Maintaining Tourist Status

Hi everyone!

These two weeks have been full of some ups and downs for me. Luckily, I found the solution on how to avoid the downs and only feeling high up in the sky all the time =)

It is not that easy to really integrate in the Hungarian society. There is mostly, as I expected, contact with other international students and together you really create an 'Erasmus Society'. Personally, I do not mind about this. I love that I learn about dozens of other cultures anyway and I am lucky some of my courses at uni really focus on the elements of Hungarian/ Central European society!

I have been living in Hungary for 2.5 months now and it has been a hell of ride. So many experiences, so many things to do and things to see.. However, if you do not pay attention, things might start to get normal at some point. You might start to get used to all these amazing people and sights around you and might not even notice anymore that you live in another country. I personally try to remind myself of how special this all is as much as possible, especially since I have the tendency to adjust to things really quickly. In general that I consider that to be a really good quality, but on the downside it sometimes means that things become too much of a routine to me and if there is one thing that does not fit me... So, my intentions for the coming months: Maintaining Tourist Status =) Visiting other countries, making a list of tourist stuff to do in Budapest itself, going out for dinner and taking a lot of pictures! It works!

Sunday, 17th of October 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

That was a lovely relaxing day in this wonderful city! In the morning, we went to the Zoo in the City Park, which is the second oldest of Europe. In this zoo, the distance between the animals and the visitors of the park, as you can see at the picture above, is not big at all. Of course they keep you a little more away from alligators and hippo's, but with the sloths it was even possible to stroke them. Really nice! Afterwards, we went to 'Noir'; a chocolate bar around our corner that Anita from the International Office at Pazmany had recommended us. On our own, we would never have found this, but now I was able to taste the richest caramel-white-chocolate-milk I have ever enjoyed in my life. (It was my first, but still!) In the evening, my flatmate Geran decided to make us some traditional food from home: Wortelstamppot met gehaktballen! (For the non-dutch, this is some kind of mashed potatoes-carrots-onion mix with meat balls) Altough it was a bit salty (really hard to find the correct herbs and spices in Hungary), it was so good!

Thursday, 20th of October - Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest

Lots of progress on the study part! First of all, I got a 5 for my homework assignment for International Economic Order, which is the highest grade you can get in Hungary. Then on Tuesday I finished my paper on 'The Rise of Communism in Poland', after hours of researching in the university library. During the class discussions the professor really appreciated my comments, so I hope this will reflect in my grade! In the afternoon, it was time for the Security Council meeting on our resolution about Libya. It was heated, it was funny, there were a lot of good and a lot of stupid arguments and eventually it was so interesting that we did not have enough time in this session. On thursday, we continued and this was extra special since, as we all know, Colonel Gaddafi died that day just a few hours before the sequel of our debate. This was very benificial for us, France and the United Kingdom, and eventually our resolution passed! High five! Also, today I held a presentation about the Stolen Generations of the Aboriginals, which also went well =) Tonight, Emma, Geran and me are going to treat ourselves to pancakes and a movie.. that has been a long time! Oh, and yesterday evening we went to a really nice restaurant with a live jazz band.. Felt like we were in the 1920s, a sophisticated contrast to everyday Erasmus life ;)

Saturday, 22nd of October - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Good afternoon Budapest! Speaking of intercultural communication: yesterday was the perfect example! In the evening there was a flag party organized by the Erasmus Student Network, which basically meant everyone dressed up in his or her country's colours. Ambitious as I am, I wore my new orange coat, blue pants, a red top and a white jacket. And: I painted my nails in red-white-blue.. so proud of it! A bit sad that half of the people thought I was Hungary (the blue polish turned green in black light) and the other half asked me why the red was not orange. "Orange is the Dutch national colour right?" "Yes it is, but it is not in our flag. It is just because of our royal family." "You are the weirdest country in the world..." Haha.

Other running jokes about the Netherlands: "You don't have your own language." "You are just a province of Germany." "Dutch is just Germans talking when they are extremely drunk." "Com-for-TA-bel." "Why do you keep using our beautiful French words and pronounce them so stupid?" "You and your bikes.." "You people only smoke weed, live in wind mills and where wooden shoes" (how cliché) "Stop eating all that cheese" and so on.. =)

Sunday, 23rd of October - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

This weekend I have been a little sad. It did not really matter, because before going on exchange I already had taken into account that it would happen somewhere down the road. On friday, Geran's family arrived and she was busy with them. Everyone else was studying for midterms or on a study trip with their university. So I was alone in the flat all weekend, while back home one of my best friends was having lunch with my mom, my team had a night out together and my homies held one of our legendary parties. Just this some together made me a little homesick, but I guess that is okay. I was missing my Budapest friends and my loved ones back home at the same time. It was not a nice feeling, but it is better to miss someone than not to have anyone to miss at all! So, I decided to email all my loved ones back home and took the advice of 'Veldhuis & Kemper' in their song 'Volkomen Kut' (Dutch song, I am sorry..): Feel free to be sad for two days, then step back up and start enjoying everything around you again!

Monday, 31st of October - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

So, this week I already realized some of my intentions! On monday, I subscribed for the three day ESN-trip to Krakow, Poland, which will take place in the first weekend of November (so, upcoming weekend!). We will visit the Salt Mine in Wieliczka, Auschwitz - Birkenau, Zakopance and of course the city of Krakow itself. The next day, we, me and some girls from the university, booked our bustickets to Prague for the weekend after that. One of my goals of this exchange was to expand my horizon and to see much more of Europe, especially the Central and Eastern parts. I am so looking forward to the upcoming weekends! Also, we went to the World Press Photo Exhibition in the Ethnographic Museum, which was very impressive, and, being a tourist, I sat down for almost three hours in one of the most beautiful coffee houses of the city. Then, as the icing on the cake, I made a very impulsive decision on friday night. While having dinner with some of the people of my language course, who were going to leave for Belgrad, Serbia, in two hours, I decided to run home, pack my bag and join them!

So, at 21.30 hr, I rushed to Nyugati station, where I found out the International Ticket Office was closed. I rushed back home, packed my bag (forgot a lot of things), rushed to Keleti train station and stand in line, nervously, for a ticket until 30 minutes before departure. Who cares, I was going to Serbia tonight! Anyone who has seen the movie 'Yes, man!'? I try to have that as my Erasmus philosophy =)
The train ride to Belgrad was so much fun. We kicked some people out of our cabin ("we reserved this as a whole".. not.), shared it with six of us, drank some wine, laughed a lot and made an attempt to sleep. Unfortunately, in the morning the fun was over: Landon's camera was stolen and Ben's wallet was gone, with all his documents and cards in it.. They spend a lot of time in the police station and in the German Embassy, which apparently was very hilarious, while the others were sleeping and I talked about Balkan war and politics with our hostel owner. After having lunch, we walked up the Fortress, which is the most well known part of Belgrad. The park was beautiful and the sunset just amazing. Afterwards, we went to Black Turtle Bar, where they served several sweet (I looooove sweet. Yes guys, I do) fruity beers. For dinner, we went to a lovely Italian restaurant, before wandering the streets at night to find some decent bars.

The next day, we joined the free walking, which was also a success in this city. It was a bit harder to understand the guide then in other places, because of her Slavic accent, but that was okay. Serbian language is really hard by the way and it is difficult the find your way around Belgrad, since, apart from the chaos in the city, all signs are in their alphabet. Luckily, we had Airi with us, who is from Estonia and therefore could give us some translations into regular Latin alphabet. In the afternoon, we visited the beautiful cathedral (which is much bigger then the 18th biggest basilica of the world in Esztergom), drank some hot chocolate (which resembled warm chocolate vla) and eventually had dinner at a really nice traditional Serbian restaurant before taking the night train back to Budapest.

I am really glad I went on this trip. It was so much fun and it proved again that travelling is one of the things I love the most. Also, what would the others have done without my guidance through the city and feeling of responsibility? ;)

In the upcoming months I will continue doing this. Travelling, visiting and experience everything to the maximum! Times is already running out, so let's go!!!

xx