Hello!
So, I finally have something interesting to write about: my weekend in Budapest!!
It was absolutely fabulous. Such a gorgeous city; the architecture throughout was just amazing. It really reminded me of an upper-class residential area of Paris or London--very orderly, well-maintained historical buildings (most of them probably hundreds of years old--from back when Budapest was a cultural and political capital of Europe). I have to say, my expectations were pretty low. My mental image of an Eastern-European, former Soviet state city was of slum-like, utilitarian buildings with little charm or warmth. It was really the exact opposite; I stand corrected.
We started our trip by setting out on foot to see some of the major sights. St. Stephen's Basilica was truly amazing--very grand and imposing, with some great detail in the stone work. One of the best basilicas I've seen :) It's in this big open square that I imagine bustles with tourists in the warmer months. As it's still winter (which I'm not a fan of, by the way), we had nearly all of the places we visited to ourselves.
St. Stephen's Basilica:
The Basilica at night:
Next we walked toward the Chain Bridge, which spans the Danube River and connects Buda and Pest. We stayed on the Pest side, which I think is a bit more cultured and trendy, while the Buda side is more residential. The bridge is pretty fabulous, and it leads to right underneath Buda Castle. It makes quite a picture.
After crossing the bridge, we stopped into a lovely little bar to warm up a bit. I couldn't believe the prices for things!! A glass of wine was 2 Euros! I was so excited! Granted, I live in one of the most expensive cities in the world (point of reference: I paid 16CHF--about $20--for a gin and tonic in Geneva a couple weekends ago), so my perspective is skewed in the opposite direction, but it was just so nice to be traveling somewhere that wasn't going to bankrupt me in a day. Anyway, after warming up, it was getting dark so we headed up to Fisherman's Bastion, which offers some of the best views in the city. Amazing. Amazing Amazing AMAZING. From this higher vantage point on the Buda side, you can see across the Danube to all of the sites in Pest, which are beautifully lit up at night. The Chain Bridge is entirely illuminated, as is Parliament and St. Stephen's Basilica. We stood up there for probably an hour just staring at it and taking picture after picture because we couldn't believe how gorgeous is was. That was truly one of my favorite things that I have seen in Europe, and I will never forget it (especially since, between the 3 of us, I think I have about 60 pictures of it).
The Chain Bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica from Fisherman's Bastion:
Isa, Lauren, and the Chain Bridge:
So we got a little cheesy. This one looks like I took senior-year pictures in front of a Budapest screen :) :
When we finally dragged ourselves from that view, we found a great restaurant nearby. I had a fantastic soup and salad, and then had the best chocolate ganache that has every been created. It was so perfectly warm and moist and chocolatey. Mmmmmmmm, I go into a dessert coma just thinking about it. For anyone in Austin--it was even better that Roy's chocolate souffle. Yeah, that's right--better than that. I could go on and on, but I won't. After that we made our way back across the bridge (taking more pictures along the way, obviously), and back to our hostel to sleep.
The next day, being typical 20-something girls, we went shopping. We had to see what shopping is like in Hungary, right?? It's a very important part of any culture. There was a big, proper mall near our hostel, which I was pretty excited about since there's noting like an American mall in Switzerland or France, or really most of Europe. After exhausting that, we swung by the Hungarian Parliament--a big, imposing, several hundred year-old building that really showcases the grandeur that "governments" of the past insisted upon as a reminder to everyone of their power and wealth.
Parliament:
After Parliament, we trekked back to the Buda side, had some lunch at a pizza place after walking forever to find somewhere to eat, then walked some more in search of the Hungarian Wine Society, who's website says they have free wine tastings on Saturdays. We were pretty excited about free wine (refer again to how ridiculously expensive drinks are in Geneva). Well, the website is a liar. They don't do the wine tastings anymore. We were disappointed, but continued our day nonetheless. At this point we popped over to Castle Hill, which is littered with various monuments and (surprise!) Buda Castle. The day was a bit overcast, but it was all beautiful anyway. At one monument, there was a man hanging around with an eagle, apparently available for picture-taking. We all know that vanity is the downfall of every eagle...what narcissists. Actually, is was pretty intimidating to be so close to one--they are huge, and very powerful-looking...and they look a little bit mean. Anyway, pictures are worth a thousand words, so I won't explain the sights of Castle Hill:
Buda Castle:
Gate to Buda Castle:
Church on Castle Hill:
All that rounded out our second day. We went back to the hostel, exhausted and elated. The partying Germans in the room next to ours were a bit of a nuisance that night--though they were nice enough to invite us along in their drinking holiday--but we managed to find sleep eventually. The next morning, we didn't have much of a plan other than hitting the famous, and apparently ancient, medicinal thermal baths. We walked to City Park, through Heroes Square (amazing, imposing, as everything else), with a stop at Vajdahunyad Castle. I was so so so excited when I saw that there was an ice-skating rink set up next to the castle! I haven't ice skated in years, and only once or twice in my life, so this was not an opportunity I wanted to miss. Lauren and Isa went to the zoo, which I was fine with skipping--a giraffe is a giraffe, whether in the US or Hungary or Hong Kong. I went and rented skates for an hour, and it was warm enough to take off my jacket. I got to ice-skate outside of a Hungarian Castle! How awesome is that? I really enjoyed it; it was such pure, unadulterated fun.
Heroes' Square
Ice rink in front of Vajdahunyad Castle:
After meeting up with Isa and Lauren again, we had some lunch--I had a Langos, a local dish that is slightly sweet dough, about 9 inches in diameter, with sour cream, cheese and ham on top. Clearly, Hungarians aren't really health nuts. Side note--it was nice to be in a country where, unlike France and Switzerland, everyone wasn't stick-thin and intimidatingly waif-ish. Anyway, I was a little ill after scarfing the Langos, but I soldiered on to the baths for my first encounter with a bathing suit since summer-time. Thank goodness I'm not trying to pick up Hungarian men, so I didn't really have to care how I looked, especially after the Logos deliciousness. The baths--one of many throughout the city--were very grand and ornately decorated. Apparently in the summer, the outdoor ones are open and old men sit in the baths and play chess on stone boards in the water. As it is still winter, just the 9 indoor baths were open. Each is labeled with it's temperature, and whether or not it's medicinal. The 20 degree (celcius) one was freezing, the 38 degree was quite hot, so it was nice to visit for short periods, and the 34 degree one was just right. It was so nice to sit in the warm water, without a care, after non-stop walking for 2 days. My knees and ankles were very grateful for the R&R, and I personally never tire of looking at, or become less amazed by, the huge variety (including the just plain huge) of men in speedos in any European water-setting. We sat in various baths, and took some time in the steam room, for about 4 hours. It was glorious.
The Baths:
Finally, our time at an end, we headed back to the hostel to get our bags and catch the train to the airport. That's when the adventurous extra night in Budapest began:
For the first time ever I missed a flight. It started when we took the train from downtown Pest to the airport; the train was more like what I had imagined before going to Budapest--old and rickety, a holdover from the Soviet era probably. Anyway, they didn't do nice things like announce stops or even have a map posted so that we knew how many stops until the airport. So, we were watching closely out the window to see the signs at each stop so we could get ours. Well, the train slows down and we see that it's our stop, so we grab our bags and head to the door. In the 15 seconds it took us to do that, the train stopped and then started again. Literally, it could not have stopped for more than 10 or 15 seconds--it was ridiculous!!! How can anyone get off in that amount of time?? If I knew what was going to happen from then, I would have jumped off of the moving train (yes, the doors remained open as the train started--safe, right?) So Isa and Lauren start freaking out, but I'm trying to stay calm and explain that we'll just get off at the next stop and backtrack. We left plenty of time, we still had nearly 2 hours until departure. Then the guy comes by to check tickets, we ask when the next stop is, and he says it's 30 MINUTES on. Then I freaked out. We only had an hour and a half until our train left at this point! We were still hopeful that we could make it, though, if we rushed through check in and security. So we finally get to the next stop, go ask information when and where the next train that stops at the airport is, and the uninterested attendant writes down the time and platform. So, we get on that train. Again, ticket guy comes by, we ask how long to the airport, and he says "this train doesn't stop at the airport, you'll have to change trains at the next station and go back". I wanted to cry. Seriously??? We were having some really bad luck. At this point I became very calm, because now we definitely weren't going to make it. So, after another 30 minute useless ride, we change trains again, and then finally get to the airport. Of course all of the ticket counters are closed by then, but the woman at information is able to tell us that Easyjet's next flight to Geneva isn't until Tuesday afternoon. Great, except that we all need to work the next day, not hang out in Budapest some more. But, lucky us, there was a flight out in the morning on some Hungarian airline. To book that flight, we needed to go to the other airport terminal, which was...wait for it...6 KM AWAY. Who builds airport terminals 6km apart?? I started laughing hysterically at this continued ridiculousness, and the woman helping us probably thought I was crazy. So we took a cab to the other terminal, spoke to a representative of Malva Airlines, and finally booked a ticket home for 7am the next morning--for about $350, which is about 5 times the amount the original ticket, round-trip, cost me when I booked on Easyjet 4 months ago. Awesome; because I'm definitely made of money right now. So, determined to make the best of it, we sat down at the 24-hour airport cafe, bought a couple of beers and slices of cake (calories? who cares when you're spending the night in a Hungarian airport?) and we got a little drunk and fat before going to sleep on some benches. I finally got home at 10:30am the next day; and, thankfully, Alice was nice enough to let me sleep until Leo was up from his nap at 3.
I'm still exhausted, but at least I had an adventure, right?
