Pictures !

Beautiful pictures....
From Pim of course!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49925230@N07/sets/72157624005286408/

A Fine Conclusion

(the whole group during our visit of the Buda Castle)

An excellent journey should only be ended with an even better last day. This was what happened to us. We started with the history program, first a few words of Ms Roos about the Jews in Holland during WWII. After that some statement were presented. Based upon our own research we had to present whether we agreed or not. Also a talkshow was presented by a few students, about the story we read (the Sniper of Liam O’Flaherty)
After the Lunch at a restaurant very close to the school the Hungarians were separated from the Dutch. We first went to the biggest synagogue of Budapest, a beautiful building inside and outside. The guide told us everything about the history of the building and the jews in Budapest.
At the end of the afternoon we visited the Bath, something we were really looking forward to. There were pools with cold and hot water, even a roof-top pool, sauna’s and steam baths. Everything one would want was there.
A group of reborn Dutch (and Petti!) were walking out of the baths a few hours later, heading for the last party in Budapest. It took place in a pub in the center of Budapest. A lot of people were very tired but it did not spoil the fun we had.
I think I speak for all the Dutch when I say that we all had much fun and we like to thank the Hungarian students and school for their hospitality.
Daan van Mourik

Active Monday

(Feverish deliberations. The lady in purple, Sophie, was one of the Dutch winners of the debate. Alice, in the middle, also won)

(Speech of Moeaz)

(The speech of the vice-mayor of the district)

(preparations for the debate in the Egnlish library)




Debate part I

Today was the day that we had the debate at the City council. Our group was a mixed group with Dutch people and Hungarians and we had to agree upon the resolution: War criminals should be forgiven.

As you all might know we went to the House of Terrors. There we saw what happened to the people here during and after the war. We used this of course as a source of inspiration to make up our arguments. I had to speak as the first person and told the audience about the video I saw and the old man that told that he could not forgive. I hoped of course that the audience would be convinced by my arguments. (Moeaz delivered a very fine speech, he started f.i. by explaining very clearly what a war criminal was and he also was very mean when he said that the war criminals shoudn’t be punished but should not be forgiven either AR)
Now that I type this I hope that we have won. We will win because the other group has a very difficult position to defend. So I hope, now that you are reading this, that we have won the debate.
(Unfortunately Moez’ team didn’t win ….)
Moeaz Ramadan


This is Monday morning and we are debating in the City Council of the 18th district of Budapest. The topics are really interesting and we heard serious and challenging arguments about whether we should forgive war criminals or not, and about the climatic and social problems.
Fortunately the first issue is closely related to the House of Terrors which we visited on Saturday. It was an eye-opener experience for many of us. We could talk about war crime in the knowledge of that we were shown in the exhibition. It was shocking.
We are looking forward the other programs of today as well, we will see the Buda Castle and Citadel. We are really proud of these, as they are one of the most beautiful buildings of Budapest ;they played a significant role in our national history.
What is more, we will have lunch in Trofea restaurant and eat as much as we can
Juracsek Kata, Kovacs Vivien


Debate part II

‘Social inequality is a bigger problem than the climatic crisis’
“It don’t matter if you’re black or white, as Michael Jackson stated. While we agree with him, unfortunately many people do not”, is how Sophie started the second debate. According to the affirmative party, climate change is a big problem but social inequality is even bigger. Many examples were given, such as women and men, racism, and the gypsies in Hungary who are still very much discriminated.
The negative party told us a story. “Imagine you are in Holland, standing on the dijk, the water splashing against your knees. The year is 2110, and you think by yourself: Why oh why didn’t our ancestors step in…”
The government can’t control social inequality, but they can prevent more climatic changes. If we don’t step in on time most of the people living in areas under sea level will die. Besides social inequality has been survived by mankind for many years, the climatic crisis might become fatal for all of us.
But even

So then the affirmative side replied in their rebuttal: “we should be unified in order to save the world.”


Esther Kohen and Ida Blom

Lazy sunday afternoon

Maxime and her host going uphill

Day 3 Visegrad

Busy days are followed by easy days. Today was an easy day.it was easy in many ways. it was easy,because the sun was shining. It was easy, because we were outside everyday. It was easy, because time was not a problem.

Starting at nine o'clock we took the bus to Visigrad,a lovely little village just an hour from Budapest and near the Slowakian border.

(The KFG has it's own bus!..you can see the castle at the background)

The program started at a rebuilt ruin (yes it was really rebuilt as a ruin).A beautiful white coloured building with a lovely view upon the river Donau.(Originally a renaissance castle from King Mathhias, ca 1470 the king that made hungary prosperous and part of the renaissance world AR)


(In former times these would have been the Ladies in waiting of the Queen that lived here once--Queen Beatrice came from Italy and brought Italian taste to Hungary)

After a short round through the castle and some coffee we went uphill by bus and had a nice picnic with lots of bread and sweet stuff like cake.


(The Picnic)










(View at the Danube from the castle)

Totally relaxed we continued our program and went to an old fortress. After some nice panorama pictures and a little coronation ceremony we went op into the fortress for a little tour.







(The 'New King and Queen of Hungary).

Tradition requires us to choose a new king and queen of Hungary during the project. This year we have King Jan and Queen Lucy)

After that we got together again and we went tobogganing (rodelen in Dutch).We spent hours racing downhill and lying in the grass. In the end we walked all the way down through the woods to end with chips and chicken in a restaurant.
Although it was a relatively easy day the walk down the hill (very steep!) had made us very tired. Therefore we apologize for any mistakes and lack of creativity but we hope that our teachers can correct them for us. We hope the story will be flawless by the time you read this.

Florine and Maxime

Airportstories

After a very enthusiastic start at the central station of Leiden, we were off to Budapest. We took the train to Eindhoven, and a bus to the airport. When we arrived there we found out we only had 15 minutes to board and so we rushed to the gate,,, At that moment we found out there was a delay. We had to stay at the airport for a couple of hours until we could get on the plain.
Instead of going to Budapest we were stuck on an airport with a shop and a ‘restaurant’. Luckily we got a big compensation for the 5 hours delay.. 4 euro’s to spend in the restaurant, which basically meant we could buy ourselves a cup of coffee.. Half of us bought some playing cards and started reading some books. When the voiceover said we could board, at last, we started clapping and cheering and we were, finally, truly off to Budapest.

Sophie

Sun shining bright, temperature high, completely blue sky and not a cloud in the air. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Would you like to know where we were at this time? We were stuck inside the airport, for five long hours. With our noses pressed against the walls of glass we stood staring at the departing planes, going everywhere but not to Budapest.
To kill the time we spend our four euro’s on drinks, fries and magazines. Completely up to date to ` latest fashion, we spend all our money on text messages to our parents to let them know what was going on. At first to let them know we would be leaving four hours later, then to let them know it was going to be four and an half hours later and at last to let them know we wouldn’t be leaving until six o’clock. Preciously five hours later than planned. But we survived and got through it and finally the plane arrived. Wizz-air wished us a pleasant flight. Great, guess it was already too late for that…

Maxime and Florine``````````````````````


Meanwhile in Hungary….

As the last lesson finished, we had to go to the English Library, to hear that terrible news… Our kind and waited Holland students just cannot arrive in time… So we just could not know what to do .. It was so confusing… Everyone felt so sorry … And we had to reorganize the pizza party… XD again…
(to be continued)


(here the stories about the parliament and the House of Terror ….work in progress)

Today it is election day in Hungary, we visited the parliament a day before that. Isn't it beautiful?



Our guide in the House of Terror and some of our students.




This is the wall with (some)victims of totalitarism in Hungary. Most of the victims you see here were murdered during the 'Hungarian revolution' of '56

Finally arrived!

It took some time to start up the blog because we didn't have internet up to this moment. Tomorrow there will be a lot of input from the students. Today only a short message:

After only 5 hours delay we could enter the plane and fly to Budapest. There we got a very warm welcome with a funny film about our last meeting, a beautiful song , a diploma to reward us for our persistance and good food (pizza and a lot of cake).
At Saturday we got up really early because we had a tour in the Parliament at 8.00 o'clock. We also visited the house of Terror. Pim's comment on that: They don't do history here, they have a message to tell!

Tomorrow more about Visegrad ...