A Year Abroad: Buda and Pest.

This morning was a reasonably late one as we're only heading to Budapest, which is about a 4-5 hour drive. Passing through wooded areas and by thousands of wind turbines, we crossed the border at about lunch time. You could immediately notice a change in landscape. I'm not sure quite how to explain it unless you've experienced it, but it immediately just looked more Eastern European. But it was still beautiful, just different. The houses and their gardens changed, there were different food crops, and the land wasnt as manicured as it had been in Germany. We also saw a car that is made of a melange of paper and plastic, apparently very common in Hungary. When it rains, they get wet and smell of hay and horses try to eat them. LOL. It was weird as we drove further into the city. Some of the towns looked like villages in Romania, then the next one would look like a German style village, the next a French one. As we neared Budapest, houses became more unique and traditional.

Crossed the border into Hungary

Castle on a hill!

Toilet break in the woods

We stopped at a small village about two hours over the border, called Tihany. It was quite traditional, but in a touristy way. We grabbed lunch there and did some shopping. I didn't know Hungary was famous for embroidery and lace, but it was incredible! I bought a hand worked thread pulled embroidery piece. It wasnt the most beautiful or intricate or delicate, but the work in it was amazing. I can already embroider quite well, so I didn't want to buy a fully embroidered piece. I just like looking at the piece I've bought. It also gave me design ideas for future pieces, and for when I go back to uni.

Driving through Budapest, I learnt something new, that Buda and Pest are on two separate sides of the Danube river. The country had its first king in 1000 AD, and he had to decide whether the country would become part of Eastern or Western Europe (at that time, Islamic or Holy Roman Empire). I can't remember the answer, but he somehow chose both. Which would explain the cities inclusion of both styles of architecture and landscape. Hungary had its most prosperous years under King Matthias in 1400 AD. No one knows where the language comes from either, but it has roots tied to Finnish, which was surprising.

Tihany

So many embroidery shops!

Mum and Balaton

Me and Balaton

The balaton

I've been trying to work out a web of the mot efficient way to learn the most languages. As French is a Latin language, mastering that would make it easier to learn other Latin languages. So I'd learn Spanish and Italian. Learning Spanish would make it easier to learn Portuguese. So that's the far west of Europe covered. Then I'd learn German, which is a Germanic language, so is Dutch, so that would be next. Belgium speaks both Flemish and Dutch, so Flemish next. Using my knowledge of Dutch, I'd go to Finnish, Polish and other Scandinavian languages, as they're so geographically close. Finnish would allow me to learn Hungarian easier. So that's most of Western Europe covered. Using my knowledge of all language combined and local gypsy travels, I'd pick up Romanian. And, just because I want to, I'd learn Turkish. All bases covered. And for the upkeep of all these languages, I would have to continuously travel the world.

As the Danube is supposed to reach it's peak at midnight due to the flooding, the optional cruise is cancelled. It was beautiful and warm weather weather when we arrived, so we grabbed food and all headed by cab up to the citadel for an amazing night view of the city. Amazing! When we got back to the hotel, some of us wanted to go to a pub. There are some older people on the tour who could drink Bob Hawk under the table! In Budapest, a lot of the older, run down buildings in the city centre that were original built as residential housing, have been turned into clubs. There are streets of them. We went to the really cool, massive bar built in the 18th century. I felt a bit weird walking in with 6 people above the age of 55, but they were hilarious about it so it was cool. It's also the first time I've gone into a bar, ordered an alcoholic drink, and drunk the whole thing. Cider. Lol, such a late bloomer.