Wow. Ummm yeah, I knew having a blog was going to be a huge gamble, because as with most things requiring my attention over a span of months, I knew I was likely to get lazy. So, it's been a while, huh? Here's a not-quite summary of what I did over Winter Break:

-Went to London/Canterbury/Faversham/Holyhead, Wales/Dublin/Wicklow Mountains/Howth with Trash. Had an awesome time. Highlights include: getting into Victoria Station and being met by Tim, Dutch, and Dutch's friend Eli; staying at Dutch's extremely vertical apartment in Hackney; visiting Tim's friend Lindsay, and her roommate Lisa, in Canterbury; Lindsay giving us a delightful tour of Canterbury, Faversham, and the nearby countryside...then giving us lots of delicious coffee!; drinking numerous train-beers; getting locked out of Dutch's place ON CHRISTMAS EVE, waiting for a bus for nearly an hour only to get yelled at when we tried to get on and instead taking a cab to a shitty Romanian-owned hotel where we spent Christmas Eve night; watching Argentinian DVDs on Dutch's laptop while drinking beer wrapped in blankets all day on Christmas; going bowling with Dutch and Eli when they both got back after Christmas; Tim falling out of his seat on the night bus (ha); walking around all the touristy stuff but not actually going inside anywhere; taking the train successfully all the way to Holyhead Wales and learning that northern wales looooves trailer parks; the ferry getting "A FOOKIN HOLE IN IT!" and meeting a magical assortment of pissed Irish and Welsh ferry passengers, plus that totally weird Mauritian dude, while hanging in the pub in Holyhead til 2 AM....

....then DUBLIN! Oy. So! Arriving in Dublin at like 6 am and immediately going to sleep in our hostel room at Avalon House; discovering the greatest culinary achievement ever to grace this earth at MOMO'S; taking a bus tour with Eamon in the Wicklow Mountains and meeting some sheep; going to Howth on the DART for the day but leaving my credit card there; hanging out with Eli and his work friends and playing Snooker; partying New Year's Eve and meeting that drunk lady who loved me and Trash; puking in my hostel bathroom New Year's morning, then taking the DART again to recover my credit card and feeling like crap all the way to the airport; arriving safely back in BP to freezing cold temperatures and nowhere to stay. (THANK YOU to Lyla for letting me stay with her on like 10 minutes notice!)

The whole trip was sweet. I loved London--definitely wanna go back. I think I had generally ignored the whole island up until now, because I think, "England...yeah, I already speak English. Booooring." But then I remembered how much I love urban development, specifically of the Northern American, and thus, British, variety. It was cool to be back in a city whose architecture is chiefly red brick masonry-based, and structured similarly to American cities. (Er...vice-versa.) A lot of Central European cities, even those built predominantly in the late 19th century, were so retro-centric in design--for example, Budapest in its modern form was planned and executed mainly between the 1870s and 1890s--contemporary to much of Chicago. But while Chicago was forward-thinking in every aspect, Budapest's designers aimed to preserve the high baroque feel of Austria-Hungary. While Hungarians resented the Austrian political presence, they had always desired a secure bid to the "Westernmost" capital east of the German-speaking border. I think this idea is fascinating...modern Chicago and modern Budapest both date to nearly the same decades, and both poured so much money and resources into World's Fairs almost contemporaneously (in 1893 and 1896, respectively), but their urban goals were so different. Europe and America at the time both created such vastly different environments for urban development. Sorry for the rambling. Just wanted to get all that down before I forgot. I kind of wanna do some more legitimate writing/researching on that topic at some point.

SO....baaaasically, that was my Christmas and New Year's. Probably the weirdest Christmas I'll ever have. Many thanks to Trash for being a kickass companion, and to Dutch for putting us up. When I finally got back to Koszeg on January 2, I was thoroughly exhausted and looking forward to just chillin' out and hanging with Biego, who is now my best friend in Koszeg. (Oh! I forgot to mention the way I really got to know this guy. He's the son of the family who owns the kebab stand in town. Here's the story: before I left for London, I went in for a falafel. Biego was there, and we had met once or twice. He speaks "English," so we started chatting. He said something to the effect of, "Hey! How long you are here? June? We have much time. When you come back from London we make guacamole." Me: "Uhhhh.....cool?" Anyway, we talked for a while, and he told me he wanted me to bring me a movie ticket from a theater in London, but not to actually see the movie. I told him I'd see, but I didn't really wanna spend that much on NOT seeing a movie. When I finally left, Biego said, and I quote: "OK! Have a good time, and when you are on the plane to London....DON'T EXPLODE!" It was the beginning of a beautiful, and by beautiful I mean mentally unstable, friendship.)

I think this is all I feel like writing right now. I'll try to follow this with some other updates, including the Szallagavato, Valentine's weekend, the trip to Venice, Students' Week, the trip to Salzburg, my Spring Break in Budapest, the Balogas hike into the mountains, and so on. Here's some photos of my trip to the British Isles in the meantime:


Ridin' the London Underground.


Lindsay and Lisa's Christmasy living room. Quite a contrast to...


The sleazy Romanian hotel where we actually spent Christmas Eve.


I think this was Picadilly Circus. I can't remember, honestly.



Some London homes. Gotta love rowhouses.