Another Month, Another Country

I made it to Paris yesterday. It's my last stop and then I'm on my way back to the States. It's so strange to think that my extended holiday is almost over...I feel like I just left Sudan and was on my way to Egypt to visit my precious friends there.

I had a great time in Hungary. I love Budapest and Shanna and I had so much fun wandering around together and catching up. She'll be in Hungary for a while but we made a deal (well, really I just decided) that the next time we see each other will be for a vacation in Croatia. I've heard it's cool and in Sudan they always had Croatia tourism commercials and it looks amazingly pretty.

More to come from Paris!

Szentendre

Yesterday Shanna and I took a little day trip to a little village not far outside of Budapest called Szentendre. It was cute, all the streets were cobblestone and there were lots of shops and restaurants along the river.
When Shanna came to Sudan we had lots of adventures, things like wandering around an island to stand at the exact meeting point of the two Niles, exploring pyramids in the middle of the desert, etc. Hungary isn't so much an adventure filled kind of place but when we were in Szentendre we thought we'd get off the beaten path and see what we found....and we found this cool sidewalk/passageway. It just went to the other side of the street but we were impressed.
There are Roman ruins everywhere around Budapest and all the buildings and things are just built around them. Yesterday we stopped by some ruins that are underneath the highway. I don't know why I thought that was cool but I really did.
Then today I found myself wandering home right at sunset so I took some time to observe and appreciate the sunset over the Danube.

This last picture is at sunset too. I was hoping that things would be a bit more pink but it was a smoggy day and that didn't work out so well for me.

Parliament & Protesting

I thought today I'd go over to parliament for the afternoon and take some pictures. I figured it would be peaceful and quiet since it's Saturday. I got there and all the roads were closed which made the wandering a little easier but I figured there was a reason.

I walked around the whole thing. I just love it. The flag below flies on the lawn in front of building. There used to be a coat of arms in the middle but they cut it out after the fall of communism.

Eventually I ran into the reason why all the streets were closed...yet another protest, except for this time they made their signs a little more tourist friendly.

It was so interesting. This group of protesters were darker skinned making it easy to guess why they were protesting. Eventually they ran into another group of people protesting the same thing except they were all really old. There was another group that met them that were all fair skinned and young. I'm guessing that the older people were protesting against age discrimination but the third group I have no idea. This time the riot police brought their horses. I'm pretty sure this demonstration was a little more scheduled than the last one. Not only were there plenty of police but the protest route was clearly marked AND they had a little separate route for the tourists and photographers so people could continue on with their sightseeing OR stand and watch without being in the middle of everything.

People were handing out pamphlets and stickers. They were pretty persistent but I didn't want a sticker. What do you do when things go bad and people start running. It's a little hard to explain to the police that you were just an innocent bystander when you're covered in stickers supporting whatever it was they were doing.

Notice the tall white guy meandering in the midst of all the people? I'm guessing he was just another tourist along for a stroll oblivious to everything going on around him and wondering 'wow, these Hungarians sure are patriotic...hey, I'm on TV!!!!'

All of this brought back this memory of one time we had some volunteers in Khartoum and we were taking them shopping on a Friday and had to cut through downtown to get there. It was a particularly unrestful, anti-American point in time but we thought that since it was a Friday and people didn't usually protest on Friday we would be fine. All the sudden one of the volunteers says 'hey look. They're having a parade. Let's go see it.' We definitely told our driver to turn around and take a different way. I'm fairly certain that could have turned into a totally different kind of protest experience than the one today.

Some Wandering

I did some wandering today. It warmed up...to about 60...and I figured I needed to spend a little time out and about so I just walked up and down the river and found some cool stuff.

There is a beautiful church behind this statue but the tree is in the way.

The decoration on the ceiling of the patio of a church. This is part of a cave church. (I think) I went inside the cave church but the entrance was around the corner and it was highly disappointing. (not the entrance. the church)

The cave church is underneath this cross.

The Parliament building in Budapest is one of my favorite buildings in the world.

And then there were these guys. You just never know what you'll find when you're wandering around Europe.

Protest Day

I was out shopping today when I ran into a protest. I didn't realize what it was until I saw about a hundred riot police decked out in full gear and lined up on the street. Did I turn around and walk the other way? Of course not! This isn't Sudan. I wasn't the only white girl around.
What did I do? I got closer to take pictures. There were tons of newspaper photographers around, then you had all the locals with their cell phones and all the tourists with their regular cameras.

But I have to admit I got bored pretty quick. At first it was a bit of a novelty to actually be allowed to take pictures without worrying that the police might see me and arrest me. But after a while even the novelty of the freedom of picture-taking wore off. No one was waving swords or large sticks. I couldn't read their signs but none of them included a 'down down USA'. Even the chanting was pretty pathetic, they weren't even yelling very loud. The riot police were just standing around and I'm sure there wasn't a real bullet to be found, just those fake rubber ones. All in all, not too exciting for a protest.

I will say that the Sudanese riot police could take a lesson or two from these Metro guys about how riot police should dress and behave, all those knee pads and helmets.

In Sudan it wasn't uncommon to see trucks of riot police speeding through town. At first I was a bit alarmed. I used to count the trucks and use that to determine the importance of what was happening. Less than 10 in a row meant it was nothing. More than 30 meant I should probably head home soon. After a while I found a new scale to measure by. It all revolves around several observations:

1) Do the soldiers even have shoes on?

2) Are there any large plastic shields?

3) Are they holding up the shields or are they just haphazardly thrown anywhere?

4) Can you see AK47s?

5) Are they using them to pick their noses?

6) Are there any helmets involved?

7) Is there anyone manning the 50 caliber on the top of the truck?

8) And finally, are his hands actually touching the gun?

...It's so strange to think about the things that I have somehow become accustomed to.

Click on the post title to see the last time I was up close and personal with riot police.

Thinking of You

Just a few pictures of some random things we saw today that made me think of random people.

First we ran into this cow. All of you Wayland people know how significant a life-sized, plaster cow in the middle of town can be. Shanna didn't like this picture because her eyes are closed but it's the only one we have with the cow and I just couldn't not put it up.

Second, this is the display case at the butcher shop. It includes duck heads, chicken feet, an unidentified organ, stuffed intestines and lots of liver. Those last two aren't in the picture but you can imagine. My first thought when I saw this was 'where are the stomach and lungs?' My next thought, 'I wonder how you would cook a duck head.'
Here I am in the street shopping. It was so cold. Good thing Shanna is letting me borrow her jackets!

At one point we found ourselves completely surrounded by a ton of Chinese tourists with their cameras out. At the same time we both said 'Ahhh, Chinese people. Brandon and April would love this!'

I love this picture. These are all the cool kids. By the time I managed to get my camera out all the people in the front of the tour group with their cameras around their necks were long gone so I just managed to get the ones who were too cool to be hanging out around the translator/guide.

The Bakery

Yesterday Shanna and I were heading out to a friend's house. We were planning to run errands on our way home.

Me: 'We should just go to the bakery now. We'll have to carry our bread with us but just to be sure we can get some.'
Shanna: 'They will be open when we get back.'
Me: 'Are you sure?'
Shanna: 'I'll look at the times but I'm pretty sure. (she looks) Yep, they'll still be open.'

Sidenote: Shanna is so good at not making me feel like an idiot when I can't figure out how it is possible that things can run so efficiently!!!!

Me: 'But what if they run out of bread?'
Shanna: 'They don't run out of bread?'
Me: 'They don't?'
Shanna: 'No' (as if this was a ridiculous idea)
Me: 'Even at the end of the day, they still have bread?'
Shanna: 'Of course.'
Me: 'What if they run out today? Would they make more? Or would they close since they don't have any more to sell?'
Shanna: 'They don't run out, ever.'
Me: 'Seriously? Well then what do they do with the leftover bread each day?' That was me testing her to see if she was really being serious or just seeing if I would believe anything she said
Shanna: 'They sell it for half price.'
Me: 'We should definitely wait until tonight so we can get it at half price!!' the words 'half price' always brings on a sudden change of heart

It's not my fault that I doubt the bakery. I can't help it. The one good bakery (for foreigners) in the Sandbox was always out of bread by like 3pm and then they closed for the day and if you didn't get any bread then you should learn your lesson and come back earlier the next day. They didn't make more when they ran out and the definitely didn't make more in the mornings so that they could sell more throughout the day. That always just blew me away...if you keep selling out of bread then why not just make more, then you wouldn't run out and you could make more money!! Seriously people.

Reading & Blogging for Darfur

I thought I'd put up a link here. I don't know about y'all but I love reading recent, real life stories from Africa and, as we all know, Sudan is especially close to my heart. If you click on the post title it should take you to a list of some books about Darfur.

I haven't read any of them due to my geographic location and the limited availability of books in English but if you share my passion for real life African stories you might enjoy some of the ones on the list.

Smoking Kills?!?!?

On the airplane coming to Budapest I was looking through the duty free catalogue and I noticed something really wierd. All the cigarettes boxes and cartons had these really big warnings written on them in bold black and white print that said things like 'smoking will kill you'. From the pictures I couldn't tell if the warning was actually written on the box or if it was just put on the picture in the magazing.

Today I was walking and saw an empty pack on the ground and it actually had the warning printed on the box. It was in Hungarian so I couldn't read it but it looked just like the ones from the plane so I'm sure that's what it was. Is that a new thing? Do they do it in America too or is it just another European thing?

In other news today Shanna and I went to this cute little restaurant with one of her Hungarian friends. It was a 'pancake' restaurant which really meant it was a crepes restaurant...about 50 different flavors. Salty, sweet, etc. They had it all. It was really good. Plus we got to sit at this cool table where you had to climb up a mini-ladder just to get to it. What a great place!
Shanna lives about 1/2 mile from the Danube so yesterday we walked down to the river and met another of her Hungarian friends. It was so fun. We just had drinks (I still get excited about the fountain coke!!!) at this restaurant with a little deck kind of thing on the river but it was so cute and the kind of thing you should have when your city is located right next to a river. I never found anything cool like that in the Sandbox and I looked.

Yesterday was warm and sunny but today it's cold and supposed to start raining later so I think I'll just hang out inside until it stops and warms up again.

Wine Tasting

Shanna and I went to see the castle today but there was a wine tasting and they were charging to get in...I might would have paid just to go in but since Shanna is still 'under the rules' and all we couldn't go in. Oh well.

We walked down from the castle to this beautiful church that happened to be under renovation. It offered an amazing view of the city along the river.
We went to another park that had a castle in it. This church was inside the castle.
I didn't realize I had been here before until we came up out of the metro and I recognized all the statues. This is Hero Square where there are different statues for the kings and the tribe leaders. To the left where you can't see is another set of statues just like the ones behind me.

I think we should have this road sign in America. It could be applicable in many areas of life.
I like cool doors.

I love the way the rooftops look just like they do in movies.