Traveling to Budapest, Hungary is quite simple. Just take an 8 hour bus traveling through Moravia and Slovakia and you will end up in the capital of Hungary.
Two weeks ago, Celia and I took the lengthy bus ride to reach our desired location. On Friday morning we had to be at the Praha bus station at 6am, which meant we had to be up and ready to go by 5am... it was an early morning, but definitely worth it. The bus ride wasn't too painful, there was an unpleasant smell of B.O. that lingered in the air, but luckily I had some scented lotion, which I applied and re-applied multiple times throughout the 8 hour journey.
(Budapest)In Hungary they speak Hungarian. I think it is even more confusing than the Czech language. Just like in the Czech Republic, there are no signs in English, but unlike the Czech Republic the Hungarian people knew more English and were more willing to help us. Thank goodness.
After Celia purchased our Metro passes, we took the ancient metro to downtown Pest. The Hungarian Metro was the first metro ever built in Europe, it is a little scary because the doors SLAM shut. If you were in between the doors when they shut, you would be badly damaged! After we rode the metro once, we decided that we would walk the rest of the weekend. And surprisingly we were able to keep to our promise, only until we had to take the metro back to the bus station. :)
Once we were downtown Pest, we made our way to our Hostel, checked in, and then headed out to explore. We walked along the Danube river on the Pest side, making our way to the largest indoor market I have ever seen. We then grabbed dinner at this amazing restaurant that Andrew, the Hostel owner, recommended. I decided to try something new and got fried duck with cabbage noddles... it was SO good and now I love duck!
(Market)After dinner, Celia and I decided we wanted to see the best night view of Budapest. This meant that we had to hike up a hill in the dark. There was a path already paved out, so it was not bad at all... nothing like hiking in Scotland, where I was wearing Keds and Sarah was determined to kill me. The view was worth every step and is seriously the best view of Budapest that you can get. Truly Gorgeous!
(The Best View)
(Chain Bridge)We went on the Fisherman's Bastion to see amazing views of the Pest side. We also explored the Palace and the area of Old Town before walking back to the Pest side. We decided to go to the House of Terror. It was a museum about the communist era and how life was back then. It was more focused on Stalin's reign, but there were somethings about Hitler in it. It was unreal and very depressing. We were able to see Stalin's car, which was really weird. There was an entire room dedicated to propaganda. Unfortunately the propaganda posters and ads weren't in English so we couldn't understand them, but it was still really interesting to see.
(Fisherman's Bastion)We ended the day with the Baths that were heated with natural springs. It was such a perfect way to end the day because we were on our feet and walking for over 8 hours and the baths relaxed every muscle in my body. The baths were SO cool because they were where the royalty would come to relax back in the day and now it is common for normal people to go and spend the afternoon in the baths. It was such a cool experience. On our walk back to our hostel we grabbed some Turkish food, which was pretty good. It was an early night for us because we had to be back at the bus station at 9am.
My weekend in Budapest was very relaxing and it was great to get away for a few days. The city of Budapest reminded me a lot of Prague, which was comforting because I consider Prague my home away from home. In less than 2 months I will be returning back to the states, whether I am ready to leave or not and life will either go back to "normal" or it will be forever changed. Only time will tell.
Until next time...
☮
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