Week 1 of Spring Break

Here in Europe, we don’t have March Break like most school in Canada do. Instead we have two weeks of holiday around Easter time (think back your History classes…it makes sense).
The first week of the break, I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, because I really wanted to experience something like it. I’d never done anything like that before, and if I do say so myself, I like to grow as much as possible as an individual. I would be on the trip with 12 other people, and I thought it would be really interesting working in a small group, doing something that I’d never done before, and being in an area that I’d never traveled to (Eastern Europe).
I was nervous, but also excited before we went. I really had no idea what to expect from the experience (including lots of factors that I don’t really want to get into over the very public internet).
Due to the placement of the Easter holidays this year, we didn’t go straight to our building area (Beius, Romania). Instead, we spent a weekend in Budapest, Hungary seeing the sights, and building up even more anticipation for what we going about the experience.

Budapest was alright I suppose. We had a nice little adventure getting from the airport to the hotel, because we decided that we couldn’t afford the airport taxi service. Instead, we took the bus/metro. We must have looked pretty funny (the 13 of us) with our HUGE suitcases (we’d packed for two weeks), speaking no Hungarian, looking very confused. We made it though, and it really wasn’t too bad. It was FUN!
That weekend, was grey. The whole weekend was grey and rainy. I think that really influenced my perception of the city. Sure there were things to see, but as I’ve said many times before, you’ve got the cathedral, the open square, the train station, the opera house, the parliament, the pedestrian street (ok, I added in a couple extra things)…they’re all the same in each of the European cities. I did enjoy it though, because for most of the time, I wandered alone, feeling very anonymous. The buildings really were beautiful, and unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to go into any of them, nor any of the museums, because I decided to use my time seeing quantity (over quality). That’s what next time is for. I always feel like my first time in a city is to scope out the situation. To get a taste for the area, get my bearings, and then when I return, I’ll really know where to go, what I want to do, etc.
While we were there, the Spring Festival was happening. In one of the main squares, there were booths set up, with vendors selling food, craft items…a stage was set up with performances…there were tables and chairs set up to sit, watch, eat, relax…what an amazing atmosphere!
One interesting experience. A couple of us decide that we should go probably the most famous Spa in Budapest. This would be my first spa experience, so I was really excited. I thought that I should really go all out and get some kind of special massage or something. When we arrive, we find out that they are not doing any more special treatments that day, because the Spa is too busy (it was Easter Sunday). Okay, fine. So we grudgingly decide to just pay our entry for the “hot spring bath”. We weren’t going to leave without saying that we’d done something at this place. So we go in…which was a whole experience in itself, because I have to say that the sales people were NOT very friendly (yelling orders at us, pushing us here, there). Then we casually ask if we can still get a massage. Here comes the sketch. Under her breath, the lady says yes, and discretely beckons us to follow her into, yup, the back room. It’s dirty, and ghetto looking. Ultra sketch. There are five of us, and five massage therapists, so all seems fine. The lady asks us to pay her ___ amount in cash. The amount per person is slightly more than what we would have had to pay if we bought tickets. We have to go back to changeroom to get our money, but we’re skeptical, so we don’t really had it over quite yet. One person I was with gave the lady her share of the money. Once we all reassemble in the massage room, she repeats the cost, and we compile our money (less the one girl who’s already paid) and put it on the table in front of her. She counts it and says we’re short. We tell her, no, that’s because on girl’s already paid. “Oh yes”, she says, and proceeds to pull out the bills that had been given to her. But there’s a problem, because the bills don’t total the amount that she was given. Some coins are missing. We point this out and she says that she was only given bills. How curious that when the lady walks around, we can hear something clinking in her pocket. One of us has been pulled away by a masseuse to start her massage, and we soon see her inching her way back to us. She was thoroughly creeped out by the masseuse. The rest of us, and getting really sketched out, because the room’s creepy, the ladies are creepy, and they’re trying to pocket our money!!! We decide not to continue any longer, we grab our money and run (well, okay, walk very quickly) out the room to the sound of the ladies yelling after us not to leave, that they want to give us massages! *shudder* So we just go to the hot spring bath and soak ourselves in salty, hot water. I forget what temperature it was…it was written on the wall though. There were two pools in the room. One was a couple degrees colder than the other. Most were in the hotter pool. So we sat there and chatted. It wasn’t anything special at all. It really reminded me of the videos and texts that I’d seen/used in my high school Latin classes (about the Roman bathhouses). The tiled mosaics. The people sitting in the pool chatting. The people sitting on the ledge chatting. There were ladies with bathing suits on, and some without. Ahhh…European life. *shudder* It was yet another experience that I don’t regret (you can always benefit SOMEHOW by each experience), but I will never do it again. Sketchy.
One night we ate dinner at the little Festival Square. The food was delicious. It was Hungarian, but it really wasn’t anything special. A stir fry of meat, vegetables and potatoes, with some kind of spice. I would be eating goulash on a different day, so I wasn’t concerned. There is a dessert and I also forget the name of. It’s a pastry that they bake over hot coals on this spit sort-of contraption. The pastry is a hollow tube of doughy goodness. You can get it just with sugar, or with cinnamon, or vanilla…yummy.
Budapest is gorgeous at night. All of the major monuments are light up with lights…dare I say, it’s almost as gorgeous as Paris at night? It really is beautiful. The lights, the impressive monuments and buildings lining the Danube. That’s right, the Danube (anyone all of a sudden hear Strauss in their head?). Wonderful.

Monday morning, we’re picked up by someone from Habitat Beius. We sit in a van for, oh, 5 hours to get to our destination. Then, cause of the time difference, we didn’t actually get to Beius until 6 hours after we’d left Hungary. We were pretty exhausted once we got there. Just in time for dinner! While in Beius, we would be working with a school group from Dublin, Ireland. Hooray for fun accents! They were pretty perky when they met us at dinner, but we were all zombies after the drive, so it was a pretty odd meeting (for both parties).
Our accommodations while we were there would be at a local family’s home. We had the house all to ourselves. It was really fun! There were multiple beds crammed into each room. Good vibes, and good times!
The daily routine for the week was pretty structured. Wake-up at whatever time in order to be at breakfast (all meals were at a local restaurant – 15 minute walk) for 7:30am. Get on bus to arrive at building site for 8:30am. Work. Short, 15min morning break with snacks/tea/coffee sometime that’s convenient. Lunch from noon to 1pm. Back on site until 6pm with another short afternoon break with snacks/tea/coffee whenever convenient. Bussed back home. Dinner at 8:30pm. Sleep as much as possible and repeat. It was utterly fantastic.
Building was incredible. On the first day, we arrived to a plot of land that had nothing. We started from scratch (well, okay, there was a little bit of foundation there). We started by building the frames for the roof. Then the walls. It was absolutely incredible watching the first wall be put up. When it was lying on its side, I was a little confused as to what it was that we were trying to do…but as soon as it went up…wow. It was a wall. All four of them were put up, then the roof as well. It was amazing. Of course they didn’t have any cranes or anything helping to raise the roof up onto the walls. Lots of people helping lift…lots of people working together. It was incredible. I can’t even describe in more detail how amazing it was…I guess it was yet another once in a lifetime experiences that I’m so thankful for, and that I would strongly urge everyone to try for themselves. After the skeleton of the house was set up, we put styrofoam on the walls, concrete stuff and some netting...roof tiles were put up…insulation was put in the house, walls to divide up the room…by the time we left it really did look like a little house. We knew the group that would be going in just after we left, and they did a little work on the house as well. They didn’t finish it (because of other stuff that was going on), but they added paint and stucco to the walls and window frames and stuff.
Anyway, I’d tell you about Beius and how great the town was an stuff, but the problem is that we didn’t really get to see much of it. We got a chance to eat at a local restaurant for all of our meals (as mentioned before), walk around a little bit, be driven through the town, see some ethnic dancing and musical acts, but that’s about it. We had some visits to local places on our itinerary, but we decided to scrap those plans to build more hours. Due to the placement of the Easter weekend, we could only build for 3.5 days MAX. We wanted to do more. We wanted to help more. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out that way. Still, I’m grateful for being able to do something. To help somehow. To experience the wonderfulness that is Habitat. I was REALLY REALLY sad to be leaving. It was one of the best (if not the best – I don’t even want to have to decide on my favorite thing of the year so far) experiences thus far in my big European adventure.

After leaving Beius, we head back to Budapest for a night, and stay at the same hostel (which wasn’t too sketchy – yeehaw!) as the next group that’s coming in. It was so nice to see them, tell them about how wonderful the experience was for us (and will be for them), and spend another night in Budapest eating good food, and staring at gorgeous lights.

I’ve ranted long enough. Just know that I would highly recommend getting involved with Habitat for Humanity. I enjoyed every moment of the trip. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about others. I had a lot of fun. I met a lot of people. I also used a power drill!