An American in Budapest: Loving My Time Here in Budapest!

Again I'm sorry for sparse updates! Still delightfully busy, but also the Internet at my accommodation was down for four days. I like to think I would have posted before now if I'd had less Internet trouble, but who knows.

Krakow, POLAND - Saturday, June 11 - Monday, June 13

In Hungary, the Monday following Pentecost Sunday is a national holiday, hooray! So for the long weekend, a group of 10 of us decided to road trip (in tiny European cars!) north (some number of kilometers which escapes me, surprise) to Krakow. To the amazement of me and my fellow North Americans, we picked up and drove to another country (passing through a third country) in roughly the time it takes me to drive from Jacksonville to Chapel Hill - and only that long because we took it slowly!

We drove through mountains in Slovakia, which are very pretty, and had to use Euros to buy window passes just to be on the highway. Every time we passed a castle, Sandra (Canadian), Kevin, and I would flip out, taking pictures out of our windows, and the Europeans would just laugh at us. And all of us jammed to some 90s Backstreet Boys song on the radio while driving through a Slovak village. The holiday would have been worth it even for the road trip alone, I think!

SAT: First thing I did in Poland was say "dzien dobry" (good day, which I remembered!) to the cutest little Polish girl in a shop. Moved into our large flat in Kasimierz district :); ate zapiekanki (half a baguette, layer with mushrooms, cheese, fried onions, meat, etc, toasted); free walking tour of the district (the Jewish quarter); drinks in main square (they put flavor shots like ginger and raspberry in beer there!); dinner at a Hungarian restaurant (I know... but our Polish friend said it was her favorite restaurant in Poland), think potato pancakes with goulash; and out in Kasimierz!

SUN: Hiked with a friend up a hill for some great views of the city; explored a rock quarry; visited Massolit Books (English bookstore opened by an American grad student... I've been to the second store in Budapest and loved the large one in Krakow); for dinner, Milk Bar Polish restaurant (they didn't even speak English, thank goodness for our Polish friend Joanna); listened to a benefit concert in the square. Went to a neat bar called Alchemie - to go from room to room you have to open and step through a wardrobe, very Narnia-esque :)

MON: National Park to the north - we picnicked with a feast of Polish breakfast foods (my obsession with Central European cottage cheese continues); saw castle ruins; ate ice cream (we always squeeze in ice cream); and hiked up for a tour of a cave where a Polish king hid from Czech armies for 6 weeks before coming out to regain his throne! Possibly my first cave experience ever. Anyway went back to Krakow for more zapiekanki and didn't leave the city until 10pm... so we got back around 5am which was crazy. It's kind of thrilling to be two countries from work at 10pm before a workday.

Hope it wasn't too long! Here are some pictures: