Studies have been going well. My Swedish class finished up last Friday and now all I have left is the final exam on the 17th of March. I have two lectures left in Corporate Finance and then an exam on the 19th. Basically, I have worked out my schedule to consist of a lot of studying the next week, with the occasional ping pong break with some friends in a common room we discovered in our accommodations a few weeks back. Best find ever! The weather here is starting to warm up, the sun is staying out longer and longer and the smell of sweet, sweet spring is in the air. It's not that I am sick of the cold, dark days or anything, but I am looking forward to being able to leave my room without being bundled up in 3 layers and looking like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Enough on the logistics of life here. Everybody gather round and let me tell you a story of 17 students that decided to travel to the ex-communist lands of Hungary.
Late one afternoon we jumped onto a 4 and half hour bus to nyköping, a small town outside Stockholm, to catch a 20:00 flight to Budapest. The ride wan't too uncomfortable and we all had rows to ourselves for a while which was ideal for a nice long nap and a relaxing ride. The plane ride went off without a hitch and we landed in the city around 22:00. We were able to reach the hostel and within the hour and then went directly to bed. Believe that? I didn't either. The hostel manager let us know of a pretty fun nightclub that is usually pretty popular on Saturday nights. We established a buddy system (after hearing horror stories of some Habsburg-esque Hungarians tricking people and taking them around to different ATMs and forcing them to withdraw money at each) and then left as a group to the club. It turned out to be a fun time. The drinks were cheap and there a was a kind of stay-at-your-own-risk feel to the place. We found out the next day that there were 5 different stories to the club, but we never left the 1st floor due to our lack of knowledge about the club and the mindset of being mugged at every turn (no need to worry mum, no one even came close to being mugged on the trip. We just felt like being extra cautious).
The next day we had a walking tour set up that took us around the city. It was led by a rather crazy and hippy-esque Hungarian (I felt right at home) and a more down-to-earth guy that made sure no one got lost along the way. We started at Saint Stevens Church, which was a astonishing, and ended up across the Duna river on the Buda side of the city (the river divides the city into 2 parts; the Pest side and the Buda side). I cannot describe the views from the top of the hill in words. It was simply breathtaking. The tour took up most of the afternoon so afterwords we found a restaurant our Hungarian friend here at JIBS told us about and had some dinner. The Goulash was excellent! Once again, we went to bed early and had a quite night.
After a leisurely morning of waking up promptly at 08:00, or 11:00 (they are close), we journeyed to a Hungarian bath. It is really similar to a hot springs. Our plan was to spend roughly an hour at the baths and then tour the city some more. Three hours later we left the baths feeling as refreshed as ever. We wondered into a giant mall and had a cheeky lunch and a look around and I managed to get my fika (coffee break). From there we traveled by the metro across the city back to the Buda side and found a place called the labyrinth. We were told that there was a free flowing fountain of wine in the middle and once you found it you could drink as much of it as you could. Turns out there was a fountain of wine, but the wine was too early in its creation stage to be consumed and tasted more like vinegar. The maze was still pretty cool and worth the trip.
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| The alleged wine fountain |
The next day, Tuesday the 8th, was our last day in Budapest. Our flight left at 17:40 so we walked around town a little more killing time and preparing ourselves for the 12 hour journey a head of us. It was sad to leave this beautiful, exciting city, but it felt good to get back to Jönköping. As I mentioned in my last post, I am staring to get this homey feeling here and when I see Räslått, my accommodation, and it feels great to be here. After my two finals I am off to Berlin on the 21st and then back to Copenhagen to meet Katie Reichard, Hildy Schott and Teal Francis (friends from CC) for an epic weekend that I'm sure everyone will be jealous of! Look forward to more posts soon!
Thanks for reading! Here are some more pictures. Enjoy!
