Buda buda buda pest rockin everywhere

Nerdy title...sue me.  Anyway, I just got back from Budapest and it was fascinating.  This was our school sponsored trip so everyone from our program went including a few faculty members.  Budapest is actually two parts (similar to Prague) with a Buda side and a Pest side.  The city sits on several hot springs and Budapest literally means hot water.  Our trip was led by this guy Uli who teaches @ Stanford sometimes and looks like Pierce Brosnan.  He has a penchant for walking ten feet ahead of a group, globalization, and apparently Elvis (I'll explain later).  This trip was part school, part leisure, so we went to several lectures throughout our three days there.  I have to say the lectures were pretty interesting because I knew so little about Hungarian politics or attitudes.  Several of our speakers were rather negative, especially about the economy and about Hungarian interest in the EU.  Apparently the vast majority of citizens don't feel that their EU membership (starting in 2004) has done much for them.  I think everyone would say they learned a lot from these talks, but probably the funniest one was a talk about Hungarian economics in a really small room where seven people were sleeping at once.  I had to pretend I was picking up something from the ground because I almost burst out laughing while looking at the sleeping people.  Needless to say we did a lot of walking and were worn out for a lot of the trip!

During our limited free time I was surprisingly able to do and see a lot.  My favorite thing I saw was a museum called The Terror House, which commemorates Nazi and Soviet occupations.  The museum was in an old execution house that also housed high up party members.  The exhibit was super angsty and unlike any other museum I've ever seen.  Every room had eerie music and it's all a pretty dark representation of everything that happened.  It was visually incredible and in every room there was a hand out about what the room represented and the history surrounding everything.  Look it up online...it was intense.  

Some other highlights were going to a gorgeous Synagogue, exploring the huge central market, visiting the historic parliament building and the Budapest Castle, and going to a Turkish bath.  So yes...the bath.  I forgot my swimsuit in Berlin so I ended up buying a cheap tacky ass Euro swim suit so I could partake in a bath.  The bath I went to is one of the oldest in Budapest and is situated in a really nice area.  The funny thing was that after we all changed my friend said we'd have to go back upstairs and I got confused because I had imagined that we would be going down into some cave-like hot springs.  I was picturing more playboy mansion grotto than what it actually was--several outdoor and indoor pools of varying temperature that resembled a resort in Cabo or something.  We still had a great time though!

Going out in Budapest was pretty fun but also relatively lame given the fact that we had to get up early all the time.  I did however manage to see two Elvis impersonators.  One night I went with a group to a bar where there was a 1950s cover band playing...strange sight.  There was an Elvis impersonator there for one song.  We only got in because we were "from" California and we "know" Schwarzenegger.  Anyway, I made some nice Hungarian friends and was able to dance to Thunderstruck once the band left and a DJ took over.  Really fun times.  Then, last night, Uli chose for us to have a group dinner at a restaurant in part because there was going to be an Elvis show.  Apparently the impersonator has won a bunch of awards and travels throughout Europe.  The whole thing was pretty hysterical and also embarrassing because the singer expected us to know all the songs because we're American and as he said, Elvis is our king.  Some images never fade...

Adios, Ellen