Prague and Vienna Adventures

Well I have been quite busy lately, finishing up midterm papers and such and Libby had some friends come stay with us this weekend which was so fun but it didn't help my procrastination, haha...I wanted to post some pictures from my trip last weekend, it was amazing!

Prague and Vienna are both such beautiful cities...Prague (Praha) actually reminds me a lot of Budapest, it's even divided by a river, it's a smaller city though, and man was it freezing there, it even started to hail one night when we were out exploring haha, what an adventure! Getting to Praha was also quite an adventure, we took an overnight train and it was my frist train ride ever! It was so cold though that I didn't sleep more than like 10 minutes...I think I definitely liked the train ride to Vienna much better, overnight trains are not my preference but I'm glad I got to try it out!

we went to the top of the astrological clock tower in the city square and the view was incredible!

Just like Budapest the city was beautiful at night and the architecture was so neat...

We visited tons of beautiful churches too...

I loved the horsedrawn carriages in the city, we saw a wedding going on one of the days and the newly weds went away in one!

Our train ride to Vienna was only like 4 hours- it was so beautiful because we passed through a lot of land and the trees were changing colors, once we got there we went to our hotel, the Carlton Opera, doesn't that just sound fancy? haha well it was very nice and Vienna was like a dream, it all seemed so unreal because the city was like perfect, it was very clean and people were very friendly, (I think they cloned Mozart, haha, because he was all over the city and this one was on his cell phone!)

I guess in Budapest their history really has affected the city today, they've only been their own country for 17 years now and there seems to be a lot more poverty and homeless...In Vienna things were very expensive though compared to Budapest because they use the euro, it made me very grateful when we got back to Budapest! Walking around the city at night was so fun, the first night we went to a restaurant and Libby and I tried sauerkraut and schnitzel and this french toast dessert thing, it was amazing! Shops seem to close fairly early in the city though so we decided to go church hopping because they were all still open, it was so neat to be in them at night when it was so peaceful and empty, some were just lit with little candles, but the whole time I had to keep pinching myself because it felt so much like a dream...the desserts and chocolate in Vienna were one of the best experiences, haha I will definitely have to bring some of the chocolate home! We visited lots of neat places too like the Schonbrunn palace and gardens, we got a tour of it and it was massive, I can not imagine living in a place that big! we also went to this neat art museum where we got to see lots of italian paintings and we even saw some of Rembrandts paintings!

We went to lots of little cafes and I must say if anybody goes to Vienna you have to try the apple strudel and the sacher torte! Well I am so excited to be going back to Vienna tomorrow morning, we leave for our 3 hour train ride and we get to stay with Lisa, my sisters friend, and her husband Christian, can't wait to finally meet them! I am definitely looking forward to relaxing some too, it's been a stressful week so I think this will be a nice little vacation! We had another bible study tonight and I just feel so blessed, God always provides, I am so thankful to have found a church and be able to fellowship with other believers, its definitely encouraging...Lately figuring out my next semester and scheduling and all that has kind of been overwhelming but I know that God is directing my paths and it will all work out, my lovely momma reminded me of the verse Psalm 32:8 which I've been meditating on, such a great truth to remember...well I am off to finish packing and then get some rest before my trip tomorrow, yay!

Midterm madness!

This week was midterms, only one more tomorrow, yahoo! Then I'm off to Prague and Vienna tomorrow night, I am so excited : ) We are going by train(another first for me) and then we'll come back Tuesday night because we're off school for our fall break, what a blessing! I was so excited about the new addition in our family...Naomi Joy : ) Congrats Hannah and Enoch, she is so precious, I've been praying and I'm so glad everything went smoothly, I can't wait to meet her!!!
Well Libby and I have continued to experiment in our kitchen and have ended up with some interesting but delicious creations...I think I definitely take after my mama in this, she always has quite an imagination, hehe :) Oh and we just bought some new pets Basil and Rosie(Rosemary)...haha, we were very excited about this because they are our first fresh herb plants, but we have to ask our neighbor to watch them for us while we're gone!
Oh more exciting news too.. we met with the youth pastor today and we are starting the young adult bible study next wednesday night, so keep us in your prayers! I love you all and miss you...
~For some reason I couldn't post any pictures, my internets being weird but hopefully it will be working after my trip!

Weekend Adventures...

So thursday evening after a fun salsa dancing class Libby and I were feeling adventurous and we decided to try this instant hair color we had bought, it didn't really bother us that none of the instructions were in English, haha...well around the city one of the most common hair colors is this reddish color they like to refer to as "ruby red" haha...it's not very natural looking but very popular nonetheless, so I decided to try this color, finding comfort that if anything went wrong I'd probably just fit in with many of the other women : ) well Libby tried this purplish color but since her hair is darker than mine it hardly showed up...mine on the other hand turned out quite interesting! After leaving the color in for about half an hour you are supposed to rinse it out(we think) and so we did that and some of it came out completely so my head ended up being kind of a funny mix of blond and pinkish-red...anyways it was pretty entertaining!

After that we all decided to bake some homemade Hungarian "thumbprint" cookies and by this time it was about midnight...they turned out amazing and they were so simple to make, instead of using jelly for all of them we used different kinds of chocolate so this made them even better(I will have to make these for everyone at Christmas!), then after enjoying quite a few and reminiscing of christmas and holiday pastimes we watched "Singing in the Rain"...well atleast I did, some of us fell asleep ; ) haha...what a night though! On Friday we went to St. Stephen's Basilica, which is this huge cathedral built over the course of half a century and completed in 1905...and we got to see the mummified right hand of St. Stephen that was brought there by the Hapsburg empress in 1771 after being discovered in a Bosnian monastery...it was interesting, the cathedral was huge though and the structure inside was so intricately detailed...We then decided to venture off to one of the other malls, Mammut(which literally means mammoth!) and they even have mammoth statues around it, haha...and we looked aound for a good bit but couldn't explore the entire thing because it was 7 floors! Later we went out and ended up dancing to music like "celebration" "can't touch this" and "stayin' alive" haha, good times! Today Amanda, Didi, Libby, and I decided to go to the Budapest zoo! I loved seeing all the animals, and Libby and I decided we want to share a farm later in life, and mom I still want to herd goats!

Can't you see the resemblance..?

The zoo also had a petting zoo with horses, goats, roosters, geese, sheep, and this funny wooly pig...haha I had to get a picture of him...

On the way back we got one of the common street treats of Budapest, called Kurtoskalacs or chimney cakes, it was very tasty and it happens to be the oldest Hungarian pastry and it was influenced by the Turkish...it was originally made by wrapping the dough around chimney pipes, so the actual pastry is like a hollow shape, yum!

I'm kind of feeling a little under the weather though so I'm going to rest tonight and have lots of tea and vitamin c, hopefully I'll feel refreshed tomorrow!

Highlights of the week

Last Friday we went back to the Immigration office(after our first failed attempt) and this time we passed and now we are legal! I felt like I was at the MVA because you sit there and wait a really long time until your number is called and then the actual process only takes a few minutes! i was so thankful though that the school helped us with this because I would be pretty helpless by myself, since I don't know much hungarian! Libby and I met a really awesome friend while we were waiting and we actually had her over for dinner last night! She is from Armenia and she is studying business and economics here, she's so sweet and I know God crossed our paths for a reason!

It was a pretty rainy and yucky day so Libby and I decided to go to the thermal baths that are so famous here...in the city there are tons of thermal springs overflowing with warm to scalding mineral water so this is a huge part of the culture here! We went to the Szechenyi baths in City Park, its so big, there's about a dozen thermal baths and 3 pools! It was quite an experience, they have a kind of locker room area and all the women are just so free with their bodies, it was kind of awkward because I am not used to that...there are also men of all sizes wearing little speedos and I'm not a big fan of this, a lot of the men were very large too but not ashamed at all! Different baths have different temperatures and minerals but they all are supposed to be very beneficial and good for your health, I could have fallen asleep if I stayed in one too long because they are so relaxing! They smell kind of funny because the minerals but I got used to it and by the end my whole body felt so relaxed and loose I wanted to go take a nap...I think my favorite part was the huge bath outside surrounded by a beautiful courtyard, by this time the sky had cleared up and it was so awesome to swim surrounded by the statues and fountains and the sky above us : )...I was a little sad after though because the men working there tried to rip us off, you are supposed to get money back when you leave and they knew we were Americans so they were just going to keep it, thankfully I had read about how this works in my guide-book so I asked them about it and they acted like they had forgotten...hmm...that's okay this was only the first time something like this happened and I was a step ahead of them!

When we got back a group of us went out to dinner and got some classic goulash, it was incredible! There are different versions but the kind we got (székelygulyás) had sauerkraut in it and potatoes and beef and vegetables and it was in a huge kettle with bread, for some reason it reminded me of the story Jack and the Beanstalk haha, because I felt like this would be the kind of meal I can picture the giant eating! It was a very relaxing night, I am so thankful to have my Fridays off!

Saturday we went to this Hungarian Design market, which is held once a month...it's a chance for young Hungarian designers to try and promote their creations and get their business off the ground. There was some really neat stuff, but a lot of it was pretty expensive, I walked away with a handmade skirt for only 3000 HUF which is like $15 so I was pretty excited about that! It was outside a museum and theater and there were all kinds of neat statues around the area, we even got to go in a hedge maze, haha, I think I like corn mazes better though, this one was kind of lame but thats alright we still had fun!

I went to church again on Sunday and met some more really awesome people, I even met a man from Uganda, it's so awesome to worship God among so many different nationalities and cultural backgrounds! I'm very excited because I am going to meet with the youth pastor on Monday and try and get a bible study started for college age/young adults, so keep this in your prayers! Sunday afternoon I went grocery shopping and then we went out for dinner at this place called Nagyi Palacsintazoja, which translates into Grandma's pancake place! it was so cute and palacsinta are a Hungarian specialty, they're kind of like crepes but I like them even better...I tried one with sourcream and cheese, one with broccoli and chicken, one with chocolate and one with cottage cheese and fruit, they were all amazing and the whole meal only cost me like $3, we will definitely be getting these again!

So on Monday after Libby and I were finished with classes we went out for spicy chicken gyros and then we went on a hike up Gellert Hill in Buda...we got to see fortresses and the Independence monument(which is like our Statue of Liberty) and the view of the city from the top of the hill was amazing! We went up to the Citadella on top of the hill which was a fortress that never did battle...The Hapsburgs built it after the war of Independence(1848-9) to help defend the city...the monument is a woman holding a palm leaf , she is proclaiming freedom throughout the city, it was built in 1947 to honor the Soviet soldiers who died freeing Budapest in 1945...we also saw the statue of St. Gellert, who was an Italian missionary, and the statue marks where he was martyred by Hungarians who were resisting Christianity

...it's pretty sad because many of the statues and monuments are kind of depressing, and Hungarians in general are often very solemn and many are still depressed because of the rough and unstable past of their country...this memorial is in memory of the victims shot into the Danube river by Arrow cross militiamen in 1944-45...

...one of the bridges is nicknamed suicide bridge because of how many have jumped off, and I found out that Hungary has one of the highest, if not the highest, suicide rates in the whole world...There's just so many lost people in need of a savior, but so many are either bitter towards God or they just think of their faith as religion...Well on a positive note, the whole day was so beautiful and I am excited for all God has in store for me here...it has been so incredible and I am just keeping my eyes on the cross day to day...I am so thankful for the grace He has poured out on me!

Well my roommate Didi is not used to homemade food and cooking so Libby and I have decided to try and change this...we've had so much fun cooking and creating and I think Didi has enjoyed it too! On Tuesday we made turkey burgers and homemade french fries!

Then last night I had everyone over for a "family" dinner and there was about 10 people in total, but I had found a Hungarian recipe called Turos Csusza(which translates to cheesy pasta) and cucumber salad and I was feeling brave enough to try it out...so I bought all the stuff and then Libby and I went to work and it was very successful even with all the improvising we did!

Everyone loved it and I was so happy, I will definitely have to make this dish at home for people to try...for dessert, it's kind of funny, Libby and I had tried to make hot milk cake and one of our friends lent us measuring cups and spoons but they were a little different than what we were used to so we measured everything about half of what it was supposed to be and it kind of ended up very flat and interesting...but people still liked it and ate it all, haha, we also bought some of this sweet braided bread that is very good to buy fresh over here and we made our own spread by melting chocolate, it was very yummy! It was such a fun night though and such a joy to have everyone over, and we didn't even have to do dishes, two of the guys jumped up after we had finished and took over, it was great! We didn't have a dry dish towel though so they used a new bath towel it was pretty entertaining!

Well it's Thursday and another end of a school week! I am off to statistics class and salsa, yay! ~I will put the rest of my pictures up on facebook so check them out!