The baths, the flea market, the fringe festival, and the Symphony

I am so sorry I didn't write before this! I really am. So here is what I did for the past 3 days... (Also, the picture of the river and the huge building is not from anything in this post, it is just a filler image)

On Friday: On Friday we went to the Turkish baths! It was so fun. We started out in the baths that were inside. We were sorely disappointed with them, they were not warm at all despite being fed from a hot spring. All the baths inside, there were like 5-7, were like that. But then we discovered the pools outside...

The pools outside were great! There were three of them, and they were all really big, the size of the deep swimming pool in YMCA s. The one that Dad stayed in was really fun. It actually had a hot temperature! I didn't like it because I couldn't breathe very well in it. I have athsma, and the minerals in the water sometimes make people's chest heavy. The second pool was really deep and only for people who were doing laps, so I didn't go in it. The third pool was fun. the temperature wasn't hot and it wasn't cold, sorta like a cross between warm and cool. It didn't have as much of the minerals in it as the first pool, and the hight of the water came up to my shoulders. That was the pool I spent the most time in.

The Turkish baths were really fun. We are so going there again!


On Saturday: On Saturday we went to the flea market. It was inside City Park, just as the baths were. We found it after a while of walking around. Th flea market is only on weekends, from 7am to 1pm. It was inside this big fenced-in open-air space. Everyone there was selling something different-their own little trinkets, they weren't employed by a store to sell their stuff, they did their own thing. We went there to buy some clothes for me since I don't have a lot of warm stuff. We ended up finding a sweater, socks, and a pair of pants. The sweater and socks were easy, but the pants were more difficult to find. At first we just looked at jeans. It was hard without dressing rooms, and you can't judge whether jeans are going to fit you, you have to try them on because the legs couldn't fit, or the waist would be too tight or too loose... the possibilities were endless! Finally I said 'Just ditch the jeans, let's find some sweatpants or something.' So we did!

You know, the flea market is just a bunch of tables and stuff! It's not like there are shops that you go into. There are piles of clothes on some tables where you just root through them for anything you can find, and some places have clothes hanging up and on the table... it's not like a mall, OK?
(P.S.-Eli, if you're reading this, know that you are going to love the flea market!)


On Sunday: On Sunday we did two things- we went to a fringe festival and to a Symphony.

Festival: Dad and I went walking because it was a beautiful day. Originally, we were going to go shopping and to buy tickets for this symphony. For the whole time we were here there has been a spring festival going on, and Sunday night was the last night of it, so we decided to go to the symphony. After we bought the tickets, we decided to go to a fringe festival we had heard about. We wandered around for a while before we finally came to where we wanted to be. The fringe festival was great, there were all these little wooden of thatched huts of varying sizes with all kinds of things to sell in them! the only difference from the flea market was that the people selling the stuff were hired by a company to sell the stuff. when we were there we ate and we watched some dancers dance. First there was some ladies in leopard-print clothes and they were dancing. They were halfway through the dance when we got there, so we didn't know what it was all about. Then we were eating and a building was blocking us from watching the show. But after we ate we watched. We watched these 2-4 long Indian dances preformed by three ladies in Indian dance (see picture). They were so good! I'm not just saying that, they really had talent. After a while we got up and left.

Symphony: The symphony rocked! We left home an hour early. We got on the bus and tried to get off at the right stop. Now, we didn't know where we were supposed to go, we only had an idea of an area on the map. So, we wandered around and got lost. Finally we asked someone for directions. Then we walked some more, until we finally came to it. The building was huge, and pretty stylish. When we were approaching, we saw a whole bunch of people in front of the doors. Dad leaned down and told me: 'See all those people? They're all be sitting in front of us!'. That was because we got the two seats in the back row- the only two that were next to each other when we got the tickets! They were really good seats.

We sorta got lost finding our way to the seats, because we had to go up all these stairs and around U-turns and down hallways before we came to the doors of our section of seats.

The symphony rocked! There were songs played by Bartok Bela, Eotvos Peter, Igor Stravinsky, and Richard Wagner. I recognized some of the songs from the movie Fantasia. By far, Richard Wagner's composition was my favorite. That's sorta wierd, because for years playing Wagner was outlawed in Israel because he was Hitler's favorite composer. Now, of course, you can play him, but back then you couldn't. The Symphony was awesome. I am so glad we went to it.

Present Day: So, that's what we did! Next Saturday, Dad and I are going to Amsterdam, because Dad is working for the National Criminal Court of the Hague, and he needs to go there to get some stuff done. I can't wait!

Ye Olde Medieval Castle! Mwahahahaha!

Guess what Dad and I did yesterday? We went to 'Ye Olde Medieval Castle' that's here in Budapest! It was very fun.

The castle is on the other side of the river Danube, in Buda. We live in Pest.

There was two parts to the walled castle. There was the 'Old City', where the commoners lived in the Medieval Age, and the Royal Palace from the 1300s. We spent our time in the Old City, and saved the Royal Palace for another day.

The buildings in the Old City weren't really medieval buildings. They were definitely made sometime in the 1800s, but definitely not in the style of the Medieval Age.

It was really fun there. Dad's back seems to be healing very well now, and we hope that by Monday it will be almost all better. We will be going back to the castle on Saturday for a play that is being held there.

Up Next: Later today Dad and I will be going to the famous Turkish Baths here in Budapest, and I will post on it. See you then!

P.S.- dad wants me to tell all you guys that we finally have Internet at home and can be reached by phone! Also, we are 6 hours ahead of new York, 7 hours ahead of Iowa, 8 hours ahead of Colorado, and 9 hours ahead of Seattle, Washington.

Synagogue

Hey! Today dad and I went to the old Jewish Synagogue that is in Budapest. It is a building 150-200 years old! Well, not really, it had to be renovated after WWII.

A synagogue ( pronounced Sin-a-gog) is a place of worship for Jews. This synagogue is not designed like other synagogues. You can often find a eight-pointed star on the walls instead of the six-pointed Jewish star. That is because the eight-pointed star is the Arab star, and the architect that designed the building wanted to show the importance of the Middle East, where the Jewish state is, so he put the Arabic star in there. Of course, 150 years ago, the Arabs and the Jews weren't fighting like they are now.

The Synagogue also has a cemetery next to it. That is because in the Holocaust the Jews were forced into a ghetto, a small space where they were forced to live in isolation from the outside world, and the synagogue was inside the ghetto walls so the Nazis forced the Jews to bury their dead inside the synagogue. Now that is usually forbidden in Jewish culture, but there is an exception for synagogues like this one.

They also had a memorial to Raoul Wallenberg there. Raoul Wallenberg was an emissary sent over to Hungary, and he and the other emissaries saved maybe 30,000 Jew's lives. If I had been born a boy, I would have been named after him.

I really liked the synagogue. I felt at home there, and since both my great-grandmothers came from Budapest I feel I have a right to go to the synagogue, as I am 25% Hungarian. It's a nice feeling.

:)

Hey! It is officially the third day Dad and I have been in Budapest. Oficially.

Brr. Have I mentioned that it is freezing here? It even snowed last night, though when I woke up all of it that was left was a little bit on the windshields of the cars.

HAPPY EASTER! Yesterday and today everything is closed for the holiday. Well, everything except the coffe shop that has free WiFi that I am sitting in right now! :)

I like chocolate. No, I'm not crazy, I'm just random. If you are random and proud of it...EAT A COOKIE!

Yesterday Dad and I went to the city park. It was cool, but it was a long walk. I had fun! We took the subway back. Now that was cool.

Budapest is so cool. There are all these old, beautiful buildings everywhere, with towers and bellstowers, and everything! It's like something right out of the 1800s.

Did you know that 25% of my history came from Budapest? Both my great-grandmothers on my dad's side came from here.

Well, Gotta go! 'See' you soon!

We're here!

We have arrived in Budapest! Yay!

We have rented a flat out for a month, maybe two months. It's small, but workable, although I sleep on the sofa-bed since there is only one bedroom. I'm not complaining, though! The layout is like this: You walk through the front door, and there is a hallway right in front of you. A couple steps in and to the left is an archway leading into the kitchen, which is fully equipped with everything you need, even a washing machine! Further on in the hallway, also to the left, is the bathroom. At the end of the hallway are double doors with the kind of glass that's usually in showers and you can't see it. The doors are twice the height of Dad!

Through those doors is the main room. It's a fair-sized room, complete with a TV, sofa, armchair, and a table w/chairs. The best thing about it is yet to come. In the far right corner are some stairs. Up them is the bedroom, only big enough for a double bed (we keep our clothes in the closet). There is only two walls, the other two are railings. It's like a platform above the living-room. The color scheme of the place is quite nice. Two thirds on the walls are light yellow and the other third is a warm white. The whole place is 40 square meters, or about 400 square feet. I know it sounds like a lot, but it isn't.

Budapest is great! It's really rainy here, reminds me of Seattle. I feel sort of claustrophobic here since the buildings on both sides of the street are high and you can't really see the sky.

I'm in a WiFi place but my power cord doesn't plug into the wall since the number and size of the prongs are wrong. Of course, I forgot the adapter that makes it possible for my power cord to plug into the socket, and I don't feel like going out in the rain to go get it and my power is running out, so I have to go. I'll try to blog soon, hopefully we'll get Internet at home in two-four days, OK? Bye!

Going...going...GONE!

Today we're leaving for Budapest! I'm so excited!

Bad news. It had looked like Dad and I were going to rent a place out, but then the owner said that something had come up and she/he couldn't rent the place out (We had no idea whether the owner was male or female. His/her name was Geda- pronounced Gee-dah.) But Dad founbd this place on the internet, and wrote an e-mail saying our flight info and if they'd like us to come and check the place out to be at the airport with a sign that says 'Philip'. Hopefully they'll be there!

Last night Dad and I got a massage, and Dad says that his back is feeling a lot better. I'm happy for him!

I will try to post as soon as I can when we are in Budapest, but I can't promise anything. Wish me luck!

Park (2)

Hey! Dad and I just got back from that reservoir. Remember? Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera. Again. So no pictures, sorry!

It was really fun! We didn't get started until around noon, since there was something going on with the Internet. Our phone here is a VoIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) Internet Phone, so, pretty much, if we have Internet we have phone. So if the Internet was down, no phone, right? Wrong. Even though we couldn't get most pages (in some cases we could get the pages, but of course they weren't any pages I was going to) to paint on our screen, we could make phone calls. It was so frustrating! But, on the upside, it happened on a day when we would mostly be out of the house. It's working now, though!

The reservoir was great. Last time, just as we were leaving, we drove around the lake and found this really cool spot. There are these bamboo huts, but they are floating on the very edge of the lake! Of course, they are anchored down, but if you sit in the edge you can dangle your feet in the water! It is so cool. Guess how much they are to rent out for the whole day? Ten Thai baht. That's like $0.32 US dollars!

We stayed there from noon to 4pm. We mostly read, and dangled our feet in the water. I had such a great time!

Chapter title: -insert witty chapter title here-

Hey! Umm... I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven't forgotten about you! There's just not a lot going on here.

Today Eli's leaving to go to Beijing! Noooo! Oh, well, hopefully I'll see him and Dylan in Hungary.

Bad news! We are afraid that Dad's back might be going out! Pray that his back will at least wait until we get to Hungary and settled down in a house!

Guess what? Tomorrow Dad and i are going to go back to the lake again! Yay!

That's all I have to say for now. Bye!

Budapest

A decision has been made! The winner will be the next place we will go in Europe! And the winner is...is...is... *stage whisper 'Next card!'* And the winner is... Budapest, Hungary!

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary. It used to be two cities, Buda on the west side of the river Danube, and Pest on the east side. On November 17, 1873, the cities merged and became Budapest.

A little info on Budapest:

Country: Hungary
Area: 525.16 sq. km, 202.8 sq. miles
Population (2007): 1,696,128
Website: www.budapest.hu


So, we're going to Hungary on Thursday, March 20,2008. I am so excited!

Stuff

Hey! This is going to be a really short post since nothing has really happened here since the park.
Eli's coming home today! I am so excited, I really missed him.

Dad has been having trouble finding a flight that is less than US$1000 EACH. And we really need to get out of here, since the really, really hot season is coming up. But it still looks like we are going somewhere in Eastern Europe!

Oh, breakfast's ready. Bye!

Park

Hey! Guess what Dad and I did yesterday? We went to this really cool reservoir! We had some trouble getting there, though. We went on the road for a while, didn't see it, went back and asked directions, went on the road, and guess what? A few meters up from where we stopped was the sign that said the name of the reservoir! So we went on the little road, and we came to a highway! It didn't look right, since on the map there was an unbroken road to the reservoir. So we went back to the beginning of the little dirt road, and asked directions from a stand guy there. He said that we needed to get across the highway. So we went back, and ended up going along all these little roads before we found the right one. Finally, we came to the reservoir.

The lake there was beautiful! It was right by the lush, green mountains, and there were trees everywhere! And, we later found out, on the other side of the lake than where we were were these little bamboo huts that you could just lay in. Some were even floating on the water (Too bad we forgot the camera)!

So, when we got there, we rented out a mat to lay on, and found some shade. We read most of the time, except when Dad persuaded me to get in the water. I didn't like it much.

I am so tired right now! For the past three night, I haven't been getting to sleep until past midnight! Ugh!

Dad and I are going to go to that reservoir again, and we will bring the camera next time! Toodles!

Last Post on Cambodia

"Hello, Ladies and Gents! Here's what you've all been waiting for! The majestic, the amazing, the wonderful LAST POST ON CAMBODIA!!"... *waits*...*chirp chirp*... "Hello! People! This is where you're supposed to applause!"

The morning of the day called Sunday the Second we set out. We did the long, bumpy 4-hour drive to Poipet, and there we crossed the border. We were a bit nervous about the border crossing because you were only allowed to stay for 90 days in a period of six months in a country. But what we didn't know was did that mean that we were only allowed three visas, or does that mean that you could get as many visas as you wanted provided you did not stay in Thailand over 90 days? If it was the former, then I was in big trouble because it would be my fourth visa. Dad was OK, since his visa had the multiple entries thing on it. We hoped fervently it would be the latter.

So we got up to the desk at the Passport Control. Dad handed his in first, and he passed through. Then it was my turn. At first it seemed OK, but then the guy started reading my passport. We caught our breath. But then he got the stamp thing and stamped my passport! I was through!

From the border we took a four-hour bus ride to Bangkok. We were hoping that we would be able to walk on a flight for really cheap, because if we couldn't we'd have to go on an overnight 8-12 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai! Fortunately, luck was with us, and we got on a flight.

It was so nice to see Mom again when we got home! We wanted to get there fast since she would be leaving to go back to America on Wednesday.

So now we're back in Thailand! But soon, in one-two weeks or so, we will be leaving for Europe! We aren't sure where we want to go, it's between Spain and Czech Republic. I'll let you know when we make up our mind! I gotta go now!

The Second and Third Day

The second day of our three days in Siam Reap was a day of rest, since Dad thought that seeing all the temples for three days straight would be a little much. The first thing I did after breakfast was swimming in the pool at our hotel. I also got a sunburn there, though :( After I stayed in the pool for a couple hours, Dad and I went into town. We walked to the river and a little past it. Then we went and got some ice-cream because the sun was just wicked! The rest of the day we mostly read, I think, and Dad took his daily nap.

The third (and last) day was much more exciting, though. We decided, since it's Saturday and the temples would be very crowded, to go to the ones a little less known. Our first one was 45 minutes out of town, and I really liked it. It was called Banteay Srei (pronounced Ban-tay-Sh-ray), which means Temple of the Women. It is rumored to have been made by women, since the carvings that cover every inch of space are too delicate for the hand of a man. Banteay Srei also has a small moat around it, although most of it was dried up when we were there. The temple was built from pink sandstone, with the inner wall volcanic rock.

To get to Bantaey Srei, you must walk down a long, open walkway, with libraries (small buildings that now do not have roofs or walls. They did not hold books, though they were called libraries) on either side. Once you come to the end of the dusty walkway you have to go through the outer wall via a gateway that has a beautifully carved lintel. Then you go through the inner wall, and there is the main part of Banteay Srei. The inner wall encircles three galleries, or buildings. They are beautifully carved, although they were blocked off with rope because people could not keep their hands off the carvings.

If you ever go to Banteay Sreu, you need to bring a hat, since it is a big clearing with no trees. Although, we did go at the hottest part of the day. I recommend you go there in late evening, though not so late that dusk is well on its way.

The next temple was very cool, too. It was called Ta Prohm. This one is one of the most popular of all the temples excluding Angkor Wat. It has been left much like it was when the French explorers first saw it. The jungle is slowly reclaiming it, with huge trees overpowering stone structures, and cobwebs everywhere... of course, they had to make it safe so that people could visit it, but that's about all they did. Did you know that my mom and dad were here fifteen years ago? When they were here, there was about no one else there, because the French had to stop renovating it because of the war. Dad said that they ate lunch in Ta Prohm, with a few others under one of those trees. I wish I could've been there!

We went to one more temple that day, and it was Bayon because we wanted to see some stuff that we missed last time.


So ended our sight-seeing of the temples. The next day we will be going home.

I will be doing one more post on Cambodia, about getting home. Bye!

Angkor Bayon and Angkor Thom

Hey! After the marvelous Angkor Wat, we went to the other two famous ones- Angkor Bayon and Angkor Thom.

Angkor Bayon is most famous for it's 1.2 kilometers of bas-reliefs. Our favorite was where there was a naval battle on the top two-thirds of the wall, and on the bottom third there were scenes from daily life at the lake where the battle was fought. There were pictures of people picking lice from each other's hair, and even some women giving birth. How cool is that?

Angkor Bayon is actually one of the many temples inside the once-capitol city of Angkor Thom. It has 54 towers, all having stone faces on them. At first glance, the faces look like the Buddha, but they are really the king Jayavarman VII. The resemblance of his face to the Buddha is because he thought of himself as a god-king, or almost equivalent to the Buddha. The faces have been built facing the four cardinal directions.

The temple has three levels. The first and second have the bas-reliefs on them, and the third is a central sanctuary. I know this makes the temple sound simply layed out, but it is in fact a maze of winding corridors that make it hard to recognize the three levels. Did you know that once upon a time the towers were sheathed in gold? That must have been beautiful, but the gold has been stripped by other rulers and robbers. Too bad.

Next we went to Angkor Thom. You get a surprise even just by walking through the gateway! There is a scene from "The Churning Of The Sea Of Milk" The Churning Of The Sea Of Milk is where the gods held on to a Naga (snake), who thrashed around stirring up the sea of milk from which came to elixir of immortality. So there was a statue of a Naga and gods were holding on to it. (If you look at the picture you can see a gray, lumpy line leading out from the right side of the gate- that's it.)Unfortunately, most of the heads and some other parts of the statue were stolen by bandits.

Angkor Thom is surrounded by a large moat 300 feet wide. Parts of it don't have water in it anymore, but it's still pretty. There is a stone wall surrounding it, with five gates leading into the city that even elephants can walk under! It's amazing.

So this completes the first day of our sight-seeing. The next post will be about our day in town and then about our other day of sightseeing. See you soon!

P.S. If you go back a post to the one called Cambodia, you'll see that I put a picture in of the house Mom and Dad lived in while they were in Ta Phrya. Be sure to check it out!

Angkor Wat

We didn't wait until the next day until we went to Angkor Wat, oh no, we were far too excited. We had heard from our driver that drove us in a tuk-tuk from town to our hotel that from 5:00pm on it was free to go watch the sunset on top of a hill. So we hired him for $4.00 to take us to the hill. The driver's name, we later found out, was Ra, like the Egyptian Sun God.

There was a problem at the ticket office when we got there, though! Dad got us three-day passes, which were $4o each. He had already handed in the money and was reading the rules when he saw that children under twelve years old do not have to buy tickets. Now, I am very tall, and in parts of Asia people are short, so now I am the height of someone who's 20 years old. I mean, I'm just eleven! So they had to check my passport because they didn't believe Dad, and there was all this big fuss about it but Dad got his $40 back, which I'm glad for.The sunset was nice, and the view was great!


Maybe I should tell you about The Angkor Temples before I go launching into all the things we did:

‘The Angkor Temples’ is a term used for describing the hundreds of temples built in the area of Cambodia. Angkor wat is by far the largest and the most popular of them. They were built in the 9^th to the 15^th centuries by the Khmer empire, established by Jayavarman II in 802. The Angkor Temples were built out of huge sandstone blocks quarried more than 50 kilometers away from the site of building. The huge blocks were then floated down the river on rafts or carried in carts by elephants and oxen. To be carried to their specific places the Khmer drilled holes into the stone and wedged sticks in them that have long since rotted away, and then carried the stones by the sticks. Pretty cool, huh? The temples are covered in carvings of gods and apsara, dancers (which are in the picture). There is even a temple where there are huge trees growing on top of the walls, with their huge roots climbing down the walls.

After the sunset we went home.

The next day we visited the main three temples. We decided to rent Ra out again since he was so nice yesterday. The main part of Angkor is surrounded by a man-made moat measuring 190m wide! Think about it... this was in the day they didn't have earth-movers, or construction equipment, and they still managed to dig that! Angkor Wat is amazing! They have done so much with it, restoring it, and everything! With the pieces they restored, they put a one-step rougher finish on it so you can see what's original, and what's not. They also put only restore it if the count of restored ones was less than half of the count of originals. In the picture below, you can clearly see what's restored and what's original.

Yet again, I must say that the Angkor temples are amazing! I am sorry, but I cannot explain it as well as most of you would have hoped. I guess this time you really do have to believe!

Scholars have long been puzzled by the position of Angkor wat. It faces to the west, whereas most temples face to the east. West is also the sign of death, which leads many to believe that Angkor Wat was originally intended as a tomb. But the temple is also dedicated to the god Vishnu, who is a god of the west.

The most famous things in Angkor Wat are the bas-reliefs (pronounced base reliefs). Bas-reliefs are intricate carvings carved out of the stone wall picturing wars, scenes of legends, and daily life. They are amazing! And some parts even look like black marble from the many hands that have touched it. That sounds so poetic! Go me!

Since this post is very long, I will write about the other three we saw this day tomorrow. Bye!

Cambodia

Hey! We're back! Cambodia was awesome!

The first day we went on an overnight train ride to Bangkok. I had the worst night of my LIFE on there! I was in the top bunk, and the light was right at the gap between the curtain railing and the ceiling, and the lights were on all night! Also, someone didn't close the bathroom door in the next car so it was banging all night, and the door was locked so no one could get to it, although they wouldn't do anything about it anyway. And on top of that, breakfast sucked and I got a stomach problem from it. Blah!

We got off the train at around seven, and then then we went on a four hour bus ride to Aranyaprathet (A-ran-ya-prah-tet), which is on the border with Cambodia. Aranyaprathet (nicknamed Aran) sucks! It is dirty, the people are unfriendly, you can never find anything, AND a flying cockroach landed on me!

The next part was my favorite! You know, 15 years ago Mom and Dad lived in a little town around an hour away from Aran called Ta Phrya (Ta-Pree-ya). It is also where they got married! Dad and I decided to go there. It was a very pleasant relief from Aran, all green, and the people are nice... It is very nice, but small, and I just loved it! I also saw the house where Mom and Dad lived in (see picture). Unfortunately I didn't get to see where my parents got married because it was a while outside town.

The next day we crossed the border. It was a hard time getting the visas. Dad had heard from a whole bunch of places that the visas were US$20 each, but they tried to charge us US$35 for one. So there was this big thing, but we got it so that there was only a US$4 tip each to make the service faster.

From Poipet (Poy-pet), the border town, there was a four-hour drive on Highway 5. Highway 5 is a really bad road to use. In Dad's day there were these huge craters everywhere from landmines blowing up. But now it's a lot better, its just like a normal dirt road, and two kilometers are even paved! The only bad thing about it is that I can't read on the ride.

Finally, we got to Siem Reap (See-'em-Reap), where we would stay for the remainder of our trip. Since a lot of things happened in the time we were there, I am going to do a separate post on it.
TTYL!