67 Posts Into My Scottish Adventure...

I couldn't just leave my blog to fester with 66 posts. Too much potential for evil.

Anyway, so much has been happening, I've gotten practically no sleep for the past week. Tenants has been on air for a week, meaning we're only about one fourth of the way through its broadcast. That's right, only 6 out of a whopping 20 episodes have aired. I often wonder what we were thinking, taking on a project this big. Tallah and I have been really busy with editing the episodes, adding in music and sound effects, tacking on intros and outros, finding missing lines, ... and basically not sleeping. Since I had four exams last week it's my turn to go the extra mile on the soap this week while she catches up with her work. Whew.

So yeah, school? What's that? Kidding. Like I said, last week was a gauntlet of exams, with Animal Biology on Monday, a class test for Genetics Wednesday, lab exam for Animal Bio Thursday, and Oceanography on Friday. It was hell, but at least it's over now. Soon as I get the chance to catch up on my sleep I'll be ok.... I have one more exam, the final for Genetics, on May 8th, and then I'm finished! I'm done relatively early in comparison to some of my classmates; the exam period officially ends May 25 and I do know some sad souls with an exam that day.

Rugby season is coming to a close here, and we have just one game left. Our last premier (club) league game was yesterday, against the Murrayfield Wanderers ("Wandies"), which was rough. They're a good club side, and very "street smart", as the ref called it. What is 'street smart' in rugby, you ask? Little things that aren't always technically legal if the ref sees them. Like, say, tripping me while I'm running to catch up with play across the field or punching one of our locks after the breakdown's been blown up. If you don't know rugby lingo... you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Don't worry about it -- they play dirty, is what I'm trying to say. Unpleasant. Ok, you're going to beat us by a substantial margin anyway, why bother being nasty? It just doesn't make rugby any fun to play. Anyway, we've got one game left, and a rather important one at that: it'll be the playoff to determine if we can move up into the BUSA Premier North League, instead of staying in SUSA (Scotland). It'd be awesome if we win, we would get to play at a much higher tier next season and probably improve loads. Not that I'm going to be there or anything, but still.

The weather here has been amazing, by Scotland standards. It's gone from LA-winter-like to Norcal-summer-like weather; cool in the mornings and evenings but warm and sunny during the day. Still a bit nippy for shorts unless you're running around and you pretty much always need a jumper or coat for when the wind picks up. Nonetheless, it's a big improvement! Also, spring is in gorgeous bloom, with a new bunch of flower or tree starting to blossom just about every week. Right now it's the cherry trees, which I love, so large chunks of The Meadows (and other, smaller green spaces around town) are lined with pale-pink blossoms. It's just gorgeous. Sigh, spring is here, though summer seems to be a ways off.

And speaking of summer, I'll fill you in on my plans, since they're nearing completion every day. Sorry, no, that makes it sound like I'm some sort of mad scientist or something. Anyway, like I've said before, I'm going to be living in Edinburgh for the summer. This means I get to stay and help Fresh Air cover the Edinburgh Festival in August and (boo, drudgery) get a job. Well, can't live for free I guess, huh? Would be nice, though. Things have changed slightly with the living situation and I'm staying at my friend Kiran's flat, with him, our friend Heather, and one of his existing flatmates. Plus a bunch of my other friends will be living really nearby in the same neighborhood. It's going to be really fun.

Enough from me, I need to eat some dinner and get to editing the next episode of Tenants. More later! Once I have more energy I'll put up photos galore. I promise.

Tenants!

Wow, it's going on air today! The soap opera I've been working on for ages is finally getting it's premiere at 1pm (repeated at 5.30pm) on Fresh Air. In fact, that's when you can hear it every day, with an omnibus on Saturdays at 12.30!

We've got our own page on the Fresh Air site, in addition to our myspace page.

Ok, ok, a little more explanation is due, I suppose. Too bad! You'll just have to listen! (Or download the podcast.)

Late Night Thoughts/Update

How's life? Boring. What have I been up to? Studying for finals, or as they'd say here, revising for exams. That and working to get Tenants the soap ready for broadcast Monday. I have four exams next week. So much fun to look forward to.

The weather here is warming up a bit -- it's now like an LA winter, but without so much rain and a bit windier. Also, all the flowers and trees have started blooming, and I can't wait until The Meadows' cherry trees hit full blossom.

Wrap It Up! (European Adventure Part 8 of 8)

Sorry for the few days delay, I've been decompressing my travel experiences upon arrival back in Edinburgh. Now, to where I left off talking about Budapest...

First, our adventures in Pest: Heroes Park is a huge plaza with enormous statues to a bunch of Hungarian Dudes. Sorry, I'm afraid I can't be any more specific than that, otherwise I'll have to kill you/admit I didn't read everything in the guidebook. We strolled about and had a look, and then went over to the neighboring park to chill and grab a couple pretzels. In one part of the park was the amazing Magyar Museum (an amazing building, we didn't actually go inside) where we wandered around and snapped away suitably. Back on the Metro, to pop up next to the apparently famous Gerbeaud cafe in Vorosmarty Ter, where we had lunch after doing some shopping at the Easter market in the square. Onwards from our posh luncheon, to Parliament. Breathtaking building, absolutely gorgeous. We walked on from there, down the banks of the Danube, and got to see the sun starting to set over the hills of Buda, which was lovely. Realizing that daylight was running short, we hurried over to St. Stephen's Basilica and ran around inside taking awe-struck photos as politely as possible, since it was Easter Sunday. It is the only place I've ever literally said "Oh my god" as soon as I walked in. (And give me some credit, I've been to my share of fancy churches.) It's huge and beautifully decorated inside, almost everything is golden. It's just incredible. Anyway, after that we ran over to the Old Synagogue, but it was closing so we had to make do with pictures of the outside (still lovely, though). Afterwards, we wandered around town for ages trying to find an open supermarket or at least somewhere to get food. (Sadly, we had to repeat the same adventure the next night, too.)

I wish we'd had more time in Budapest to actually go into places instead of just standing outside and taking pictures before moving on to the next landmark.

Now for that amazing overall travel reflection: I love how everything, absolutely everything, becomes and adventure when you're traveling. "Ok! We found the bus we need! Now we just have to buy a ticket for it..." "Look, there's a ticket machine!" Fortunately, the machine speaks English. Unfortunately, according to the machine, we do not. What shall we do next guys? Try and buy a train ticket? Find a toilet? Dare we even attempt to figure out how to get inside this building?? Sometimes a bit of daring and the ability to accurately pantomime is all you need.

Anyway, it feels really good to be back in Edinburgh. I loved every minute of my trip, but I'm very glad I decided to come back early -- it just gives me the time to breathe a little and ease into studying rather than having an exam four days after I return. I swear, though, I felt like I was gone for about a month.

As always, pictures to follow (when I have the motivation/time).

Part 7: No More Guessing, I'm Bored With This Game

Eastern European Adventure Wrap Up:
The Journey Home to Edinburgh

7.15am, catch the tram from Rakoczi* ter to Blaha Lujza ter. 7.20am, catch M2 Metro from Blaha Lujza ter to Deak Ferenc ter, transfer to M3 Metro. 7.30am, M3 Metro to Kobanya-Kispest, end of the line. 7.55am, catch BKV-Ferihegy bus no. 200 to Airport. 8.30am, check-in, everyone mobs the desk. 10.30am, catch EasyJet flight to London Luton with several very active small children. 10.31am, headache begins. 12.15pm, collect baggage, realize iPod charger is missing from checked backpack; headache worsens. 12.25pm, airport bus from Luton to Baker Street tube station. 1.35pm, tube from Baker Street to King's Cross/St. Pancras. 1.49pm, arrive King's Cross and realize I have 11 minutes to make a cheaper train or wait till 3pm; I run. 1.50pm panic at ticket buying machine. 1.52pm, get on train, feel silly for running and panicking. 2pm prompt, safely on a train to Edinburgh as it departs King's Cross. 5.25pm, iPod runs out of battery. 6.30pm, arrive back in Edinburgh, walk home, make a cup of tea, and promptly overdose on the interenet.

Sigh..............

(*All Hungarian place names are missing several accent marks)

Can You Guess.... Part 6

End of the Adventure:
A Pleasant Day in Buda

Yesterday = Pest
Today = Buda
Tomorrow = Home! (ish)

Tonight is my last evening before I fly back to London, and I'll be sad to leave Eastern Europe. It's been a trip, to say the least. Anyway, on to the last couple day's events...

Today we struck out nice and early, like the good workers we are, and trekked out to the Statue Park, a collection of old communist statues. Unless you are as amused by these old sculptures as we were, I wouldn't recommend going, it's nothing amazing. However, if you like blasphemy and silly photos in front of statues, you'd be in heaven (like us!). A few postcards and one ridiculous Lenin-shaped candle later, we were on our way back into town, ready to tackle Buda.

We had lunch (pizza again, how adventurous) and then headed up into the old town on the hill. We started out at Fisherman's Bastion, an amazing fortification along the wall with great views of the city along the river. It stretches the length of a few city blocks and is made all out of white stone. It's beautifully decorated and, interestingly enough, all the columns are in different styles. After that we wandered around the old cathedral and over to the palace for some more great vistas and photos. On the way we stopped at a little handicrafts market, and I got an embroidered table runner which I plan to use as a wall hanging. The sole reason I bought it is so that when I have kids and they say, "Mom, why do we have so much old crap in the house?" I can say, "Ohhh no, I bought this in Hungary aaaaages ago, when I was on vacation from Edinburgh. I must have been, oh, 20 years old? That was 2007; it's very old and valuable now." It's a red floral pattern on a rough, tan colored piece of linen.

Anyway, on to the palace, where we walked around wallowing in its splendor, and then I fell asleep in the grass for a bit while Stephanie wrote some postcards. Lovely, except now I'm a little sunburned. Me! That's how pathetically pasty I've become, living in Scotland. I'm out in the sun for one day and the back of my neck gets sunburned. Tsk. Anyway, we walked back down through Buda and headed back to the hostel to regroup before heading out to get groceries and dinner.

Buda and Pest are amazing cities, both old and beautiful in their own ways. Buda's much more medieval and renaissance, up on the hill and overlooking the Danube, while Pest is flat and has lovely large boulevards decorated in a more baroque style. I love both parts, and oddly enough the city reminds me a bit of San Francisco. Sigh, home.

More in a bit, there's people waiting to use the computer here....

Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 5

The Adventure Continues:
Budapest

Yesterday: Pest
Today: Buda
(Tomorrow: Budapest --> London --> Edinburgh)

Yes, Budapest is actually two distinct cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube. Yesterday we got our transit passes and fully took advantage of the metro and tram, zipping all over Pest to see some of the amazing monuments. I'd read in Lonely Planet that Pest is the flat, industrial neighbor to Buda, so I'd assumed it would be rather boring and probably kind of ugly. Here is where I am wrong. Very wrong. I'll elaborate more on what we saw later (we're on our way out the door right now for a full day in Buda, as it's our last day), but the list includes: Heroes Park, The Magyar Museum, Parliament, The Danube, some cool Easter marketplace and lunch at a well-known cafe, St. Stephen's Basilica (though not his mummified right hand, boo), and the old synagogue. I might have forgotten a couple of things; I'll have to check my pictures and guidebook and fill you in later.

Now we're off to Statue Park, where they've dragged a bunch of old communist statues together, and then Buda. I'm excited.

P.S. If I thought Romanian was hard... Hungarian is crazy. No joke. They have words longer than train stations to put them on.

Radio Update

My radio show, Rhymes With Unk, will return April 23rd, to be broadcast every Monday from 5.30-7pm on Fresh Air! And if you ignore this reminder, I'll track you down and break your knees. Or maybe just post another blog. Yes, that'll be cheaper.

FreshAir.org.uk

Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 4b

Yesterday/Saturday = 12 hour train ride Brasov --> Budapest
Today/Easter Sunday = Budapest
(Tomorrow/Easter Monday (argh!) = Budapest)

Right, so I didn't cover a few things in my blog last night, but they're all sort of retrospective-y things on Romania anyway. First of all, I heard two (Romanian) jokes while I was there, which I thought were funny.

First one: The parts of the body are having a meeting to decide who should be the boss. The brain says, "I should be the boss because I tell the body what to do, I coordinate the movements and I do all the thinking." The eyes disagree, and say, "We should be the boss because we perceive the world around us, figure out what's important, and gather information." The mouth chimes in: "I should be the boss because I control the information going out and communicate to the outside world." Then the butt speaks up. "I should be the boss," it says, "because when I decide to stop working, no more food can come in and the whole system shuts down." Moral of the story: Any asshole can be the boss.

Second one: Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism are having a tea party. On the day of the event, Capitalism and Communism show up, but Socialism is late. Finally, Socialism runs in, out of breath, and apologizes: "Sorry I'm late guys, I was waiting in line for meat." Capitalism says, "What's a line?" and Communism says, "What's meat?"

Well I thought they were funny. The second one is a little more Romanian, but I think the first is pretty universal. You know me and my jokes... bad and inseparable.

Anyway, Romania was an interesting country to visit; it really is a bit of a mind boggle that it is in Europe proper and the EU. It's sort of a hard country to visit, but I'm really glad I went. So much cooler than everyone else's spring break trips to Berlin, Rome, Paris, etc.

Lovely reflections on Budapest and Hungary to follow, when I've actually experienced something of the city.

Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 4

There's nothing like a refreshing 12 hour train ride to help remind you just how long a day can be. Fun.

Today was our epic journey from Romania to Hungary, via just about every single little town we could pass on the way. Add an hour or more for passport inspection at the border, twice (once by each country). Not getting hassled at the Brasov train station by some gypsy children. This girl of about 10 or so came up to us while Stephanie was buying Hungarian forint at the exchange window, but we just shook our heads and ignored her and headed for our platform. We knew it was going to be a long 20 minute wait for our train when we saw her crossing the tracks and climbing the fences across the tracks to get to us. Sigh. Not knowing any Romanian, we attempted to ward her off with shakes of the head and saying 'nu inteleg' (which means 'I don't understand'), and she finally walked off with the banana peels left over from our breakfast on the platform. Odd. We think she was offering to throw them away for us for spare change. Anyway, she finally left, but her younger brothers (we assume) came round and tried their schtick. Not as clever as their sister, they both gave up after we told them we didn't understand Romanian. Tough situation.

On the upside, we did get our own train compartment for the trip, with 8 seats and just us 3 travelers. I've never seen an actual train compartment (except in Sherlock Holmes shows on PBS) much less been in one. Rustic and 70s-tastic, but comfy. Though we did get a little stir crazy after several hours. Napping, studying, and iPod wars ensued, with me taking gold in all events: I napped the most, studied, and my iPod died first.

Needless to say we arrived in Budapest all in one piece and found our way easily to our hostel (for once!). As we were walking off the train platform, an American woman approached us and asked, "Do you speak English? Oh, yes, Canada!" commenting on the deceptively placed Canadian flag luggage tag on Stephanie's backpack. Before we could even say anything, she handed us three validated metro day tickets and told us they were good until midnight. Welcome to Budapest, indeed. Since our hostel was within walking distance, we took a joyride on the trams just to see if we could find a supermarket that was open. We didn't, but enjoyed the trip and felt like we used the tickets.

From what we've seen in our limited wander around, it looks very nice and I'm excited to be in a more... developed (is that PC to say?) country.

Looking back on Romania, I'm glad we went there first. It would be sort of a shock after seeing Budapest, since the country's so dirty and much less developed. The difference was apparent immediately as soon as we crossed into Hungary -- there wasn't trash strewn all over the place, houses were in proper shape, fields of livestock had fences around them, no horse-drawn wagons... even the bicycles looked nicer and in better shape.

Anyway, my trip here is sadly almost over, as I'm leaving to go back to London on Tuesday. I get the next couple days here (Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, wooo.... better go hang out in the Jewish Quarter...) and then returning to Edinburgh to be able to study enough for my finals. Steph and Clancey are going on to Sarajevo and Croatia, following our original itinerary. I'm glad I came along and would love to see the rest, but I'm not going to lie, I will really appreciate the 9 extra days to study.

As always, pictures to follow. :)

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Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 3

Next Part of the Eastern European Adventure:
Transylvania

Wednesday = Bucharest --> Brasov (via train)
Thursday = Peles Castle, Rasnov, Bran Castle
Today = Brasov
(Tomorrow = 11 hour train to Budapest!)

So much to say, where to begin? Well, I'm in Brasov now, a cute little mountain city in the mountains, and a great place for trips around the area. Upon arrival on Wednesday, we congratulated ourselves on buying tickets and getting on what we thought was the right bus. As it turns out, bus lines change and we rode in a few circles and spent a few extra lei getting to the hostel for the evening. Annoying as that was, it was a lot easier than finding the place in Bucharest. We settled in and headed out for a walk around town in the evening light before treating ourselves to a nice traditional Romanian fare at a restaurant near the hostel. Appetizer, beer, and mains included, our 3 person bill came to 59 lei, or about $23. Not bad! Being the power tourists that we are, we turned in early and prepared for our castle tour the next day.

The hostel we're staying at gives minibus tours of the main castles nearby, Bran, Rasnov, and Peles. For only 60 lei, you get transportation (though not entrance) to all three. After talking to fellow travelers who said they'd spent 68 lei and two days accomplishing the same feat, we decided to take the gamble and sign up. I'm normally pretty wary of tours from the places you stay, but this was a good deal, and even included a stop at a restaurant for lunch. Anyway, on to the interesting part: the castles. The Peles Castle is a magnificent building, and was actually more of a summer palace for the royal family. Decorated in a variety of styles (Italian, German, Baroque, Hungarian, Iranian, Middle Eastern, Indian, etc.), it was a gorgeous 59 room example of royal finery and excess. Beautiful. Rasnov castle was a place of defense for the region, so it's up on a mountain, and has amazing views. It's crumbling, but still mostly intact, and even has a bit of a museum in one part. Probably my favorite castle of the three, for the views and cool stone remains. Bran was the third castle we visited, and is for some reason associated with Vlad Tepes a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, once King of Wallachia, whom Dracula was based upon. Apparently he never actually set foot in the castle, but it's still cool. It's less impressive castle than really really cool, modest palace fort kinda place (adjectives fail me right now, sorry). The modest size of most rooms inside and white architecture made me liken it to a very very spacious Greek style house. But in a royal kind of way... Hard to explain. Anyway, back to the hostel for some food and another early evening.

Today we set out for Brasov's main drag, intending to see the interiors of the old Synagogue and the Black Church. Unfortunately, there was something going on in the Synagogue (which is only open till 1pm anyway) and since it's Good Friday most of the churches are actively in use. Kinda awkward and gauche to go busting in and snapping photos during services/prayers. Not to be deterred, we explored more of the city, and climbed some trails up to the old defense tower, the Blacksmiths' Bastion, and had some lovely italian pastries (which I ordered in a mixture of Romanian and sign language). Afterwards, more exploring, and back to the hostel to cook for ourselves again and pack up for tomorrow.

Brasov is a much more welcoming city than Bucharest, which makes sense since it is the most visited city in Romania. It's very pretty and has a lovely town square; Lonely Planet dubs it "The New Prague." Fitting. Though smaller, it actually looks how I expected Bucharest to look. Oh well. We took the right advice and ended up in the small, nice city for several days rather than the dirty capital. I'm also feeling like I stand out a little less, or maybe it's just that I'm not as stared at here. Either way, I feel slightly more comfortable. I think it's just that people are more used to foriegners.

Tomorrow's our 11 hour train trip to Budapest, so I'd best be off and charge my iPod!

Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 2

The Eastern European Adventure Begins:
Bucharest

Sunday = London
Monday = London --> Bucharest
Today = Bucharest
(Tomorrow = Bucharest --> Brasov!)

Hello All, I write to you from the Romanian capital city, Bucuresti! It's, er... nice. Doesn't seem to really have recovered from communism yet, though. I have a picture (that I'll put up later) that sums it all up: nice, old building, flanked by decent modern and ugly crumbling ones. At least the hostel here is nice and homey.

It's a very new experience for me, traveling in a country where neither I nor the people I'm with speak the language. English isn't terribly common here, and it's hard to communicate "we don't understand" with much more than a vacant pleading stare, a shrug, and a shake of the head. From my knowledge of Spanish and French, and The Lonely Planet's guide on Romanian (of which one page is ripped out -- second hand books are lovely!), I can get by enough to find the right way on the metro or point out menu items. But just barely.

Yesterday was a trip and a half. We flew from Luton (London) to Bucharest International Airport, which (I think) is the best (by which I mean most entertaining) airport I've met so far. Disembark the plane on to the two packed shuttle buses, just to drive 50ft. in a semicircle to the one gate terminal. The baggage handlers place your luggage on the carousel outside, just on the other side of the window, then run in and take it off the conveyor belt since there's too much to fit on it all at once. From that point on we began the long wander to our hostel, including plenty of faffing about with the airport buses and a lucky tip from some fellow hostelers.

Today was a grand, self-led walking tour of the city, after adventures with buying tickets at the train station. We pretty much walked Central Bucharest from south to North, starting at the House of the People/Palace of the Parliament. Onwards up through the old quarter (small, windy, crumbling cobblestone streets), into a lovely park with good people watching, then up to Piata Revolutiei with many cool and important buildings. Most interesting in Piata Revolutiei was the Cescu Church, which was gutted during the 1989 revolution. It was left vacant for awhile in remembrance of those who died in the revolution, but now a glass building lives inside of it. (That's really the only way to describe how it looks.) There are still bullet holes in the walls.

Bucharest is an interesting city. If Prague and Budapest are the first steps out of the west, one of our German hostel-mates told us, then Bucharest is the second. I would agree. There's a great disparity between rich and poor here, with a very thin gilding of posh cafes, fancy cars, nice shops, and a Hilton. However, most of the people seem fairly poor, and the city in general is in terrible shape. There are a also a ton of cars here (so lots of smog), though apparently plenty of parking -- sidewalks are not off limits and I've had to dodge more than one car on territory I'd foolishly assumed was mine.

Romanians practice the art of aggressive queuing -- if you're not within eight inches of the person in front of you, you're not in line. Takes some practice, but Clancey showed everyone up by elbowing an old man out of the way at the supermarket.

I've been told by people that Romanians are both very kind and helpful and suspicious. To be fair, we've met with as many smiles as rolled eyes -- at least we're not pissing everybody off. Couldn't even say the same for NYC.

I've been feeling a little conspicuous here, as I'm as tall as most men here and a lot fairer than most. My blonde-counter ratio is running at 13:3 (artificial:natural) even after a full day of walking around the city. Glad I brought my cap! I'll probably be wearing it a lot in the next few days.

So... what's next? Brasov: heart of Romania, Transylvania, and seated near some of the prettiest (still medieval-looking) towns in the country. Or so Lonely Planet says. They've not been wrong so far!

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