Road to Plitvice

We intended to leave before lunch and eat in the Plitvice National Park (the bus from Zagreb to the lakes takes about 2 hours and 10 minutes)... but due to some complications (our "ride" fell asleep and we decided to take the bus that left around 12h40) we got there later... muuuuuuch later:
We were tired, and fell asleep in the trip... but I had the alarm clock set to ring after 2 hours (so that we could have about 10 minutes to wake up), and we actually even woke up earlier than the clock. We were awake for about 15 minutes or more when we stopped in the middle of nowhere... And João found out we had passed our stop. The guy that checks the tickets told us we were sleeping (yeah, thanks a lot for noticing and not awaking!) so we got out in that station and just waited for the next bus...that was due in about one hour. nice...



There was nothing there except for a not-so-inspired painting of the waterfalls as an advertising, and a coffee/restaurant for the travelers to have something before heading to the road again. On the way to the toilets you could see a lot of stuffed animals like foxes and rabits and deers and rabits (all sort of animals from that area) that were put in a way so that they would be drinking beer and playing cards! I wish I had taken a picture, put I was too pissed off to think about it, I suppose (I hate wasting time...).



So, we just walked around that area... the mountain was quite impressive, and the sense of space and abandon caused a strong impression on me. Aaaand, they had bears enclosed in the back of the restaurant (I wonder if they were kept as pets??).



When the other bus finally got there we found out we had to wait (yet again...) for about 30 minutes, since it was their "stop in the middle of the trip for eating"... oh well.



We eventually hoped on (and spent more money to go back...) and arrived at Plitvice at nightfall.
The owner of the Hostel went to pick us up (the house was pretty close, but his english was not that good and he was having trouble explaining the directions over the phone). The room was actually quite good: really warm and comfortable, and with a private bathroom.
And then we found out we almost had no money. João payed with euros, but we didn't have cash to return. How nice! And you know what? The next cash machine was 2 kilometers away. Aaaand, there was no bus going there, or cab, or any means of transportation. Aaaand (yes, it gets better!) it was already night, dead cold, and the only way of getting money was by foot, walking along the road (kind of like a highway). There was really not much light but we headed to the cash machine anyway. And you know what? There were traffic signs for the drivers to be careful with eventual bears. How cute! And my backpack had two big smelly sandwiches! Cool!
Basically we just walked for about one hour, telling stories of people being chased by bears, and people that got bitten by bears... and I even had time for "noivado do sepulcro", 'though I couldn't remember every word. It was actually quite fun. The return took us less time (we were hungry and the road was going down, so it helped). We had dinner at the (only) local restaurant and decided we were going to buy the tickets for the park around 7h a.m.,in order to have some quality time there before going back to Zagreb to take the train back to Budapest...

oh well, tomorrow I will show you Plitvice, because right now I have some homework for Processing to do.
See you tomorrow!

Zagreb!

Pictograms at the Zagreb train station
(now this is the kind of pictogram our teachers in Portugal will never ask us to think about...lol, I really liked the contrast of the gun and the ice-cream next to it...)

Me and João went to Croatia for a few days, and we were sorry we didn't have more time to visit the whole country... it seems nice!



We were thinking of renting a car, but we forgot a tiny little detail: none of us has a credit card. We were glad to find out that it only costs around 28€ to go to Zagreb and come back... and not so glad when we realized it was really slow (about 6 hours, by car would take us half of the time!) At least I had time to do my hungarian homework (and get nauseous after a couple of sentences)... and I crossed a border for the first time! I mean, one that has controllers from both countries, and people asking if we have something to declare (we were asked if we had, for instance alcohol, or souvenirs. lol, souvenirs?? Is that really a problem??)



In Zagreb we met some friends from Morena (a croatian girl that is doing ERASMUS in FEUP), that showed us a nice bar and allowed us to stay in their house for 2 nights (thanks Tin!!).
So we only did some sightseeing during friday, but it was more than enough to see the small but pretty Zagreb. Of course, we would have enjoyed a few more days to explore the city (unfortunately we didn't have time to see the graveyard, apparently it's worth a visit, according to our guide book)... at first sight, the city reminded me a little bit of Budapest... but in a smaller scale, with narrow streets and small buildings.



Tin said something like "yeah, we had a few bombs a few years ago, but nothing special, only a few people died"...it's such a different reality from peaceful Portugal! Anyhow, the city seems well preserved and clean, it was nice to just walk around the downtown area.


Saint Marcus' church... that roof looks like pixel-art!


Neo-Gothic Cathedral, seen from the back


...and this one I don't remember. It was nothing special, but i liked the picture!

To end the day, a meal with Tin in a terrific restaurant that had really well cooked stuffed meat, apparently a specialty from the Balcans.



and on Saturday... "Plitvice here we go!" (more on that tomorrow ;))

Time flies by...

For Illustration Friday, on the topic "Flying" (I actually managed to put it up before the website changed the theme!)
(it took me about 2 hours and a half to complete this one... it would have taken less, if I hadn't been silly enough to quit photoshop without saving at all... I was in the middle of the process. But I suppose it wasn't that bad... the new one got a new pose and a slightly different way of painting, and it turned out better. oh well!)

Design Week: the first exhibitions

The Design Week is an event that last for about 10 days.. you basically have more than one exhibition opening each day, and several studios open their doors for people to visit and ask some questions. I was lucky because I didn't have a lot of classes this week...so I really was able to enjoy a lot :) (have I mentioned that my schedule changes every week? it's so time-consuming to make the schedule in InDesign for the whole semester... bah...)



This was the first one I attended.. an exhibition of MOME students from the glass and ceramics department. The university really does a nice work at promoting it's students... and I was amazed at the presentation of the exhibition as well: each student had a huge (really well taken) picture of them with their object, and in front of it there was the object. Very well lit and very stylish (I think I actually admired more the work of the person that designed the exhibition than the works of the students... oops!)



... and here you have one of my favourites: a musical instrument done in ceramics (it had a really nice sound)... unfortunately I forgot to write down the name of the student. Sorry!



In this gorgeous building (the Museum of Applied Arts, also known as the other building of MOME... textile and ceramic students actually attend classes here, I believe!) we were at the Hungarian Design Awards. We were invited by David, one of Anja's flatmate, that actually had his BMW car (concept design of a cool bmw with a seat in the exterior) featured there.



So many people! And all of them actually ate there! (like me) I must say it was a wonderful surprise, to find out we were entitled not only to food, but CATERING food! It had appetizers, several different dishes, deserts, drinks... after that initial surprise a few days ago regarding my expenses here, it's nice to have such a dinner for free ;)



Gravestone, by Maurer-Klimes Ákos, Kucsera Péter, Ivánka Ándrás Rudolf and Ivánka Katalin, and manufactured by Ivanka Beton... such an original idea. the cross is a hole, in this case filled with water from the rain, and those yellow things are leaves... to show that the cross will serve as a bowl to the nature elements... I don't think I had ever seen "grave design".



Corporate Identity Design of a delivery service of tacos. I just found that little frida kahlo so cute! XD
(next time I will post some pictures of the studio of animation I went to..)

Germs!

A topic from Illustration Friday, a website that delivers a new topic every friday... I've always wanted to make it a habit because it's good for practicing, but I never had the time. Well, I kind of had a little bit this week, so I drew this today. I'll try to make these speed (it took about one hour to do) illustrations a habit, just to keep me exploring and trying to be faster... I hope I can deliver one each week! (you'll be here as witnesses and to complain when I don't ;))

ps: I used handmade stamps for the germs, and Photoshop for the dog.

Maria changed sex!

"Maria" biscuits here are called "Albert" XD

(lol, sorry for this random silly thing! I went to buy these biscuits to make a "bolo de bolacha", as it is traditional from Portugal and tomorrow I have a party at some french girls' house where each one has to take something to eat and drink that is traditional from their home-country...)

wow. I need to eat less.

Not that I feel fat. It's just that I spent about 97,627 HUF in september... which means about 365.50€!!!
Ok, there is a swimming suit included in that value (I had to buy a sports swimming suit and the glasses to do some exercise in a pool in Buda)... but still, most of it is just food from the supermarket, or at MOME's cafeteria (I usually spend between 2€ and 4€ there...).
of course, there are some products included like shampoo and cleaning products for the house, and materials for university (including acrylics that will last me for the rest of the school year I hope!) but still... I need to controll myself.