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So Gábor and I just bought our tickets to Budapest. We’re flying out of North Carolina on the 17th of December and will be returning to the States on the 19th of January. That’s roughly 32 days in Europe.

Combined with my trip to Cancun, which is 9 days, I’ll be out of the States for roughly 41 days. When I plan trips, I go all out, don’t I? We’ll be mostly spending time with friends and family that live there so that will help tremendously with costs of hotels/hostels.

The only thing I know for sure is that we’re going to Budapest, spending Christmas in Slovakia, and then spending 3 days in London before our flight back to the States. The stuff in between might range from a trip to Erdély (Transylvania), Cracow, Prague and maybe some other similar places. We might also go skiing in the Tatra mountains, which borders Poland and Slovakia. We have plenty of time to decide and plenty of time to do with what we decide.

In case any of you didn’t know, it’s not a very good idea to book so close to Christmas time. I knew, but there’s nothing we can do about that. Prices have jumped up tremendously. I’ve never actually travelled during the holidays like this, so here’s hoping everything goes as smoothly as possible.

Life Goal #5 is to learn to SCUBA dive. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do for as long as I can remember. It seems so amazing to me to swim around under water and still be able to breathe. Add tropical fish, exotic reefs and potential shark attacks and you have yourself an adventure.

Opportunity at First Sight

My friend László mentioned last Wednesday that he’s going on a trip to Cancun, Mexico in December and if any of us would like to join. He’s been talking about this trip for a while now. He submitted a research paper a few months ago to be accepted to this conference that’s being held there. Because his research is awesome (in the area of autonomous aerospace engineering), his paper got accepted and now he gets to go for 5 days on the department’s dime.

I told him I’d love to go, but I’m going to Europe that same month and money would be really tight. Then I started thinking: when is the next time I’ll be able to go to Mexico and SCUBA dive? Probably, quite literally, never. And being Life Goal #5, it was something I had to do. Luckily I have time to save up enough money to go and pay for it all in cash (rather than sticking it all on the credit card and wondering how I’m going to pay for it later). I’m going to be hurting financially for a while, but really, it’s just money and I’m not going into debt to achieve it, so I can in good conscience take this trip.

We’re planning to leave Sunday, the 7th of December. László’s conference is that week, but when he’s done we’re planning on a package deal of at least 3 days of SCUBA diving.

SCUBA School

So, before they let you go SCUBA diving, you have to get certified. Come to find out, Virginia Tech has a SCUBA diving club. Actually the school is so large they have a club for anything you can probably think of but I never thought to get certified here. So László looked into it for us last week and saw that there were three spots left, in the last class of the semester. He checked again on Tuesday and there were only two left. They were accepting applications between 5-6pm, but not on Wednesdays because they had a club meeting. Except we showed up at War Memorial Gym where they were accepting the applications and saw they were closed.

We had just gotten to the doors when a guy walked by in a hurry then stopped and asked us if we were looking for the SCUBA club. He said they’re not open because of the meeting but that he was heading there now. Crazy thing is, I guess he was the treasurer because he had a cashbox, took our checks, used a stamp to endorse them and took out a sheet with two empty slots on it to write our names down. Then he handed us our receipts. I don’t think we could have run into a better person. 30 seconds sooner or later and we would have missed him.

Then, to make it an even better story, his last name is Gyorgy, or György (which is actually a first name and if you’ve already guessed, yes it’s Hungarian). In Hungarian “first names” come last, and “last names” come first. For example: Szabó Péter means Tailor Peter. “Last names” are titles and titles come before the name, so that’s the explanation for that. And who’s surprised I linked SCUBA diving with something Hungarian?

Chichen Itzan Mayan Ruins

Apparently Mexico has ruins. It’s a $100 trip to see these ruins. If I wanted to see buildings in ruin, I’d go to Budapest (now I’ve linked the Mayan civilization with something Hungarian. I think I have a problem). In all seriousness, it’s going to be awesome. One of my favorite subjects in photography is architectural photography, so this is going to be an amazing trip for me.

Fun in the Sun

While László’s in the conference I get to head out and explore Cancun (only for 5 of the 9 days we’re there). I’ll perhaps meet some nice young ladies to hang out with and invite diving with us. I might just hang out at the beach, sipping margaritas and finish my tan for the summer. Of course I could sit in my hotel room with my laptop and watch YouTube videos all day. How awesome would that be?

Literally, the day after I return from tropical, beachy Cancun, I’ll be flying to Europe and freezing off the cojones (ah, see? I’m learning some useful Spanish words). It’ll be an extreme like I’ve never felt before. And it will be awesome.

Eastern Europe get its charm and character from being behind the Iron Curtain for over 40 years. It was difficult for any person behind the Curtain to socialize with the Western World.

In Berlin where East met West in very intimate settings, both sides build up buildings along the Wall to show the other side they were doing just fine and dandy, and didn’t you wish you were on *this* side? The Soviet Union under this communist system was simply all about show.

Today, remnants can be seen of the Russian industry and it’s effects on the former satellite nations for the past 50 years. Only recently have nations, formerly under the rule of communist Russia, been able to prosper under a more realistic capitalist system. However, because western influence was limited, much of the original culture still remains and is an important part of these countries still today.

Reasons to Avoid Western Europe

The myths about Europeans hating Americans is over stated. Europeans don’t *hate* Americans. They just sometimes think what America is doing in the world is stupid. They realize that not all Americans are like the ones they see on U.S. television shows, but they do pass around funny YouTube clips and joke about how stupid Americans are. But it’s only what they see. You never hear about the quiet American who speaks fluent Spanish because they tend to blend in more. You always hear about the obnoxious American tourist in the restaurant, speaking loudly and complaining about how Europe is so far behind the times and if this restaurant was in the States, it’d go out of business in a week. They’re not hard to pick out and so their visibility makes up the perception Europeans have about Americans. Americans in Europe are like Sikhs in America, you can spot them from three blocks away. So Europeans don’t hate Americans, they are just easy to pick on.

In fact, it seems, until a few years ago, they all wanted to be like Americans. In Hungary, it was considered a wonderful date (don’t tell any of my girlfriends this) if you were to take your girl to the local McDonalds. It was a bit more expensive and it was also kind of exotic for Hungarians.

This mentality is more prominent in Western Europe as it’s had a lot longer to fester. One reason to avoid Western Europe is because it’s too westernized and doesn’t provide a large contrast with the States. If you’re looking for something different (and you might not be), Eastern Europe is your best bet and will still fit within your comfort zone.

Most Americans go to London, Paris, Rome and maybe Berlin. I highly recommend Berlin because there is a stark contrast between the East and the West that’s directly evident when you stand on a street where you can see both East Berlin and West Berlin. Those other places are super touristy and they are extremely indifferent to tourists since they get literally millions every year. It’s like the difference between going to a Wal-Mart and going to a mom and pop shop in your city’s downtown. The products and experiences are worlds apart. Unless of course you’re just looking for a cheap, hollow experience for the sake of telling your friends you went to Europe.

I’m all about embracing different cultures. It opens your eyes to so many new and different ideas; ideas you would otherwise never have gotten. It’s similar to an artist looking at other artists’ works. If he or she only looks at works done by artists in the same town, the ideas become stagnant and inbred. The greatest artists in history were influenced by foreign influences. This is why different cultures are so important to me.

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I’m thinking about spending Christmas in Budapest again this year. Last time was in 2006, so while it hasn’t been that long, it’s been a while. I promised everyone I’d go back last summer, but I had just started a new job and I didn’t have the money to do it. So I promised to return this summer so I could to the Sziget festival, watch the Red Bull Air Races (highlights) and see the fireworks for one of Hungary’s holidays in August. However, I forgot about the fact that since my job involves toys, we’re totally swamped with projects for the holiday season all summer up until October. Christmas in July! and August! and September!

Christmas gives me a great opportunity to leave as we get a week off anyway and then I can use some paid time off (PTO) to extend that vacation. So I’m thinking of taking a week and a half off before and after that Christmas holiday and make my vacation 4 weeks long.

My roommate Gabe’s parents live just north of the Hungarian border in a small Hungarian town in Slovakia. It’s only a few hours train ride to Budapest. We might also stay over in Dublin on our way back to Hungary since he has friends there he wants to see and because I’ve never been to Dublin or Ireland for that matter. And yes, the Guinness factory will be on the list of places to visit. I hear it tastes better than in the U.S.

Also, my Russian friend Elena, who I went to school with at Corvinus might be in Prague in December, so I guess I *have* to go to Prague and see her. Oh darn, Prague. Last time I was there, I went with my friend Tristan and Izzi and had such an awesome time. Gabe hasn’t been in a while so he’s excited about coming with me.

I definitely want to spend a few days in Budapest and see my friend Kriszi and that gang, Tristan, my old advisor Krisztina and others who I haven’t seen since I left. I also want to pick up some Corvinus college t-shirts and maybe a sweatshirt. The thought never occurred to me to buy any university swag while I was there, probably because I was a poor college student who had just enough money to eat. Now I’m rich (even though I’m still paying off the tuition from Corvinus AND Virginia Tech). Continue reading