One Month - I Feel Home

Settled back in to my home in Budapest; great to feel that I can call Budapest my home. This weekend I traveled with eighteen others to Zagreb, Croatia. Even though Croatia is known for having a beautiful coast line, it was cool to see the city. It snowed a whole lot! A group left on Thursday, and another group left on Friday. We hopped on the train Friday afternoon and found enough seats for all of us – there were fourteen of us traveling on Friday so we couldn’t all sit together at first. After about an hour in to the trip, we had our tickets checked. They told us that around 4pm we had to go to the end of the train because the train was going to split at one point and the end of the train would be going to Zagreb. If we didn’t know, we could’ve ended up somewhere else! Dany made sure everyone had their passport, and suddenly our friend Sanna realized she forgot her passport. At first we didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. Maybe she could talk her way through the passport check on the train. Another hour went by and we still didn’t know what she could do. She decided to talk to someone about not bringing a passport and he said that there would be no way she could get through passport control. We were at a train stop at the time, so she decided to get off and head back to Budapest. We felt so bad for her, but she got back safely and that’s all that matters. We wish she could’ve come with us though! The whole train ride was about an hour and a half – it shouldn’t have taken that long if it was a straight shot, but there were several different stops and passport control took about thirty minutes. When we were about an hour and a half out, we had to do passport control. At this point we were sitting in little cabins with six seats; me and another girl were the only United States citizens in our cabin and they had to hold on to our passports longer than everyone elses. Not sure why, but I think they had to scan them. It always makes me nervous going through passport control and stuff. I got two stamps in my passport: one Hungarian stamp and one Croatian stamp! Filling up my passport!

After passport control we started to get anxious because we just wanted to be there! We were all so excited to get off the train that our dear friend Alex forgot his suitcase on the train. I’m not sure how he did that. But all of a sudden we see him running for the train. It was the funniest thing ever. I shouldn’t have been laughing, but I couldn’t help it. It was hilarious. When he tells the story, I can’t help but cry laughing so hard. He ran to get someone and was trying to say “suitcase, suitcase!” But no one could understand it, so he had to act it out. He said he was just walking around wheeling a fake suitcase to describe what he needed. The train had looped around because it was the last stop, so he had to jump a few fences and then get back on the train. He couldn’t find his suitcase and so he kept asking people but nobody could understand him. Eventually, they radio called someone who could speak English and eventually he met with some man who had his suitcase. He got his suitcase outside, near us, and he bowed for us. We all started clapping and cheering. Extremely eventful. We walked about ten minutes to our hostel and met with everyone else! We had to pay in Croatian currency for our hostel, but we didn’t have the currency yet. Ana and I ran across the street and pulled out 500 kunas, which is about $80. Our hostel cost about $30 for two nights, which wasn’t too bad. They will probably never let any of us stay there again. We were so loud. But, stick twenty of us together… of course we are going to be loud! We paid for our hostel and it was about 8:30pm at this time. We were STARVING. No one really brought food for the train, so we had to eat. The people who got there on Thursday made reservations for us at a restaurant! We got ready and went out around 9:15 for dinner – they made us these huge dishes of French fries and sausages. Tons and tons of meat. They asked if there were any vegetarians (yay!) so I got a vegetable plate that was so delicious! I would’ve eaten anything at that point, I was so hungry. We got a little rowdy at the restaurant, and we started tearing up the paper placemats on the table and shooting them into people’s glasses. Yes, we are fifteen again. People started making bets and would buy others shots if they made it into someone’s cup. The paper on the floor when we left… hahaha!

After the restaurant, we went to a club called History. There was an ESN Zagreb party there that night! If you didn’t read one of my previous posts, ESN Corvinus is the organization at my school that helps us get acclimated to Budapest and plans trips and activities for us! ESN is well-known all over, so many universities have this program! The club, History, was super crowded and it is not illegal to smoke indoors in Croatia, so I was dying. My eyes and throat burned so bad. I thought it was crazy that they could smoke anywhere… restaurants, cafes, bars. Everywhere. I’m so glad that they have banned it in the United States and here in Budapest. We had two Croatians who showed us around and they couldn’t believe we weren’t able to smoke inside. They thought it was insane. When our friends would smoke outside before entering somewhere they were so confused; they were like you can just come inside, it’s okay. But for them it was just more respectful to smoke outside, which I totally agree with.

Anyway, we stayed at History until around 2:30am but I was so tired. I felt really sick that night, too, so I wasn’t able to have that much fun. My cough was getting worse, too, from all the smoke. Eventually we all left and on our way home everyone was just throwing snowballs left and right! It was pouring snow! It was beautiful! Of course, cold, but I really enjoyed all the snow. On Saturday, our Croatian friend who studies in Budapest with us, set up for one of her friends to show us around Zagreb. We walked around all day and just toured the city. It was a lot different from Budapest in the sense that it wasn’t as built up as Budapest. There are so many shops, restaurants, cafes, etc all over the streets in Budapest, but in Zagreb there’s only really one main square with all the action. We went to the Museum of Broken Relationships; I had no idea what to expect there, but it was basically a museum of artifacts that people send into the museum about a relationship and write a story about it. Some stories were really sad, and others were really funny. Someone sent in an ax and said that when he found out his girl friend was cheating on him, he started to chop up all the furniture in her house when she was on vacation. She came home to a house full of destroyed furniture. Another story was a love letter that a man wrote but never gave to the girl. The girl didn’t like him, so he decided to one day glue the letter to a mirror and then broke the mirror into a bunch of tiny pieces and put the pieces into a jar. Interesting museum, but not what I expected. The museum was near the government buildings and it overlooked all of Zagreb, which was a beautiful view. We also walked through a church and an outside fruit/vegetable market. I noticed the apples here were much much better than the apples in Budapest. I was so happy to bite into a crunchy, not mushy, apple! We grabbed a late lunch around 4pm at a small sandwich shop and then we headed to a small local café to get some coffee. At this point, I was extremely worn out; being sick walking around the city was tough but since I went to Zagreb, I wanted to see everything there was to see. When we went to the café, the Croatian girl that was showing us around knew that I didn’t feel well, but she still decided to smoke three cigarettes right next to me while we were there. They just don’t understand the respectful aspect of not smoking indoors next to non-smokers. I guess I can’t blame her because she isn’t used to anything different. After the café, we walked back to the hostel and I decided to take a nap. It was the only way I would be able to go out with everyone that night. I took about a two hour nap and felt so so so much better when I woke up! I love when naps help. We made dinner at the hostel and all played a noisy round of Kings cup until around 11:30 when we all left to go to a club. This club was free entrance and it was so much better than the night before! We actually had room to dance! I led everyone up to the stage to dance – it was open, so I just assumed we’d be able to dance up there! They let us dance for about two hours up there, but then they kicked us off. I think we may have broken the backboard light structure. Anthony said we did, but I didn’t notice anything! Half the group said that they were leaving to go to a different club, but I decided to stay with five other people. Good thing we stayed because about thirty minutes later, about six people came back and said that everyone else just went back to the hostel, not to another bar. Lame. Last night in Croatia – we had to stay out late! We had a blast once those people came back! It was a smaller group and we were just going nuts. Kay was video taping us and we were just dancing like crazy and laughing hysterically! When we left, we hopped on a random bus and hoped it was to our hostel. It actually was the right bus and it dropped us off about a five minute walk from our hostel! The walk back was the funniest thing ever – we were making up songs, making snow angels on cars and on the ground, and throwing snow balls at each other. When we saw our hostel, we saw Kim in the window and she was waving to us! We were yelling at her about leaving early and apparently a guy from the hostel told her to be quiet, so she shut the window and then we started throwing snow balls at the window. We didn’t know that a guy had just told her to be quiet, so we thought it was hilarious that right after he said that we chucked like ten snowballs at the window.

We got back and made some food and the guy at the front desk got so mad at us that eventually he yelled and told us to go to bed. We felt bad. Really bad. We went to sleep around five in the morning and had to get up around 8:30. Ugh, no sleep again! But it was totally worth it. We left our hostel around 9:15am to catch our 10am train. I had extra kunas, so I decided to buy waters and a bottle of wine to bring back to Budapest.

The train ride back was long and uneventful. It felt much longer than on the way there. This time I was sitting with a friend from Istanbul, Turkey and I guess passport control is always tough for her. They asked to see her passport, her Turkish ID, her residence permit from Hungary, her credit card, and a document stating where she was living in Budapest. All they asked me was for my passport. It makes it hard for her because she is from the Middle East. They even asked when she arrived and when she would be leaving, and he had to write it down.

When we were about thirty minutes out, we started playing music and all were getting anxious again to get off the train! Our little cubicle of six people were the loudest ones, we start dancing and singing and everyone else was wondering how we had so much energy. Even though we were tired, we just needed to do something!

We got back around 5pm. I had to buy my new month transportation ticket because my last one expired. I CANNOT believe I’ve already been in Budapest for a month. It had flown by so fast! Only three months left…

Zagreb was a lot of fun – not much to see in Zagreb, but still a very worthwhile trip! Getting ready for my trip this weekend in Rome, Italy! Right now it’s Amanda, Caitin, Jason and me. We’re all from USC. Jason is trying to convince one of our guy friends to come with us, so hopefully he will! Thursday is Jason’s birthday, so we’ll have to find a great place to celebrate!  

Tomorrow, Anthony, Anna-Lena and I are going to the Budapest Zoo for a research project that we have to present on Thursday in class. I'm so excited! I love zoo's! The Thursday group who traveled to Zagreb went to the Zagreb zoo on Friday, but since I left that day, I missed the zoo trip. I'm glad I can go to the Budapest zoo! I'll definitely post pictures of the animals!

On Wednesday we are going to see Wax Tailor, an electronic artist - we'll be seeing him at the A38 club which is a club that is on a ship in the Danube! Should be really fun! 

Grab some boots like mine and take a walk with me to see a little of what I saw in Zagreb!

Snow covering all the cars:

A little bit of home:

Snowball fight between Cecile and Nienke!

Overlooking Zagreb!

Anthony eating these fried dough balls covered in nutella that they sell in the main square of Zagreb

Our whole group!

Government building:

Candles being lit to remember those who've passed away

Church:

Fruit/vegetable market:

From the window of the train on the way back to Budapest - I'm pretty sure this was taken when we were in Hungary!

I found a little bit of USC on the train tracks

Overlooking Zagreb!

I'll try to post Thursday before I leave for Rome. I want to write a blog on all the random, interesting reflections I've had since I've been in Budapest. It's been a month, so I've had enough time to see enough, feel enough to call Budapest my home for now. I'd like to share some thought's I've had - the differences and random thoughts I've had. Stay tuned! 

xoxo