Long Lost Family

At this point, I was thinking I would just consolidate the end of my journey, except Budapest definitely needs its own post. Budapest was by far my favorite city. Not only did I get to experience the touristy aspects of the city, but I also got to meet my Hungarian family for the first time. To put the story of discovering my Hungarian family in short, 3 years ago, one of my distant relatives passed away and there was no sufficient will. Since my maternal grandfather passed away over 30 years ago, my mother, aunt, and uncle were in the inheritance. One thing lead to another and my cousin, Gyorgy, flew over to the United States to meet everyone, except me cause I was stuck in good ol' Lewisburg. Gyorgy is the only one of my relatives who is fluent in English so when he wasn't around, I would having to use sign language to speak to his mother, Agie, his sister, Ester, and his grandmother, Pana, by far the most adorable and loving hungarian of them all. My entire visit she continued to give me kisses and stuff my face with delicious Hungarian and Eastern European food. Can I go back now?

After my flight from Pisa and my first Hungarian meal cooked by Agie, Gyorgy and his girlfriend Regi gave me a night driving tour of Budapest. I loved Budapest because it isn't a massive city, but it is fully immersed with culture and everything just seemed much more open than all of the other cities I visited. Gyorgy was so knowledgeable about Hungarian history. And did I mention that it is gorgeous at night?!?! Chyup. They also took me to a ruin pub, old buildings that were damaged from the world wars. As Gyorgy and Regi put it, tons of tourists were there. And I just kept pointing out the American abroad students. After three months, we are very easy to point out.

The next day Gyorgy took me to a nearby town called Szentendre. The entire time I just kept thinking (and saying) how adorable the town is. I also got to try my first Lagos, a fried dough with garlic, cream cheese, and shredded cheese. From there we went to the Buda side of the Danube and walked around the Buda Castle area including the outside of the castle, Matthias Church, and the Fisherman's Bastion. We then drove up to Gellert Hill where I continued to see more gorgeous views of Budapest.

The next day I spent on my own walking around the Pest side of the river, and thank god it is much flatter. I started at the market where I enjoyed great deals on authentic Hungarian goods (the scarves were cute and cheap!). From there I walked to St. Stephen's Basilica and then up Andrassy Avenue to Heroes' Square and Vajdahunyad Castle, a castle built for the Hungarian millennium in 3 different architectural styles. I then got to enjoy the end of my visit with all of my family :)

The View from Buda Castle

Parliament

They have an incline in Budapest too!

Another view, this time from Gellert Hill

Vajdahunyad Castle and all the crazy architecture

To say the least, I loved my time in Budapest. I absolutely loved being able to spend time with my lost family and learning about all of family and my Hungarian heritage. Hopefully in time, the rest of my family will be able to visit soon.

Ciao London, Ciao Italia!

It still blows my mind that I am technically done with my [study] abroad experience! Since we were done soooooo early, I am now travelling Central Europe for nearly two weeks. First stop, Italy with another Delta Gamma from my program in London, Whitney.

We started our travels very early with a flight out from all the way at Stanstead Airport (the furthest of all the main London Airports) after Whitney nearly missing the bus and an interesting combination of other things, we finally arrived at Pisa Airport. Since we were in Pisa, we obviously had to go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa to get your typical photo shoot with the crooked building, bringing my large amounts of luggage and all. We then went back to the airport to take the bus to Firenze!

As you can probably expect, Italy is carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs! Pasta, Pizza, Panini, nom noms! So good. And you cannot forget about Gelato as well. We even got to eat at O'Vesuvio, the pizza place where the cast of Jersey Shore worked in Florence. Even though I would not think that Snooki would be worthy of a good pizza, it was quite tasty :)

Jersey Shore Wall at O'Vesuvio

Nomnomnomnoms

Like every trip we also did your typical touristy sights. We lucked out because the day we arrived in Florence was the beginning of culture week aka free admission to the museums! That being said, we were able to see Michelangelo's David for free and also go into the Uffizi for free. Quite a number of Euros I saved there. We also went into the Duomo as well, which was already free in the first place! I was appreciating that most of the things I did other than eat were free, especially with the rest of my travels coming up. However, when you have the San Lorenzo Market with so much cheap leather, all of that money that would have been spent elsewhere, was spent there. There were so many other things as well such carnival masks, pasta, glassware, and whatever else you can think that maybe Italian, it was probably there.

Whitney and I stuck in the rain outside the Duomo

The view of Ponte Vecchio from a window of the Uffizi.

I definitely wish I had more time to travel to other parts of Italy because it is so gorgeous and there are absolutely so many places to see! Florence and Pisa were definitely a great start, but I would love to go to Rome and Venice in the future. A Mediterranean beach wouldn't be bad either :) So since I am doing so much traveling so fast, these will be relatively short and sweet :) Next stop, Budapest!

Mumsy and Popsicle in London!

Over my Mom’s Easter break from school, my parents came to London to visit me and to celebrate their 25^th anniversary. I had a great time with them, especially since this had been the longest I had gone without seeing them. Unfortunately, the beginning of their trip was delayed when they got stuck in Toronto due to Air Canada Labor disputes. Thankfully, they arrived 8 hours later safe and sound.

Instead of meeting my parents at Heathrow as originally planned, I took the train out to our family friends, the Spaeths, whom my mom went to Bucknell with. After spending the day around Surrey, we then went to the airport to pick up my parents who I know were just happy to be on the ground. The next morning, we spend the day around western London, including Windsor Castle.

Outside Windsor Castle

Guess they are going to Hogwarts!

The next 3 days, my parents celebrated their anniversary in Paris. I would have loved to go, except I had two of my finals during that time. Boo no fun. Upon their return, I surprised them by booking two reservations. The second was dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant where you order food by touching the table, which I told them about.  The first was the complete surprise of Ice Bar. They did not know where we were going until we arrived at the door. Both of them were very confused and thinking, “Ummmmm…. OK?”. Once we walked in and they threw on the thermal capes with gloves, my mom realized what it really was and got much more excited about it.

With Mommy at Ice Bar

A few weeks before my parents arrived, I found a Groupon for a 50%-off day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Too good to be true, I bought 3 so we had something to do while my parents visited. Stonehenge was very cold and windy so it was good to know that we did not need much time outside since all it really is are... stones. We had a good time in Bath where we found a pub that served Abbey Ale (I should just cary a sharpie and cross out the 'e's all over the UK haha), walked through the roman baths and also the inside of Bath Abbey. We ended our day back in London with a quick visit to the Harrods pet store and gift shop where we gawked at the dogs dressed up in the salon.

The first half of the next day was mostly spent waiting in line for Madame Tussauds. My mom especially wanted to go after she went to the one in Las Vegas. Even after the 3-hour wait in line, we all still had fun. That evening, I had my first legal margarita with mom and dad at a Mexican restaurant (guess I will have to wait again until October) and then saw the new musical Matilda. Based off Ronald Dahl’s book and movie, we knew what it was about at it was FABULOUS! Best part? We can say we saw the original adult cast (kids are always changing). When it comes to Broadway April 2013, SEE IT! It is now in my top 5 favorites.

Our last full day together was definitely a tiring one. We started early to take a ride on the London Eye. Even though it was a cloudy day, we still got some amazing views of London. Thankfully, there was a bench in the middle for my mom so when her fear of heights kicked in, she was able to sit and get away from the downward views. Afterwards, we walked across Westminster Bridge where we saw your typical Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey like every other tourist.

And she managed to pull through!

Discovered the Panoramic Setting on my camera while on the London Eye!

Next was my dad’s least favorite part, shopping! We went to the absolutely, insanely crowded Portobello Market in Notting Hill and then to Primark on Oxford Street, also insane. We then did a quick trip inside the Tower of London (more my dad’s cup of tea). By this point we were al exhausted, our feet hurt, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it looked like we were limping, the cobble stones inside the tower did not help either. We braced ourselves for the walk across Tower Bridge where our dinner awaited. By the point we sat at the table, it took a long time before we stood up. The best part was watching the lighting of Tower Bridge change as the sun set over the Thames.

It was quite a busy week for us all, but we had a fantastic time together! Even though Rachel was extremely jealous the entire time while she was stuck at Bucknell, we know she will get the chance to have some of the same experiences as me in a few years. And to say the least, her upcoming birthday might as well be British themed. I never realized how much shopping my mother really does until now.

So I guess I should still post about Oxford and Scotland...

...2 posts behind, 1 1/2 months behind. Better now than never.

Back in February, a few of us went on a trip to Oxford. When we arrived, we had a tour of the town and the different colleges. Most importantly, Christ Church College aka basis of the great hall of Harry Potter. As you can expect we were all going nuts. Instead of "walking" through the room and being in and out in a few minutes, we managed to be inside for about 15 minutes. Whoops.

GREAT HALL!!!! (with a ceiling)

In the beginning of March, a number of us took the train to Scotland. This trip was organized through our program so we were not entirely sure of what to expect. Once we arrived in Edinburgh, we got a walking tour around the city by our very own Scotsman, kilt and all. Unfortunately once the tour was over, most of the attractions were closed so we sufficed with some shopping and dinner at a delicious pub. The location of our hostel was amazing. You could see Edinburg castle right from our window. We then woke up very early for a day full of sitting on a bus… not the most exciting thing in the world.

The entire next two days were spent mostly on a bus getting on and off at various points such as the Commando Memorial, Glencoe, Stirling (where we learned how to properly fold a kilt) and part of Loch Ness. We spent the second night in Oslo, a small port city near the Isle of Man in western Scotland where we climbed up a muddy hill to a castle and I had some really good Scampi and Chips. Even though I feel like I saw a lot of Scotland, more emphasis could have be placed at the “tourist attractions” so we could have seen them more rather than walking by them. In the end, it was still tons of fun and I got to meet a lot of people as well.

View from our room

Rainbow out of Loch Ness

At the top of the hill where we nearly died walking to the castle

Gorgeous Glencoe

The adorable hairy coo (cow)