A Weekend in Budapest!

Note: I started writing this a week ago but was rudely interrupted by mass amounts of school work and a horrible cold!

I have now been in Europe for 8 weeks! In these 8 weeks i have seen more countries than I have seen in my entire life! So far a total of three. Yes it is not very much but seeing that before this trip I had only ever been out of the country to go to Canada, three is quite the number!

This past weekend I had my first independent traveling experience to Budapest. Independent meaning it was organized by myself and the friends I did not go with my DIS program. Budapest was quite the impulsive city of choice. None of us really knew much about the Country of Hungary or really anything about Budapest but as we researched it just seemed to become more and more intriguing, not to mention that the round trip plane tickets were $180 a piece, it just seemed like the place to go for a weekend! and it was a well made choice. Budapest has a rich culture, amazing architecture, interesting history, and a pretty decent nightlife!
The Hostel!
Our first impression of Budapest was not so great though. Our flight arrived at 10:30pm and our Taxi driver was waiting for us as we exited the terminal. We first told him we needed to find an ATM... and this was an experience in itself. So a little background; the Hungarian currency is the Hungarian Forint and it is 245 ft: $1, this makes conversions quite the task! My friend and I both took out 100,000 ft thinking that our math on the plane was correct. This however, as we realized and got into the cab was WAY too much money. We had accidentally withdrawn $408 dollars... oops. We really only wanted to take out an equivalnt to $100. After the initial shock of what we did we sat in the 30 min taxi doing conversions on my cell phone's calculator. Soon, our 30 min taxi ride, (which actually only took us 15 min because the taxi driver was driving 100 mph!!!!) was over and we arrived in a deserted area where our hostel greeted us with a cold iron gate and a few flights of stairs. We were all a little worried especially when we were introduced to our 40 year old roommate....now I was with another girl and a guy, but really none of us were comfortable with this man sleeping next to us in the same room so we talked to them and got switched to a really nice apartment style room a few blocks away! Heroes Square

After we got settled in we went across the street for a few beers before calling it a night. We were in awe that after paying upwards 5-7 dollars per beer in Copenhagen, we were able t to buy a beer for just about 1 dollar!!
outside of the Cathedral

Friday started out a little wet but was filled with walking, site seeing, and more walking! We started off our day walking into the city center where we saw St Stephan's Basilica. It was amazing inside and out! We then made our way to the Opera house where you had to pay to go inside but we checked out the little shop and saw a few pictures of the inside and that was enough for us. Then we went to the House of Terror which is a museum about the Holocaust that went on in Hungary during WWII. After quite the depressing information we walked out of the museum to an unexpected sunny sky! We kept on walking down until we got to Hero's square we then set off to take the long walk home with sore feet and tired bodies.
Inside the Cathedral At the "House of Terror"

For dinner we went to an extremely nice restaurant where we all got fancy soups and dishes, a bottle of wine, and spent under $80 for the three of us! The three of us full as could be then went for a short walk along the Danube river then headed home to meet the other DIS friends who were arriving around 11!

With a few short hours of sleep under our belts we set off again mid morning for some more exploring! We walked across town, past the parliament buliding then crossed the Danube river on the Chain bridge and we were in the Buda part of town. We climbed staircase upon staircase to reach the top of Buda where the Citadella sits above both cities. There were amazing views and a good time to rest our feet. We then trekked down and headed towards one of the famous Budapest Thermal baths! They are just like huge hottubs, with all types of people hanging out relaxing and having a good time. Budapest is built right above many hot springs which is why there are so many thermal baths in the city.

Thermal Baths

After a relaxing bath experience we went and ate traditional Hungarian kabobs for a light lunch/dinner and took a nap to get ready for another fun night.....this night though was interested because our flight was at 7am which we found ourselves walking like zombies out of the hostel at an EARLY 5am with one hour of sleep under our belts we waved goodbye to our favorite kabob guy and got to the airport just as quickly as we had arrived.

It was indeed an amazing trip and I would go back in a heartbeat and spend some more time there without question!

There are so many more pictures, too many to choose from to put up here but please check them out..... although the pictures do not even do this city justice its something to see!

Album 1
Album 2