I can't think of a creative title right now

June 12, 2008

After checking the weather yesterday, we were disappointed but not surprised to see that it was suppose to pour all day. We put on all our rain gear and went met at the Museum of Fine Arts in Hero’s Square ready to start our day. As Murphy’s law would have it, the sun was shining brightly by the time we got across town to the museum. I don’t know what it is about our group and weather…

The museum was actually very cool. We spent most of our time in the photography exhibit, which was different from anything we’ve seen thus far on the trip. Most pictures dealt with social justice issues, and it really made me realize just how “out of the loop” I’ve been these past three weeks with any type of current event. I am definitely living in a fifty person bubble right now!

After the museum we went in search of a Hungarian lunch, which you would think should be pretty easy to find. We asked several different people, but we must not have been clear with what we were asking because no one ever gave us a clear answer. We ended up getting gyros and eating at Subway. From there we walked back to the hotel and regrouped before heading out for the afternoon.

Near our hotel there was a momument erected at the end of WWII to commemorate the liberation of the Nazis. It was on top of a hill that had a great overlook of the city, so we decided to hike up. The mountain was on the other side of the river in Buda, so we got to cross one of the many bridges in the city, which was a fun experience in and of itself.

The climb up the mountain wasn’t as difficult as we had anticipated, and we got to the top in less than thirty minutes. Along the way we passed a memorial to the guy that brought Christianity to Budapest. According the tourist literature, witches use to gather on the mountain together, and when this guy came to the city they put him in a barrel and threw him into the river. The statue that was made for his was pretty strange, but it was still cool to see.

The top of the mountain was an incredible view of the city. We got there around 6pm, so the sun was just starting to set. On the way back down, we found a playground that was carved right into the side of the mountain, complete with several long slides that were incredibly fun to slide down. I’m sure we looked silly being so excited about finding the playground, but it was a lot of fun! There were some really cute kids there as well, in particular a little girl with curl blonde hair that followed us wherever we went. She didn’t understand anything we said to her, including hello, but she grinned and chased behind us and tried to come back with us even. It was good to be around young kids for a change!

Once we got back to the hotel, we went out to dinner. We never found a truly authentic Hungarian place to eat, but I did order goulash, which I figured was Hungarian enough. We ate outside and had fun people watching all throughout dinner. We saw almost everyone from our group walk by, so I’m sure we were very obnoxious to everyone else that was eating there. After dinner we went out to a dance club in Buda with almost everyone. We saw some crazy European outfits and even crazier dance moves…but it made all of us feel way normal and like halfway decent dancers. A great ending to our time in Budapest!