Category Archives: Hungary

WSP Management in Budapest day 3

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The first thing I was greeted by when walking through the door at home, was Ramses of course. He always comes running to say hello when the door is opened. The second thing I was greeted by was Cleo sticking his head out the bedroom door hissing at me. I think I might have been gone for too long for Cleo’s liking. Then he got almost aggressive when he smelled me. Weird cat.

It has been another long day. All flight trips with a layover takes so much longer and is so exhausting. On the first flight from Budapest to Munich, I slept all the way through, even through the big turbulens that apparently happened. On the second though, I had a hard time falling asleep, even if I listened to my classical piano music list. Perhaps it was because all the rows in the back were occupied by WSP. I used the last 30 minutes to a little bit of writing. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?

In the morning today we had free time. It was spent shopping. I bought a very nice notebook at a Christmas fair, a refrigerator magnet and a pair of shoes. That was not the plan, but they kind of matched my scarf and I felt like I needed another pair of better quality shoes.

My calves are rock hard and hurt a lot! So many steps, only walking for three days. It will be great with four days of sitting in front of a computer working again, resting my legs a bit. My feet don’t hurt, but my calves.

It has been a great conference and many interesting discussions in the morning at the hotel. Many interesting things to see in Budapest, many fun things happened. But it has been tough. I really need my sleep and when I don’t get it, I quiet. I hope I haven’t seemed too boring because of it. Because I have had a great time and it was fun to get to know my coworkers outside of work.

Pictures are coming, not tonight, but my goal is to get them uploaded tomorrow afternoon/evening. Ägg-i-skägg-i-rää and goodnight!

WSP Management in Budapest day 2

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I can’t remember the last time I was this tired. But being tired on vacation is basically just a receipt that you are doing the vacation right. Max gear all the time!

This morning was similar to yesterday. We discussed work-related things that we will work on and improve next year and there were good points made.

The afternoon was all dedicated to baths. We (or some of us, not everyone wanted to go to the thermal baths) walked to Szechenyi Bath and had lunch before at a restaurant close by. The food was simple and good. Pasta with tomato sauce.

We were 6 girls walking together to the bath when we saw a pretty castle and a market outside, so obviously we had to stop there. I was too full from the lunch so I didn’t get one of those sweet bread tubes, but I tried and it is on my agenda tomorrow to buy one for myself. We all also bought paprika powder. Apparently you should, so we did. I got one sweet bag and one spicy bag.

The bath was a really cool place! It was like a block of a low building, enclosing pools. One of them was really warm and it was perfect with the fall weather of November. There was a pool for laps and also a pool with a strong current. That was fun! But some people were so disrespectful and bumped into people all the time, both unconsciously but also consciously. Not okay!

Inside there were many smaller pools, hot ones and cold ones. Also several saunas. I tried most of the stuff but would have liked to be in the eucalyptus steam sauna a bit more. My dad’s genes are really 110% present at moments like this. I love heat! I love to sit in saunas or hot water. Not everyone is like that, which is good, but a little more sauna would have been nice. Our main playrule for the weekend was “everyone included/leave no one behind” and it worked.

The changing rooms were special. Small boths that you entered from the outside, and pulled down a part of the seat to lock the both doors on the side. When you are done, you open the other door and go to the baths. So strange. It took me a while to figure out how to lock the doors, haha!

We were three girls left at the bath at 5pm and we then took a bus back to the hotel. Less than 30 min later, I was down in the lobby leaving for the restaurant.

It was called Duncorso and we were served a three course dinner with Hungarian specialties. It was good! The company was also good and our table of six decided to toast every five minutes and each of us to speak every time. I used that moment to thank everyone for the warm welcome I have got and that I look forward to working .ore with everyone. I stumbled on words and it was not good at all, but I think the message went out okay.

I am truly happy at working at WSP. It is great. Fun work tasks and great coworkers. It couldn’t have been better!

After dinner we walked to a ruin bar, Szimpla Kert, the most famous one. It was the craziest bar ever! After WWII, there were a lot of abandoned buildings and eventually people put stuff in there and started up bars (or something like that). Everything in there was random and inside the building were several bars with different focus. The coziest room was the old tech junkyard with old screens and lights intertwined. Or the top floor where there was a hole in the floor. It is hard to describe. So I will post pictures when I get home. Probably not tomorrow. But Tuesday?

I talked to Dad today as well. Apparently, he heard from Grandma, who read my blog, that I was here now and gave me tips on a few things. I might look into them tomorrow. What is also pretty sick, is that he was here just last week, Sunday to Wednesday, and lived very close to where we are staying. And on Sunday, he was at the Szimpla Kert bar exactly (probably on the clock) a week before me. Crazy!!

One last day (half day) left in Budapest tomorrow. Only free time. I have to think about what I want to do. Probably shopping. And it would be cool to go on Metro 1, which is considered the oldest (or second oldest depending on how you count) subway in Europe.

Super long day, my calves are so stiff. Maybe I will book a massage here tomorrow instead, haha!

WSP Management in Budapest day 1

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I didn’t think it was a possibility that I would end up being one of those fortunate people who went abroad on a conference trip. But here I am, in Budapest with my coworkers.

We arrived late last night at Continental Hotel Budapest. We were delayed but the flight here were not too bad and went by very fast and we were extremely lucky with the transfer in Frankfurt. I don’t think we waited more than 2 minutes after arriving at the new gate before we could board. I have never been that lucky!

But when we got here, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t staying with Caroline, a girl who I am in a couple of projects with and whom I had very much looked forward to sharing a room with. It feels wrong to say that I was disappointed when I got a whole room all to myself, a full 180 bed instead of a 90, but I was.

After lots of trouble getting in to my room I could finally lay down and sleep at around 1am, so much later than I am used to now with my new routines.

Today was the first real day here and it was a very good one. It started with a decent breakfast followed by three hours of the conference-part of this trip. Some questions we discussed I had input to, but some I was too new for so I just listened. Very interesting stuff though!

For lunch all 37 of us were divided into six groups and we went out into the city to find some place to eat. Everywhere we went it was full, until we found a basement restaurant that was empty. Sceptical, but it was not too bad. It was a nice room and atmosphere.

What’s funny here is the currency. They don’t use Euro but something else. And today’s lunch was 33000 of it. Crazy!

The rest of the afternoon we walked around and met up with everyone else at Mathias Church (which has a crazy and colorful roof, I might have to check if it is supposed to be the original roof. We watched the city from the hill and it was pretty.

On the way back to the hotel after the church (we didn’t go in), I spent a little time in the hotel pool and sauna. As a small preparation for the thermal baths tomorrow.

Dinner was served at a medieval restaurant called Sir Lancelot where we drank out of pottery urns, where food was served on a huge platter in the middle of the long table and a group of performers entertained us. It was a fun experience!

After dinner we went to a salsa club and I had such a great time! For the first time since Caribbean, I have had a piña colada that was really good. We danced and all of us occupied the dance floor with our typical circle dancing and scared away all the real salsa dancers. But it was great, I don’t think that place usually has that many guests. I feel like I need to find their social media or something because they took endless of photos and videos and they might post something about us crazy swedes! Fun place!

More pictures from the evening can be found here on their Facebook page.

Then we wanted to go to Szimpla Kert, a ruin bar and the most famous one in Budapest. The line said as much and we decided to go there tomorrow instead. So the description of what it is comes tomorrow.

I am writing this on my phone and the pictures I took today are on my work phone so I will add them to this post when I have access to a computer.

After 27k steps I am so ready to sleep. Goodnight! A fun day is waiting for us tomorrow again!