Budapest part three

For my last full day in Budapest, I did some more walking around town. I saw St. Steven's Basillica, which was very beautiful. Then I went to the Terror Museum, which is the former headquarters for the secret police of both the Nazi and Communist governments right in the middle of Budapest. It was an interesting place. I don't know if it is categorized as a concentration camp, but it certainly was a place where Jews were exterminated. They had many videos of survivors, and one in particular struck me. It was of a group of women who were held prisoner for no apparent reason. Years later, they confronted the one woman who was their supervisor, and quite harsh to them. She kept saying that she didn't know why they were so afraid of her. She just didn't get it.
Then I walked to Heroes Square. At the square are statues of past Hungarian leaders, and some others that I found interesting. It was a Sunday, and there was some sort of ceremony going on where everyone was singing, and holding crosses. I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but it was fun to watch.

So I had to take a picture of the flushing mechanism for the toilet at the hostel. Yes, it is a pencil. And it wasn't just that one toilet, there were 2 with pencil flushers! What piece could have possibly been missing from the toilet? Was it too expensive to replace? Anyways, I thought it was funny.
The last picture was my breakfast at a McCafe by the train station. It was really good. The donut was filled with really creamy chocolate. Yum!

Budapest part two

On my second day in Budapest, I visited the castle district. It is up on a hill. It is a large area, but it is easily walked. I saw Mathias church, the castle looking parts, had lunch (chicken paprika with dumplings) and dessert (somoli galuska -a traditional Hungarian dessert). I also tried to go into the Castle Labyrinth. It is series of underground caves made naturally from hot springs. It was really dark and drippy. I was able to see a little, then I got too scared and had to leave.
The views from the castle were very nice. There was also a small market area where I bought a Hungarian funnel cake. It was pretty good, and freshly made.

Budapest part one

Next is Budapest, Hungary. My favorite builiding is the Parliament. As my students said, "It's really pointy."
Budapest is divided into two areas by the river. The west bank is Buda, and the east bank is Pest. I stayed on the Pest side, right next to the Parliament building. I walked down south a bit and went to a market. The bottom floor was filled with vegetable, meat, and expensive food stands. The upper floor had souvenirs and food. It was so much fun to browse through.

Spring Break 2009

Even though this isn’t remotely about Japan, I wanted to share about my spring break trip to Germany, Hungary, and Austria. Overall, I had a great trip and saw a lot of cool things.
Oh, and I have also decided to resign from my position in San Diego and hang out for a while longer in Hawaii.
So I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany to snow! I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the country wearing ¾ pants. My German is awful, but when I heard the flight attendants say minus 1 degree Celsius, I was shocked.
I spent about 3 days total at the beginning and end of my trip in Frankfurt. I didn’t find too much to do there. I visited the old town area, walked along the river, and did some shopping. There were a few nice sights, but overall, I enjoyed the other cities much more.