BUDAful Budape(sh)t

Last weekend I got to travel to Budapest; it was above everything I could have asked for. A great city, delicious food, and above all else- plenty of time with Becca and Emily. Becca and I met through our European Challenge biking trip after junior year in high school and our fearless leader was none other than Emily Ferrell. Since that summer, Becca and I have been able to see Em a few times during leader training, but I have always dreamed of visiting her in Europe. Don't you love when dreams turn out coming true?

Bus number 4, 5...6?

Becca and I arrived at the Budapest airport around 10:30 Thursday night...Seeing Emily's smiling face and being greeted with a ginormous hug was the high of my day. We immediately got on the bus, realized we were lost, got off the bus, got on another bus that stopped running in the middle of a Budapest neighborhood, managed to walk for a while until finding another bus, and somehow found our way to Em's adorable, cozy, teeny-tiny flat...the entire time cracking up and enjoying every moment of our lost excursion together. The next morning Becca and I walked around Budapest trying to check off every touristy thing we could before Emily got off work that afternoon.

The walk along the river and to Parliament

Next on my Christmas list: A strawberry hat like Emily's

Becca would read me all about the touristy spot we were at, in this case Parliament, as I took pictures!

Fall has hit the stage!

Saint Stephen's Basilica

God's Palace

Outside of the Opera House

Once Em got off work we gorged on lunch at the Roosevelt (named after Teddy) and then took a walk around town, got ice-cream at a shop that serves it in the shape of a rose, went to the Royal Palace on the hill that overlooks the entire city, ate more desserts, and finished the evening at the flat for a homemade meal of broccoli & mushroom pasta!

Pumpkin siting for the first time brought out the lion in me! :)

At the Rose Ice-cream shop!

My 75 years old adorable ballet teacher recommended I stop at the oldest cafe of Budapest founded in the late 1800's. Well, when we pulled up we see that they are filming a music video for a band. A hundred or more pedestrians were dancing in the square, watching the band play from the windows and balcony of the cafe as camera's were recording in every direction. We got our groove on.

Fun Fact: Budapest is pronounced BudapeSHt 
because in Hungarian an 'S' is said like an 'SH.' 

Buda to the left of the river and Pest to the right!

The "Sand Castle" as we like to call it

Cook crew for the evening!

The next morning we took the bus across the river and into town to explore the markets. 

Then ate more and more food...

Emily's place of work!

For the O'land office!

So thankful for these two friends.

Last Bit on Turkey

With the trip having been almost two weeks ago, this is my last post on Turkey. 

We went on an academic visit to see the Greek Orthodox School in the center of Istanbul. In 1923 there were over 2,000 students at the school, in 1973 there were 1,090 students, and today there are only 45. They only accept Greek Orthodox students with Turkish nationality and without approval from the Turkish government they aren't allowed to welcome anyone else. As can be assumed, their main struggle is to keep the school open, trying to welcome as many Greek students as that they can find. Their school building is phenomenal. It is seven stories high and reminds me of the children's book Wayside School, without the missing floor. The ceilings are incredibly high, the building has beautiful old architecture, and there is (like all Istanbul buildings seem to have) a fantastic view from the top.

Next on the agenda was visiting a poorer area of Istanbul on the outskirts of the city. We visited with an organization called Mavi Kalem who help support migrant families that have moved from the rural areas of foreign countries or Turkey and later were given a tour of the town. I had my camera tucked away as we walked by the obviously poverty stricken areas, however I pulled it out for the market and walk by the water. 

After the tour we marched onward (extremely fatigued and using all the energy we had left) to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch. Astounding. 

The next day we went to the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul. It was crazy. With over 5,000 shops and between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors a day, crazy probably doesn't even begin to describe it. I didn't try to bring my camera out, I was too overwhelmed. However, I had to take a picture at one of my favorite shops were I bargained my butt off and got a great deal for a beautiful hand-painted plate.