I have been in Europe for almost two weeks now and have been getting acclimated to my new home! For our first free weekend a group and I decided (very last minute) to check out Budapest. Honestly, I was not expecting much from this city and took the trip not knowing what to expect. The bus ride to Budapest was a lengthy 7 hours with a 1 hour layover in Brno. The bus was highly uncomfortable, but we finally pulled into Budapest at 1 o'clock in the morning. In an unfamiliar city, my group and I had no idea how to get a taxi, buy bus/metro tickets, and also had no idea where we were going. Although, luckily Sara had researched the bus system previously (always more prepared than I) and we bought tickets and boarded the bus. It took a minute to find our Airbnb, mostly because it was on the second floor and we were searching on the first. Hoping we weren't breaking and entering into someones home, we eventually were successful. By this time it was nearing three in the morning and we decided to get a fresh start tomorrow!
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Saturday was our first full day in Budapest and we had a few things on the agenda. We booked the morning for the Szechenyi Thermal Baths which are a very popular attraction for both tourists and locals. Basically, its like a giant hot tub located in the city square. At first I was slightly turned off by this thought, sharing a large hot tub with over a hundred strangers (yuck), but we went anyways. This experience was actually very fun and relaxing, also, speedos on old men are much more common here than in the states (also yuck). We stayed for about an hour just people watching and talking with each other. After the baths, we were located in Hero's Square so we walked around and looked at some of the statues and such in the park. We had to hurry back to the Airbnb to get ready for the river cruise we had booked at 5.
The river cruise was a big highlight for me in Budapest because we got to see all the historical buildings while drinking wine on a boat! Who wouldn't love that?! The city was absolutely breathtaking and we later would learn about these buildings on the walking tour on Sunday! For now, we just enjoyed looking at them not knowing their historical meanings lol.
After the cruise we grabbed some dinner and decided to meet up with our other friends from Palacky University that were also vacationing in Budapest that weekend. We found ourselves in one of the Ruin Bars which coincidentally was located on the block behind our Airbnb! This place was very hip and modern, but also drinks were way more expensive than back home in Olomouc! There were separate areas inside this bar that had their own themes and they were all intensely decorated according to their theme, which was super cool! We stayed here a couple hours but wandered down the street to a less crowded, local bar named The Yellow Zebra. We had tons of fun here and stayed until the late hours of the morning before we walked home.
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Sunday morning we had a walking tour scheduled for 10:30, we decided we wanted to learn some history about the city! Our tour guide was awesome and gave some very interesting facts, we learned that Budapest was once two separate cities: Buda and Pest. However, not too long ago they joined together, although they are only connected by the two bridges spanning the river. Other than that they are completely different. Buda is very residential with many houses, while Pest is very urban and has a city feel to it. We walked to the highest point in Buda which overlooked Pest and got some amazing views!
After the tour we decided to explore some more on our own! Some of the girls and I really want to collect rings from every country we visit, so we set off to find this jewelry store recommended to us at the Ruin Bar the night before! We were successful and found some beautiful rings for decent prices. With four happy girls in tow, we took the metro back to Pest to do some more shopping. For lunch, we decided to try a Hungarian traditional meal of Langoshes. Very simple but also very delicious. It is made of friend dough that is topped with garlic, sour cream, cheese and I got ham on mine for fun. For being so simple, this little thing was SO YUMMY. If visiting Hungary you have to try one. Our night bus home left at about 9 o'clock so we returned home and napped and caught our bus back to Olomouc. Good thing classes don't start until 3 every day because I did not sleep AT ALL on the overnight bus and therefore slept until class began. Overall, I was blown away by this city, and would definitely recommend it to anyone coming to Europe. I cannot wait for my many other adventures that are in store during my time here!
Thanks for reading!! Chao!!!