Budapest Part One

I knew traveling was exhausting but wow. Touring Budapest in two days is both a marathon and a sprint. Two days ago Scott, his roommate, and it arrived in the Budapest train station at 8:30 am. I've never traveled by train, especially on an overnight train, but I can't say I would be complete long willing or against doing it again. It was interesting to say the very least. The cabin was small, there were three bunked cots to one side, a small closet, a hidden sink, trash can, and pantry with a snack and bottle of water for the three of us. This was all in a seven foot by five foot space. Leaving the station Saturday night was exciting, but that feeling quickly subsided when I noticed how bumpy and loud this ride would be. Sleep wouldn't come easily. And it didn't. At about 11:00 we turned off the lights and shut the window curtain, but light still crept through the too-small curtain. I can't say how many times I woke up but I know it was a lot. Scott and Brian both slept fine. I woke up to the sunrise over the Hungarian countryside, it was pretty but I couldn't see a lot. 

When we arrived at the station in Budapest, Darcy, Sam, and Zach were all waiting for us with smiles and snapping pictures. I quickly found out how spread out the city is. It took us about 20 minutes to get to Sam, Darcy, and Zach's hostel. They checked out and we found our hostel for the next two nights. We stayed in a very cute and homey place. It sits at the top of a courtyard with another lofted floor inside. The creaky floors make it sound well lived in. Our room had two bunk beds and two flat bed, a table, and plenty of space. 

After checking in we ventured out into Budapest, seeing what we could find. We found the Opera house not too far from our hostel. It was elegant and gorgeous non outside and inside. We only saw the lobby because we didn't have much time and tour cost money. Our next stop was the basilica. It was big. I had to stand at least fifty yards back to fit the entire from into a picture. This basilica was as incredible as the others we've seen. I was actually incredibly disappointed because of how touristy it was. People would go into the cathedral during the service and snap pictures and talk. Admittedly I took a few quick photos of the inside but only because it would be my only chance to take pictures inside a cathedral. I felt so guilty doing it though. We then bought tickets to climb to the top and what a climb it was. Technically we climbed 302 steps, which isn't terrible but every staircase was a small, crumpled spiral staircase. Most of us got dizzy climbing it. Reaching the top was very rewarding, you could see the entirescity from every angle. We spent some time looking and taking pictures before we used the elevator to get down. Walking down the spiral stairs would have resulted in me falling without a doubt. 

From the cathedral we walk to the ground of a museum where a fish festival was being held. It was so crowded with booths of vendors, people, and performers. The first thing we did was stop for a traditional Hungarian sweet. It was dough rolled over a wooden cylinder and cooked over hot coals. It was then basted with a buttery honey mixture and covered in a topping. Scott and I chose coconut. This might have been one of my favorite things about Budapest. The dough was crunchy and sweet on the outside but warm and soft on the inside. And it was huge. We walked around the festival some more and eventually found seats in a pavilion. Darcy stopped to buy a kielbasa on a bun, which turned out to have a very fishy taste to it. Sam and I both got small beers to drink, I thought it was ok but I'm sure my dad would have liked it. It had a hoppy after taste to it. Sam picked up chips to eat, and they were delicious. Not all of the potato was fried so they were both soft and crunchy. I found grilled salmon and it was wonderful. We stayed at the festival for a while mostly because it took so long for us to get our food. 

We left the festival full and happy, ready to find the famous bath houses. We stopped at our hostel for suits and went on our way. The bath house we went to is the most recommended on and although it cost $20 each it was the best $20 I've ever spent in my life. The house had over 20 pools ranging in temperature and mineral content. You could do a tour of the pools and learn about the medical properties of each one but we decided just to enjoy them. The first pool we found was my favorite. It was comfortably hot and steamy and it was outside! There were three pools outside, a hot pool, a lap pool, and a slightly less hot pool. I can't recall how much time we spent in that one pool but it was amazing. The pool wasn't small either, there were at least fifty if not more in it. After a long time we decided that we might as well check out the other small pools inside. They all varied in size and water temperature, from very hot to ice cold. There was even a whirl pool where the currents were strong enough to push you quickly around in a loop. There we also multiple saunas in the house, some were even aromatic saunas. Unfortunately I couldn't find them in the immense building. We eventually ended up in the same pool we started in but by this time it was dark and raining. We stayed for another half hour or so before we regretfully got out and left. The bathhouse was by far my favorite part of Budapest. 

Swimming and relaxing left us hungry and ready for dinner. We found a nice buffet with traditional Hungarian food that wasn't too expensive. It was nice because we were able to try so much food and find our favorites, even though we didn't know what anything was called or what was in them. The food was interesting but not something I would crave after. I did enjoy the fried cauliflower, it might have been my favorite. We left dinner stuffed and tired. At least I was tired. So much walking and new things after a sleepless night left me entirely exhausted. Everyone else wanted to go explore the ruin pubs, something Budapest is famous for. They take old abandoned building and turn them in to crazy bars and dance clubs. I couldn't stay away past 9:30 and fell alseep with everyone still in the room, planning their trip to the pubs. Scott stayed because he didn't want me to be alone in the hostel and Zach was packing for his flight to Paris in the early hours the next day. Sleep was wonderful.

Yesterday I woke up and was surprised by how I wasn't sore. I surely thought that so much walking would leave me in pain but it wasn't that bad. But it was raining outside. That put a damper on the morning. Breakfast in the hostel was nice. I had cereal, tea, and toast. We planned to explore the Holocaust museum that morning but we forgot that museums are typically closed on Mondays in Europe. From there we walked to the market. It was interesting, similar to the market outside out apartment in Poland but much bigger. I had a delicious lunch of stuffed cabbage. We then walked back to the hostel to relax before making our way to the castle and Fishermans Bastian in the evening. The walk was long but worth it. The view of the city at night was gorgeous and the pictures we took at the castle turned out nicely. 

After lots of pictures and tom foolery we went to an incredible restaurant. For a set price you get an appetizer, main course, and a dessert and this is the only option they offered. There were a few options to choose from each category but the choices were limited. For an appetizer I had Ewe cheese, cottage cheese with seasonings and something, and liver pate with bread. The liver pate was my least favorite but I thought that it would be something interesting to try. My main course consisted of an incredible roasted duck breast with field greens and sliced tomato. The duck might be the best thing I have ever eaten. My dessert was a pavlova tart, which I still don't know how to describe but it was delicious. Stuffed and content, we went back to the hostel after dinner and waiting until it was an appropriate time to check out a ruin pub and have a drink. I was so exhausted that I was tempted to stay back and sleep but I'm glad I went. The ruin pub was odd but very cool. There isn't really an adequate way to describe what it was like. We tried to go to a karaoke bar after the pub but we got there only to find the bouncers kicking everyone out of the bar and shutting it down for the night. We decided to take that as a sign to go home and sleep. 

This morning was a busy morning with scrambled packing and preparing for our train ride to Vienna. We left the hostel with only one last stop planned: finding McDonalds. There are multiple McDonalds in Budapest but only one of then is named the second best McDonalds in the world. We figured that this was something worth seeing since we only had about half an hour to stop before heading to the train station. We were curious about whether the food was different, hopefully better, but I was still sickened by the food. I had half a hamburger and fries. My stomach didn't agree with that at all and i fully regret my decision to eat there. We arrived at the train station with plenty of time before departure and had a nice relaxed trip into Vienna. Finding the hostel took a little effort but thankfully we realized we were going in the wrong direction early on and found our way. The hostel is nice and very big. We didn't have time to do anything else this evening except for go out to dinner at an Austrian restaurant. It was delicious and filling. I had sausage with saur kraut and a very nice beer. 

Tomorrow morning I'll post all of the pictures that accompany this post. I hope things are well in the states. I'll try to post about Vienna before we leave for Kraków Thursday evening. 

Best wishes from a full and sleepy Claire