Day Five! The Journey to Vienna

We enjoyed our last night in Budapest before heading off the Bratislava for our tour of the Volkswagen plant. When we arrived to the plant it looked a bit larger the most of the car manufacturing plants in the United States. Little did we realize that it was massive. It's area was around 1,780,058 meters square.It was compared to being the size of 160 football fields. That is Insane! This plant also produces around 1,800-2,100 cars in a day. The Porshe Cayenne is also manufactured is this same building also. This plant mainly exports to the EU countries as well as the US and China. This plant is so large that employees have the option of riding a bike to there destination within the company's campus.

After our enlightening tour of the VW plant we traveled into the town of Bratislava to eat lunch before heading to Vienna. I had lamb for the first time at this Argentinian restaurant. Although we didn't have much time for sight seeing Bratislava was a nice small little town. We then arrived in Vienna where we met our new host, Manuela. She seems like a very knowledgable tour guide who has traveled for a large part of her life. I look forward to what this new city has to offer.

Gmoney

Day Four: Budapest

During our fourth day in Budapest, we visited an international business and a castle, or what was left of it. SAP, Systems Application Product, was the international business that greeted us with honors. During the presentation, given by their chief of the Hungarian office, we were thrown many facts. The first interesting and incredible fact was that after 42 years of business, SAP has grown 50% this year alone. SAP specializes in computer software and has over 250,000 customers world-wide. A few fun facts we learned were that SAP'S customers fly more than 1.7 billion of the world's passengers, produce more than 82% of the coffee and tea we drink each day, produce more than 62% of the world's movies, and helps reliably reach more than 97% of the world's wireless subscriber via text messaging. SAP currently holds the Guinness World Record for loading, storing, and analyzing big data at 34.4 terabytes per hour. A few commonly known customers of this company are Porsche, Audi, the NBA, and Skullcandy. I thought the story he shared with us about saving the company Skullcandy, a headphone production company, was very interesting. I enjoyed hearing about my favorite brand of headphones being saved. To think without SAP, a company I hadn't heard of until the past month, saved one of my favorite company's product is amazing.

For lunch, Emilee, Allison, Terri, Hailey, Taylor, and I hustled over toward the Parliament to get a closer view and grab a quick bite to eat. I've noticed in Hungary there is no such thing as a "quick bite to eat". When it comes to food, time simply doesn't exist. Every restaurant I have been to has been super slow and none of the waiters or customers seemed to be displeased with that. On the other hand, I FINALLY was able to catch a bite of that wonderful Tiramissou. After rushing through lunch, we ran back to the tram and hitched a ride to meet with Sylvia and the rest of the group.

From there, Sylvia took us on a tram and bus to a beautiful church. Standing outside the church, we were fed information of the building of the church as well as the structures around it. We were able to catch a glimpse of a Hilton Hotel, which was much prettier than the ones in the United States. After learning about the church, we hiked to the back and was stunned by the view. Hands down, the best view in Budapest was the view we were able to see outside of the church. After taking our "Forever Green Photo" we hiked on up to the castle. When we were told that we were able to tour a castle, I was thinking an enormous castle that would take hours to completely see. After seeing the remaining pieces of the castle and hearing the chilling story and seeing the pictures was enough to make you sad. The castle that we toured was the remaining parts left that had been restored after the castle was destroyed during the war. The pictures gave you the chills. The oddest thing I saw in the castle museum was a skeleton in a glass box that was covered after being found in a grave yard after the war. I find that very weird.

It's hard to believe we are approaching the end of our stay here in Budapest. It has been quite the experience. I have learned a lot during our stay here. Hungarians have no sense of time but yet are always in a rush to get to places. Overall, I've enjoyed the stay here but I don't plan on coming back to Budapest anytime soon. Now, on to the next place!

                                                          Castle: Stairs Leading up

Church we were able to hear the history on

Taken before lunch in front of the Parliament Building

SAP: Business Visited This Morning

By: Ashley Burnett

Day 3!

            Today we went on two business visits. In the morning we started off at the Kopint-Tarki Institute for Economic Research. Here we got to learn about Hungary’s historical background and their economic situation. After this we went to a mall in Budapest and ate lunch. I’m starting to catch on to the fact that Hungarians are not in as big of a hurry here as we are in the United States because it took 2 hours to do lunch. It took an hour from when we put our order in to get our food and this was just a bit of a shock to me but also a cool idea that they don’t rush for their meals. I had a salmon pasta and it was actually pretty good. After lunch we went on another business visit and the European Union Commission and we got to learn more about what the European Union Commission does exactly and where Hungary stands in the European Union. I thought it was interesting that the European Union Commission makes recommendations to the countries in the European Union and then from there the countries decide what they want to do with it. After that we had some free time to go back to the room and nap and freshen up and then Ashely, Allison, Terri and I went to explore by the Ferris Wheel. We ended up walking around a very cool area trying to find somewhere to eat. On our walk there we came across a band of gypsies and this was really interesting to see. When ended up stumbling upon this restaurant and found out that it was supposed to be one of the best in Budapest. It was one of the best meals I have had here and well worth the wait. It took us about 2 hours to order, eat our food and pay; which I realize to be a standard around here. It was nice to be able to just sit and enjoy dinner and not have to rush or be anywhere.

            Learning about Hungarian history today was really interesting. They were a communist/socialist state for about 50 years until 1990.  They have been a member of the European Union since 2004 and a member of NATO since 1998. They are currently not a member of the EMU. It seems that a lot of Hungarian people do not really think that the communist/socialist period was that bad of a time and that is really eye opening. It just shows me that although we have our thoughts on things, other countries might not see it as bad as we do. During the socialist period it would take about 11 years to receive your brand new car. This was mind blowing to me; that you would pay and have to wait on average 11 years to get your car. This made used cars more valuable because they were already there to buy and take home, which is backwards for us. The speaker also explains how  back in the communist/socialist period that the government would come in and just declare that your house was too big for you and take it away and split it up into a bunch of flats. Our speaker lives in a hour split up in 12 flats because of this. At the end of his presentation a speaker from Bosnia talked about the economic situation there and its history. This was interesting because I did not realize how confusing their government was and their country is set up into weird territories run but different people but still under the same state. Bosnia has 45% unemployment which is shocking to me. Also we were told in Hungary it can take up to 2 months to get an MRI. It just was really interesting and eye opening. We take a lot for granted in the United States that we should be more thankful for.

 

This was a photo taken at the European Union Commisson

This is a photo taken right outside of the restaurant we ate at called TG Italiano

Day 2

Day 2

The Jewish Synagogue

It was a beautiful and sunny day in Budapest! We had to be up and ready to go by 10 am to start touring. Unfortunately a couple people didn't set their alarms so we did not start our journey until about 10:15. I did not have breakfast, but I heard that it was quite good at the hotel. We started the tour down the street by our hotel where we learned about a Jewish synagogue. The people in Hungary refer to it as the great synagogue. During World War 2 the great synagogue was in the middle of a ghetto and many people ended up dying. There is a memorial where people are remembered inside the gates of the synagogue. They shaped the memorial so that it looks like a wheeping willow to signify how sad of an event it was. People's names are listed on the leaves and people can donate money to the cause.



We then learned how Budapest is seperated into two by the Danube river and that the side we are staying on is called Pest. The other side is called Buda and it is much more fancy and hilly than the Pest side. There is a joke that people in Hungary either live in Buda or they wish they lived in Buda. Later on we visited a market where there were all kinds of stores and shops. Some of the stuff being sold would never be sold in America and they had all different kinds of weird meats to eat. For lunch we went to a cafe and the pepsi I ordered was so small I ended up ordering three of them and it turned out to cost more than my actual meal! After lunch we went to Memento Park which is deep into Buda so we had to take the subway and bus to get there. Once there we learned about the Soviet Union and how they took control over Hungary after the war because Hungary had been allies with Germany during the war. This was when Stalin was in control and was a ruthless leader killing thousands of people and many political leaders who threatened him. In 1956 the people of Hungary overthrew the Soviet Union and took down the Stalin statue that had been build. There were around 46 statues in the park and a video explaining everything that was happening during Hungary's journey to freedom and how they were released from communist control. This was the last stop we made.


Statue of Lenin

Conner Crooker of the Vienna Sausages



Day One

Well we started our long trip in KC where the excitment among everyone was evident but quickly faded once we were on the 8 hour flight. We landed in Budapest around 6 and got right to it once we landed with an orientation from our guide, Szilvia. She showed us important routes to take like the trains and bus routes that are most convenient to us and the hotel. Szilvia taught us how to "thank you" which is cussey. You can say we may be overusing it a bit but still polite none the less.

Szilvia showed us the main road to travel on to find most of the bars and shopping places close by. We then attended a 3 course meal of Hungarian cuisine. It was fantastic and the atmosphere of the restaurant made it a great cultural experience. There was a band that was keeping us entertained with gypsy music which was very enjoyable. After our dinner we walked down to the Danube river and received a little preview of what we would be exploring the next couple days.

Our group then split up to enjoy a bit of night life on our first night and what better way to grasp the european culture then through beer and soccer right? We found a park where a bunch of people were gathered around watching the world cup so we had a seat and just took in all of it. That basically wraps up our first day and I am very excited for the upcoming events we have planned!

Grant

Week 4 Prework

Just one week and we will be on our way! Through this week's prework, we worked with our group teams to design a powerpoint for the cities we were assigned. During the research process, we all got to take a deeper look into each category for our trip. We researched Vienna's attractions, demographics, and odd facts. Vienna has a lot to offer, especially with the amount of memorials and cathedrals to visit. The most exciting part of Vienna will be the sight seeing. After putting the powerpoint together and finding pictures to include, it's going to be a sensory overload! The buildings look magnificient. During the day, we will be able to see the beautiful architecture and details, but at night, we will see the entire city lit up.

Out of all of the attractions Vienna has to offer, the most interesting one is the Walking Tour of Jewish Vienna. There are numerous memorials in memory of Holocaust victims, facts, and gardens set throughout the city. The spot where the annexation speech Adolf Hitler presented is one of the attractions on the list. After reading the reviews on the tour from numerous tourists, it leaves you with chills. The next attraction that has got us all jumping is the Ferris Wheel in the city. The largest Ferris Wheel will have us drooling at the top being able to see the city from a different view. I can only imagine how it will look at night! After researching the ride more, I found that the Ferris Wheel has cages instead of seats to keep us in, which was comforting! We can't wait to see the other powerpoints and gear up for our trip!
-Ashley Burnett

Week 3 prework

This week we have been researching activities to do in our free time. One of the activities I researched that caught my eye the most was a small walking tour of Jewish Vienna. In this walk it includes a walking tour of a Holocaust Memorial. The tour lasts about 2 hours and on the tour you get to go visit Morzinplatz where the Gestapo headquarters were located and also a monument of Jewish prisoners of WWll. The Holocaust Memorial is located at Judenplatz and you get the opportunity to see the Jewish Textile Quarter. This walking tour really interested me.

We also have been researching places to eat and trying to find reasonably priced places, as well as some fancy meals. I think the one I want to go to the most is Ribs of Vienna. As you could probably tell it is most known for their ribs. Everyone was assigned items to figure out how much they cost abroad and it was really eye opening to see the difference in prices compared to the United States. I had to find out how much a can of domestic beer was and a gallon of gas and I was surprised to find out a gallon of gas is more expensive there than here.