10/4/07
Budapest, Hungary
Well, yesterday we arrived in Budapest and started a quick search for a hostel and lunch. It's hard to arrive in a brand new city, but we got a hostel first thing, then wandered through the city to get a little oriented and got a better hostel and moved. We ate a snack of finger sandwiches, and then ate a real meal at a buffet style restaurant. There are a lot of fixed price lunch menus here, which I like. The lunch was good, and included lots of cream sauces, stews, soups and breaded dishes; basically comfort food.

After we settled into our new hostel, we wandered the streets a bit more, bought opera tickets and took a walk to the Chain Bridge and back to our hostel. Budapest is beautiful and much calmer than Istanbul. The walk was pleasant because of Budapest's wide sidewalks and somewhat kinder drivers. I was immidiately struck by the grand structures in the city; there are lots of marble and stone statues high atop buildings.

After our walk, we rushed to the Opera after a quick bite to eat, and watched Andre Chevier- an opera about a love affair between a noble lady and a poet during the French Revolution. I didn't understand a thing, but I loved the experience. The building itself was incredible, and I loved the costumes and music. It all felt quite romantic.

Today, I went for a run along the Danube and back to the room, then Emmett and I embarked on a trip to the main city park in Pest. We first went to the zoo, which was fantastic! I loved the old zoo buildings with ornate roofs, and seeing all the monkeys. Other highlights included these cool sculpures of polar bears, horses and sharks made of recycled materials.

After the zoo, we wandered through the park and ended up at one of the royal palaces there, which housed the museum on anthropology. We explored for a bit, then looked for food optoins, which were quite slim. This started a downfall into hunger, and we ended up eating viena sausages at the more contemporary art museum. After sustanance, we entered the art hall, but later figured out it isn't the main modern art museum, which made sense, because there were very few art pieces. The building itself was an amazing spot for art- huge halls, and good lighting, but the exhibits were not all that stimulating.

10/3/07

?, Hungary 10a.m.

Now, after over 34 hours on the train, we are about 1 hour from Budapest. I'm getting excited about arriving and exploring the city. Besides the first night, the train experience has been pretty great. I enjoy watching the scenery go by. Yesterday we passed through Bulgaria, which was very green and mountanous; a lot like Vermont. Then, we entered Romania, and stopped in the evening for a couple hours and walked briskly through the town to stretch our legs. My favorite part of the walk was a city park, and the country road leading out of town, where horse drawn carriges, old men on bikes, and motorcars passed us by. We found 3 tiny puppies who tried to nurse on our fingers, and then followed us a little ways down the road.

We were psyched we brought a lot of train food from Istanbul because there was nothing to buy on the train- no dining car as we expected- and not even water, so we ate sandwiches, fruit and snacks all day yesterday. Now, after sleeping much better than last night, we are listening to a traveling mix and watching farmland through the window.

10/2/07
Giuriu, Romania

Well, we're finally on the train on our way to Budapest. We left yesterday after a curious and somewhat frustrating day. After going for a morning run, we rushed to the train station at 10 a.m, then discovered that our train didn't leave until 10 PM! We were told twice that our train left in the morning, but obviously something was lost in the translation. So, we had an extra day in Istanbul, which was nice, but sort of funny because we said goodbye and were ready to leave.

We walked Sinan to his old university and wandered the city for the day. It was nice, because we got really nice views of the Bosphorus, got a baked potato (something Emmett has had his eyes on ever sinse arriving in Istanbul), and stopped by an art gallery. We had a big salad for dinner and said sad goodbyes again.

At the train station, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a six person sleeper car all to ourselves!! Sinan chased after our train as we pulled out the station just like a movie. We slept okay on the train, but we were woken up in the middle of the night multiple times to get our passport stamped. The worst was exiting Turkey because, at 2 a.m., they made us get off the train and wait in line for over half an hour in the cold. Later, passing into Bulgaria at about 4 a.m., I got really paranoid because the border police took our passports to stamp them, and I was worried it was some kind of scam. Of course, it was just procedure, but it made for an adventurous night.

Now, we are starting another full day on the train. It's nice to see the mountain scenery of Bulgaria and Romania as the train speeds past.

9/30/07
Istanbul, Turkey

This morning, I awoke early, and spent the morning downing Turkish coffee and catching up on e-mail. Later, Emmett, Sinan and I went out to see some art events for Turkey's biennial celebration. The first gallery we visited was my favorite. There was this piece depicting archived photographs of people posing on chunks of icebergs on the Bosphorus from the 50s. I liked the writing about the piece too, talking about the relationship of people and nature, and looking back to a time when people were more affected by it.

Later, we wandered Isteklal, and I finally got some baklava (which I'm saving for the long train ride tomorrow). We just got back from this cute cafe, where we reminisced about our friendship over free cake from the other patrons of the cafe celebrating a birthday. Tomorrow, we leave for a 32 hour train ride to Budapest!

9/29/07
Istanbul, Turkey
Today, I set off on my own to see the major sights of Istanbul before leaving for Eastern Europe. I took the train to Haghia Sophia mosque, which was one of my favorite sights in Turkey so far. It is an old bzyantine church from the Constantine era, which was later converted to a mosque with the Ottoman empire, so you can see these cool layers of history within the building.

After exploring the Haghia Sophia, I met Emmett to explore the Topkapi Palace, which was the center of the Ottoman Empire for many generations. It made Emmett think of the gross excess of rulers and tyrants, and our fascination with jewels and palaces. Although I agreed, I did enjoy the detailed tile work. We were looking forward to viewing the religious relics such as Mohamed's beard, but that part of the palace was unfortunately closed.

We visited the Grand Bazaar next, which was much too stiffling and crowded for me, but I liked the ornate roof, and small stalls. It was nice to walk around the city and look at the stalls and streets around the bazaar- it's really amazing how packed in everything is here.

9/28/07
Istanbul, Turkey
Today was Emmett's birthday, so we went to this island called Burgazadesi to have an adventure. After breakfast and presents, we embarked on our adventure on a boat trip through the Bosphorus sea. It was neat to see the city from the sea-- it gives you perspective on how huge Istanbul is. The main highlight of the boat trip was that we saw two dolphins, which were far away, but still really neat to see. We arrived in Burgazadesi and rented bikes to explore the island. It was a beautiful day and the town was really quite cute. There were no cars on the island, so people got around on horse drawn carriages and bikes onlz. We biked up a steep hill and saw an old Greek Orthodox monostary and cemetary, with old engravings and photographs behind glass of the deceased. After lunch at a seaside cafe, we walked to an old museum of the home of Turkish Author, Saik Faik. The home was built in the Ottoman fashion, and was filled with artifacts from the author's life. We wandered about town after the museum and came upon a complaining kittz in a tree, so Emmett, very bravely climbed up the tree and saved the cat! On the boat back to the city, we saw a gorgeous sunset on the boat and felt like we had a reallz wonderful day.

After meeting back up with Sinan, we walked to Isteklal Street to have a fancy Meze dinner (Meze is Turkish small plates). We sat in the 2nd floor of the restaurant and people watched over great food and conversation. We finished off dinner with birthday cake and Turkish coffee, and Sinan read my coffee grounds. He saw sails signifying travel, 2 birds flzing with a gift, and a lot of grounds left in the cup signifying a burden I'm carrying. All in all, it was an excellent day!