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My first couple mornings there I woke up late, the latest being 2pm, that shocked me I had never slept like that. My grandma always had breakfast waiting for me and asked me where I wanted to eat, outside or in.   Then she'd make me tea and and I'd say thank you a 100 times and she'd always be like, "You're welcome darling!" The first week out there we just milled around the village, walked everywhere, first across the street to where my dad went to elementary school, there's a big park over there, a river runs through it, there's a brick path that grandma says used to be cobblestones, if you walk about a quarter mile in there is a church and a mausoleum for a royal family that lived in the village.  We went inside the church which was open, and to describe it in short, I want to get married there.  All churches should be nothing less than ornate, gaudy, over the top with brilliant architecture, there should be a flower and angel carved into every single square inch of stone, just like this one.  It is a fairly small church but size does not matter here.  I wish the pictures did it justice but they do not, still I have attached them.  One of the first days out there we went down to a river where there are weekend houses, families vacation there.  It's their lake tahoe.  She showed me the weekend house we used to own, gave me detailed background information (as she does), and then we ate at a little outdoor restaurant.  After eating and eavesdropping on a gay looking group of bicyclists in booty shorts, we went down to the actual river.  Immediately when we got down to the river it started thundering, and then pouring, we ran back down to the car and even though I had an umbrella I was soaked through my dress, and my poor grandma looked like she went swimming in her clothes.  

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During that week we also visited the village cemetery, where her mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather are buried.  I said hi to them all and we put out new flowers from grandma's garden and took some pictures.  Over there you literally drive through the cemetery on the grass and pull up and park right next to who you're visiting.  There are no little plaques in the ground everyone has a big bed of stone over their grave with a huge headstone.  And even the cemetery is ornate, 95% of the plots are laden with flowers, real, artificial, candles, lanterns, angel figurines and sculptures, its so colorful not empty looking.

My grandma fixes everything, for example i had this hole in my bra on the side seam, its been there for months i didnt care i need to go to calvin and buy new ones, but my grandmother sat in her chair in front of the tv and hand sewed it perfect again,  then handed it to me and said "I did the best i could" i just had to laugh.

She is also obsessed with giving me shoes and costume jewelry, all of which i love but i kept a lot of the items at her house, I didnt have room for them in my luggage.  She bought me new dresses too, some of them are skimpy and she would have me try them on and come into her bedroom in front of the mirror, id tell her "Its grown im not used to this!" and she'd say "It is cuuute Jaelah!" 

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Oh my god my favorite thing, when you're meeting people you are supposed to do the double cheek kiss and I love it and i am annoyed that no one does it here, its made me bitter actually because i like kisses, though these are not real kisses you just put your cheek to theirs and make a little kissy sound. But that is how you greet people hello and how you say goodbye. I miss it.  At first i was self conscious and thought i was doing it wrong but by rule of thumb you should use your left cheek first then end with the right.  

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My grandma is so much like me because in her town everyone knows her and her car, it is a little red one and she named it Piroska.  Everyone knows: Elizabeth is to Piroska as Jaelah is to Cookiemonster.  

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One of the first people I met in the village besides the supermarket girls, was my great uncle, a sweet little man who doesnt talk much but when he does talk its worth listening to.  He's really witty and funny but quiet and THAT is the important part.  His property is cool because he lives right on a river and he goes fishing in his backyard, he also has a really pretty magnolia tree and peach trees and he's got a gold necklace with the Hungarian crest that he never takes off.  His nicknames for me were 'angel' and 'Barbie doll'.

 

After about 4 days the soreness in my body from traveling went away.  I was sore everywhere I did not even know to expect that part honestly.

 

 

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During the 2nd week we did some more local things, just relaxing, running errands,, I met one of grandma's friends who is also named Elizabeth (everyone shares the same 10 names out there) but she goes by Berbé, and i found out she is a libra! October 5th.  I found out because I noticed she wore a gold necklace with a gold scales pendant.  She is super organized, she lives in a bright orange house, her yard is neat and organized, she was actually in the middle of redoing her tile floors when we visited but even the "clutter" and evidence of renovation was neat.   We also went to the mall in the next town over, it was alright as far as malls go, I didnt need to do any shopping but it was nice to know they had one.  We visited a couple of castles that week as well, and I got to see horses! Briefly! But still I got to pet them and talk to them for a few minutes, which was enough for me.  I had come to the conclusion that one of my estates has to be a castle, with horses, and everything will be designed as if we were still in the 1800s.  

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At the end of that week we had set off for Croatia,  so I could be by the seaside, which I was stuck on, we stayed for 3 nights and I got my ocean time in.  The water had a higher concentration of salt and minerals, it was not cold, and I took full advantage.  I swam so much, I was not the only one swimming but I was alone, my grandmother sat on the shore and watched me and I got to just float in the water and let the sun beat on me, it was so nice.  I got a good tan which is hard for me to do.  When I got out and laid in the hotel room, it felt like I was still in the water, thats how you know it was good.  Me and grandma got to the hotel at 11pm on our first night, she had the restaurant make me steak and vegetables and she had chicken and fruity wine.  Then we went up to our room and watched twilight new moon. I was surprised to find out she actually had watched twilight before and said she loved it! AND she said Bella should've chose Jake!  She thinks Edward is overrated.  The rest of the nights there we watched eclipse and breaking dawn pt.1.  On our last night we walked on the pier where all the pretty boats and yachts were, and then had dinner by the beach and I had an infamous long island iced tea.  My first real drink, but i got scared and left about a quarter of it in the glass.  We left Croatia, now instilled with the hope I would come back and spend a full month there, and got back home to our little village 2 days before I  was set to fly back home.

 

 

 

 

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 Now I was reflecting on my full trip, honestly, I was hoping to meet people my age but I didnt really, I was around older people the entire trip, which is fine, at work I'm around people 40 yrs + all of the time so I guess im used to it now. The night before I left for Budapest , the last day of being in the village,  I met my cousin who is also 19, and we exchanged a lot, we didnt spend much time together but we got a little bit of insight on each other and we had lots of fun talking about cultural differences between there and the US.  We laughed a lot he was easy to get along with, and he makes beaucoup money creating content as well,  so we’re the same a bit. 

Then the next morning our taxi driver came to take me and grandma to Budapest, we checked into our hotel at about 3pm and then had a quick run around the city, which is beautiful, I wish I had more time out there, that city is unmatched.  In architecture, in ambience, everything is clean and light, I dont think any way I explain it will it actually match what it was like to be there.  It was 10x better than any metropolis I had been to, it ranked superior on any scale of comparison, in my opinion.  Then the next morning I had to catch a 9am flight back to Frankfurt, and then LAX, the dreaded LAX, which was a hellscape in comparison to where I had just come from.  I finished up my last journal entry at the Budapest airport just before boarding my 9am flight and felt really sad about leaving my grandma and the house, and the cats.  The morning I left the village actually, while i was still sleeping and my grandmother was up doing chores etc, the kitten snuck into the kitchen and made its way to my room, my grandma happened to be passing by my door when she saw something hanging off the side of my bed, she said she stopped and opened the door some more and realized it was the little one peering over the edge of my bed watching me sleep, she said, "She must know you're leaving."

 

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Honestly, when I first got there I was a bit nervous, I was afraid about what I dont know, mostly that I wouldn’t be able to be fully present, I missed my parents lol, there were pictures of them all over the house and that made me sad for some reason, but after my first 2 nights of long sleep, and lots of eating, I felt better.  I got comfortable really quick, I liked to walk around outside in the yard and write out there, eat out there, My grandmother could tell me everything about anything, there’s nothing she doesnt know, I could never keep up, sometimes I wish I had recorded our conversations just to listen to afterwards, to memorize all the information she had given me. I honestly love that house, I loved the woods and the entire atmosphere,  and so now i know when I hate it here, I can just catch a flight there, I have my own set of keys, to the gate and the front door.  I will live with grandma and then I will buy my own castle, and my own apartment in Budapest, and 2 horses and just chill. 2nd home acquired, I left Hungary richer!

 

 

 

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Food Highlights:

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Fish soup

Duck

Red cabbage

Johnny walker, jack Daniels

Lots of tea

Lots of pig fat

Zucchini

Berry

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My favorite small details:

 

 

- Grandma has long black hair down her back, hip length,

the strands are really thick you could probably floss with her hair,

I liked when she put it in a high ponytail or one long braid with a bow

- Everyone rides a bike

- Hospitality

- Odd faces

- Weird clothes/ speedos

- Chocolate is “chocy” which was just cute to me

- Cats everywhere

- Old ruins everywhere

- The air/smell

- The thunderstorms

- No one knows what an earthquake is

- The double cheek kiss

- Sparkling or flat water

- Woods everywhere, it is a fairy, storybook world

- Storks and stork nests

 

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Grandma phrases/sayings/words:

 

- Do not paint the devil on the wall

- Kiss my footprint

- *when a woman accused her of having an affair* "If your husband cheated with me he wouldn’t have even come back home."

- *To her ex husband, who would admire his own reflection for 30+  minutes*  “You want to fuck yourself in the mirror but you are afraid to cut off your dick.  Im going to leave now, just please dont break my mirror.”

- *when asked why she is laughing* “Should I cry??!!”

- Mary Magdalene!

- Send Mary!

- *to me* My little porcelain doll! I want to break you!