McDonalds, Soviet Memorabilia, and Gyros

Intrigued by the title of this post? I decided to dedicate this entry to the odd mixture of old and new, historical and modern, familiar and unfamiliar that I am starting to realize characterizes this country I have absentmindedly wandered into. For example, even as I type this post, I am constantly having to use the backspace bar much more frequently than usual. I consider myself to be a fairly proficient typist (although by no means could I ever be an official transcriber people always refer to on court TV), but I must admit that it is going to take some time to get  used to these Hungarian style keyboards. For one thing, the y's and the z's are switched. So sometimes my sentences turn into the following: Todaz I, Abbz Koning, went to the yoo. Also, I have needed to relocate punctuation almost everytime I needed to use it. (Except the period, thank goodness).
Anzwazs (see?) back to the actual country, as I firmly believe that a country should be defined by more than just its keyboards. We arrived yesterday afternoon and  all moved into the Bethelhem dorm area in Buda. Budapest is actually divided into two parts by the Danube river- Buda, the "older", wealthier side of the city and Pest, the more urban commercial center. Not long after arriving, we left to see some parts of Budapest. First we visited this pancake place. Now, in Hungary, instead of picturing a stack of IHOP pancakes, think an absolutely delicious crepe filled with anything you can think of. I decided to play it safe and go with some sweet pancakes, apple and poppy and one with banana and honey. Some people in the group got everything from a salty layered pancake that looked like lasanga made of crepes instead of noodles, spinach pancakes. My boyfriend even ordered one called Milanese which was essentially a mound of spaghetti plopped on top of a crepe. We then went to the Fishermen's Bastion that had a spectular view of the city, including the Parliment building. The sun was setting and caused the city to glow, as many of the buildings have orange or red roofs. Then we wandered tiredly through the city down winding European alleys lit by yellow street lamps as the jet lag slowly dragged us down one by one until we returned to  the dorm and collapsed into our beds.

My roommate woke up with approximately 20 bug bites in the morning. I miraculously emerged unscathed. The daddy longlegs seem to have made the corner near my bed their home.

Today we all slept in for a while. After I woke up, I and some other girls went grocery shopping at the Tesco around the corner. They have really cheap, delicious bread there of which I am sure I will be buying copious amounts, as the less of the weekly allowance I spend on food, the more I have for TRAVELING!!! Some fresh fruits and veggies but after one girl got ill off of them, I have decided it might be best to shop for produce in the big market across the Liberty Bridge in the future. In
After a lunch of oatmeal and apples, I and the rest of the group headed to a hill that I cannot remember the name of (I am still learning, I promise more context for these places will come later) and saw the Liberty Statue. I will include a picture and more historical context for it in a future blogpost, as I was at the back of the group and it was hard to hear what was being said. There was also a gift shop that sold tons of Soviet memorabilia right along other newer souvenirs such as postcards. It was incredibly odd to realize that I am in a country that experienced Soviet occupation and all that communism red-scare stuff that is talked about in history classes in a way that makes it feel almost as if it occurred on another planet. To see the marushka dolls that looked exactly like the ones my parents bought in Russia (my younger brother is adopted from Russia, so my parents and myself have all been there) sitting next to pictures of Budapest felt a bit strange.
Once we made it down the incredibly big and steep hill, we saw Herosz Square, a huge square with statues of Hungarian historical figures located in between a national museum and an art exhibition linked with the museum. We also made a quick stop at the spas, all of which I hope to come back to soon.
 we took the metro to the shopping district of Pest, which does not look all that different from downtown Grand Rapids, only almost completely absent of any person of color. It feels so familiar that it is sometimes almost a shock to realize that all the signs I am seeing and all the conversations I am overhearing are in Hungary. We did not do any shopping today, but we did buy some food. I and about half of the group went to a McDonalds to try and use the bathroom, but when we realized we had to pay 100 forints (about 50 cents) to use the bathroom or we could buy something and show the receipt and use the bathroom....and ice cream cones cost 100 forints, most people, including myself, chose to buy icecream. So that is how I ended up having my first ice cream cone in 6 months in Hungary at McDonalds. We wandered through the shopping district and saw an old guy playing "If I were a rich man" from Fiddler on the Roof on a violin. I gave him a 50 forint coin because he was so cute and happy with his violin. For lunch we stopped at this place that sold gyros and had my second dinner in Hungary...Falafel. Yup. Medditteranean cuisine in smackdab in the middle of the shopping district. But that is Hungary so far...really beautiful, really eclectic.
So now I am just chilling in the dorm trying to postpone having to clean anything or unpack anything. Orientation meeting tomorrow so that I will actually know what I will be up to this week. I talked to our hosts about the local music scene and they recommended a couple of clubs that are apparently really cool, so I hope there is time to check out some of the night life before we start having to actually do homework in a couple of weeks.
Hope this post finds you all well. I will get some pictures up within the week I think.
Until later,

Abby