Exploring Budapest Part 2

"Day Hiking and Gellert Hill"

The morning after Wine Festival I went hiking with Claudia, Radhika, Alison, and Claudia's tandem partner. It was kind of a struggle to get up in the morning after all the wine the night before, but we rallied. 

We started the trip up the highest hill in Buda by taking a bus. From the bus we got to take a ski lift up to get farther up the hill. This was my first time ever taking a ski lift and it was a little nerve wrecking, but we got a great view. Once we got up the hill we started our "hike" up to the highest point in all of Buda. 

Fun fact, Hungarian's really don't think of hiking in the same way we do. For us Americans we think of hiking as any other outdoor physical activity. Your heart rates going to be pumping and your butt is going to be burning. But, nope Hungarians think of hiking as more of a day time stroll in a park. Claudia, Radhika, Alison, and I looked pretty funny in all our work out gear! So pretty much our whole hiking experience was walking up one small hill and then walking up the steps of a tower. The view was wonderful though, you could see all of Budapest. After our hike we went to grab lunch and headed back to Pest. 

Once we got back to the dorms we all finally planned our first trip!! A bunch of us had been talking of taking a roadtrip to Croatia for the weekend and we were all so excited! After we figured out the details about Croatia, Jake and I went on a run to Gellert Hill. I really like going up Gellert Hill, because it reminds me of doing the hill back home with Lizzy. Jake and I reached the top of the hill and then explored around the hill on the way down. It's so easy talking to Jake, he kind of reminds me of Danny and Pookie.

I had such a busy and exciting day after the festivities of this past weekend. I can already tell that I'm going to be sick this week, hopefully I won't be too sick to go to Croatia. Anyways more to come--Szia!

Wine Festival

"Budapest and Wine Fest"

The day of the Wine Festival may have been one of the best days I've had in Budapest thus far. I started the day off exploring by myself. I walked to St. Stephen's Basilica and went inside. It is so beautiful inside of the church, the walls in the church were so pretty and intricate. 

Later in the day I went sightseeing with Radhika, Claudia, and Jake. We went all over Budapest! We started at St. Stephen's Basilica, but this time we all went up to the top of the church. You could see all of Budapest from the top of St. Stephen's, it was breathtaking. After walking back down we all grabbed gelato from a cute little place that makes them in the shape of flowers. It was also pretty delicious. We also found this cute little park that had a fountain that was motion censored, it made you feel like you could control when the water turned on. All of us really liked pretending like we could "bend" water!

Then we headed over to Hero's Square. Hero's Square is a large area where there are statues of past Hungarian Diplomats and lots of museums. Of course we decided to climb on top of the statues, because we are all kids at heart. As we were walking around we stumbled on a little festival. The festival had a lot of booths set-up with different foods to try and an area with a live play going on. The different samples of Hungarian sausages were sooo yummy!

Now it was time for Wine Fest! Not going to lie, I had been looking forward to Wine Fest all day. Drinking different kinds of wine from all over the world at Buda Castle? How freakin' cool is that?! So with that being said Wine Festival was AH-MAZING! I felt like a Princess drinking wine in the court yard of a Castle!! It was so much fun to just walk around with everyone and try the different wines, while enjoying the beautiful scenery of course. We met David and Phil, who are from London, and they were a lot of fun to hangout with and gave us some really great wine recommendations. My favorite wine was a bubbly red that Therese and I tried.

It was such a great day of sightseeing, can't wait to see what more Budapest has to offer. Until next time... Szia!

Exploring Budapest Part 1

"Exploring Budapest"

After being gone the first weekend in Budapest, spending time in Budapest feels really nice. Budapest is after all going to be my home for the next four months and I really wanted to see everything in Budapest!! So this week I decided that I get to be a tourist and go around and see everything. 

This was our first week of classes and I like pretty much all of my classes, especially my management class. My professor is American and I love the topic, definitely think this will be my favorite class overall. After my last class of the week I went with Mike, Robert, and Jake to check out Margaret Island. This actually wasn't my first time at Margaret Island, I had gone a week before running with Medhi, but I forgot to bring write about that in my past posts so.... 

We went to Margaret Island in the evening and got to walk around while the sun was setting and checked out the fountain all lit up. I already know now that Margaret Island is going to be my favorite spot in Budapest, there's just so much to do on the island and it reminds me of Chicago. Later this night was Jake Heebs 21st bday and all of us celebrated with a big pre-game in the kitchen and then went out. I met the most adorable Irish guy, Stephen, at Instant which is another ruins pub. All in all it was a good day of sightseeing and going out.

The next day I went around with Claudia, Mike, and Jake in search of St. Stephen's Basilica. We actually never ended up finding St. Stephen's, but instead just walked around the Chain bridge and got dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was a pretty chill day of sightseeing after the festivities of Jake's bday the night before. We ended the night hanging out at Time Pub with a bunch of people from the group.

Chain Bridge

Until next time... Szia!

The Lake Trip

"The Lake Trip"

Lake Balaton

One I absolutely love the name of this post. For some reason I feel like it gives this story such a dramatic feel! Anyways my first weekend studying abroad I went on a trip to Lake Balaton, which is a small resort town in Hungary only a few hours away from Budapest. 

The night before going to Lake Balaton a bunch of us went to Zsofia's (Steve's tandem partners) house and then went to a place called Budapest Park, where there was a concert type thing going on. It was such a random and fun night, and in the morning I was woken up for my trip to Lake Balaton from everyone else just getting home! 

Zsofia, Joe, and I at Budapest Park

Honestly I had no idea what to expect when I signed up for this Lake trip, but Emily told me it was one of her favorite trips so I knew I had to go. We went with ESN, the on-campus international group. Alison, Radhika, Therese, Claudia, Robert, Stephen, and yours truly were the only ISP people who I knew going on the trip. This trip was just so cool. 

Our first stop on the trip was to the Lake itself, where we cruised around on a boat and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. After we all enjoyed lunch in the main part of town. Then we all hopped back on the bus to go to our hostel and played some "ice-breakers". The ice-breakers were actually hilarious, the ESN leaders came up with some weird games to get us all to know each other better. The best part of these games was getting to know people from different countries, like Tamas from Hungary and Steffi from Germany! 

After we were done with the ice-breakers we got back on the bus, to go to a winery! This was literally one of the coolest things I think I have ever done. As we walked into the winery we got a welcome shot of Paulinka, which is the Hungarian form of vodka made from fruit instead of grain (it's awful trust me). Then the fun part started, the wine tasting. We were in a cellar and got to taste three different types of wines from the winery and just kept shouting "Every Bus Drink Fast". For dinner we had unlimited wine and amazing food, fun fact I never ended up eating the food because the wine was just too good to put down...

The next day we all went to the largest thermal lake in Hungary called Tofurdo. It was such a relaxing day after all the wine the night before. We just lounged around in the thermal lake all day. The cool thing about the thermal lake is that it makes you pretty much weightless, so you just float around the whole time. Only thing I didn't like about the thermal lake was that it smelled really funky, but that was because of the natural minerals. 

Thermal Lake

For my first trip studying abroad I could not have asked for more. I really feel like I'm getting used to this whole Hungary place being my home for four months. More too come from Budapest---Szia!

Touched Down in Budapest

"Budapest Baby"

 I finally arrived in Budapest!! I can't tell you how surreal it feels that my study abroad experience has started. I have been looking forward to Budapest for forever (or so it feels like forever)! My whole first week here seems like such a blur, there was just so much going on.

Freedom Bridge

Budapest is amazing so far! First night here we all went out to a local bar that had karaoke. Started the night off right singing "Sweet Home Alabama" with Isaac and just kept singing and dancing the whole night. I can already tell that all the people I'm meeting are going to become great friends of mine.

The next day I went around with some people and we walked around to Gellert Hill and took a river boat cruise along the Danube. The weather here is gorgeous and the boat cruise was just perfect! You could see everything along the river; Castle Hill, Parliament, and Margaret Island. After the boat cruise Alison, Radhika, Stephen G, and myself walked around to the nice shopping area and sat and talked.

Parliament

The next night out we all went to a ruins pub called Szimpla. I had never heard of a ruins pub in my life before this trip, they are basically what they sound like ruins turned into a giant bar. What was really cool is that it was all open aired! Kathy and I stuck together the whole night and when we were at Doboz danced like fools! It was an awesome night out and I know this whole trip is just going to be craziness.

Szimpla

I'm meeting so many awesome people and just soaking in all of what Budapest has to offer. More to come! --Szia!

Today's Working Girl

"The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl"

 

For any of those out there who question their work every now and again should read this book! It is witty, funny, and provides great advice. 

"Working Girl" is the narrator of the book and has had 59 jobs over 40 years in 22 different cities and 4 countries. Her jobs have ranged anywhere from a ditch digger, to an artist, to a model. 

The book gives a lot of good tips that anyone can apply to their work situation, to eventually get to and find their place in the workforce. The advice is sometimes obvious stuff that you might not realize can help your career like, "It's the stuff you don't do that you regret the most". 

For myself I know that I will use this book for future reference when I am looking for a job. I could already relate to some of the situations from my previous jobs. 

This book gives me hope for the future to trust what my instincts tell me and try something new that will bring me to my dream job. Maybe I will work in Paris or the Vineyards of California or who knows. All I know is that I will figure out my way in life and so will you!

Attempted Detox

"My attempt of detoxing"

Well this entry is kind of embarrassing for me to write about. Basically my sister and I have been talking about doing some kind of detox cleanse since summer began.

We looked at a bunch of different ones that we had seen on Pinterest and finally decided that the Dr. Oz 3-day cleanse was the one for us. This is what the cleanse required.

Looks simple enough, right?? That's exactly what I thought! I'm going to Northern Michigan later this week and I thought now was a perfect time to start the detox, to be beach bod ready!

The one thing that I didn't count on is that I would get sick from the detox. I got up this morning and drank the breakfast smoothie and thought, man this is going to be an easy 3-days!! I was so psyched and already felt healthier.

Fast forward to the lunch smoothie. While preparing this drink, I suddenly realized that it contained celery and cucumbers. Why was this a problem you ask? Well for one these are my two most despised vegetables ever. I can't explain why I hate both of these vegetables so much, other than I just do! 

Now I tried to be a good sport about it and figured there were other things in the drink that would offset the taste of the celery and cucumbers. Man was I wrong!

The first taste wasn't so bad and then my gag reflex kicked in. I tried to suck it down fast, but that was the dumbest thing I could have ever done; resulted in me having to choke back vomit. ICK!!

I felt like such a wimp, my sister on the other hand was enjoying her's like it was a tropical drink!! I didn't even finish half of it before I announced that I couldn't do this. I was so disappointed in myself, but then again drinking that lunch meal was torture!!

My sister (the good sport that she is) agreed that this detox wasn't going to work and we drove to get something substantial to eat. 

Morale of this story is that I need to find a better way to detox. Maybe one that avoids anything with celery or cucumbers?! Have any suggestions, please let me know!!

Until I find something that doesn't make me gag, I will just have to make friends with the toxins in my body. 

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!

By now everyone is over their Fourth of July hangovers, I assume and back to their daily lives.

But isn't the Fourth of July great? It is seriously one of my favorite holidays. Getting the day off work, hanging out by a pool/lake, barbecuing, parties, boozing, and fireworks. What's not to love?!

This year I spent the day laying out in my backyard reading with my sister. Then we made white chocolate covered strawberries with blue sprinkles to show our red, white, and blue pride.

Then we headed downtown to our friends apartment for a Fourth of July party/BBQ. It was a great night filled with fireworks and good friends.

The Fourth of July is one of those holiday's when you really appreciate what it means to be an American. Everyone comes together to celebrate our heritage, no matter what. So with that being said

Happy Be-lated Fourth!

Moving Out

Moving Out


So a week ago I moved out of my apartment in Lincoln Park to move back home to Park Ridge. Since I will be studying abroad in a few months, I was not going to be renewing my apartment lease and living with my other roommates again. Well to be honest, it also had to do with bad feelings towards one of the roommates as well, but nobody wants to hear about that story. 

Moving out itself was a pain in the butt. I lived on the top floor of an old three building apartment (no elevators) and going up and down all my stairs was not very fun. But, the moving out was actually a lot more organized than I thought it was going to be. 

I decided to use all of my luggage/extra store bags in place of boxes; kind of killing two birds with one stone there. I also used a handy trick I found on Pinterest, of leaving clothes on hangers and putting them in a garabage bag so you don't have to take everything off the hangers and re-organize later. This made things so much easier and this link has a ton of other great ideas, http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/brilliant-moving-tips.



Once everything was packed up and moved back to my bedroom in Park Ridge, my room looked like a tornado hit. I seriously wasn't sure my clothes would even fit back into my closet (luckily the did)! I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep in my room if it was a mess, so I spent a couple of hours organizing and it wasn't so bad. 

Now that I am officially moved back to suburbia, I need a new hobby! Maybe one that involves being outside, like tennis? I don't know but I'll think of something soon.