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I am back from Budapest, and in preparation for my internship (which starts tomorrow).

I really enjoyed my trip to Hungary, even the weather. The sun was bright, and there was a crisp breeze blowing the whole time so it was fairly cool (I wish I'd packed my gloves to go with me!). The city was beautiful. Seeing the city from above and from a distance reminded me a lot of the time I visited San Francisco which, for all it's faults, is an incredibly beautiful city.

So those are a few shots of Budapest, both of them taken in the late morning/early afternoon. ( :
I spent most of the two and a half days I was there exploring the area around where I was staying, so I got pretty familiar with those few public transit routes (Budapest has busses, trams, trains, a metro, "omnibusses," and trolleys. It's a very comprehensive system, even moreso than London!) and some of the sites.

One of my favorite places to visit was the Citadella. It's on top of a small mountain called Gellért Hill, and it's the Hungarian statue of liberty. It was erected by the Russians when they came in in the 50's and liberated Hungary from Nazi occupation. It was built to face Moscow, because it was Russia that had given them their "freedom." Then, when the Berlin Wall fell in '89, the Hungarians got rid of a lot of Soviet monuments, but they liked the idea of the liberty statue so much they decided not to destroy it. Instead, they turned it around 180 degrees so that it faced directly away from Moscow, and that's how it stands today.


On the last day there, I visited a market in an old warehouse. it was kinda cool there. The ground floor and the basement were full of food (ground floor mostly produce and some meat, more meat downstairs, including several fishmongers. Lots of live fish in a basement stink the place up!). The upper level had a little pub-like restaurant in it, and the rest was devoted to tourist-y types of stuff. Little curios and puzzles and souvenirs and T-shirts and stuff like that. I did find something there that was just about perfect for Grandpa Abeyta, but he'll just have to wait 'til Christmas to find out what it is!

The Vaughans also took me out to get an authentic Hungarian goulash one evening. It was absolutely delicious. It's the kind of meal that beef stew wishes it could be. I'm not a huge fan of soup, but I think I could eat goulash for a week (not counting breakfasts, preferably) and not get tired of it.

And that's about all. I'm off to do some gracery shopping in just a bit, and I fully intend to get to bed at a decent hour tonight since I have to get up in the morning for work.

PLUR!