Another week.. Another blog... = )

(As we can not keep away from each others writing this is a mumble rumble from us both)

The weekend in Sweden was as eventful as I could expect it to be... Met celebrities, friends and fans. I didn’t have to sign any autographs this time but I was sure to get 4 from Elijah Wood. (Got the plaque for my Sting (TM) signed... yay!)

Anyway... the pictures from the weekend can be seen in the gallery. Back to Budapest...!!

On Tuesday we went up to the Castle Hill for some real sightseeing. We saw the Fisherman’s Bastille (we were able to go on top now before the tourist season), the St Matthias Church (the inside as well, which was beautiful, and had a museum where you could see a mummified hand and a skull of some important bishop), and the Castle (where no royalty has ever lived. See definition of irony.) We had some roasted chestnuts and the sun was shining merrily. Went into the Hungarian National Gallery, but were too hungry to stay and see it all.



We had lunch next to the statue of the horse whose balls students touch for good luck. The statue is grey and green but the balls are shiny as polished gold. After lunch we headed down into the grottos beneath the and labyrinths beneath the streets for some after lunch excitement... and as it turned out a underground wine well, a big head and erotic art.



On our way back home we did some shopping in “our” market hall. Among other things we bought some wine a lady sold in plastic flasks from big tanks. All we have to do is to go back to the same shop and get a refill for no money at all, well... hardly anyway. We rushed home to prepare dinner for our guests Monika and Kristian whom we had invited after their delicious meal. They came, we had a great dinner, enjoyed each others company and served a surprise for Kristian. As a desert we had Swedish “delicato bollar” which he is very fond of. For Monika we had Swedish candy and salty liquorish (Monika grew up in Sweden).

On Friday Malin stayed home from work to do some work on her essay, and the laundry.... Malin met up with Andreas in the city to go shopping. In the evening we went to The Darkness to eat dinner and yet another idea for a restaurant in Sweden took form. (The first idea came from Sir Lancelot) The place served good Bloody Marys and good food as well, however it was not so scary after all. It was quite funny when Andreas first tried to pay the 8000Ft check with a 1000Ft bill, and then changed it to a 2000Ft bill and 3 1000Ft bills. Malin had to rescue the situation by paying with a 10 000ft bill, and leaving Andreas ashamed for the rest of the evening while trying to figure out where the heck he had spent all of his money!??!

On our way back we decided to take a drink at some bar but didn’t find any good ones so instead we decided to rent a movie. It was however not as easy as we thought. First you had to get a card (and pay for it) then you had to charge this card, then order the movie in a “ATM for movies” and then put your card in a different slot and retrieve your movie. They had 24 hours service but when Andreas wanted to return the movie within a 12 hour (there are several to choose from) limit the machine refused to accept the card. So, annoyed and disappointed he went home again to see me off for my Hungarian class. (Pictures coming later.. forgot to transfer them to the laptop... D'OH!)

On Saturday Malin had her Hungarian course as usual so I was left at home to do some chores. I scrubbed the stove, mopped the kitchen floor and waxed the dolphin.... At lunch time we went to see the inside of the parliament. Since it was only 3 pm when the tour was over we decided to go to the Terror Museum. Many of you might think, as I did, that this was a wax cabinet of some sorts with some medieval torture tools.... I was wrong. The Museum was much more terrifying than that. It presented a quite real imagery of the terror Hungary suffered while it was occupied by the two most unforgiving dictatorships in our century: Hitler with the Nazi Arrow Cross Army and Stalin with his Communist Red Army. Both had their headquarters in the very same building and used the same brutal methods to control the population, with Terror. Inside the house there are two monuments commemorating those who where captured, tortured and killed. One is a wall at the entrance with all the victims’ faces with a T-64 Tank at its base and the second is a room with all the names cut out in sheet metal. The impact is far more real and hard hitting than any other museum i’ve been to. You leave it feeling empty and futile. As we walked home neither of us felt like cooking se we sat down at a restaurant and had some pizza. Feeling a bit better after getting some food in our stomachs we walked home. As we walked home the alcoholic in me wanted to have some coffee and liqueur so we started to look for a liqueur shop that was still open. Luckily we found one so we went inside and bought some Marzipan Liqueur. Safe and sound back home i made myself some coffee and marzipan liquor and crept under the sheets and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire.

On Sunday we had decided to go to a science museum (a touch and experience kind of museum). However, the queue was too long and the wind too cold so we went to the mall Mammoth for some shopping instead. After shopping, lunch and some ice cream we went back to the museum. We decided to go only to one of the museums (there are two: one for younger kids and one for older kids). Now we started to get disappointed: the Flight simulator was fully booked, the Mars tour was fully booked, the psychological test booths were full and the touch screens in the Future Café didn’t work, Andreas had a hole in his sock and we both had blister on our feet from all the walking this weekend, and on top of it all most texts were in Hungarian! We did try some of the experiments and at least had some fun, but then it was suddenly half past five and our blood sugar was plummeting uncontrollably to the bottom. We made a quick stop at the grocery store for some breakfast before we headed home to make dinner. Then we both tried the mysterious wine bought at the market hall and the marzipan liquor. Mmmmm have to buy a bottle to take home to Sweden (Malin)!

Then, another week starts and we only have to look forward to next weekend when we go to Sopron to visit Aniko (one of our mentors) and to see the views of the picturesque town. Oh, and on Wednesday it is the National Holiday, so we will have the day of to stroll around the city and watch all the Hungarians celebrate their day of freedom.

Stay tuned... (more pictures will be added later.. )