About Hungarian coins

In the last few days I got some postcards from abroad. I think this is the time to set my profile to holiday mode, as I'm not able to send any postcards from the camp, or at least it wouldn't be the same anymore... but it seems I keep getting them from others. 

FROM the USA

I got this postcard from Oregon. I really love bald eagles, they are one of my favourite animals. Although I have been to the USA several times, I haven't had the chance to see any, I wish I would! Maybe in this year, or in the next years - who knows where I'm heading after camp! 

FROM Portugal

The girl sent this postcard from nearby Porto. She met some Hungarians in Madeira, and she mentioned me how kind they were, so she would really like to visit Hungary in the future. I would also love to visit Portugal and Porto, when I was on Erasmus in Helsinki I shared the room with a Portuguese girl, who also studies in Porto, so it would be nice to visit her! 

FROM Russia

This postcard came from East Russia, from nearby the sea. You can see Nakkodka Bay with Sister Mountain, which is the symbol of the village where the girl lives. I really like this picture, I wish I could visit this area! *.*

FROM Russia

I got this card from Moscow. The girl collects stamps and coins, so I wrote a letter to her whether she wants to swap any of them, but she hasn't replied to me yet. She wrote she hasn't been to Hungary before, so in my opinion some Hungarian coins would be nice in her collection. As I have more visitors on my blog from abroad than from Hungary, I would like to describe how the Hungarian coins (Forint) look like. There are several coins:

- 5: has the Great Egret bird

- 10: has the coat of arms of Hungary

- 20: has the stool iris 

- 50: has Saker falcon on it. Sometimes there are unique 50 Forints, on some anniversaries or on some kind of special events. They are pretty rare, and quite hard to find. 

- 100: also has the coat of arms of Hungary, but in my opinion it's much more beautiful than the 10 Forints.

- 200: this is the most beautiful one. It has the Chain Bridge on it. Before the banknote was changed to coin, people can vote what kind of motives we want to have on the 200 Forints coin. Most people voted for the Chain Bridge, so eventually that was put on it.

FROM Germany

I got this card from North Germany. It's a free card, which I really liked there - in a lot of bars, pubs, hostels, etc. you could find several nice and funny postcards. When I was in Hamburg and Bremen I took home a lot of free postcards and put into my collection. Next time, if I'm in Germany again, I'll collect more cards I'm sure :D

Hungarian embrodiery

In the last days of my stay in Hungary I received some postcards and I sent 1 as well to Japan. 

TO Japan

The girl wanted to get pictures about national costumes. So I chose this card, which has some Hungarian clothes with traditional embrodiery style, called Kalocsai. In Hungary we have quite many type of traditional costumes. My favourite is this one, and the "Matyó". Unfortunately we can hardly find these kind of clothes and they are very expensive to purchase in my opinion. Usually folk dancers wear traditional costumes, but I think I haven't seen them wearing Kalocsai or Matyó before. Of course it depends on the area of the country of course. I don't live close to the Great Plain, where Kalocsai and Matyó are popular. Other popular embrodieries from Hungary are Kalotaszegi, Torockoi, etc.

FROM Estonia

This person sent me a piece of napkin as well. I'm collecting napkins too. It was strange, because the napkin is in Hungarian :D

FROM Norway

The guy felt what my favourite aircraft is - the Boeing 747! Unfortunately I haven't travelled with any before, but I hope it will change in the near future :) 

FROM France

This place is wonderful! The mountain is called Pyrenees, and it's on the border of France and Spain. I would like to visit this place soo much in the future *.*

FROM Finland

I liked this card. I already have a Finnish flag, it's above my bed, and it's anormous! So I can put this card next to it and enjoy them together :D

Memories from London

I haven't written for a while... and I have a good excuse why. Some of my postcards arrived to their destination, and I asked for newer and newer addresses. All the people asked for touristic postcards, so I kept sending cards from Budapest. I have already written so many posts about Budapest, so I didn't want to open a new post about my cards again :D I would rather waited till this time.

TO Taiwan

I had a big problem with this postcrosser. She is 8 years old and she wanted to get postcard about Frozen. I tried to look for one, and I also checked Amazon, so if I go to the USA I could have bought it for her, but unfortunately I didn't find any :( So I decided to send her a touristic postcard. I still hope she won't hate me because of this :$ :D

TO Russia

TO Lithuania

The girl's profile was totally empty, so I had no idea what kind of postcards she likes... so I sent this to her.

TO Germany

The guy likes buildings. As I'm out of touristic postcards from Budapest, I needed to send a card from a different city :D So I decided to choose this one. It's an abbey in Zirc, where there is a big library. I have already been there, but I was so young that I don't really remember what's inside, or how it is look like. I remember being in a library, probably I was in this one. If I'm right, it has a very big library with more than 10.000 books.

TO Belarus

The girl would like to get cards about London too. I have a lot of postcards about London, so why wouldn't I send it to her? I was there last year in March. I flew there from Helsinki for 4 days with 2 of my friends. I enjoyed staying there, though our "hotel" was awful. I have no idea how they could call theirselves a hotel. The bathroom was totally dirty, the rooms were old, the windows were bad: we could hear metros going all the time. Last, but not least, we heard every night people having sex next to our room :D -.-" Yeah, we selected the cheapest place on Booking.com :D since that time I never choose the cheapest place to stay, unless it has good ratings :D 

During those days I could go to Stamford Bridge, to Chelsea Football Club's stadium. That was really nice. And one of my friends joined me too, who was an exchange student also, but in London. Above the stadium, I visited the most touristic places, like everyone else: Piccaddily Circus, Tower Bridge, Madame Toussaud's, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, etc. I was very surprised how many Hungarians there are! We were asking for something in buffet with my friend, we were talking, and the assistant started talking in Hungarian to us. The same happened to us before in a Vietnamese restaurant, where both the waitresses were Hungarian. Now I can understand why people say London is the second biggest Hungarian city :D

I really hope to be able to post again. On Saturday I'm leaving to the USA, I don't think that I will do Postcrossing from there. So, for the summer I will stop writing this blog, but I will write my other blog about my adventures in the USA: http://doriamerikaban.blogspot.hu/ It's in Hungarian, so if you want to follow, don't hesitate to use Google Translator. I'm sure you'll have a nice time with reading it, my Finnish friends usually followed them, and they told me how funny it is when they try to translate it into English :D

Some facts about the main building of Hungary

A newer postcard arrived to its place, so I'm here again. this time I feel that I'm sending too many postcards about Budapest, but anyway, I'm sending this one:

TO Germany

The woman likes getting postcard about famous buildings. When I see requests like this, I always think about sending cards about Budapest, as I can find touristic cards easily, while the normal postcards are harder to find. However, if I send pictures about Budapest all the time, I won't be able to write anything special in my blog :D I won't start writing about my school again, like I did for the woman. But, I'm going to introduce the life of the Hungarian Parliament, which is the largest and highest building in Hungary.

Its construction started in 1885 according to the plans of Imre Steindl; and completed in 1904. About 1000 people were involved in the construction. They used 40 million bricks, half million precious stones and 40 kilogramm gold. It's in the gothic revival style, the dome has renaissance revival architecture. 

The Parliament has two halls out of which one is used for the politics, the other one is used for guided tours. It is 268 meters long and 123 meters wide. Its interior includes 10 courtyards, 13 passenger and freight elevators, 27 gates, 29 staircases and 691 rooms. Its height of 96 meters refers to the nation's millennium, 1896, and the conquest of the later Kingdom of Hungary in 896.

The facade displays statues of Hungarian rulers, Transylvanian leaders and famous military figures. The coats of arms of kings and dukes are depicted over the windows. The east stairs is flanked by two lions.

One of the famous parts of the building is the hexadecagonal (sixteen-sided) central hall, with huge chambers adjoining it: the Lower House and the Upper House. The modern National Assembly is unicameral and meets in the Lower House, while the Upper House is used as a conference and meeting room. The Holy Crown of Hungary, which is also depicted in the coat of arms of Hungary, has been displayed in the central hall since 2000.

Due to its extensive surface and its detailed handiwork, the building is almost always under renovation.

Some Hungarian art lesson

Nowadays my postcards are really slow, though one of them arrived to its place during the last week. I asked for a new address, and I got one from the Netherlands.

TO the Netherlands

The woman is an art teacher, so I wanted to send her a postcard with an art. My first idea was to go to the Buda Castle, which has the National Gallery, where last time I saw some postcard on sale. They were really cheap in that time, so I have no idea why I didn't buy some of them. However, unfortunately I didn't have the chance to go there, mainly because I'm out of money, and because of some other factors. I wanted to buy a postcard with my favourite Hungarian painter - Pál Merse Szirnyei . Instead of him I decided to send one card from Tivadar  Kosztka Csontváry, who is my 2nd favourite. 

Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry was part of avant-garde movement of the early 20th century. He was more popular among foreigners than Hungarians in his time, but nowadays of course he is really popular in Hungary too. Most of his art were made in abroad. He made more than hundred works, which are connected with post-impressionism and expressionism. His most popular art is "The Lonely Cedar", but personally I really like the "Pilgrimage to the Cedars of Lebanon". The card shows the paint called "Waterfall at Jajce".

Going to the USA in 1 month!

I'm getting more and more postcards :) Today I got 2, one from Taiwan and 1 from the USA. 

FROM Taiwan

FROM the USA - Arkansas

Maybe this was a sign... I'm going to the USA in exactly 1 month! :D I'm so excited about it! Yesterday the camp director wrote to me and asked when I'm planning to go to the camp, and I can even go there earlier if I want, as she will be there. As I have the appointment to the World Trade Observatory for 7th, I cannot go to the camp on Sunday, only on Monday. I asked her whether there will be a 4th Hungarian, as a few months ago she asked us whether we know anyone who would go to the camp. I found a girl to the kitchen, but we didn't suggest anyone to maintainance  position. The director told me that we will be 3 only, but there will be 4 other people from Camp Leaders (2 from England and 2 from Austria), and the French girl will be back also from last year. I'm really curious, though none of them will be in the kitchen - the kitchen crew will be the old one, except for Petra, my friend.

Petra and me are going on 8th June already though the camp starts only in the end of June. The camp will be so empty then, not even 10 people will stay there in the last 2 weeks! 1 week before the camp more people will arrive, so probably there will be more people, around 15 in my opinion. 

By the way, I'm flying with LOT Polish Airline, which is not as good as the airlines in the last years... it has only 3 starts instead of 4, but hopefully there will be no problems. One of my friends travelled with them last year and she didn't like them. Anyway, the ticket was pretty cheap, so maybe the hospitality will be less good as well... lets see! :)

Lets go to St. Petersburg!

Nono, I'm not going to St. Petersburg... unfortunately! But I would like to guide you there, as I had the chance to go there last year, and now I got a postcard from there! 

FROM Russia

So yeah, I went to St. Petersburg in last March from Helsinki. By ferry we could go to Russia without visa for 3 days only. So why shouldn't I go to St. Petersburg? Not like always, this time I took a tour and I didn't plan anything - just some programmes which we could choose from. The package included the room on the ferry, the accommodation, the entrance to the Hermitage, a bus tour around the city... However, I chose more activities, like visiting the cathedrals, going to St. Catherine's Palace and... going with limusine :D All of them were good! In the beginning I regret buying a ticket to the limusin, I thought that my friend is going there too, so I booked a place, then she told me that she was not going there. Anyway, but eventually I found there others, so I enjoyed it really much. We drank a Russian champagne (it was free), and visited some cathedrals in the night time. I also experienced running in the central to find a toilet in a shirt only (commoon, it was March, around 0 Degrees). We laughed a lot and sang a lot. After the limusine tour we were dropped off at a night club, which was pretty good, they played even Evanescence :D And the bartenders (who were girls) were in short skirt and when they didn't need to fill any drink, they stood up onto the bar and started dancing - almost erotically. When we finished, we caught a private car, who offered to be a taxi driver for only us :D Okay, lets go, we were 4, he was alone, so nothing can happen with us hopefully :D And nothing happened. 

We stayed in Hotel Moscow and I enjoyed it quite much, mainly the all you can eat breakfast :D We ate a lot every morning, I wish I could do it again *.* They had everything, really everything. 

Unfortunately the additional activities weren't so cheap, so I didn't attend to all of them. There were possibilities to go to a Russian dinner, where they played music, games, and had Russian food, and there was ballet as well. They were quite expensive, the dinner was 30 Euros and the ballet was around 70 Euros if I remember right. 

The ferry was also pretty cool. In the evenings we played card games, and there were parties as well. To St. Petersburg I went to the party and an Italian guy stucked onto me :D The problem was his height, he was much shorter than me, so I didn't really want to be with him :D He was pretty drunk, so fortunately on the next day he didn't even remember me :D 

I really hope to get to St. Petersburg again in the future, as in my opinion 3 days are totally not enough for that city. It's really big and there are a lot to see. I loved the buildings quite much, it's not so expensive (comparing to Helsinki), though people are really bad at talking in English. For example I went to McDonald's and wanted to buy 2 cheese burgers, 1 big Cola and 1 middle French fries, then the girl took 2 McBurgers, 2 big French fries and 1 middle Cola :D Fortunately my friends knew some Russian, so they could explain what I want to get :D

School stuffs

So here is the postcard which I forgot to take home from Budapest. And lets see an additional, which is going to Poland, as my Disney postcard arrived to Germany. 

TO the USA

TO Poland

Both girls were interested in touristic postcards. For me this is the easiest I can send, as I realized that in Hungary there aren't so many places where we can buy normal postcards. When I went to Germany there were a lot of postcards on the streets, not only touristic, and cards for various events, but general, random postcards. I'm sure next time I'll buy a lot from there, though the price is quite high for me :/

I wrote both the girls that I'm really proud of Budapest because of these sights. My school is pretty close to them, actually, it's behind the Parliament, so I can see it every time when I go to school. At this moment school gives me a lot of stress, as during the last 3 months teachers didn't do anything with us, but now they started asking for presentations, assignments and there are a lot of exams to write. Fortunately I'm almost over. I have 6 courses in this semester, and I had exams in the previous week and... today :D Now I have to write an assignment for Thursday, then I'm off for a few weeks, when I need to do 2 exams - probably the hardest ones, as at one of the courses the teacher taught nothing, and the other one asked us to learn additional materials, as she didn't have time to talk about that. If I take everything, I'm done for this semester, and I can fly to the USA, yaay! In addition, this is my last semester (in BA) in the school, as my next step is to do a mandatory internship. Because of my American summer I cannot start it on time (July), so I decided to be a passive student. However, I would like to find an internship from September already and do it till June, and have it signed with school between February and June only. I would like to work in abroad again, so I applied for AIESEC organization, which helps me to find an internship abroad. I paid the programme fee last week, but my profile is not active yet. I saw quite many positions already where I would like to apply to, like Japan (6 positions), Malaysia, Ireland, Germany and Kenya. I feel that I'll need to apply for more positions than 10, last year I applied for 70 vacancies before I got my placement to India. I was also thinking about returning to India and do my internship there, but as my friend broke his promise and we don't talk anymore, I don't think that I should go back... :/ I'd rather experience something new :)    

Please cross your fingers for me. If you know a company which is looking for an intern and accept internationals, don't hesitate to write to me! :)

More cards than I expected!

I spent approximately a week away from home, and I got so many postcards! I though that I would get postcard after mine arrive to their places, but it seems not, as 8 of my postcards arrived to their destinations, but I have received 10 cards already. I guess for a while I won't get so many cards :( 

My Taiwanese card arrived, which was quite weird, as I sent it with cards to Belarus and Germany, and they haven't arrived yet... but the Taiwanese one did. Anyway, maybe during next week. So lets see the cards I got from abroad:

FROM the Netherlands

I really like this postcard. Amsterdam was never on my bucket list, though I was planning to go there in September or October with my Indian friend. It seems that he's not coming anymore, or at least not visiting me, so now I cancel this plan. However, after I saw this card I realized that I should visit it, at least because of the buildings. I really adore buildings and making pictures about them, so... One more destination added in Europe :)

FROM Hong Kong - Wong Tai Sin Temple

FROM Russia

The girl who sent to me the card taught a word to me too in Russian. She told me what spring is - vesna. She sent this postcard to me because this palace reminds her about tales from her childhood. Unfortunately she didn't mention the name of this place, there are only Russian charachters on the card :(

FROM Ukraine - Lviw

FROM Germany

Haha, I just love this owl! <3 The girl taught me the Bayerish goodbye, "Pfiat Di". 

I also have a postcard to send, but I forgot it in Budapest, and I haven't made a picture about it. So I'll write the post with that postcard a little bit later, maybe after Monday, as I'm having an exam then, so I won't spend so much time here on Sunday evening, when I'm back to Budapest. So Pfiat Di, see you later!

Gifts from Taiwan

Accidentally I missed one letter - firstly I didn't see the code for Postcrossing, so I didn't consider it to put here, but then I found the code, so I could registrate this postcard and now I'm writing a post and show you my really nice postcard and gifts. 

FROM Taiwan

Yes, I got an other card from Taiwan :D and not only a card, but a tea bag, a coffee, a card with some Taiwanese sweets on it (unfortunately it's in Mandarin, so I couldn't really read it, but yeah, I asked people to send me something in their own language, so... I should learn Mandarin!), and stamps. And the postcard is also really beautiful, it's glimmering! 

I tasted the tea already and... it was a little bit weird, but good. A few years back I got a tea bag from my Korean penpal, it was something like peanut tea :D Of course it wasn't a peanut, but it was something different than tea in Hungary. I haven't tasted it before. And I nor could read what kind of tea it was as it was in Korean :D I love these Asian gifts so much! I would really like to go there once and spend all my existing money on gifts only :D

First received postcards

Finally it was time to get the first postcards back! *.* After I returned back to Hungary from Germany, I found 4 nice incoming postcards from Postcrossing. Please have a look at them:

FROM Taiwan

FROM Japan

On the picture you can see the Kiyomizu Temple from Kyoto. I'd really like to go there, because I have a friend in Kyoto, who was an intern in India, in the same company like me. Above that I'm interested in the Japanese culture as well, and the cherry trees are really beautiful in bloosom during the spring *.*

The sender is from Kobe. 

FROM France

FROM Canada

This card was a surprise to me. I knew that in North America we can find a lot of cities named like other cities in Europe, but I never thought that once I'll get a postcard from one :D so now I got one from London, Canada :) By the way, I have been in Bristol before, in Connecticut, USA. :D The amusement park is there where we usually go with the summer camp.

So now I'm waiting for 3 other cards, which hopefully I'll receive soon :)  

Back to Hungary

Aaand, here I am! As I thought many of my postcards reach their destination, so I could ask for more addresses, wohoo! Actually, after I wrote my last post one of my postcard was registered, and I asked for a new address immediately. Unfortunately I was so lazy and a little bit busy with packing to Germany that I didn't want to write a new post about that. Instead I write now, and I include all the postcards I'm about to send in these times. 

TO France 

The girl was looking for pictures from nature, so I decided to send her this one. This place is located in Szigliget, in Hungary, which is one of the most beautiful place in Hungary in my opinion. There is a big forest where you can walk a lot and of course you can find this small waterfalls, but probably the biggest and most beautiful one in Hungary. 

TO Taiwan

The girl likes getting postcards about stadiums. I was in Hamburg, in Miniatur Wunderland, where I could find this postcard for her. I guess in Hungary it would be a little bit hard to find a postcard with a stadium on it, but there I could find it fortunately :D By the way, Miniatur Wunderland was really beautiful, it had more countries in small: Austria, Switzerland, USA, Germany, Scandinavia... and they are about to make the Italy session. There were a lot of model trains and even a model airport with taking off and landing planes. They were made with a lot of details. There was a brochure which included some funny things we can find anywhere in the grounds, like a couple who are making love, "visitor of Santa", where a snowman comes out from the toilet and Santa is next to it... etc. Unfortunately I couldn't check these as I had a meeting with a girl from Couch Surfing, but maybe next time I'll go back and check everything :D Of course if Italy sessions is done.  

TO Germany

The woman loves Disney, so I sent this postcard. I love it too, my favourites are the Lion King and Pocahontas, but I find Brother Bear also really cute. You must know that my natural hair is blonde and curly. So, when I was young, around 5 years old, I always wanted the hairdresser to make me a hair like Pocahontas has :D I was always very sad when she told me that it's impossible. 

TO Russia

The Russian girl would like to get some animal postcards - look at that cute penguin! :) In this nice weather I shouldn't send any postcards with snow on it, but anyway! :D 

TO Hong Kong

Last, but not least, my 5th postcard is going to Hong Kong. The girl likes music, so I send this art from Sándor Bihari. I like music as well, and in elementary school I used to play the recorder and the clarinet! I really miss them, though I preferred playing the recorder than clarinet. 

Missing Miami

A new postcard arriveed to its place - the German one, as I expected :D So I asked for a new address, and I got a girl from Belarus! Unfortunately in Budapest I was out of nice postcards, so I decided to wait till coming home and look for a postcard from my collection. I found this. 

TO Belarus

The girl asked for a postcard which has sea or sunset on it. I found this postcard and decided to send this for her. To be honest I have no idea what story I could write to this postcard, as my last post was also about the USA, so I won't start writing about it again :D But yeah, I have to admit that I really miss this city, though it was pretty hot and I got a horrible sunburn on the last day. Of course I used suncream in every 15 minutes, but it seems that wasn't enough for my body :D By the end of the day I became a lobster :D and I had so bad pains :'( Hopefully I won't experience this in Hawaii, but I guess my hope is just nothing :D I'm not so sure about that I will use the suncream in every 15 minutes for 2 weeks, while I am there, but lets see :D

Ohhoo, and I'll never forget that bad public transportation, where buses never say which station is the next and we got lost with my friend, went to out of the city and needed to wait for 2 hours till we could go back to Miami :D Now, if I think about it, I find it really funny, but in that moment it was very annoying. 

Unfortunately I have no clue when I can write next time. I'm going to Hamburg and Bremen, Germany on Tuesday, and I return only on 19th April. I hope by that time all my postcards will be delivered and I'll get some in return as well :) 

Happy Easter for everyone, and see you again after 19th April! :)

Traveling in the USA

Today I got a notification about my Finnish postcard that it arrived. I was wondered because before Easter and Christmas my letters to Finland often get lost. But, this time it was the first one which arrived, and not my postcard to Germany :D Maybe the German girl will get it tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, who knows :) 

So! I asked for a new address, and I got one from the Netherlands! :) The women's preferences were really hard, firstly she's looking for cards which include her kids' or grandchildren's name. Well, the only name which I know in Hungary was Petra, but I haven't seen any postcards with "Petra" on it :D And unfortunately I haven't been to Jordan, where there is a city called Petra. One new thing for my bucket list :D So what did I choose? This:

TO the Netherlands

The woman was looking for other postcards as well, including about national parks. So I sent her a card about the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. Unfortunately I haven't been there before, but it's on my bucket list, as it can be really beautiful in reality! Well, if I cannot get here, I can say that I may get to other beautiful places in this summer. I'm going to Massachusetts to work in a summer camp as a kitchen staff. This will be my 4th summer. After the camp I went on traveling in every year, except for my 2nd summer, when I came home with my salary and saved it for Erasmus programme in Finland. In my first summer I was in Boston, Washington DC, Niagara Waterfalls, Watkins Glen, New York, in my 2nd summer I was in New York only, and last year I was in Miami, Key West, Orlando, Atlanta and New York again. Don't think that I love New York so much that I want to see it every year :D My plane goes there and comes from there, so I have to go there, and I usually spend there a few days before coming home. Aaand, this year I'm planning to go to Hawaii! There is a little group of some girls who are planning to go there as well, so we're making our plans together for it. I really hope that it will happen, so I can see a very beautiful state of the USA. My first goal is not to relax on the beach for 2 weeks, but going to national parks. Of course I'd like to visit some beaches too, but only in the evening... to have a bath? :D

Okay, I stop writing now, hopefully I can write an other post in the next few days :)

Wonderful Budapest

You remember when I asked for the first 5 addresses, where I can send my postcards? I got one for Norway... and it arrived to its place, yahooo! It could be mailed earlier, as my father tooked it to the post office, as it was in an envelope. The woman liked it, she wrote me a small message and said a thank you for choosing and sending a postcard which was on her wish list.

So, as one of my cards arrived, I could ask for a new address... and I got one from the Czech Republic!

TO the Czech Republic

The girl is looking for touristic postcards too, so why I shouldn't send her about Budapest? In the last days I went with Ceci in sight seeing and I bought some postcards too to be able to send some for my penpals or those who is doing postcrossing. It seems I got the first partner for this :D

I realized that I have more visitors from the USA than from Hungary, and I have a few visitors from other countries as well, so now I don't stop writing, but introduce Budapest :)

Budapest is the biggest city in Hungary, with 2 million people (out of 9.5 million). It has 2 parts: Buda, which has hills and higher prices, and beautiful sceneries; and Pest, which has older buildings, more shops, etc. Personally, as a Hungarian I prefer Buda, though it's more far from my school :D But I find it more natural than Pest, which has only a few trees in the downtown. However, as a tourist, I would prefer Pest of course, as most sights are there. There are many places to visit in Budapest, not only those 5 buildings which you can see on the postcard. Above St. Stephen's Basilica, the Parliament, Matthias Church, Opera House and Vajdahunyad Castle you can visit the Fishermen's Bastion (which is right next to the Matthias Church), Buda Castle, Gellért hill with the Liberty Statue, Heroes' Square, the Main Market Hall... and so on, it depends on your interests, but these are the most important sights in my opinion. /And I have the feeling of missing some of them, but anyway! :D/ 

According to the foreigners the city is really cheap, but according to us it's not. And I can just wonder about the prices nearby the touristic areas! A single ticket on any kind of transportation in Budapest costs 350 Forints, a little bit more than 1 EUR. You can eat out in a self service restaurant for about 5 EUR at least. I cannot say anything about the accommodations as I never needed to book a hotel/hostel room here, in Budapest, but I guess that cannot be so expensive either. 

Budapest is nice to be visited, as it's in the heart of Central Europe. Therefore the connections to other countries and cities are really good. You don't have to take plane everywhere, but you can be in Vienna, in Bratislava, Prague, etc, in a really short time. 

Easter is coming!

I am finally back to Budapest and had the chance to look for a postcard with Easter theme. Well, firstly I didn't realize that I can buy a postcard which has Easter on it, but, thanks to my surfer, Ceci, I could buy a card. 

Ohh, yes, in these days, from Sunday to Tuesday Cecilia is surfing at my place. She's from Taiwan, but studies in Barcelona as an exchange student. She was looking for a host on Couch Surfing in Budapest, and I invited her to my place. We went out together in the last 2 days, and today we went to visit the sights in Pest side: Parliament, St. Stephen's Basilica, the Main Market at Fővám tér, Heroes' Square and we had a walk from there to the Opera House on Andrássy út. Ohh, and we went to have a coffee in Café Frei! 

In front of the Main Market we found some cheap postcards. I bought some touristic postcards for my future swaps, and then I went to Ceci to help her to choose. She was looking at some different kind of postcards, where Hungarian traditions could be seen on pictures. She asked about them, and eventually she made me buy this postcard too:

TO Germany

So I can finally send my postcard to the German address I got! :) Let me talk about the old tradition in Hungary, while the new generation didn't ruin it. So on Easter Mondays boys went to the girls' house and they sprinkled them with a bucket of water. Cecilia told me it sounds funny, and I agreed, but having this kind of experience on ourselves is not the funniest to be honest, though it hasn't happened to me before. By the way, boys did this with girls, because beliefs said from water girls became bigger and more prettier. In return, girls gave an Easter egg for the boys, which was mostly red. In these days boys don't really sprinkle with water anymore, although one of my friend came with a bottle of mineralwater and wanted to use that... :D So instead of water, they use scent. Just imagine that so many kind of good smell on girls when they have at least 5 boy visitors :D The Easter eggs in these years are not only red, and they have more colors as well with different patterns. The sad part of this is that nowadays many boys want to get money, and they don't care about the Easter egg anymore, which can be really yummy in my opinion :D Personally I love eating fried eggs with salt. 

This is all for now :) I really hope that my postcard will arrive to Norway soon, so I'll be able to send a new postcard for a new person during this week :) I didn't have the chance to send my other postcards yet, but tomorrow I'll go to the post office with Ceci, as she also have some cards to send :)

First steps

After joining the site and giving my details, preferences and so on, I needed to ask for addresses where I can send postcards. We can send 5 postcards in the same time, and once the receiver get it and registrate my postcard, I can send a new one and someone in the world will send me a postcard in return. It's always a surprise from where and from whom I'm going to get the postcard.

So this time I got 5 addresses. I checked their preferences, and... here we go! :) These are the postcards I'm going to send:

TO Finland

,,The sea, once it cast its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." - Jacques Yves Cousteau

The women really likes birds, therefore I decided to send a postcard like this. I spend half a year in Finland, where I met a lot of seabirds... mainly in Helsinki and Suomenlinna... they were pretty horrifying and they were always looking at our food :D

TO Russia

The girl likes beaches and seashores... so I sent a postcard for her about the Lake Balaton, which is the biggest lake in Central Europe. I live 3 kms far from the lake. I really like living next to it, and I'm really proud to be so near, though I rarely swim in the lake. In summers I'm in the USA, so I don't really have the chance to go to swim in the Lake Balaton. By the way, there are many foreigners there, mainly people from Germany, the Netherlands and France... and who knows from where else :)

TO the USA

The woman is looking for literature related postcards - so why shouldn't I send a book for her? :) After searching for a postcard in my collection I found this. She is a teacher and she's planning to show the postcards she get to her students. Ohh, nice!

TO Norway

The girl is a tea lower - and I have an advertisement postcard! Unfortunately I have already drunk the sample tea - but instead of that I put there a different one, but still a forest fruit tea :D I hope she will like it, probably I would!

Yes, there are only 4 postcards... I couldn't find ny relevant postcard for my 5th person - I would like to send her a postcard related Easter. I'm planning to send the postcard for her when I return back to Budapest and have the chance to buy some postcards for Easter. I guess I should send some Easter cards for my penpals too... I totally forgot about Easter >.<

Let the adventure begin

I always loved writing letters, sending and getting letters. I started exchanging snail mails when I was around 9 or 10 years old. So... almost 13-14 years ago. Of course in Hungarian, as my English knowledge wasn't good enough. Then, I got my first penpal at the age of 14 or 15 - a girl from England, who is not between us anymore :(

A few years after I started writing in German as well, with Sarah, and in Italian, which is not going so fast, but I'm trying to do my best.

Then I started doing swappings on Swap-bot.com. I just adore that site. I spent a lot of money on that and I realized that I don't have money enough for my everyday foodings :D So, unfortunately I needed to stop doing it. Now I'm attending only 1 swap, in the "Adventures of the Traveling Postcards". I would like to join more swaps if I don't have to reply to any of my penpals' letter. You know, for me, my penpals are more important than swapping, so I'd rather write letters instead of joining more and more swaps. I had some penpals who stopped writing to me because they had no money, but continued swapping. It was quite disappointing for me, because in my opinion swapping is more costly. Anyway.

Aaand, now! Many of my penpals told me they are doing Postcrossing... and I also heard about if from many people. Today I decided to join it and begin my adventure there. I also want to write a blog about it, I would like to share with you my postcards I am sending, and the postcards I'm getting from abroad. I hope you will enjoy too :)