November 5

Fall Break last week saw Caleb and I fleeing Prague for a vacation in Budapest, Hungary.  ESI has several teachers there, and we had never visited them before, so on Friday the 25th we took a night train, leaving at 11:22.  After being woken up about eight gazillion times by passport control (Czech and Slovak ones in neat blue uniforms, Hungarian ones in camouflage so they could disguise themselves on the train), we arrived at Nyugati Station at 8:30ish.  Neal Ericsson (a fellow teacher whose presence on the Web can be found at www.whereisneal.com) picked us up and took us back to his flat in scenic Kistpest, land of Communist condominiums in the southeast area of the city.  When we arrived, we met Neal's friends visiting from America, Neal's flat-mate Steve and his guinea pig, and Sarah and Julie, who live next door.

Soon we went out again, to the Chinese market.  The Chinese market, from what I saw of it, is about a square mile of trinkets, generic and illegally imported clothing, narrow aisles, gyros, pickpockets and people.  Lots of people.  And many of the stalls sell the exact same things.  After a while, I began to feel as if I were in one of those cartoons where, when the characters are running, the background is recycled and you see the same table and lamp go by five or six times.  It is easy, I think, to get lost in there for just that reason.

Later in the afternoon we returned to the center of town for a visit to the Szechanyi baths.  Apparently, Budapest has all kinds of natural springs underneath the city, and for hundreds of years its residents have taken advantage of those springs to construct "medicinal" baths so they can have an excuse to run around in their new Speedos (and at some baths, even less.  But we didn't go to that kind). The baths were soothing, the sauna was stifling, and the building looked like a work of art.

Later in the afternoon we went to the castle on the Buda side of the Danube, from which you can get a good view of all of Pest. We saw a statue of St. Stephen (not the Biblical one, but the Hungarian one) and took loads of pictures.  Then we had a dinner of traditional Hungarian food and went back to Kistpest.  Later on in the evening, everyone else went out to Fat Moe's while I stayed in and read (I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and couldn't have stayed out very late).

On Sunday we all went to church.  The church that it seems many of the Budapest teachers go to meets in an old theater and is affiliated with Calvary Chapel.  The pastor is an American, but his sermon is translated into Hungarian, which makes for a long service.  But I loved it.  Afterwards, we went to a little place down the street where we had some gyros and baklava and sat outside.  Later in the afternoon, we returned to the castle and this time saw the inside of the cathedral there (St. Mattias, I believe). It was dark and cozy and the walls had multicolored designs all over them.  Franz Joseph is buried there.  Then we went to the palace.  I don't know all that much about the palace, aside from the fact that the Habsburgs built it but never spent much time there.  Right now it houses art galleries.  And it has a great view of Pest.  When we were about to descend to the Chain Bridge and cross back over, we saw a beautiful rainbow above the city just as the sun was setting.

Later that evening, Caleb and I ventured out on our own to meet Dawn and Dave (two recently engaged teacher friends) at the Cafe Mediterrain.  On the way we stopped at Burger King (a treat not to be found in Prague.  And only when I am in a foreign country will I ever call fast food a "treat.").  We saw the state Opera House on the way there, which was nice.  Unfortunately, though, if we had been anywhere near the Cafe Mediterrain, we would not have seen it.  But we found the cafe eventually.

Monday, Caleb and I hung out with Steve and Dave, the only two people around who weren't teaching.  We saw St. Stephen's Cathedral (which was being repaired -- but we DID get to see Stephen's severed hand. Cool!), Heroe's Square, a castle built in a multitude of styles for the 1,000 year anniversary of the Hungarian state, and Heroe's Square again when the sun was setting.  We had dinner and watched a movie over at Dave's place.

Tuesday we went with Steve and two of his students to our old stomping grounds, the castle.  But this time, we went to some caves underneath it.  Caleb had read about a series of labyrinths underneath the Buda hills, and it all sounded very cool to us.  Unfortunately, I'm not too sure that what we found was what we were looking for.  But it was still fun to wander around in the dark underground, and from time to time hide and scare each other to death.  Later in the evening we went to the Parliament building and took an abbreviated tour.  In fact, it was hardly a tour, it was so abbreviated.  It was still interesting to get inside the Parliament and see interesting things like a hall, a dome, and a replica of the building made out of matchsticks.

Wednesday morning at 10, we went back to Nyugati station, got on the train, and went home to Prague.  The scenery (which I had not seen on the way down, as it had been a night train) was spectacular, and made me want to travel all around Europe and stay in sleepy little towns.