Prague

If I only had more days off and more money I would rather wander around this globe incessantly. Unfortunately the reality is a bit different ...But just a little bit though,
Not to whine about thereof more let me mention you another little trip I have embarked on two weeks ago. To detach myself from this overwhelming, hectic city, which Budapest indisputably is I went to Prague. Since I come from the north of Poland I don't usually go home every now and then for two major reasons. First of all as I have pointed out in the previous sentence is too far and the trip itself overtly strenuous and second of all I'm a bit selfish yes I do admit I'm selfish in a sense I would rather go and explore new places than coming back home to a place, which I do love but also know kinda perfectly. Not to get off track...

I went to Prague only for the weekend... But getting there took me like 11 hours by train (normally it takes 6 - don't freak out). Let me explain you why the trip on that marvelous train (NOT)took so much of my time. I reckon the train, which departs everyday around 8 is a night train and once it crosses the border with Slovakia it just stops for 3 hours. And you are like with 5 other people in the compartment *2nd class sans couchettes* with absolutely no space even to try to sleep properly. The downside of such travelling is that basically I turned into a paralitico over the night !


We (me and my Spanish companion) arrived in Prague early in the morning when probably most of you were moving to the other side of the bed after having painted the town red. Streets empty and you probably know by now stories of me getting lost around the world! I rock at it, simply the best etc. I was kind of lucky though because I understand Czech language so eventually we found out our hostel (after 3 hours of roaming around *awaits applause*)

Prague is definitely beautiful and has it charm, but I would never expect the prices to be that damn high. Never in my wildest dreams I would think of being charged for life music *60 czk without being informed beforehand. That's rude - don't do that people of Prague. Cmon we all know you are abundant with the number of tourists receiving each day. Don't be too greedy. Haven't you heard it's a sin?

I felt there as if I had returned home for a little bit. Similar language , food , culture, architecture. Yes I miss you Poland but let me get this straight until December Prague was a very fancy and sophisticated (temporary) replacement.

Now I'm getting ready for my summer belated holiday that will take place in October - Sicily - my long awaited dream!!! Stay tuned for more!

¡Viva España!

Before going on holiday I had been wondering whether to go to Barcelona or if to choose  Madrid. In the end I went for the latter, which turned out to be a great choice. Well I get the point that Madrid's value is diminished by not being located by the coastline, nevertheless it's definitely a place to be.

As I have mentioned in the previous post my trip was rather a low cost adventure. Let's then calculate all of my expenses.

Destination : Spain
Duration : 4 days
Accommodation -  Hostel near Plaza St Ana - 4 nights for 84 euro (single room)
Food :  When it comes to breakfast I'd usually go to Lidl and grab some stuff there and sit somewhere nice in order to enjoy the view. I've heard the main meal in Spain is lunch, so I'd eat a lot. I have tried Paella , but as I had been told it wasn't authentic. To try the real Paella one must go to Valencia. I enjoyed croquetas with cheese and in particular the calamares. Tinte de verano has definitely became my favorite beverage. Oh, how I miss it here in Budapest. To sum it up I'd usually spend less than 30 euro a day.
Flight : Low cost airline -  84 euro
Train tickets to Toledo  - 20 euro
Language spoken : I didn't really use English, no offence but Spanish people often don't speak good English (look beneath), thus I decided to make use of my Italian mixed with some few Spanish words I had learned before.



Let me translate this phrase from Spanglish to English - Please do not use paper to dry your hands in order to avoid germs :)

Madrid day first
I arrived in Madrid in the early morning. After my plane had landed I took the metro from the airport to the station dabbed Nuevos Ministeros. Just to explain you, I'm not very good with maps and I get lost very easily...Well happened also there. Didn't know how to get to my hostel, and was too shy to ask, hence spent 2 hours walking with the GPS turned on...Imagine that I got lost couple of times also being guided by GPS. It's just me, don't be bothered :) . While I was walking I think one guy yelled at me Penelope, albeit I didn't even move my eyebrow but continued walking. Spanish people are definitely less invasive and harassing than Italian. Nobody really tried to bother me or accost me without any reason. Maybe it happened only two times during my stay. On the first day I met some couch surfers that showed me around. At first we sat in some pub to watch Real Madrid vs. Juventus. Wasn't really so much fun, as talking to them was pretty impossible due to roars of the Real Madrid's fans in despair.  Later on we hit the town and painted the town red. Can't associate now the name and location of the place, nevertheless I only remember the waiter going around with a tray full of drinks, and yes I could grab not only one.. So I did. Luckily one, young Spanish gentleman helped me to get to my hostel and on Saturday took my to a hidden place from which the panorama of Madrid spreads out - and without the glass barriers just for the record. If you want to get a good view over Madrid you shall go to the hotel Vincci Capitol.

Madrid day second
I woke up with a bit of hangover. Battling myself to get out of the bed as I didn't have any water. Eventually the desire had been quenched and I restarted to walk around Madrid. Later on I met up with another couch surfer, who showed me around and introduced me to the Madrid's river. Don't expect much it doesn't resemble Danube, not even in the slightest way. Once the encounter had been finished, I headed off to  El Prado's museum, which was in fact an amazing experience. I liked the flowery paintings a lot, but the one that had really drawn my attention in particular was Still life with Flowers and Dog by Juan van der Hamen. Shortly after I was having another encounter with a Polish girl , who lives and works in Madrid. We dined ,eating croquetas and were sipping on tinte de verano which was followed by drinking in the pub and eating even more. What surprised me the most was a Polish guy, who looked a bit Spanish and spoke Polish with a Spanish accent. I was surprised and I didn't get right of the batt if he was either Spanish, who had learned to speak Polish or indeed a Pole who spoke Spanish.


Toledo day third
The train from Madrid luckily takes only half an hour. To get from the train station to the city center you can either take a bus or walk. I decided to walk and it took around 20 minutes. At Plaza de Zocodover I bought a pass , which allowed me to go inside many monuments and even have a guided tour. I used that option in the Cathedral, but since there were only two other persons and both Spanish, I suggested to the guide to take it in Spanish as I speak Italian.<CHALLENGE ACCEPTED> I think she didn't really believe me hence every 5 minutes I would be asked 3 times if I had understood. I'd  came up with  some questions once in a while, so that she could leave me in peace :). After visiting the Cathedral I sat down in one of the restaurants and grabbed some Tuna with vegetables, what happened to be a extremely delicious meal with a wonderful service I tipped in gratitude. Toledo appears to be as a small but enchanting city with  Arabic and medieval influences. It was definitely a bit weird to be travelling alone, but in a result I was independent and I could see whatever I want moreover whenever  I want.


Madrid day forth
During my last day I walked to the places I hadn't seen yet. When  I  passed the Cathedral there was certainly a musical event going on and I saw people dancing. I found that extremely cute and relaxing.  And I guess it was the second time when I had been accosted by an old Spanish tourist who wanted to take a photo of me, and then suddenly started speaking that he had had a Canon camera with a Sony lens and in effect this combination hadn't been working. Well I could not care less to be honest. Afterwards I met the nice Spanish guy who showed me the view over Madrid. I was extremely tired that day after having been walking for hours, moreover I also got an annoying blister on the sole of my foot.... I was not able even to go down to eat something before my departure. Nevertheless as usual the hunger won me over and I went to Plaza St Ana to eat in a very nice restaurant Lateral. In the meantime I was trying to figure out how to get to the airport , as metro didn't work at the time. I wrote to another couchsurfer I met asking for information about the night bus, but he was so nice to offer me a ride to the airport. Gracias:) I didn't really want to leave Spain, waiting in the line for my flight I realized I understand more Spanish than Hungarian. The sad truth :(

MMM means Monika, May, Madrid

Hi there,

Has been a long time again since we spoke. I mean me and my blog to be precise. Currently I'm getting myself prepared (read ready) for the trip to Spain. Such a long awaited holiday. I will be in Madrid for 4 days. To be frank it's rather a shoestring trip. I have booked a hostel with a very central location , and it was definitely a bargain. Since I'm a person that needs to be somehow prepared and well oriented where to go , what to do and what to eat....By the way let me explain you where does it come from....I'm a klutzy creature I can get lost basically everywhere. Somehow I keep on wondering why I haven't still gotten lost in my own flat. Yesterday I was booking tickets from Madrid to Toledo, as it's only a 30 minutes train ride, when my bank called me. It was purely midnight when it happened. It turned out that due to security reasons now they are trying to verify every suspicious transaction(according to their assumption) they customers make...Well ok but seriously , calling me at midnight? On the other hand I appreciate the steps they take to ensure security to my money. I'm so excited about my trip I find it difficult to fall asleep. I'm living it out with every cell of my thin body. Guess I'm not very creative tonight, nevertheless I'm making this step to restart writing.

But basically you know what? I've just reminded myself of what I actually wanted to recount. Namely couple of days ago it was a national holiday in Poland -  May 3rd constitution day, which I celebrated at the party organized by the Polish embassy. Honestly speaking the main reason that coaxed me into going there was free food option :P. I garnered couple of business cards in a so called networking process. Well can't really disclosure the names...such a pity. Some ambassadors looked creepy, one in particular <bites her tongue not to spill the beans about the country of his origin). I also got to know a Hungarian famous <that's what I was told) interrogative journalist. Strikes a chord with me as I'm a journalist graduate myself. Just for the record I would not sacrifice my whole life to stint as a reporter , still I tend to find it pretty brave martyring yourself to serve as a truth finder. Too bad it doesn't really exist....I would love to write more but even though it's Saturday tomorrow I need to wake up early to attend my Italian course. Ttyl though! :)

   

Kinda spruced up Monika at the above mentioned party

that moment when a little online purchase triggers an infinite joy

Stress and the other stuff.

I haven't been writing for months now. Don't really know why as it used to be one of my biggest passions, my element , something I would definitely thrive on. I stopped reading books either. Sometimes I tend to detest people. It's really hard to explain why. It's a taxing world we are living in though. Sometimes I really get an impression it's all about money, sex and all of the other superficial things. But maybe it's about me though, maybe I'm surrounding myself with wrong people and to be honest it might quite be possible. Well not all of them are wrong for sure, I don't want to offend my friends, few of them but they are great people, the greatest I have ever met and I'm grateful about that. Anyway as of late the day I cherish the most happens to be Saturday. I wake up early I go to the Italian class, then to run or for a walk, with a good friend of mine and it constitutes a great help. to get over all of the bad stuff Budapest sometimes still reminds me of. The weather heralds the arrival of Summer, it was quite warm this weekend, and to be frank the rays of sun are always something beneficial. One of my great friends is visiting me in a week, and I literally can't wait for her to arrive in Budapest and rediscover all of the beautiful places in her company. Then in May I'm supposed to go on holiday to Madrid, Spain completely alone. I miss adventures I guess, still remind myself at times of my escapade to Istanbul. Beautiful times....And I promise I will be writing more and perhaps its the time now not later not tomorrow ... The time is now for my dream to come true / Monika start writing that damn novel :P. What a post full of melancholy, anyway tomorrow I will scribble something more about Budapest. Whatever good night folks.
 

Wien- die magische Stadt

The past week was fraught with attractions.  Firstly I went to the long awaited Emiliana Torrini’s concert. She is an Icelandic singer , that had lived for many years in London, but recently she has come back to Iceland.  Thus when I had been living in Iceland it was impossible to see her concert, as she was away. Then I came to Budapest last year in the summer and she was performing at Sziget Festival, but somehow outer circumstances thwarted my chance to experience it.

Eventually I did go to her concert and it was amazing. She is rather a diminutive woman, but very enchanting one. Actually at some point she embodies my life’s path. She is Icelandic – I used to live in her country. She is half Italian – and I lived for a little while in Italy and finally she loves Budapest, where I’m living right now. The concert turned out to be  cosy and intimate due to its location – a club on a boat called A38, nevertheless the concert room was full of huddling people, as there was not so much space left. Simply enchanting. 

 She sings with a lot of passion, sincerity and joy – being in her element. In one moment I shouted out loud – Takk fyrir in Icelandic and she quickly responded Takk somuleidis. Extremely pleasant experience –that’s what it was.

When the week had finished, I along with my Hungarian friend, we set off to Vienna. I was extremely rad indeed to just go outside Budapest. 3 hours and we were there. I booked a hostel in the city centre and we came over to the reception to pick up the keys to our room and then all of the fun had started. The hostel was called #The labyrinth hostel, along with picking up the keys you would receive a paper with instruction on how to get to your building as the hostel’s buildings were just scattered around. Unluckily the key to the main door fitted to every door, and in result we got stuck in the wrong building , almost loosing hope, we would ever find it. We did – after one hour….Maybe we are not the smartest people in this world, but we had been walking around Vienna continuously for 9 hours. I love that city it has perfect size, it’s posh – I mean that’s true but it also has this hard-to –be-explained charm. It’s like being transferred to another époque.  At this time of the year you can feel xmas atmosphere in Vienna, decorations everywhere, lights in different shapes and size being hang up in the air, all over the buildings. It was extremely crowded with tourists and hard to get to the line for hot wine. It was delicious and the fact that it was not served in plastic cups gave you an extreme pleasure to enjoy the pre-xmas spirit. Going back from Danube, we again lost the way to the hostel, a bit in despair we decided to have a dinner in an Italian restaurant we were passing by. Nevertheless if you want to have the best breakfast ever go to the place called Zanoni e Zanoni, it's an Italian gelateria run as the name says by Italian family, so if you ever feel tired after walking for 9 hours like us, just go there and grab a big breakfast that consists of rolls, croissants, juice, coffee, prosciutto and cheese. Yummy

 

On the way back to Budapest (and here again the funny part strikes in), there were two extremely weird women (actually one woman and one girl?) in our compartment. One after initiating a discussion with random men she had just met, claimed to be the most famous hairdresser in Hungary. Jesus she bragged about it continuously for 3 hours! Can you imagine? Well she also revealed some facts about her romance with a slightly younger guy, who as she said is extremely cute...Just for the record as she emphasized the kids don't have clue about the story.  On the other hand the other woman, had two Iphones and was retouching her photos from whitening her eyes, correcting eyebrows to enlarging her breasts .....ALERT ALERT weirdos on the train. :)

 

Big breakfast at Zanoni e Zanoni

Grazie mille :)

 

 

Indications on how to get to our room

Two always lost tourists

 

Magical Vienna

Emiliana Torrini's concert

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 months in Budapest

I don't remember when was the last time I actually wrote sth, a note, a letter, or just simply anything...I guess 3 months ago more or less. Yes, let's come to the 'anniversary point', as I have been living in the city of Budapest for 3 months now. It's not exactly the same experience as previously living in Iceland or in Rome. It gets bitter , at times it leaves a sour taste, nevertheless can be sweet as well. Anyway I still don't feel comfortable , when asked about the reason for coming here (remains silent).

During those three months, I had been moving already thrice until I finally found a place of my own. It's an extremely cozy and nice apartment, which I share with two girls from France and Australia. It would have been everything fine, if it hadn't been for the hole in the ceiling on the way to the kitchen and toilet, that became a sort of dangerous zone. Just imagine I have to pass the way to see the man about the horse (such a weird English expression is that...) couple of times a day fearing that some debris will fall down on my head. And alll of this happened because of  our wonderful neighbours upstairs, who decided to change floors in their flat, but i guess somebody was drilling too hard and voila here it is a profound hole in the ceiling ...My landlord even joked we should be taking umbrella on the way to the toilet...I'll skip that though.. The only positive thing of this situation that the rent has been slighlty reduced.

Anyway the political situation gets pretty crazy here, and its seems that the goverment who appears as a very narrow-minded one, wants to confine freedom of Hungarians, for instance implementing taxes on internet use. The other thing is that the same  goverment is trying to forge firm relations with Russia. I'm so looking forward to going to Poland for a vacation. Plus Vienna in one and a half weeks. Sometimes I feel as if i was in Poland here - I mean I go to a supermarket and find products with Polish labels, so at least I understand what I purchase without learning Hungarian :P.

Oh i forgot I went paint balling with folks from my work. I don't think I was made for running around and shooting people, but apparently almost everyone liked to shoot me. Unfortunately the intimate zones of my body were suffering a lot. Still was a great dose of fun. Yeah I do have nice colleagues. Lucky me

                   Just for the record has anyone of you ever tried a selfish salmon?

No clue how to title this post....

Once somebody asked me what I like about Hungary? After I had been racking my brains in order to find an appropriate answer I simply said : Hungary made me realize Poland is not such a bad country, moreover it’s much better. Since then I have started appreciating my country ....It might sound a bit offensive but it's true. However for a change I would like to say there are couple of things I'm actually chirpy about. Old Hungarian people are cute and sweet especially when they know some Polish words. I finally moved out and moved in later on to a new flat, which is cozy and located in a very nice area, although it gets loud at times. I've also met some amazing folks , whom I adore due to the abundance of help, trust and understanding I have received from them. It's extremely hard when you decide to move abroad only because of someone you had loved but suddenly it falls apart so that you have to wipe the slate clean and begin from scratch. Not a very pleasant experience but still valuable. I wish you all an exquisitely fabulous weekend.

I forgot to mention I’m in love with a cat of my ex flatmate, and he is an apple of my eye.  Cheers  

1. Sweet dolfi the cat of my flatmate

 3. The Nagymezzo street, where I live