spent and hour on the internet and then took the metro to a stop near Vaci Utca. Vaci Utca is the Hermou Street of Budapest, designed to impress the trendy shopper. After Hermou St however, we were less than impressed, it was just really crowded.

We then headed back towards a cafe recommended by Rick Steves, but it looked too expensive, so we started to walk down Raday Utca to a place recommended by Lonely Planet. Unfortunately the place we were heading towards was closed on Saturdays, so we found the cafe we're currently eating at. For dinner, we split paprika chicken with sour cream and noodles and I ordered us a beer to split, which was mostly consumed by me. It was called Borostyan. It was delicious. I highly reccommend that Uncle Nick tries it. I don't know what kind it was, but it was dark amber color and slightly sweet. Last but not least, our waiter is really cute and really nice. He humors our attempts at Hungarian with a straight face.

As we were walking down Raday Utca on our way home, we stumbled across a concert taking place called Plein Art: Kortars Muveszetek Fesztivalja. The music had a jazzy foundation with synth elements. There was also a visual display. It was interesting for a bit, but we decided we were too tired and went home.

I forgot to mention an interesting incident we saw on our way to dinner. We were walking down the middle of Raday Utca, behind a woman walking a dog. All of a sudden, the dog darted under the nearby cafe tables towards the buildings. It turns out that there was a boy there eating an ice cream cone while walking his ferret. The dog was really interested in the ferret, he had walked under the tables in such a way that he was pulling his owner, tables, and chairs with him. This caused a major scrum which took the woman, the boy, and a waiter to sort out. This was not something we expected to see while while we were here!

May 21
Last night, we tried to take a certain tram home, but construction was taking place on the line, so we had to take a different route. By the time we got home we were so tired! We also had new roommates. On the first day there were 5 of us in a room for 11. By the end of the second daz there were 9 and by last night there were 10 of us. This morning we got a new roommate, Janelle from Australia, who is really nice. Unfortunately, we won't be seeing much of her on the remaing day we have here. Because it's Sunday, we decided to give oursevles a bit of a lie-in and slept until 0930. We also took showers today, our first since Athens (gross, we know), which felt really good.

While waiting at the tram stop, we met an Aussie who had stayed at our hostel and was on his way to the bus station to go to Vienna. He'd been in the UK for 3 months, traveling and working, and now he was returning to the UK to get his work visa so he can be a summer camp counselor in Connecticut this summer. He mentioned that he hadn't bought any transportation tickets and had been caught twice. Not long after this conversation, we were checked ourselves -- again, thank goodness for the Budapest Card!

We then went to the train station and bought our tickets to Vienna for tomorrow, and then we got on a tram to City Park . On the tram we saw a man with a 4ft hookah!

Bizi -- We made our way through City Park until we hit Heroes Square (Hosok Tere) a grand square with a larger statue and pillar similar to Trafalgar Square, and then surrounded by pillars and statues of Hungarian VIPs, like Hunyadi, St. Istvan, Bela IV, and Lajos Kossuth. Next to the square were 2 art museums, one with old and one with contemporary art. We decided to go to the old museum as it had art by El Greco, a favorite of mine. They had fabulous Renaissance and medieval art, and the inside of the museum was decorated in lavish Baroque. Unfortunately, the gallery with El Greco was closed off.

It was pouring by this time, so we picnicked on the porch of the museum. When it let up a bit we made our way to a castle, sort of Disney-like, that housed the Agriculture Museum, which were supposed to visit just to see the chapel and "lavish interiors." Well, the chapel was closed (on a Sunday no less!) and all the lavishness was on the first floor, which was closed off. Sigh.

TBC next time folks! Time for us to go see and do! We'll try to get more of this up in Prague.