Budapest

I really love Budapest, end of story.

But really, Budapest is such a cool city! I honestly wasn't expecting too much from it. When Vienna had been a bit of a disappointment, I think that because my expectations for Budapest had been lower initially I just went into it thinking that it still wouldn't live up to Vienna. I was so wrong though! I'm not even quite sure what it is about Budapest-- everyone was really friendly to us, we saw a lot of majestical places, our hotel was right downtown-- I don't know, but I had such a great time and really hope to return some day.

We got to Budapest around dinner time on Monday, checked into the hotel, and then made our way to this great restaurant! I didn't ever have one bad meal my whole time in Europe, but the food there was phenomenal! Hands down one of my favorites of the trip. After dinner we went on a night walking tour of the city in the "Buda" side of town. Budapest is separated by the DANUBE River, and on each side of the river is "Buda" and "Pest". We stayed on the Pest side of town, right by one of the major bridges ove the river and right downtown. We really couldn't have been in a better stop. Bt anyways, the tour was so great! We saw all kinds of churches, castles, and government buildings lit up all along the river. It was really exciting for everyone. It was honesly our first full impression of the city and definitely set the foundation for how much everyone loved the city.

The next morning, we were up early for a trip to the spa! In Budapest, there are some old natural hot springs that USAC organized to bring us to. Initially, it was really just like a glorified swimming pool. There are three large pools in the main outside section; a lap pool, one that was very warm, and another that was still pretty warm but had this ring that you could float along in and be pushed by jets inside the water-- lots of fun! Beyond the three major pools though, the spa had tons of saunas, mineral pools, a mud bath, and all kinds of massages. We kept between two of the main pools, the mineral pools, and the saunas. It was really just so nice to relax for a little bit. We had done so much traveling around and running from place to place that I think something like this was much needed. We did only have that full day in Budapest, and ideally it could have been spent exploring more places, but I'm happy to have seen what I did and will just have to hope for a next time!

We left the spa a little after noon to wash off from the spas and to get some lunch before an afternoon tour. Our group of friends-- about ten of us-- walke around for about half an hour trying to find somewhere that wasn't trying to rip us off and that was actually worth the cost. Budapest is like Prague in that it's very cheap, generally, but because we stayed in a central, touristy area, it was hard to find the good places. We walked down a side street where there were some restaurants and eventually just stopped to evaluate the situation in front of this place that looked really nice, but way out of our league for the rice range we were looking for. The restaurant literally has no one in it, and this girl came out of it towards our group. She brought out a menu and told us about their special lunch buffet they currently had. It was just a really weird situation. We told her we'd think about it, but at that point I don't think we were going to stay. Then, the manager comes out and tells us about the buffet again-- all you can eat, soup, main dish, and dessert for the equivilent of $7.50. He also told us he'd give us free water and coffee if we'd like. The buffet was advertised on a board outside this really nice looking restaurant, so even though we felt really weird and like we were about to get scammed somehow, we decided to give it a try. We sat down on the patio and everyone in the place was all over us, making sure everything was exactly perfect. It was really just so weird. Maybe we had just become so accustomed to Czech waiters, most of whom don't seem to really care, but these people all went way out of their way for us. We all were so paranoid throughout the entire meal, thinking of all the different ways they might try to scam us. The food was so, so good though! Even when we ran out, because we were such a large group, they made a full new platter of everything. The entire meal, we kept on saying stuff like, "If this isn't a scam and we pay what we think we'll be paying, this is such a great deal-- doubtful though, there's no way all this is only $7.50." After we asked for the check we braced ourselves for a disagreement over some ridiculous extra charges (like the €2 charge for extra cutlery we had encountered the day before). No need though, we weren't scammed at all! I'm not sure how well I've described the situation, maybe you had to be there, but everyone just felt like something was off the whole entire meal and that something just wasn't right about that place. At the end, the manager even gave us some taxi discount cards and a 10% off discount card for our next visit, but despite our suspicions, they we're really just trying make our experience great at their restaurant-- and it definitely was, minus all of our untrusting beliefs.

In the afternoon we did do a bit of exploring. We walked along some of the major streets on the Pest side of the city, saw this enormous marketplace, and visited the cave church on the Buda side, as well as hiked a bit to the top of a hill overlooking the city.

The marketplace was so cool! There were tons of booths filled with fruits, vegetables, pastries, meats, and the upstairs had all kinds of souvenirs. We weren't in Budapest long enough to need to buy food, but it just seemed like such a neat place to shop for fresh food.

The hike up to the top of the hill was extremely steep, but the view was well worth it!

Last night in Budapest was a lot of fun but so depressing at the same time. For Krisia and I, it was our last night with all of our friends. Everyone else is currently on their way back to Prague without us . . . We went out to dinner, walked around until we found some pastries, and then just sat by the river reminiscing. There were multiple times that Katherine and I talked ourselves into tears with each other, I'll admit. It was definitely more happy than sad though. Today, having had to leave everyone, was the sad part. Being with the people I've grown to love last night though, was great despite the tears. Katherine, Karen, and I all roomed together in Budapest. Even after everyone returned to the hotel for bed, we stayed up chatting in our room for hours. I really didn't even care if I'd be tired today, I wanted to enjoy as much as possible of the little time we had left together. And luckily, I'm really not too tired today . . . yet!

I am such a broken record, saying this over and over, but I am so fortunate to have made such great friends and am really going to miss them . . .

 

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