I am in London BABY!

What's up London!  

Hello friends and family.  Sorry it has taken me so long to blog but things just move so fast in London - apart from when they walk, with thousands of people walking at a slow pace it is hard to weave your way around London.  

My first day I took pretty slowly managed to get a weekly bus pass and figure out the tube sitco.  Amy, Aunty Lynn and I all had lunch together on the roof top cafe of Selfridges.  I was able to whip around the shop and check it out.  The next day I jumped on one of the original bus tours.  Known as the best bus tour it took me all around London and I was free to hop on and off whenever I wanted.   The rain was a bit of a downer as I was sitting in the open air on the top level of the bus.  I was able to see all the most important sites of London, Big Ben, London Eye, Tower Bridge, the Thames, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and lots more in between. I had brought a ticket to the London Dungeon with the same bus company so I was able to skip the massive line waiting outside one of the best things as it was starting to really bucket down!  I nipped into the London Dungeon and had a tour of London's not so pleasant past - it was fun!

Tuesday night we went to one of Amy and Adam's locals the Crabtree and had dinner with Aunty Lynn, Uncle Chris, Chris and Sam Glasson.  It was a real treat to catch up with friends and family from back home but in London!  I had the most amazing roast lamb yum!!  

I had organised that evening to meet up with Chris and his friend Alice the next day to go and explore Harrods.  Wow this is to date one of my favourite things I have done in London.  It took a fair amount of time to walk through and I don't even think we covered it all. I giggled at the extravagance of some of the displays and things in the store but my eyes were alight like a little kid in a candy store!  Which reminds me the food halls were decadent.  I bought a sandwich here to take with me for lunch as well as "sun" in a bottle which actually turned out to be rather nice!  After this I moved on down to the Tate Modern Museum where I saw a Damien Hirst exhibition.  Any one who knows me well enough will know my wee problem with moths.  Well Damien had a room in his exhibition full of butterflies - pretty looking moths.  I thought since I had paid for this I should have a look, and butterflies don't usually fly close to you like moths right?  Ha wrong as soon as I walked in there I had a little sucker come flap around my head and land on my shoulder.  Not wanting to make to much of a scene I shuddered and let the thing stay there as I walked around keeping a very close eye on it. I guess I felt both sick and a little bit lucky as everyone was looking in amazement that I had a butterfly on my shoulder.  I didn't stick around much longer then that. 

Amy and I then went down to Bereleigh Estate that evening to visit our cousins.  We had the most devine dinner cooked by the Lady of the house and the had a relaxed evening.  The next day we explored some of the property and looked at their "glammping" tents - which are so cool!  Camping in style, Amy and I both agreed this is our kind of camping!!  After all this we had a bite to eat in the garden before jumping on the train back home.  A very enjoyable day in the country side!

Yes I have done shopping but I hadn't done that much until yesterday when we went to Portobello markets in Notting Hill.  The markets were so cool!  There was a good combination of food and antiques and clothes!  I made a few purchases some paintings to put up in a flat that I will hopefully have sometime soon!  And of course some clothes!! Amy and I then attended a show - We Will Rock you.  It was a real treat and I wish I had more time to see more shows in London or that Wellington put on more!  After this we stopped in to the M&M shop WOWZA it was incredible! Then we meet up with some friends and had a few drinks!  

Today we saw Buckingham Palace - from the inside! This and Harrods would be my favorite two activities in London so far!  It was stunning to see the inside and we were lucky enough to see some of the Queen's diamonds in celebration of here diamond Jubilee.  I would recommend to anyone that has the chance to go inside  it only happens in the summer when the Queen isn't there and only goes on for about 8 weeks!

So much more to do and see I hope to get another blog in before Amy and I hit Spain to see Emma!  I can't wait to lie on a beach in the sun!  Palma here we come!!

Recapping Vienna

Wow!  WHat a weekend in Vienna.  I was lucky enough to be hosted all weekend by Hedi and Andrea!  I can not thank the both of them enough for having me to stay and showing me the city!  I wouldn't have seen anywhere as much as what I did without them and I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun!  

On the first evening I arrived I was greeted by Andrea with a sign welcoming me to Vienna - so cute!  We then went to meet Hedi a little bit further into town.  Here we tried the most delightful ice creams at a special shop called Eis Greissler.  It is a very small shop and they both informed me that the line is regularly far, far down the street.  Andrea had the most daring ice cream - feta - which actually wasn't too bad!  I had a pear ice cream that was to die for!  It tasted like real pears you could taste the texture of the pear! YUM!  We then continued to walk around the city looking at sites until we stopped in to again have some devine food at an Italian restaurant. 

The next day we went to the markets in the morning for breakfast!  I had a Turkish breakfast and it was soo good!  My favourite would have been the fried pastry with feta and basil inside it!  Hedi told me it was easy to do, and I could try it at home, I can't wait!  We then carried on to Museum Square one of Andrea's favourite places where you are surrounded in museums.  There was a small exhibition on fashion and technology which was really interesting and had some crazy dresses!  Mum you will like to see the photos of these!  We then choose the Mumok which was a more modern museum and I was lucky enough to at the end stumble upon some Pop Art which I had studied earlier this year and at school. We went to another famous ice cream shop and had more ice cream yum which was good as the weather was hot hot hot!  Andrea then took me out that night and we went to what is called the Night walk where there are just bars after bars and people sit outside drinking and listening to live bands.  It was great fun and we even stopped into a jazz bar and managed to catch the last of the set from a great jazz band.  

After a super duper sleep in the next day we went to the Belvedere which was an old summer palace that is now an art museum.  There is a big celebration this whole year in Vienna for one of their most famous artists Klimt so here we were able to see lots of his works!  Hedi and her Husband Rudi then took me out for dinner to a place along a channel of the Danube called Motto am Fluss.  Here I was able to try some typical Viennese food.  

On the last day in Vienna we went to another famous Viennese artist's exhibition Hundertwasser.  Hundertwasser is also famous to NZ as he lived there and designed a flag for us in 2000.  This managed to take up about all of the time I had left in Vienna one quick taste of a Viennese snitchzel and then off to the airport.  

Thank you again to Hedi and Andrea for my beautiful weekend in Vienna.  It was short but we managed to do a lot!  And for everything else I left out I will just have to come back!

 

Viennese Love

Hi ya'll, 

Just a quick note to let you al know I have touched down in Vienna!  I have met my long distant relatives who are such wonderful gems!  They are taking the best of care of me.  We had a quick walk around part of the city last night, seeing big beautiful churches and we stopped in for beers and had some devine ravioli at a wee Italian place.  Things will be pretty fast paced here so I will most likely blog about it all after the weekend! 

 Leaving Budapest was a bit stressful with all my luggage - haha any surprises there Kate Davidson? - but I made it on time.  I didn't really get to say goodbye to many people, so for those of you from Balassi reading my blog!  A fond farewell to you all, I met some truly wonderful people and I hope to keep in touch with you.  I wish everyone the best for the next stage of their lives, and most probably the travelling you all are doing.  I will be back to visit you all in your homeland! 

I am so looking forward to spending this time in Vienna, Budapest is a wonderful place and I loved it but I am ready for a change and ready to have more of a holiday now!  I am dying to see my sisters, Amy in London on Monday and Emma soon after.

On a quick side note, something I have noticed already.  I am wanting to speak Hungarian to everyone still.  I must have really had it drilled into me over the last month and all the politeness I have is now in Hungarian!  I will have to leave the Hungarian behind for now and pick up my German!

Take care everyone,

Lots of Love from Vienna xx

Tips for Travelers

I know a few of you out there are looking at or are travelling to Budapest in there near future so I have tried to think of some tips I can give you.  Unfortunately I have little knowledge on what Budapest is like in the later half of the year as it does get colder, and it does snow.  What I can tell you is that Hungarians love festivals and love Christmas so although the weather might not be as stunning as I have had - ha ha - you can still have a blast here.

Lonely Planet guide :

Pretty simple, just get one.  I got mine on Hungary not just Budapest and this still worked fine for the city.  I also managed to get it for pretty cheap from fishpond.co.nz.  However you can buy them here and of course you can buy smaller versions if you aren't going to be here for long.  Or consider using the Lonely Planet website on your phone a lot.  The book tells you great places to eat, things to see even if you are here only for a few days or here for a few weeks.  It also helps you work the public transport which is fantastic!  It also has all the maps you need!  Budapest isn't too big you can always walk everywhere if you need to.  I personally don't know what I would have done without it.  It gives you all the info on tipping here - who to tip and who not to.  Also informs you on some of the etiquette  which I will give u a quick run down of soon and this is important!

Transport :

Master it ASAP.  It is quick easy and reliable. You have the trams, the buses, metro and trains use them all!  Get a ticket for the whole time you are here it will be so much easier for you!  If you do have to buy a single ticket MAKE SURE U VALIDATE IT when you use it (stick it in the orange box and it will punch it).  I believe you can get a week pass, a month pass, and even a full day pass.  This allows you to use all the transport its want you want trust me!  On a side note, you can take animals on the forms of transport so no it isn't odd if you are seeing a dog on the bus or on the metro its normal, get used to it.  Another interesting fact for those of you from NZ this is very different from home, you can drink on all the transport and everywhere in the city apart from parks, so grab that beer from the 24-7 (they don't call them that here though) and drink it where ever you want!

Bring medicine :

If you are prone to being sick or coming at a time you think you might be sick.  BYO because you can't get much here.  They don't believe in taking drugs so the pharmacies are pretty limited on stuff.  Plus with all the public transport bugs get passed around like a joint at a Bob Marley concert.  My roommate wished she had known this!

Etiquette :

I said I would talk about this but the best info I can probably give you was given to us by one of our teachers in photo for so here it is:

Follow these.  It is important in any culture that you do the right thing.  Also you don't have to tip anyone that hasn't given you a service.  You only need to tip when something is served to you at a restaurant/bar so if you order from the bar and collect it from there you do not have to tip.  They say that between 10-15% is suitable to tip 10% if they didn't do the best job and 15% if you were impressed.  Learn some basic words, people really appreciate that you try even if you don't get it right.  Hungarian people are so proud of there language that they will treat you much nicer if you say szia and kosonom (hi/bye and thank you).  Even grab a small phrase book from somewhere and give the language a go it is said pretty much how it sounds and you will get better service!  I am more then happy to teach anyone how to order a beer or buy a ticket just drop me a note and I'll give you the low down.

Cash :

I had a real hard time knowing how I was going to use money over here.  They say most places accept card and this is true, restaurants and major shops will.  The markets won't.  The small tourist shops won't.  It is important to have cash on you at all times, most places don't include the tip to the bill so you need to leave money behind.  Which leads to another point of etiquette - it is rude to leave the money on the table.  Just don't do it.  Give it to the waitress when you pay (already have that sorted in cash) or find out if there is a tip jar, otherwise hand it to the person who served you on the way out.  One of the best things I had was a wee currency converted that Dad did for me on excel and printed out.  I kept it in my wallet and it was an easy way to see how much everything was in NZD and whether it was worth what they were asking for.  The thousands were hard to work with at first.  10,000 should be easily enough for one person for a day this will give you 2 meals and some spending money for shopping or activities.  But if you are doing activities find out how much they are before you go.  Also be aware if you are a student take your student card it works pretty much everywhere for discounts!

Funzine :

This is a free mag that you can find in cafes and all around the place.  Pick one up it gives you a low down on what happening the month in the city from gigs to festivals activities and so forth.  It also has coupons and discounts for places, maps and interesting Hungarian facts for travelers.  Well worth the read.

Sim cards :

So it is a bit of a hassel to get one of these.  I had to sign a few papers about it all and show my passport and so forth.  I don't understand why but it is a big deal here.  Once you have it though life is a breeze.  So if you don't have any international deals, bring your smart phone over and get on a deal.  I used Vodafone as I new they had an english speaking smart store I could visit.  I was on a deal that gave me 500mb of data for 2,000 ft and the card itself cost 500 ft and it lasted me my whole trip.

Things you must do :

Parliament.
 Now you don't have to go inside, just be there and take it all in.  It is a wonderful building and I gave the history of it that we were told on the tour and that is all you need to sound a little smart to whoever it is you are travelling with.  You can see parliament from all different angles all over the city. It is good close up, from the Buda side of the city and of course from Buda Castle which is my next must.

Buda Castle.
How could you not apart from parliament it is the only other building that sticks out like a sore thumb calling you in to go see it.  It like parliament is lit up beautifully at night so see it durring the day and then glance at it from the other side of the river at night.  You don't have to go inside it doesn't have anything worth seeing.  After they renovated it the inside was gutted so the best part is looking at it and walking around the town that surrounds it.  There is a secret hospital that however is worth the tour if you have the time - unfortunately I wasn't able to do this but if any one does get a chance I would like to know more about it.

Eat.
  Eat everything!  Eat the traditional dishes, eat the things they sell on the side of the roads (the round donut bread sticks covered in sugar, the breads etc).  You can a three course meal for $20 NZD so there is no need to go to the flashiest place.  We always aimed for somewhere that had mains for 1000-3000 ft per dish.  Eat at the city market.  the food is god, traditional and cheeeeap!  This is also a good place to get fresh produce if you are wanting to make your own food or are here for a loner period of time because the match stores aren't that great.

Drink.
Drink Unicum, it is nasty at first but it gets better.  It is a local favourite and you will fit right in if you are drinking it! Palinka - not my personal favourite but it comes in many different flavours and the locals love it too.  It isn't really meant to be taken in shot form even though it is given to you in small amounts just sip it - it's strong!  I believe this can grow on you as well if you drink enough of it.  Try the wines, wine is always good.  I may not think it is the fine wine of NZ but the people rave about it here so give it ago.  Any wines from Tokjai are meant to be very good.

Festivals.
 Get to any festival you can.  Look it up, google that shit!  And make sure you take advantage of whatever is happening at the time I am sure the Hungarians' will not let you down.  Of course if you are here for Sziget - do not miss that!  Heck no!  It is cheap and so much fun!

Baths.
  They say any bath is fine, and I have only been to one, Szechenyi Thermal Baths out of strict recommendation from those who had been to more then one and have been often.  So of course I am going to recommend this one.  Price is about 3,400 ft for the day ticket but you can also go at night for cheaper and I am sure it would look amazing lit up by lights.  There are many pools/baths here suitable for everyone no matter what temperature you like.  Just be careful to make sure you don't go on women only and men only days - could be worth checking.  You can take the level one metro right to the bath, the stop is even conveniently called Szechenyi Baths.

The City Market.
 I mentioned this earlier in food, but it is also the place to go for shopping!  If you are wanting Hungarian gifts or memorabilia you want to go here.  I strongly recommend it even just for the experience.  

I hope this helps for anyone wanting to visit Budapest, it really is a beautiful city and should be on everyone's bucket list.  I know I will be back that is for sure!

Fast Facts

Here are some fast facts I have been collecting over my stay in Hungary.  Some of these were written awhile ago (I now drink the tap water with the aid of a filter jug) but since its the last week here I think its time to publish these babies!

1. The street signs are on the corner of the buildings.  I find this strange.
2. There is graffiti everywhere, like everywhere! On al the old buildings, all the trams, trains, trolleys, buses even the stairs on the escalators - seriously! 
3. I now appreciate having drinking water from a tap.  The water here is "okay" to drink but if anyone knows me well enough they know I like my water fresh, and the Budapest water has a very distinct smell that has me shying away.  I have tried it and it doesn't taste as bad as it smells but everyone buys their water here.  Admittedly I am paying 115ft a 1.5L bottle which is 0.62c NZD but to think what it is doing to the environment, already on day 3 I had gone through 7 bottles!  I hate to think what it will be after a month!
4. For those of you that think I have hairy arms (Phillip Ryan), you should see the Hungarian girls (and I have noticed the Italians are high up there too). So next time you are checking out the physique of a well done European you should also take into consideration the amount of hair they have on their body.
5. Fat old men everywhere!  This is not really an issue, but it seems to be that in the summer time they like to walk around with there tops rolled up over their bellies.  Exposing their large barrel like stomaches.  I think the thing that bothers me the most is the way the top is rolled up, like it is a crop top.  If they walked around topless which some do, it would be fine.  Take note old men in Hungary STOP EXPOSING UR BELLIES.
6. The smell.  Now its not quite a sewage smell, we have come to the conclusion it is more of a dirty/garbage/sewage smell.  You just get a whiff of it every now and then but boy does it sting the nostrils and leave its mark on the brain. 
7. Homeless.  So Hungary has a large amount of homeless people.  In the summer I can see the appeal of sleeping outside due to the heat.  But come winter I don't know what these poor people do.  One thing I have noticed that has been from the people who look homeless and the people who don't look so homeless is that they pick up ciggy butts from the ashtrays in that are connected to the bins.  The shuffle until they find the least smoked and then brush em off and go.  This for the first time left me speechless as I was in mid convo with someone, and from now on just makes me sick in the stomach. 
8. Lightening.  As you know we have had some storms will I have been here.  But even now I am sitting at my computer on a hot sticky night watching the fork lightening light up the sky orange, its not even raining.
9. For those of you who know our 'family whistle', my Grandmother had always told us this whistle originates from the way that the Hungarian birds whistle.  And she is right!  Sitting in a park one day I heard the whistle, a lot slower then how we do it, so I whistled back only to find out that it was indeed a bird calling out.  I had a wee moment as I thought this was mega cool!
10. Meleg means hot and gay in Hungarian therefore if you are wanting to say: "meleg vagyok" (I am hot) don't be surprised when you get hounded by the same sex as you are also saying "I am gay".  And for all my lovely gay friends out there I take this as a compliment all of you are hot!

Saint Stephens Day

Wine tasting time!

Hiya friends and family!

This week has been pretty relaxed, of course I have done more shopping - what else?!  We had one field trip this week, the Hungarian National Bank.  Not Balassi's finest pick, we just saw a heap of old money.  However I did learn a bit about the Euro in order to have my photo printed on some fake money.  

My roommate has been as sick as ever so I have been keeping far away in order not to catch anything before moving on the the rest of my holiday.  Which I am now getting super excited about.  I am looking forward to seeing my blisters, Amy in just a week!  The time has really started to fly by but once we have done our tours of Buda Castle (which is tomorrow) I think I would have felt like I have done everything I needed to for my first time in Hungary!

We had a day trip yesterday out to Lake Balaton, nipping out of the city and getting to see another side of Hungary was fantastic.  The lake was packed as it was one of the hotter days we have had reccently, the sun was shinning and all the tanned people were out.  So I had been complaining/surprised that I have spent so much time in the sun and haven'r worn sunblock once or been burnt once.  Ahh classic "don't speak too soon" situations here.  I didn't wear sunblock yesterday and yes I got burnt!  Not too badly, not anything near as bad as it would have been if I was in NZ.  But enough to give me a wee bit of colour before I see my sister who has been living in Spain all summer so I don't feel like a polar bear next to her.

We were on the "nicer' side of the lake so we had to pay to get on to the waterfront.  there is a little bit of fake sand - and I mean a little bit a meter and a half from the water.  The rest of the place is grass and it was packed.  It isn't anything like what we have at home, and the lake is shallow for about 5 meters before you can actually cool off.  I didn't end up swimming myself - bit of a water snob I am.  After years and years of swimming in Taupo my lake standards are pretty high and a combination of the mossy green stones all on the bottom and the colour of the water just had me reading my book on a nice wee grass patch all day.  There are shops and stalls selling food clothes and traditional Hungarian stuff all along the waterfront in between all the trees what a sight!  Most of the people around here are Hungarian or German speaking so I managed to pull my socks up and use my Hungarian to order food and buy some stuff, all the classes appear to be paying off BOOM!

After this we jumped back onto our bus and set off for a vineyard where we could do some wine tasting.  We walked up a hill in a small town to reach a restaurant that looked out over Balaton and a heap of vineyards.  It reminded me of all the picturesque scenery we have at home.   The wine tasting had to be translated for us by but it was such a blast!  They use a Glass blowen utensil to suck the wine up from the jars and then pour into peoples glasses.  We were able to have a go ourselves at doing this later on.  They brought out a sweeter wine which ladies tend to like better so they had a glass blown lady in which the men had to suck through the boobs of the glass lady and then pour the wine out from here too.  It provided many giggles from the crowd.  Later on the even had one for the ladies to try but I will leave to to guess what shape that was in!  After a few too many wines they finally brought us out some food a traditional Hungarian dish that I do not remember the name of - oops!!  We were then able to purchase the wine before we headed home on the bus.  All in all it was a fantastic day and I wish they had done something similar to this sooner in the trip as it would have been a great icebreaker for everyone to meet each other!  

And now for a photo overload!!