Back to University.

Being back in Coventry after Italy is strange. It's hard to believe this is the same planet and the same species of human that roam around here.

Look, well-dressed Italians out and about! (image from article on Bologna flea markets https://decoratorsnotebook.wordpress.com/tag/flea-market-bologna/)

And then we have... these.

Yeeaaaah, girl!

Wonder where my inspiration is gone?

Budapest is da beeeest

I feel like whenever we visit new destinations we habitually try to relate them to something we know or have already seen before. Something we can relate to, that way we do not lose our ground and venture forth with more confidence than, let's say, you would on the moon.
Budapest fell into a twisted recognition because it reminded me of my hometown, Kiev. The pre-war French architecture and wide streets and the huge river splitting the city into two parts, the deep green hills and proud monuments. It was what Kiev would have been had it been under Austrian or French influence, instead of Soviet. That being said, Communists had their time in Hungary and it is prominent in some parts of the city. Same as Bologna.

We arrived at the Budapest airport on Saturday and went straight to a touristy information booth where we were very pleasantly surprised by tourist travel cards. Wonderful little things that allow you free travel on any public transport and give you free admission to a number of the popular museums and galleries and thermal baths in town and discounts on practically everything else.
Recommended!

After getting to our hotel and being informed that our room isn't ready for check in, mother and I ventured to find food.
Hungary is famous for a lot of food, most of which is meat-based, giving my delusional pescetarian-inclined nature a hard time... for about 5 minutes. After that I ordered a goulash soup and returned to the predator state which I fight like the good-natured monster I am.
The Goulash is a thick, fatty, soup with chunks of meat (normally beef, sometimes venison) and veg and a good load of paprika. Very hearty medieval meal.
Another popular dish from the Austria-Hungarian ages is the famous Strudel.

Here's my very tired mother enjoying one of the various cherry strudels I ordered everywhere I went.

 Sadly by the time we checked into our hotel room and made a rush for the National Gallery it was already closing time for most cultural sites. So we wondered around the old castle area and admired the elevated view of the Pest side of Budapest.
Quick information fill:

Budapest is split by the Danube river into primarily two districts Buda and Pest, which were originally two separate cities.
Buda is the landscape-y historical district, apparently more expensive and as I heard someone say "where the blue-bloods reside". For us, tourists: this is where the Castle is and the central galleries and museums are.
Pest is the city district, here lies the glorious Parliament building, it is more busy with locals and shops, and somehow on an absolutely flat terrain.
The areas have been united in the late 1800s.

View from the Buda Castle stairs. I'm not always blocking it, mind you.

Mom at the Matthias Fountain.

The main figure in the fountain's composition is King Matthias, an interesting historical figure who brought the Italian renaissance to Hungary. Except he's actually interesting because he also happened to be a lavishly-living, alcoholic playboy who gained popularity for allegedly dressing in "commoner" disguises and mingling with locals to stay aware of current social situations. Something modern politicians should try once in a while, IMHO.

Second day we wandered around town, finally getting to the galleries. Then we got lost in the rain and hunted wild strudels. Yum!

Monday (the last day), museums were closed and our card was expiring after lunch, so we took a morning walking tour of the Castle District led by a fantastic guide named Tom. Mom and I both loved the tour, but my mother wanted to go shopping and I couldn't join because my transport card expired minutes before and although the tours are free the evening tours involve some use of public transport... So I couldn't continue the journey with our lovely group and Tom the Tour Guide.

But hey, I got me some shoes.

Last but not least we ventured forth into a sweet little place called Sir Lancelot Knights' Restaurant, a mediaeval themed place where each portion is a feast and there's a jester and live music going on... First impression is a bit iffy, but when the belly is full and the atmosphere sinks in, you might as well be a Game of Thrones character at a wedding-feast............. y'know? The NON-Red kind of wedding?

Moving forward.

I can't believe I'm no longer in Italy. My mind has been so occupied with the move and getting a new job, quitting the new job, yoga and attempts in gardening, that only while packing a suitcase and sorting iPhone photos was it that I realised that I lived in Italy. People visit it, tourist about and leave, I had a deep and meaningful relationship with Italy.

Today I'm leaving for Budapest, Hungary with my mother. Let's see how that goes! Honestly, I can't wait to see a new location.

Arte Fiera

Living in Bologna makes it seem that Italy is obsessed with fairs, exhibitions and expos. All for good reason, it's the most aesthetic country through and through.
Every February Bologna holds one of the biggest modern art fairs in Europe featuring all types of contemporary works from classical paint-on-canvas to dynamic installations with ferrofluid.

The tickets are expensive but provide a weekend pass for every museum in town.

The exhibition has overwhelming numbers of artists, many of which are internationally renown, and a large number of Italian names. Some of the artists linger amidst the crowd hearing into the comments and feedback.

First installation in the lobby.

One of my favourite pieces.

 At first glance you don't even notice the minature projection, you are attracted by the whispering coming from the installation.

One of the most shocking pieces to catch the corner of your eye.

Creative.

I was invited to lunch by one of my Erasmus friends - Onyee. She did somehow forget to mention that it was a home-made lunch at her Chinese friends' apartment with another seven guests!
At first, I felt a little bit awkward amongst so many strangers, walking to the other side of town, not knowing who to start a conversation with and what about...
The awkwardness lasted until we arrived to this girl's house, then we saw this in the kitchen.

We are very hungry students.

Lucia was still making more and more of these beautiful, meat-stuffed breads (they didn't let me refer to them as dumplings, because "it's different dough"), she also kindly taught all the volunteers how to make them.

An explanation about stuffing types.

 All eight of us helped where we could.

After boisterously eating at least half of the contents on the table, getting a pepsi induced sugar rush and laughing ourselves to tears the group cleared the table and lunch turned into a crafting group.

Uncannily looking like a bunch of terrorists at work with Pepsi.

Melding thin wires to make puppet faces!

It turned out that most of the students there are studying illustration and comics and working on an online magazine. They invited me to participate the making of puppets for their upcoming stop motion animation. Based on a Chinese play called The Injustice to Dou E, or Snow in Midsummer. About a woman framed for murder by an evil man, who was originally seeking to marry her (logic). After the woman is executed there is heavy snowfall in the midst of a hot summer.

Their magazine and examples of some of their breathtaking work can be found here.
I'm proud to say I've contributed a puppet head to their noble cause before going home to work on some sketches of my own!

Milan Milano

I usually travel through Milano when going to Bergamo airport, but I have never explored the city. Mother and I arrived in the morning, and successfully got into a fight again because she thought I was getting us lost. After harassing a couple of stranger, mom once again admitted defeat and we found our bus.
After checking in at Timbucktu Inn (Just kidding! It was "Hotel Majorca" which is a bus ride away from the centre) we decided to check out the biggest Cathedral in Italy and have a cappuccino while doing so.
We took a bus back to the town centre and oh just so happened to stumble into Guess and try on half of their collection... Since we were planning on going Outlet Shopping the next day, we didn't buy anything. Neither me nor my mom had a sufficient meal that day so we started searching for a decent bar (local word for coffee bar) with fresh pasteries and cappuccinos without extraterrestrial prices.
It was harder than we imaged after we wasted another 40-something minutes on it and succumbed to one that turned out pretty decent. We ran into a similar problem when we were looking for breakfast around the main bus station. Hard to beat Bologna with that, really. More about that in the Bar post.

The great Milano Duomo

Eventually this glorious thing appeared. The pointy Gothic architecture is intricately decorated with lacy, marble statues of saints, angels and demons on every corner and protrusion.
Entrance is free (as it is most churches in Italy, but places like Pisa may charge), excluding a swift security scan. When we went in there was a service being preformed, since I'm from the Godless Communist State I know little about religions in general and less so about Catholicism. It wasn't Sunday mass because it was small and after lunch and it was not Sunday.

Smoke from a service that was happening at the time.

The most mesmerising thing about the building is the gigantic stained glass installation and white-marble sarcophagi built into the floor annotating every date and owner. This is common in many places in Italy.
The smell of myrrh and all the pretty glass had me distracted...

One of the many stained glass windows.

Until my mother pointed out this fella...

preserved archbishop 1

At first glance you don't even realise these are actual corpses. Italian Catholic love of the macabre sure send the point home when you see the withered skin on the statues' hands and loose, wisps of white hair on grey-brown skin under the silver death mask. As I was leaning in to take some photos I overheard some American tourist complaining that such things should not be displayed to the public and smiled to myself thinking they're new here.

preserved archbishop 2... See the hands?

Milan is a city well-balanced in it's Italian-ism and International-ism. It's very modern, but very aesthetic in it's Italian ways. Fashion models roam the streets like safari animals and business men argue over espressos during coffee breaks. It's an inspiring environment.

Verona

Oh Verona...
Some will recognise the name from Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", "Taming of the Shrew" or "Two Gentlemen from VERONA", others might recall it thanks to that terribly sappy film Letters to Juliet, some might not remember where the hell they've heard the name before.

Although the city holds Italy's third largest amphitheatre and is generally an absolutely gorgeous place Verona somehow generally rides on the attention it got from Shakespeare's description and adopts a romantic façade to all its landmarks. In contrast to Bologna's medieval red brick structures she flaunts one of the biggest white marble piazzas in the country and sports beautiful white arches.

My mother and I arrived at our Bed and Breakfast after squabbling at the train station about which bus to take. The Bed and Breakfast was very easy to find (had my topographically handicapped mother initially accepted to follow my lead) sitting right next to Piazza Bra. We headed upstairs to find a lovely lady who didn't speak any English introduce us to our room. We left our bags in the room and I immediately went to enquire about a restaurant the hostess could suggest for us to attend for lunch. I made a strong emphasis on how it shouldn't be too touristy and perhaps know their wine.

Tourist restaurants are the worst. They count on one time visits so they don't try to impress anyone with quality of food. The staff is generally friendly and welcoming, but ingredients are terrible and the dishes are generally over-priced.

She nodded understandingly and went to fetch a map for us. She then pointed out Osteria Casa Vino
which is situated across the road from the Castelvecchio. After a beautiful lunch and great wine we were so impressed we reserved a table for dinner and headed out to the castle!

Gold in Castelvecchio's museum

We then went on to look for Juliet's alleged house. Apparently, it was once an inn that the Italian's have turned into a museum. The balcony of the museum is the famous balcony Romeo climbs to steal a kiss and ladies from all over the world crowd to pay for a photo on it. I don't understand the appeal, since the characters are not only fictional, but reach a very tragic end. Nonetheless... My mom and I went into the courtyard and I had her pose with the Juliet statue. Apparently groping her breast is supposed to bring you all sorts of love and luck.

My mommy looking like a psychopath. <3

We then walked around Verona some more, browsing Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza Signori, but soon it started to rain so I had to stop taking photos and find shelter because mom is still recovering from a virus and sinusitis. Mom insisted we find refuge in the shops and try on all possible clothes. It was then that we realised eating all that pasta didn't do us much good. So when returning back to dinner I got experimental and ordered the seasonal Italian dish of zucchini flowers.

Stuffed with ricotta.

We head to Milan next morning.