Farewell Party for July in Budapest 2015 exchangees.

I still cant believe we've had our farewell party yesterday. We talked about which moment was the most memorable one and for me it's my first week in the hospital and when I talked to my roommates at night. Then we wrote our impression of each other in a paper sticked in our back and in the end they played a video which was a compilation of the photos we took during the whole month. To be honest Hungary was not in my list of choice and I didnt know how I can be placed here but then I started to like this city. I still remembered clearly my first day here; it was so horrible because I felt so weird being in such a different place with what I've imagined before. Some people have left last week and now everybody is leaving one by one. My roommate, Marisa, left today and you know Im an easily touched person so I cried. I, Marisa, and another roommate, Zehra, spent much time together. We laughed over simple things and we shared about info about our countries. After the official farewell party yesterday, we had another farewell party at night. I learnt so many things from this exchange. This is my first time coming to Europe, my first time travelling alone, my first time in Budapest, my first time being an exchange, my first time living in a room with other girls and no aircon, my first time seeing a shower without curtain, my first time meeting so many people from different countries, my first time to be in a place where there's nobody I knew before, my first time being sooooo far away from my family, and still a lot more. But I really enjoyed it. On my first and third weeks here it was so hot (41C) and we always complained about the weather; now it's so damn cold (20C). I was confused about how to use the metro on my first day in Budapest because we have no metro system in Indonesia and this one was different with the one I used in Paris before. I used monthly public transportation card so it's easier for me to go anywhere whenever I wanted to since it's free. When I was bored, I always walked to some new places and enjoyed the view. The weather in the first week really annoyed me but still I like this city. My personally favorite places in the city were Fisherman's Bastion and House of Parliament. I regretted not to know everyone better and I hope we can meet again next time. Thank you for everything during this exchange. See you when I see you again.

Love all these girls sooooo much. Will miss you all a lot T^T

We are the residence of Room 4 lol

Sad because it's the last day T^T

Behind the scene

Vienna.

I had a 3d2n trip to Vienna last weekend and just came back yesterday. It's soooo good. Vienna is very different from Budapest; I think it's more developed and they had many tourists everywhere. Vienna, Prague, and Budapest are not similar at all even though geographically they are close to each other. I feel Vienna is a bit similar to Paris while Prague has more gothic or darkness aura (lol). Budapest is a bit like old city where they use old metro. They also had many touristic places but too bad it's a bit difficult to find guided tour for those places. Back to Vienna, we went to the Parliament, Museum of Natural History, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Opera House, The Rathaus (Town Hall), and many other places. We also visited Schönbrunn Palace and Hofburg Palace which stories are connected to each other. Schönbrunn Palace tells about the King Franz Joseph I and his wife, Elisabeth "Sisi" while Hofburg is more about Sisi's life timeline. In the same time, last weekend was the celebration of 25 years Film Festival in Vienna so they hold an open theatre in front of the Town Hall and it's so crowded (Im not sure but maybe they hold the open theatre for the whole month). The movie was Swan Lake and I was so excited about it because this was my first time but it turned out to be an opera-like movie which I didnt understand at all. In this city you can also find lots of street arts. I will definitely come again to this city; three days are not enough for me T^T

Marisa - Zehra - Lilian - me - Cagla - Gulli

Schönbrunn Palace

Museum of the Austrian National Library

After almost 3 weeks in Budapest.

It's been almost 3 weeks since I've been staying in Budapest. Observed lots of things, I just knew that we have so many differences. Foods, cultures, habits, education, etc. Hungarian always says "szia" or 'sziasztok' when they meet someone which means "hello" and you should reply that. The pronounciation is the same as "see ya"; that's why I was confused at first when I just arrived in the hospital and the nurse greeted me. It's also not necessary to reply someone if they say hello in my country especially when it's a stranger who greets us. We just smile or reply sometimes. It's rude when you dont reply them and I experience it when I was buying something. They also always say thanks for everything; it's "köszönöm" or "köszi". My doctor always says that whenever the nurse gives him the surgery instruments. The special Hungarian dish is goulash; it's soup or stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices. I like this one because they use lots of spices and it's served hot, definitely my favorite. Sometimes I find European food is too plain for me. Here they also always eat with salt and bread. This is so weird for me because we never have salt on the table. The internet here is also very fast; it's like 6++ Mbps but my friend says it's slow lol In Indonesia it's even difficult to get 200 kbps. People here often say "igen" which means "yes" but they say it like "igen igen igen" in very fast which is funny for me. When they say "yo" which means "good", they also say it like "yo yo". I really like it when they say igen igen or yo yo xD
PS: all pics are taken by me.

Budapest view from Gellert Hill in the afternoon

Budapest view from the Green Bridge at night

Great Market Hall at night

Margitsziget.

Finally I have a proper weekend this week and decided to go to Margaret Island with my friends. They went this morning for swimming and I joined them a bit later. This island is called as Margitsziget in Hungary and it's located in Danube River between Buda and Pest. You can reach this island by metro M3 to Nyugati Palyaudvar and change to metro 4 or 6 to Szell Kalman Ter. It's a recreational park, so nobody actually lives here but there's swimming pools, parks, restaurants, and the main attraction is the dancing fountain. I went there quite early today around 4pm and got to watch the show for 3 times since it scheduled for each hour. Budapest was burning hot today, and it felt so good to be there because I sat under the shade and it was windy.

PS: 

If you are wondering why I always write what I did during my exchange, it's because I want to have a travel diary so that I can remember what I did during the trip.