oh boy it's a snowin' out there.

I just went out to renew my tram pass and stop at the grocery store... and in that short amount of time the ground has been covered with a layer of white snow. My first snow fall of the year! Goodbye bright blue skies and autumn leaves... hello mittens and fluffy flakes.

Praha to meet my Mamma.

Two weeks ago I jumped on a train headed to the magical city of Prague. With the help of many kind strangers I found my way to the hotel where my mom and her friend were passed out on their beds waiting for my arrival. The three of us then spent the next few days exploring all the charm that Prague has to offer. We got a great tour of the old town and jewish district from a rather eccentric old actor, saw an amazing modern ballet, ate at some fantastic restaurants, drank plenty of decilious hot wine, and wandered across the Charles Bridge and up to the castle and breathtaking St. Vitus Cathedral. This city was so captivating with its intimate, charming, and clean streets.

While in the Czech Republic we took a little side trip and spent a day and night in the tiny town of Chesky Krumlov. Walking around the cobblestone streets and beautiful caslte of this picturesque village I felt like I had entered a fairytale. It was such a treat to stay in lovely hotels and charming pensions with breakfast and coffee waiting for you in the morning... oh the pleasures of traveling with your mom.

bumpin' around Ukraine.

Everytime we go on a new trip I never quite know what to expect. The Ukraine was full of beautiful sunny fall days, rolling hillsides, Hungarian church services, unbelievable gypsy slums, heartbreaking children, cemeteries laden with candles and quilts of flowers celebrating All Saints Day, ancient wine cellars, handwoven quilts, and goulash cooked over an open fire. Our kickin tour guides continue to impress me with their knowledge, dedication and selfless service to their organization that assists in redeveloping Hungarian communities throughout East Central Europe. I don't know how they manage to drive our vans all around these remote villages with no maps, pulling off the road to pick up the keys to a church, cracking a joke, and telling us anything we could ever wish to know.

A fall day in Budapest.

I have really come to treasure the days I have here in Budapest between our many travels. The weeks seem to be getting shorter and shorter and i hate to think my time here is more than half over.

Here is a glimpse of my fall afternoon yesterday, starting with what is left of the leaves on the trees outside our dorm.

After leaving the gate of our dorm I walk down Temesvar Utca, my lovely street, under a tunnel of trees and past a little coffee shop run by a smiley couple that we all frequent quite often.
At the end of my street I catch the tram and ride it about 15 minuets to the Danube. From here you can see colorful trees on Gellert Hill and the Citadell looking over the city from the top of the hill.

After getting of the tram I walk across this bridge (which is not as pleasant as it sounds due to massive construction). On the other side of the river you can see the huge historic building of Corvinus University, where I take a marketing class on Wednesday nights.

Conveniently located next to Corvinus is the Great Market constantly bustling with tourists and locals, where I bought ot alma and fel kilo paradicom...

...before meeting up with these lovely ladies to study for our Hungarian Politics midterm that night in a cute little cafe. I definintely treasure these relaxing afternoons in this city which now feels like home.

Italia.

After finding out that our professor was cancelling classes for the week, Ali, Jordan, Jenna, Sarah and I jumped on the idea of going to Italy for the week, booked some hostles, and suddenly found ourselves on a 12 hour train ride. I still can't really believe it when I tell people I just spent a week in Italy. Everything went surprisingly smooth and we even managed to avoid the many strikes going on.




We arrived in Venice as the sun was coming up over the canals. Everything was so serene and peaceful as we hauled our bags through the empty streets in search of our hotel... which was perfect, and located on a quite side street. Over the next three days we spent our time trying to navigate our way around the maze of streets and canals getting distracted by delicious treats and shops on every corner. The first time we came upon St. Mark's square my breath was literally taken away by the incredible beauty and architecture that surrounded me. It was amazing to see so many of the cathedrals, buildings and works of art that I am learning about in the Italian Art Renaissance class I am taking here this semester.


During one of our days in Venice we decided to take a short train ride to the small town of Padua, known for the Scrovegni Chapel that Giotto painted in 1305 telling the life of Mary and Jesus in two point perspective, something revolutionary at the time. It was nice to wander around this bustling university town peeking into Cathedrals lined with frescos, and dodge the hundreds of bikers that rule the streets.



After three nights in Venice we left for three more nights in Florence. The crowded, dirty streets of Florence full of traffic were quite a change from the pedestrian streets and quite canals of Venice, but equaly full of incredible art and architecture. Our days here were filled with more churches, cathedrals, art museums and shopping at the many markets. We climbed the 465 stairs up to the top of the Duomo and marvled at the enormity of Florence's Cathedral, saw the incredible precision and accuracy of Michelangelo's David, stood in front of the guilded bronze doors of
the Baptistry, and ate gelato twice a day. By the end of the week our feet were sore, our maps were shredded, our bank accounts were significantly less, and the tourist traps were getting us good... but we still couldn't stop grinning about the incredible things we had seen and done.

A cold and rainy Poland.

A few weekends ago we embarked on our second group trip in a tour bus all to our own. On the way to Poland we stopped at a 13th century castle towering above the countryside Solvakia. We got a complete tour entirely in Slovakian where we were lead up and down the hundreds of stairs that connect this castles many floors.

After a meal consisting of some annonymous meat patties at a local resturant we arrived at our hostel and left the next morning for a day in Krakow. Our tour guide gave us a lovely walking tour of the city inspite of the drizzling rain.

We had the afternoon to explore the city on our own, so after spending some time in the market full of amber treatures, we took a walk through the old jewish district. It was pretty darn eerie walking through streets of this city where there are only a mere 100 of the previous 200,000 jews left that once recided here. Following the advice of our tour guide we wandering into St. Mary's Church which houses one of the largest altar piece of its kind in Europe before heading off to a delicious indian restaurant for dinner. The next day we piled in our tour bus and headed off to Auschwitz not quite knowing what to expect. It was so bizzare riding in our bus along the very same train tracks that led thousands of Jews directly to the gas chambers. Once we got there we were hearded into the crowds of tourists where we were given headphones and placed with a tour guide. We were then lead on a tour through barracks filled with haunting displays of the prisoners belongings. Next we were brought to Birkanau where the gas chambers were as well as barracks still in their original condition. Jordan at one point said how the word 'unbelievable' has gained a whole new meaning and I would have to agree. The horrific amount of deceit and suffering that occured here is literally unbelievable and walking around in there in the rain was incredibly surreal.

trams... metros... busses!

Much of our time here is spent searching for, waiting, sitting, standing, falling, chatting, people watching, and reading on the many options for public transportation that budapest has to offer, while trying not to stick out too much as the happy, too loud, Americans amidst the crowds of often somber Hungarians.