FALL BREAK!

So it begins,

Fall Break, Part I: Getting to London and Budapest. October 22^nd and 23^rd.

So yeah, I was done with midterms and leaving school by 4:45 and somehow managed to be packed, showered and at the bus stop on my way to catch the train from Santa Maria Novella by 5:45 – insanity. I met up with Aviva and Catherine there. It’s so much more fun to travel with people as opposed to alone! We got to the airport just fine and our flight went off without a hitch!

When we landed at Stansted, it took an hour to get through customs and then Aviva and I finally got our National Express bus to Baker Street. From there we caught a cab to Carolyn and Rach’s apartment. The cab driver was awesome. Cabs are an interesting part of London life. In London, being a cab driver is the third highest degree that you can graduate from University with. They go to school for at the least, seven years. It’s ridiculous.

Anyhow, upon arrival at Mickey’s at around 2am, we stayed up for a while and just talked and laughed. We slept for 2 and a half hours and then caught the tube and EasyBus to get to Gatwick. We had an AWESOME American-esque breakfast and then caught our flight. The flight was fine except for the fact that I had the most awful ear pain that I have had to date on this particular flight. My hearing wasn’t fully restored until the next day. Absolutely wretched.

I almost forgot to mention our travel group. It was Aviva, Carolyn McChesney, Rachel Brenner, Dana Manochi, Megan Hess, and I. Other than Aviva and I, the other girls are Syracuse University students at SU in London!

When we landed in Budapest, Hungary, it was one of the most overwhelming experiences I have had. The language is impossible to decipher. We found someone who spoke English and let us know how to get to our hostel. We took a bus to the metro and then the metro to Kalvin Ter, which is one of the main streets of Budapest. It was completely deserted when we came up from the metro station. It was rather creepy actually. There was almost no one around. We spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out where we were on the map and consequently in relation to our hostel.

We finally figured out that we were on the Pest of Budapest and we were staying at a pretty great location in the city. We all basically collapsed in our OWN ROOM! at the hostel. It was fantastic. Joanna Hardy, who is studying in Strasbourg, joined us as well! Heck of a group. From there we went out to dinner at this really authentic Hungarian restaurant. I had cream of garlic soup, stuffed turkey with cinnamon and cheese, and Hungarian beer. The currency in Budapest is really odd. Just as an example, we spent 23,614 HUF on dinner. That’s the equivalent of about 84 euro, I think.

After dinner we just went to walk around the Buda side of the city, which was really nice. We just walked along the river and relaxed. Parliament looked really cool because it was illuminated with red, white, and green –the colors of Hungary. All the bridges and Castle Hill looked so majestic. I knew it was going to be a fun city. After our walk we were all really cracked out so we just hit the sheets.

Part II tomorrow, stay tuned.