Welcome to this chapter of my life. Place: Budapest, Hungary.
I cannot even begin to explain how wonderful this trip was. I became closer with several people from the IES program, saw three awesome cities and made many memories for a lifetime to come. So, I will just start from the beginning.
It took one full day of travel, including an overnight in a claustrophobic train car with 6 beds (and me with 5 other extremely tired/giddy girls who laughed at everything I said. Of course it didn't help that I was just as tired), but it was worth it to wake up to the beautiful landscape of Budapest, Hungary. We rolled into the Hauptbahnhof at about 8 in the morning Sunday Sept 27th. We were greeted immediately by our tour guide named Imra (I have no idea how to spell it). After a quick breakfast in our hotel, we promptly went on a 4 hour bus/walking tour of Budapest. It's really a beautiful city that used to be two different cities at one point. There was Buda and the was Pest until one day they grew together to form common-day Budapest. The city is cut in half by the beautiful Danube (yes, the one from the famous waltz "Blue Danube", but more on that in the Bratislava chapter). I believe our hotel was on the Buda side. Unfortunately much of the original city was destroyed by WWII, as were many other European cities. Nonehteless, the "new" Budapest was spectacular.
Our city tour included sights such as the magnificent parliament building, which is pictured at the top of this page. It is the largest parliament building I have ever seen. We also saw the castle district, which is where the King's Palace used to be. There is also a Turkish Church up there from when the Ottoman Empire had control of the city. And speaking of churches, we walked into a magnificent church dedicated to the first Christian king of Budapest named St. Stefan. It was huge! And we also saw "Hero's Square" which was a large plaza with several sculptures/statues of the many king's of Budapest doing heroic things. Here are some Pictures from that tour:
The next day we went to the Hungarian countryside to a "cowboy" ranch with several people dressed up as authentic Hungarian ranchers. At this place we were greeted with Orange Fanta, Peach Schnapps, and bread. After chatting/drinking/eating we went on a nice horse and carriage ride through the woods (unfortunately we did not end at grandma's house, sorry Grandy). Afterwards, we went back to the ranch where everyone took a turn riding some horses. Take a look:
Well, after that silliness subsided, we watched a small show with a couple Hungarian ranchers doing tricks on their horses. One dude stood up on a group of four horses and rode them as they ran around the ring really fast. The show ended with a contest that let people from the crowd try to use a whip to knock a bottle off a fence post. If a person could do the said action, they won a free bottle of whine. I was the first to try...and fail. One girl from our group got it, however, so our efforts weren't totally in vain.
After the show we had an extremely delicious Hungarian meal that consisted of Goulash, bread, pork, potatoes, and of course, more orange Fanta. It tasted quite delicious, especially the goulash. While eating, we were serenaded by a group of musicians who were really good. After dinner, some friends and I went for a walk were we found a random corn field, which reminded us all of home:
After this little adventure, we loaded the bus and went back to Budapest.
That night we went on a city lights tour. We crammed onto a boat, drank some beer, took some crappy pictures (it's hard to get a good nighttime picture on a moving boat), and had a great time. Afterwards, many people went out clubbing, I on the other hand, did not. I decided to go to a jazz club with a handful of other people, including the guy who set up the trip for us. Over the course of the trip, he attained the nickname "Papa Rolf" due to his cute stories of talking to his two year old on the phone. I called him "Rolf Daddy G" because he was known for beat boxing into the microphone on the bus. Anyway, the guy really likes his jazz. We all had a really great time, which ended with me giving all three girls I was with a piggyback ride on the way to the bus stop. Here are some pictures from that night:
This here would be the Parliament Building by night. Pictured is literally only about half of the building.
Nathan felt the need to dance in the street as we walked back to the strassenbahn after the boat tour.
This was the dessert we had at the jazz club. I have no idea what it was, because the waiter recommended it. There were pieces of dough filled with marzipan and drenched in chocolate...and lit on fire (as pictured). Awesome.
Here my friend Slavy and I are trying the dessert...not sure what to think.
Yes sir, I like it!!
Yeah, that's right...I fought a pirate while giving all three of my friends piggyback rides and trying to find the bus stop that would take us back to the hotel. But not really. Yes, I really did give my friends piggyback rides over the bridge, but alas I fought no pirates. The picture on the left is just a gun store...with a pirate statue as the mascot. Anyway, we had no idea how to get back to the hotel because apparently the trams quit running at about midnight.
Luckily we ran into this Hungarian native, whose name was Gregor. He was nice enough to tell us what bus we needed, which stop, and when it came. He also walked us to the stop and chatted for a while. He was a nice fellow, quite fluent in English. He says he learned by reading English books and watching American movies.
The next day, being our last in Budapest, was a free day. I went with several other people to the castle district. We found out that the King's Palace no longer existed due to WW II destroying the original. The structure was rebuilt and turned into a giant museum that housed three other smaller galleries in it. So, we wandered about for a while and finally made our way to the Labyrinth, which was cool in it's own way. Though it was just a big tourist trap, it was still pretty neat because it was the actual historical labyrinth that used to go underneath the palace. What was dumb about it was that it was turned into a series of mazes that were just for fun. One was called the "New Age Labyrinth" which had mock fossils of things like shoe prints, computers, and a coke bottle. Though it was a little cheesy, it was still neat to see.
That night we went to a Hungarian restaurant that used to be a wine cellar. It was a fun place with live music and dancing as well as a three course meal. Oh yeah, and we got a free glass of wine. Also, at the end of the meal, a guy with a huge jug of wine on his shoulder came around and poured wine directly into the mouths of those who wanted to partake. I took a nice 15-20 second chug. Then, on the way out they suckered us into buying the coolest souvenir ever, which I will show people when I get home. Later that night several of us (including Rolf Daddy G) had a low-key night at a nice little Bar in downtown Pest. The next day, we left for Bratislava.
Thank YOU for looking through this blog update!!
And finally, enjoy this video:
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