The Adventures of Julie: July 2008

Saturday, July 19, 2008

More adventures from the road...Budapest to be exact

We arrived late at night, into what could otimistically be called the less touristy side of town. As we walked past graffitti, drunks, a couple of back packers sleeping on the platform, and boarded up buildings, a man in a black trench coat, with a black goatee, and smoking a ciagrette approached us. "Hey", he said in exactly the same tone that one would offer weed, complete with a raspy voice, "need a hostel." We politely declined.

In truth we were couchsurfing, again. this time staying with a women our age, named Eszter, in her tiny studio apartment, in the heart of Budapest. With the generousity and kindness we had grown used to couchsurfing, she insisted we take the bed, while she slept on the floor. She made us a delicious traditional Hungarian dish for dinner, informed us all about the city, (she used to be a tour guide in the city and has a real love for Budapest) took us on a bike tour, and up on the hill overlooking the city, for an amazing night view of the city.

Budapest is yet another beautiful European City, complete with the requisite castle, dozen or so imposing cathedrals, a town squre, and a river. We explored the city, finding the highlights to be St. Stephens Cathedral, where, I kid you not, you can view St. Stephens holy hand. There are pictures of the hand, and a story about its journey through history, and of course the hand itself, which for an extra 100 florints they will even light up for you. We thought this was even better then the church with the skull of a local dead martyr hung suspended over the sanctuary, or the Infant Baby Jesus church where they worshipped a doll dressed up in fancy clothes.

Another highlight was the thermal baths, a huge complex of pools, indoor and outdoor, small and big of different temperatures, where one could soak themselves for hours. The building was a marvel of architecture, with marble statues, soaring ceilings, and murals. And unlike Korea, you do wear clothes and get to merge with the opposite sex. We also enjoyed biking through the city and just taking it all in. The city is beautiful.

(For more information on couchsuring, go to www.couchsurfing.com. The idea is simple, anyone can join and either offer up their couch for a traveller to stay, or a traveller can search for a couch in the area they are visiting. It is totally free and it works like ebay in that you leave references, so it is self regulating. We have had a great experience staying with different people as we travel. We have couchsurfed in Moscow, Krakow, Warsaw, Brno, Budapest, and Eger.)

Pictures: Click on the blank picture to be taken to a picture of the baths we visited. The picture of the building is a picture of the outside.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Looking at life from a different perspective...

One thing that traveling does is expand my world view. The world is such an amazing and diverse place. I am constantly in awe as I travel and it frustrates me to know I can never properly communicate my experience to others. There is no was to capture in a picture, or words, the ghostly feel of Auschwitz, the splendor of a small medieval town in Czech Republic, the soaring wonder of the cathedrals in Poland, the character of the people I meet, or the feel of travel and living out of a backpack. I want everyone to travel. I think it is the most life changing and enriching experience, and I want to share my experiences with others.

Traveling through the different countries I have learned much about war. War seems to be what defines a country, how they view themselves others, and their values. WWII being the most recent war is everywhere. From Thailand and the Bridge Over River Kwai, to the war museum in Kiev, Ukraine where every newly married couple comes for pictures as a symbol that they remember the past and the sacrifices made so they could have a future, to the well known history of Auschwitz, every country has monuments, traditions, memorials, and memories that define them from war.

Take Russia, for example, we have always judged them for their standoffishness, their military build ups, their self containment, but in WWII they lost more people then any other country, 30 million, to be exact. The US only lost 500,000. And 60,000 million died in the entire war. If so much of your population was devastated in war, what would you do And yet, in Krakow I learned of Russias part in invading Poland and of the Polish people they killed in a place called Karyn.

I always learned one version of history, as I travel I learn many new versions and each adds to my knowledge amd my world view my perspective. Each helps me grow and see who I am and what the world is. Every country changes me and shapes me And so I continue to travel.

Places visited since my last post Yalta, Ukraine, or the Black Sea, Kiev, Ukraine, Krakow, Poland, Warsaw, Poland, Prague Czech Republic, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic, Olomouc, Czech Republic. And now to Budapest, Hungary.

Pictures Dan and I with our backpacks on and ready for another adventure, Auschwitz, the sign over the entry "work will make you free", A view of one of the little towns we visited in Czech Republic, a picture of a Russian women from the War Museum in Ukraine, those are pictures of her 9 sons, all of whom died in the war, and showing that we still have fun in all this seriousness, Dan and I canoeing down the river in Cesky Krumlov.