Last week my entire program went on a trip together to Budapest and Vienna. After a 12 hour train ride we arrived in Budapest where we were led by the fearless Dirk (our program director) who kept us busy with museum trips, walking tours, cultural experiences, and more.
This is the House of Terror in Budapest, where the communist regime tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. The cellars of all the houses on this block were connected to form cells and torture chambers.
Here is a literal interpretation of the figurative Iron Curtain that divided the east and west during the Cold War.
We went to a Hungarian folk dance concert that was really cool!
We loved the excuse to dress up...
The dancers were really talented. My favorite part was the live music that they danced to.
After the concert we took a private boat tour on the Danube river. It was beautiful!
The girls!
The next morning we did a walking tour of the city. This is a monument to past Hungarian kings and philosophers.
This is the Parliament, which is the second biggest Parliament building in Europe after England's. Joe and Nicole are so cool...
Here is a church on top of one of the hills in Budapest. It was so nice walking around in the SUN!
This is at a castle on the same hill. The view was incredible!
I was jealous of their jumping picture so I had to get one as well.
I have special friends...
This was at a Hungarian folk fair in the middle of the city. This meat was soooo salty and delicious! All the homemade crafts were cool also.
We were rolling in g's.
This morning we were bused out to a "park" where communist-era statues had been collected and deposited. The statues were so weird!
Notice PJ's hat and sunglasses on this statue...
This traditional Hungarian meal was soooo good...chicken with ham, cheese, and pineapple!?!
The pastries in Budapest were seriously on steroids. They were waaaay too big!
Budapest is actually divided into two parts, Pest and Buda, which are separated by the river. Our last day we walked (hiked!) Buda, which is basically a huge hill with a monument on top.
This is the view from halfway up...
We finally made it to the top!
You can see the city of Pest behind me. This was the best view ever!
This is one of the castles in Buda. It was more like a fortress because of its location on top of the hill.
The view of Buda.
This is a part of the castle. It was so pretty lit up at night!
That night we went out to a typical Hungarian restaurant that basically exists for tourists. The menu had so many good things to choose from, but my veal, broccoli, and potatoes ended up being the best.
The girls again! Of course I sat at the head of the table.
Delicious dessert!
This was a fabric store in Budapest...I thought of you mom!
Traveling in a pack of 100 Americans is quite hard. We had a few mishaps like people missing the trains, getting left behind, jumping off at a "stop" only to have the train leave them behind, losing tickets, getting yelled at by the conductor, taking over the hotel lobby/bar until Dirk had to come down to yell at us at 3 am, and generally wreaking havoc wherever we went.
Luckily no one in my group had an (serious) mishaps in Budapest...next stop, Vienna!
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