Host family switch: I am now with my third and last host family, the Müllers! I live in a town called Wasserhofen which is considered to be basically St. Kanzian or Kühnsdorf, and to which I can both walk to in about five minutes. I'm having to take the train to St. Paul for school now. It's about 30 minutes, and that means I have to be at the train station at 7:00 am. But I get to nap on the train, so that's okay. I also have my own small apartment! Because our house is so close to Klopeinersee (a popular lake for tourists in the summer) they rent out about six apartments that are connected to their house motel-style, and I get to take residence in one. I have two host brothers, Julian and Nico, who are around my age and both they and my host mom are fluent in Slovenian which I think is pretty neat.
On Thursday the 21st, I was invited by the Königs to go to one of their performances in Vienna. I took Claudia with me, and we really enjoyed it, as well as the backstage tour we got! The next morning on Friday, a bus came to pick up us and the other exchange students to take us to Budapest which is about a 3 hour drive. Once we arrived, we met the Hungarian exchange students and all took a walk to Heroes' Square and Vajdahunyad Castle. After that we returned to the hotel to play some games and hang out.
The next day we took a bus tour around Budapest. We learned that Budapest is actually two separate cities- Buda is on the west side of the Danube and Pest is on the east side. We stopped at Fisherman's Bastion, Heroes' Square again, and the Parliament building for a tour. After the Parliament tour we were sent loose in the city, without functioning phones or any knowledge of Hungarian. Claudia, Owen, J-Max, Connor and I set off to find the famous street market. We were told we could by tram tickets on the tram. When we inquired immediately after getting on to the tram, we were told we would each be fined for riding the tram without tickets. So after 30 Euros and a half hour, we were once again on our way. Then we discovered the market was closed. So we sat down to eat some goulash which took about 20 minutes longer than it was supposed to, and the man who fined us gave us wrong directions to the hotel, so we ran probably about 3 km or possibly more, and ended up being 20 minutes late, which surprisingly, did not get us kicked off of EuroTour.
We went to see Les Mis, which was probably the best part of our trip. It was in Hungarian and actually sounded really pretty. There were English subtitles on a screen that made it very easy to understand, too.
We left after breakfast on Sunday morning, and after spending a half hour at a rest stop twenty minutes outside of Vienna, we returned home.
Today, it decided to snow. Like, a lot of snow. On the way home today, trains were delayed and had to be switched out with buses. Hopefully it won't ruin the rest of my week which are the days I've got to do some shopping in Klagenfurt to get ready for EuroTour on Saturday!!
We went to see Les Mis, which was probably the best part of our trip. It was in Hungarian and actually sounded really pretty. There were English subtitles on a screen that made it very easy to understand, too.
We left after breakfast on Sunday morning, and after spending a half hour at a rest stop twenty minutes outside of Vienna, we returned home.
Today, it decided to snow. Like, a lot of snow. On the way home today, trains were delayed and had to be switched out with buses. Hopefully it won't ruin the rest of my week which are the days I've got to do some shopping in Klagenfurt to get ready for EuroTour on Saturday!!
