Halloween, BSM style!

Last night a group of people held a progressive Halloween party, called the Yellow Line Progressive (since all the people hosting lived along the Yellow Line). Since it was a bunch of math majors, you KNOW there were some terribly nerdy costumes.

Dan and Joe went as a bijection. I think it was my favorite math costume. Hello my name is F(U), Hello my name is U.












Towers of Hanoi drawn on Bruce's back, by yours truly.














The traveling salesman problem on Bill's back, also my handy-work. (I am so proud of this, and I got requests for a couple more)





















All the math jokes! From left to right:
Me, a contradiction (a walking contradiction!)
P vs NP (they were carrying around dart guns and fighting a lot)
A compact set (get it? she's closed and bounded!)
A bijection








The Pacific Northwest Crew.
Brookings, OR
Corvallis, OR
Seattle
Seattle
Seattle










The metro passes with the metro conductor. Faaantastic. Not only did we have four girls as metro passes, we also had the Red Line, the Yellow Line, Oktogon, Kodály Körönd (both metro stops on the Yellow Line) and 2 metro inspectors.









After 6 stops we ended up at Morrison's, a karaoke bar right by the Opera that plays lots and lots of American pop.

We got a lot of strange looks on our way between the stops on the progressive, since Halloween isn't really celebrated over here...

Prague: sort of near Berlin

I am home from Prague! I am (currently) at Soho, since there may or may not be riots going on in Pest today, including on Andrassy útca, which is the street the boys live off of.

Prague was a wonderful adventure! After my last post we walked to Old Town Square, stopping by the mall so I could buy batteries. We wandered a lot, poking our heads into the St Nicholas church, watching the astronomical clock strike noon, and braving the frightening tourist zoo of the Charles Bridge. We got lunch (and hot apple grog!) at a café across the bridge, then made our way slowly back to BJ's. There were beautiful scarves on sale all over Prague (they sell similar ones in Budapest, truth be told) that were 90% cashmere, 10% silk for less than $20, so I bought one during our wanderings. It was very, very cold outside and I had left my regular scarf back in Budapest, so it was a necessary purchase.

Once we got back to BJ's we laid low for a while. Tom made connections with a friend who was also in Prague, Pat fell asleep, and Voula and I took a walk to Flora, a nearby mall, to buy sweet Euro tights (we'd been talking about buying tights since we got to Budapest, but the opportunity finally presented itself this time). Voula got a pair of argyle knee-highs and a pair of plain green opaque tights, and I got one pair of opaque black tights and one pair of red tights with black polka dots. Hooray!

The two of us walked back to BJ's with our new purchases in tow, then went with Mihály, Barry and Pat to U Sadu, a pub that BJ had recommended. Beef is impossible to find for a reasonable price in Budapest as far as I have seen, but this pub had rumpsteak (hee hee... rump) for pretty cheap so I got a steak and two pints of their cheapest beer on tap (woo!). We walked back to BJ's, then hung out and watched EuroTrip. Around the end of the movie I got a message from Tom on facebook; he'd been trying to call but none of us had been answering our phones. Mine was out of minutes and BJ's phone, that he'd left with Voula, was on vibrate in the other room. This was his only way of getting back into the apartment, since the doorbell didn't work. Luckily he had internet where he was, otherwise he would have had to spend the night there.

We slept late the next morning, later than we'd wanted to, then got an even later start. We made a delicious breakfast of fruit and yogurt, then finally made it out of the apartment by noon-ish. That day we went to the National Museum, then the Prague Castle. The National Museum was amazing. The coolest part was the zoology exhibit, by far. SO MANY STUFFED ANIMALS! The castle was also quite cool. St. Vitus' is gorgeous and huge, and not quite as decadent as St. Istvans. Still, it's easy to see why Martin Luther had a s**t fit.

Me and Voula left the boys there and went back to BJ's to clean up before he got home. The boys joined us a little after BJ got home and then the whole group of us went to another pub in the area for dinner and so we could treat BJ to a couple beers to thank him for letting us stay in his flat. And I got rumpsteak again (it was just too delicious!). Because BJ was home that night, Barry, Tom and Pat stayed at a hostel and Voula and Mihály and I stayed on the living room floor of BJ's.

We met up with the others in the morning, did a little more sightseeing, went to the grocery story for lunchy stuff, got lost trying to find the train station, but made the 11:35 am train out of Prague to Budapest. We couldn't find a compartment all together this time, so Voula and I went into one compartment and the boys went further down the train. It was an uneventful journey and it we made it back by 6:30-ish pm.

I got home that night around 10 and my host mother was already asleep. I left her a note on the table that said "Jessica itt, Jessica ott... Jessica a hazban!" (Jessie here, Jessie there... Jessie is at home!) and then went to bed.

"The Ugly Church", a landmark always mentioned in BJ's directions.

"The Baby Tower". That is a TV tower. Covered with crawling babies. They were put there as some sort of temporary modern art thing, but when they were removed people complained... so now they're a permanent fixture. What the hell, Prague.

The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square. We got there just as it was about to strike noon, completely by accident. It was one of the most anticlimactic things I have ever seen. When we got there the crowd in front of the clock was enormous. As soon as it started to chime people got bored and the crowd dispersed.

St Nicholas Church is the other big fixture in Old Town Square. As soon as I saw it, I was hit by a wave of déjà vu. I told the group that I was 95% sure I had sung in that church.

We went inside the church and that 95% confidence became 100%.


See? I'm fourth from the left in the second row and Micaela is beside me. Aw, little Jessie and Micaela!

Math graffiti. Tee hee. I don't understand this right now, but I will once I've taken complex next semester.

Getting tipsy in U Sadu, a pub in BJ's neighborhood.

Mihály eating breakfast in BJ's kitchen.

Rainbow over Prague.

A view of the walk from the National Museum down to Old Town Square.


Me and Voula by the Prague castle.

Storm brewing over the city.

St. Vitus Cathedral by the Prague Castle.

Absolutely amazing stained glass inside St. Vitus'.

Silver tomb of I-don't-know-who in St. Vitus'.


The view from BJ's window.

A better picture of the National Museum.

The McDonald's we sat in at 6:30 am Saturday morning in 4˚C weather.

Statue by the National Museum.

Same statue, bizarro style. (In the Lucerna mall)

Absinthe for sale in the grocery store.

Me and Voula listening to music on the train home.

I've got to go to the bathroom and wash the BURN SAUCE off my face!

Holy crap, I made it out of Hungary!

It is 9:28 am local time in Prague, Czech Republic. Heck yes.

We (Voula, Mihály, Tom, Barry, Pat and myself) left Keleti at 7:45 pm last night. Around midnight we all fell asleep. About two hours later we were informed that we were in a first class compartment and had to move down the train to second class. We arrived in Prague at 6 am this morning. The train ride itself was fun, low-key, long, and full of sleep.

We had a contact in Prague. Voula's dad is a physics professor at Wheaton Mass and one of his ex students, BJ, lives here and offered his flat for a few of us to stay in while he's out of town for the weekend at the World Rugby Cup in Paris. But he had told us to come by after 7. We didn't know how long it would take us to walk to his flat, but we didn't want to arrive early so we went to McDonalds to kill some time. I had approximately $50 in Czech crowns leftover from the HVCC tour 5 years ago, part of which financed our breakfast. The McDonalds itself was 24 hour, but the dining room was not so we had to eat outside. The temperature outside was 4˚C and it was still dark out at 6:30.

We walked to BJ's as the sun came up. And arrived at his flat around 7:30. He let us in and gave us juice and coffee and lunchmeat and cheese. It was a fantastic welcome, to say the least.

We plan on spending this morning sightseeing etc, grabbing lunch, then coming back for a low-key afternoon. Tomorrow will be more sightseeing, and maybe meeting up with the other BSM group that's in Prague this weekend.

But the most important thing I must do this weekend, before I do anything else, is to buy batteries. My camera is out of juice and I have a feeling my faithful blog readers would crap themselves if I didn't post pictures of my fantastic adventure in Praha-ville!





Also: I got my Graph Theory midterm back with a 49% on it. But the prof is going to curve it, so that will hopefully be a passing grade when all is said and done. Because really, I haven't heard of anyone that got over a B on it, and the average score seemed to be in the D-F range. Yeah Graph Theory!

Hear the charms, did you know that the wind when it blows, it is older than Rome and our joy and our sorrow.

Oh jeezy, it's already October 18th. I left 2 months from this last Monday, and I leave here 2 months from next Monday. How has time gone so fast??

Purse retrieval on Friday was successful, but sort of scary. The US Embassy is like a heavily guarded secret club. I got lost trying to find it, and once I did I had to figure out how to get in I finally found the guard and as soon as I said "Hi!" he said "Oh, you are American! Let me see your passport." As soon as he'd seen that, I was let in the magical gates. And then had to go through security. It was like airport security with a walk through metal detector and a bag x-ray. Except instead of confiscating my non-existent Swiss Army knife, they confiscated all my electronic devices. My laptop, my phone, my iPod, all traded for a number so I could retrieve them when I got out. They accidentally missed my camera, so that came into the embassy with me. Oops, strike 1 for US Embassy security.

I got through security with a significantly lighter backpack, and was told to take a number from the machine on my left. The room past security was like the DMV, with windows and an electronic "now serving #__" sign on the wall. The difference was that it was completely deserted. No one was sitting in the waiting room and each window was empty and closed. The sign on the wall said that they were serving the number before mine, but there was no one else around to be seen. It was quite eerie. I noticed a sign pointing a short hallway that said there were more teller windows that way. Then the electronic sign changed to my number. I followed the arrow down the short hallway and found a window with a woman behind it. I told her who I was and showed her my passport. And then she pulled out my purse! Yay! I met her at security and she gave it to me there, I got my electronics back, and I left the creepy US Embassy.

I did some shopping after the embassy, then that night had a fun, quiet evening with friends. Mihály made a scramble and Zeb and Luke got caught up on Heroes on Pat's computer.

Saturday I got up fantastically late. I was sleep deprived and it felt amazing. I was planning on just finding a place to work on homework for the day, but then I got a call from Mihály saying that he, Voula, Pat and Casey were going to Szt Istvan's Bascilica, and wouldn't I like to join? Well I've been there before but yes, yes I would. The last time I went to Szt Istvan's there was a service in progress, so I didn't get to see the whole sanctuary. This time there was no service, so not only did I get to see the entirety of the sanctuary, but I also got to see the mummified hand of Szt Istvan himself. How cool is that??

After wandering around the inside of the basilica a little more, we paid the 400 forint to go to the top. Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was a little chilly out, but perfectly clear. We were looking out over the city from the top of Szt Istvan's when someone pointed out the large expanse of green that is Városliget, City Park. We had nothing better to do with our day besides homework and the weather was beautiful... so going to City Park sounded like a wonderful idea!

We walked to the Bájcsy Zsilinsky metro stop and took the Yellow line to Hösök tere (Heroes Square) and goofed off there for a little while, then walked to City Park which is right next door.

Inside of the Basilica, a view I couldn't get before.

SZT ISTVAN'S DISEMBODIED HAND. HOLY CRAP.

Goofing off at Hösök tere

The end of a very delicious, enormous cotton candy we bought from a vendor in City Park and split three ways.

Saturday evening we went to Soho Coffee and did a little homework, then took the metro to Chelsey's for vegetarian Hungarian food. She made a dish similar to ratatouille and Sarah made a cheese spread, the recipe for which she got from Éva. For dessert, Tom made cookies and Sarah made plum cake. Then Zeb and his roommate got tipsy and climbed on things around the apartment and Chelsey, Amol and I were good academics and talked politics, religion and books.

Sunday morning I got up late, went over to Voula's, dyed my hair purple, was quite surprised when the end result was black instead of purple, then did homework for the rest of the day at Voula's, and then at Mihály's.

The new hair!

Now comes the funny thing: I started composing this blog entry on Monday and just now I've gotten enough time to sit down and finish it. Really. Math and life got in the way with a vengeance. Monday and Tuesday I was finishing my Number Theory homework and studying for my Wednesday Graph Theory test, and Wednesday I was getting my butt handed to me by the afore mentioned test (luckily everyone I've talked to agrees that the test was ridiculous).

There now needs to be some post-purse-loss updating. Because I wasn't sure how long it would take for my new debit card to make it to my mom's so she could send it to me, I called the bank on Monday to request them to wire me money. It was going to cost $35, but it was totally worth it. I needed money for rent and various other expenses, and I didn't want to keep borrowing money from BSM. They told me it would take about two days for the money to reach me here, so on Wednesday afternoon I went to the mall with Bruce et al to stop thinking about how terribly the Graph Theory test had gone and while there went to the post office to check on the status of the wire.

SHOT DOWN. I couldn't retrieve my money because my name on the wire didn't match the name on my passport (the wire just had my first and last name on it, while my passport has my first name, middle name and my second middle initial). In Hungary middle names are used for official business, I guess. So I had to go back to the boys', call the bank, get them to change the name on the wire, and try again.

I tried again this morning, in the tiny mall/shopping center by my house. This time there was another problem. When you go to collect money from Western Union you have to fill out a form stating your address, your pre-chosen code word, your MTCN number, your place of residence in Hungary, and how much money you're expecting. I wrote 700 USD on the form. But in Hungary, they draw their 7s with a horizontal line going through them. A 7 without a horizontal line is interpreted as a 1. But I drew my 7 the American way. So this time instead of my name not matching, my expected amount and the actual amount didn't match. Luckily a quick phone call fixed it, but the woman behind the counter drew me a large Hungarian seven, and a one afterwards, to show me what I should have written versus what I did write.

BUT I GOT MY MONEY AFTER ALL! Score 1 for Jessie, 0 for Western Union!

After class today (with money in pocket) I bought a ticket to Prague; I'm going to Prague this weekend! We get a long weekend in honor of the Proclamation of the Republic. Voula, Mihály, Pat, Barry and I are taking the 7:45 pm train to Prague, to arrive at 6 am. It's going to be quite a night, I must say. Dubrovnik was just going to be too expensive... but Fraser and I might meet up in Zagreb (Croatia's capital) the weekend after next. Yay!

Next Stop: US Embassy

On Sunday I did a terribly stupid thing. Two, actually. I am pretty sure, and Kristoff agrees, that the second was my karmic punishment for the first. The worst thing is that I wasn't even aware of that punishment until the next morning.

Mistake #1: I was craving fries. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to make dinner. So I decided the best solution to both of these separate issues was a trip to Burger King. The biggest Burger King in the world, in fact. Housed in Oktogon Square, it features 4 stories, free wireless internet, and a plethora of Americana. Truly a horrifying sight to behold. I got fries (yay!), a Coke Light (Diet Coke, European style) and my first ever Whopper. Gross.

Mistake #2: I left my damn purse at Burger King.

I'm not going to try to justify mistake #2.


Monday morning as I was packing my things into my backpack for school, I noticed that my purse was strangely absent from its usual place in my backpack. I started panicking. I called Mihály, woke him up, and had him check his apartment for my missing black Dickies bag, waking Bruce up in the process. My bag was nowhere to be found. And I knew exactly where I had last seen it.

Luckily the only important thing in my purse was my wallet. Everything else, my iPod, camera, laptop, homework, schoolbooks; it was back at in boys' apartment. The only important thing in my wallet besides some sentimental things (a note from Rob, some concert tickets), was my debit card. I got that canceled as soon as I realized it was at large. Besides the hassle of replacing all the things that had been in my wallet (student ID card, driver's license, social security card, etc) plus the purse and wallet themselves, I wasn't too stressed about losing my purse. Losing my backpack would have been a crisis of much greater magnitude.

I called mom on Tuesday to let her know, then called the bank to arrange for them to send a new debit card to her address. Okay, so it's going to take 7 to 10 business days for the card to arrive, but my credit union can wire me money to a Western Union location so I can pay my rent, and BSM can loan me money for food. Whatever.

On Wednesday afternoon (yesterday) the following e-mail arrived in my inbox:

From: Mom
Subject: Your Purse
To: Jessie Brainerd

Good News Honey!
Your purse has been turned in (intact, with cash, debit card, everything) to the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. I got a call this morning from a representative there-- they traced me through your driver's license. You can pick it up in the Consular Section between 1 & 4 pm during the week. You may also be able to call the Credit Union and reactivate your debit card. Isn't it wonderful that it was found by honest people!

Love, Mama

YAY! Someone awesome found my purse! I can't reactivate my debit card for security purposes (I found that out the hard way the last time I thought I had lost my debit card for good: when my wallet fell out of my pocket on a bus in Vancouver, B.C.), but hooray! I don't have to replace my purse, the awesome hand-made Bender for President button pinned to it, the sushi wallet mom got me for Christmas last year, the sentimental crud, or my laundry card, student ID, copy card, social security card, and driver's license. Let's see, it's already too late now on Wednesday, there's Abstract Algebra class and Graph Theory homework Thursday afternoon, so Friday is when I'll have to pick it up. Cool. Perfect. Totally doable.

I got home last night and Éva tried to tell me something in Hungarian that I couldn't catch. So she called her daughter and her daughter relayed the following message to me: The US embassy had called for me today, they wanted to let me know that someone had turned in my purse. I told her yes, I knew, that I could pick it up between 1 and 4 in the afternoon. She said that apparently it had been found at Burger King. Yes, I knew that too, I was stupid and left it there by accident. I thanked her for relaying the message, and asked her if she could explain the situation to her mother, since I hadn't known how to tell Éva that I'd lost my purse in broken Hungarian and hand-gestures.

This morning I got up at 7:30 and was sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast with Éva when the phone rang. I was expecting a call from Rob, so I expected it was him when she handed the phone to me. No, it was the US embassy. To tell me that apparently my purse had been found in a Burger King and turned into the US embassy. I thanked them and told them that my mother had gotten ahold of me and already informed me.

When I realized my purse was missing I assumed it was gone forever and I came to terms with that. It had been a stupid mistake on my part that led to its disappearance. I thought it was a stupid mistake I could maybe pretend hadn't happened. Not anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm overjoyed my purse is safe and intact.

I just wish that didn't entail having to be reminded again and again that I left my purse, full of all my identification and means of getting money, in the largest Burger King in the world, in one of the most bustle-ey areas of Budapest.

A little while after I got off the phone with the US Embassy, I got a text message from Anna Fóti, the BSM student coordinator: Hi, I have good news for you! Please come to my office! Anna, BSM.

Oh no. The Embassy got to her, too. I was going to get the good news. Again.

As soon as I got to school just after 10 am this morning I went to her office. Before she had a chance to say anything I said, somewhat exasperatedly, "I know, someone found my purse and returned it to the US Embassy, I can pick it up between 1 and 4". Anna got all sad because she had wanted to be the first person to tell me the news. Sorry Anna :(.


Oh well, I got my purse back. And they've exhausted all my contacts, I'm fairly certain. Unless they call the number titled "Darling" in my wallet, and let Rob know that my purse is waiting for me at the US Embassy.

I'll stop complaining about my good fortune now.



In un-purse related news, we had another group dinner party last night! Zeb and Luke made dough for lángos, Aaron deep fried it in small pancakes, and Voula, Casey and I made rice pudding. And Mihály and Haggai just hung out, looking pretty. The lángos turned out amazingly. We covered it in sour cream, cheese, chopped raw garlic and ate it still hot. Lángos from street vendors is filling, but sort of makes you feel like crap after you've finished it. This just made us feel fantastically full. And the rice pudding was delicious, too.



I'm hoping to make it to Croatia the weekend after next to visit Fraser before he makes his way back to Canadaland. The options we've been able to come up with to get me there are my taking the train to Zagreb and then catching a cheap flight from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, or taking the train directly to Dubrovnik. The cheapest flight I could find from Budapest to Dubrovnik was over $500. I'm going to go to Keleti pu. (the train station right by College International) tomorrow on my way to the US Embassy and check out fares. It'll be a long train ride, no matter what, so if it's cheaper to go straight to Dubrovnik, that's what I'll probably end up doing.

A kicsit kutya!

This week went by really, really fast. Math is hard, school is challenging, I haven't been getting enough sleep. You know, usual school stuff. The night before last was Friday night, which meant it was definitely time to relax. Voula offered to cook dinner for Mihály, Zeb, Aaron and I, lentil soup, and Zeb and Mihály made lemon poppyseed cake. Really, quite a delicious dinner. After dinner, we sat down to watch a couple of episodes of Heroes, which is basically the crack cocaine of BSM. We started watching at 9:30 pm. At 3:00 am, 9 episodes later, we finally decided it was probably about time to go to sleep. Yeah. (I'd already seen all of those 9 episodes, so after the first 2, I fell asleep on the floor). As we were trying to fall asleep we heard a high pitched crying /yelping noise. We didn't know/care what it was, so Aaron decided that it was the Monkey Parade and we fell asleep in good spirits.

At 5:00 am I was woken by the doorbell ringing. I woke up Voula, who was sleeping next to me (Mihály on my other side and Aaron on the floor). Then I fell back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 9:00 am. When I woke up, I was alone in the bed and Aaron was still asleep on the floor. I could hear Voula and Mihály talking in the dining room so I came out to join them. And there was a puppy. A very tiny mutt puppy with brown fur and tufts on his chin. When the bell had rung at 5 am it had been a woman who lived on the 6th floor of Voula's apartment complex who had found the puppy abandoned and hadn't been able to take it in herself since she had a pitbull who would've bitten puppy in half. She asked if we could watch the puppy for just a couple hours so she could get some sleep, then deal with it. She said she'd be back around 11 am and would take the puppy then.

Puppy was cute. But puppy was still definitely a puppy. Tearing wallpaper off the wall in small chunks and trying to eat it, peeing on the rug, biting our feet. We spent the morning keeping track of him, making sure he was behaving and not eating things he shouldn't be (like wallpaper) and cleaning puppy pee out of the carpets. Mihály made us all eggs and toast for breakfast and the four of us sat on Voula's balcony drinking earl grey and eating out breakfasts while keeping an eye on pup. After breakfast puppy fell asleep on Aaron's foot and continued to sleep when we brought him inside. We watched more Heroes. About 3 episodes, in fact. After puppy woke up we played tug-o-war with one of my socks, then exiled him to the balcony so the next time he peed it wouldn't soil the rug.

11 o'clock came and went with no sign of the woman who had brought by the puppy. At 1 we finally heard a knock on the door. She was back... and tried to get Voula to watch puppy for one more day. No. No no no. She took puppy away, to the shelter or something, and left us to watch Heroes in peace. Bye bye, pup, I will miss you :(

I briefly went home around 2, just to change my shirt and eat the breakfast Éva had left out for me. Then it was off to Soho to do homework and drink Americanos with Mihály, Voula and Aaron. At dinner time we walked along the Buda side of the Danube to Margít hid (the Margít island bridge) and caught the tram to Eva's, cause she was having an open invitation burrito party. Homemade tortillas, corn, kidney beans, cheese, homemade salsa... DELICIOUS. These dinner parties tend to happen, hosted by someone or another, every weekend or two, and they're always wonderful. So far we've had an Indian food night, a Mexican night, the classy sandwich party, and burritos. Next weekend is vegetarian Hungarian food and I can't wait...

After dinner me and Voula went back to hers, and were joined about an hour later by Aaron, who told us that Mihály was too tired to come. And then we watched more Heroes. Until 4 am. And then we slept. Until 11 am. And then we ate a small breakfast and made tea... then 2 more episodes of Heroes and the whole season was complete! Now we can get our lives back!

Now! For the completing of my homework, the telephoning of my parents, the purchasing and consuming of cookies, the acquiring of dinner, and the talking to of my sweetie.

And then starts the beginning of another week.

An adventure in Szentendre and Skanzen.

WOW This is a lot of pictures I am posting today. Sorry Mama, this is going to take you a little while to load.

Casey decided she wanted to travel this weekend and the closest, easiest places to travel are the suburbs, reachable by the HÉV train (a commuter train that's affiliated with Budapest's public transport system, BKV). She and Voula decided they were going to Szentendre, a small, touristy town famous for its museums about a 40 minute train ride away using the HÉV, and invited the usual crowd of us to come. Our adventure started when Mihály called me at 10 on Saturday morning to tell me we were meeting at the HÉV train at Batthyány tér at 10:30. I hadn't even really gotten out of bed yet so I was a little late. It didn't matter; Casey, Voula, Mihály and Aaron were all there already, they'd bought my ticket already (only 500 ft round trip!) and we made the 11 o'clock train, no problem.

The train ride was relatively short and pleasant. The commuter train doesn't come with any real amenities, but it was only a 40 minute ride, so it didn't matter.

Szentendre is a pretty town, made even prettier by what a gorgeous day it was.

The Danube? We've got one of those in Budapest, too! I was struck by how similar the Danube looked to the Willamette on this stretch of river.

Something that comes part and parcel with tourist attractions is really weird souvenirs. Like unauthorized nesting Shrek dolls.

We wandered into this church because the back door was open and we heard music coming out of it. We followed this stairway up (decorated with these weird boyscout murals) and found ourselves in a balcony overlooking a private wedding rehearsal. We were asked to leave... oops.

We picked up lunch in Szentendre, then took a (really really cheap) bus to Skanzen, an outdoor living history museum about 3 km away. It featured different villages set up to demonstrate different eras in Hungarian history. These paths went through the whole museum and you could pay to take a horse drawn carriage ride through the whole thing.

A kitchen in a dirt-floored, thatch roofed cottage.

The mill.

Sheep on the farm. There were lots of other animals; horses, goats, chickens, donkeys, cows AND KITTENS.

There were several churches, but this is the only one I went into.

Hand decorated ginger bread cookies for sale. I bought a cookie too, but it wasn't fancy so it was only 60 ft as opposed to 180.

While the museum was interesting (albeit a little underwhelming), the museum playground was awesome.

Aaron on the climbing net.

Casey playing on the structures

Voula being all... upside down... and stuff.

Mihály trying to get on top of that bar so he could walk on it. He managed it after a few tries.

These scarecrows were all over the place, in different manners of dress.

The interior of the water mill

We found stilts! A very helpful man was in charge of the wooden toys area of the museum. There were homemade wooden yo-yos, bats and balls, and most importantly, STILTS.

Mihály had used stilts before so he was pretty darn good at it.

Voula was a beginner, but she picked it up quickly.

"Why hell there, abnormally tall man, how are you today?"
"I couldn't be better, Mihály!"

The boys being bored/boring on the HÉV home. But as Mihály said, "When you're cool, everything bores you."


Now for some non-Szentendre/Skanzen pictures:

The sweet, expensive euro jeans I got at H&M. Whatever, they were totally worth whatever I paid for them.

The neighborhood College International is in is flooded with cipö bolts... including some really cheap Chinese import places. This pair was around 1400 ft. I mean, they're not the most comfortable ever, but $7??

Oh yeah, and that's me... in case you forgot.