Post-London Adventure

Well, we survived London! It was absolutely hectic at times, but awesome. Let me jump right in . . .
As soon as we got off the bus and onto the London streets, it was overwhelming. Within five minutes of being there, I heard someone behind me mutter something explicit and rush past me because I wasn't walking fast enough, and obviously as a tourist, had no idea where I was going. There were so many people walking incredibly fast that you would think everyone was late for something. The beginning of our trip almost seems like a blur because of how fast-paced everything was. With this first impression, I was nervous.

Following our tour guide friend Anna, who had been to London before, we headed to the underground where we would get tube passes for the week. The sheer mass of people was even more noticeable there, with people running every direction, down hallways and stairways all over the place. With our new cards, we followed signs to the correct train, and jumped onto our first railway ride of the trip.

People waiting for the train in the underground

Once we got off at our stop, we went to eat at a great Italian place (run by some really nice Italians), then explored the area. Our hostel was in Paddington, so very close by was Kensington Gardens, the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria and Albert art museum. We walked through Kensington Gardens to see the famous Peter Pan statue and the Albert memorial, a large gothic inspired, church altar-like memorial dedicated to one of the most beloved princes of England. Pictures don't accurately show just how large and grand this thing is. All the details and beautiful gold ornamentation were incredible.

Our next stop was the V&A Art Museum only a few blocks away. Having looked up a few things about it prior to our trip, I knew there was a lot of great stuff to see, but as I always do, I got lost in the museum and ended up only seeing about half of what was there. Fortunately, I somehow wound up in a contemporary ceramics exhibit and then a theatre and performance exhibit; both were fantastic.

Afterward, it was beginning to get dark so we decided to walk to Oxford Street, a large and insanely crowded shopping street with about a million visitors per day (thanks, Wikipedia). But before we got there, we had some nice, quiet moments walking through Hyde Park. The silence and darkness in the park was a much needed contrast with the busyness of the day. Then we got to Oxford Street, where there were more people, noises, and brands than I could wrap my head around. Lots of the shops were really expensive, but Anna suggested finding Primark, a cheap and awesome clothing store that's sort of like if Target and Forever 21 combined inside of a two story building. Beautiful. Anna also suggested getting some cookies from a place called Ben's Cookies, which we brought back to the hostel, deliciously ending our first day in London.

I didn't get a photo of Ben's Cookies, but Google has my back in showing just how great these cookies were.

Our second day, the weather was beautiful! Sunny with hardly any clouds in the sky, and not too cold. Just a short distance away from our hostel was Baker Street, the location of Sherlock Holmes' museum and his famous address. Though I'm not particularly interested in Sherlock Holmes, it was interesting to see how fans flock to this place with such excitement. Afterward, we walked through some nice scenery in Regent's Park. Then we headed to the Picadilly Circus area. Picadilly Circus reminded me of photos I'd seen of Times Square, with huge, lit up billboards, people rushing around, and heavy traffic. Double decker busses were everywhere, and the amount of honking was intense.

Picadilly Circus

We made our way to Trafalgar Square, a large, open area in front of the National Gallery, and it was (of course) filled with people. This was a great opportunity to take some sneaky street photography shots. When you're surrounded by hundreds of other people taking photos, it's easy to be sort of camouflaged. The square itself was also fun to photograph, with a cool view of Big Ben off in the distance, multiple fountains, and some statues (specifically the incredibly tall Nelson's Column). After doing some research, I found out that even before its completion, Trafalgar Square has had a huge problem with feral pigeons because of vendors in the area selling bird seed. Apparently, the birds' "droppings disfigured the stonework and the flock, estimated at its peak to be 35,000, was considered a health hazard" (thanks, Wikipedia). Around 2001, the government started making laws to stop the problem, such as banning sales of bird seed in the square, and using predatory birds to catch the pests. As someone who doesn't like birds, I'm grateful that the square was nearly pigeon free when we were there.

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery 

We went on to see some more local sights, ending up in M&M World, which gave me mixed feelings. It was amazing how such an empire could be made from a simple candy, but it was almost disturbing to see so many people buying into it. Why does a person need M&M luggage or M&M pillows?? Very weird. But just like everyone else, I was there looking at all the products, and even made a squished commemorative coin (the cheapest thing in the store).

We moved on to China Town, a small area of side streets filled with Chinese lanterns and Chinese restaurants. The atmosphere was lovely with all the vibrant colors, delicious smells, and outdoor shops. We decided on a Chinese buffet restaurant for lunch (sooooo good), then walked through the West End. It was almost torturous to see signs for musicals that were too expensive for us to attend. Phantom of the Opera, The Book of Mormon, Les Miserables, Lion King, Kinky Boots! That was a tough moment to be a poor college student.

China Town

Though I've failed to mention it so far in this blog, I can't emphasize enough how badly our feet were hurting after just two days in London. We had a huge list of things to see and we were determined to make it through as much as we could, which meant a lot of walking. After our overwhelming first day with the underground, we were very apprehensive in using it again, but by day 2, we needed some rest. We began taking the subways almost everywhere, and it didn't take us long to get used to all the different routes. I actually really enjoyed taking the underground; it's such an easy way of transportation (once you get used to it!) and we have absolutely nothing like it back home.

Anyway . . . the next morning, we got up early to get in line for the Natural History Museum. We wanted to go on our first day in London, but the line was out the door and down the block. This time, we were early enough that we got in right on time. It was a great place for photos! So many cool animals and displays, as well as an AWESOME dinosaur exhibit. We saw fossils, life size replicas, and even an animatronic t-rex.

Plaster dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum

The rest of the day was spent seeing the most famous of London's landmarks, starting with Buckingham Palace. Once we stepped out of the underground, it was obvious we were in a fancy part of town. Instead of tourists, there were men in suits with briefcases, and women fast walking in high heels. We tried desperately to find a quick place to eat and rest, but each place was packed with these business people, or tourists like us. After a long time of searching, we were fortunate enough to find a nice wrap place with a window bar. Though it was cramped with other customers, we were happy just to find a place to sit down. It got me thinking how terribly Londoners must hate tourists because we're such an inconvenience. We take up space and gawk around while they're just trying to go about their day. Sorry!!

Onto Buckingham Palace. After walking through Green Park, we came to the gold and black gates of the palace. Surprisingly not as big as I expected it to be. Thinking back on photos of the most recent royal wedding, I found it hard to imagine that crowd fitting into this seemingly small area. We didn't wait around to watch the changing of the guard, but it was enough just to see the classic, serious guards with furry hats doing their job in real life.

Only a short walk away was Big Ben and parliament. It was another one of those mind blowing moments where I wondered, "How did I get here??" Seeing such a famous thing right in front of me was surreal. Everything was exactly how you see it in photographs, except with more people. The clock was beautifully detailed, elegant, basically amazing. I would describe Westminster Abbey the same way. So much ornamentation and incredible architectural work, my photos don't do it any justice.

We took a short bus ride over to the Tower of London, which is slightly less interesting in the winter, when there aren't fields of bright, red poppies surrounding the place where a moat used to be. The large, beige-white, castle-like structure has a long history, and it's even a UNESCO World Heritage site, meaning that it's officially labeled to have special cultural significance. With more help from Wikipedia, I found out that the castle has had many purposes since it's founding in 1066, including being a prison, the royal home, an exotic animal zoo, a public records office, and the location of the Crown Jewels.

Just around the corner was the London Bridge, one of my favorite parts of the trip. At this point, it was getting dark, it was misty, a little cold, and so grey that it felt like I was seeing the London Bridge in the most authentic, British way possible. I also feel like I got some nice film shots of it . . .

And now our final day. Our first stop was St. Paul's Cathedral early in the morning. Coming up to it, you walk through this big alley type thing with shops and restaurants, and you can see the cathedral and its dome, massive and beautifully old, towering over everything in the background. It makes a really interesting contrast.

View of St. Paul's from the alley

View from the other side of the Millennium Bridge

From there, we walked over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern art museum. I was so excited to see these pieces, the first by the Guerrilla Girls, and the second by Salvador Dali. It's always crazy to see stuff in real life that you've only seen before in text books.

Salvador Dali, Autumnal Cannibalism (my picture is horrible, so please take a better look here)

Guerrilla Girls, Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?

The museum also had this cool installation on two sides of it's main hall. I think the museum website describes it best: "Empty Lot is a large geometric sculpture created using scaffolding, a grid of triangular wooden planters, and soil collected from parks across London including Peckham, Haringey and Westminster. Nothing will be planted in the soil, but it will be lit by lamps and watered throughout the six month display. The unpredictable nature of the work, which may grow and change from one week to the next, provokes questions about the city and nature, as well as wider ideas of chance, change, and hope." When we were there, some of the planters were overflowing with different kinds of greenery, while others had nothing in them at all. A lot of interesting discussions could be made about this piece, like the infinite possibilities and uncertainty in life, the effects on nature with human interaction, the ever-increasing issue of sustainability on this planet, etc. Thought provoking artwork for sure.

Empty Lot

After we left, we went past Shakespeare's famous Globe Theatre, then to Borough Market, where food was my number one priority. There were so many amazing smells, it was hard to pick something for lunch! While in London, we visited other small markets, but this one was definitely my favorite (probably because I got a really awesome falafel wrap). I wish we had places like this back home, where we could find lots of great, different, fresh foods all in one place.

Borough Market

The next morning, we were on our way back to Mullsjö. Though it was overwhelming at times, I loved the big city rush of it all. Going on the underground and busses, trying to maneuver through crowds of people everywhere, it always seemed like something was going on, even when it was quiet. The buzzing energy of the city is absolutely special.

View from our hostel

Not much has been going on around here since we got back, but we're getting ready to go on our Easter Break (Påsklov) trip to Helsinki, Finland! I'm sooooo excited to go somewhere new and with such cool people (shout out to Sabrina and Mariko for basically putting the whole trip together). Hope everyone is having a great Spring Break, and happy Easter! (Glad Påsk!)

Quick Blog Before London

It's already six weeks into the new semester, and Sportlov is just around the corner! During this break, Swedes are free to go out and do winter sports, such as cross country skiing, regular skiing, snowboarding, etc. Unfortunately, there's not much snow here anymore. Right after we got back, it snowed maybe a foot and a half- probably the most I've ever seen. Everything was bright and covered so beautifully with snow, it was a real life winter wonderland. After about a week, it got strangely warm and the snow just vanished. We recently got another lighter batch of snow, but it probably won't stay around for long with the warmer weather.

While there was snow, we tried to go out and enjoy it as much as we could. We took advantage of the lake freezing over and walked across it, which was crazy! Also scary and exciting. The view from the middle of the lake left me a bit awestruck because the whole thing felt like a dream, sort of like a "I can't believe I'm here!" moment. The same feeling also happened when we went ice skating on the lake. After buying some super cheap ice skates at the second hand store, my friend, Marco, and I were ready to go skating! It was a lot harder than I anticipated. I'm a below average skater anyway, but combined with uneven ice and a couple inches of snow to skate through, it was rough. Even so, it was ridiculously fun and I hope the lake freezes over again soon so we can skate more!

The gang on the frozen lake.
 From left to right: Sabrina, Anna, Marco, me, Pedro, Alex, Nikita, and Luke on the bottom right. :)

The last exciting thing we did in the snow was sledding. Special thanks to Tobias for bringing his GoPro, and special thanks to Marco for creating the video! The video says it all, and as you can see, it was a blast. Nothing is better than hanging out with our group of silly, beautiful, adventurous weirdos.

Now, all that's left to do before break is pack. A few friends and I have made plans to go to London, and I'm really excited!! There's going to be so much to do and see, I can't wait!

Thanks for reading, and have a good Sportlov and Valentines Day! Hej då! :)

New Year, New Semester

Hello, 2016! Hope everyone had a great holiday season. Christmas and New Years were definitely special this year because I got to come home to celebrate with my family after being apart from them for the whole semester, but I'll get to that later! I haven't written a blog since before Thanksgiving so there's quite a bit to catch up on . . .

• Thanksgiving: Luke and I decided to try our best at giving our friends a traditional American Thanksgiving. We had vegetable pot pie, green bean casserole, tons of mashed potatoes, rolls, and our friend Emma brought a traditional Swedish holiday ham. Our group had a few vegetarians, so the turkey wasn't missed. For dessert, we had apple pie and a black forest cake from our German friend, Sabrina, whose family is from the Black Forest (shout out to Mariko for helping Sabrina bake!). It felt a little weird not to have pumpkin pie, but we looked around for canned or real pumpkins and there were none to be found. Apparently, Swedes don't like pumpkin very much anyway, and a few of them seemed to reeeeally dislike it, so it was probably for the best that we couldn't find any. It also felt strange not to be with family for Thanksgiving, but having all the same foods and being with such good company made it feel just like home.

Our Thanksgiving crew, from left to right: Lina, Saki, Mariko, Zuzana, Isak, Nikita, Marco, Emma, Luke, and Alex

• There was a lot going on in December with the end of the semester and the start of the holidays, so we began the festivities with a gingerbread competition (link also talks about celebrating Lucia, which is two bullet points down). Our group's idea was to make a lighthouse (credit to Zuzana), though there was another great idea to make a UFO (credit to Marco). We were able to cut out the dough into the shapes we needed, so we tried to be as accurate as possible, but of course, some difficulties arose which led us to create a beautiful lighthouse being attacked by aliens, and a Moomin (Finnish cartoon character) in the Moominboat coming to save it. It's beautiful!

Our gingerbread making team
Top row: Sara, Zuzana, Luke, me
Bottom row: Saki and Johanna

• The next night, we went to a hockey game! A nearby team, Huskvarna's HV71, was playing a home game against Örebro. My first hockey game ever! There was such energy in the stadium like I'd never seen before, with so many people happy and cheering before the game even started. We sat next to the most motivated cheering section, where large, bearded, young men were being led into chants by other large, bearded men beating a drum and screaming. It was awesome. Once the players got onto the ice, it seemed like nothing could keep them from winning. We all held little paper clappers to beat along with the rest of the crowd, which carried on almost nonstop throughout the entire game, making the atmosphere all the more exciting. And of course, HV71 won the game, 7-2!

• The day after that, we celebrated Lucia! St. Lucia is believed to be a martyr in the 3rd century, where she brought food to persecuted Christians hiding underground in Roman catacombs. In the Lucia tradition, girls and boys wear long, white robes and red sashes, while holding candles. One person is picked to be Lucia, and that person wears a head wreath of candles (I read that this tradition came from St. Lucia wearing the wreath of candles so her hands could be free to carry as much food as she could). This year, our friend Saki was chosen as Lucia! She perfectly embodies Lucia, with her kind, good, and gentle spirit. The ceremony was beautiful, as the Lucia procession walked into the auditorium singing pretty hymns. The only light in the room was from all the candles, which created such a calm, almost church-like atmosphere. I remember my grandmother having a doll all dressed in Lucia's clothing during Christmastime, and I never knew the story behind it or even what Lucia was, so it was sort of nice to finally come full circle from that to this amazing journey I've been lucky enough to go on.
  

  

  Saki in front as Lucia
  Beautiful photo credit goes to Zuzana
  (Link to her blog and her Facebook page where you can find more amazing photos)

• A few days before the semester ended, we had the traditional Swedish "Julbord," or Christmas table. There were so many different foods, like cheeses, vegetables, fish, sauces, meatballs (though I've become vegetarian here, I must admit I had to try a Swedish meatball!), and so many others that I can't even remember because there was just so much. We were told that it's customary to go up to the Julbord seven times or to have seven plates full of food. Everything was so good, I can understand why people would get seven plates of it!
  
  

  

  Photo credit to Mullsjö Folkhögskola Facebook page

• I learned that Swedes celebrate Christmas in the best way- by singing and dancing around the tree! After meeting Santa and singing Christmas carols, everyone went to the gym to dance around the Christmas tree. Though I was told this is usually for children, everyone was so enthusiastic with Christmas spirit, it seemed like they were more than happy to participate. Each song gave you silly things to do, like hold hands, put your hands on the head of the person in front of you, jump up and down, make animal gestures, run to the middle of the circle, and lots of other wacky stuff. The songs were in Swedish, so I had a hard time following along, but someone helped us figure out what to do and we had a blast. Here is a link from the school website with pictures of all the Christmas celebrations, including Julbord and the dance. 

• Our photography class put up two really great shows towards the end of the year, a student portraits assignment, and our best film photo. Everyone's photos turned out so great and I think it was satisfying to see what all of our hard work amounted to. The portraits were a bit of a challenge for everyone, because taking a portrait of someone is harder than you would think. It's important to make a connection with the person, and to make them feel comfortable around you. It's more of working with the individual to get a nice photo, instead of just using them for a photo. The film photos were challenging in a more technical way since I am very much a beginner in analog photography. It's tough figuring out how to get the type of print you want when you can't undo or change something as fast as you can in Photoshop. At first it was frustrating, but now I really like working in the dark room and I can't wait to learn even more about analog photography.
  
  

  

  My analog print- sorry for the really terrible quality of this photo! 

Hanging of our analog photos

Hanging of our portraits

• It was hard to say goodbye to everyone for the break (especially Zuzana, who won't be back for the Spring semester!!), but I was so excited to see my family and everyone back home. I've missed them so much! It was such a great moment to finally see them in real life at the airport instead of on Facetime on my my computer screen. While I was home, I ate tons of pizza and donuts, met the new family cat, drove my car as much as possible, and most importantly, spent time with family and friends. Two weeks went by so fast! Now I'm back in Sweden, and I'm so excited to see what other adventures are in store for this semester. A billion thanks to everyone who gave me well wishes and support while I was home, I really can't thank you all enough.

Hope to write again soon. :) Hej då!

November Update

Lots of people have been saying that November is the most depressing month here in Sweden. It's getting colder and colder, and there's hardly any sunlight because the sun starts to set at 3:30 every day. It's definitely affected me more than I thought it would! The early darkness at night makes me so tired that by the time dinner ends, I'm ready for bed. However, there's an upside! It started snowing!! Not a lot, but just a really lovely dusting that lightly covers the ground, trees, and rooftops, so you  feel like you're in a winter postcard or Bob Ross painting. I'm soooo excited for more snow!

Well, I haven't posted a blog in a long time, so there's a bit to catch up on, mostly with Fall Break- here we go!

We started off the break by going to the infamous Swedish store, Gekås, in Ullared, a town about two hours away from Mullsjö. When we talked to people about Gekås before we left, it seemed like some mysterious, evil, but amazing place, where huge herds of people go every day to shop for anything a person could possibly want- except shoes (the shoe store was nearby though). It's such a popular place that it's Sweden's #1 tourist attraction. It also has its own reality TV show. Needless to say, we were pretty anxious (and somewhat terrified) to see what all the fuss was about. When we arrived in the parking lot, it didn't seem like much, not too crowded, maybe like a Walmart on a Saturday. As we walked to the entrance, more and more people were coming together to form this huge mass that made it difficult to enter the store. When we got inside Gekås, it was even worse. Imagine the most crowded, awful Black Friday in a Walmart combined with Ikea, Sam's Club, Best Buy, and any other large department stores you can think of. It was a sea of humans any way you looked, which made it really overwhelming, but also awesome. They had everything, and everything was really cheap! Ridiculous amounts of people were buying what looked like numerous body bags worth of stuff, but I guess it makes sense to stock up on things once a year for super cheap . . . if you're brave enough to enter the store and encounter the 4.8 million people who go there every year.

After a day of recooperating from the craziness of Ullared, we left for Gothenburg! We didn't have much of a plan on what to do when we got there, so we searched around for thrift stores until we made it to our hostel. Later we walked to Slottsskogen Park to observe the beauty of Fall and see animals in the zoo! There were geese, seals, and deer, but the best part was getting to see a moose. It's been one of my goals to see a moose in Sweden, and even though it wasn't out in the wild, it was still awesome just to see one at all. We made our way to Gothenburg's Natural History Museum, where we saw amazing creatures, from hundreds of different insects to the world's only stuffed blue whale. The rest of the trip was spent in Gothenburg's shopping district, which included visiting an American candy shop. I was pretty happy to get some Mike & Ike's and the purple package Skittles. :)

MOOSE!

Gothenburg Natural History Museum

A couple days later, we headed to Stockholm. Immediately, you could see the differences between Sweden's two biggest cities. Gothenburg was spread out, with a more industrial look, and Stockholm was busy, dense, and filled with historic architecture with some modern buildings. As a person who loves bigger cities, I was ready to explore. The day we got there, we went on a city tour to see the sights. We saw Stockholm's narrowest street (35 inches wide!), the smallest sculpture in Sweden, the Royal Palace where the king and queen work, and a Ben and Jerry's shop that we stopped in later that night. After the tour, we hopped on a ferry to Stockholm's Modern Museum, and I was totally floored by their amazing collection. Things I had read about in books were right in front of me, like Andy Warhol's Brillo Soap Pads Box, Robert Rauschenberg's Monogram, Marcel Duchamp's Founatin, and my favorite, Salvador Dali's The Engima of Wilhelm Tell. I've never such famous pieces of artwork in person before. Pretty awesome experience.

Left to Right: Fountain, Brillo Soap Pads Box, Monogram. Bottom: The Enigma of Wilhelm Tell

Old Town Stockholm 

The next day was HALLOWEEN! My favorite holiday. It's definitely not as big a deal here in Sweden as it is in the US, but it was fun to see the decorations here and there. Luke and I started off the day by going to Comic Con, a weird Halloween activity, I know. But it seemed oddly fitting seeing as there were so many people dressed up! We mostly went out of curiosity since we had never been to a Comic Con, and it was an interesting experience to say the least. What struck me was people's dedication to their favorite tv shows, movies, comics, games, etc. It was weird/cool thinking that this whole huge convention was set up just because people love these things so much.

Comic Con

Later that evening, we went to our second art museum of the trip, Fotografiska. Their main exhibit, Up Close, featured photographer Martin Schoeller, whose work you've probably seen in magazines. He's got a very distinct photographic style of taking portraits of (mainly famous) people up close with a bright plain background. The exhibit also had his photos of more exciting celebrity portraits, female body builders, and twins. The next exhibit was of Magnus Wennman, who photographed sleeping places of Syrian refugee children. Really heartbreaking to see. The last exhibit consisted of 24 panel-chosen Swedish photographers, whose work was all very different. Two of my favorites were Julian Birbrajer and Elsa Gregersdotter. Check 'em out!

After the museum, we walked around the cobblestone streets of Old Town Stockholm, occasionally seeing someone in a Halloween costume. We ended up at Sweden's only traditional viking bar, Aifur, but unfortunately they were filled up. It was neat just to go in though! The whole place had a really amazing, old timey atmosphere. Once you walked under the large Nordic sign lit with torches, you had to go down stairs into an alley and open a large wooden door. Inside, the whole place was dimly lit with candles, and you could see the wooden interior with traditional Nordic symbols and stereotypical viking decorations. There was a burly, bearded viking man standing at the top of the stairs above the dining room, blowing some type of horn and calling out the names of everyone who entered, like "Ladies and gentleman, presenting (insert name here)!!" I didn't get any pictures or videos, but I found this video on YouTube that shows how cool this place is. Once we left Aifur, we went straight for ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. It was a really good Halloween. :)

Now there's only a month left til I'm back in Springfield! So crazy. Time has gone by so fast, and I know I say that in every blog, but it's true.

Thanks for reading!

Fall Break Recap

Hi, everyone! I've been slacking on these blog posts lately. It's been another month- halfway through the semester! Crazy. I've been trying to upload photos but Facebook destroys the quality and other websites haven't been cooperating (I'm the worst person with technology, ask anyone). So hopefully I'll get that issue sorted out during this break. :)

Things to catch up on . . .

Some short answers: awesome Singstar parties, making smores, giving our best guesses while playing the 1981 version of Trivial Pursuit (one of the only games we have), watching two seasons of American Horror Story, getting a Halloween care package from my parents, endless/terrifying/hilarious games of Slapjack, dying my hair, joining a tandem bike gang, and many other amazing moments.

A long answer: we got back from a trip to Slovakia and Budapest last week! Just like Copenhagen, it was incredible. So many cool things to see, and this time, we were learning more about the history, which made it even more interesting. In the US, we don't spend much time learning about European history, so a lot of this stuff was completely new for me.

Our group left early Monday, and after a bus ride to Gothenburg, a plane to Budapest, and a train ride, we were in Bratislava. And again, just like Copenhagen, we arrived on a cold, rainy, dreary night, and we were all pretty ready for bed. In spite of our tiredness, we roamed around the city for a bit with the help of our amazing friend/fellow student/Slovak-in-residence tour guide, Zuzana! She goes to university in Bratislava, but is spending the semester abroad at Mullsjö, so we were really lucky to have had her on this trip.

In the morning, we went on a guided tour around the city. This was our first look at everything in the daytime, and we were finally able to see all the cool, old buildings, full of character and history. The architecture was mostly faded pastels, with little decorative aspects here and there, on the windows or the roof.  Simple, but elegantly old. After some research (thanks, Wikipedia!), I learned that some buildings in the area we stayed in (Old Town) date back to the 14th or 15th century. There was definitely a cool architectural mix of eras in Bratislava, it was like you could see the progressing years through the buildings. You could see elements from the classical 14th-15th century, the Baroque period, then eventually a more communistic style took over (bleak, plain high rise buildings maybe with images of people working on them), and finally, the remodeling or the grafiti. So many places were under construction when we visited, it really seemed like a city undergoing some massive changes. However, a ton of the buildings were tagged wih grafiti, and it was a little sad to so many old, beautiful buildings with spray paint on them. (Warning: I believe that grafiti can be art, but it doesn't mean that all grafiti is good art. We actually saw some really awesome grafiti on our train ride back to Budapest, but when it looks so obviously like gangsters trying to rep their gang, I'm not that into it, though there are expections. End rant.)

 Being in Bratislava's Old Town, we were in the location of some hugely important historical events for Slovakia (formerly Czechoslovakia). We were in the the center where Napoleon's army tried to attack, the square where the Soviet Union invaded in 1968, and Hviezdoslav Square where there was a massive candle demonstration protesting communist rule in 1988, which is thought to have instigated the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. The funny thing about Napoleon is that he's become a silly tourist attraction now, and people can take pictures with his statue right in the place where he tried to invade.

Famous photo from day of Soviet invasion, showing Emil Gallo standing up to Soviet tanks. Taken by Ladislav Bielik

Other sights from the day include . . .

Famous "Blue Church"- Church of St. Elisabeth

Inside of the church

Bratislava Castle 

An amazing view of the city from the castle 

We spent the rest of the day shopping, and ate dinner at a classic Slovakian restaurant, where we tried popular Slovakian dishes, such as garlic soup in a bread bowl, and potato dumplings covered in sheep cheese (or bryndzové halušky), traditionally served with bacon on the top. As someone who doesn't like cheese . . . it was interesting. And so ended our stay in Bratislava. Back to Budapest!

I didn't get any good pictures of the Budapest train station, but is definitely worth mentioning. Old architecture and beautiful skylights in such a massive building, it was just jaw dropping. I constantly felt this way walking through Budapest. Landmark after landmark, the style of the city was just amazing. You could tell there was a crazy amount of history behind everything, and you were never too far away from something interesting. One of our professors pointed out to us the style of art nouveau, which showed itself in many buildings throughout the city. It's characterized by organic ornamentation and flourishes, detailing many aspects of the buildings. Like Bratislava, different eras could also be seen, like the gothic period, and even some almost classical oriental or Eastern influences. Walking around on first day, we were able to check out lots of examples of the different architecture. We went to the edge of the city where we could see across the Danube River, and I was completely floored by the view. Budapest automatically became my favorite place. Right in front of us were two bridges, between them was a huge beige castle with green roofs and a tall, green dome. Scattered around were fancy buildings and old church steeples. To the far left on a hill was a statue of a woman holding up a leaf, with her dress dramatically blown in the wind (we didn't visit her, but it's called the Liberty Statue). I was overwhelmed with everything, I could hardly believe I was there in that moment! Sort of like a dream.

Buda Castle- my pictures don't do this city justice at all!

 As we kept moving along, we saw the Parliament building, which was equally awesome (EVERYTHING about Budapest was awesome, just to clarify). A huge, incredibly detailed white and rusty red monster, covered in pointy spires, statues, ornaments, and all sort of little intricacies. The building is so large that it's hard to get a good photo of it when you're standing right in front of it, but from across the river, you can see it really well.

Hungarian Parliament Building

Parliament from across the Danube

Our next stop of the day was St. Stefan's Basilica, which was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. Though not as enormous as Parliament, it looked much heavier. Almost like it was a strong, sturdy place worthy to worship in. The outside was beige and green, with statues and decorative elements, but the inside was something special. Embellishments everywhere, with golds and reds, and biblical paintings across every surface. There was a service going on with a priest chanting, kneeling in front of the small audience of church members. Again, it felt like a dream. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life!

The next day, we had a busy schedule across the river. In the morning, we paid a visit to the Swedish embassy, where we talked with the Swedish ambassador. He was a really nice, talkative guy, who was open to all our questions, especially those about the refugee crisis. Hungary was previously open to taking in some refugees until leadership began to strongly oppose it. Since then, Hungary has been more of a place for refugees to pass through, rather than to stay. Sweden, on the other hand, is taking in record numbers of refugees. It was interesting to discuss how different countries have responded to this crisis. (If you'd like to learn how to help those in need, click here, or make a direct donation to the UN Refugee Agency.)

The rest of the day was all sightseeing . . .

Matthias Church- unfortunately, we didn't get to go in this one. :( This church was right next to the Fisherman's Bastion, our next stop!

Fisherman's Bastion- photo credit is not mine! I wasn't able to get a good photo of this one because we had to leave. 

View from Fisherman's Bastion

Buda Castle- up close! Much bigger and more elaborate than my picture shows

Budapest Market Hall- huge building filled with tons of food and souvenir shops 

Our last day in Budapest, we visited the House of Terror, a museum detailing the history of Hungary under the Nazi and Communist regimes. The building itself is historic in that it housed both the Nazi headquarters and the Communist secret police at different times. I knew basically nothing about the effects Nazism and Communism had on Hungary, so it was really heartbreaking to see how such tragic things played out there. A summary of what happened: When Germany occupied Hungary in WWII, facist, Nazi supporters called the Arrow Cross Party took over the Hungarian government. At the end of the war, the country was overtaken by the Soviet army during the Seige of Budapest and the Arrow Cross Party dissolved. After the war, the Soviets slowly began introducing a Communist government in Hungary, even though Hungarians voted for a different party in a post-war election. Using the AVH (Soviet secret police), enemies of the government were executed, imprisoned, or deported. Many were sent to labor camps, where they died from starvation, overwork, and poor working conditions. It was really sad to read that some returning victims of the Holocaust were then sent to these camps. I'm not exactly sure how the Hungarians overthrew the Communist government, but there was a revolution, and it wasn't until 1989 that Hungary adopted a new political system.

It was fitting that our next stop was the Dohány Street synagogue in Budapest's Jewish district. It was a really beautiful building with an amazing history. Before the war broke out in Hungary, two older ladies took religious artifacts from the synagogue, like menorahs, Torah scrolls, and even large stained glass windows, and hid them. Everything was eventually returned safe and sound. During the war, the synagogue was part of the Budapest ghetto, where many people died. Around 2,000 are buried in the cemetery courtyard, even though there is apparently a historic rule about cemeteries being a certain distance away from a synagogue. Though Hungary gave over its Jewish population to the Nazis, I was really surprised that the building wasn't completely destroyed by anyone earlier. The only severe damage it suffered was from bombing raids by the Arrow Cross Party early in the war, and again during the Siege of Budapest at the end of the war. In Germany for example, Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed during Kristallnacht, but nothing similar happened in Hungary (thankfully!). The synagogue was restored in the 90s, and it's an absolutely amazing piece of architecture. Just look at it!

We left Budapest early Friday morning, and after being absolutely exhausted from the trip home, we were so happy to come back to friends who had thrown us a welcome home party! Complete with chips, ice cream, and cake. :) It was such a great surprise, and it was nice to see that they missed us as much as we missed them. I seriously love these beautiful weirdos so much. I couldn't be more thankful to have met such awesome people here.


Thank you for enduring these incredibly long blog posts. Hej då!

Left to right: Sabrina, Luke, Mariko, Isak, Alex, Marco, and Saki. Missing Zuzana and Pedro- but they celebrated with us later :)