Farewell Party

The Erasmus Student Network hosted a Farewell party for us "Spring Semester" kiddies last night. It was in the middle of the woods on the Buda side of the river. Literally the most terrifying location ever, and the reason behind our costumes. My group of friends & I dressed up under the theme of "occult". We had Irene dressed as Mistress of Doom, Sophie as a zombie housewife, Robyn as a zombie Alice in Wonderland or Alice in Sunderland and I myself went as Wednesday from the Addams family. We all slathered on the talcum powder as Budapest was strangely lacking in any form of face paint and use lipstick for blood smears. Safe to say we looked super scary. My lovely friend Audi did all my make up for me and made my eyes suitably horrifying! 

Mistress of Doom, Zombie Housewife, Alice in Sunderland & Wednesday..

Audi had also organized for us to have a grand entrance to the party! He hired a limo for us which drove us around the city, stopped occasionally for picture taking and then drove us to our party location. It was easily one of the best nights here in Budapest. Nothing like shouting "Jo Estet" to unsuspecting Magyars from the roof window of the limo! We had a blast and managed to terrify all our peers at the party. We all looked fabulous and rocked the night. 

The Final Countdown.

I only have a few more weeks left in Budapest but they're going to be my busiest here!

I begin final exams next week and that will last for 2 weeks. I have 5 exams to take and so have a LOT of revision to do! Luckily my exams are spread over 2 weeks instead of a UCL special of having all my exams on 3 days. 

Dressing up as a hipster for a party here in Budapest

After my exams are over I have a small group of friends from school coming to visit me here in Budapest and I'm very excited to see them & show them this city! Then I'll be back in England and my Year Abroad will be over for good! Scary but exciting! 

A hop across the border.

W for Wien!

Over this weekend we took a short mini-break to Austria and hopped on a coach to Vienna. It was a 3 hour drive there and the differences between the two cities was vast. The best way to describe the differences is to think of Hungary as East Germany and Austria as West Germany. In terms of the Soviet Union & that history the relationship was essentially like that. But given that there used to be the Austro-Hungarian Empire - it's easy to see who did the best out of that one! 

Jumping for joy in the capitalist & Western paradise of Vienna

We experienced a wide variety of weather conditions over the weekend. We had blaring sunshine & heat, we had overcast skies, we had torrential rain and we had just glum drizzly conditions. It was a mixture - but made the choice of clothing rather more difficult. Safe to say running through the rain in shorts & a hoodie to catch our bus home definitely gave me pneumonia. 
We had a really great weekend and did lots of fun things. The only sad thing was that I was struck down with flu and so spent most of the time sniffling and coughing. Something which has only worsened on my return to Budapest. Once again I manage to find myself struck down with severe flu - not an ideal situation given that I have 2 weeks of final exams beginning next Monday. My body certainly has great timing! 

Making daisy chains in an Austrian park at the StadtFest.

We took a bus from Budapest to Vienna which is the cheapest option and also pretty speedy. We spent Saturday afternoon wandering around the city and exploring the beautiful streets. The affluence of the city was easy to see, especially via shop windows and the smartly dressed natives. I found it especially comforting to be in a city where I could understand the language - I learnt German at school and so found it easy to get back into the swing of Deutsch. 
We found that there was a Stadt Fest Wien happening that day, a city wide Festival, with the art festival beginning in Vienna on the 11th May. There were a large number of exhibitions, mostly about sports offering opportunities to try those activities. There were freebies being handed out - including copious amounts of Austrian Apple Juice. There were festival style food trucks & benches, along with folk music & light rock bands playing. It was a really nice afternoon of relaxation and we all had bratwurst for lunch!

In one of the mazes at the Schloss!

We headed to our hostel which was on the outskirts of the city at the metro stop Hütteldorf to freshen up and drop off our bags and from there we headed back into the city to catch the end of the Stadt Fest. We managed to see the 2011 Austrian Eurovision entry giving a concert and they were wildly popular! We went to sleep very early that night as we were all exhausted!
On Sunday morning we spent the morning at the Schloss Schönbrunn which was the Imperial Summer Palace and very impressive. Luckily the sun was shining and we saw the palace & gardens in all their splendor. We walked around the gardens & woods and stopped for a little picnic of strawberries (probably illegally as I'm pretty sure we weren't allowed to sit on the grass!). After that we left for the city and headed to the MuseumQuarter for a long and slightly late lunch. We strolled around the MuseumQuarter and saw an art & craft exhibition and other interesting cultural exhibits. 

The palace as seen from behind the fountain.

Unluckily it started raining just as we headed to catch our coach and we were soaked running to the bus! But once we arrived back in Budapest it was 9pm & still 25º.....! It was a fabulous trip and I really like Vienna! Definitely one of my top 10 favorite cities! 

Jenson Button in Budapest?

Over the bank holiday weekend (27th-1st) there were a lot of things going on in Budapest. Vodafone was hosting a weekend of activities to mark the improvement of their network within Hungary. 
This culminated on Tuesday with a little bit of street racing in downtown Buda, featuring Hungarian drivers from various different motor sports and the special guest of Jenson Button in his McLaren F1 car!

One of the roads that was closed & barriers erected along was actually the road that my friends live on - Alkotmány Utca so that was quite handy. We did have the option of watching from their balcony but chose to stand on the street to feel part of the atmosphere & also to catch a few rays of sunshine! 
We got to see Jenson drive by in his F1 car several times and he even slowed down & did a few burnouts on Alkotmány Utca meaning that we got a good close up of his car and our eardrums were nearly blown from the noise of his car! 

After Jenson had driven by there were various runs made by Hungarian & British drivers in different cars - Rally cars, Porsches, Lotus's, Motorbikes....Off road vehicles. The Hungarians in the side lines all gave loud cheers when the recognized a famous driver! After they showed off - including doing a number of donuts in the middle of the street. 


Jenson also did a drive by in a big van with the door open so we got to see him smiling and waving at us as he drove by. Unfortunately I had to give my camera to my little brother and thus was only left with the camera on my phone which is less than efficient. Thus I tried to take a picture of Jenson driving by but only managed to capture one which included his arm. Though - an arm is better than nothing!

It was a beautifully sunny day in Buda and I was definitely sweltering - out came the shorts and the bare white British legs. Something most definitely to be proud of here in Hungary!