A couple weekends ago, I had a free Saturday afternoon and decided to go wandering in the Buda Hills. The hills surround and contain the western side of Budapest (that is, Buda) and extend for miles to the west. The abundance of hiking trails and secluded woods make these suburbs of the city amazingly beautiful. I walked around, checked out some restaurants, rode a lot of public transportation, and took some cool pictures.
View from the Buda Hills towards the city.
The Buda Hills
Major event of the month: I cut my hair! This fact is not so interesting unless I tell you that I had it cut shorter than ever before (in my memory). The result is that you can't even tell I have curly hair! I almost feel like I'm disowning my Chenette heritage. But in any case, I've had very positive reviews--people tend to be a little thrown off at first, but end up liking it more as they get used to it. Judge for yourself:
OK, now on to business. Last weekend, I took a trip to Prague with my friends Jim and Caroline. We decided to take the overnight bus both ways, which turned out to be an uncomfortable, sleepless, but nonetheless interesting idea. Caroline had a friend from school, Esther, studying in Prague, who, in addition to providing free (and quality) lodging for us, decided to join us for our weekend activities, which ended up to be very enjoyable.
On Saturday, we mainly just walked around the city, passing by all the main tourist attractions, and generally getting to know Prague. It's a very beautiful city, and just as cheap as Budapest--I can see why Prague is pretty much the "hottest" city in Eastern Europe (or Europe in general?) right now. However, I can definitely say that Budapest, despite being perhaps a bit dirtier and more intimidating, is much more beautiful, less touristy, and more interesting than Prague. Without Budapest as a comparison, though, Prague was awesome. For some reason, the staple fast food lunches of sausage, rye bread, mustard, and Czech beer tasted sooo much better than they deserved to (yes, this was exactly my lunch for both days I was there).
Esther, Jim, and Caroline in Old Town Square
In Wenceslas Square
On the Vltava River
Prague's Charles Bridge has stood for over six centuries
Many thanks to Jim Rohal for this great photo
Jim and Antón
Winston and Me
Street in Prague
View from Prague's mini Eiffel Tower
What else are you supposed to do in front of Dancing House?
On Sunday, feeling like we had seen most of Prague's attractions and wanting to escape the tourists, we decided to take a day trip to the countryside. A short train ride brought us to Karlstejn Castle, one of the most beautiful (and the most visited) castles in the Czech Republic. For Caroline and me, our main purpose was not to visit the castle, but to take a hike through the countryside to a monastery about 11 km away. Jim and Esther split off to explore the castle and return to Prague in time for some more urban exploration, while Caroline and I struck out into the woods.
The hike was very peaceful. The landscape wasn't too dramatic, but very pleasant, and the weather was beautiful (probably because I was carrying an umbrella). The monastery, Svatý Jan pod Skalou (Saint John Under the Rock), is located by a small village underneath a big rock cliff. After resting up a bit in the town, we climbed the bluff for a great view of the surrounding area. Taking a different route back, we ended up walking about 13 miles, I think--including a 1 mile run at the end so we wouldn't miss the train and have to wait another hour. After returning to Prague, we made a delicious stir-fry dinner in Esther's apartment and took our leave late to catch the 10:30 PM night bus back to Budapest. Esther told us that, hanging out with us, she'd had one of her best weekends in Prague--I'd have to agree it was a success, thanks to a great group of traveling companions!
The Czech countryside
Karlstejn Castle
Umbrella + nice weather = parasol
In Karlstejn Castle
On the hike between Karlstejn Castle and the monastery
Hiking
Svatý Jan pod Skalou (Saint John Under the Rock)
Above the monastery
So, over the past week, Julia visited me again! I guess she hadn't had enough paprika potato chips and sweet dessert wine the first time. She arrived on Monday and stayed until Sunday--so even though much of the time was spent with me in class and her studying for her finals in the apartment, we had a good amount of time to spend with each other.
I had already taken Julia to most of the main Budapest sights, so, besides an enlightening and entertaining visit to the Postal Stamp Museum (I highly recommend it), our activities turned out to be oriented outside.
We took a walk up to the top of Gellért Hill, by the Danube:
Danube Sunset
On Gellérthegy at dusk
Then, we spent a lazy, sunny afternoon walking the 5 miles around Margaret Island, which is just a big park:
Public art on Margaret Island
View from beneath Margaret Bridge
Ice cream break on Margaret Island
The next day, we relaxed for an afternoon in Budapest's City Park
In Városliget (City Park)
Finally, a new experience for me was taking the Children's Railroad through the Buda Hills. You know how children always go through a "train" phase? Well, the Children's Railroad is a dream for kids in that phase: not only does it specifically cater to children, but the train line is actually operated by children (supervised by adults). Basically, they do everything beside actually drive the locomotive: they sell tickets, give directions to incoming and outgoing trains at the stations, check your tickets on the train, announce the next stop, and generally look cute. We enjoyed the nice weather with a leasurely ride through the hills, stopping in the middle to walk up the highest point in Budapest, Erzsebet Tower on Janós Hill.
Children's Railroad
Enjoying a nice train ride through the hills
Climbing up to János Hill and Erszebet Tower
Erzsebet Tower on Janóshegy
On Erzsebet Tower, looking towards Budapest
An aspiring Children's Railroad operator
Besides our outdoor activities, our other main adventures were culinary. The restaurants we went to were, as usual, awesome--Budapest restaurants serve, in general, lots of good food for very reasonable prices--and I am all about value. However, the culinary highlights took place in our very own kitchen:
1. Dinner: Grilled cheese (Julia's specialty), Cucumber/tomato/feta cheese salad, and Czech beer
2. Breakfast (twice): couscous and cinnamon apples
3. Dinner: my staple of pasta, sauce, and frozen veggies, red wine
4. Dinner: Stir-fry with sausage and fresh veggies, white wine
Mmmmmmm.
Oh, and we also tried out the Mariott Hotel's All-You-Can-Eat Dessert Bar (for $7). The waitress was pretty flabbergasted after I ate about 12 different desserts.
It was great to see Julia again. However, now I truly won't see Julia again until the fall. Through our international adventures, we've become pretty close, and I'm interested to see how we'll work out next year.
So yes, the semester is coming to a close. I'm beginning to realize more and more how much smarter the BSM program has made me...the classes here (especially Graph Theory, Combinatorics, and Conjecture & Proof...those homeworks are so tough) have provided the biggest academic challenge of my life. I've never taken more than 2 upper-level major courses at once before, and now I'm taking 5, plus a philosophy course. The main reason I've been able to handle it is that I don't have running to worry about, with the secondary reason being that I don't have a computer and can't waste as much time playing games and watching movies. It happened slowly enough that I didn't notice it immediately, but this semester has enhanced my mind...there's nothing better than pure mathematics to sharpen one's problem-solving skills, and there's no place better to study math than in Budapest.
The look ahead: Two more weeks of classes, in which I'll hopefully get a chance to travel once or twice more (Vienna or Krakow?). Mom, Dad, Tim, and Claire arrive during our 3 days of finals, and once school is out we're heading to Slovenia and Croatia. Then my flight back on June 2 gets me back to Iowa just 2 days before I'm slated to begin doing research at ISU in Combinatorial Matrix Theory. After a summer of math and running, I currently have the beginning of August free until the CMS cross country Lake Tahoe retreat in late August. After that begins the last year I won't have a bachelor of science degree...
2 comments:
I like the hair! And it still looks like it had a bit of curl to it!
Graduation is in 6 days! This is so crazy yet so exciting! I'll be home for a few weeks before I go to Colorado, and I'll be sure to keep in touch!
Ok, you're oh, so handsome with this new haircut, and you probably blend in well with those Eastern European types. But what happens when even your mother can't recognize you? Oh Dear! This will take some getting used to!
Loved your pictures of Prague and the countryside, Nate. I think you will be a good tour guide when we arrive in Budapest. You know all the tricks.
Your friendly harp player and parent
Post a Comment