Free time

Tuesday was the last day of Language class. As soon as the language class was finished I headed to the college to meet people to take a cruise on the Danube River. Everyone who will be taking classes in the building we will be in was there. I guess there is an international college that uses the same building for classes. The cruise was really cool, we got to see most of the riverfront on the entire city. Budapest truly is a beautiful city. We passed by the really cool looking parliament building a couple times, went under the chain bridge, passed by the Buda Castle and everything else that is visible from the river. That was certainly quite an experience.

Tuesday was also Greg's first day in Budapest. It was good to see him again. Now I have a roommate and do not have to live alone. I really enjoy that. There is someone else in this house that I can communicate with.

On Wednesday we went to the immigration office to apply for residency permits. It was a lot less stressful than I thought it would be, but it did still take a considerable amount of time. The process went pretty smoothly for me without any problems which was good. The really interesting thing was that while we were over there I met the students from the Calvin Hungary semester. They were doing the exact same thing we were doing. It was fun meeting up with other Calvin students. After the immigration office we went out to eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Budapest. We found a nice small local place where no one spoke any English. They had pretty good for pretty cheap prices. The other interesting thing about the place was that after we ordered our food they served the food out on a plate and then put it in a microwave to heat it up! An interesting experience. The rest of the day was filled with wandering through the city.

On Thursday Greg and I went up to the Castle District in Budapest. We got some sweet views of the city and got to see some really old buildings. It was a really interesting place to walk around.

Friday we went to St. Stephen's Basilica. That was quite the building I must say. The ceilings were enormously tall, and there was a lot of stain glass windows and other very fancy decorations. We also got to go to a room in the back and saw a box that actually contained St. Steven's right hand. I didn't get a good enough view to be able to say I saw much. Then that afternoon we went to Hero's square and then walked all around a large and beautiful city park in the area. Then that evening we went back to St. Stephen's Basilica for a professional organ concert. It was a beautiful concert. The spectacular venue combined with the amazing skill that the organist had made it quite an unforgettable concert.

Then on Saturday we went to the National Museum and learned a lot about Hungary's history and saw many artifacts. After that we found a festival on the south side of town and stopped by there for a little while. That was also a very interesting cultural experience.