Events 11/23-12/9: More Skimming

Wednesday was a weird day. Holocaust Lit was fine. Afterwards, my group met to work on the presentation. We decided to go with a very minimalist powerpoint.

Thursday, I had the presentation. Most groups chose to go with a very detailed powerpoint, which made us feel out of place. Our presentation was also shorter, although I think we were the only group to actually stay in the time limit, if that counts for anything. I think I did my part well. The Lions won their game, another comeback.

The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful.
On Monday, I finally got into a presentation group for Central European History, and headed to Memento Park, a Communist monument, and the subject of the presentation. It was interesting, seeing both how the communists had been "revered" for years, but also the decay.
Memento Park

My favorite statue. (It's huge, like 30 ft tall)

That evening, our group met to plan, and then gave our presentation. The prompt was complicated and weird, so we mostly winged it. We decided to go first, which was a great decision, because pretty much everything we said was also said by another group, but us going first hid it, as it was all new at that time. But we got a great score on it (later) from the professor, so I guess it went well. It reinforced two things for me: 1. I can give speeches, without fear, and 2. I suck at giving speeches. My part had awkward pauses, stumbling through words, confusion about what I was going to say next, and I don't think many people were impressed. I'm not afraid of it anymore, but public speaking does not come naturally to me.

The rest of the week was a bunch of last classes, other than Late Antiquity. They went smoothly, and I worked for the end of the year, albeit with plenty of procrastination.

Friday, we got a tour of Hungarian Parliament, which was cool. Not many pictures allowed, unfortunately, but it was beautiful, and it was cool learning the history. They were setting up for Christmas, apparently Santa was coming to Parliament in a few days.

Another boring weekend, even the Lions were boring, winning by a decent amount for once. The next week, I had my last service-learning. It was bittersweet. They love me there, and everyone talked about how nice it was to have me (although it was also said to me that if I want to become a teacher, I would need to put in a lot of work!). I also wrote a small paper, and then took the final exam, in Holocaust Literature. I think it went well! My studying paid off.

I had my last Late Antiquity course today, and now it is time for bed, so I can get up and go to Serbia!

Events 11/19-11/23: Germany

Look at all the awesome photos!

So, for this trip, I did something a little different. I blogged while I was on it! I didn't post, wanting to edit it later, which I'm doing now, with notes added using [], as well as pictures. It's a bit inconsistent, but overall, I think it worked well. The next paragraph is all afterwards as well, setting the scene.

I went with my friend Tristan, who I've played board games with many times, with a group of friends from church. He's in the US army now, so I haven't seen him in a while. It was great getting to see him. We both wanted to travel Germany, which is great, since I'm not allowed to travel along, per Calvin rules. Getting my tickets had been a huge pain, with lots of problems, mail-only tickets getting mailed to the US instead of Budapest. It was crazy, but finally, I got it worked out.

7:42 am

Train just left. Wi-Fi doesn't appear to be working, which is annoying. I'd like to let prof Kim know I left and Tristan that I'm on my way. Should've done it before I left. Oh well.

Anyways, thing #1 happened: I got in my seat, and a little later a guy came by claiming it was his seat. We compared tickets, and they were almost identical... except his ticket was for the 21st. Oh no. Poor guy.

The seat beside me was unreserved, so a young Hungarian woman is sitting next to me. (You can get tickets for trains in Europe without buying a seat reservation, which is a little extra)

7:55 am: Figured out the wifi situation. The portal page (the one you get redirected to) was wrong, and I was able to figure out the right one from the last time I was on this company's train. On this trip, the wifi internet (to the outside world) is only once we get into Austria, which will be about half way through the trip. So I'll be able to message prof Kim, although Tristan is likely already on his way to pick me up. Time for a nap. Blast, forgot my travel pillow.

10:19 am:

Took a nap. Am in Austria now. The wifi is being stupid. Can't even get to the portal page anymore, just get "too many redirects". Someone didn't configure it right, I guess.

2:34 pm:

Rest of the train ride was uneventful. I mostly rested, although I only got 20 more minutes of sleep. I've still got a tickle in my throat, and a nasty cough from Poland. I found Tristan pretty quickly, we dropped my stuff off at his car. We wanted to the old town here I'm Salzburg, and got sausage hot dogs for lunch. We then went to the birthplace of Mozart, which is a museum. I'll let you know how it was when I'm done.

3:06 pm:

The museum was great. Was quite detailed about all things Mozart. Lots of things from his life, letters, portraits. Little bit confusing layout, but excellent experience. Only a few places allowed pictures unfortunately.

8:52 pm:

After the museum, we checked out the fortress. 12 euro for the basic entrance, which came with an audio tour, and since we're going to tour two castles tomorrow, we skipped it. As we were walking back to the center of old town (where all the interesting stuff is), we saw a large chess set, probably 1/7 life sized. The game is below:

1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bf5 4. Bh3 Bxh3 5. Nxh3 e6 6. f4 Bb4 7. a3 Bxc3 8. bxc3 Nd7 9. Rb1 Nb6 10. O-O O-O 11. f5 Qd7 12. e4 dxe4 13. Nf4 exf5 14. d5 Rab8 15. Rb4 Nxd5 16. c4 Nxb4 17. Qxd7 Nxd7 18. axb4 Nd5 19. c5 Rbd8 20. Be3 Rd7 21. b5 c6 22. bxc6 bxc6 23. h4 Rfd8 24. Kf2 Rd1 25. Ke2 Rxf1 26. Kxf1 Nf6 27. h5 Rd8+ 28. Ke2 Re8+ 29. Kf2 a5 30. Bd2 Rh1 31. Bc3 Ra2 32. Ne2 a4 33. Nd4 Nxd4 34. Bxd4 Rxc2+ 35. Ke3 a3 36. g4 fxg4 37. Kxe4 g6 38. h7 a2 39. Ke5 Rc1 40. Bb2 a1=Q 41. Bxa1 Rxa1 42. Kd3 Ra6 43. Kc2 g6 44. Kb7 g7 45. resigns

It was a ton of fun. I got some great pictures.

After that we went to the cathedral, which was quite beautiful. We were even able to go to the catacombs, for free, although they weren't very expensive. Finally, we looked around for a good restaurant. It took a while, but we found one. I got a dish with a couple sausages, a pretzel, and mustard. It was delicious. Tristan got a 1/4 duck, some cabbage, and potatoes. I had that in Prague, I think, and it was delicious. We split an apple strudel for dessert. We then headed to the road, and are currently 20 minutes from our Airbnb.

11/20/16

9:48am

Rest of trip back went fine. We got back, figured out our plans for the next day, including that our first castle tour was an hour later than we thought. We relaxed a little and went sleep.

In the morning, we got up, and discovered the place we were planning on going for breakfast, was closed. The owners are on vacation for another month. So we headed to town, picked up our tickets, and headed up to Neuchwanstein Castle (on a bus). Next to the castle appears to be the only place to find breakfast before 11, when our tour is. Right now we're next to the castle. It's gorgeous, and being on the side [of a mountain], there's since great views.

11:42am

The breakfast place was under renovation. I guess we're here in the off season. 95% of the people here are Asian. It's crazy. The tour of Neuchwanstein was relatively short. Tristan says that the previous times he was here, the tour was more informative. I am stopped at the café for a little food (munching on a pretzel) before we head to Hohenschwangau Castle for our other tour at 12:30.

12:19pm

Booked it down from Neuchwanstein and up to Hohenschwangau. The carts going down weren't ready, so we walked, and it's faster to walk up to Hohenschwangau, so we did. I'm quite out of breath right now. (Tour is at 12:30)

2:19pm

Hohenschwangau was a better tour. The tour guide was most more knowledgeable, great tour. After the tour, we checked out the chapel, walked to the nearby lake, and then headed out. We're now on the road, 3 hours from our Airbnb, although we'll probably find food before them.

11/21/16

9:33am

We grabbed some food from pizza king. I got "peperoni" which was pizza with peppers on it. Needless to say, I ate some of Tristan's Hawaiian pizza as well.

We got to our Airbnb around 6, made plans for the next day, and then relaxed. We played a few games of magic the gathering while I watched the Lions. They won in a nailbiter, but a little less than usual. Tristan beat me 3-2 in magic. We got a good night sleep.

In the morning, we ate a combination of some food Tristan brought and some food our first provided, it was okay. We would have gotten food yesterday, but in Germany, all the grocery stores are closed on Sunday. We're on the road, now. 10 minutes from the start of our hike.

11:05am

We started hiking, and then realized, we don't know whether the bus runs. We're still figuring out what to do about that. There's no stop until we reach the end, but it's too far to turn around and walk, probably. Just stopped for a snack, keep our energy up.

11:14am

Side note: It is *ridiculously* beautiful out here.

2:38pm

So, hiking has been interesting.

We saw lots more beautiful stuff. Gorgeous gorges, pretty streams, and fantastic waterfalls. The roaring river has been excellent as well.

We decided to press on, with the idea that the bus will take us close to the car, and we'll hike to it. Unfortunately, we soon ran into a closed part of the trail, and while taking the detour, discovered the detour was quite long, probably too long. It took us near a town, where after some looking around, we discovered we had just missed a bus, and the next one wouldn't go where we needed. So, we decided to hire the roads back, which Google Maps told us will take a little over an hour and a half. So we'll get back to the car around 4. Tristan is being excellent and carrying my backpack for me.

5:48pm

It was a long walk, there were a couple scenic views, but it was mostly boring, and we were tired. We finally made it back, and drove to about three restaurants, which were all closed, before we just went to the first open place we found, Doner Kebap. Tristan got a doner, and I got a salami pizza. Much better than "peperoni". While we were driving around looking for a place to eat, we went to ALDI, and got some breakfast food. Tomorrow morning, we plan to head out around 6am to drive the four and a half hours to Trier. So we'll figure out our plans for tomorrow, and then go to bed quite early. Which won't be hard, considering we're both super tired.

11/22/16

8:25am

We relaxed a bit, went to bed, woke up, ate breakfast, headed out. Everything according to plan. We're now two and a half hours from Trier.

10:41am

So, we were driving, and Tristan realized we were right near the big base next to his base. I needed to use the restroom anyways, so we went there. He was giving me a quick tour, when he got a call, and discovered he needed to go back to his base for something, so that's what we're doing now. His base is only half an hour from the big base, so hopefully this won't throw us off track too much.

11/23/16

6:56am

Whoof, way too long since the last one. So, Tristan ended up being needed back at base, and after I waited for a couple hours, he told me he would need to drive me straight to the train station. After we got there, I waited in McDonald's for a while. There were no power outlets, and the wifi only lasted 3 hours, so I started a search. Eventually, after about an hour and a half of walking and searching, I found a place a mile away from the station. It was relatively expensive, but I still got dinner there, and just chilled for about 5 hours. A large part of that was talking to Jessica, which was cool. I then came back, boarded my train, which is coming into the final station now, so I need to transfer to my last train.

2:30pm

And I'm back. Transfer was easy, I got some water to aid my throat, got some more sleep on the train. I'm still exhausted, nervous about the presentation tomorrow. Got back, an am now on a bus to Holocaust Lit. Thanks for reading!

(Back to now)
So, all in all, a great trip, albeit cut short. I think this way of the blog worked great, and will use it for my last trip of the semester, to Serbia.

Events 11/14-11/18

Another ho-hum week.

Couple of highlights:
Hungarian National Gallery
For Art History, us students had to go to the National Gallery and do a report on some things there. I went with another student, and it was beautiful. Amazing paintings, I think I like certain time periods. I especially loved the landscapes. I took lots of photos (fewer than I had thought, tho).

Other misc photos
Here's a 3:30 sunset. It's crazy.

Friday was a busy day. I finally got more warmer clothes, a hat, some gloves, a pair of sweatpants (to wear under other pants), and some long sleeve shirts. For lunch (in between these purchases), I ate an interesting bagel sandwich from Budapest bagel. There was a bunch of stuff on it, including bacon and pomegranate seeds. It was funky, but delicious. After all the shopping, I went to the Christmas market, and met up with people there. We toured around the Christmas market, got some food, and then went to the symphony. The symphony was amazing. It was great fun, and the music was breathtaking.

The next day, I would leave for Germany.

Events 11/10-11/13: Poland

Photos

Thursday, we went to Poland. The drive was long. We stopped in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia for a short tour and lunch. It took so long for me and a few other students to find lunch, that we were supposed to be leaving about the time we got our food. I got some delicious pork for lunch. I wish I had been able to savor it, but I had to wolf it down. We did watch Schindler's List on the bus. The bus seems to take forever to get anywhere, so by the time we got to Krakow, it was dark. Krakow was cold. Much colder than Hungary ever gets. It was even snowing at times. I miss snow.

From the bus:

We went to dinner near the hostel, and then went in for the night.

The next day, we went to Birkenau and Auschwitz.

Auschwitz is technically not one camp, but a complex of camps, Birkenau being the largest one. The "Auschwitz" we went to is actually the best preserved camp, which is not Birkenau. It was very museum-like, with exhibitions inside the barracks. There was even an entire Hungarian exhibit, documenting Hungary's role in the Holocaust. Hungary likes to think itself innocent in WWII, in part likely due to the Soviet narrative of "liberation" from the Germans. However, they allied with the Axis during WWII at first, before wanting to pull out, and then when threatened, peacefully surrendered to Germany to avoid being invaded. Germany then put the Nazi sympathetic party in power, so the country was still run by Hungarians. So while not actively advocating for the Holocaust, the Hungarians didn't exactly fight it, either.

Birkenau was mostly destroyed, there were some barracks still up; we got to see stable that was "converted" into a barracks for women; the Nazis barely changed it. The conditions were so terrible, it is difficult to comprehend.

It's hard to call it awesome or good, but it was a very important experience, and I am glad I went.

We went back, to dinner, and then I went to bed.

Saturday morning, we went on a tour of Krakow. The medieval market was actually at a lower level than the ground is now, so there's a series of catacombs underground, and the few old buildings left have entrances with stairs up to ground level.

We toured around the city, even got to see some of the places where the shot Schindler's list; the Jewish quarter in Krakow was emptied during WWII, and never really recovered. So Steven Spielberg chose this location to shoot because it was still dilapidated and falling apart; most of the other Jewish quarters around Europe had been fixed up. This is a staircase that shows up in some scenes.

We went a couple tours in total, and ate at a place we had already eaten, right next to the hostel, I believe.

The next morning, we got up early, drove south to Slovakia, and stopped to tour a castle. It was an excellent tour. The castle was gorgeous; no pictures were allowed inside, however. We ate lunch nearby. Finally, we completed the trip back to Budapest, Sunday evening. I was pretty tired, so I don't think I did much (the Lions had a bye), and finally went to sleep.