New Adventure

I am currently writing to you from a dark, smoky internet cafe in Athens filled with boys playing geeky computer games. Of course, I am the only girl here, and of course I chose today to be the day to wear my bright green mini dress. You might be interested to know that as the language changes from country to country, so do the cat calls:
Hungary= honking or whistles
Italy= 'Ciao bella' or 'Hey baby/girlfriend/sexy' if easily identifiable as a tourist.
Greece= Tongue clicking

Is it fortunate or unfortunate to have experienced all of the above? I haven't decided yet.

So, yes, I am in Greece. My friend Skyla and I decided that we had a gap in our travel schedules, so went on a planning rampage and put together a backpacking trip through Italy and Greece in only 5 days. On Monday the 21st we flew out of Budapest to Rome, where we stayed for 2 days. From Rome we travelled to Naples for an afternoon, then to Sorrento for the evening and following day. From Sorrento to Florence, Florence to Milan then a flight from Milan to Athens, where we arrived yesterday. This afternoon we will be travelling to a port just outside of Athens where we will board our student CRUISE BOAT (!!) and travel through the greek islands for 10 days. After the cruise we will stay in Athens for another two days, then fly back to Budapest on the 10th.

It has been a whirlwind so far, as we have tried to cram as much into our itinerary as possible. We basically hit up one city a day in Italy, which means that we unfortunately only got a taste for each city and I would love to go back to fully absorb the character of each city. There are wonderfully cheap flights all throughout Europe, so we have taken full advantage of those discounts, then travelled from city to city by train. We are staying in hostels in all of the cities we visit (except those that we will visit during our cruise). The hostel experience means that we are often sharing rooms with other people from all around the world, and I have met some really cool people. I expected to have to kind of close my eyes to the accomodations that we would recieve during our hostel stays, but I have been pleasantly suprised to find that everywhere we have stayed so far has been clean, comfortable, and in great locations. The weather here is gorgeous and SPF 30 is my best friend.

I will make sure to give you many more details about my trip as soon as I arrive back in Hungary, and you will get to see lots of photos.

I am so blessed to be able to have these amazing opportunities, and I am ecstatic to be where I am. AMAZING!

Much love to you all,
Em

P.S. Look what I can do with my keyboard: ε΅ςρθΘπΠσΣδΔφΦγΓξΞλΛψΨωΩ

Silly Doggy

Last Saturday I moved in with my third and final host family-- the Martinovszkys. Erika and István are my host parents, and my host brother, also István, lives in Budapest, while my host sister, Fruzsina, is on exchange in Brazil. I am now the only child living at home and, while I miss having siblings, I have a huge bedroom to myself, which is certainly a perk.

The funniest member of my family, by far, is Maszat, the family dog. The name Maszat is almost the equivalent of dust bunny, and Maszat sticks true to his name by picking up tons of dirt and twigs in his crazy, dreadlocked coat. Maszat is a Hungarian Puli and I think he is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Pulis are shepherding dogs and are famous for their coats which wind themselves into tight dreadlocks. Because Maszat's coat is so thick and hard to clean, he is strictly an outside dog. I give him the most attention out of any of the other family members, so everytime I come home from school he runs in front of me, lies down so I almost step on him (ironic, since he looks like a bathroom floor mat), and then he proceeds to lick my feet as I unlock the front door. Maszat and I are two of a kind with our crazy curly hair, so I have uploaded some pictures for you to check us out.

Scotland

Scotland looks just like the postcard. I have to admit, I had never actually seen a real sheep before my trip to Scotland, but I have now seen my life's supply. I even managed to witness a Scottish traffic jam (a street full of sheep) and I got quite a kick when the Hungarians went crazy and took tons of pictures through the bus windows.

My travel companions were a bunch of students and teachers from a school in another city. The goal of the trip was to allow the students a chance to practice their English, so most of them were more than happy to test out their English on me. We DROVE all the way from Hungary to Scotland, which took about 2 days straight, but finally we arrived at our little mobile home park just outside of Edinburgh, which was our home base. I shared my trailer with 7 other girls which, as I'm sure you can imagine, was fairly cramped, but all of the girls I stayed with were really sweet and we all got along really well. Because the mobile home was fitted with a kitchen we were taken to the grocery store every 3 days to stock up on food for lunches and dinners, which meant that I actually got to cook my own food instead of having to eat out all week.

Our first full day in Scotland was spent in Glasgow where we visited the transportation museum and an art gallery (the Burrell exhibition) which I hate to admit was really, really boring. Luckily, this fact was made up for a little bit when the Hungarians and I discovered that the park surrounding the gallery contained a group of cows. Watching the Hungarians try to entice the cows to come over for a "Kodak Moment" was absolutley hilarious. We also saw a golden retriever with its owner at the park and apparently there aren't any blonde dogs in Hungary because the poor dog was almost mauled by 15 year olds with cameras. We also visited Linlithgow palace which was the first castle I had ever been to. The palace was absolutely gorgeous with a carved fountain in the middle of the courtyard and fireplaces carved into the walls in each room. Even the prison was cool as the only way into it was through a tiny shoot that had a 2 meter drop to the stone ground.

A few days of the trip were also spent discovering Edinburgh. We walked along Prince's Street and the Royal Mile, which leads up to Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle is perched on top of a big hill and looks out over the entire city. The castle, while not really a castle but a mini village, has been beautifully preseved. The oldest building in Edinburgh lies within the walls of the castle-- Saint Margarit's Church. This church was built in honor of Queen Margarit by one of her sons when she died, as it is told, of a broken heart when her husband was killed in battle, and 2 days later 2 of her sons were killed in the same battle. Margarit, it must be pointed out, is somehow, distantly Hungarian, a point which was highly publicized by our Hungarian tour guide.

Edinburgh is also home to the Royal Yacht Britannia. While the ship is big and beautiful and I enjoyed exploring it, it wasn't breathtaking cool, like I generally assume everything that is associated with the royal family would be. I was doing a little internet research about Britannia and I discovered something that I thought was really funny:

Beards

1. The growing of a beard whilst serving in the Royal Yacht is permitted provided that the beard is respectable by the time the Standard is broken and the first time it appears in public.
2. The rules are as follows: The granting of a request to discontinue shaving will carry with it an automatic stoppage of leave for 14 days. At the end of this time the beard will be inspected and a further 14 days stoppage may be given. Should the beard still be untidy after 28 days the order to continue shaving will be given. The stoppage of leave applies to members of all sports and recreation parties where there is the slightest chance of meeting anyone outside the Royal Yacht. Requests for leave to take part in representative games will not necessarily be granted.
3. Except for medical reasons a request to continue shaving will not be granted within 6 months of the granting of the request ‘to grow’.

Since the appearance of Royal Yachtsmen in public must be impeccable at all times, permission to grow may be withheld from Quartermasters, boats crews and other Royal Yachtsmen whose duties are likely to take them ashore after the request is made.

I can't imagine being a member of the royal family. If a member of the Britannia crew is held to such high expectations, what kind of expectations must the royal family be held to? I'm not sure I would be able to handle the pressure. And how the heck would anyone ever be able to relax in those kind of circumstances, even on a yacht?

I got the chance to check in with Nessie at Loch Ness, and I explored the ruins of Urquhart castle, which sits on the banks of Loch Ness. I also went to Blair Castle, which has been maintained to look just like it did when the Blair family lived there, just as Sir Walter Scott's house has been maintained. Walter Scott's house was absolutely gorgeous. The house sits on a huge amount of land and there is a river that runs through the backyard, and horses graze in the fields. Scott built his house (more like a castle) to his own taste, and the house is covered in dark hardwood, huge paintings, and many, many cool items that Scott collected through the years. My favorite picture from the whole Scotland trip was taken on Scott's lawn: me doing a cartweel with the huge house towering in the background. Unfortunately, I took this picture with a Polaroid camera, so I can't upload it to this website.

I also visited Glenkinchie scotch whiskey distillery and, being one of two 18 year olds on the trip, I got to actually taste the whiskey while the rest of the kids tried to get me to sneak some out to them. I really don't like whiskey, I discovered, but I got to drink it an no one else did, so that sweet fact made up for the bitterness of the whiskey. On the way to Scotland we spent an afternoon in Brugge, and an afternoon in Brussels on the way home. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible in Brugge, but I was still impressed by how beautiful the city is. Brugge really reminds me of Venice with its canals and beautifully preserved old buildings. We were in Brussels on a Sunday, so not many shops were open, but I did manage to get my hands on a Belgium waffle, and I have decided that it is a very, very good thing that I didn't end up going to Belgium because I would be very, very fat by this point in my exchange.

Now that I have finally typed up and posted this note for you, I will be embarking on a brand new voyage tomorrow. I am going to Poland to visit Krakow and Auschwitz with the rest of the Hungarian exchange students. I'm sure that a post all about that trip will show up sooner or later.