Global Warming

This post has nothing to do with global warming other than it’s finally summertime over here… and MAN is it HOT! Anywho, as my time here in Europe is coming close to an end I had to decide what places left on my never-ending list are worth visiting with my limited time and money. One of the places that I SWORE to myself that I would see while I was in Europe was Budapest, Hungary. Last summer my brother and I attempted to learn Hungarian, and by attempted I mean toyed with the idea, but nevertheless I’ve had a longing to go to Hungary ever since. PLUS I’ve heard a million and two great things about Budapest. After some mad convincing skills I finally had four people on board: me, Kay (who also came to visit me in POLAND, but that’s another story), and Jack and Alex from my program.

We left on a night train (with no sleeper cars) on Thursday night. On one of the first stops a lady joined our cabin and was surprised to find we knew some Polish. We ended up having an hour long conversation with her (Jack did the talking, but Alex and I pretty much understood everything) about who we were, what we did, Poland, communism, the United States, and travel. Alex and I both started Polish this semester and we were floored at how well we understood the conversation. The vocab we lacked was made up for with context and we were able to answer all questions directed at us. We pretty much rock. After that we spread out for the night and locked our cabin. At the border of Slovakia many people got off so Kay and Alex commandeered another cabin so we could all spread out and sleep. I wasn’t sleeping well for fear of safety and in the middle of the night I heard someone jiggling the handle to the room where Jack and I lay sleeping with all our luggage. I decided to pretend to be asleep and hope the person went away. I opened my eyes after the jiggling stopped and was horrified to find some guy had broken into our room and was reaching for my purse! I immediately sat up and grabbed my purse clutching it hard to my chest. The guy froze until his friend in the hall beckoned him and they ran off. I checked to make sure everything was in order. It was. Needless to say, I appointed myself our “guard” and stayed up all night.

We arrived safe and sound to GORGEOUS weather in Budapest. After checking into our hostel on the Pest side we walked three blocks to the famous “Margaret Island,” a huge island in the middle of the Danube. It was such a beautiful day we just strolled lazily through the park area stopping to watch a water fountain show, eat some lunch, and get ice cream cones (Hungarians are serious about their ice cream). Afterwards we walked along the Danube on the Pest side and visited the architecturally impressive Parliament building and then cut inland to see the Opera House and St. Stephen’s Basilica, both being very picture worthy. Just like many Central and Eastern European countries, Hungary is a country of contradiction. At first glance it appears to be a rich city with gorgeous structures and populated restaurant areas. However, after that first day I started to take notice of how everything was covered in graffiti and the number of homeless people was staggering. Thankfully, unlike Russia, they don’t poison their homeless people. (And yes, I’m still bitter about Russia… ESPECIALLY after what they did to Estonia recently… stupid stupid Putin. I hope no Russian agents read this blog or maybe I’ll be poisoned next! If I die anytime soon, don’t rule out Russian assassination. Thanks.)

Moving on! After a drink at a cute café next to some hot air balloon stint, we hopped the metro back to our hostel. Now, I was in charge of booking the hostel and I was going for cheap with character… and that’s exactly what I got. Jack grumbled about it being “sketchy” and “dirty” but I thought it was wonderful. Our rooms were in an apartment in a beautiful but a tad run-down building. While everyone took a nap I went down to the main apartment and found 6 people hanging out in the kitchen enjoying some wine and cherries. It was so much fun to meet such a mix of people of different ages, nationalities, and reasons for traveling. We shared travel stories and talked about current events. At the end, one guy asked if he could join my friends and I for dinner since he was on vacation traveling alone. His name was Chris and he was a crazy 40 year-old Australian who had been with a tour group and had broken away from it to stay a bit longer in Budapest.

The four of us and Chris found a nice outdoor place near the Danube for an authentic Hungarian meal. (YUM!) Then we all trooped out to the “Octogon” district where there are a lot of nightclubs and bars. The first bar we went to was called “Cactus Juice.” The dance floor was overcrowded so we sat at a table and enjoyed some drinks while having too much fun with cameras. Then we headed out and found another club called “Soho London.” I LOVED IT! I love comparing the popular club music in each country I go to. In Poland they normally play house music, techno, or some form of hip-hop. In Russia they played either old school American hip-hop or Russian rap. But apparently the big thing in Hungary is “funk”! Yup, they played a mix of crazy-fun hits from the 70s, 80s, and some early 90s. There’s nothing like getting down to “Stayin’ Alive”. Kay and I headed back around 3am since she had to catch a taxi at 4:30 am to go home to the States. It was sad to see her go, but she was ready to get back, AND I’ll see her in two months! Miss you Kay!

None of us slept much that night seeing as the boys got back at 6am and we all woke up around 8am. However we had a lazy morning and then took off to see Buda Castle! We walked to save money… but man was it a walk. First we had to walk all the way to the Buda side of the city and then we had to walk up a steep hill, but it was 100% worth it. The Castle was amazing, what a view! The history museum was fascinating albeit a tad unorganized. And the Fisherman’s Bastion was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Basically, just check out my pics.

That night we went to an Opera at the famous Opera House we’d visited the day before. It was some sort of Russian opera however we were too cheap to buy a program and we had absolutely no clue what was going on. That, and the subtitles were in Hungarian, go figure. Afterwards we enjoyed amazing Hungarian goulash at another great outdoor restaurant and then headed back for a short rest at the hostel. Once at the hostel though I had no desire to get up seeing as I hadn’t slept on Friday or Saturday night but somehow Jack convinced me to get up and we went out to a bar. We decided to have a “chill” evening and instead of dancing and meeting fun people we enjoyed some whiskey (gotta love jack) and discussed politics. We got back to the hostel around 4am; I was out before my head hit the pillow.

We woke up on Sunday, checked-out and dropped our bags off at the luggage-check in the train station. Our train wasn’t until 6:30pm so we had another full day to enjoy. We went to the Varosliget area in search of one of Budapest’s famous “Thermal Baths.” To get there we walked through the Varosliget Park, or City Park. After walking through it for 5 minutes we dubbed it “Bum Park” as you couldn’t look in any direction without seeing at least 5 homeless people. Sad. However we did stumble upon some fair going on in the park. We figured it was some type of wellness fair as the booths advertised “yoga” and “massage”. The best part is the fair had a food area with picnic tables that was serving fresh, hot stew and sausages. After a truly authentic lunch we went to Vajdahunyad Castle. I love everything medieval. Whenever I see medieval architecture I think of fairy tales and princesses and Disneyland and I feel like a little kid again. This is why I loved Tallinn in Estonia, but Hungary also had a lot of medieval influences including this castle. Although we didn’t go inside I was completely enamored by its beauty and couldn’t help but daydream about fairies and jousting tournaments… I’m such a nerd. Moving on, we visited the famous Heroes’ Square. Pretty standard monument. Nothing uber special.

For our great finale we headed to one of the famous thermal baths: the Szechenyi Baths. The bath was a HUGE indoor/outdoor structure packed with people enjoying themselves in different pools. Some pools were for exercising, some for lounging, others for splashing: a lil something for everyone! Unfortunately, because of my eyes I’m not allowed to swim right now and after checking out the layout I decided that I wasn’t going to risk getting into the water at all. After leaving the boys to fend for themselves (god knows they need me) I went inside and found the spa. Justifying it with the fact that I didn’t buy any Hungarian souvenirs I signed up for an hour-long Thai massage. It was glorious. Instead of being slathered with oils like a European massage, it was all about applying pressure and stretching as well as massaging your muscles. It felt great and was so relaxing but the best part was I felt rejuvenated afterwards instead of feeling tired. Next I found a nice spot by one of the pools outside and enjoyed a beer while reading an absolutely fantastic book (The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera – check it out, seriously). Awww, this is the life…

After the baths we decided to walk all the way to the train station. We got food on the go but were alarmed to find our train not up on the board at the station. After some confusion we discovered it was delayed a bit so we set up camp and played gin rummy until it finally rolled in at 8pm. This time our train had sleeper cars that were also divided from the rest of the train so no one could come into our section. The only other people in our car, as it turns out, were two American girls on their way back to Krakow as well. I had been saving a bottle of Hungarian red wine and it seemed the perfect ending to a fantastic weekend. After finishing our homework, the three of us including our newfound friend Keri polished off the bottle and then passed out in our bunks exhausted. We woke up in Krakow and headed off to class. THE END!

I really loved Budapest. The city is culturally rich and full of things to do and see. It felt so… alive. Normally I tend to prefer centralized cities that have a main center with everything else radiating out from that (example: Krakow) however Budapest is not centralized at all and I loved it. It was actually two different cities (Buda and Pest) and thus each side of the Danube has its own uniqueness and flavor. Although I was only there for a weekend, Budapest proved itself to be an inviting, exciting, and unique city that earned a spot in my top ten favorites. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back someday for a longer period of time. Who knows! Maybe I’ll go back and pick up Hungarian with my brother!