Is it summer or what?

The Easter week flew by, maybe even as quickly as the witches fly to Blákulla.
Malin is done woth her project at work and can now engage fully in the writing of her essay (and surf the web for cute future dog pictures),

while Andreas is preparing for the final presentation at work.

On Friday we went out to Ikea in the suburbs where Malin worked last year. Bought some easter eggs and made plans for the Prague trip with Romi, the girl we are hitching a ride with.

Saturday was spent on a blanket on Margaret Island, the sun was way stronger than expected and our backs still hurt last night from the burn. As cash is something we dont have lots of anymore there were no nice restaurant visits on Easter, but some yummi home cooking. And choclate pudding!

On Sunday we flip floped our way to the synagogue (the largest one in Europe) but it was closed, so we strolled around in the former gettho for a while. Mainly a renovated street with expensive designer’s shops. And some söröszö offcource (beerhouses for those not familiar with the term). After that we went up the Andrassy Avenue which is a world herritage and had some cakes at Müvesz, an over 100 years old café. Then we continued to the city park to eat our picknick.

A nice movie and popcorn entertained us during the afternoon. Insider was what we saw and it was great.

On Sunday we had passae a wine festival in the city and on Monday after Andreas had been to work we went there to test some wine. It was in the open air without fences and age control (imagine that in Sweden) and we started by bying some „nature candy” which looked much better than it tasted, it all tasted the same. Then we tried 3 different types of wine.... Some good and some better. After that we headed home to have some easter supper.

Now it’s already Wednesday (about 20 degrees celcius and sunny) and only 2 weeks and 2 days before we go home. Can’t believe the time has passed so quickly. But it will be nice to get back home again. It is very nice to be here as well but as the sying goes „there’s no place like home”....

Happy Easter

I just wanted to say Happy Easter Everyone!!

And remmember...

"My favorite Catholic holiday is Easter. For those of you who don't know, Easter is the day we celebrate Jesus rising from the grave and coming back to Earth as a rabbit that hides colored eggs!" -Adam Ferrara

There's something in the air tonight.....

There must be something in the air......or in the electric outlets..... What to believe when both our laptops have the same symptoms, and both are not working....but.....wait......I can see light at the end of the tunnel.......no it was just the laptop freezing again.

Fortunately we have a great neighbor called Csaba who lent us his DVD-player and thereby saved our movie weekend. Many thanks to this helpful Swedish speaking Hungarian. It is handy to have someone to explain the constant notes from the gas adn electricity company....

In the middle of the week Malin almost had a small heart attack when two months work was corrupted.... Fortunately she had been smart enough to save a copy at her USB-memory, however a week old it still saved her a lot of time when recovering the document. The project is to be sent to Germany this week for a review from the Big Boss over there :)

After the last Hungarian class on Saturday we strolled to a Hare Krishna restaurant Andreas had heard about and had some Indian lunch. It was very good and nice cheap student prices. Then we went back to the St Stephen Basilica to take some more photos and to look at an old cut of hand from an old long since dead bishop of some sort. Kinda’ weird actually. After some window shopping on Vaci utca we had coffee and coke in the sun.

On Sunday we had a late start but finally arrived at the zoo – where we fed and petted giraffes, a rhinoceros, zebras, and a sloth. Andreas played some kind of „hand-me-the-grape”-game with a bird with a huge white beak and we had pancakes on a bench opposite the monkey house ans ome funny ice cream made up from small balls (looked like packing material). It was altogether a very nice day! On our way home we picked up some groceries and bought kebab, at a new place this time.



We had kebab on Monday as well, since we were too tired to cook. Then we walked along the Danube and watched how far back the water had drawn. All the roads are clear now but the traffic is still not running properly. The Island is open again and the Budapestians can once again enjoy their cool runs along its shore.


Happy Easter everyone!! And good luck with the egg hunting!

And it rose, rose, rose... the ring of water, the ring of water.

The most interesting event of the week has been the flooding of the Danube. It’s become a bit scary actually with the water rising, and rising, and rising….seems there is no end to it. The Margaret Island is closed of for public; all boats (restaurants, hotels and sightseeing boats) along the river are no longer accessible, but rather small islands themselves by now. The road we walked on the first evening of the flood was covered with water the next morning…. and so it has continued. It was such a special event that even fish went up to see what the heck was going on. Talk about a fish out of water…

But the flooding did give us a chance to inspect the backside of the parliament since the road had been closed for traffic. Hopefully it has now stopped but we’ll let you know how it ended. In the meanwhile you can watch the pictures and see for yourselves…

Ice Age 2 had premiere here on Wednesday and so we set out to see it on the weekend, bought tickets on Friday just to be sure. And Malin got to show Andreas some other parts of the city (since we had to go to a new place to catch the movie in English). After a very nice meal at Karma in West End the evening was long enough for a movie and then to bed we went. On Saturday Malin had her class as usual, and Andreas meet up with her at one pm, Destination: Gellert Hill. We walked up the hill, stopped for some brought along lunch half way up, and gazed at the amazing views of the city. When mostly going to and from work you don’t really get it how big the city is. Now we have a better clue. At the top stands a liberty statue tall and proud, and behind lies the Citadel, a defence building now holding a museum and different exhibitions. Unfortunately we did not carry enough cash to get in so we enjoyed our ice creams in the sun instead. Oh yeah, the weather was wonderful, warm and sunny enough to get the first shade of a tan.

On Sunday we did not have to execute our “in case of rain” plan (going to the Rudas thermal bath) but instead took a walk to the City Park where we got close and friendly with the Anonymous, (BTW. This statue features in a Vampire movie were there is a female vampire who puts flower at its feet for her former master/lover who also was a vampire. If anyone know which movie this is let me know.) saw the castle made from bits and pieces of Hungarian architecture and managed to get a bit lost.

We strolled around the amusement park, wondering if we would dare come back to go on some of the rides – it did not look as well kept as Liseberg but rather easterly European. After saying hello to the elephants at the zoo, we went to the Iguana for margaritas and yummy tortilla lunch. The city was packed because of some election meeting and we had a hard time finding our way down to the Danube since the city was blocked off by the police. We checked out the development of the flooding and then went up the castle hill to the old city. The sun was shining warmly and (God forbid) we actually thought it was too warm. And to make up for not being to be able to play in the simulator at the millennium park Andreas got to play with another aviator…Lucky for us we got too cool down watching Ice Age 2.

Well that was that week. Nothing more to say….