Egészségére

Budapest was a very cool city! I had never been before and I really enjoyed exploring the new city.

We arrived at the airport and took a five euro shuttle run by Wizz Air to the city center. It dropped us off near a hotel. I had screenshotted walking directions on my phone which would have been a better idea if I had zoomed in enough to see what the streets were named. Stopping in random shops and hotels along the way to ask for further directions, we eventually made it to the right street.

We walked up and down dragging our heavy backpacks but couldn’t find a sign for the hostel. Eventually we found number seven and we walked into a dilapidated courtyard. The buildings were crumbling, there were wild plants growing out of glassless windows, and there were broken and rusty gardening items laying around. It looked like it hadn't been inhabited for decades. We booked it out of the courtyard. “That’s not it, that can’t be it.” We kept repeating. Luckily, that wasn’t it, and we were one courtyard off from ours. We were let in by a stoic gentleman who didn’t speak English up to the hostel which was on the third floor of an apartment complex. Our hostess was very friendly. The hostel was basically her home and she rented out rooms and beds. There was a communal kitchen and one bathroom for everyone. There were a couple nights where Keisha and I were the only guests, so it was not a problem. We had our own room and it was very spacious. The hostel worked out great.

 Keisha rolling in the forint

 Snorlax free!

 Hostel Courtyard

We went and grabbed lunch at a café on a street packed with cafés. Our only rule when picking cafes or restaurants was that they had outdoor seating. The cafe we were at was called Puder. It was filled with art. It was so good we ate there for two more meals that trip! We spent the rest of our day going for a walk up the river and across the bridge to orient ourselves in the city.

Bridge with Hungarian and Austrian flags (the Austrian Prime Minister would be visiting shortly).

We started our second day in Budapest taking it easy. We went to Vaci Utca and got coffee and breakfast at a café alongside the street. We had all of our meals in a very European style and it was quite enjoyable. We sought out restaurants that had outdoor seating. We would sit there and eat our meal slowly, and enjoy our coffee or our wine, people watch and just talk for a while enjoying being in Budapest.

We walked slowly over to the Basilica, the meeting point for the free walking tour. We stopped at souvenir shops, or if we saw anything interesting we wanted to explore. The walking tour lasted three hours and we explored both Buda and Pest. The city is split in half by the river. The Buda side has castle hill and the Pest side has the Parliament and Basilica. We were staying in Pest. According to our guide, there is a sort of rivalry between the two sides. Also, Budapest in Hungary is pronounced "Budapesht", so the sides are "Buda" and "Pesht".

The guide was not thoroughly engaging, but it was a small group and I learned a lot and got to see a lot of the major sights. We saw the Chain Bridge, Buda Castle, many statues and monuments, and more. We learned that the Basilica and the Parliament are exactly equal height and nothing can be taller than those buildings, to represent the importance and the equivalence of church and state.

 
 The Basilica

 The Basilica is in the right of the picture, the Parliament on the left

 To your left you'll find various important historic landmarks...and free wifi

After the tour, we decided to get a glass of wine before heading back. We had a glass of Hungarian white wine next to Buda castle overlooking Pest and it was quite pleasant.

 Modern Art Statue


Chain Bridge and Buda Castle

We finished the day with a long dinner on our favorite restaurant and cafe street, Raday Utca.

On Day 3, we rolled out of bed early and grabbed the metro to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths. Budapest has a lot of natural hot springs. The baths have been in the city since Ottoman rule.

I find it interesting the way public transportation functions in different cities. I was very pleased with Budapest’s public transport. The metros were color coded and clearly labeled so even someone like me who knows no Hungarian was able to decipher which direction to board the train. The metros came every two or three minutes, so there was hardly ever a wait, even when catching transfers. the only problem was, the metros barely stopped at each station. They would open the doors, close them, then leave. If you weren't paying attention you could miss your stop! Thanks to early parental exposure to public transportation, I usually feel very comfortable with metro maps, so thank you Mom and Dad!

We got to the baths very easily. We were very confused once we got there though about the process and kind of stumbled through buying a bath ticket, figuring out the electric wristbands and lockers, and the appropriate etiquette for going into the baths.

The interior of the bathhouse smelled horrible and was very steamy as a result of the water from the hot springs in an enclosed space. Szechenyi is a very large bath and there were many indoor and outdoor pools of all sizes. Some were chlorinated but most were fed from the natural springs. We think we picked one that was from the natural spring. We hung out in the pool for a bit and floated around. There were fountains pouring water shower style into the pools and old people in speedos gathered around chess boards on the edges of the pools.

 
 

They offered some pool massage sauna combo packages, but we wanted to make it back to shower before the free walking Red Tour later that afternoon, so we caught the metro back.

On our way back from the baths, we were wearing tshirts, shorts, and flip flops, attire that is so utterly common in California that you can stand out if you’re dressed in anything else. However in Budapest, we could not have picked a clothing choice that drew more attention to ourselves. We turned heads as we walked past, everyone staring at our feet. Every street we walked down to get to our hostel, people looked at us incredulously before their eyes would dart down to our foreign footwear. It got to the point where people were staring so much, instead of getting self-conscious I would make eye contact back, daring them to look at my Rainbow clad feet.

We showered and changed into more appropriate footwear for the tour. This one met up at the Basilica as well. The tour was led by a very friendly, very engaging Hungarian lady. It was two and a half hours. The theme was Communism in Hungary. It was fascinating.

She told many stories, personal accounts of family and friends, and showed us areas where Communism still left scars on the Hungarian economy, cities, and people. I learned a lot on the tour and it left me with an even greater appreciation of democracy.

We went by Liberty Square and learned about the history of Hungary from when the Magyar people first settled there to Ottoman rule to the Austrian Hungarian Empire to the World Wars to Soviet rule to present day democracy. We saw controversial monuments and statues, buildings that played different roles during the communist era, and more. We walked to the Parliament and learned about democracy. We then walked to Olypia Park and learned about the importance of sports in Hungary during communist rule. One of the only ways to leave the country during communism was if you were competing in international sports.

We learned on the tour that Hungary was quite the Hot Potato throughout history. In what we nicknamed the Hungarian Handover, Hungary was transferred form the Ottoman Empire to the Austrian Hungary to the Soviet Union. The language, buildings, and culture all reflected this. The city and the language seemed like such a blend of many different cultures. The language developed somewhat independently from other Indoeuropean languages. Its closet language actually is Finnish. With my knowledge of English, German, and (very basic) Spanish, I’m at least able to make my way through most European menus and at least struggle through the pronunciations of most European languages. Hungarian felt very clumsy in my mouth. Its language was also influenced by Turkish and Russian due to the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union’s influence on the area. Neither language I’m very familiar with. The cities buildings had Roman, Turkish, Soviet, and more influences. We found all types of international restaurants in the city: Thai, Chinese, American, Italian, and more. If I had to describe Hungarian food I would say meat and paprika.

I love how cities have personalities. When you become familiar with a city, you get to know what to expect: what the people are like, what the culture is like, and if you feel like you would fit in. Take LA versus San Francisco for example. Two cities in the same state with very different personalities. Or LA versus NYC for example. I am trying to figure out what exactly about a city’s personality, culture, and people draws me toward it. I’m traveling with the hope of figuring out what makes me feel at home in some cities and not in others.

Keisha and I agreed that while Budapest is a beautiful, unique city, and that we were very glad we went and saw it, it was a city that we couldn’t see ourselves living in. I can’t explain why in words yet, but I’m trying to figure it out.

One of the cities I’ve felt the most at home in is Edinburgh. It’s not the only city I feel at home in, but immediately upon arriving in the city I felt at home. I felt very comfortable and I could see myself living there for a few years. I would have trouble explaining why a native Californian would be drawn to such a cold, Gothic city, but I am. I also felt like I could live in the Netherlands.

Budapest was very different from what I was expecting. I have not really been to many Eastern European countries, and I had never been to Hungary before. The vision I had in my mind for Hungary was very cliché and stereotypical, simply because I had never been and did not know much. All I could picture was a movie type portrayal of a former Soviet country with perhaps a colder climate and people.

I was even wrong about the climate. I thought it would be cold and pouring rain the whole trip. The weather could not have been more pleasant. Every person we ran across was extremely friendly and welcoming. We went out for Hungarian dessert one night. Initially we thought we offended the waiter by asking repeatedly what a pancake was (it was a slight translation mixup). But he turned out to be incredibly friendly and kept coming by our table just to talk to us.

We met an Aussie on the tour named Justin. We got to talking to him and he said his hostel was doing a river cruise tonight with a few other hostels. Seeing the Parliament lit up at night from the river was at the top of my Budapest Bucket List. So after the tour, we walked with Justin and a few others back to his hostel to buy a ticket. The hostel staff invited us to the boat pregame in the city, but we declined and asked where we could meet up at the boat dock. This should have been the first sign that this boat was not simply an evening boat ride but a booze cruise.

Keisha and I got dinner on our favorite street and ended up having to run over to the dock. Justin met us at the entrance. “I was afraid you were going to miss it!” he told us.

There were two ticket options. The cheaper one (which Keisha and I got) came with one free drink. The more expensive one (which apparently everyone else got) came with one free bottle of champagne. We gathered on the top deck with a hundred or so other young backpackers. Everyone had their bottle of champagne in hand and they popped the corks over the Danube.

“Aw man,” Keisha told me. “I don’t even like champagne but I wish I would have bought one just so I could pop the cork over the river. It looks fun!” While I felt bad for all the cork litter that ended up in the river, it did indeed look very fun.

Everyone looked to be about 18-30. We started mingling with the other backpackers, meeting people from all over (although mostly Australia). People would ask Keisha and me, “Are you backpacking?” “No, no,” we’d reply quickly. “But we do have backpacks haha… and we’re staying in hostels… and we’re taking trains from city to city… maybe we are backpacking?”

With every backpacker we met, we had the same initial conversation: name, hometown, what city you just came from, what city you’re going to next, and how long you’re traveling for.

“Hi I’m Kelly, I’m from California, I just came from Brussels, I’m going to Rome next, and I’m in Europe for five weeks.”

It was like the college version of name, major, hometown, and interesting fact.

It was very enjoyable though to meet so many different and interesting people who would loudly proclaim their views of cities they’d been to, and they all disagreed. There were people at many different stages of their lives, with varying degrees of travel experience.

I felt quite old initially, but it turns out that I was about perfectly average, if not young, compared to the other backpackers I met.  

I always forget how American I am until I actually travel abroad. I walk around grinning at everyone and my voice echoes throughout every restaurant we go to. I’ve been asking people out of curiosity, “What is your impression of Americans?” they all the same thing, with varying degrees of appreciation, “You are all so friendly.”

The whole city of Budapest lights up at night. All the buildings glow dramatically against the black night sky. The boat went up to the Parliament and back again, lasting about an hour and a half. It was very cool to see the illuminated city go by from the boat.

I was not disappointed by the Parliament lit up at night. It was very beautiful.

 
 
 
 

On the return trip down the Danube, our new friends insisted on joining the dancing half of the deck.  So we started dancing. The dj was playing an odd mix of slow and fast songs from the Black Keys to oldies to Top 40. There was another guy dancing who looked unbelievably familiar. I kept staring at him, trying to figure out if I knew him or not. He caught me staring a few times and I was met with furrowed brows and I would feel exceptionally creepy. He looked like he could be Scottish, so I decided I could have known him in Scotland. I was working up the courage to ask him, when he came up to me. I thought he was going to ask me to stop being creepy and staring, but instead he asked me, “Did you go to UCSB? You look really familiar.”

It turned out that he was a Political Science and Psychology double major, who started at UCSB the same year I did and had classes with both Keisha and me. He was there with a friend, so the four of us talked for a little bit about Santa Barbara and ended up going to a club together after the boat cruise was over. Not only that, but I added him on Facebook after and it turns out we have a few mutual friends, including one of my closest friends from UCSB, Hannah. It’s quite cool that we live in a world so small that I could run into someone who sat near me at Campbell Hall thousands of miles away on a boat on the Danube.

After the boat docked, the hundreds of us disembarked and walked en masse to a club a few blocks away. There were so many hotellers pouring through the streets. The club was fun. The four UCSBers and two other guys we met on the boat all hung out together and danced to a variety of hits such as Wake Me Up, Talk Dirty to Me, and Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics, singing along the whole time.

We hadn’t intended to stay out that long. We left after a little bit at the club to walk back to our hostel. The only problem was, we didn’t know where we were or what direction we were facing, so we just picked a direction and walked. We found out later that we took the walk back too wide. The first sight we saw that we recognized was a ferris wheel, and we realized how far away we actually were. Our feet were about to fall off, and we shuffled slowly back to the hostel. Budapest was surprisingly warm at night. We stopped for water and chocolate bars and made it back to the hostel.

#lostselfie

Budapest is quite the party backpacker haven. Most hostels boast their party status and their events for every night of the week. I was not expecting that, but it does make sense having now seen the city. It's very beautiful and pretty cheap for a European city. Its ruin bars cater to the younger, almost more hipster crowd. Its trying to become more established as a tourist destination The city caters well to the young, poor backpacker.

Budapest is famous for its ruin bars. From what I’ve heard, they’re basically bars and clubs in buildings that were abandoned or partially destroyed during the war. Instead of fixing them up, knocking them down and building new buildings, they just made them into very hipster looking grungy bars, in the best kind of way. They are all over Budapest. They’re decorated with all kinds of art and the walls are covered in graffiti. Half of the bar doesn’t have a ceiling, there are side rooms with no doors or windows, the staircases are all crumbly concrete, and they’re really cool.

We wanted to do a ruin bar hop. Most hostels ran their own each night. We were hoping to meet up with the UCSBers from the night before and join in with their bar hop, since our hostel was so small and did not have its own. The only problem was we didn’t have a way to get ahold of anyone. We knew what bar to start at around what time, but we didn’t know when they were leaving or where they were going next. The first bar we were at was called Szimpla. The bar was huge and packed and we didn’t see anyone we recognized. So we decided to just crash a random bar hop. We started asking anyone speaking English if they were on a hostel bar hop. The first two attempts failed, but we succeeded on the third. I shyly approached a group of English speaking people.

“Hi, sorry to interrupt, are you guys doing a bar hop with you hostel?” I asked the group.

“We are doing a bar hop yes, but with our program!”

“Do you mind if we join?” I asked them. The allowed us to join their group. They turned out to be a very friendly group of masters engineering students studying abroad in the Czech Republic. They had all taken a trip to Budapest together. The group was probably about one hundred people, but we mostly hung out with a group of Brazilians, Germans, Portuguese, and Finnish. They were very welcoming, even though we were the only Americans and the only ones not in the program, and bought us drinks. Keisha and I even tried Palinka, a Hungarian liquor made from fermenting fruit. The bartender told me ours was made from fig, however they make it from all kinds of fruit. The group of people we were with tried a plum one.

We learned one, albeit very useful, word while we were in Hungary."Egészségére!" It means "cheers!" It's pronounced "ah-geh-shih-geh-drah." I think.

We went to two more ruin bars and a club with them. Keisha and I almost didn't get into the ruin club. They pulled us out of the line and told us sternly, "No sneakers." Keisha and I looked down at our Converse. We were 0 for 2 on appropriate footwear for the trip. We didn't really think Converse would be an issue for ruin bars and clubs. Eventually, they did let us in.

We got separated from the group we started with at the club, but Keisha and I danced until late and then walked back to our hostel. I asked the bouncer at the exit to point out where we were on the map and he did so kindly and pointed us in the right direction. The walk back was significantly less painful than the night before.


Keisha and me at the Ruin Club

Our last day in Budapest we dedicated to the Basilica and to souvenir shopping. The Basilica was very cool. We climbed the stairs to the top and enjoyed the view of Budapest. The Basilica had two people buried in it: the first king, who converted Hungary to Catholicism and a Hungarian star footballer. At some point they dug up the king and discovered that he was all skeleton except for his right hand, which had somehow naturally mummified. So they decided to cut it off and put it in the Basilica.

 

Top of the Basilica

The King's Hand

We spent the rest of the day souvenir shopping. There were these colorful wooden boxes in different sizes at the souvenir shops. They had hinges but Keisha and I were unable to open them. Eventually we asked the store worker how they worked. He slid various complex pieces of the box around, the side, the panels, the bottom, before pulling out a key. He then used the key to open the box. He told us they were typical Hungarian. It was very cool.

"What do you keep in the box?" I asked, expecting an answer like they were used to keep secret telegrams during communist rule or something crazy like that.

"Well it's a women box, so you keep your cheeky lady secrets in there," he told us. I bought two.

We then went to the airport and caught our plane to Rome.