Back in Krakow! Springtime

Wednesday, April 1st
Rolled into Krakow at 6:33am. Anna picked us up. Its Spring in Krakow! The market square has been completely converted for Easter time with wooden huts set up selling all sorts of chocolate, candy, kielbasa, etc. etc. There are even 3 little rides for kids, merry-go-rounds and choo choo trains.
Our sweet friends in Krakow invited us out for pierogis; i had tuna pierogis with lemon sauce yum! and later drinks. catching up was fun.
Thursday, April 2nd
Lazy day. Went back to ethnographic museum in Kazimierz with Matt for a guided tour by Pani Beata. Returned to Kazimierz with Rachel, John, and Matt later in the evening to join Brad and Bethanne. We went out at 9:30 pm and I was already falling asleep by the time we got there :-( Unfortunately, Rach, Brad and Bethanne are leaving this weekend for Wrocław and Matt's going to Berlin so we'll have to wait to all meet up again.
Friday, April 3rd
Meeting with Pani Beata at Wawel. Its a beautiful, warm day in Krakow! Everyone is out, great hustle to the city. There are about 20 outdoor cafes open on Rynek Glowny to sit in the sunshine and read and whatever.
Although I already ran this morning joined John for a second one in the afternoon, ugh. There is a 2.2 mile race tomorrow morning which I am still deciding whether or not I want to compete in .... We decided we would try to soak up some culture and go to the classical concerts they host in the St. Peter and Pauls Church. We had to hurry to make it so we tried some of the kielbasa from the Spring time wooden vendor huts on Rynek Glowny. and some of there candy too. The concert was amazing! Accoustics were superb. Chopin, Mozart, Dworak, Vivaldi, Piazzola. Ireneusz Boczek began the concert with Chopin's "Raindrop" which I absolutely love. Ireneusz was a wonderful pianist, very straight posture with these lovely subtle flairs in playing the piano. Maybe I'll take my parents back there next week.

"Free" Day in Budapest

Tuesday, March 31st
So... on our free day a couple friends and I decided that we would decompress after 12 hours of bus ridin' the day before. We went to the Géllert Baths which were beautiful! Stained glass, marble, many many elderly Budapest-ians in bathing suits. The steam rooms were wonderful for 5 minutes, then unbearable. Then... shit.
I somehow lost my wallet including my passport and 2 credit cards. Ok, so before i went to the baths Matt and I went with our Hungarian mom to the train station to purchase our return tickets to Krakow and thats why i had my passport with me.. Anyways, I said i would meet a couple friends at the bath houses at 12 so i got dropped off there afterwards. The last time I saw my wallet was before entering the womens locker room where i stored all my things in my locker and an attendant locked it. After I returned no wallet. I think i must have dropped it along the way or something because I don't think someone actually stole it since i had other valuable things in the locker too. The most frustrating part was that no one would help me and i was just in blind panic at that point. The women were rude and wouldn't allow me to look around and retrace my steps for privacy reasons. at the front desk they tried to dissuade me from calling the police and were giving me and my friends shit. Thank god my Hungarian mom was super woman and helped me contact the police. my credit cards were cancelled. next, i just needed to get a temporary passport so i could return to krakow. so my hungarian mom and i ran all over town getting a passport photo (which is the most hilariously disgusting pic), getting my xeroxed copies of my passport that i brought with me in case (thank god!), and running to the embassy. they actually stayed open late for us! I ran out of the car (b/c of all my xc training ha and i'm all about unnecessary displays of my running prowess) to try and make it there in time before they closed. I ran down this street and i saw that there were all these fences of "construction" (american embassy security in actuality) and thought oh crap! and almost fucking vaulted over them until the american security started yelling "margaret! Margaret!" "slow down, around the corner" "Stop running!" "its ok" got my passport in 30 minutes. they even fudged my hungarian regulation size passport picture to fit into my temp. passport.

the us embassy in budapest contacted me yesterday morning saying someone from the baths returned my wallet with passport and credit cards. they are all invalidated now, but since my passport still has my polish visa in it i get A FREE!!! trip to warsaw to pick it up which is super lucky since i was trying to figure out when i would go there anyways.

Last of Transylvania: March 29-30

Sunday, March 29
Went to Bekas Szoros (Frags' Canyon) a national park in the canyon of some mountains (?). Took an hour walking tour. Next, saw the "Killer Lake", Lacu Rosu, which is named so due to the reddish alluvia deposited in the lake by the Red Creek. Also there are pokey trees jutting out of the water, which, somehow according to our guide could kill you. How? I suppose by jumping off the mountain and onto the trees. More importantly, they sell delicious wedding cake.
Later we drove 2.5 hours to Korond (Corund) to buy pottery. which were pretty, but i went to an internet cafe instead. (pics- bekas szoros)

Monday, March 30
Return trip to Budapest.

Transylvania Cont'd March 27-28

Friday, March 27
The next village we visited was this beautiful medieval town, Segesvar (Shigisvara) built by the Saxon minority of Transylvania. During the 13th century, the kings of Hungary invited German colonists to come to Transylvania and create urban centers and bring their trades with them. There are 7 medieval Saxon towns which can still be seen on the Transylvanian coat of arms. Most German-Transylvanians left the region and returned to Germany after WWII since they were occupying positions of guilt. The myth of Dracula is thought to have emanated from this region as the Prince Vlad Dracula was born here and lived his some of his life in exile here.
At night we arrived at Zetelaka where we stayed with our host mom for 2 nights. (Pictures- Shigisvara)
Saturday, March 28
Gyimes Mountains where we met the "csango" Hungarians. Another region that time has forgot. Kinda Like Grinnell Iowa. Very provincial, farms, poor. but welcoming, sweet people.
Again, stayed with our host moms in Zetelaka. Watched Madonna's Truth or Dare over dinner. Picture- Gyimes Mountain homes. This boy was so proud to show us his lamb who he taught to jump over little hurdles!! AWWWW

Transylvania Region of Romania. March 25-26

Wednesday, March 25.
6am left Budapest for Transylvania
Crossed the border, got a sweet stamp on my passport.
Nagyvarad (Oradea). I guess I should explain why I will always write two names for the same city. The first is in Hungarian, the second in Romanian. After WWII Hungary was punished for its allegiance with Hitler by re-losing its territory Transylvania, among other territories in an effort to limit Hungary's power. As the Transylvanian region was given to Romania, Romania now holds the greatest minority of Europe (1.7 million Hungarians). An ongoing struggle exists today with Hungarian Transylvanians demanding certain rights such as Hungarian language and education in Romanian schools.
Visited the Catholic Church and Baroque Palace of Oradea. Later, visited the old city of Nagyvarad's art nouveau buildings and synagogue. It was sunny and warm here but then we made the trek up the mountains to Kalotaszentkiraly (Sincraiu)it was snowy and cold.
Thursday, March 26th
Because of the good deal of snow, rather than heading for the old Romanian region (Moc Land) in the mountains, we instead visited another small village named Korosfo (Izvoru Crisulu) in the morning. Next, we went to Kolozsvar (Cluj Napoca) where we explored their ornate Eastern Orthodox church and went to a lecture at Babes-Bolyai University. The lecture was on "The Problems of the Hungarian minority and the minority policy in Romania after 1989" ha, also learned about Dracula. Dracula somehow gets worked into many discussions here in Transylvania.
Next, we went to this real "pearl" of a village named Torocko (Rimetea) a small, medieval village part of the world heritage protected by UNESCO where we stayed with Hungarian families. It is nestled within the Transcaului Mountains of Western Transylvania where time seems to stand still. In fact as we pulled in there were people being carried about by horses and donkeys and even cows wandering into the town center for a drink of water from the well. No one seemed in a rush, a general feeling of ease over the whole village. Everyone was really charmed. The food was amazing, the palinka (romanian super, super SUPER strong fruit brandy made from home some up 60 proof alcohol) was potent. We had a great time :-) Pics: top left Synagogue of Nagyvarad, middle right: Korosfo. Bottom Left: Torocko and friend.

Budapest March 23-24

Monday, March 23rd.
Got off the night train really well rested thanks to Neil's Benadryl! We were picked up at the gorgeous Budapest train station (which I only realized how extraordinary it was when we returned for our trip back to Krakow since I was still pretty groggy) by our Hungarian mom Hajnalka (Hajna pronounced Hoy-nee). Matt, Neil, and I were delivered by taxi to our hostel/University (what is this in europe?) Corvinus Egyetem. We arrived too early to use our rooms so we decided to tour about. We ended up climbing up this huge mountain, Gellért Hill yeah don't let the name confuse you, which overlooked the Danube river. First, rather than taking the staircase I just kinda climbed up the hill for a bit? like a silly person. Then we happened upon a set of slides which we had to play on. Eventually we reached the top to get a closer look at the Liberty Statue, meant to commemorate the Soviet's liberation of Budapest from the Nazis and the fortress. Great view too! We returned back to the hostel to see our Lexia in Berlin friends, some we already met in Krakow others new to us. A group of 19 in total! While the Lexia in Berlin crowd explored Budapest the Krakow crew showered. Next, Hajna took our group to Castle Hill which included seeing Fisherman's Bastion, the Royal Palace, Matthias Church and other sites. For dinner we went to a student cafeteria, later a bar and then sleeeeep! (1st pic- View of Buda and Pest from Gellert Hill, 2nd pic- Liberty Statue, 3rd picture- View of Danube and Parliament Building from Castel Hill through the Fisherman Bastion arcades)
Tuesday, March 24th
Woke up for sightseeing at Heros' Square. Takes many trams, subways to eventually get there. For lunch Hajna advised us to go to Great Market Hall this huge steel structure that looks almost like a train station. There are two floors; the bottom is mostly grocery items the top floor is knick-knacks. I had this delicious meat-filled crepe for lunch. Afterwards, we went to a beautiful, old college in Budapest to receive our lectures on Transylvania/Romania. Uh.. unfortunately we all feel asleep and Eli in the back of the room started snoring. It was warm in there and we just had lunch. Again, we were warned about the "dangers" of Romania. After our lecture Neil, Eli and I wandered around Buda and looked for dinner. At night, we went to a Transylvanian folkdance house and learned how to do those much more strenous circle dance moves. This was the night that Neil and I had to part ways as we left the next day for Transylvania :-( (1st Pic - Heros' Square, 2nd pic- Market Hall)

Sunday...until April 1st?

March April 22nd: Gah! So for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to make plans last night with John to run in the mornin'. At 10am? Up Kosciusko Mount? Not only was it not anyones birthday (a Gtown XC reference) so we had to run up all the hills but we definitely got lost. The view was spectacular but we payed for it with blood, sweat and tears. There was one point when I thought I would have to use wooden steaks to get us up over this cliff - but thats probably just cuz i'm pretty prissy. Apparently on our usual stomping grounds a marathon and a circus were taking place. As they usually do. After running Neil and I ate lunch, went to the mall :-) for last minute buys pre-Hungary/Romania, ice cream, and now here.
Post Sunday- I'll have limited access to internet until I get back so all 2 people who read my blog regularly; mom and myself will just have to wait for my return to Krakow April 1st (ish?)