From Bangkok to Barcelona

We spent a couple of nice days in Barcelona also. Mom sponsored the hotel, so we stayed at a really fancy place on Las Ramblas. We were right in the middle of everything. It was a nice treat after all. Barcelona was also a very interesting city. It was totally different from Rome. It is more like a modern city with modern architecture. It was nothing like any other cities I had seen before. Gaudi's funky buildings makes it a very unique and impressive place. We saw the following buildings.


We also visited the park on the top of a mountain where Gaudi's home can be found. It is converted into a museum. Up there you can see the famous crocodile that Gaudi designed. It is the symbol of the city today.

We also visited the Picasso museum and learned many things about the different phases of his life and his different styles. Also, there was a very interesting temporary exhibition on the art works that he had owned. He owned almost 1000 paintings of different painters from different eras.
Mom and I enjoyed going to Tapas bars and tried all the different pinchos every night. We had a good time shopping and walking around on Las Ramblas.
Barcelona was a very fascinating place from an artistic point of view. The architecture and the streets were really beautiful. The only thing that bothered me about it is that many people spoke Catalan and not Spanish and many times I couldnt practise my Spanish.

Mom and I decided to take a short trip to Rome and Barcelona. It was a good ending of my big three-month long trip, because I absolutely fell in love with Rome. Rome is by far my favorite city out of all the places I had visited. I was surprised to see that Rome was a fairly small city with only one subway line, but I had never seen a city that has as many cultural and historical things to see as Rome has. We stayed in a hotel by Republicca square, thus we were right by the center of the town. When we arrived to Repubblica, we were already surprised how beautiful it was, and it was just the beginning. There was a giant fountain in the middle of a big square, an old basilica right behind it. It was gorgeous.

We were walking around for three days to see all the touristy things we could. Three days were barely enough to see everything. Everywhere we walked we found a cathedral or a 2000 years old historical building or a beautiful square. Almost every street had some wonderful thing to see. We visited the Vatican on our second day. St Peter's Basilica was giant. It was the biggest church you would ever imagine.

Then we walked from there towards the bridges and we were astonished by the scenery.

The Trevi Fountain was also impressive.

In the end of the day we went to see the Pantheon. This was one of my favorite places in Rome. It is about 2000 years old. It looks soo old and massive. It was impressive.

The next day we decided to visit Comune di Roma. This is the place where you can observe the ruins of the old Rome. It was fascinating. I love history and I was very impressed while I was walking around those 2000 years old ruins. The place was jaw-dropping.

Part of the Comune di Roma was the Capitolium. Capitolium is a giant structure. It is amazing how they build that whole thing at that time. It was definitely an impressive achievement.

We loved Rome, the weather was good, the food was delicious, the city was wonderful. We had a great time there.

Mom and I decided to visit Krakow for the weekend. I was really excited to go visit the place because it has been a long time I wanted to see that city. Krakow looked just like any other Central-European city. There was a main market square in the central of the town with a big church. Also, there was a big castle called Wavel on the top of a hill right by the river. We saw many many little churches everywhere in the town. We also visited the Jewish district. We had some good Polish sandwiches there. It was more like a pizza. Krakow reminded me very much of the German cities or Prague.

The next day I went to visit Auschwitz to see the memorial museum of the nazi concentration camps. I was a little horrified to go there first, but I wanted to go there to learn about history. In the end, I thought it was truly sad to be there, but it was a very interesting learning experience to see what happened there.

My cousin Dorka and her boyfriend Marcell and their friends decided to go to Slovakia for New Year's Eve. Despite of the cold, I agreed to accompany them. Three of us took a train from Budapest to Esztergom while the others went by car. Esztergom is the last Hungarian city on the border of Slovakia. It is a big religious center of Hungary with a giant cathedral.

We went for a quick sightseeing after we got off the train. We saw the cathedral from the bottom of the mountain. The view was very spectacular. This giant cathedral was lit up on the top of the mountain and you could see it from anywhere in the city. After that we walked across a bridge and we were in Slovakia. There is not passport control of any sort in between the two countries, since both countries are part of the EU. The small city where the party took place was called Sturovo aka Rajka. This city was part of Hungary until the 1919 when Hungary lost it for Slovakia due to the Versailles Treaty. The majority of the people speak Hungarian there and we could even use the Hungarian currency. The party was so bad that I was playing a game on my cell phone for about two hours when we finally left the place. We went back to the bridge, because we wanted to celebrate 2008 at midnight between the two countries. It was freezing cold on the bridge and kids were throwing their little rockets in every direction. It was a little scary. These things are totally illegal and you can get arrested for them, but in the end of the day nothing is really illegal in Eastern Europe. We decided to climb up to the top of the mountain and see the cathedral after midnight. It was freezing cold, and snowing, but we wanted to see the cathedral so we didnt mind the cold. After the tour we went bar hopping in Esztergom and at 3:30am we took the first train back to Budapest. It was an interesting adventure on NYE. I enjoyed the trip very much, even though the party wasnt too much fun.

It was totally depressing to return to Hungary after the warm and beautiful South-East Asia. Hungary was freezing cold. It was colder than Moscow or Finland when I arrived. It was about -5 Celsius degrees outside so I made sure to be inside the house all the time. I spent the time catching up with my family and friends. It was nice to see them all. Otherwise, Hungary is a pretty depressing place people are so mean and depressed. They tend to complain a lot. Anyway, I still had a good time, because I saw some people who I havent seen in a while. So overall, it was lovely to be there. I ended up staying in Budapest for over 5 weeks.

On my last day in Hungary, I decided to do some touristy things and I visited the House of Terror. It was a great historical museum displaying the history of Hungary under the communist regime after WWII. I was really surprised that Hungarians did such a good job with that museum. The museum was modern and interesting. On the cellar of the building, there was a prison labyrinth. This was the place where the communists tortured their victims. It was horrifying, but interesting to see. I can highly recommend this museum to everyone who wants to visit Budapest.