Thursday, February 2, 2012

Heather on EVS in Hungary - 2012

The Jetsetters Guide To Christmas and New Year in Europe :-)

At first the prospect to spending Christmas aboard saddened me. I would miss the annual round of parties and dinners with friends and family. However, I'm learning that EVS life is never dull!
I went to Vienna and Bratislava for four days with five of the other volunteers. We stayed in Vienna for two days and in Bratislava for one night. Vienna is so beautiful. On the first night we went to the Christmas Markets and had punch. Mine had cream and chocolate on the top :-) I also tried a dessert made with thick pancakes, fruit and apple sauce. It was so tasty! The sissy palace was huge. It wasn't very exciting inside the Palace. I guess that I'm used to the wonderful houses/castles that we have at home! The grounds are so pretty. If you walk to the top of the hall, you can see great views of all Vienna. In the evening we went to see a performance of Daphne at the state opera house. We got standing tickets for 4 euros. I enjoyed it but found it difficult to follow because it was in German!! The hostel we stayed in was cool. Bratislava is a nice place. Its very small. We looked around the castle and the City Centre (there was a small market - mostly food and punch).

For Christmas and New Year, I went to Romania to stay with the family of another volunteer. It is a very pretty country. The mountains are beautiful in the snow. However, it is very poor and there are signs of formal communism rule everywhere. The train journey from Budapest took 14 hours. Still, we saw a lot of the country, so it was good. We stayed in Budapest the night before. Sarolta studied in Budapest and she showed Annelie and I around the city by night. The view of the City from the river is lovely. I would like to go again in the summer and see the City properly. We stayed in an all night beer tent next to the train station all night (our train was at 6.40 am). It was ok because the bar sold tea and we sat by the fire :-)

We stayed at Sarolta parents house. Her grandparents also live there. They have cows, pigs, chickens, dogs and a cat. We ate sooo much food while we were there! I tried loads of traditional Romania dishes. On New Year's Eve, we went to a house party (friends of Sarolta's brother). We were the oldest people there! Lol It was fun. At midnight, we walked around the village and wished everybody a Happy New Year.

It is certainly one Christmas and New Year that I will never forget :-)

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