Moskau!

No, I'm not going there, but I'm going to be away for a bit, so here's some entertainment for the interim, from the German disco days.

Observations from the States

First of all, you must see the photos!! Here are the links.

Chicago April 08

Iowa Apr May 08

1. Americans are slobs! My flight from Frankfurt to Chicago was half-filled by a tour group of high schoolers from Iowa. They and their chaperones were all dressed in sweatpants and athletic pants! I guess I understand wanting to be comfortable for the long flight - I wore my loosest jeans - but they really stood out, and it wasn't in a very positive way. Sweatshirts are another thing you don't see much in Germany but are everywhere in the US. Also, when is this looks-like-a-piece-of-pink-lingerie trend going to end in the yuppie circles? Can we not wear pajamas in public, please? Also, legs. Too much leg going on. It's hard to look dignified when your whole thigh is visible. I'm not saying your legs aren't great. I'm sure they are. I'm just talking about the dignity, folks.

2. Americans are fearlessly nosy. I somehow ended up getting a "special meal" on the flight (I think it was a mistake and meant for someone who didn't get the flight) and the food came much earlier than everyone else's. The woman behind me started asking me all these questions about what it was, how I got it, and how it tasted. Then I tried to get eating before it got cold and turned to find her staring over the row of seats at me eating. Check-out clerks noticed little things about you and asked about them - about a guy carrying epi-pens ("What are those??" etc.) for instance. I like a certain level of familiarity. In some cases it was a nice relief after feeling so distanced from everyone here in Germany - but there's definitely a sub-population that takes it too far!

3. And what a range of customer service the US has! I guess it's pretty solid here. Distant, but not cranky. Not always helpful when you need something, and sometimes overly informative, but it's all delivered in a pretty deadpan way. Within only half an hour of picking up some items in Chicago I got everything from a clerk violently screaming "Step up. Step UP! STEP UP!!!" to customers who took longer than .5 seconds to walk up to her register, to a store full of more customer service employees than people, who greeted us, asked us what we needed, gave explicit instructions on how to find it without us asking, checked us out with way more conversation than necessary, then said goodbye as we left the door, smiles all the way. Getting a chip for my phone was SO simple and friendly. It probably would have been a torturous encounter here.

4. American restaurants are the #1 source of culture shock. They're incredibly loud. They're crowded. They make you wait so that you'll buy drinks at the bar. They give you free water - and more free water - and more free water! Wine costs a zillion dollars a glass. They're so dark you can barely read the menu. And did I mention the loudness? You won't be hanging around after your meal to chit-chat! Then there's the insane tippage added to the bill! Yowza!

5. I speak the language! I found myself talking to pretty much anybody in a way I probably wouldn't have before, because I freaking could. I would normally roll my eyes and shrug it off if someone ticked me off in public, but when it happened in Chicago, I found I was so glad to be able to sass back to the jerk (a biker on the sidewalk who had plenty of space to get around my friends and I - I bike enough to know this, and I like my space when I'm on my bike - but bitched at us as he rode past anyway) that I went right ahead. I guess a year and a half of having to deal with everything in silence because I can't be quick enough or don't know the words resulted in this. So if you see me in the US when I'm fresh off the plane, don't mess with me.

6. Small isn't small. Big really is big. I got a small drink at a cafe in Chicago and couldn't believe it when I got it. It would be a large in Germany, almost certainly. It was much bigger than I expected. I can't imagine drinking a large!! The cafe itself was huge too, I think you could fit seven German bakeries inside, and it had free wireless, which is a concept that's been really slow to spread in Germany. Then, we went to pick up some toiletries and I could not believe how big everything was!! You can buy a whole liter of shampoo! In one bottle! I just wanted something to cover me for three weeks, but that was not available!

7. I rode Amtrak! It was incredibly roomy, but this might just be because I somehow ended up sitting in the disabled section (there were no disabled passengers). The seats went way down and were super wide with tons and tons of legroom. It was a double-decker and kind of hard to get around, though. There was (expensive) dinner on the train by reservation only. I had stocked up on snacks at a bakery in Chinatown so I didn't go. The conductor was super-informative, making announcements about crossing the Mississippi and how big it is and how cute this or that town is and who owns the rails we're riding on and when his shift ends. There was only one exit door per car and an employee had to open it! He thought I was a complete whackjob for trying to open it myself, but that's how you do it here and I just did it without thinking. Also I was standing in his way because I thought the door would open out like German trains, but it opens in.

8. Things seen from the train:

• Kids waving at the train from their doorstep.
• A guy photographing our train passing on a bridge over another train.
• An old woman walking back down her drive from the mailbox.
• Knox College.
• Lots of American flags.
• A buzz-cut kid with a University of Illinois sticker in his pickup, waiting for the train to pass.
• Lots of houses standing alone.
• A tree with a big red heart painted on it.
• A trailer house with a little steeple on it being used as a church.
• Lots of rusted-out cars.
• A few little league games.
• A window boarded up with multicolored siding.
  

9. Tied fleece blankets. They're everywhere.

10. American flags look so much more innocent flying over the Midwest countryside than they do when flying abroad.

11. An organic food obsession appears to be in full swing now. Sometimes it goes a little too far. People buy organic to feel "green", but when you are in Des Moines buying organic popcorn that comes from Seattle, you're not doing anything nice for the environment. They had to truck that stuff all the way to you, and you live in a popcorn-producing state!

12. What happens to the town's oldest building in Germany: hotel or restaurant. Maybe even still just a house. What happens to the town's oldest building in the US Midwest: antique store. How can they all stay in business?? Is the need for antiques that great?

13. The US is rundown. In this way it more closely resembles the former East than the former West of Germany. Lots of abandoned buildings, houses falling apart with junk in the yards. It's easy to become this way in the US because there's an out-with-the-old attitude and plenty of space to build new things. In East Germany it was because everything belonged to the government so people didn't have a reason to take care of it themselves, and the government couldn't get to it all, then after communism fell, some of these things didn't find new owners and are left abandoned. Funny how these two totally different systems led to similar looks.

14. There's so little graffiti in the US.

15. Cost of 200 mL conditioner at the DM near our apartment: 2.35 EUR ($3.63). Cost of 750 mL conditioner at big-box store in Des Moines: $5.27. SO CHEAP!! (I know, I should figure in the cost of having to own a car and car insurance and buying gas, because you can't walk to the store in Des Moines.)

16. Welcome back to splashback. I think I've been converted to German toilets.

17. And I've definitely been converted to the side-loading washer. I did a load of laundry at my mom's and the top-loader trashed my clothes. Socks I washed multiple times in my German side-loader that had still looked like new became pilly, linty messes in the top-loader. A sweater was completely trashed. I can't believe I ever put up with them! Never again!! Side-loaders are gentle and awesome!

18. This list is getting really long, but anyway, what's with all the anti-bacterial? I don't need everything to be anti-bacterial and after being away for a while it comes off as really obsessive and tense.

19. Terrrrrrrrr-rists! We got a good laugh watching Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Then while I had my hair cut in a salon in a dying mall in Des Moines, my husband walked around testing out our new camera (old one is actually visibly smoking now when the flash goes off) and security freaked out! Thankfully he wasn't kicked out but the general manager came out to have a little chat with him and there must have been a general alert sent out about him because he got funny looks when he went into the stores, like he was matching some description. "Tall dude with black leather jacket and camera. Taking pictures. Look out!!!!" Check out the Iowa photo album to see a couple of these super-dangerous photos.

Overall, it was probably the best trip of my life. Three weeks, mostly hanging out with my family and not having to worry about fairly dividing it with the in-laws (they came up to DSM), vacation time constraints, and spending it mostly in the big bubble that is rural Iowa. Too bad there's no chance I'll ever live there again. Though, if I did live there again, I'd probably regret it too. Man, life is too short when you want it all.

Beliebte Vornamen 2007 (Popular First Names 2007)

Happy Mother's Day! This weekend also happens to be Christmas for American name nerds, who get to finally see the official statistics from the US Social Security office on what the most popular first names given to babies born in the previous year were. There wasn't too much shake-up this year in the top 20, although there was some weirdness in the top 1000. For instance, Miley came from somewhere below #1000 up to #278. The hell? Don't call your kid this, people; it's not even a real name.

Germany unfortunately doesn't collect official first name data so we have to rely on some hobbyists to collect it and put it on the internet instead. It's probably not terribly accurate - the sampling seems to really miss the enormous Turkish population, for one thing. But, it's all we've got, so let's check out the differences in popular names between the two countries!

(In order to compare, I took the liberty of editing the US list to combine multiple spellings of the same name. This isn't done in the US statistics because it's a difficult and subjective exercise, but it's done in Germany, so I will do it for the US, too. It shakes things up a bit for names that are popular in multiple spellings! So, don't be alarmed that my list doesn't match the official one. If you added up the Sophias and Sofias, you'd get these same results.)

sp. = number of spellings appearing on the popularity lists available, if more than 1

Maedchen 1. Hanna (2 sp.) 2. Leonie (2 sp.) 3. Lena 4. Anna 5. Lea (2 sp.) 6. Lara 7. Mia 8. Laura 9. Lilli (3 sp.) 10. Emily (2 sp.) 11. Sara (2 sp.) 12. Emma 13. Neele (2 sp.) 14. Marie 15. Sophie (2 sp.) 16. Johanna 17. Julia 18. Maja (2 sp.) 19. Lisa 20. Lina Jungen 1. Leon 2. Lucas (2 sp.) 3. Luca (2 sp.) 4. Finn (2 sp.) 5. Tim (2 sp.) 6. Felix 7. Jonas 8. Luis (2 sp.) 9. Maximilian 10. Julian 11. Max 12. Paul 13. Niklas (2 sp.) 14. Jan 15. Ben 16. Elias 17. Jannick (5 sp.) 18. Phillip (3 sp.) 19. Noah 20. Tom

Girls 1. Sophia (2 sp.) 2. Emily (5 sp.) 3. Isabella (3 sp.) 4. Madison (4 sp.) 5. Olivia (3 sp.) 6. Emma 7. Ava 8. Hailey (9 sp.) 9. Abigail (5 sp.) 10. Kaitlyn (8 sp.) 11. Brianna (5 sp.) 12. Addison (5 sp.) 13. Hannah (3 sp.) 14. Sarah (2 sp.) 15. Elizabeth (2 sp.) 16. Ashley (4 sp.) 17. Natalie (5 sp.) 18. Alyssa (3 sp.) 19. Jasmine (6 sp.) 20. Madeline (8 sp.) Boys 1. Aiden (10 sp.) 2. Jayden (10 sp.) 3. Jacob (2 sp.) 4. Michael (2 sp.) 5. Christopher (4 sp.) 6. Ethan (2 sp.) 7. Joshua 8. Daniel 9. Matthew (2 sp.) 10. Anthony 11. William 12. Nicholas (4 sp.) 13. Alexander (2 sp.) 14. Andrew 15. Caden (10 sp.) 16. Christian (3 sp.) 17. David 18. Joseph 19. Jonathan (4 sp.) 20. Noah

Comments? Opinions?

And a quick name story: It bugs me that people in the US sometimes name their daughters Lorelei. It's a pretty word, but they're essentially naming their kid after a giant rock that is famous because it's caused a lot of boating accidents. I think it would be a bummer of a thing to find out about your name when you learn to read and look it up. Anyway, I asked some Germans about this. They admitted it's not used as a given name in Germany, but they would find it acceptable on an American, because "Americans just use all kinds of strange names anyway, oder?". (One time I picked up a German name book here and saw "Danniebelle" listed as an "American" name.) So, Lorelei-as-first-name fans, I guess you're off the hook, since Americans have been written off as having bad taste from the start. ;)

Here's last year's post on this topic!

Sources: beliebte-vornamen.de
US Social Security Administration (with spellings combined by me and an Excel spreadsheet)

More on Isolation

There doesn't seem to be any substitute for people who know - really, really know - where you're coming from.

I'm afraid now I'm at a point where I have diversified my life so much that the person who really knows where I'm coming from has become an extremely rare thing, and maybe doesn't even exist. I share a little bit with a LOT of people, but who do I share almost everything with? Anyone?

Does this happen to everyone at a certain age due to their accumulated experiences? Did I make it worse by moving here? Or am I just being immature by thinking that no one can relate?

We all try so hard to be individuals and different from everyone else, but when you really get there - to the point where you really don't fit in anywhere anymore - you kind of wish you could just simplify your life by belonging to a group and having your decisions essentially made for you by the group's norms and peer pressure. Of course, if that was really happening, I wouldn't really want that either.

Argh.

Back in Isolation

Today, at the US post office in Des Moines, Iowa:

The woman behind me walks up to the counter with a package. The nice mail lady looks at the address and asks:

"So, is Korea the country name, or is Seoul the country name?"

Ants!!!!

Where do I find ant poison? They're all over the bedroom and living room! (But somehow uninterested in the kitchen...) I used to use Terro in the US....

I love those hard little colored marshmallows...

Man, I am seriously craving some Lucky Charms all of a sudden. I'm so eating those when I go to the States (Friday!).

Thinking about cravings though - I get them really often for a non-pregnant person - it is harder to satisfy them here than it was at previous points in my life. If I had a hankering at this hour for Lucky Charms during my time living in Ames, I could have just gone over to Hy-Vee and gotten some. In Boston it would have been a little more trouble, but I could have gotten them if the local convenience store happened to stock them. It would definitely still be open. But here, nothing's open at this hour, so even if Lucky Charms were available (I don't think they are) here I wouldn't be able to do anything about my craving! Not until morning anyway - but there's a decent chance that it will have passed by then.

Maybe this helps explain the skinny Germans. :)

Der Zahnarzt, Revisited

Well, despite my talk about finding a different dentist who would give me a metal filling, I didn't manage to remember to do it before the appointment I'd set up with the original dentist for a composite filling came around. For some reason I thought I had a lot more time! So, I just went in and got the composite filling and the cleaning.

I know that the dentist is perhaps a boring topic but I am still pretty impressed by the differences between my experience here and at my old dentist in Boston! First, he asked me if I wanted anesthetic for the filling. That was never a question in Boston, where they injected by default even for small cavities. I was a little nervous because I'm not too familiar with the no-anesthetic option, but I decided to go for it. It was a little uncomfortable, but the discomfort was brief, and I was actually kind of glad to miss out on the injection, which I remember being more painful than the drilling today was. Plus, the whole thing was over with more quickly because we didn't have to wait for the anesthetic to kick in. Yay!

I made an attempt to conduct everything in German but got caught three sentences into the dentist's spiel when I didn't understand him telling me the injection/no injection option. He had forgotten I was foreign because of my ever-so-German name. Oh well, I think they were all friendlier to me because I made a (sorry) attempt.

Then I got the cleaning. Here it was completely optional and by request. In the US, I had to get one twice a year per my insurance (both were covered) as a prophylactic. They recommend it just once a year, if you want it. It was also a very simple cleaning compared to what I always got in Boston. They said this was all I needed because my teeth were in good condition. In Boston they always told me that I had no tartar and that was great, but they obsessed over the apparently awful state of my gums, threatening me with root cleanings and scalings if I didn't shape up. Here she said my gums looked good too. Everything looked good. I can't believe the difference. Also, during her lecture, she told me to floss 2 to 3 times per WEEK! I got lectures to do it 2 times per day in Boston. Anyway, my teeth feel pretty good now and I'm glad I had it done, even if it's all psychological and really not necessary.

WIEN (Known Aliases: Vienna, Vienne, Bécs, Vídeň . . . )

We arrived after dark to Wien Suedbahnhof. After 3 days in Budapest and Bratislava, I was amazed at my sudden literacy. "Oh, I am going to be able to read everything! Yay!!" Of course, to say I can read everything in German is a gross exaggeration, but there's nothing like a few days in countries where the language is completely foreign to me to make me feel like I actually know some German.

We couldn't figure out which bus ticket to buy to get to our Pension, so we went to the info desk. A person who spoke English as a second language and no German was being helped ahead of us and having some difficulty. We soon discovered that their difficulty was no language problem - it was an unhelpful customer service problem. We got to the front and asked which ticket to get, in German. The info desk guy, slouched way back in his seat, barely cast us a glance, and said simply "ein zwanzig"* (one twenty) in some slightly confusing dialect. We asked him to repeat it, and got the same two words delivered the same way a second time. So, back to the ticket machine, where we supposed that "ein zwanzig" referred to the price of the appropriate ticket (thankfully, we were right). (*I do not remember the exact price of the ticket. It was one-something.)

Germans had warned us about the famed rudeness of Wien, but this experience actually turned out to be the worst we had. There were a few more encounters of indifferent annoyance, but none so unhelpful as the first!

Our Pension, Pension Hargita, was located just off of Mariahilfer Strasse, so that was the first we saw of Wien outside of the train station. It was horrible. The same hideous fashion stores found in any city, enormous lit-up ads (check out the first photo in the album!), ne'er-do-well-looking people running around, cars screeching their tires. So much for all those wedding-cake-perfection stories I'd heard about Wien. I was part disappointed at the flashy, packaged America-like atmosphere of the street, but also really glad that maybe Wien wasn't going to be grotesquely perfect.

The Pension was super-clean and friendly. The owners are Hungarian so it was filled with Hungarian decor - more so than even the place we stayed in Budapest. We'd gotten the "shower in room, shared toilet in hallway" option, and the shower really was right in the room! As in, there was just a shower stall in the corner. There were still two separate beds, though!

With just two days, our experience in Wien was much like Budapest - just a lot of walking around past sight after sight. The Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) is the city's primary landmark, and was partly under scaffolding. The outside is mostly gothic with a cool patterned roof, but inside it was jam-packed with unattractive baroque altars. See the photo album for more details about what we saw!

Wien Mar 08

We also jammed much cake-eating into our schedule! In the end we'd hit Cafe Demel, Hotel Sacher, Cafe Central, and Cafe Prueckel. Summary:

Best Sacher Torte: It's true - Hotel Sacher. Second place to Cafe Demel. The others didn't come remotely close (including Sacher Torte from Aida, a chain Konditorei around Wien).
Most Touristy: Tie between Cafe Demel and Cafe Central. Central had more German-speaking tourists, while Demel had more American and Asian tourists. Central had a crowd waiting to be seated inside the door at all times; Demel had some many tourists circulating through that one knocked a full tray out of a waiter's hand.
Smokiest: Cafe Prueckel. There was a thick fog when we entered, and the smoking section was bigger than the non-smoking.
Cheapest: Cafe Prueckel. It's located further from the tourist center and has a more casual air.
Most Expensive: Sacher. We also could not take a seat there unless we checked our coats, and the coat check wasn't free.
Best Service: Sacher. Well, actually, they brought me the wrong tea, but the friendly waiter who bade us goodbye at the end totally made up for it.
Worst Service: Prueckel was close, but Central wins this one.
Most Amusing Experience: At Demel, a local couldn't find an empty table, so he sat himself down with an American mother and daughter, who could not conceal their horror. (Sharing tables with strangers at a crowded restaurant is normal in Germany, and it appears to be in Austria too.) They were unable to say anything about it and just sat there twitching.

One of the best perks in Wien is the opportunity to get ultra-cheap tickets to see the opera! (Or in our case, they were showing a ballet that day.) You don't even have to be a student - just able to line up around 5pm or so to get a shot at the standing room spots. Prices run from 2 to 3.50 EUR. That's not a typo! It's cheaper than coffee. We got to see Swan Lake at the Staatsoper for only 4 EUR between us! The spots are not great and we couldn't see part of the right hand of the stage, but for that price, who cares? You can always just leave if it doesn't suit you. I am always pessimistic about the ballet, but it wasn't bad (especially the guys, heh). Actually, it was quite enjoyable, even standing.

We also encountered in Wien a surprisingly large number of American female college students who had just recently been to Prague and possibly Budapest and were discussing their experiences loudly with their friends. Or maybe we just kept running into the same two girls over and over. In general, it seemed Prague was getting more rave reviews in these overheard conversations. "Prague was so colorful, but everything here I feel like is like white." "Prague was so great, but then we went to Budapest and we came out of the train station and it was sooo....eastern. It was sooo crazy." I'm sure my conversations sound this stupid out of context, too. I'll continue to hope they don't.

Bratislava, here to represent Slovakia to the world

Bratislava is the only place in Slovakia most outsiders have heard of. It's the capital and it's the biggest city. And, it's conveniently located very close to the borders of Hungary and Austria, and even not so terribly far from the Czech Republic - perfect for travelers who are trying to hit up a lot of countries on a single trip. I have to admit, that is how we ended up there. We looked at a map, knew that we wanted to go to Budapest, added Wien, then saw that Bratislava wasn't all that far off the path between the two. Who doesn't want to hear some Slovakian language and eat some Slovakian food, and, well, say they've been to Slovakia at some point in their lifetime? We join a very, very huge crowd of people with the same idea.


(Let Beirut entertain you as you read about the city!)

We rolled in shortly before lunch at the main station. The station itself wasn't terribly modernized and we had some confusion figuring out how to get tickets for the bus into the town center. As it turned out, you can buy them from the tobacco stand near the bus stop. However, though everything we read recommended getting a bus to the center, it didn't really seem necessary. It was a very short ride down just one street! On the way back at the end of the day, we just walked.

Bratislava Mar 08

We wandered through Michael's Gate (see the photos by clicking above!) and conveniently came upon a restaurant recommended by the guide, Prašná Bašta, and decided to eat there. The food was really good and cheap and I would definitely recommend it, though every single customer was speaking English or German. I imagine the locals look at the tourist prices and laugh at how we are all getting ripped off, but without a language guide bigger than the one in our guidebook, we couldn't have eaten at a more local joint. Our main dishes were so good and the prices so decent that we both ordered dessert too, which was also great! (Some kind of crepe-like thing with chocolate and apricot. Get it!)

After lunch we walked around the old town and up to the castle. The weather was great and it was all quite picturesque. See the photo album for proof, and for some info on the sights we saw! The only downside of Bratislava is that the old town is the only tourist-friendly area - step outside and all the signs and menus are only in Slovakian. The old town was completely packed with tourists, mostly German-speaking (Austrians?), but also many, many Americans. The tourists seemed to all be of the variety who find themselves to be brilliant photographers (I'm making fun of myself here, too), so they are constantly in your way taking five minutes to get a perfect shot of their kid doing something adorable in a cute little adorable eastern European city, while their wives make comments to each other about how the local traditions (being conveniently sold at the tourist market) are so quaint, in the most condescending fashion possible. After a few hours we ran screaming from the tourist zone, and found that the streets were completely empty and of course we could not read a thing (though it was easier to make guesses than it had been in Hungary!). The difference between the two areas was quite extreme.

We wandered back toward the train station, which reminded me of an American train or bus station - dirty and full of vagrants. The bathroom had no toilet paper, no soap, no flush, no lock on the door. We ate at a nearby cafe, then caught the hourly train shuttle to Wien, which is only an hour away. (Hint: Bratislava could make a very nice day trip if you are spending some time in Wien!) By the way, the bathroom on that train isn't so great either. There were pubes all over the seat and when I flushed the toilet, the sink ran (I tried not to ponder this too much). I think the worst thing about traveling is always worrying about where your next tolerable bathroom experience will occur! (Or dehydrating yourself to avoid finding out!)

Ha ha, it was called Pest!

One of the factoids that every American seems to know about Europe and want to bring up at a given opportunity is that Budapest used to be two separate cities called Buda and Pest. Several people mentioned it to us when we said we were going there. "Are you going to BUDA, or PEST? Har har har!!!! I'm not only in the know about Budapest, I'm funny!" I very distinctly remember learning this in elementary school because it sounded hilarious at the time, for whatever reason. It was also entertaining to imagine other cities having been named in this way. Budapest was Buda and Pest! Omaha was Oma and Ha! Chicago was Chic and Ago! Har har har. I remember very little else about those lessons on Europe. At that time I never imagined I'd actually get to see Budapest someday.

Anyway, the two sides are still called Buda and Pest, and we did indeed go to both.

Budapest Mar 08

We only had two days, so we did a lot of walking past things rather than going into them. On day one arrived in the morning, checked into our hotel, then took in the Great Market Hall (ok, but touristy), walked across the river and went past Gellert Hill, climbed up to Buda Castle (not so exciting) and walked along the terrace, went around and through St. Matthias (amazing!) and the Fisherman's Bastion, went back down past a neat museum and church, crossed the Danube (it's huge) on the Chain Bridge, had cake at Cafe Gerbeaud (I was skeptical, but it was delicious), walked through a touristy market square, checked out a grocery store (hello 5-liter vats of oil!), and ate dinner near Oktogon. On day two, we rode the M1 out to Heroes' Square (if you like monuments...), walked through the big fake reconstructed Vajdahunyad Castle (they did pick some nice buildings to fake up), down Andrássy Avenue (very cool), checked out St. Stephen's (you can see his mummified hand - nifty), ate near Oktogon again, went over by the Synagogue (wasn't open), had coffee, went to another church I can't find any info on (the German tour book called it the Pfarrkirche, but that's in German), went down part of Váci Street (incredibly bland) and past the Museum of Applied Arts (very cool building), got some more cake at Gerbeaud (yum!), and went past the Market Hall again for souvenirs (I'm a sucker for simplistic embroidery in primary colors - this is the first place where I actually like the tourist knick-knacks).

Some notes:
*The Great Market Hall continues in the grand tradition of places like Fanueil Hall in Boston or the stalls around Heiliggeist in Heidelberg. They woo in tourists by billing themselves as markets that have been markets since the dawn of time, which is supposed to give them an air of localness and legitimacy, which tourists love. The Hall does have some places that draw locals, but don't be fooled, the majority is tourism. Buy your paprika, if you've got to have it, at the grocery store, not from someone selling it with ceramic holder that says "Hungary" and a bow on it. Don't get the icky food in the stalls on the second floor (we did - mistake). However, the souvenir prices were better than other places we looked (though it's not saying too much).

*St. Matthias is definitely in my personal top-five of awesome churches. It was being re-roofed, but we could still see some sections of its patterned roof, which puts all the ones in Basel to shame. The entire inside is painted on every surface like the columns in Notre Dame were. If you can see only one thing in Budapest, unless you're not into churches at all, see this!

*The cake at Cafe Gerbeaud really is good. I wouldn't have gone because I always worry about these touristy places (they rest on their laurels and stop being good), but my friend recommended it, and she was right. We ended up going a second time just to have it again. Watch the receipt - tip is included in the bill, don't tip more on top of it!

*Smoking seems to be allowed pretty much everywhere. Yuck.

*In tourist areas, everybody seems to be trilingual - Hungarian, German, and English. Hungarian is not an Indo-European language and as such is really difficult for foreigners! However, how cool for them. I would love to be a true speaker of a language so unusual. You could really be carrying the torch for something cool.

*We ate at Menza because Lonely Planet (not my favorite guide for sights, but the best for hotels/restaurants, I think) "implored" us to do so. It was hard to get a seat so we had to make a few attempts and ended up being successful at lunch the second day. The garlic cream soup is awesome, but we ordered way too much food, not counting on the enormous free dessert they brought us! Get a reservation if you really want to eat there.

*We saw bearded hipsters! Of course they might have been American students, who run rampant over eastern cities right now (it's hip and cheaper than Paris). But, I never see bearded hipsters in Germany, except in H&M ads.

*We saw misuse of English on clothing - a jacket that said "AMBIGUOUS" across the back, and a kid wearing a shirt that said "FOR YOU". I wish I knew where to buy that stuff. I definitely need an "AMBIGUOUS" item.

*Keleti is a mess and a madhouse. To buy train tickets to leave the country you have to go to a separate desk outside the station. WTF? There's no one to help you figure things out. We asked one employee where to find the track we needed and he pointed in the completely wrong direction. We wandered around and ran into another guy who wanted our train and was traveling to Berlin. He tried to ask someone if the train went to Berlin, and all they said to him was "Praha! Praha!" He didn't know that Praha was Prague, and the train did go to Praha, but it went to Berlin too. So I don't know what that conversation was about. Eventually we found a car that was marked with the train route and got on in some confidence.

*Our hotel gave everything in three languages, except for a sign one evening on the door, which was only in Hungarian. Hmm....

Budapest was our main goal on this trip. Bratislava and Wien, which I'll write about later, were just afterthoughts that we tacked on, since we are worried about seeing a lot of things in a short period in case we have to leave Europe soon. The trip left me with a lot of thoughts on tourism and what is "real" that I'll maybe write about another time.

Four percent less hated than last year

According to this article, world opinion of the influence of the United States is four percent more positive than it was in a similar survey last year. Also check out this article (though it shows slightly different results for some reason).

Per the article, in the countries surveyed, 32 percent of respondents have a positive view of the United States, compared to 28 percent a year ago. Apparently people have a little bit of hope that things will turn around after the election, and are giving us slightly more love as a result. Prior to this, opinions of the US were on a steady decline for three years.

How positively are the influences of various countries viewed?

Pakistan 18% positive
Israel 19% positive
Iran 20% positive
North Korea 23% positive
US 32% positive
Russia 35% positive
India 42% positive
Brazil 44% positive
China 47% positive
Great Britain 50% positive
Germany 56% positive - the most positively viewed country in the entire survey

Places where more than 50% of respondents have positive views of the US: Kenya, The Philippines (my friend always swears that the US is actually liked in the Philippines, and I finally believe her), Israel, Nigeria, Ghana, and the Philippines.

Who hates the US the most?
Seventy-three percent of Turks and Egyptians view the US negatively, and 72% of Germans. You read that right - right here in Germany there are more people who actively dislike the US than in nearly every other country surveyed.

The full PDF report is here.

I don't know why the numbers are differing from the three different sources. (Media being crappy today?) Most of the numbers I quote come from the Yahoo article because I found it first. Some come from the BBC article.