***Again, will probably put up photos when the internet is more stable… IE when I get back to the US

Well, I’m winding down to the end of the trip now- It’s 11:30 now, and my plane leaves from Budapest about 13 hours from now [theoretically]. The past few days have been quite eventful though, since my last blog post on Friday. I would have updated more frequently this past weekend, but there was no internet where I was, so it had to wait until today.

So- Saturday morning, I woke myself up around 5:30 AM, since we needed to leave quite early. We ended up leaving the house around 6:15, with the sun already out. This was an easy ride though- After sitting through the 9-12 hours it takes to get to Rome, everything else seems much easier (though I’m not really sure if this will apply to the plane ride tomorrow…). But the car ride was only about 3 hours long, and I managed to sleep through the majority of it since it was early enough.

We rolled up to the living area in Slovakia a little before 10 I think. Based on Zsuzsi’s description of the place prior to getting there, it ended up being exactly as I’d envisioned- a couple of small cabin-esque buildings for the ~40 of us to sleep in. Yeah, there ended up being a bit less than 40 people going on this bike tour, and I was of course the only American in the bunch. Although there was one guy who was originally from Australia, so I was at least able to talk comfortable English with him. Most of the people on the tour spoke English though, so it was really pretty easy for me to meet people. The kids (my age and younger) also spoke English for the most part, and I chattered with them as well. Fruzsi (the girl I’d played tennis with on Thursday) was also there, so I met up with her as well. We were all located a short walk from a hotel, so it wasn’t like we were totally isolated or anything, though we were in the middle of a heavily forested area. Anywho…

We quickly unloaded the car and saddled up for our first day of biking (we were one day late because of Tusi’s graduation). I continued to chatter with people along the way, working on getting used to talking and biking at the same time, and I eventually learned to take pictures with my phone with one hand while biking with the other. The beginning was fairly easy- lots of downhill, paved paths and whatnot. Once we got out of the city though, we started biking along a mound of dirt, which was a bit trickier for me since the bikable path was only a few inches wide- It’s apparently pretty tough to keep a bike going completely straight. I ended up messing up the gears a bit when my heel bounced off a higher section of earth and knocked into the chain, though Robbie (the guy leading the tour) was able to fix it pretty easily.

The gears ended up getting messed up again as a result of the first accident a bit before we came across a little river which we spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to cross. Eventually, Tibi jumped in the water along with Gabor and a few others and started handing bikes across, with the rest of us wading it. While I watched and waited, I observed Robbie looking over my bike, and I actually learned a bit about the gear system from watching him, so I was at least able to figure out what was wrong. Good for future reference…

A little while later, we ended up at a pub. I just took a soda and a sandwich- wasn’t really looking to go biking after drinking any alcohol, but whatever. Saw a goat standing on a wall. We relaxed here for a while, and I talked with people some more (though if it were just me, Zsuzsi, Tibi, we probably wouldn’t have spent more than 5 minutes resting, but I digress). We left eventually and continued to bike, eventually getting back onto some paved road, though here we started going uphill. After a while, we made it to the castle at the top, though it turned out to be closed, though I went up with Gabor and another lady to check out the outside of it anyway and took a bunch of pictures. Had a coke at a pub.

We biked back a little while later, taking an extra detour through the city to avoid the river. We went uphill a lot as a result, which got me a bit more tired. After a while, we started getting close to camp, though I’d pushed myself pretty hard for the previous ¾ of the trip back, and had underestimated the last stretch of the trip. The super easy uphill first part of the trip had turned into the monstrously difficult portion of the end of the trip. Ended up walking part of it, but biked hard for the last 2 kilometers, round trip ending up being about 60 kilometers.

Afterwards I was pretty tired, and sort of just hung around until dinner. We went over to the hotel where we had a restaurant that served our dinners to us, and afterwards went down to the pub on the ground floor and I had a beer (saying that sounds so weird to me…) and chattered with a bunch of people. Went to bed around 10:30 since I was quite tired.

The next day ended up being a rainy day, so we didn’t do any biking. We all went to a pool instead and hung out in the Jacuzzi. The weather the previous day and then had cooled off considerably from the rest of the trip, so the Jacuzzi was nice. Did that for about an hour, and then walked around the town and had lunch at a pizzeria, and I ended up with a strudel for dessert. After this, we drove over to a nearby castle. The castle was pretty cool, though it was set up as a touristy spot with guided tours and whatnot. We decided to pass on the tour and just go around ourselves. I went ahead a little bit since even I can only handle so much Hungarian chatter, and went at a similar pace to David (the Australian guy). The castle’s tower was really nice- Great view of the entire castle and of the village below. Took a bunch of pictures.

We went to a restaurant for dinner that night, and I had a ham, turkey and cheese dish. It was actually pretty good, though upon seeing the steak, I immediately regretted not ordering it. After the restaurant though, we went back, and the adults went to one house to chatter in Hungarian, and a few of the other kids and I went to another and played some poker. I had a good time though- spoke English, and stayed up until around 1 before I went to bed.

Monday I actually woke up at 7:30 to go to breakfast at 8. Had a cup of coffee (my first…) mostly cus I hated the tea… It was way too sweet for me. Anyway, the plan ended up being for some people to leave early to bike an extra 30 kilometers or so, and the rest of us would drive most of the way and then bike for 10 there and 10 back. I ended up taking the easy way upon Zsuzsi’s suggestion, so I took the time to pack up and sleep a little bit more.

We left the houses at around 10 and drove for about an hour (passing the early bikers along the way) and got ready to go biking ourselves in the middle of a small town. Once the early bikers caught up, we headed out, stopping briefly at a pub for the early bikers and then continuing mostly uphill towards the castle. The hill was huge though- I was dead tired after a few minutes of trying to bike up the hill, so I ended up walking most of the way, as did the majority of us who were trying to get to this thing. Robbie biked the whole way though…

This castle ended up being very cool. I liked it a lot more than the one from Saturday, since it wasn’t set up as an attraction, and more just left as it was. The view was gorgeous though. Probably the best view of a landscape that I’ve ever seen. The huge hill ended up being worth it. I also enjoyed climbing all over the castle and finding places to jump around in. It was VERY cool for me, like being a little kid again.

The bike back down was much easier. Picked up quite a bit of speed on the downhill slope, and getting back to the pub was a simple task. Had a pizza and a pepsi there along with most of the others. Of course, Zsuzsi wanted to leave asap, so we parted ways with everyone else and took off back to the car. We made it back without too much difficulty, and packed up the bikes and left before anyone else had arrived. Went to Zsuzsi’s brother in law’s for dinner (again…) and got home around 10 PM. I went to bed.

So today was my last full day in Hungary, and I woke up around lunch time. Zsuzsi and Tibi were working, so I went out and went bowling with Fruzsi and one of her friends for a little while a few hours after lunch. Grabbed a quick bite at McDonalds while I was waiting since I was feeling abnormally hungry, and then grabbed a half a sandwich with Fruzsi once she’d arrived… Anyway, we started bowling around 4. My game was pretty off (like most of my other sports at the moment…) though I cleaned up at the end with two strikes in a row on the last frame. I had a lot of fun though, and I enjoyed it.

Zsuzsi had Fanni and Tusi over for my last dinner, and Fruzsi and her boyfriend also came over for it. Drank some wine and coke and had a good time with everyone. Did a bunch of talking, and took a bunch of pictures.

Once everyone left a few hours later, I ran through my pictures from the summer with Zsuzsi, and once she’d gone to bed, I packed up, and now I’m trying to figure out how to keep myself awake for a few more hours so I can sleep more on the plane tomorrow.

***Will probably put up more pics when the internet is actually stable...

So it's been a while since I posted anything up here. The last couple of weeks have been really busy though- on the week of the 4th, my energy was primarily focused on my work at 3H. After having been there for a week, I was beginning to get the hang of the work routine- Wake up at 7, take a quick shower and be out the door by 7:30; Catch the street car and get to my stop by 8:15, and then walk the half hour it takes to get to the studio itself, arriving at least 15 minutes early. I could get off at a stop closer to the studio, but I don't get much exercise otherwise, and I figure walking the distance twice a day was at least something of a substitute...

Work would then run from 9-6, and I'd do whatever anyone asked me to do. That week, I was

doing some more model building as well as a lot of computer drawings, starting to get the hang of the Hungarian ArchiCAD program. Lunch would come around between 12 and 1, and I'd usually take about half an hour or so to eat/chat with my coworkers- They all spoke English very well, which made things easy on me.

I enjoyed working there though- Reminded me a lot of studio life back at school. For me, it's a good stress reliever and it takes my mind off things. Plus I really enjoy fiddling with little models and drawings, and I like being able to talk to the people around me doing similar work. I actually gave a tutorial on Adobe Illustrator on that Monday to the studio. I've never done a tutorial before, so I felt a little awkward trying to teach something, but I think I did well enough. Zsolt (the boss) complemented me on it, though I'm never sure when he's just being nice or when he actually means it...

Anyway, my last day of work was on Thursday, as Zsuzsi had made plans to go to Hevis on Friday (which evidently got cancelled...), but I managed to finish up everything I was working on a day early so I got to relax a bit on Thursday.

On Saturday morning, I woke up around 3:30, and we left for Rome around 4:30. I managed to sleep for most of this one- Stopped for lunch at an Italian place on the way, and I had some fish dumpling things. Didn't get to Rome until around 8 PM, and Zsuzsi made some Hungarian food for dinner (she'd pretty much brought the entire fridge).

The week in general though was pretty impressive. The first day we walked out of the subway station and the Colosseum is right there in your face- I really was taken aback at its size. You always figure that it's a pretty big structure, but to actually be there and see it in person gives you a completely different sense of the sheer scale of this building. The heat in Rome quickly got to me though- Every day, it was between 90 and 100 degrees F, which made things quite uncomfortable at times.

We saw a lot that week though. We went through all the generic stuff early on- the forum, the colosseum, St. Peters, the Parthenon, etc. I liked St. Peter's Square a lot though; That was another one of the places where I was just completely awe struck. There just isn't any place like it in the US (that I've been to/heard of). We went to a lot of churches though, to the point where I really can't remember their names... I remember them more for the one important fact there is about pretty much each one. There were a lot of Church of Santa Marias though... There was the church where the pope holds his first mass, the church with the longitudinal line running through it, the church that mixed 3 different ages of architecture... The Sistine Chapel was really cool though. I'd seen all the pictures in my textbooks, but to see it for real was, again, really something else.

I'm also a huge fan of the number of fountains that are in Rome. The big squares that you can't really find in the US pretty much all have elaborate fountains and/or obelisks, and it's nice to see all these really old structures spewing water out everywhere. Plus there are the really old Roman fountains on the side of the roads where people refill their water bottles/wash their faces/etc. I took a liking to those very quickly, especially considering the heat. Tap water in Europe is apparently much better than tap water in the US, and, as I figure, when in Rome...

I also actually enjoyed the art museum I went to with Tusi. Tibi had gotten his wallet stolen that day (whoops...), so while he and Zsuzsi went to the police station, Tusi and I went to the museum since we'd reserved the tickets beforehand... I'm still not much of an art genius, but I felt that it was a good opportunity to try and see how much I'd progressed since I first started attending art school a year ago, especially since Tusi knows quite a bit about art. I was pleased to be able to recognize a lot of the mythology in the statues before reading the names of the statues...

By the time Saturday rolled around though, I was exhausted. Zsuzsi definitely knows how to move around the city quickly. We started from the hotel at around 6, and stopped in Ravanna for a few hours at around 11. Saw another fancy church, and checked out the burial site of Dante, which was interesting. I was really tired from the week and from waking up so early, so I was probably only half as into it as I normally would have been, but it was interesting nonetheless. We stopped for lunch a little while later at a small restaurant in Italy where the Szabo's wanted to have some fish for lunch. Fresh fish is apparently a rarity in Hungary, which didn't occur to me until then as I'm a regular fish eater back in the states, but I was happy to have some seafood. Of course, when we tried to order fish, the waiter guy misunderstood, and brought us a basket of fried calamari, shrimp, octopi, and crawfish, all of which I was happy to eat. However this was the meal that I discovered just how picky Zsuzsi is with food, and it's since been something I've come to give her grief about (mostly when she gives me grief about not eating enough for breakfast or whatever...) Finally made it home around midnight, and I was happy to finally have a few days to just loaf around and relax.

It was good to be able to just sit back for a while, especially after all of the stuff I've been doing since I got here- Haven't had much down time outside of the times when it's night time and Zsuzsi is sleeping, but I finally had a bunch of it after Rome, and I was using it to recover and prepare for the bike trip coming up this weekend. Yesterday though I met up with the daughter of one of Zsuzsi and Tibi's good friends, and we played tennis (my game started to get better as we played), and then went to the mall where we met up with her boyfriend. Had dinner at a sandwich place, and then we went over to a pub to have some drinks. They were both very nice and they spoke English well, so I was able to enjoy myself pretty well for the entire day. Got home at around 10:30 that night and went to bed.

Woke up this morning at 8, as 3H had invited me for a "proper farewell" that morning. I made it there around 9:30, and they greeted me with ice cream and champagne- breakfast of champions. It was nice to see them all again and talk with them after 2 weeks. I also met the girl who was replacing me, also a pretty solid English speaker. I left after about an hour so as not to waste too much of their work time, but I enjoyed it. Got home for lunch, and we headed out to attend Tusi's graduation ceremony at 2. It was in Hungarian, so it was only mildly entertaining for me, but it was short enough that I was able to get myself through it. Went home and Zsuzsi prepared some food, and then we moved over to Tusi's house with Csaba (Choba...), his wife, and Zsuzsi and Tibi's neighbors. Everyone spoke English except for Tibi, so I was able to talk to people well enough, though the majority of the conversation was in Hungarian...

Eventually got home though and started packing for the bike tour this weekend. Next update probably will be either on Monday or Tuesday, depending on whether or not I'm tired from this weekend (high probability...)

So it's been a while since I made an update, mostly because the entries for the past week would have been pretty short individually. I've worked at 3H for 7 days now, and I must say, I absolutely love it. Granted, it's all grunt work for now since my architecture know-how is fairly limited, but this is definitely the kind of thing I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. The only down side to it all is that I've actually gotta wake up at a reasonably early hour now (7 AM) in order to get to work on time. I work for 9 hours a day, but I don't really mind.

They've put me to work on a church that needs remodeling. I'm not sure when it was built exactly, but it's a baroque-style design. They've been trying to teach me to use ArchiCAD, which is an almost European-exclusive CAD program for architects. Only problem is that it's in Hungarian, which I'm not quite fluent in- Were it not for the language barrier, I think I would have gotten the hang of it a lot faster. I got better though, and I drew up the plans/sections/elevations for this church pretty well.

For the latter half of the week, they had me do some model building. This is the part that I really like, and a lot of the reason I went into architecture- I love building things like this, and I'm really a hands-on learner as opposed to someone who learns from a book. I modeled the church out of some foam core, which I'd familiarized myself with during the second semester of school, and built the surrounding terrain out of cardboard and finished it up on Friday. I was actually pretty happy with my results, given that I'd never made an architectural model at that scale before.

Saturday I was able to sleep in past 8 for the first time in almost 2 weeks, which made me happy. Zsuzsi took me to the Industrial Museum, where they had a pretty big collection of old furniture, and apparently the largest collection of Ottoman rugs in Europe. To be honest, I was a bit more interested in the building itself than the actual exhibits, but that's just me. There were some cool glass sculptures and some fancy keys that I thought were interesting in there though.

Afterwards, Zsuzsi took me to go pick up Sebi and we went to the

Transportation Museum. This one was a bit more interesting for me, with old cars, trains, and boats and such. They actually had a little electronics exhibit where they showcased old computers, arcade games and gaming consoles. That one really took me back, being able to see the original NES, Atari and Gameboy. There were older systems in there, but those in particular were the ones that I'd been able to play with when I was younger, so there was a certain nostalgia factor in it for me. I would have taken more pictures, but I'd already been told to stop once, and there was a museum dude in that room watching me...

Today I woke up at 8, and we all went to go attend church for Sebi's baptism. The mass was in Hungarian, so I obviously didn't understand any of what they were saying. Anyway, we got home around lunch, and the dozen or so of us (various guests/family who'd come to attend the baptism) had lunch at the house. Finally got a chance to have goose liver again. It's still good. Then some people took naps and other people took walks- I opted to stay in and keep tabs on Sebi while he napped- I was also a little sleepy. Eventually, some of us went over to Tusi's and had dinner, and then we moved over to castle hill where some of us went to listen to some church opera music. Zsuzsi and I went to a nearby restaurant and had some good cake.

So tomorrow I start up work again, my last day being on Thursday, and next Sunday we head off to Rome for a week. I'm excited.