Rockhiking, Cellulite Flan, Lisa's ID, and Valley Girls. Vamanos!

After a good 9 days off of school and travelling and spending some quality time with Budapest, I was off again. This time I went to Madrid, Spain. It was an amazing trip. 


I got there on Thursday and met up with my friend Val from SLU. It's still pretty warm in Madrid, so we could grab ice cream and wander around the city center. It's beautiful! It reminded me a lot of Rome at times, but a little more American. We saw the Plaza de Espana, Plaza Mayor, a palace, a church... lots of other really cool buildings. Madrid is pretty clean, I noticed. None of the buildings have any nasty black grime on them and they were lit up nicely at night. Also, I love tapas. Spanish omelette and some kind of sauce.... oh man. And red wine mixed with lemonade is pretty good too. It was different. 

Don Quixote and Sancho!!!! (at Plaza de Espana)

at Plaza Mayor

Friday, I went with Val and a group of SLU students to the Sierra Madrid mountains to go hiking. The day was beautiful, it wasn't too hot or too cold, no clods in the sky.... so perfect! After getting off at the wrong bus stop, being lost, and meandering through a residential neighborhood for a while, we found the park where we wanted to hike. The mountains were dessert dry and very rocky. We climbed up all these rock formations, it inspired me to try to get better at rock climbing. Higher Ground, here I come! The view was fabulous. We spent hours wandering off the trails and just climbing things. I didn't want to leave actually, I wish I could go back and do more of that. Val and I decided we're going to go hiking through the Appalachian trail for spring break..... just wanna hike now :)

Rules at the hiking place: No music, no cans, no teepees, no carwashes, no picking flowers, no starting fires. Got it.

lots of rocks

Laura, Val, and I

one of the views

That night I grabbed another kind of tapas for dinner, I can't remember what it was called. It was this spongy bread or crouton chunks... I don't know, little pieces... with a fried egg, sunny side up, on top. I really liked it actually. And finally I found sangria! Then we met up with a few other girls and hung out by the fountain at Plaza de Espana sipping boxed wine and bonding. I went with them to their favorite bar, a place called Dubliners. I liked it. If it had had dancing, it would have been my kind of place 100%. I mean, I still danced there, not much stops me from doing that... I taught some German (or Spanish? or French? What was he?) guy how to swing dance, kind of. And I tried teaching one of the guys from SLU as well. Lost cause. Oh well. Later, I somehow ended up at a club with Val and another girl's I.D. and before I knew it, it was 6am. 


I am then woken up at 10:30am by a guy who works at the hostel I stayed in. Apparently, guests need to leave from 11am-2pm. Seriously? I wasn't meeting Val until 1pm, and my phone didn't work in Spain so I couldn't call her....soooo I slept on a bench in Plaza de Espana. Again, it was another beautiful day and it was warm out. Val came and we walked across town to a museum so I could see some Picasso. I like art, but I'm not really a big fan of contemporary pieces. I'd seen works by Picasso before, but never his darker cubism paintings, so those threw me off. Guernica is crazy. 

Guernica

After that, Val and I grabbed some lunch and went to the Parque Retiro where we could both just people watch and rest. 6am kind of kills you for the rest of the day if you happen to stay up late enough to see it. We ended up hitting up another museum so that I could see one of my favorite paintings, Las Meninas by Velasquez. There was also more impressionism in this museum, which is my favorite. Then we did a little shoe shopping.....Val got some fabulous chocolate brown boots. Wow. 

Las Meninas

at Parque Retiro

Ok, it's weird. Because the first things you think of when you think of Spain are like... soccer, bull fighting, paella, and sangria. I saw the bull fighting arena, I saw a little kid kicking around a ball, and I had sangria.... but Val and I COULD NOT find paella! We walked around for a good hour before finally FINALLY finding some! We just loaded up at some buffet. I'm sure it was sub-par paella, but what do I know? I'd never had it before, so at least I got a taste :-D It must have been eat-as-much-food-as-you-can night, because we got some spectacular dessert... Churros that you dip in chocolate. Perfect combination. I love Spain. 

Val, chocolate, and churros

My flight on Sunday was at 2pm, so we were determined to still fit something in the morning before I had to leave. Val met me early in the morning and we headed to this market that had EVERYTHING for really cheap. Seriously, from art fair kinds of stands with jewelery, knives, leatherwork, weaving, scarfs...to stands with surge protectors, blank cds, batteries, lingerie, boots, gardening gloves... I mean there was EVERYTHING. I managed to get a lot of cool gifts for people ;-) My brother is absolutely going to love the presents I got him for Christmas here. 


And now I am home, I should be practicing Hungarian and going to sleep. I am really tired actually, this hostel was awful for sleeping at, actually. So I think I will just listen to Paul Simon a little longer and call it a day. 


<3 <3 miss you!
Love, Amy

:-)

ps. hopefully I send the 18 postcards I wrote to people tomorrow.... that's procrastination at it's worst. I've had them ready to mail for weeks.  

Jo napolt, Budapest!

How is it that I already need Red Wings rehab? Let me just say that after getting up at 1:30am, and staying up until 5am, to desperately stream a hockey game has given me a newfound respect for die-hard soccer fans in the US. I'll give you the image of me last night: I'm home and in bed, a little bit inebriated from where I was before, and I'm getting up from a quick power nap in my Zetterberg tshirt with my computer in my lap and WingsLive chattering away on redwings.nhl.com. The video is streaming perfectly, Karen Newman is singing my national anthem....the game is underway... Filppula's line grabs a goal! Madonna (I think it's a good nickname) grabs a goal! Within 30 seconds of one another! 2-0.... That's when it happens. The stream stops! The site figured out I'm not watching from the US and closed on me! Soooo I swear a little and resign to listening on fsd radio until my fabulous friend in Australia finds me another site to stream from.....just in time to see Datsyuk complete his Gordie Howe Hat Trick with a fight with Perry. I couldn't even believe my eyes. Datsyukian dekes...and decks! Truly astounding. Not to mention Jimmy's shut-out. Best game I've seen in a while!

I'm crazy

Honestly, this is probably the first time I've felt really homesick, though I'm sure it will fade. NHL kickoff weekend, Michigan-Michigan State game, my brother got to go home from college, my uncle is visiting.... and I'm here, streaming games at weird times of the night. Also, I've been talking about sailing recently, and I got that feeling in my stomach...you know the feeling that makes you go on a boat..... Gah, what am I doing here? hahahah! At least I have pretty weather! And to make everyone jealous, I still have trips to Madrid and Athens coming up this month :-P


........Go Green!


But enough of my crazy obsession with the Red Wings and whatnot. I'm having another enjoyable week in Budapest. No travel plans for this weekend, which is good because I need some time at home. I've been sleeping a ton lately, besides last night, and I realized that I must be exhausted from the last month where I was either sick, in class, or travelling somewhere. I'm planning a bunch of walks to reacquaint myself with the city. I haven't had time to hit up my usual places in weeks! 

New York Hotel in Blaha Lusza, it's actually only American in name..

Gellert Hill

Liberty and Elizabeth Bridges with Buda Castle in the background

Let's see. Last night, there was a Palinka Festival at the Buda Castle. Palinka is a fruit brandy, and it's pretty signature to Hungary, it's one of the main things you're supposed to try when you come here. I hadn't tried it yet because I heard it was awful. And yes, it's really strong. I liked some kinds though. I tried a raspberry palinka, a sour cherry with honey, a plum with honey, and an apple with pear. Plum with honey was by far the  best, and apple with pear.... I can't even think about it. Don't try that. 

My first taste of palinka!

The group minus Esther

pretty castle

the festival, for the most part kinda

Thanks for checking in! I'll update again next weekend after I get home from Madrid. Miss you!


Amy

Rome-ing around...

I did more walking this weekend on the most uncomfortable cobblestone streets you can imagine. How do Italian women do that in heels??? 


I just finished exhausting all possible modes of public transportation to get from Rome to Budapest this morning. Metra ---> Train ---> Plane ---> Bus ---> Metro ---> My Flat ---> My Couch. I am tired. Rome was a good time. It was my second time there and it was cool to see some of my favorite sites again, especially to refresh my memory since my last trip was such a whirlwind. 


Let's see. Some things to note about Rome:
1. It cost 14 euro just to get into the city from the airport. That's a train ticket to the metra, where you again spend another euro for a pass. It's either that or you spend 40 euro on a taxi. I nixed the taxi idea, but a lot of people take one. Seriously, there was like a two block long line of people waiting for a cab!
2. There are tons of beggars. They are really annoying. Especially the ones that stand by the ticket machines where you buy metra passes. They tell you what to do (even though you could just read the directions on the machine...) and then they make you give them change. What reeeallllly gets me are the beggars who have cell phones. 
3. It's impossible to find hostels. The one I stayed at? Unmarked. Huge door. Apartment complex. You're supposed to buzz up when you want to get in so they can open the door....but how do you know to do that if you've never been there before? hahaha
4. The alleys are beautiful. So is Trevi Fountain. And the Vatican. 
5. There are ruins EVERYWHERE. The city has apparently rebuilt itself over itself, or there's buildings built on ruins upon buildings upon ruins. So whenever there is renovation or construction and ruins are found, everything comes to a halt. Legally, they can't keep doing construction if more ruins are discovered. So basically the whole city has massive parts still under construction all the time. But the ruins are so cool. Plus I don't live in Rome, so I don't mind the perpetual detours :-P
6. Dark chocolate gelatto is great. So is honey flavored gelatto. Also, kinder chocolate. Pesto gnocchi. Gnocchi with tomato sauce. Penne with salmon. The cheese. The olives. The wine. If Italy knows anything, it's food.


I got there on Thursday (again, think of any kind of public transportation, I used it) where I had to kill some time before my friend, Molly, got out of class. She's studying in Rome, and I went to visit her. The guy who runs the hostel I stayed at sent me on a pretty cool walk. The hostel was just down the street from the Vatican, so I wandered around there for a bit. Then I meandered down to a district called Trastavere, which was basically made up of really cool alleys and tiny roads. It had some cool bars and restaurants. I met up with Molly after that and we did some more walking. She took me to the Pantheon and St. Ignacius Church, over to Trevi Fountain, the Forum, and the Colloseum. It was cool to see those places at night all lit up. We had dinner at cool little restaurant. Both of us ordered gnocchi, one with tomato sauce and the other with pesto. I. Love. Pesto. The first time I ever tried pesto was when I was in Italy a few summers ago. It was heavenly. When I got back to the US, I couldn't find any that tasted like that, so I had been looking forward to coming Rome....if only because I could get good pesto!

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

Colloseum

My Friday was spent walking. We walked through the Vatican Museum, and I was so happy to see the Sistine Chapel again. I love the wall of the Last Judgement. That and the Hall of Maps are my favorite parts of the Vatican. The Hall of Maps has the most amazing ceiling..... Anyway, after the Vatican, we went to find a famous gelatto place that apparently delivers to the Pope. We thought we knew where we were going, but we missed a turn and ended up walking for an hour just to find the place. It was worth the trouble, though. Caramel, dark chocolate, and chocolate chip gelatto.... oh man. After, Molly and I walked up to a park where we caught am amazing view of the city. Then we were so tired we laid down in the grass for a while and listened to music and mini-napped. Much needed. My legs hurt so much! However, even in the park...while we were trying to keep our eyes shut and chill...there was someone trying to sell us something. Those people are everywhere, goodness. My dad probably would have thrown a fit! Maybe. hahaha anyway... For dinner I got more pesto pasta and Molly got this penne and salmon with a weird sauce. We shared food and I really liked hers. It made her sick though, so she couldn't come out for drinks. I went with some people from the hostel- two girls from Wales, and some flight attendants and a pilot from the US. 

Vatican; St. Peter's Basilica

Hall of Maps...and the coolest ceiling ever

Saturday, Molly was better. We spent the day....walking! We took a train to Marino where there was a little festival going on. It was a cute town built into some hills. We ate some cheese, olives, and tried some red wine. The cheese was so good. I can still taste it and I want more. When we got back to Rome, we helped an American couple who asked us for directions get to the Vatican.....as that's where we were headed. There is no line for St. Peter's Basilica in the late afternoon/early evening, and I wanted to see it again before I went back to Budapest since I couldn't remember being in it a few summers ago. It's HUGE! And there are dead popes all around. But really, the sheer size and beauty of that basilica is astounding and awesome. I felt so small when I was standing inside it. Later, we found the cheapest dinner...pizza and some other thing. 3 euros for 2 people to eat. My kind of deal. We also went to this bar that is famous for its iced tea. It was so delicious. And of course, more gelatto. Honey flavored...and ginger and cinnamon flavored... yum! I'm so glad I'm going back to Budapest so I can get away from all this sugar and the carbs... 

Tiber River

Molly and I at Pantheon

Bella Roma

It was a pretty jam packed weekend. I'm very happy and fortunate that I was able to go there though. Now it's back to nine days in Budapest before heading to Madrid. Two weeks after Madrid, then, is Athens, followed by Krakow, followed by Prague. Seriously, am I in real life right now? 


xoxo, Amy