Unfettered

I apologize for the lack of updates but the constant partying (of the homework variety) has put a serious limitation on my blogging time. So the first major piece of news is that last Friday we finally made it to Parliament !! Ranjan, very generously, made the trip to pick up the tickets before class on Friday. After class we had some time to kill before meeting Kylee at Parliament. So we wandered the thrift stores on Rákóczi utca, but we didn't find anything to match the sweaters we had previously purchased. Once we did make it to Parliament we had to first go through a security check, not quite as bad as airports since we got to keep our shoes on. From there the tour started in earnest. It is easy to see why the building is considered the most beautiful parliament in the world, everywhere is decorated in detailed art work almost all of which was made in Hungary. One of the few things not of Hungarian origin were 8 columns gifted by the king of Sweden (I think) these are some of...

Last Friday was the first time I was able to take advantage of my sparse Friday course load, by taking a trip to the Hungarian city of Pécs . This destination was suggested by Erica, our Hungarian teacher, and Kylee's house mom, as a good city to visit on the weekend. She was especially thrilled that we could go on Friday and Saturday since apparently there are only tourists out on Sunday, so by going on Friday we could see what the city is really like. The four of us ( Lydia , Kylee, Ranjan, and I) caught an early train out of Keleti pályaudvar the train station down the block from me. Despite the early fog things eventually cleared and I was able to get a feel for the Hungarian countryside. Flat and snow covered, though likely not for much longer. Once in Pecs we dropped our stuff at our hostel, spent half an hour learning how to unlock the door (with help from the kind painter there), and wandered in to the city center. We didn't have much of an itinerary so we mostly wande...