budapest yo.

so on saturday, we got up crazy early and left prague :( we took our bus to the train station and rode the train for 8 HOURS to budapest. the train wasn't too terrible- it was a little stressful getting all of the bags onto the train really fast but we could spread out and relax. i tried to sleep but couldn't find a comfortable way to sit so that didn't really happen.

as soon as we got off the train we had to rush to get on the bus and check into our hotel. i swear my luggage is getting heavier by the day. carrying all of my crap to the bus seemed like an eternity. but we got on the bus and drove to the hotel. i wasn't too impressed with the city at first. it seemed like our hotel was in the ghetto. no one was on the streets or anything.

as soon as we got to the hotel we had to change crazy fast for dinner at the hotel. it was a set menu, we had salad (with gross "americky" dressing), this crazy turkey stuffed with weird things and then nasty apple and cranberry strudel. oh well, the mashed potatoes were good :) we checked into our rooms and got situated. the rooms in this hotel are wayyyyy bigger than the ones we had in prague so its nice to be able to spread out again. the only thing that sucks about this hotel is that we have the typical cards for keys. i was getting used to prague and being able to just leave the door open and turn in the key every time we left. now you have to knock and have peolpe let you in their rooms. plus i liked the openness of the other hotel- i could hear all of the floors and what was going on. oh well though, at least now i have room to walk in my room!

yesterday we were up for our tour! it didn't rain so that was exciting! i was beginning to think that all of our tours were goign to be nasty and rainy but this one was nice. we took a bus up to the top of the city and saw these really cool statues. we also saw the matthias church and the parliament building. budapest is actually divided into two sides- buda and pest, separated by hte danube river. our hotel is in pest and buda is more residential. we got out and took some fun pictures on these statues. it was a little scary to get down but thats okay.

after our tour we had free time for the rest of the day. i took a shower (the bathrooms have surround sound so it was the best shower i've ever taken) and then met up with some peolpe to eat lunch at subway (yum, meatball subs!). then a lot of us went to the terror musuem. it was all about communism and hitler and the history of hungary. i had no idea about how rough hungary has had it for pretty much their entire history. i feel like we learn a lot about hitler and what he did in germany, but i didn't know all this about stalin and the awful stuff here. it was really sad. we saw torture chambers and it was just awful. the only thing that sucked about the museum was that most of it wasn't in english, so we had to read these papers in each room. it was educational, but by the end we were burned out.

we all came back to the hotel and then went out to dinner. we went to this pizza place and had VERY cheesy pizza. some people were upset with the lack of tomato sauce but i thought it was yummy. then people requested extra sauce to find out that the sauce was rotten. so they were glad that they didn't have sauce :) it was a good time.

last night i just relaxed, checked my email, hung out for a bit with different people. it was nice to just relax.

today we had a big class day. we had a lecture at the ___________. this professor who had immigrated to the US from hungary when he was younger spoke to us about their history. it was interesting. it was cool because it really built on what i learned at the museum. he talked a lot about the culture here- people are so negative and have such a bad outlook on life because for hundreds of years they have been controlled by other people. i'm beginning to really appreciate the opportunities we have in america. the idea that we control our own destiny is actualy good, i can't imagine feeling so sad about the future.

after the lecture we had lunch at this really yummy grill. food is so important to me :)

then we got back on the bus and went to the coca-cola factory. we went on a tour and saw the bottling. it was so crazy, just thousands of bottles getting filled, sealed, labeled and packaged. we also had a really good lecture by the president of marketing. i feel like i learned more in that lecture than i did in many entire semesters put together. they have these really cool coca cola festivals and stuff here, just so cool. they have a beach resort where people come to hang out and its a huge deal.

right now everyone is at the baths but i didn't feel well so i stayed in. its nice to be by myself for a little bit. tomorrow is another long business day so i need some energy!