new flat! (that's right, i said "flat")

this summer i moved out of school-provided housing. i got my very own flat! gábor and i looked in the newspaper for furnished flats that would accept dogs, were in my price range, were on the ground floor, and were near the city center (and not nasty). we called around, xander being the biggest deal-breaker - can you imagine?! - and finally he ended up driving me around to see the flats and being there for negotiations' sake. the first flat was ok but was 30 years old and smelled like old sick people. the second was was fine but SO BIG that i couldn't really justify living there alone. then the third one... well, when i walked in the deal was done. third time's a charm. and it IS quite charming.

the building is on the corner of two residential streets

and my flat is right by the entrance (the pull-down shade is on my window and those are our mailboxes on the wall)

xander even feels at home here now.

ok, so that corner is full of teaching stuff piled on a a table, but that comes with the territory of being a teacher. there's a bit of a mess... but it's me we're talking about here.

the armchair and sofabed you're seeing are my first major purchases in hungary! i'm sitting on that couch right now :)

xander's space is in the corner and he seems happy with it. that tv works but is not plugged in (since it only speaks hungarian to me). aniko' insists that watching tv will improve my language skills, but i'm pretty sure it'll just give me a headache.

view from xander's corner. that's my closet, that big green wardrobe. it's in the living room because it didn't fit through the bedroom door and i didn't protest enough to get a new one.

my beautiful kitchen! it's called an "american style" kitchen, though it doesn't strike me as particularly american. it is a 10-fold improvement over my last kitchen. i regularly bake and cook and freeze things, just because i can. plus, there's even a bit of counter space! woe is me.

my bathroom junk on top of my classy washing machine

whoops, i better pick that stuff up.

my doored shower! no leaks, no mess, just showers.

everything has its place... everything just isn't IN its place.

a look into my bedroom... it really is just a room with a bed and some shelves

looking at the kitchen from my bedroom. cool accordion door, no?

outside there is a courtyard/parking lot as well as two other buildings of the 'flat complex'

it could be called a 'gated community' heheeehee

we dry our clothes outside. (my flat is on the far right in this one)

if xander's happy, i'm happy. and look at 'im....

anyway, my mailing address is on the top left of this blog in case you have a hankerin' to send me a housewarming postcard. :)

amsterdam

when you think of amsterdam, you may think of anne frank

(here's her house)

but maybe not chocolate genitalia

but what you should think of is BIKES! they're everywhere!! here's a parking structure built just for bikes... and it's probably full.

when i was in high school i had a penpal, angela, from the netherlands. she came to florida to visit me. eventually, we lost touch but when i went to holland, i looked her up and we met for lunch. great gal!

the other thing i wasn't prepared to experience in amsterdam was the slew of canals!

and they're pretty green up there. here's a tiny car for handicapped people, old people, etc. who can drive it in the bike lanes (which are on like every road, btw). they only go like 35kph, but it's enough... and i want one. i think they're only available in holland, though.

here i am with my friend and host, remy. he's dutch but his english is on a native level. we went on a canal cruise and had an all around good time!

here i am sitting in a stereotype

pot/weed/marijuana is legal in the netherlands. so there are places called "coffee shops" where you can drink and smoke whatever you want.

of course we went in and saw what there was to see...

here's a 'space cake' or brownie made with pot in it

and there's a bar in there

that happens to sell all kinds of weed and weed products

and paraphernalia is also available

we went to the heineken experience and saw how they make heineken

in the factory there's a heineken museum as well as tons of football (soccer) junk

here i am in the stinky room with all the vats. we tasted the unfinished beer products and could touch the hops and yeast, etc.

then, of course, free beer!

on tap

here is "the dam" after which the city takes its name

closer... oooh, ahhh

canals, bikes, and celebrations

the narrowest house is 4 stories high, but only as wide as a window!

next time i'm there, i'm going in madame tussaud's

omg, pretty

there was an ice cream BOAT! this guy scooped up whatever you wanted right from his boat to yours. sweeeet!

bikes, bikes, bikes.

it really is quite a beautiful place full of weird stuff...

like the world famous 'red light district'

apparently some people want to make sure everyone knows they're not part of the RLD

(with signs like this)

but some places are unmistakably part of it

there's no shame about the red light district there.

on the contrary, here's a statue of a prostitute.

here are the red lights

it's about 2 streets wide and 3 blocks long

not too big, but makes its impression

pretty girls in the window... for rent. :(

there's no place like amsterdam, that's for sure. i'm glad i went and it's a good place to visit. while i wouldn't like to live there, i'm sure i'll make it back that way again some time. i want to see the only missing stereotype: windmills!

balaton

after the transylvanian adventure, i was in need of a REAL vacation. so a couple friends and i (minus one friend who couldn't make it) headed to *the* lake in hungary. balaton.

we live very very very far away from there (in hungarian terms) and it's even farther when you don't have a car because you have to take trains and buses to get there... and of course, a mandatory stop in budapest.

but we got there. and oh, how we loved it!!

(for more pictures with captions CLICK HERE.)

the pedestrian street

omg, adorable.

we took a little boat ride on the lake since it was still a bit too cold for swimming. here i am with klara and xander. rowin' away!

and here's kimmy! (kim) she saved us with her mad rowing skills.

we took turns taking pictures because it was just so picturesque!

ok, this is practically a post card.

church on the mountain with the lake and sailboat in the foreground... it's so balaton.

sailors sailin'

we took a ferry to the peninsula (tihany) where we had a lovely afternoon of sight-seeing, eating, drinking, relaxing, train riding, walking, and picture-taking.

the city center is pretty freakin' cute. there are people (german tourists!) everywhere and no grumpy hungarians in sight.... just happy, relaxed, rested people :)

kim and xander bonded so much. he misses her almost as much as i do...

i mean, really...

klara and swans!

me and xander! and paprika!

it was just the relaxing vacation i was needing! pictures really can't do it justice. that was possibly my favorite weekend in hungary. whenever you come here, you simply MUST get to balaton!