Badiceni Hram

8/28/30: Hram In Badiceni

Hram day translates to village/town/city day. On this day, family members travel to the village/town/city whose Hram it is to see their relatives. There are also sometimes concerts in cities. My host mother's mother and brother live in Badiceni, a nearby village, so we traveled there to see them. We got up early in order to catch the 7am mini-bus from our village to a neighboring one. There we hopped on another mini-bus that was going to a village near our destination. When we got to that village, my host mother flagged down a car which drove us to Badiceni. The driver didn't take us very far into the village, so we had to walk a ways to my host mother's brother's house. We got there early so we hung around for a couple of hours waiting for the other guests to arrive. Then we sat down at the table to eat. There was sausage, small fish, homemade champagne, sarmale, fresh cheese, and other food. The sarmale was brought out after we had eaten the cold food that had been set out. When we had finished eating the sarmale, candy and cookies were placed on the table. After sitting at the table for a little while, the three of us, myself, and my host mother and sister, headed to my host mother's parent's house.

                              I relaxed in a chair after eating, but some people remained at the table

                                              A couple other people relaxing after eating
It was a short walk from the brother's place. When we arrived, I took advantage of some down time to take some pictures of the house.

                                           In the summer, they wash their hands outside

                        The kitchen was in that building which was partly obscured by grape vines.

A closeup of one of the vines

The main house was also obscured by them

While the houses were both fairly small, the property was not

There was a backyard where some animals were. Past the gate was a medium-sized garden

After looking around. I went into the smaller house to help move food from the kitchen into the dining room which was in the main house. While waiting for the food to be served, I was able to talk in English with my host mother's 22 year old cousin. She lives and goes to college in Chisinau, but was back in Badiceni because of Hram. Compared to most people I have met in Moldova, her English was pretty good. After talking with her, food was served. The spread was similar to what I had eaten earlier so I didn't eat that much. A pleasant addition was a chocolate cake for dessert. We ate and chatted for a while before it was time to leave. My host sister wanted to get somewhere, so we only stayed for a few hours. We walked to the edge of town to wait for a car to come. After a short while, we were able to catch a ride to a main road. We hitchhiked there too. This time, because we couldn't get a car to stop, we caught a ride in a caruța. A caruța is a horse-drawn cart. We took the cart to the next main road, and there waited for yet another car. This time one came. However, it was only going part of the way we wanted, so when we reached another main road we got out. It kept going in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. Unfortunately, we had to wait at this intersection for 45 minutes before a mini-bus finally came and took us back to our village. My host sister just managed to catch the bus that would take her where we wanted to go. Overall, it was an eventful and somewhat exciting day.

8/29/2012: At school again.

School, having not started yet, was empty, so I took advantage of the opportunity to photograph my classroom. The most interesting find was probably a text book that was in Romanian, but not in the Latin alphabet.

The classroom, from the doorway

Some of the many grammar posters that hang on the walls

More of the grammar posters, and one about vowel sounds

The one bookshelf we have int the classroom along with the tables I use for my things

This book is in Romanian although it uses Cyrillic. It says in romanian "dezvolarea vorbiri la lecție de limbă franceza,," or in English "The development of speaking in French Lessons"

 

After photographing the room, I sat down to organize some of my papers from the past year. Then, I went home.
























                                   

                                                                                                    

From Vienna to Cotova

8/5/2012: Back to Moldova

We got up in time to have breakfast and take a taxi to the airport. Dad and Karen checked- in first at air lingus and then we went to a different terminal so that I could check in on Austrian Air, or rather an Air Moldova flight operated by Austrian Air. When I checked-in I was offered 250 euro to take a later flight. I accepted, but as it turned out I didn't qualify because I was not technically flying Austrian Air. Regardless, Dad, Karen, and I parted ways basically as soon as I had checked in. They went through security towards my gate and they went towards theirs. I had a long time before my flight so I just relaxed at my gate and enjoyed the free wifi. While I was there, I met some British people. They were a church group coming to Moldova to spend a week doing missionary work. On my way to my gate I won a 2 euro coupon by throwing a ball at a wall. On the wall were different monetary values ranging from 1 euro to 4. Shortly before my flight boarded, I bought a panini from a stand near my gate. It was very good, and probably the last one I will have for a while. Anyways, my flight to Moldova was fairly short, only a couple of hours. The plane was normal size though and I had no problem fitting my carry-on under the seat in front of me. Since my backpack is kind of large, I had trouble on the two small planes I was on heading to Hungary. When I arrived in Moldova I took a cab to the hostel. I got ripped off by about 30 lei because I didn't wait to ask for a cab until I was outside. Luckily, 30 lei is less than 3 dollars. I arrived at the hostel early in the day so I amused myself by talking to other people that were staying at the hostel.

8/6/2012: Back to Cotova
Already in Moldova, I was basically home. I took a shower but had some difficulty because the water ran out for part of the time. There hadn't been much rain all summer and I wonder if that had something to do with it. Either way, the lack of water made the shower less pleasant than I had hoped. Afterwards, I went to the mall for a quick lunch and a Dr. Pepper. Then I went to Peace Corps to relax for a bit before I took a cab to the Gara de Nord (the northern bus station). There I got on the rutiera (minibus) that would take me to the nearest town and to my village. Overall, I had a nice time with Dad and Karen and a very nice trip. 

Vienna

8/3/2012: Day 1 in Vienna

              Before we did anything else, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. There was fruit, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, cheeses, salami, croissants, fresh bread, Nutella, a variety of juices, pickles, and complimentary tea, coffee and hot chocolate. I had a big breakfast consisted of a little bit of everything.
After we ate, we walked to the smaller of the two churches on the square. It had dead saints under some of the altars that the public could see. You could see their skeletons.
                                         
                                  The busy St. Stephen's Square that we walked through many times
                                         
                                                      The smaller church had a really nice organ
                                          
                                                           One of the many altars in the church.
                                          
                                     You could see the dead body that was under some of the altars
                                                      
                                                                The church was very beautiful
              After that, we walked to the cathedral. We couldn't see much of it because a service was going on. It was a very beautiful building. Outside there were lots of people dressed as Mozart trying to sell concert tickets. They were very annoying because if you stopped they would approach you.
                                           
                                                            St. Stephan's Square and Cathedral
              Our next stop was the opera house. There we took a tour that was about an hour long and included a view of the back stage area and the auditorium. I learned that once a year there is a ball in the opera house and they take out the seats and extend the stage to create a large dance floor. They also set up the backstage to look like the front of the auditorium. Tickets to the ball cost hundreds of euros.
                                           
                                       Inside the opera house, there were four columns  in each corner
                                           
                                                       Each with a cherub holding a different thing
                                           
                          The ceiling was very interesting and contained Greek features, namely the square waves
                                         
                                        The lobby, where we had to wait for the tour, was very nice
                                         
                                                           As were many of the other rooms
                                        
                                A bust of one of the important figures in the history of the opera house
                                       
                                                                        A meeting room
                                       
                                          A dining room of sorts, maybe used during intermission
                                       
                            This painting is of the backstage and dressing room areas of the building
                                       
                                                                        The box seats
               After the tour, we took the metro to the Schoenbrunn Palace. Its style reminded me a lot of Versailles. I think it was built at a time when a lot of nations were trying to imitate the French. After a quick snack at a cafe near the palace, we went on a tour of it. The palace was beautiful and the tour guide was very knowledgeable. It was interesting to learn that nobility would only bathe once or twice a year. They wore perfume to try to cover up the smell but it didn't work that well. The tour of the palace lasted about an hour. Afterwards, we took a carriage ride around the palace grounds and saw a fountain, some Roman ruins, and a greenhouse.
                                       
                                                                    The Front of the Palace
                                       
                                                                   The Back of the Palace

     

The main fountain on the grounds

               Then, we walked over to the marionette theater. We weren't sure if we wanted to go, so we went inside to take a look. The puppets were very elaborate and nice.  We then went back outside to discuss whether we wanted to go or not. Since the show was 2 and a half hours and Dad and Karen were hungry, we decided that I would go to the show and Dad and Karen would go have dinner. First they had a drink with me while I had a very quick dinner. I made it to the theater a couple minutes after it had begun so I missed the introduction. The performance was of Mozart's "The Magic Flute." The music was great but I didn't understand the words because it was in German. I only knew what was going on because I had read an English summary of it before it started. The marionettes were pretty small, but because of the size of the theater, designed to look like a miniature real theater, the marionettes looked like small people. After the show I went back stage and saw the puppets. One of the people there talked about how the actors moved the puppets and how the size of the stage affected how big the marionettes appeared. After I took a look backstage, I met Dad and Karen and we took the subway back to our hotel, but not before stopping for some gelato first. When we got back to our hotel, it was time for bed.
                                       
                                                         The Front of the Palace at Night
8/4/2012: Day 2 in Vienna
          Before heading out, we again enjoyed a nice breakfast at our hotel. Our first stop was the cathedral, but we still couldn't go in very far because there was a service going on again. Outside, like usual, there were people dressed as Mozart. They were outside the cathedral every day. Our next destination was the subway. Dad and Karen were going to the art museum and I was going to the natural history one. Since the subway line we wanted to take was under construction, we went to information to buy tickets and figure out how to get to each of the places that we wanted to go. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I left my camera on the counter in the information place. I didn't realize it until I was leaving the subway at the stop I was going to, so  I had to backtrack and pick it up. I was sort of worried that I had put it in my pocket and it had gotten stolen, but luckily that was not the case.
                                                         
                                                                      Another view of the cathedral
             Anyways, after that detour, I found my way to the museum. It would have been kind of confusing to find if there hadn't been a map since there were a lot of museums all in the same area. I took a picture of the outside and then went inside to buy my ticket. The grounds were very nice.
                                               
                                                                              The art museum
                                               
                                                           A view of the museum grounds
                                               
                                                                         A close-up of the fountain
                                               
                                                                       A Maria Theresa Statue
                                                         
                                           The natural history museum was wonderful outside as well as in.
                                               
                                         One of the four statues that surround the building, symbolizing Europe
                                              
                                                      The other one in the front, symbolizing America
                                                       
                                                        A bronze elephant stood guard at the door
It was an interesting museum filled with creative and informative exhibits, along with some art work including some unicorns. There were also many stuffed animals, including sharks, rays and other fishes. Apparently it is hard to taxidermy fish because they lose a lot of color after the fish dies. The taxidermy was very well done. I especially enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit. It was interesting because they had one display that was dedicated to showing how dinosaurs became birds and included a picture of one of the first feathered dinosaurs. I also liked the hands-on exhibits that they had including one talking about the evolution of horses and the movement of the tectonic plates. The tectonic plates one showed both how the plates split up to form the continents we have today and how they will recombine to form another super-continent in the future. I knew a lot of the information it provided already, but it was still interesting. The museum also had an exhibit about how water moves around and how a rise in water temperature causes the climate to get warmer in some areas, but colder in others. I spent a few hours touring the museum by myself before I was joined by my dad and Karen. When we first got there we took a break and had a snack at the cafe in the museum. We then went to a couple of the exhibits I had already seen before going to the ones that I had not. One of the exhibits I went to twice was the dinosaur hall. It was interesting enough that I enjoyed seeing it a second time. We spent an hour walking around before heading to the subway. We had some trouble coming up with the correct change to buy the ticket, but luckily I spotted a man selling magazines. We were able to get the correct change by buying one.

There were painting on the walls

And sculptures like this one in the middle

There were also unicorn skulls

We passed by the Volkstheater (People's Theater) on the way to the metro

                We then returned to St. Stephen's square to have dinner. Because it was our last night, I ordered wiener schnitzel since I had had it before, but not in Vienna. It was very tasty. After dinner we stopped by one of the drinking fountains that were set up in the city. After being in Moldova, it was nice to have free, clean water so readily available. We then went to go look for Mozart balls. I wanted to buy some for my host family and my dad wanted to buy some for his co-workers. We weren't able to buy any from the chocolate shops because they were all closed, but we did manage to find some at a souvenir shop that was still open. In addition, I bought a miniature building to add to my collection, along with some apple pie flavored Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We then made our way back to our hotel and to bed. The next morning we had to wake up earlier than we had been to have breakfast and get to the airport on time.  

Budapest

8/1/2012: Day One

            Today we left the hotel at around 10am. We made a quick stop for breakfast at a nearby cafe before heading to the chain bridge. We leisurely made our way across, stopping to take pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way. When we reached the other side we got some information about some hop-on/hop-off bus tours and then took the funicular to the top of castle hill. There we walked around the castle. The castle didn't seem very old although I didn't ask when it was built. The castle now houses the Hungarian national gallery. We didn't have time to go inside because we only had a couple of days in Budapest. Afterwards, we headed back down.

A Police Statue We Passed on our way to Breakfast

Chain Bridge

                                                          View of Buda castle from Pest

                                          View of Mathias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion

                                                   View of Parliament from Castle Hill

                                                  View of the Chain Bridge from Castle Hill
            There we hopped on one of the tour buses and started touring the city. The tour guide provided some interesting information although it was hard to understand and what she was saying was out of sync with what we were seeing. We hopped off at the Parliament and discussed for a bit about whether we wanted to tour it. If we toured it we would have to wait until afterwards to eat lunch, and that was definitely a factor in our decision making process. We ended up deciding to go on the tour, so my dad went inside, only to find out that the tour we wanted to go on was sold out.
                                   
                                                            The Front of Parliament                                        
             Instead, we had lunch at a near by cafeteria that served Hungarian food. I got potato noodles with an interesting cheese and meat thing on top. Afterwards, we hopped back on one of the tour buses and went one stop. Unfortunately, the next stop was also the last stop and we had to change buses, this time to one with an open top. On the seat back on both buses was a place to plug in headphones. You could choose from a bunch of different languages including German, English, Japanese, Russian, and Magyar (Hungarian). Although they offered hats, the bus ride was still very hot because of the sun and the general temperature outside. On the tour we drove by many sites that would have been hard to see in one day if we had been on foot, although it meant that we only had a couple of minutes to enjoy each one and couldn't really explore them. Luckily the bus stopped for shopping on Gellert Hill. It was nice to see the building there even if we didn't have time to explore too much. Because of the heat, it was also a good opportunity to have some ice cream and a cold soda.
                                   
                                     St. Gabriel Column, one of the sites we saw on our tour
             After waiting for another bus to come because the one we wanted was full, we hopped on a bus and continued the tour. We went around most of the city, ending where we had stared, and thereby hearing the last bit of the tour information for a second time. I took the opportunity to practice my Russian since I could change the audio language. When we finished the tour we went back to the hotel to relax for a couple of hours before heading out to do a boat tour. The boat tour was nice although it did contain some of the information as the bus tour we had been on earlier. After the tour, we walked back to our hotel. On the way back, we listened to a man playing classical music on glasses. He had them each filled different amounts so that each would make a different pitch. As we were leaving, I saw him add more water to some of the cups, presumably to tune the sound. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant right next to our hotel. Since I can't get Indian food in Moldova, it was a treat. It was then time for bed.
                                         
                                                                 Buda Castle At Night
8/2/2012: Budapest Day 2 to First night in Vienna

               We got going at about the same time as the previous day. We stopped for breakfast at Starbucks this time. We wanted to take one of the tour buses one stop to where we were going but they didn't allow food on. As a result, we walked to our first destination. Karen had seen a jewelry store the day before and wanted to check it out. The store was selling jewelry designed by an artist she liked a lot. She found what she wanted there and then we headed to our next stop of the day, the house of terror. The name of the place ended up being a lot more exciting than the place itself. While it contained a lot of interesting information, it was otherwise kind of dry. It also seemed to be more intended for Hungarians than tourists given the amount of information and signs that were only in Hungarian. The information largely dealt with the impact of the German and Soviet occupations on Hungary, including how Hungarian soldiers who had fought for the Axis changed their uniforms to Soviet supporting ones. In my opinion, the Soviets had a longer lasting impact on Hungary. While the German occupation certainly impacted the country, particularly the Jewish community, Soviet culture affected more realms of society including familial relations and bonds. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the area where they showed the cells where prisoners had been kept. It was my favorite because it was the most interesting. I was able to see the actual conditions that people had lived in. I also enjoyed the dial phones that were around in the museum.
              When we finished it was time to go some place cheerier, which for me meant lunch at Subway. While I made sure to have local food on this trip, I also had some American food that I hadn't had in a year or six months. After lunch, we went to the opera house. We only went inside the entrance way, but it was still nice to see. We could tell how beautiful and ornately decorated the opera house was. Our next stop was St. Stephan's Basilica. We spend some time there walking around. It was interesting to see the mixture of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox styles. It was definitely Catholic because it had seats in the middle of the room, but it also had icons, which reflect the influence of Eastern Christianity. We had a train to catch so we left after a relatively short visit up the tower. We had a panoramic view of the city from up there.
                                
                                                      Outside of the Opera House
                                
                                                          Roof of the Opera House
                                
                                                                Inside of the Dome
                               
                                                   Interesting Artwork in the opera house
                               
                                                               Dome in the Basilica
                               
                                                               One of the Altars
                             
                                                              View from the Tower
                              
                                                         View of the Square Below
              Our last stop was the Jewish Synagogue and Museum. We walked there from the church. Unlike the other places we had been, the Synagogue had security. We missed the entrance to the synagogue and so saw the courtyard first. It was both a courtyard and a memorial to Jews who had died during the first and second world wars. We then back tracked and found the entrance to the synagogue. The synagogue was very lovely and shared some features with a church including the design of the altar. We spent some time taking pictures and then returned to the hotel. We called a cab and went to the train station. We had some initial trouble finding where to buy tickets, but eventually found a place. We then had a quick dinner before heading to our train. We made it, but with only a couple of minutes to spare. The train was going to Vienna, but its final destination was Zurich.
                                       
                                                             The Synagogue
                               
                                                             Inner Courtyard
                               
                                                             Inside the Synagogue
                               
                                                                    The Pulpit
                               
                                              Interesting Roof inside the Synagogue
            When we arrived in Vienna we took a cab to our hotel. It was nice to hear my dad speak German to the driver. I must have heard him speak German when I was in Germany with him before, but that was when I was 8 and I don't remember it that well. Anyways, after some confusion about street names with the driver, namely that he didn't initially think our street existed, w reached our hotel. We checked in and went upstairs. After resting for a bit, we went out again to get some gelato before returning to the hotel and to bed.