Springtime in Praha

I went to Prague this past weekend, and it was quite incredible. It is a beautiful city, many people commented that this is what they thought Europe would look like. It's very old, and has never had a major conflict, so the buildings are actually intact and old, unlike most of the rest of Europe. It's filled with Gothic churches, a 700 year old bridge...and more tourists than you could imagine. The city is jam packed with tourists from all over the world. I went because I knew I could stay for free with Carlye, but it just so happened there were 3 more Mac kids in town to go along with Carlye and all those kids on her program. So it was a little reunion, and that made it a lot of fun. The city is a set up a lot like Budapest. The busier, flat side of the river is where most of the things happen, and the hillier, older side has a castle district and a funicular. It's cleaner, and smaller, and the river is smaller, but it's a similar look. The food was amazing as well. They have bratwurst and kielbasa stands up all over. You can get a brat smothered in onions and mustard until at least 1 in the morn. They were more expensive than in Berlin, but still, at least they got 'em. Carlye and I ate this amazing meal at some hole in the wall pub/restaurant. We got duck thigh, ham, sausage, other kinds of meat, potato dumplings, Carlsbad dumplings, bread dumplings, pickled cabbage and this delicious dark beer. It was served in a wooden trough, and we felt like kings in some old story, just shoveling food in our mouths. If I woulda had a beard, the image would have been complete.

I'll just throw up the pictures, and comment on them.




This was the incredible Gothic Cathedral in the castle district. It was modeled after Notre Dame, and I loved it.



We went to the Franz Kafka Museum, which was great, I never knew anything about him, and now I know a lot. This is the statue of him.



All the buildings in the city are old, but the ones that aren't are cool and moderny like this.



The astrological clock, where hundreds and hundreds of tourists gather to watch some minor movements of the apostles. But the clock is cool, 400 years old.



This is a turn to the right from the previous picture. This square was filled with an Easter Market, and that beautiful building on the right is another cool church.



This was the hotel Carlye stayed at, a swanky number called the Grand Hotel Evropa. It's on a historic square, and the inside is all the 110-year old Art Nouveau original stuff. Macalester paid for all the students on her program to stay there.



This is some tower in the city, there are many like this around the city, which is a lot of fun. The building that the tower is connected to on the left is the one Tom Cruise jumped off of in Mission Impossible, or so I'm told. I don't remember that, but every time we went past it, someone brought that up.



This is the river, the 700 year old bridge, and also the largest club in central Europe can be seen.



Here's the river again, from further downriver. Also Carlye is in this one.

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to go to Prague, do it. Its gorgeous, and at least for me, even the tourists weren't so bad, as they were kind of a nice change of pace.

The family came...(in Pictures)

My mother sent me some pictures, and here they are.

Katy, Emily, Carlye, and Me (for those who don't know)
We are on Gellert Hill, Castle Hill is back and to the left.


This is at M, the cool restaurant with the fun maître d' and the brown paper walls.


This is in Eger at the palacsinta place. Emily was particularly goofy at this meal.


This is on top of the minaret in Eger. The castle is in the back right.


And that's that.

The family came...

...and much fun ensued. I realized that I don't have many pictures from their time here at all, because they had their cameras out the whole time and I figured the time spent would be well documented. So if you are in their vicinity, ask my sisters for pictures. Otherwise hopefully my description will suffice. Though I have forgotten many things, so this will be a work in progress, with anyone who was there free to jog my memory in the comments section. So check back later and I will have edited this post with the forgotten elements.
My mother (or mum, apparently my calling her mother is "creepy" according to Katy and Em), Katy and Emily made it to Budapest last Friday. We went out for some magyar pizza, and then they fell asleep. I watched High Fidelity dubbed in Hungarian, some BBC with Hungarian subtitles, and then Twin Peaks dubbed in Hungarian. I didn't understand much, but it was fun.
Carlye arrived the next morning, and we all embarked on a journey across Buda. We walked up Gellért Hill, then moved on to Castle Hill. March 15th is a national holiday in Budapest, commemorating the failed revolution against the Habsburgs in 1848, and so the streets everywhere were filled with marchers carrying flags. In Castle Hill, there was a concert, and the main square was filled with a torch wielding mob. They were a pretty peaceful mob though. After a 'quick' run through all the sites on the Hill, we rode the tram around to Oktogon to eat Indian fast-food. Once done, we tried to ride the tram home, but were told it wasn't going that direction tonight. Apparently there had been a pretty big riot at Blaha Lujza Square, complete with Molotov cocktails. We saw the aftermath, which consisted of vans and army jeeps filled with police in riot gear (more than 4500 police, we learned later). So that was some excitement.
Well, now I realized I can't write this in depth or I'll go over my word limit on here, so I'll just give highlights. After Saturday's beautiful weather, it turned fairly cold and rainy the rest of the week, which was too bad. It hadn't been that cold here since early February.
Sunday: First we went to the Holocaust Museum, which was depressing as you might imagine it would be, but very very interesting to see the war from a European perspective, and the part Hungary played in it all. Then we headed to the Széchenyi Baths! Beautiful indoor/outdoor steam baths, mineral baths, whirlpools, saunas, cold baths, lukewarm baths, jacuzzis, everything water related you can imagine.
Monday: Went to the Great Market Hall, ate langos (deep fried potato dough covered in sour cream and cheese), and shopped for souvenirs. Walked down Váci utca (a very upscale fashion and touristy street), encountered a large outdoor market, and ate delicious cakes at Gerbeaud (the start of a trend)
Tuesday: Carlye left in the morning, and then we went
Wednesday: Ate at a pretty cool restaurant called M. I had duck thigh and pickled red cabbage. Watched Sweeney Todd at Corvin movie theater. The movie had Hungarian subtitles, which was a lot of fun, and the movie theater is a very historic place. During the (also failed) 1956 revolution, a lot of fighting took place at the theater. The rebels were on top of the theater fighting against the Soviet tanks.
Thursday: Rode the train out to a small Hungarian town out in the eastern valleys called Eger. We saw the castle, wandered about its quaint streets, visited many churches, shopped, and ate palacsinta (a Hungarian crepe/pancake stuffed with whatever you want it to be stuffed with, I had chicken curry of sorts, Mother had brokkoli, and the girls had pork, beans and corn in a chili sauce).
Friday: More wandering around Eger, climbed an old Turkish minaret, visited the Valley of the Beautiful Woman (or Nice Lady Valley, as the translations on the signs read). This valley produces some of the best wines in the world, including the world-famous Egri Bikaver, so we had a taste of a couple.
Saturday: Went to a flea market out on the edge of town. It was huge and very cool, but it was also very cold and rainy, so that took away a good part of the fun. Visited the Terror Museum (I'll post a picture later). This building was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party from 1942-1945, and then the ÁVO from 1945-1956. The Arrow Cross Party was the Nazi puppet regime in Hungary, and the ÁVO was the Hungarian arm of the KGB. So this was where Hungarian citizens where brought to be tortured and mysteriously disappear and such. The museum was very well done, and very fascinating. Went out to eat more Indian food for dinner, but of much better quality than the fast-food stuffs.
Sunday: Mother and Emily leave at 5 in the morn, and Katy and I wander about town, get hassled by the subway ticket inspectors, and then she left for Venice at 5 in the evening.

Also, the picture on the right changed. I figured maybe it was time. It was taken at Neighborhood Cafe on Selby Avenue in St. Paul.

Pécs pictures

Some of the pictures from my Pécs trip. This site only allows me to put up 5 pictures at a time and it takes a long time at that. So I will put up more later, but for now, here's Pécs.


This is the National Theatre. A gorgeous building.



An average street in the hills of Pécs.



One of the many hills behind the city.



The aforementioned church turned mosque turned church, here is the Holy Water in the alcove with the Koran quote.



Here is the interior of the church. Lots of Turkish elements combined with Christian stuffs as well. Pretty fun.

Ödön Lechner

I just did a report on Ödön Lechner, so I will share with you here the pictures and a bit about the man. Ödön Lechner was the premier Hungarian architect. He designed many buidlings around Hungary, and many in Budapest. He was the driving force behind the foundation of an actual Hungarian style of architecture, rather than simply borrowing styles from elsewhere in Europe. These three buildings were built around the turn of the century. They all use Zsolnay tiling. Zsolnay was the best porcelain manufacturer in the world, and they made roof tiles which can be seen on many of the buildings in Budapest (Matthias Church, Parliament, etc.) and which contributed much to the Hungarian architectural aesthetic. I went to the Zsolnay museum last weekend down in Pecs.

This is the Museum of Applied Arts, his best work in my opinion.


The inside foyer. The picture isn't a good one because that man you see there yelled at me to not take a picture, while I was taking this picture. But you can see the curviness. He liked curves.


Again, the inside foyer. Notice the many arches, and the arches within the arches.


This is the Geological Museum.


And this is the National Savings Bank. The American Embassy shares a block with this building, so it is a very well protected block.



Anyway, now you have an idea of Hungarian architecture. Another fun thing about him is that Ödön is the Hungarian version of Eugene, so he always makes me think of Grandpa.

János Hill

Last Friday, after a breakfast get together at Sam's (we made pancakes, no maple syrup here though, so we had rice syrup and jam), I climbed up János Hill. It is the highest hill within the city boundaries. The hike up was a lot of fun. I got off off the tram, surrounded by tall hills, and tried to figure out which one was János. After deciding upon one, I walked up the winding roads, with houses and little town centers scattered about, it felt like a small town in Colorado or some such place. Eventually I found a trail (after a scary adventure with an abandoned campsite) and hiked nearly vertically for a long ways. When I finally got to the top, exhausted and thirsty as all get out, I was greeted by this:


This is the view back towards Budapest. I don't know if you can figure out what is what, but Buda is this side, Pest is across the river. I had never tried sepia or black and white on my camera before, so I tried it. This one is in sepia tone, the next is black and white.




This is the view the other direction, I thought the clouds looked cool.




This is the view from the hill, zoomed in 12x.



This is the structure at the top of the hill, the pictures were taken from the top of this.

The following morning Carlye arrived, and we traveled all about the city, eating at delicious restaurants and trying some of the fancier cafes. It was a blast. Tomorrow Mother, Katy, and Emily arrive.

New Travel Plans

Well I just made a bunch of new travel plans, so I thought maybe I would post them here, and if anyone has suggestions/advice, that would be great. My plan's:

• Possible go somewhere (hopefully Prague) with the fam mid-March
• Go visit Carlye in Vienna one of the next two weekends
• Late April take a trip with my rail pass on some weekend (I have three days, so somewhere in the region, maybe Bratislava or Krakow)
  
• First two weekends in May are 4-day weekends, one weekend go to London, then other go to Bucharest
• After the program is over, fly to Brussels, then go to Maastricht, Paris, Rome, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Vienna and back to Budapest

What'cha think? Other places I would like to go include Greece and Belgrade, but I think Greece is too far away and Belgrade is probably not a safe place right about now.

Pécs

I just got back from a weekend trip to Pécs, a small city in southern Hungary. In 2010 it will be the European Capital of Culture, along with Istanbul. It's other claim to fame is having the largest building in Central Europe that is not in use. It is a 22-story building towering over part of the city, and all of it is vacant. I went with Chris, a fellow BSMer, who attends Yale back in the States. I learned lots of things about Yale and secret societies and such. We left Saturday morning, took the train, and that was quite a bit of fun in itself. I don't think I have ever been on a train before. The countryside was beautiful, and we ate in the dining car, which was kinda cool. We arrived at around noon, and the weather was blah. It was overcast and rainy all day. So we went to a bunch of museums: A basilica dating from the 11th century, Hungarian Modern Art Museum, the Ferenc Martyn Museum, the Csontvary Museum (this really cool Pécs born painter, very good), a church turned mosque turned back to church (it is of Turkish design, but is now a Catholic church, the holy water is in a little alcove which is filled with quotes from the Koran, it was great). We then went out to dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town. We heard the key in rural Hungary is to go to fancy places, you get an amazing meal for the price of a good meal. So I had apricot soup with whipped cream and almonds for starters, followed by roast pork with ham and fried onions in tarragon gravy, and a dessert of poppyseed cake with candied plums. It was outstanding, and it was all only $20, with drink (a local pilsner) and tip. The funny part was that this was a fancy establishment, and the were playing crappy old American pop music. They played that Dido song twice while we were there. We then went to a bar for Unicum (basically the national drink of Hungary, it is a very bitter digestif) and tried one of the darker local beers. Then we went to Murphy's Pub and had Guinness, and there was this ridiculous band playing. It consisted of a keyboardist playing the cheesiest pre-programmed synth noises and a girl singing. She sang "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear?" twice. Then we tried a bar/club place, but it was tiny and full, so we moved on to a place the guide book called "the hippest place in town, where the In crowd goes." So we thought we'd try to be the In crowd. We got there about 10.30-11.00, and we were the first ones there. No one else showed up for awhile, so we just watched the fun lights and disco ball and wondered if this place paid the guidebook to say that just to get curious tourists. But 11.30 a DJ went on, and some people trickled in. By 12.30-1.00 it was packed with the most well dressed people I have seen here yet in Hungary. We felt pretty out of place and tired, so we retired.
Sunday morning we woke up early and climbed the hills behind the city. There is a huge TV-tower (the Soviets loved their TV-towers) on top of one of the hills, and we made that our destination. It was a gorgeous walk through the hills. I had forgotten how much I enjoy hiking, and it inspired me to go explore the Buda hills better. We got to the top and found out you can go up the tower for a couple hundred forint, so we did. It was amazing. The hill itself is 535 meters above the city, and the observation deck is another 75 meters straight up. You could see forever in every direction. It was astounding. Now I wish I had gone up the TV-tower in Berlin. Following this we went to see another Turkish mosque (the most complete Turkish mosque with a minaret in all of Hungary) and then went to a Serb-Croatian restaurant. I had a Lepenkeyés, which was a goose fat and purple onion sandwich on a toasted pita. It sounding like the most intriguing thing on the menu, and so I got it. It was actually quite delicious. I also got a side of "mixed vegetables," which consisted of peas, carrots, and potatoes smothered in cheese. Here I also tried the third Pécsi beer here. It was alright. For dessert I got chestnut puree with whipped cream. Delicious. Then we got on the train and came back!
I'll put up pictures of all this soon.