Hello! Okay so this is going to be part 1/4 of the week-long vacation that I got back from last Sunday! It was honestly the trip of a lifetime and I'm so grateful I was able to experience all of the beautiful cultures, architecture, and history that I did. I traveled with three other girls named Emma, Lauren, and Sydney and I'm so glad that I've gotten so close to them! They're da best.

Our first stop was BUDAPEST, Hungary. We left the night of July 3rd and took a night train from Iasi to Bucharest. Our flight didn't leave until 4 pm the next day, so we had about 8 hours to kill haha. We ended up hanging out at a weird shopping center for a long time on some couch. After our 2 hour flight, we had a 2 hour layover in Belgrade. I'll be honest, none of us knew what country Belgrade was in haha. It wasn't until we landed, got off the plane, and saw "I love Serbia" stickers at a vendor when we figured out where we were. After that, we had an hour flight to Budapest. Pretty much the longest day of travel ever and worst fourth of July ever too. Whoop whoop! Oh well. It was worth it.

We ended up staying in Airbnb's for each city that we traveled. This was really nice and we felt safer because we had our own little apartment with our own key. The location for our Budapest apartment was so good! It was right on this really busy street and close to everything. Our first day, we walked down this little side street that had a bunch of vendors selling some really cool stuff. To be honest, Budapest wins coolest souvenirs out of all the places we went. If I was able to, I would've bought SO many things. I loved them all! After that, we went to the Parliament building. That was so cool to see! I loved it. After that, we walked over to the St. Stephan's Cathedral and went inside. It was so pretty and intricate inside! For lunch, we went to this Hot Dog place. Oh another thing, Budapest wins best food too. They have a bunch of quick places to eat and excellent food. After eating lunch, we went to this well-known place called Gelarto Rosa where they shape your gelato into a rose sooo yeah of course we had to go. The rest of the afternoon consisted of walking around and trying not to die because guess what Budapest also wins at? Being the hottest place on THE PLANET. Okay probably not. But I've honestly never been so miserably hot in my entire life haha. Anywaaayzzzz. That night we went to a really good restaurant called Paprika for dinner! Our host had recommended it, and it was a traditional Hungarian restaurant. The inside of it was so cute and the food was sooo good. Probably one of my favorite meals of the whole vacation. Funny story. I was the last to order from my group and having a hard time figuring out what I wanted. Everyone else had chosen the same meal, and after feeling pressured to choose something I just told the waitress that I wanted the same thing. She practically freaked out and begged me for like 30 seconds to choose something different haha. I eventually chose something and it ended up being so good! I'm glad I took her advice. After dinner we went to these thermal spas. It's something that Budapest is known for, so of course it was on our list. And it did not disappoint. There's probably nothing better than going swimming in a nice, cool and relaxing pool when you've been sweating your butt off all day haha. We stayed there for a few hours and it was the best money I've ever spent! 

Parliament Building

Inside St. Stephan's Cathedral

Thermal Hot Springs

The next day, we decided to go see everything on the other side of the river. Before we walked over the bridge, we went to this indoor market place recommended by Sydney's brother-in-law. It was such a cool place! They sold a lot of fresh produce and some really cool souvenirs. Hungary is known for it's chiles and paprika, so each of us got a little bag of it that came with a cute painted spoon. Because why wouldn't you need a cute lil painted spoon in your life?? After that, we walked across the bridge and walked over to the Buda castle. To each of our joy, that day was even hotter than the day before. So by the time we walked there and climbed up to the castle, all of us didn't care how cool it was because we were trying not to pass out haha. After a little break, we walked around and then made our way over to the St Matthias Synogogue. This was probably one of my favorite things to see because of how gorgeous the architecture was! It was amazing. Afterwards, we had to get back to our apartment because we had to check out by 2 pm. We were taking a night train that night, so it didn't leave until 8 pm that night. We hung out in a coffee shop for a while and then walked to the train station and hung out there for a few hours until we left! Ps. There is some good people watching in that train station.

St. Matthias Synogogue

The cool indoor market!

I'm not quite sure why more people don't visit Budapest because it's one of the COOLEST places I've ever been. The architecture and food was so so good and I definitely want to go back in my lifetime. Just maybe when it's a little bit cooler. 

Kara

HI. Last weekend we went to Chisinau, Moldova for about 24 hours and it was pretty fun! To be honest, I went mainly for the really cheap souvenirs haha. Iasi is on the Eastern side of Romania, so it's really close to the border and only took us about 3-4 hours to get to the capitol. I love that I'm on this side of Europe and get to go to these cool places that I normally wouldn't go to. 

We left super early on Saturday to catch a maxi taxi. It's always a funny situation to go to the bus station and tell them how many are in our group (there are 12 of us) because they're taken off guard haha. After a really bumpy ride, we got there around 11 am and checked into our hostel, which was super nice. There was actually another girl staying in our room who was from Australia and 20 years old. She was all by herself, and after talking to her we found out that she's been traveling on her own since March and will be for a whole year. She's been to soo many places and plans on going to Peru to work in an orphanage for 6 months. I can't imagine doing something like that, especially at that age and all by myself. 

Like I said, myself and most others pretty much went to Chisinau for the cheap souvenirs. Their culture is a lot like Romania's, but their currency is worth less. It's about 18 Moldovan Lei for every one dollar. When we went out to lunch and dinner we would go to a sit down restaurant and got a drink, main course, and usually a dessert and only paid like $4-6. So nice! 

After eating lunch, we all went to a little park that had a bunch of vendors set up selling various things. One of the popular items people sold were Russian dolls. This one lady was selling them for really cheap, so we all pretty much went there. I probably went back like 3 or 4 times to get more because of how cheap they were and I'm pretty sure everyone else did too, so she probably loved us haha. We also went to this different and bigger marketplace. It was a little overwhelming and didn't have the traditional stuff that we were looking for. It was just a maze of vendors and little tents of people selling everything from shoes to lightbulbs. It was interesting. Also, while we were walking around, there was a church that had a long line forming outside of it. When we asked the sister missionaries what it was for, they told us that is what part of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Apparently a saint had died and they had cut off his arm and were preserving it inside the church and keeping it warm. The people were all lined up because they thought that if they kissed the arm they would be healed. Interesting! 

The next day was Sunday, so we all took a bus and went to church. The branch there was a little bigger than ours in Iasi and had more English speakers, so it was cool to be there. We left Chisinau at 1 pm, and it took us about 3 hours to get home. On our way home, our driver stopped about 1 mile before the border and asked if any of us had any cigarettes on us. Us, being all Mormon girls, kind of looked at each other, laughed, and said no. He then asked if he could give us each 2 packs of cigarettes to hold until we crossed the border, then give them back to him. Not really knowing what to do, we all agreed haha. He then ran into a little store and came back with a box of chocolates and proceeded to give us each a little piece to thank us haha. I think there's a limit on how many packs you can cross the border with, so that's why he needed our help haha. Definitely a funny situation. 

Overall, it was a fun little weekend and we all got some good stuff! 

There was a fun little park that had a bunch of exercise equipment haha

Some of the many Russian dolls. So pretty!

Kara

HEY. I've been living in Romania for about a month and a half, and it's so weird to think about! I honestly feel like it was 2 weeks ago that my parents dropped me off at LAX at the buttcrack of dawn. I'm not gonna lie, there are some parts about living in Romania that are really hard. There have been some days where I'm laying in my bed after going to the orphanage, trying not to sweat, trying to remember what being cold felt like, trying to ignore the many, many bug bites all over my body, realizing that the dinner people brought (: soup (: again (:, and wanting to cry. I don't know whyyyyy, but the caterers of our dinner think we like to eat soup at least 4 times a week when it's so friggin hot outside. But don't get me wrong, those bad days are few. I've been so so SO grateful to have the opportunity of being here, and it's going to be the most bittersweet thing when I have to leave in almost two months. I don't even want to think about the last day of being at the orphanage knowing I will probably never see these kids again. 

Over the time of being at the orphanage, I've been learning more about each child, their disabilities, personalities, and backstory. Unfortunately, I can't take any pictures of the kids at the orphanage, which breaks my heart because I just wish you could see their smiles and all the funny things they do. I also can't use the exact names of any of the children in my room, so when I talk about kids I've changed their names.

Sam: He's in the first of the three rooms in Isolation, so he's under a year old. Even though he turns 1 year old in August, he's still really small and he's also mentally delayed. I love this little boy so much. The first time I heard his laugh my heart melted. His laugh is more of a exhale of air through his nose, and the first time I heard it I was reminded of a broken squeaker toy haha. He always breaks out into the biggest smile whenever I pick him up, and he loves being given kisses.

Francine: Me and Morgan (the other volunteer in Isolation with me) call her crazy legs because she's always constantly moving haha. She's also about 10 months old, but is still super small. She was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome so it's hard for her to stay still for very long. She's friggin adorable, and honestly one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen. She's always soo smiley and gives you the biggest toothless grin whenever you pick her up. It's funny to watch her try to concentrate on a toy or try to figure out how something works because she'll stop frantically moving around and just stare at it for a second.

Dora: She's about 1 1/2 years old and has been in the orphanage for about 4 weeks. The day she came in broke my heart. She comes from a really abusive family, and CPS took her straight from the family to the orphanage. At first, she was super timid, didn't ever smile, and cried really hard whenever you put her in her crib. The workers told us that whenever a new child comes in they usually cry for about 3 days because they're scared, but after that they get used to it. Dora came in on a Friday about 40 minutes before we left, and she was crying and screaming in her crib. I wasn't sure what to do, but one of the workers asked if I wanted to just hug and hold her to calm her down. I wasn't exactly sure how to help a little girl who had just been taken from her family, so I just held her tightly, rocked her, and sang some songs. She finally calmed down and quietly laid in my arms. That was one of those moments where I knew I was supposed to be there, to be giving these kids the love they desperately needed. The part that broke my heart was when I had to put her back into her crib where she immediately started crying again. Thankfully, since then, she's gotten a whole lot better. She's makes me laugh because I feel like she's a teenager in a baby's body haha. She will smile, still not a whole lot, so I usually make a fool of myself trying to get her to crack a smile. Most of the time she just stares at me like I'm an embarrassment. But she's also really good at looking like she's just really bored. Sometimes I'll look over and she's leaning over the side of her walker with her head hanging to the side, like she's just the most bored she's ever been haha. I love that little girl, with her raspy little voice and blank expressions.

Bridget: She's in the first room, about a year old, and so so cute. Her mom had small pox when she was pregnant, so Bridget was born without a body part and is missing an eye. But holy smokes she's still so cute. Her other eye also makes up for the fact that she only has one in the way that it's one of the prettiest eyes I've ever seen. It's like a mix between green, yellow, and a little bit of blue. She also has this super black hair that is short but sticks straight out haha. Morgan and I call her Roly Poly because she's just a little chunk and just curls up into a little ball whenever you hold her. I think she may have some problems with her legs or back because she has a problem holding up her head and can't stand up or put any weight on her legs, which breaks my heart. She never cries and is just a little cuddle bug so I always love holding her.

Eddie: He's about 2 years old, and is in the third room with the kids who have more disabilities. Eddie is blind and possibly deaf too. I'm not too sure about the second one because if I turn on the toy that plays a lullaby whenever he's upset, he immediately calms down. He's the cutest and breaks out into a huge smile whenever you touch him. I'll go in there multiple times during my time there and rub his chest, legs, or arms because he loves it. I also will usually pick him up and hold him for a little bit and rub/scratch his back, which usually makes him squirm and laugh because he's not used to that feeling since he's usually laying on his back. He's an instant way to make my day even better because his laugh and smile is so infectious. He usually has a really hard time eating and doesn't like it at all, so this past week they tried putting in a feeding tube. This broke my heart because I could hear him screaming and crying really hard from outside his room. I couldn't imagine how scared he must be whenever something out of the norm happens like that and someone is ramming a tube down your nose. I just love that little boy, and he definitely makes me appreciate life more.

Elizabeth: She's about 1 1/2 years old and is in the second room in Isolation. Elizabeth was born with dwarfism and is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen. She has a few front teeth on the top and bottom of her mouth, has the cutest little dimples, and she has brown short hair that is a little curly at the ends. Because she has dwarfism, Elizabeth has really short legs and a normal-sized head, but it's so stinkin cute because the length of her legs is the same as her whole head haha. She's a pretty happy little girl, and is easily made happy and breaks out into a really, really cute smile. I love it because whenever I make a face at her or make her smile somehow, she'll tilt her head to one side and become the cutest lil thing you've ever seen.

Alright I don't want this to become a novel, so in another post I'll talk about more of the kids! I love them all sooooo much and writing about them here made me feel so blessed I get to see them everyday. It just baffles me why these kids' parents would ever think about abandoning them because they bring such joy to my life. I think everyday I'm at the orphanage how much I want to just take them ALL HOME. I would buy a big bus, build a huge house, and just take them all to the beach and Disneyland everyday. That is my biggest dream right there. So if you have any ideas on how I can smuggle 15ish kids back home let me know!

Also, here's some pictures from my past week or so! (I need to get better at taking more pictures of my day-to-day life)

We went to the botanical gardens in Iasi and these are some of the pretty roses from that day!

Right by the Palas yesterday, they were having an animal convention or something and this guy had this huge fluffy dog. We were walking right past him and about to ask for a picture when he just handed me the leash and walked off haha. He did come back like 5 minutes later though. Funniest part was when we were walking away and laughing about it, then turned back and he yelled "You like my bitch??" hahaha. We kind were taken back for a second until we realized that's what a female dog is called.

Me in front of the sign at the orphanage

Me with some of the "lovely" children I teach at the kindergarten. Jk, these are some of the better kids haha.

Kara

HI HI. So while we're here, we are given two 4-day weekends throughout the semester, and our first one was 2 weekends ago! We decided to go to Brasov and Transylvania, and it was soo fun. Brasov is one of the cutest towns I've ever been to. The streets are small and all lined with super old and colorful buildings, and we all loved it the moment we got there. 

We left on Friday morning at like 6am, and it took a 6 hour bus ride to get there. We stayed at a place called the Rolling Stone Hostel, and our host CeCe was so sweet and gave us a lot of information on what we should do while we were there. We also were staying up in the attic of the hostel, and all of our beds were lined up on both sides, so we all kind of felt like we were at girl's camp again, or on the set of Annie. Haha. Shortly after we arrived, we all stuffed into 2 large vans and drove to the Bran castle in Transylvania, aka the DRACULA castle. I loved it. It's always so interesting to me go into super old castles and places and try to picture people living in them hundreds of years ago. Also because this is my first time to Europe and we don't have this kind of history in America. The freaky part about the Bran castle was that they had a whole room dedicated to different torturing devices with pictures and descriptions included. They sure were, uh, creative back then haha. At the bottom of the castle, they had a bunch of vendors set up with a ton of different souvenirs. They were all pretty much selling the same stuff, but they were all super cool to browse through and it took a lot of restraint not to spend all my money haha. We also went to the Rasnov fortress that day! It was on top of a hill, so when you were on top of the fortress you could see the whole city. Pretty cool! ALSO, that night our host CeCe found a stray kitten outside the hostel and brought it up to our room to play with and see. I just about died and tried real hard to convince my head teacher to let us bring her home. Didn't work.

Bran Castle

On top of the Rasnov fortress

On Saturday, we started off by going to the Peles castle. Oh my goodness, it was honestly one of the prettiest places I've ever been to. It's also one of those places that I've definitely pinned onto my travel board on pinterest, so I felt pretty accomplished. It was the summer home for the first royal family of Romania, who actually came from Germany, so it has a lot of German influence. It also actually built in the late 1800's, so it has things like heating/cooling, a vacuum cleaner, and a retractable roof. The inside was ammaaazing. We couldn't take any pictures inside unless we bought the photo-pass ticket, so sorry you'll just have to trust me on this one. Or you could just google "Peles castle inside." Either one. The amount of detail in there was honestly mind blowing.

 After the Peles Castle, we got dropped off to go on a hike called the Canionul Sapte Scari, aka the Seven Ladders Canyon. Seriously. It took us about 40 minutes from the car to get to where we paid 10 Lei and start the actual hike. I didn't know what to actually expect, but this hike was one of the coolest/prettiest/SCARIEST things I've ever done. You go through a canyon has waterfalls going through it, and you climb 7 different ladders to get through it. The scary part is that they all vary in length and degrees of how vertical they are. The ladders and platforms are metal and upon first impression don't seem the most reliable haha. If you know me, I'm a big wimp. Like scared to try wake boarding and roller coasters kind of wimp, but now that I'm 21 and technically an adult I don't want my wimpy-ness to hold me back from scary things. The first couple of ladders weren't thaaat bad, just a little scary. But when we saw the fourth ladder, we all almost peed our pants. It was straight up for like 50 feet. But we all did it, woohoo!!! After getting through the canyon, the walk to loop back around to the beginning was sooo pretty. One of the prettiest things I've ever witnessed, and my pictures don't even do it justice. That night, we all just went out to dinner and got gelato!

Peles Castle!

Seven Steps Hike (that is definitely not the ladder I was talking about vv)

On Sunday, we had a more laid-back day. Me and some of the girls went out and got a pastry for breakfast from a placed called Gigi. So good. After that, me and two other girls, Sydney and Hannah, rented bikes for two hours. I loved that because we got to ride around and see a lot of Brasov without having to walk, which would have taken a much longer time.
The next day, we were leaving around 2pm, so we decided to go up to the Brasov sign that morning. We took the tram up and then hiked down. The site from the top was gorgeous! And it was cool because you could actually touch and climb up on the sign.

The most narrow road in Europe

Brasov sign

Overall, it was a really great weekend and I absolutely love the girls I'm here with! Brasov is a gorgeous city and it makes me wonder why eastern Europe is so dang underrated (????). But I'm seriously so blessed to be here experiencing everything and being able to travel to these really cool places. 

Kara