Viszontlátásra, Magyarország!

My semester in Hungary has come to an end, and I flew back to America this Thursday.

Looking back, it has been my most successful semester yet in my college career.

First, as you can tell from my blog, I’ve been able to go on many adventures, both inside Hungary and to neighboring Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, and Romania. I’ve made many unforgettable memories on my travels.

More importantly, I’ve also made a great many friends at my school. With fewer than 40 students, we were all forced to get to know each other, and we really were a community. We slogged through classes together, partied together, and traveled around Europe in smaller groups. So the end of the semester feels very bittersweet to me as we all go our separate ways. I’m ready to be done traveling (for a while!), but I do feel poignant about leaving my friends. Not to mention that I may never come back to Hungary again.

I’ve also grown and matured this semester. I’m happier and more outgoing than I was four months ago. I’m more confident about traveling and living by myself too. Finally, I was academically successful this semester too. In many ways, the past four months have been a highlight of my college career.

So, what now? I will be in Minnesota until New Year’s Day. Then I’m off to Maryland to work at my cousin’s vet clinic for a month.

Then it begins again in February, when I leave to study abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand. So while I am sad to leave my friends and Hungary behind, there is much to look forward too. I think I will keep travelling my whole life!

Romania

For my final weekend trip of the semester, I met one of my friends from Princeton who lives in Romania.

I took the train out to Bucharest on Thursday. It was very long - about 15 hours - but I enjoyed watching the mountains in the Romanian countryside. I toured Bucharest by myself on Friday. I saw a couple art museums, the palace of the parliament (Europe's largest building), and a couple extensive parks. At night my friend flew in, and we walked around Bucharest some more.

The Palace of the Parliament

On Sunday, we took the train to tour a castle in Transylvania. Unfortunately, pictures were forbidden inside without paying an exorbitant fee, but suffice to say the interior was gorgeously decorated, with lots of marble, gold, and an extensive weaponry collection, including jewel-studded blades. After the castle, we took the train to Brasov. It's an old town with lots of churches, a charming bell tower, a giant Christmas tree, and plenty of shops.

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The Black Church in Brasov, so called because of a fire long ago

The Bell Tower in Brasov

My friend's parents also drove up to Brasov, so on Monday we traveled by car instead of the train. First we went to Bran Castle, better known as Dracula's Castle because of its connection to Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian ruler Dracula is said to be loosely based on. This castle was over seven centuries old, so it had lots of fascinating history, even if it wasn't as extravagant as the first castle I saw. The castle sits atop a rocky cliff, and together with the wintery forest and mountains in the background, it lacked only lightning to look exactly how you'd imagine Dracula's Castle.

Bran Castle

The secret passage

Castle courtyard

It's Count Dracula!!!

We drove through the beautiful Romanian countryside to Sighisoara, a very well-preserved medieval city. In the old part of the town, practically all the buildings are several centuries old. An old church and nearby cemetery add to the medieval atmosphere. The city is fortified with several historic towers, each dedicated to different guilds such as butchers, iron workers, or carpenters.

A Guild Tower

Cemetery

Not surprisingly, I enjoyed eating some Romanian food. The most unusual thing I ate was brain, a delicacy in Romania. I also was fortunate enough to get a homemade breakfast from my friend's family. Romanians prefer salty things for breakfast, so in addition to putting jams on toast special vegetable preserves are popular on toast.

It was a wonderful weekend trip, and having native Romanians to show me around made it all the better. I'm very thankful for their kindness - it was a perfect end to the semester.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Yesterday, I took a day trip to Slovakia.

Like any tour of a European city, I of course saw the castle & the cathedral. The castle sits on a high hill, so you can see it from all around the city, and it offers a great view at the top. Nearby the castle I ate at a restaurant that was nearly three centuries old. The back of the restaurant was underground, and it felt like a castle. Of course the food was good too - I particularly enjoyed my imperial pancake!

The cathedral too was impressive - I'm always awestruck at how tall they can be. I also strolled around Old Town for a while. At the center of the city was a square with dozens of stands selling Christmas gifts and hot food.

The most enjoyable part for was simply walking around. I walked across the bridge, giving a great view of Bratislava and the Danube, then I walked through a large park. It was nice to get away from all the crowds - the park was practically empty.

All and all, I had a good day. Even the train ride was comfortable enough.

View from the castle

The castle is visible from all around the city

It's hard to appreciate the height of the cathedral from just the picture

Old town

Beautiful, spacious park. In the background is an observation tower (for UFOS!) on top of the bridge.

Prague, Czech Republic

Last weekend, I traveled with three fellow students to Prague. What a beautiful city! The city felt similar to Budapest, but it has lots of onion domes and cobbled walkways. It's slightly wealthier too. On the other hand, it is crowded with tourists.

Overlooking the city is a castle. Apart from a few walls, the castle looks more like a palatial home than a fortified stronghold. The castle also has a large cathedral within its walls. The view of Prague from the castle is fantastic.

View of Prague from the castle

The cathedral

Sculptures popped out from the cathedral's door

We also visited the Lennon Wall (that's John Lennon, not to be confused with Lenin!) It's a wall covered with graffiti (the owner doesn't mind) honoring John Lennon. As a huge Beatles fan, I had to see it. Back in the day, the wall was full of anti-communist messages. Once, when the communists had the wall painted over, it was covered with graffiti again within a couple days. Now that communism is over in the Czech Republic, it's mostly about peace, love, and John Lennon.

Notice the yellow submarine in the center

On a sadder note, we also toured the Museum of Communism. It's difficult to grasp the totality of the Czechs' suffering under communism. Food was constantly in shortage after collectivization. Because the communists set price ceilings in a naive attempt to make food affordable, shortages were aggravated and corruption was rampant. The brutal secret police had thousands of informants throughout the country. Citizens were always to be suspicious that their neighbors and friends might be evil capitalist counter-revolutionaries. It was a crime to not report on neighbors even for innocuous crimes, such as overhearing a neighbor talking about wanting to leave the country. Dissidents were tortured, forced to "confess" their crimes against the proletariat, then sentenced to hard labor in mines, harsh prison sentences, or execution. 

Prague used to have statues honoring mass-murderer and dictator Josef Stalin

  

Overall, it was a fun trip. I learned a lot about the history of the Czech Republic, and got to explore a beautiful city.

Prague was all set for Christmas too!