Budapest: Part 1

So, as some of you may know, we spent our last week on our mid-semester retreat in Budapest, Hungary. It began with an quite an adventure. We were all scheduled to leave Sunday night, Nov. 2, and arrive in Budapest around noon on Monday. Robby was in Bucharest with the visiting director of the International Field Studies program at BYU, and he was planning on meeting up with us early Monday morning where were to be switching trains. So, not being familiar enough with the train station here in Iasi, we waited on the wrong platform until about 5 minutes before our train was scheduled to leave, without any train being there at all, before asking someone what might be wrong. We were directed to another part of the station where there was a platform we didn't know about. Rachel and I were in the front (we both have long legs), and as we approached the platform and were looking for the car our sleeper-cabin was on, the train started to move. We hesitated, but quickly obeyed the beckonings of one of the conductors onboard telling us to get on. We didn't look back and hoped the rest of the group got on. They didn't. We didn't find that out until we got off at the next station to get to the right cabin. The rest of the girls missed the train and ended up leaving early Monday morning. To make matters more complicated, Robby's train was late to Cluj, which was where we were supposed to meet up with him, and his ticket had all our reservations on it. But, everything worked out eventually (as it always does) and Rachel and I made it safely to Budapest Monday around noon.

Monday: Upon arriving, we tried to get a phone card to call Robby, but couldn't get it to work. Fortunately McDonalds has free Wifi and Rachel was able to call him from Skype, as well as our hostel so that we could get directions. Once we figured everything out and got our public transportation pass for the week, we headed towards our hostel. That night Rachel and I enjoyed a night on the town just wandering the city, hopping on an off trams and buses wondering where they'd take us. I was reminded of my love for gyros (aka shaworma and Doner Kebabs) when we stopped to get something to eat that night. I had at least one (two on Friday) gyro every day we were in Budapest. We got back to our hostel that night and were please to find Robby there waiting for us. We called it an early night since Robby and I were planning on picking up the rest of the girls early the next morning. Sorry, no photos from Monda.

Tuesday: So, I've actually been to Budapest before, but it was only for an afternoon and I didn't want to spend any money, so I just wandered around the city and walked A LOT. This was June of 2007 and I was all by myself. It was neat because Tuesday afternoon, after the rest of the girls arrived and got all checked in, we wandered around a lot of the places I'd been before.

I'm not even sure what this place is called, but it's a hill that overlooks the Danube river and there are some statues and these cool pillars. I remember enjoying going there before, but it was even prettier now with all the fall colors.

This Photo was totally Robby's idea, so if you like it, he gets all the credit. Personally, I think it turned out pretty well.

Wednesday: After sleeping in Wednesday morning, we all went out to check out a couple sights and go out to eat before Michell M, Michelle N, Chelsea, and I split off to go caving. Here are some of the things we saw.

This is the Parliament building in Hungary. It's my favorite building in Europe. At least, on the outside. I was too cheap to pay to take the tour.

That's the Danube behind us. Not very blue.

BYU Romania Internship Fall 2008. Don't forget to insert Katie somwhere in there.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say, Tuesday evening I picked this little guy up off of the ground and carried him around. I wondered how long I could keep him and would let him crawl all over my sweatshirt. He ended up cozying up in my front pocket and stayed there all night Tuesday, and I had him until right before we were going to go caving Wednesday afternoon. I tried to set him free, but as he took flight, he happened to fly into Chelsea's face and she definitely struck him down.

I was a bit worried we payed $20 to do some cheesey walk through a dark tunnel, but our caving experience was definitely worth it. There were seriously some parts where we were crawling through these really tiny spaces and I'd get stuck for a second and just be like "K, so, I can't move my legs and my hips are wedged between two rocks. How do I get out of here?" But, it turned out fine and we had so much fun.

Photos from Thursday and Friday will be coming soon.