The Beautiful Margret Island

Margret Island is an island in the middle of the Danube River right in between Buda and Pest, the two cities which make up Budapest.
Margret Island is the Mecca of Water Polo.
There are the most beautiful stadiums here, with probably around 15 Olympic-sized pools.
And it is completely outdoors, which is very harsh during the winters because it is very cold here in Budapest.
Yesterday I had some games there and it was about 6 degrees Celsius and raining. So it was very cold.
But we beat the team we were playing, so it was worth putting up with a little cold weather.

One of the many beautiful pools here on Margret Island.

The view across the Danube towards the Buda side of the river.

Revolution Day

This past Tuesday was Revolution Day in Hungary.
This day represented the fight towards complete freedom in 1948 from the Austrian Empire.
It is a melancholy celebration because almost half of the population(at least in Budapest) lost their lives in this fight.
And then a year later the Soviet Union took control of Hungary.
But on Tuesday I went to an army museum of all the vehicles in the Hungarian army during the last century since the First World War.

Trip with TB's class

TB's class invited me to go on a school trip with them this weekend.
I was told that we would go to an adventure park.
I thought that was just another name for what in the states we call a theme park.
This adventure park was one of the most unique places I have ever been.
The area the class went to was the tree climbing/zip-lining area. We climbed up into the trees and moved around via the zip-lines to which we were attached by carabiners.
I have a hard time explaining this. Hopefully these pictures will help you understand what we did.

I'm sorry for the language 

It was a lot a lot of fun
But I found out i am extremely afraid of heights

Lost To Eger

We lost to Eger Vizilabda club on Sunday. They are ranked 3rd in Hungary for the A league.
We were up and winning through the first half, and then the referees went to work. Two of our top players were ejected from the game.

Eger has the #1 goal scorer in Hungary. He has over 110 goals in 15 games. That dude can shoot!

I ended up scoring 2 goals that game. 

UVSE Tie

We tied the top ranked team in Hungary on Wednesday.
We could have won, but our 2 meter guard was ejected from the pool for talking back to the refs at in the beginning of the 2nd quarter. We then had to play without him. Tough to tie, knowing we could have won.

Nice souvenir I got from the game.

Touring Kolozsvár

We had a game at 9 in the morning on Saturday when we

beat another Romanian team.

There was also a fight in this game.

I got punched, so Sandor, my coach, told his team to go after the guy that hit me.

Both teams had 2 players ejected for fighting, but we still won 17 to 5.

Our next game was at 9 that night, so we had a while to explore.
We toured the city, which was very pretty and had a ton of great statues.

The most famous King of Hungary was born 100m from the statue

 

Gypsy Palace 

City Streets

Surprise on my walk to school

On Monday morning we were late to school and we missed the bus by a couple seconds, and had to wait an extra 15 minutes for the next bus. But on that second bus we had traffic all the way into the city, so we got off the bus and took the tram instead.
On our way through the city on the other route 
we passed this dormitory, which was across the street from my school.  There were 12 people slaughtering a pig in the middle of the road that morning. I was told that they were making goulash. 
I thought it was amazing and so strange to see people chopping up a pig in the street, but Tibi thought it was completely normal.
When we got to school I told everyone what I saw and they also thought it was completely normal and thought I was the weird one. 

Kolozsvár Romania

We got into Romania on Friday afternoon after a very long bus ride.
Right after arriving from an 8 hour bus ride to Kolozsvár,  we had to go in and play a game against a top Romanian team. We had no time to rest.
The pool was very pretty and we played in a 33 meter field, which is a much larger pool than what we play in the States.
Even though we were very tired from the bus ride, we still beat the team 16-9.
Tibi, my Hungarian brother, got bit by one of the "Gypsy" Romanians. There is a lot of bad blood between the Romanian and the Hungarian water polo teams. These games are very rough.

This is the pool

Weekend Tournament

Heading off to Romania for a tournament this weekend
Its a good tournament and my team should do very well

Hope to bring good news when i get back on sunday

Budafoka vs. FTC

On Sunday my team had a game vs. FTC at our home pool.
We had a full house watching in the stands, because FTC is ranked #2 in all of Hungary.
It was a very tight game, but Budafoka held on to a 1 point lead for the last 3 minutes and beat FTC.
This was a great win for Budafoka.
http://www.waterpolo.hu/meccsadatok/92/meccs_10891.html
These are the stats of the game
Next weekend we travel to Transylvania for a big tournament.

Visit to Visegrád

Today we traveled out to the mountains.
We began our day at the highest point in Hungary to go sledding in the snow.
But we saw that it had been too hot this past week, so the snow melted and the mountain was too rocky to sled in the 4 or 5 cm of snow that was left.

Highest Point in Hungary 1014 meters

Then we went to the first capital of Hungary, Visegrád.
It is located north of Budapest next to the Danube.
It was the main castle of Hungary and during the middle ages most of the population lived only in that region.
We toured the castle.

School Bus

So I have been taking this school bus home for the last week.

This bus picks me up around 4 blocks away from my school and drops me off very close to my home in Budafok.

The only drag is that it takes an hour to get there and the bus is always packed full of people everyday.

Cold Soup in a Cold Hungary

A very popular soup in the winter in Hungary is Kocsonya.

It's a soup that is cooked for 5+ hours.

After it's cooked it's taken outside and sits in the -degree weather.

Then around dinner time it has hardened like gelatin and is ready to eat.

This meal is so popular that the city I was in last weekend even had their own festival dedicated to this soup.

It was -8 during the festival and people were still enjoying themselves eating this cold treat,

although they were drinking hot wine with it.

Relaxing at the Thermal Pools

On Saturday we went off to one of the many thermal hot springs in Hungary. This one has been around since the 1890's, but was remodeled in 2002.

It made for a great place to rest for the day, because this upcoming week is going to be hard with all the homework I have and practices at night. 

Friday at the Vineyards

I went to 2 different Wineries in Hungary on Friday
i was in the north western region of Hungary called Tokaji
Its a beautiful area with rolling hills and amazing wine

Cold Bus Ride to School

Today I took the bus to school like all the kids in Hungary do.
I bought myself a bus pass yesterday that will last me until the 14th of March.
It was a warm morning around -4 degrees Celsius, it felt much colder because there was a lot of wind
TB walked over to his girlfriend's house first because she lives next door to the bus stop. Her house and the bus stop are about a 1 km walk away from where I am living.
The bus comes at exactly 7:15, but we were there a little early just in case.
The bus was packed full of people off to work and school, which made the bus very comfortable compared to the frigid air outside.

First Day of School

I went to my first day of school today.
It was a lot of fun.
I have very nice kids in my classes. My teachers are helpful and everyone spoke English, which made it feel like I could have been in a school about anywhere in the United States.
My only complaint was that many of my classmates reeked of cigarettes, which stunk up the whole class, and they would go out to smoke every hour and thirty minutes.

In Hungary Safe and Sound

I flew in to Budapest quicker than expected.

I was the first person off the plane and my bag was the first to come down the ramp at the baggage claim

I know that this is going to be an amazing trip getting this kind of luck coming my way.

I was picked up by TB's parents and was taken to their home where I will spend the next 6 weeks.

Gone For 6 Weeks

I will be leaving this Friday to travel to Budapest, Hungary.
While I am there I will be staying with a very close friend. I will be studying winemaking, playing water polo and going to school.