it's been a while.

so. let's be perfectly honest. keeping this thing updated? not something that i'm great at. in the next days and weeks and months, i will try my darndest to post more often and to hopefully catch up on all the wonderful places i've traveled to and all the amazing things i've seen.

with that said, here are some photos from our trip to vienna a few weeks ago. we went to celebrate lydia's 21st birthday in style and (of course) to experience the culture, history, and beauty of this wonderfully vibrant city.
among our many adventures we...
-paid 3 euros for standing-room tickets to the state opera house. it was mighty warm standing amongst the other opera enthusiasts (i'd like to think, the most extreme out of all those in the audience...who else would STAND for a two hour opera but those who are truly hard core?) in the cozy, non-airconditioned balcony but the performance was worth the sweat and the sore feet.
-enjoyed deliciously giant "slices" of pizza from road-side stands. viennese "slices" are actually quarters of a pizza. who knew?
-spent time at the Belvedere palace and saw many a Monet, Degas, Manet, and a room full of Gustav Klimt after marveling at the beauty of the architecture and grounds of the palace itself.
-sipped on delicious wine at one of the many wine gardens throughout the city.
-rented bikes and went exploring the sunny, cobblestoned streets. We strumbled upon green parks and giant cathedrals and ancient roman ruins.
-walked up a giant hill to our hostel many, many times. ok, maybe 5 times total, but that hill was HUGE.
-missed our bus back to Budapest and spent the night in a classy mc donalds before catching a train back home at 5:35 in the morning. a life experience, really.


the trip was wonderful. here are a few photos. enjoy!

delicious and.... not.

for those of you who are also apart of "since you've been gone," this is a repeat. my b, yo. my b.
...


when traveling to far-off, foreign lands you must be open to new experiences or, some may say, new "opportnities". while the four of us have been in budapest, our hungarian instructor kati has been an incredible tour guide and general source of helpful information. for things like grocery shopping, buying the best and most inexpensive champagne and finding the most delicious restaurants in the city, kati is the woman to know. this past weekend, kati decided to share one of her favorite childhood foods with the calvin group. this childhood fave is, what jenna likes to call, "meat spread." mmmm. delicious. let me explain. this non-vegetarian-friendly "treat" consists of ultra-lean, double-ground, soaked-in-oil-over-multiple-days beef. mixed with the beef is one raw egg, a chunk-o-butter, worstershire sauce, yellow mustard, chopped onion, paprika, salt and pepper. mix it all together and you got one giant chunk of raw meat spread. spread on toast and enjoy.

here's a few visuals to help understand.







on the other hand....
kati also brought a vegetarian dish for the non-meat eaters to try. it was delicious.

here is the recipe:

lentil and mushroom au gratin

ingredients for 4-5 people:
-70-80 dkg mushrooms (yup, decagrams....deal)
-50 dkg red lentils
-3 medium sized onions
-2 cloves of garlic
-1 bunch of parsley
-1 carrot
-a stalk of celery
-salt, pepper, 2 bayleaves (optional)
-oil
-grated cheese (parmesan is best but any other hard cheese will do)

cook the lentils with the carros, celery, garlic, 1 chopped onion, bayleaves in 2-2.5 portions of water until tender. season it and add some more water if needed. when tender, mash the carrot, celery and onion with a fork and remove the bayleaves.

chop 2 onions, saute in hot oil. add chopped mushrooms and chopped parsley. season and cook until liquid evaporates (or, drain some liquid from the pan after the mushrooms have softened).

oil or butter a skillet (baking tin), spread one layer of lentils (half of them), add the mushrooms, finish with the other half of lentils. add the grated cheese and bake in a preheated oven until cheese is golden brown.

jo etvagyat! (ENJOY!)

.....it really is very delicious. try it.

i'm sorry, i don't speak hungarian.

it's officially been a week since i arrived in budapest. in this time i have tried my darndest to learn and use only a few, basic hungarian phrases such as, "thank you" (kosonom), "excuse me" (boscanat) and the very difficult, "i'm sorry, i don't speak hungarian" (sajnos, something something magyarul...i can't remember the whole thing, let's be honest). mostly, when i don't understand someone or when i need to sneak past an old hungarian woman on the metro i just mutter to myself or pretend to be a mute american exchange student. if someone asks me a question in hungarian the answer usually comes out as, "uh, uh. i don't know. uh. sorry." i freeze up. i can't speak. my mind goes blank. they say hungarian is one of the most difficult languages in the world. don't judge.

with that said, i'll leave you with a few random photos from various adventures over the past week. the first picture was taken by lake balaton--the only large body of water in hungary. it took a group of us around 5 hours to get to this glorious lake. the lake was beautiful and refreshing and surrounded by rolling hills. we saw many men in speedos and many older women in high-cut 'kinis.

the second picture is fanta. orange, of course. it is currently my drink of choice as it also was in ghana. it brings back wonderful memories and is delicious. go get some.






peace and lots of love.
ali

oh, hi hungary.

after months of planning and time spent in anticipation, i am finally in budapest. the trip here was incredibly un-complicated. nothing but flight attendents with british accents, airplane food in the form of chicken curry and some terribly uncomfortable sleeping positions in coach. oh, international travel is such a joy.

the calvin group is situated on the buda side of budapest, approximately 20 minutes south west from the danube river. our dorm rooms are lovely and spacious, clean and homey-feeling. really, what more could you ask for? we even have a newly-renovated kitchen(ette) space just off of our rooms. a few of us have already taken a trip to the giant meijer/costco-like grocery superstore for some much-needed food items. we made speghetti with vegetables last night, it was delicious. cooking, i hope, will become a group effort once we figure out a system for purchasing groceries and cooking and everything.

along with settling into the dorms, we have been exploring the city and trying desperately not to get lost. last night a group of us went to a bar on the opposite side of the city. after leaving the dorms around 11, we finally reached the club an hour and a half later after wandering past and around and through the streets of the city, wondering just which particular tram/bus/metro was the one we needed. oh, and i can't forget the lovely cold rain/mist that accompanied our first night out on the town. it's all good, though. really. the night was fun one, even though we finally made it back to the dorms around 4 am, tired, sore and slightly frizzy.

today we explored the city in the daylight. lydia, jenna, jordan, sara (a new roomie) and i walked up and down the streets of the pest side of the city for almost 7 hours. it was nice to finally see the more metropolitan parts of the city after spending most of our times on the outskirts. we stopped by the beautiful parliament building, wandered to an ancient old church and found the perfect spot for coffee and a chocolate croissant. coffee! oh joy, oh bliss!

the city itself is beautiful and bustling, even on a sunday afternoon. it was exciting to see both zara (my old home) and H&M in various places throughout the city...i will be making my way back to those streets once it's cold enough to buy myself a new coat. exciting stuff.


this is getting much too long. in an attempt to keep these things shorter rather than longer, i'll stop here.
it is hard being away from everyone in my various homes (california and grand rapids). i miss and love you all.
with love and fondness.

ali