Budapest - Day 3

It's my last day in Budapest and I'm definitely going to miss it! 

I ate so much for breakfast this morning it's kind of scary! I had toast with that hot paprika cream, peppers, olives and fry up and peach juice. Is it just me or do you always eat loads of food when you're in a hotel? And that food is normally the kind of thing you'd NEVER have for breakfast? 

After breakie I walked down to the bus stop to catch the bus to go towards Andrassy Avenue (Andrássy út in Hungarian). The bus stop had this bakery beside it with the largest loaves of bread I think I've ever seen in all my life - they weighed 3kg! 

The House of Terror was all about the Nazi and Soviet Union control of Hungary. I hadn't even realised that Nazis came to Hungary, which was really interesting to learn about. I obviously don't know much about the history of Hungary, but it seems to be that until the fall of the Soviet Union, Hungary had been a terrible, scary place to live. The house had three floors with the basement being used as a prison during the Soviet control. The cells only had a wooden board as a bed - a toilet and sink weren't even provided and some of the rooms had no sunlight. Apparently they used to torture their prisoners by depriving them of sleep, water and food as well as more brutal methods. I just can't comprehend how any human being could ever be so cruel, I physically can't understand how you could do that. Even though the house is now a museum and currently nothing horrible is going on, it felt like such a horrible place to be in. Everywhere there were real life accounts of what happened to the people of Hungary during the Nazi and Soviet times; they're just so awful and sad. 

After the House of Terror, we went to this restaurant for lunch. We wanted a large lunch as we'd just be catching a bite to eat at the airport later. I had tomato soup with smoked cheese and then gypsy style pork, with potato rostis and spinach. The pork looked a little like this:

I quite liked it although it wasn't my favourite thing by any means - it was quite bitter. The restaurant was really nice however and all the staff were so friendly. Everyone speaks perfect English, which is great, although I always feel so rude not even trying to speak their language. 

We walked to this church after lunch. It was really beautiful. There was this little chapel inside which had someone's hand preserved in glass in it. It looked tiny but I guess that must just be because of how old it is and how long it's been preserved for. We went for a coffee afterwards and I had a Nutella muffin - so scrummy!

I didn't manage to make it up to the royal palace today, although I'm not upset because I've had an amazing time anyways. I think it might have been closed anyway what with Putin visiting and stuff. The city didn't completely shut down like they thought it might although there were a ridiculously large amount of police and helicopters everywhere!

Sorry there haven't been more pictures of the city - my phone camera just isn't good enough :( My dad says I can have his old Nikon one if I buy a new lens so maybe next time I'll have some better photos to show you guys!

Lizzie

 xxx

P.S. please feel free to comment and follow - it means a lot

Budapest - Day 2

Budapest is still so so amazing and so sunny! It was a lot colder today but still ok :) I'd forgotten how loud cities are until I tried to go to sleep - I feel so lucky living in the countryside.

The hotel I'm staying in has the biggest choice for breakfast I've ever seen! I ate so much - waffles, a fry up, peach juice and a pear, they were all so yummy! Their bacon is absolutely delicious and crispy, just the way I like it. They have some really unique things on the buffet, such as horseradish (I can't even imagine eating that for breakfast!), olives and that chilli/tomato stuff I talked about in my last blog. Apparently it translates as hot creamy paprika, which I guess describes it pretty well.

After breakfast dad and I caught one of those tour buses just down from the royal palace. The palace is such a beautiful building and absolutely massive - I'm hoping to go there tomorrow morning. It's on the top of this big hill. I got it wrong yesterday, Budapest is actually super hilly, well half of it is (the Buda side). Half of the city is on one side of the River Danube and the other half on the other side. We took the tour bus most of the way around the city and got off for a coffee in this square near all these grand buildings, one of which was the British Embassy. We then got back on the bus and went around a different route seeing even more of the city. The buses have these paintings on the side of the windows of cartoon figures so when you see the bus from outside, the passenger's heads are drawn onto cartoon figures, some of which are quite comical :) We got off the bus along this street which contained the opera house and shops such as Gucci. My dad really wanted to see this model railway. It was seriously good! They made the whole of Budapest, Vienna and some German cities miniature; the detail was insane! It covered over 3 rooms in total and was brilliant - if you ever go to this amazing city, I would definitely recommend it.

We skipped lunch which made me pretty sad :( buuuuut I did have a Nutella pancake so I guess that kind of counts as lunch?

We walked back toward the river after this and got on this boat down the river. It was great although absolutely freezing - I can't even explain how cold it was! Dad and I decided to sit at the front outside so he could take loads of photos. The city is beautiful as the sun is setting and at night. The sky goes these lovely light blues, pinks and purples and it's just so so gorgeous! They light up all the buildings - it just looks so pretty :) If you want to see what it looks like have a look here.

We had dinner at this little Hungarian/Italian restaurant and again, like every meal I've had here, it was delicious. I had mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and ciabatta and then schnitzel with spinach, garlic and potato wedges (over here they're called steak chips). The portions were huuuuge! My main had two schnitzels and about 20-30 wedges; I was absolutely stuffed once I'd finished.

Apparently Putin, the President of Russia is coming to Budapest tomorrow so they're expecting the whole city to almost shut down for security reasons, which could be kind of fun to see.

I fly home tomorrow so before I go I'm hoping to see the House of Terror, which is meant to be really good but really thought provoking. I also want to climb up to the royal palace. Fingers crossed I'll get them both done!

Sorry there are no pictures in this blog. I'm writing it on my iPad and for some reason they didn't come out on my last one. I'll add some photos once I get home because I really wanna show you guys how extraordinary this city is :) I'll also correct those pesky spelling mistakes and formatting errors because I can't actually see what I've written on here - iPad's aren't great for blogging!

Lizzie

 xxx

Budapest - Day 1

Hey guys,

Today I flew to Budapest in Hungary with my dad for a little trip away :) I had to wake up at 5am, which is ridiculously early in my opinion! There was this insanely hot airport guy - definitely got the trip off to a good start! The flight was good though even if it was pretty early; I mostly just read my book and napped. I saw a photo on Zoella's Instagram of the view out of her window on a plane a while ago and thought I'd have a go too, although I don't think mine's as cool as hers!

It felt so warm when we landed, I guess because it was so sunny, even though it was only about 10C! While I was in the taxi from the airport to the hotel I noticed these strange houses in the woods on the outskirts of the city. I say houses, they were these odd tents made of tarpaulins with fires outside of them and duvets, clothes and mattresses hanging over a washing line. My dad said they might have been gypsies although he didn't see the 'houses' himself. I can't imagine living like that, I guess if they're happy and that's how they want to live then it's ok, but they must be so cold!

After we'd checked in at the hotel we went out for some lunch at this little traditional Hungarian restaurant down a small back street. The food was absolutely delicious! I had the fisherman's fish soup to start, consisting of these strips of fish (not sure which) in this spicy, tomatoey sauce. Then for my main I had veal slices in this paprika cream sauce with pasta. I deliberately went for dishes I'd never normally eat at home and I'm so glad that I did because they really were amazing. In between courses we were given slices of this rustic kind of bread with chilli/tomato sauce. I thought it was going to be super spicy but it wasn't too bad at all. I'm not exactly sure how to describe the taste, kind of salty and spicy but neither overpowered the other - it was so scrummy! My dad had a bean soup and then a schnitzel stuffed with cheese, bacon and mushrooms, which were both also really tasty.

After lunch I walked round Budapest with dad. It's so flat but also so spread out so you seem to walk for aaaages. The city is extremely beautiful, especially the architecture. I know that's not exactly a normal thing for a 17 year old to say, but I think anyone my age would agree if they saw it for themselves! The parliament building is particularly pretty I think - hopefully we can go round tomorrow or Tuesday as I think it'd be really interesting :) I took a picture of it because I thought it was just so amazing! It's even lovelier at night when it's all lit up, but my camera wasn't good enough to not make it look blurry at night!

We went for dinner at this gorgeous little Italian restaurant near this church. As we were walking up towards it, the bells were ringing (apparently to call everyone to mass) and it just sounded really nice. I had this lovely dish of chilli and garlic king prawns with spinach and ciabatta - it was absolutely amazing! My dad had a pizza - the first he's had since we went to Italy last year (he got so fed up of them he swore to not eat them for a very long time!). For pudding I had my first ever soufflé, which like all the food I've had here, was brilliant. The walk back to the hotel was seriously long but I didn't mind at all - it was just so nice to be on holiday just walking around and enjoying the whole atmosphere of the city!

The money here is so tricky to understand. £1~325 HUF so when the bills come in at about 10,000 HUF it's very very odd. Fun though I think :)

Anyways, I better get off to bed now as I'm so tired! I hope to write again tomorrow and hopefully include some better pictures :)

Lizzie
 xxx

Volunteering!

Hey guys,

Every Wednesday night I volunteer at my local hospital on a surgical ward, so I thought I'd just share some of my experiences and thoughts with you.

I've been volunteering at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge since late 2013 and can honestly say I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Yes, some nights have been hard or extremely sad, but after all, that's life - there will be good and bad days. I help out just before and during dinner time meaning I get the great opportunity of being able to chat to the patients as well as helping them to decide what they'd like for dinner. Surprisingly even the simplest of things, such as deciding what to eat, can be tricky. I especially enjoy advising patients who have certain dietary requirments what they can and can't eat because at times this can really be a challenge!

However, my favourite part of volunteering is being able to meet such a diverse range of people, whether they are patients, visitors or healthcare professionals etc. They're all so interesting and I'm so happy that I've been lucky enough to just be able to sit down with these people and have a chat; whether it's about something serious or the weather.

I feel like these two hours each week have taught me so much. I'm much more confident talking to others who I maybe wouldn't have normally talked to, am able to better sympathise with those in hospital/their visitors, as well as realising that people may feel completely different to how they may first appear. This really hit me when I spent about half an hour chatting to one of the elderly gentlemen on the ward. He seemed so bubbly and so calm about the operation he was due to have the next morning. He couldn't stop smiling! Then all of a sudden he turned to me and said in a saddened whisper 'who am I kidding? Tomorrow is going to horrific. I'm going to die'. Suddenly in that moment the whole conversation changed and slowly, as we talked more, I learnt about his life and why he was so worried about his operation. I discovered that this operation was to remove a cancerous tumour; the same type his wife had died from a few years before. It was really difficult to remain calm and professional, when in reality all I wanted to do was give him a big hug and tell him everything was going to be ok; yet, nobody really knew if it would be.

I know by just giving two hours a week I'm not going to achieve anything absolutely amazing or change the world, but if I can just improve one patient's stay then it's 100% worth it. Also, the enjoyment and 'buzz' I get from helping out on the ward is brilliant. It really picks me up even if I've had a super stressful day.

Volunteering is such great fun and I truly believe that you can make such a huge difference from such a small action - try it; I can guarantee you'll love it!

Please feel free to comment etc. and subscribe - it means a lot!

Lizzie

 xxx

I'm so new and so confused!

Hey,

So I'm totally new to all this blogging stuff but I'd really like to give it a go :) It's just going to be all about the little things in life, the future and just my opinions on things. I'm pretty confused sometimes by even the simplest of things and blogging is definitely one, so if you've got any help or advice, please let me know!

You can also follow me on Bloglovin

Lizzie xxx


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