Oh the places you’ll go.. Posted on February 1st, 2010 by

All I have to say right now is.. I love Hungary!! .. Actually that’s not even close to being all I have to say about my most recent Saturday in Magyarorsag (aka Hungary). Oh how to begin.. well Rachel, Melissa, and I decided earlier on in the week that we really wanted to go somewhere this weekend.. somewhere close and preferably somewhere we could get to for cheap. Thus plans soon began to form for a day trip to Szentendre — a small, historical, touristy town about a 40 minute, 265 Ft ($2) train ride north of Budapest. So we dragged ourselves out of bed and got to the station at the crack of 9:30am, and, using our limited Hungarian skills and a series of hand gestures, managed to obtain three tickets for Szentendre on the HÉV (the train that goes to the suburbs). When we arrive in Szentendre and step off the train with a big emphatic, “Now what?”, we realize that we have nothing to guide us into town except an unnamed street on a map and a vague idea that we need to go north. But after buying hobo gloves from the sketchy “Asian” secondhand store at the station, we set out to explore the city. It’s also important to know that the weather gods had decided to bless us with a blizzard. It’s one thing to look at the huge snowflakes fall from inside the comfort of our apartment and another thing entirely to trudge through the unplowed streets of Hungarian suburbia trying to find the Szabó Marcipán Múzeum.

But with the help of a local Szentendren, we finally stumbled through the museum doors, covered in snow and grateful to be out of the cold. The museum itself, which is apparently the only one of its kind in the whole world, was really cool. The entire place was filled with crazy cakes and sculptures that people had done using only marzipan! They even had a life-size statue of Michael Jackson and a smaller sculpture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Next we had cake at the museum’s sister café next store. I got some sort of cherry, chocolate concoction and when I ate the cherry that came on the top of it I was extremely surprised to find that it was more alcohol than cherry. Very unexpected. Then, contrary to common misconception that dessert must come after the meal, we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. “Hungarian Mexican food?” you may be asking yourself. Well the truth of the matter is that it’s the best Mexican food I’ve ever had (don’t kill me for saying that Rachel.. I am from Minnesota after all.)

Now well fed and slightly thawed, we decided to venture back out into the snow to find Castle Hill. Judging by name alone, you would think that a castle on top of a hill would be pretty easy to find. False. We wandered around for a good hour, taking pictures and exploring the town as we went, until we found ourselves standing in the middle of the town square staring at the spot where the map says the stairs up the hill should be. Finally, we see a line of people trudging up the street speaking English, and we decide to follow them since they looked like they knew where they’re going. But as the group starts to walk past us, I make eye contact with one of the guys, and we both quickly do a double take. I then look at the other members of the group, and suddenly, “Andrew?”! In the middle of a random town in Hungary, during a blizzard, as we’re standing in that exact location only because the map was wrong, I run into the Gustavus Wind Orchestra!! Granted I knew they were going to be in Hungary around that time in their tour, the whole situation is still very strange and crazy. As far as I knew, they weren’t supposed to even visit Szentendre and I myself was only there for a day trip that could have easily not happened if we’d made the more logical decision to stay out of the snowstorm. So Andrew tells me that their concert is actually that same night in a town called Pomaz, which just so happens to be two stops back on the same train we took to get to Szentendre. I was under the impression that the concert was on Sunday, so if I hadn’t run into them, I never would have gotten to see them play. I am absolutely believe that I was meant to be on that street at that time, that I was meant to run into them, and that I was meant to see that concert. There’s no way something that weird is coincidental.

But anyways, once I recovered from my astonishment at meeting Gusties in the middle of nowhere in Hungary, we left them with promises to go to their concert that night and, with the help of their tour guide, we finally made it to Castle Hill. The view of the town and the Danube from the hill were absolutely gorgeous. (We’re already planning to take another day trip there in the spring when everything is green and the vibrant colors of everything in the town can be truly appreciated.) We couldn’t figure out how to get into the church that was up there, so we eventually decided to go to the museum that we had passed a while pack. It was a really small museum/church run by a really cute old couple. They were really awesome and very patient with us and our tentative grasp on Hungarian. Right before we left, Rachel and I even managed to have a simple conversation all in Hungarian with the cute old lady. We told her that we speak English, that we’re studying Hungarian, that we’re American (not Canadian like she for some reason thought we were), that we are studying math in Budapest, and that we live by Blaha Lujza. I was really impressed by how much we’ve learned in our eight days of language school!

Feeling appropriately surprised and cultured by our time in Szentendre, we decided to stop for tea real quick and then head to Pomaz. We arrived in Pomaz around 5 o’clock with only the directions of GWO’s tour guide to get us to the zenéiskola (music school) that they were playing at (there was no map in the Lonely Planet guidebook). Seeing as missing their concert felt like a direct slap-in-the-face of fate, I was extremely determined to get there and with a lot of luck we somehow managed to find it. Along the way we even met a macska (cat) who followed us part of the way there. By this point we’re hungry, tired, and have extremely wet feet, but it was all worth it in the end (for me at least, seeing as I was the one from Gustavus, thanks Rachel and Melissa for humoring me and trudging through the snow with me so I could see them perform!). It was really fun seeing people give me funny looks as they tried to figure out whether or not there was actually a Gustie randomly at their concert in Hungary. The concert itself was spectacular and as I obviously can’t see their home concert this year, I’m so glad things panned out as they did. Great job guys!

After the concert was over, we headed back to the train station, but we somehow got lost (it seems to be a common trend.. ). Once we finally figured out where we went wrong, we had to run/jog to the train station because we absolutely had to be on the 10:10 train or else we would get back to Budapest after the metro was already closed, which would mean walking all the way back to our apartment from the Buda side of the city. But we made it, and once we were safely on the train, we took off our boots, ate some marzipan and marveled at the craziness that was the past 12 or so hours of our lives. And that is why I absolutely adore Hungary in all its crazy glory.

[[So I know this post was kind of long, and I congratulate you on your stamina if you made it this far, but this was a story that I really couldn’t skimp on. It’s definitely a story that will define my time here, and I look forward to having more crazy Hungarian adventures to share with everyone!]]



All I have to say right now is.. I love Hungary!! .. Actually that’s not even close to being all I have to say about my most recent Saturday in Magyarorsag (aka Hungary). Oh how to begin.. well Rachel, Melissa, and I decided earlier on in the week that we really wanted to go somewhere this weekend.. somewhere close and preferably somewhere we could get to for cheap. Thus plans soon began to form for a day trip to Szentendre — a small, historical, touristy town about a 40 minute, 265 Ft ($2) train ride north of Budapest. So we dragged ourselves out of bed and got to the station at the crack of 9:30am, and, using our limited Hungarian skills and a series of hand gestures, managed to obtain three tickets for Szentendre on the HÉV (the train that goes to the suburbs). <a href=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/szentendre-from-castle-hill.jpg”><img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-22″ title=”szentendre from castle hill” src=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/szentendre-from-castle-hill.jpg?w=300″ alt=”” width=”300″ height=”225″ /></a>When we arrive in Szentendre and step off the train with a big emphatic, “Now what?”, we realize that we have nothing to guide us into town except an unnamed street on a map and a vague idea that we need to go north. But after buying hobo gloves from the sketchy “Asian” secondhand store at the station, we set out to explore the city. It’s also important to know that the weather gods had decided to bless us with a blizzard. It’s one thing to look at the huge snowflakes fall from inside the comfort of our apartment and another thing entirely to trudge through the unplowed streets of Hungarian suburbia trying to find the Szabó Marcipán Múzeum.

But with the help of a local Szentendren, we finally stumbled through the museum doors, covered in snow and grateful to be out of the cold. <a href=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_1396.jpg”><img class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-20″ title=”IMG_1396″ src=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_1396.jpg?w=225″ alt=”” width=”225″ height=”300″ /></a>The museum itself, which is apparently the only one of its kind in the whole world, was really cool. The entire place was filled with crazy cakes and sculptures that people had done using only marzipan! They even had a life-size statue of Michael Jackson and a smaller sculpture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Next we had cake at the museum’s sister café next store. I got some sort of cherry, chocolate concoction and when I ate the cherry that came on the top of it I was extremely surprised to find that it was more alcohol than cherry. Very unexpected. Then, contrary to common misconception that dessert must come after the meal, we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. “Hungarian Mexican food?” you may be asking yourself. Well the truth of the matter is that it’s the best Mexican food I’ve ever had (don’t kill me for saying that Rachel.. I am from Minnesota after all.)

Now well fed and slightly thawed, we decided to venture back out into the snow to find Castle Hill. Judging by name alone, you would think that a castle on top of a hill would be pretty easy to find. False. We wandered around for a good hour, taking pictures and exploring the town as we went, until we found ourselves standing in the middle of the town square staring at the spot where the map says the stairs up the hill should be. Finally, we see a line of people trudging up the street speaking English, and we decide to follow them since they looked like they knew where they’re going. But as the group starts to walk past us, I make eye contact with one of the guys, and we both quickly do a double take. I then look at the other members of the group, and suddenly, “Andrew?”! In the middle of a random town in Hungary, during a blizzard, as we’re standing in that exact location only because the map was wrong, I run into the Gustavus Wind Orchestra!! Granted I knew they were going to be in Hungary around that time in their tour, the whole situation is still very strange and crazy. As far as I knew, they weren’t supposed to even visit Szentendre and I myself was only there for a day trip that could have easily not happened if we’d made the more logical decision to stay out of the snowstorm. So Andrew tells me that their concert is actually that same night in a town called Pomaz, which just so happens to be two stops back on the same train we took to get to Szentendre. I was under the impression that the concert was on Sunday, so if I hadn’t run into them, I never would have gotten to see them play. I am absolutely believe that I was meant to be on that street at that time, that I was meant to run into them, and that I was meant to see that concert. There’s no way something that weird is coincidental.

But anyways, once I recovered from my astonishment at meeting Gusties in the middle of nowhere in Hungary, we left them with promises to go to their concert that night and, with the help of their tour guide, we finally made it to Castle Hill. <a href=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_1475.jpg”><img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-21″ title=”IMG_1475″ src=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_1475.jpg?w=225″ alt=”” width=”225″ height=”300″ /></a>The view of the town and the Danube from the hill were absolutely gorgeous. (We’re already planning to take another day trip there in the spring when everything is green and the vibrant colors of everything in the town can be truly appreciated.) We couldn’t figure out how to get into the church that was up there, so we eventually decided to go to the museum that we had passed a while pack. It was a really small museum/church run by a really cute old couple. They were really awesome and very patient with us and our tentative grasp on Hungarian. Right before we left, Rachel and I even managed to have a simple conversation all in Hungarian with the cute old lady. We told her that we speak English, that we’re studying Hungarian, that we’re American (not Canadian like she for some reason thought we were), that we are studying math in Budapest, and that we live by Blaha Lujza. I was really impressed by how much we’ve learned in our eight days of language school!

Feeling appropriately surprised and cultured by our time in Szentendre, we decided to stop for tea real quick and then head to Pomaz. We arrived in Pomaz around 5 o’clock with only the directions of GWO’s tour guide to get us to the zenéiskola (music school) that they were playing at (there was no map in the Lonely Planet guidebook). Seeing as missing their concert felt like a direct slap-in-the-face of fate, I was extremely determined to get there and with a lot of luck we somehow managed to find it. Along the way we even met a macska (cat) who followed us part of the way there.<a href=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_1556.jpg”><img class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-23″ title=”IMG_1556″ src=”http://jennwithtwons.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/img_1556.jpg?w=300″ alt=”” width=”300″ height=”225″ /></a> By this point we’re hungry, tired, and have extremely wet feet, but it was all worth it in the end (for me at least, seeing as I was the one from Gustavus, thanks Rachel and Melissa for humoring me and trudging through the snow with me so I could see them perform!). It was really fun seeing people give me funny looks as they tried to figure out whether or not there was actually a Gustie randomly at their concert in Hungary. The concert itself was spectacular and as I obviously can’t see their home concert this year, I’m so glad things panned out as they did. Great job guys!

After the concert was over, we headed back to the train station, but we somehow got lost (it seems to be a common trend.. ). Once we finally figured out where we went wrong, we had to run/jog to the train station because we absolutely had to be on the 10:10 train or else we would get back to Budapest after the metro was already closed, which would mean walking all the way back to our apartment from the Buda side of the city. But we made it, and once we were safely on the train, we took off our boots, ate some marzipan and marveled at the craziness that was the past 12 or so hours of our lives. And that is why I absolutely adore Hungary in all its crazy glory.

[[So I know this post was kind of long, and I congratulate you on your stamina if you made it this far, but this was a story that I really couldn’t skimp on. It’s definitely a story that will define my time here, and I look forward to having more crazy Hungarian adventures to share with everyone!]]



 

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