Apartment pictures

Hi! Since I'm sure you guys have been wondering, I have decided to do a post with pictures of the apartment! The description came from my other post, We're here.


You walk through the front door, and there is a hallway right in front of you. (picture below)
A couple steps in and to the left is an archway leading into the kitchen (picture on the left), which is fully equipped with everything you need, even a washing machine! Further on in the hallway, also to the left, is the bathroom, which Dad says is the best bathroom he's had in his life. At the end of the hallway are double doors with the kind of glass that's usually in showers which you can't see through. 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 (picture on the left). The best thing about it is yet to come. In the bottom left corner are some stairs (see picture on the left). Up them is the bedroom, only big enough for a double bed (picture below) -we keep our clothes in the closet. There are 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 of 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.


So, those are the pictures of the apartment! I hope you now have an idea about what our place looks like. Bye!

Eli and Plans

Hi! This post is just about what's happening in the near and distant future....ooooh, there's a creepy fortune-teller in my head telling me to say this! Ohhhh, creepy moaning!

Eli's leaving tomorrow! Nooooooo! I'm really going to miss him, he's a great brother.

OK, here are the plans for the rest of our trip: On the 20th, Dad and I are leaving Hungary for good. From May 20th 'till May 26th, we are going to be in Sweden visiting my childhood friend Sheila and her mom Emma. May 26th to May 28th we will spend in Ireland, just for kicks. On May 28th we will fly to New York and stay with our cousins Joanie and Eric, and on June 2nd I will fly back to my mom. I can't believe that our 9-month trip is almost over! I really will miss traveling around the world.

Well, that's it for now! Have a good day, readers!

Eger

Hey, y'all! I'm back from Eger! It was awesome, Eger is a pretty nice town, with a cheery, sunny, atmosphere. Its architecture is baroque, and very pretty. The buildings tend to have up to five stories, lots of windows, and are painted in bright colors. Eger is also nice because everything is 15 minutes from everything else. The food is also really, really, good in Eger, and at reasonable prices.

Dad, Eli, and I stayed in the Hotel Flora which, for once, is actually on the map! The first day in Eger was spent mostly outside. Immediately after dropping off our bags at the hotel, we went to the Dobo Istvan square (see picture) , where we had lunch. We walked around for a couple hours before going back to the hotel. Later we went for a refreshing walk in the country.

The next day we went around to some of the sights. First stop was a tour of the city (the directions for it were in our guidebook) of which we only did half. We went to the Basilica, a cathedral where people went to worship. The building was huge, but it was surprisingly light and airy on the inside. Next we went to the Lyceum, which was across the street from the Basilica. It was supposed to have a 20,000 volume library in one wing, and the Astronomy museum in the other wing. We went to the Astronomy museum, and we got to have a special show at the top of the building too. In the attic-like room there was a machine that had a metal cylinder on the roof. The natural light came into the cylinder, through a trapdoor (only when the trapdoor was open, of course), and was reflected down by a mirror, finally going onto a viewing table. A person then could adjust the cylinder and the mirror, and reflect a view of the city onto the viewing table. A staff member gave Eli, Dad, and I a show of the city, stopping at all the major points. It was absolutely priceless, usually something like that had 150 people crowding in to see it! Before the museum this instrument was used to entertain the bishop's guests. The picture is of the view from the balcony a few floors from the top of the museum.

After the Lyceum we were planning on going to the castle, but decided not to seeing as we were tired and I wanted to spend some time in the hotel pool before it closed anyway. I spent the rest of the day-until dinner- in the pool.

The next morning we got up and went on the 2 1/2 hour train ride back to Budapest (the picture is actually of the train ride to Budapest, but I wanted to put it in). So here I am! I am so glad we went to Eger, and I hope that one day I will see it again.

Statue Park

Oh, I forgot to tell you last time that Dylan got some news from his mother and went back to the US. He is hoping to return soon, though. For now it is just Dad, Eli, and I.

Hey! Guess what Dad, Eli, and I did today? We went to a statue park!
To get to the park, we had to go on a subway, a bus, and then a tram. The subway and bus went without a hitch, but the tram wasn't so good. The guide book said to get off at the fifth stop, but the problem was that the bus driver didn't stop at every stop. So when we got off at what we thought was the fifth stop, we were 8-10 kilometers (5-6 miles) away from where we wanted to be! So we had to get onto the tram going the other way, and this time we got off at the right stop, courtesy of the driver signaling us.

The park was awesome! All the statues were Communist, from when the Soviets were in Europe, from 1945 to around 1990. We didn't spend a lot of time there, seeing as it was drizzly and there weren't that many statues anyway.

Up Next: Good news! Tomorrow (Thursday) Dad, Eli, and I are going to a town called Eger (pronounced something like Egger) for two days! I can't wait!

Bad News and yesterday

Uh-oh! I have some bad news. We aren't going to Transylvania today. Some bad news came up for Dylan and he's going to fly back to the US, and Eli wanted to be with him today, so we aren't going. Oh well, I hope we will go another day!

Guess what Dad, Eli, and I did yesterday? We 'took the waters', as some say, meaning we went to the Turkish baths again! It was really fun, we stayed in there for almost three hours. It was too bad that the flea market was closed. So after the baths we went home, and in like a half-hour Dad and I went out to an Operette! It's like a musical play thingy. The story took place in a Hungarian-Romanian-Jewish village in Transylvania. It is about a girl named Roszi (pronounced Rosie) who is poor but wants to get married to the rich farmer's son Andras. But then she finds out that she has no papers, no birth certificate, no certificate of baptism, nothing! So, on the search for papers, someone gets something from an orphanage saying that she is not the daughter of her parents, she was adopted by them and her real parents are the rich Blum and a seduced maid of Israelite religion. So now she is a Jew! Her lover, Andras, hears about it and runs away to the army.

Mrs. Blum, a widow, hears about all this and invites Roszi to come live with her 'own kind', Jews, after she was thrown out of her house. But the other Jews do not accept her, believing she still be a Catholic. Roszi runs away to her best friends inn and decides to work there. Meanwhile, Andras and his friends have deserted the army and have come to the inn, but they are betrayed by another woman. They are hauled off the jail, and the sergeant took Roszi's best friend's father with him for hiding the runaways in his cellar before he got to tell her that their had been a mistake with the papers and she was not a Blum, but a good Catholic daughter. Eventually, the father gets out of jail with Andras, they tell Roszi the news, and Andras and Roszi get married with a happily ever after! And they're not the only ones with a happily-ever-after, Roszi's best friend ran away with a Jewish boy who she liked to America! It really was a great play, even though it was three hours long!

I had a really fun day yesterday, and even though we're not going to Transylvania we will be going somewhere this week! Look for it soon!

Raoul Wallenberg and Transylavania

Hey! Today Dad and I did something very interesting. We visited the Raoul Wallenberg memorial. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat sent to Hungary in WWII. He is credited for saving 35,000 Jewish lives, and became one of the two honorary citizens of the United States. Raoul Wallenberg is one of Dad's heroes, and if I was a boy I would have been named after him. How cool is that?

So, on the way to the memorial, which is by the Danube and only a 10-15 minute walk from our house, we bought some flowers and when we got to the memorial put them there. The memorial is a pillar with the name Raoul Wallenberg on it along with some Hungarian writing, and on the top of it is a Greek god with a club in his hangs, holding down a snake and preparing to use the club to kill the snake. I think it is a representation of the battle between good and evil, with the snake being the Nazis. We stayed there for a while.

On the way back we passes another moving memorial. Along the Danube are stone statues of life-sized shoes, a memorial to all the Jews who were shot and thrown into the Danube. It's really cool how the memorial is simple, yet it tells you what it wants to. there are a whole bunch of shoes here, what's missing? The people who the shoes belong to!

Coming Soon: Guess what? On Monday we will be leaving for a while to drive to Romania! We're going to see Transylvania! Woohoo!

*Stops and listens. Readers here in background "I vant to suck your bleud!"* "Uh, oh, gotta go, Dracula's here to kill me! See ya next time on Itinerant Ramblings!

Castle, History, and Movie

Hey! Yesterday Dad, Eli, Dylan and i did something together. You remember how Dad and I went up to the castle in what seems like so long ago? Well, Eli and Dylan took Dad and I to see what used to be the institute, and they showed us some history.

After that we walked around on the other side of the river in Buda, and Dylan and Eli showed us some more interesting history. Then it was time for the movie.

A couple nights ago Eli Dad and I stopped by this interesting movie theatre and decided to see a movie. So we went last night. The movie was called Into The Wild (Important Note: If you don't want to spoil the movie don't read the next paragraph, OK?)

Into the Wild was about a young boy named Chris who leaves his home at the age of 20-21. He decides to go to Alaska and live with nothing but his wits and a few things he packed. But on his way he journeys through the Dakotas and Oregon and a couple other places and meets some amazing people. But then, tragedy strikes. Chris eats the brown bears potato instead of the wild potato, and finds out he is going to die. He eventually died in a "magic bus" he found abandoned in Alaska. His body was found two weeks later in the bus by bear hunters. It was really sad, but he achieved enlightenment before he died. I loved it.

So that was what we did yesterday! I had a fun time.

This post isn't really about anything, sorry guys!

Wow! I can't believe it's the middle of April! Did you know that on 4-5 weeks I'll be going home? Yay! I can't wait to be back in Iowa with my mom. I am doing all these exciting things this summer! I'm going to a ton of camps, and visiting friends, and all sorts of stuff!

The house is quiet this time of day, since its only 9:30 and the boys don't get for around an hour! They did stay up late last night, though.

There might be a very interesting post coming up soon! Dad, Eli, Dylan, and I are planning to go on a bunch of tours and to museums and stuff! It'll be interesting!

Well, that's all I have to say for now. See you tomorrow!

Pics

Hey! Sorry, I forgot that I had pictures of Amsterdam and the Hague! So, here's a post with the pictures!

This is me at some random location in Amsterdam on the first day of our trip. Sorry if it isn't very good, but I wanted to have a picture of me on here since I haven't in a while.


I forgot to mention this in my other post about Amsterdam, sorry! On the very last day of our trip we drove in a rental car from the Hague to Amsterdam. On the way there we stopped at the Keukenhof (pronounced Coo-ken-hof. I think). The Keukenhof is a place where there are all these flowers planted- fields of them! If you live near a farm, imagine that the field of crops is replaced by a field of tulips, except there are tons of fields of them, and then you'll get the idea. It is so amazing! But, where we went there weren't fields of them (we saw the fields in the car), they were planted in a park thing. But they were still insanely beautiful!

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Yikes! I haven't written in four days! Bad Rachael, bad Rachael (Bangs head on wall like Dobby in Harry Potter 2)! I am so sorry guys! I meant to post yesterday, but... It was my birthday! And, so I didn't feel like publishing.

We're back from Amsterdam! Woohoo, woohoo! I didn't realize how much I missed Budapest 'till I came back! I'm glad to be home.

Eli and Dylan are here! Yay! They had some problems getting into Hungary, but luckily it all worked out. I am so glad they're here, even if we are a little cramped in here :(

Anyways, I gotta go! We are going out soon, but I'm holding us up with schoolwork. Bad Rachael
("Bang, bang, bang" hits head on wall)! Bye!
(Walks woozily from computer, eyes twirling clumsily around like you do when you spin too much.)

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Hey! I'm back! OhMyGosh, I haven't written in, like, a week! I am so sorry! It's just that a very nice person lent me their computer where Dad is working, and I would have posted, but it didn't let me on anything that requires signing in! I couldn't even check me e-mail! Ugh, it was so annoying.

Amsterdam rocks! Although I'm not in the city anymore, I'm in the Hague, around an hour by train from Amsterdam. We didn't really do anything in Amsterdam, seeing as we were only there for one day and we were pretty jet-lagged on top of it. Oh, I forgot to tell you! Dad's friend/business partner met us here! His name is Bill. He's really nice and he and his wife are taking care of our cat Graysie (pronounced Gracie) for us! S o I totally owe him one.

I really like the Hague, more than Amsterdam, although we are freezing our noses off here! Brr, not like in Budapest where it's 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit this week! You know, it kinds reminds me of New York, with all the tall buildings and lots of parks.... it's just not as busy when you're walking around. And, here's something that's very annoying- they pull in the streets at 8:00 at night! Literally! Everything closes up at eight, so if you go out to eat late you won't find anything.

The whole reason we came to Amsterdam is Dad's work. He has been working for the International Criminal Court of the Hague for a while now, and they needed him and Bill to come out and visit them personally, so that's what they did. I must confess I don't know a lot about the ICC (International Criminal Court), so you may have to look it up online.

I'm still doing school here, which stinks. My math time has been bumped up from 50 minutes a day to an hour and a half a day! Nooo! Well, if I don't get it done on the trip, I'll have to do it over the summer with my mom, so I guess it's good that it got bumped up. But still, and hour and a half! (Yes, I know, I'm exaggerating, but I can do that, right?)

Dad and I had fun yesterday, since he got a day off from work. We went to a museum and the beach! The museum was fun, although we did a scary murder-solving thing with made me have nightmares last night :(. The beach was really great, too!

Uh-oh, I gotta go, I don't have much time left. I'll try to update soon, OK?
Bye!

Filler post

Hey! This is just a filler post that I'm putting in before Dad and I go to Amsterdam!

Good news! My brother Eli and his friend Dylan are coming for a few days! We have no idea when they'll be here, though, but it'll be sometime when Dad and I are in Amsterdam. I can't wait to see them!

Something funny happened yesterday. Since we have cable TV and a VCR/DVD player here, Dad and I have been looking around for a place to rent videos. Well, yesterday we finally found one! So we got the DVD Transformers, only to find that, in fact, we have no DVD player! Only a VCR! So Dad is out right now returning the DVD.

Tonight we are going to pack for the trip. We are taking 5 bags- I know, it's a lot, but we'll make do. There will be my Rollie, which has our clothes in it, both backpacks, and both laptops. I will be carrying the brunt of the stuff, but I'm OK with that since we don't want Dad's back going out again. Speaking of Dad's back, it is feeling much, much better. Anyway, Dad is taking the Rollie and his backpack, and I'll be taking my backpack and both the laptops. It'll work!

Sorry guys, I gotta go now, lots to do! Next time I post I'll be in Amsterdam! Woohoo!

The His'try of My'stry

Hi! Guess what Dad and I did today? We went to the National History Museum of Hungary!

It was really fun. The first thing we went to was the best, in my book. The Lonely Planet guidebook had mentioned this in its section about the museum, so we decided to see it. We wandered around looking for it, and finally had to ask directions. When we finally got to it we knew that it was worth the hard trouble. In the basement, where almost no one goes, is a enormous 3rd century Roman mosaic! It was awe-inspiring! It was huge, and had all these designs, some of them 3-D! Dad and I were very puzzled about how they got it out of wherever it originally was (the sides of it were smooth, almost as if it had belonged in the museum all along) and how they got it all the way over to Hungary!

But that was not the only great thing in that room, oh, no. Around the mosaic were these huge chunks of rock with various Greek and Roman-based carvings on them! I recognized Achilles and other people from all the myth books that I have read (I love reading about myths!). There were even some sarcophagi (coffins) made out of huge pieces of stone with carvings on them! It was so awesome.

The rest of the museum was pretty boring- you all know how museums are. We went through the history of Hungary, though, and I tried to remember some of that since my great-grandmothers came from here and this is my heritage, but it was hard.

Before we left, though, we made one more stop- the gift shop. We bought some posters and a book about Budapest.

I was really glad that we went to that museum because it allowed me to learn about my heritage. The other museum I really want to go to is the Hungarian National Art Gallery, it looks really interesting.

See you next time!

April showers

Happy April Fool's Day! Have fun, all you tricksters out there, for this is the only day you can get away with it!

Wow, I can't believe its April already. In 12 days it'll be my birthday! Spring is right around the corner here in Hungary. All the trees have small, delicate green buds on their otherwise bare branches, and the flowers are starting to come out. Why, just yesterday Dad and I were sitting in the sun writing in our diaries and I realized that the birds were chirping and starting to build nests.

It's very quiet and peaceful here. Well, other than the sound of the chainsaw next door. I am staying at home today since I have Traveler's Belly. dad is currently out shopping.

Well, that's all, folks! *catchy music starts* Buh-bye!