I’m back 2

Am in Malaysia right now. Arrived yesterday morning after a 13 hour flight and now I’m writing this darn entry at five a.m. since my body is still not used to the time difference.

I guess I have to get used to dial-up. Either that, or get broadband which I probably have to pay for myself. Don’t know if it’s worth it since I will only be here till October.

I had a fabulous time in Hungary. We went to Budapest, to be exact. It’s pronounced BU-DA-PESH-T since Hungarians pronounced “s” as “sh” except when it’s “sz” where then it’ll be a normal “s” sound. Didn’t have to worry about accommodation since we’re staying at a friend’s house for the duration of the trip (one of the perks of being in an international school).

Igor's cherry tree

Cherries! That’s the first thing that caught our eyes when we arrived at Igor’s house. It’s like, a tree, with ripe juicy succulent cherries on them! Once he gave the thumbs-up sign, we wasted no time in sampling them. It’s a good thing that he only hosted us for five days, otherwise the tree can’t bear fruit fast enough to feed four ravenous Malaysians.

Igor’s father cooked for us on the first day. Even though we can’t sample most of the Hungarian dishes since our diet is constricted to vegetarian, it was still really good. Had one of the best potato soups I’ve ever tasted, with not so spicy curry and pasta. If only my vegetarian hall food is this good. Sigh…

Pasta and some curry thingy

Went to watch a film that evening (notice I say film. Is that an indicator of my British- ness?). After that Igor brought us to Gellert Hill. It’s a little daunting climbing a hill at night but he said that it’s probably too hot in the day to do it. There was this Hungarian statue of liberty on top, and the view from the top is nice too, except that my nightly camera skills isn’t developed yet so I couldn’t take good pictures.

The statue of liberty on Gellert Hill



Urtah, Zaki, Igor and Nadia (Igor had a sling on his hand coz he was involved in a bike accident a few days before we came)

We spent the second and third day visiting places like the Synagogue, museums and the bridges across the river Danube (or Duna, as the Hungarians call it), Castle Hill and an open air music concert.

The synagogue


National Museum

Bush came to visit Hungary on the third day. We tried to avoid him.

We went hiking up a hill north of Budapest on the fourth day with Igor and Balazs, who is another Hungarian ex-AC student (Balazs is a really common name, I know three Hungarians with the name) and some other ex-UWC students. We climbed up to this watch tower and gazed at the river Duna which curves up to the Slovakian border.

UWC hikers

The last day’s a shopping day! We went to the central market and bought t-shirts, fridge magnets, gifts for PETRONAS office, and secret jewellery boxes amongst other things. We left Hungary with cans of cherries courtesy of Igor.

That’s about it for my trip. Had a really good time, food, pictures and different kinds of tea (you should have seen Igor’s collection).

A good thing about being in Europe is that it’s really easy and cheap enough to travel around. So, I’m sort of thinking of my next one. Suggestions, anyone?

Yaz.

P.s. I planned to put some pictures in but I'm on dial up now and it took me more than two hours from logging into the net and posting this. Gosh, I am sooo frustrated! Hate dial-up, hate dial-up! I feel like banging my head on the wall or something.

Edit: I've managed to put pictures in, albeit not painlessly. Sooner or later this will drive me crazy. Please pray for my mental health.