Torquay

Sorry for the long hiatus! I have been scrambling around moving, and getting back into the habit of studying, and meeting lots of new people, and just settling in. I spent a couple of weekends at Kyla's, doing wedding planning and just puttering around, which was lots of fun. It's great to be so close by. And this weekend, I went on a little trip to Torquay, which is on the south coast of England (you might know it as the setting of Fawlty Towers - although we stayed in a bohemian backpackers hostel - and the hometown of Agatha Christie), with Siv, another girl from Seattle. The weather was beautiful, and we had a wonderful time walking along the coast, watching England beat Australia at rugby in a pub, and being thoroughly charmed by just about everything.

I'll try to be more diligent about updates! Life just isn't so exciting when there's homework involved. But I'm not complaining, Bath is great and life is good!

Bath

Well, I'm getting settled in here in Bath! I have limited internet access right now, but I will write more once I have my internet set up at home.

Budapest

Well, our trip is coming to an end! Just one full day left in Budapest. We've really enjoyed it, though. Our hostel is adorable, and we've been having a good time seeing all the sights. Yesterday, we went to the Synagogue, which is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world, after the one in New York. The woman, Aggie, who did our tour was amazing, and told us all about the history of the Jewish community in Budapest right up through the Holocaust and into the present. We were shocked to learn about how late the Hungarian Holocaust started, and how quickly it was achieved. We visited the Jewish Museum and the memorial garden, with a beautiful sculpture donated by Tony Curtis, of all people! Then, we went for lunch at a place nearby that was recommended by Olga, who runs our hostel, and walked by the Basilica and Opera House on the way to the Terror Museum, which chronicles the history of the secret police in Hungary. When we came out, it had begun to rain, but we still trekked up to Heroes' Square before dinner.

Today, we visited the National Museum, which has a temporary exhibition on the Mongolian invasion, and then ventured across the Danube to Buda. We wandered around a little bit, but were kind of tired of sightseeing, so we spent the afternoon at the thermal baths and got massages. It was amazing.

Tomorrow, I think we're going to take a day trip. Maybe go wine-tasting in Eger. Sorry this wasn't a very energetic post, but I am so relaxed right now after my massage. Mmmm.

Journey

Our last day in Sarajevo was amazing. I can't wait to write all about it, but I definitely can't do it justice right now. This morning, we were up at 5 to catch a 12 hour train to Budapest. The Lonely Planet guide alleges that there is an overnight train, but that is not the case, so we had to waste one day roasting in an old train to complete our journey. We went just a little bit stir crazy, but at least we had packed plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and were both reading good books. We arrived in Budapest a little sweaty and exhausted, but our hostel is adorable, and we went out to dinner with a fellow traveller, James from Bournemouth, and heard about his ordeal trying to get from Poland to Lviv, and then here, and realized that we had had it pretty easy (although his makes a really good story!). We are excited about spending the next few days here, there's a lot to see, but we are concerned that nothing will live up to the wonderful surprise that was Bosnia. I am going to bed now, but I will write more soon.

Sarajevo

We're in Sarajevo now. Yesterday we walked around the old town and the markets, saw some places of worship (there's a major mosque, synagogue, Orthodox cathedral, and Catholic church within a few blocks of each other), and saw the little museum on the corner where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. I will write more about it later. The whole crew from Mostar has headed this way, and we all met up again last night. We went out for čevapčiči and then to a bar called the City Pub, which was really happening, except that we noticed that we were about the only ones drinking alcohol. We don't know if the residents here usually abstain, or if they're just observing Ramadan, but it's interesting to be in a European Muslim country. I was awakened by a call to prayer at 5:30 this morning, fell back asleep, and was awakened again by church bells at 7:30. Now we're going to meet Nicolas to go to some of the war museums, then tomorrow we're off to Budapest.