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