Let's Explore: BUDAPEST (Spring Break Part 3)

After our train dying in Slovakia for 90 minutes, we finally made it to Budapest! We had absolutely no idea where we were, what the currency was or what language was being spoken. What we did know is that we had to use the bathroom. So, we found one in the train station and had to pay to use it! There was a bathroom attendant handing out toilet paper – it was so bizarre, but then again, I’ve had to pay to use bathrooms in Spain as well—and those don’t usually have toilet paper.

Anyways, we thought it would be a good idea to have some Hungarian currency on hand, so we each withdrew 50,000 Huffs—yeah, I know it makes me sound like a baller, but that was actually only about $160 US dollar, and we still had to pay for our hostel so that would take away most of our money pretty quickly! But it did feel pretty cool to hand over some thousand Huff bills!

Next, we had to figure out where we were going, thankfully, the hostel had directions for how to get there from the train station on their website, and I printed those out before the trip and brought them along! The directions were great—we walked down a street for 10 minutes, bought metro tickets, hopped on the yellow 6 tram, took it three stops to the Oktogon and when we got off we had a short 3 minute walk and saw all the signs out front for our hostel.

Now, let me tell you a bit about our hostel. It was called Retox Party Hoste—and with Sara and I not being huge partiers, we were a little nervous. We walked in and of course, people were drinking in the lobby—which was a bar open to the public. Upstairs were all the rooms, we checked in and were given our room keys, which were actually bracelets that the staff member, Candy, said was drunk proof. Ok—now we were really nervous—how wild do these people get ?? The answer- wild. He brought us to our room which was a 12 person mixed dorm, called the Love Dungeon… with some very graphic artwork on the walls… scared for my life at this point.

This hostel was filled with a bunch of characters that we quickly got to know! Everyone was super nice and friendly—but definitely had a different lifestyle than us. All of the staff guys had nicknames, beards, piercings, tattoos..etc. The guests were also of some one of a kind people. I am not sure how people can stay there for over 5 days, but we met people who had been there for weeks. It is a constant drinking, smoking cigarettes or taking naps kind of place. but to be honest, I was very impressed by the organization of the staff! It’s a blessing that Sara and I are heavy sleepers—we were always the first ones back to the room, so we went to sleep and didn’t have to deal with crazy drunk people in the wee hours of the morning. We were also always the first ones up in the morning because we actually wanted to SEE and DO things in Budapest—what a concept! but, we then realized—we are the weird ones there.. the fact that everyone else was doing the party scene 24/7 and we were being touristy made us the “classy” girls who always rejected cigarettes and we were kind of mocked at the end of the day when people would be like, “oooo tell us the list of everything you did today!” but hey—I give us a lot of credit. We were able to go out a night have fun, and get up early and be productive!

So, after putting our things away we were starving and wanted to grab something to eat. We met one of our room mates, and she was a full bright scholar teaching in Slovakia and traveling on the weekend. She seemed pretty down to Earth, but that perception quickly changed over the trip… Anyways, we went to get Thai food at a near by restaurant and invited her along. The food was so good and soooo cheap! That was a wonderful thing about Budapest- you could get an awesome huge meal for less than $5 at just about any restaurant.

After dinner, we went and explored. Budapest is actually 2 different cities—Buda and Pest. We were staying on the Pest side, so we decided to venture to the other side of the river, also known as the city of Buda.

On that side we went up the many hills and saw the Mathias Church as well as the Fisherman’s Bastion. It was so beautiful and from the top of the hill we had a great view of Pest, including the absolutely stunning Parliament building.

We then headed back across the river to our hostel. They had organized a river cruise—so we of course jumped on that boat! (haha punny!) This river cruise offered beautiful views of all of the buildings along the river lit up at night—it was spectacular.

We met a lot of people from our hostel, like two girls from mexico who we got to practice our Spanish with, a girl from Israel—who coincidentally is best friends with a guy I went to high school with, one of our room mates from Venezuela who reminded us of Fez, and our other room mate who was an alumni from University of Michigan.

The next day we got up and went to the Great City Hall Markets, but on our way we stopped at some other markets and got some Langos—a traditional Hungarian food (which they also had in Prague)! It’s basically like a funnel cake and then you can put whatever you want on top—I of course choose Nutella. Then we finally arrived to the city hall market, where we just wandered around and looked at all of the produce and meats that were being sold. I bought some banana chips which were really good!

Then Sara and I split off for a little bit, I went on a tour of Europe’s largest synagogue (the second largest in the world—second to the one in Manhattan! I was debating doing the tour, since the Synagogue was closed I wasn’t sure if it was worth it and I would only be able to see the monuments, cemetery and museum, but I’m so glad that I went because my tour guide was this older Jewish man who was so knowledgeable and had so many cool stories. I learned a lot about WW2, how that Synagogue is the only Synagogue with a cemetery inside—24 graves with 92 per grave. I also learned that Hungary has the largest Jewish population in central Europe. At the end of the tour, the guide, Ruben (so Jewish) asked me to come to lunch with him, and I totally would have because he had such cool stories and I wanted to learn more, but I couldn’t leave Sara hanging and I told him I had to meet my friend.

We then grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near our hostel and this place was sooo good—and cheap! I had some fried Camembert cheese and potato croquettes with roasted apples-yummm!

Then we were onto our next adventure activity—Caving! I honestly had no idea what this entailed but so many people recommended and said it was a fun adventure so we thought we’d give it a go!

We met the group at the train station where as I walked up to the guides I heard someone say my name—I turned around and it was a friend of mine from middle school/ high school, named Sonali. She was studying abroad in Rome this semester and took a weekend trip to Budapest and was also going Caving! It was so crazy to see ANOTHER Morton Grove person in Europe—such a small world!

We took bus to the Caving site—where I learned just exactly what Caving is… it’s crawling through caves—like very tight spaces… probably not the best activity for someone like me who is claustrophobic! Oh well, time to conquer a fear. Our group was me, Sara, our Australian friend Dale from our hostel, and a group of American students studying abroad in London. They gave us some jumpsuits and helmets with headlights to put on and then we headed to the cave. Our guide Helga was hilarious and led us through the dark caves! We had to crawl on our stomachs, sides, and crouch in low places to make it through little spots that you would never think a human person would be able to fit through. There were definitely a few spots where I got really claustrophobic and would get super freaked out that I was going to get stuck down there! We were 45 meters deep and it was so crazy to see these huge rooms that we would end up in. Helga told us that the rooms all had names, like the bar, the library, and the theater. She said that some of the caving people brought down their instruments and played a concert in the theater and that the sound is amazing down there—she then told us to turn all of our lights off so it would be pitch black and had us sing a song (we chose Timber) so that we could see how awesome the sound is.

We were talking to Helga about the scariest thing that has happened to her in a cave, and she said that she was in a vertical cave for a quick expedition and it started to rain—and when it starts to rain you need to get out because the water drains in and will drown you… so she hurried upwards and right when she got to a higher level all of the water swooshed down under her! She also said that she has spend 3 days straight in a cave before! crazy! Overall, the caving was awesome and I got to conquer my claustrophobia and see some cool caves and crystals!

After caving we went back to shower and then on a pub-crawl with our hostel. I absolutely loved all the bars that we went to – they were ruin bars that had been destroyed during WW2 and restored. They had a lot of open courtyard spaces and it was just a cool atmosphere to be in! The bars look really small when you enter, but they actually go back super far with a lot of different rooms, and courtyards—my favorite was Szimpla Bar.

We got up in the morning and went for brunch where I had pancakes for the first time in 3 months –and they were great! Sara really wanted to make it to the Budapest Ice Bar—so that was next on our list! So an Ice bar is literally a bar where everything is completely made of ice—the bar, the walls, the cups, everything! We just had one drink—and basically no one was there because it was just after noon (but it was the only time during the day that we would be able to make it there!)

On our way back to the hostel we stopped at the Easter markets—which were similar to the ones in Prague except these ones had less food and more crafts and jewelry!

We then took a tour because we were in the learning mood—also the tour included tickets to the thermal baths! Our tour guide wasn’t as great as the one from Prague but we still learned a lot about Budapest! Some of my favorite facts were that the streets used to be made of wood to silence the traffic, there are some buildings that look completely black—and that is because of the pollution and gun smoke that has never been cleaned, and that water polo is Hungary’s best sport. Also, in Hungary you write your last name before your first name, so I would be Gilbert Rebecca.

After the tour we went to the Budapest zoo! YAY ANIMALS! I was very impressed at the wide assortment of animals they had! We made our way around pretty much the entire zoo, but my favorite parts were definitely the Penguins—because I love penguins… and the sloths because you got to be super up close to them and I had never seen a sloth in the flesh before—THEY ARE SO SLOW! and I also learned that in Spanish they are called “Perezosos” which directly translates to lazy!! They are called Lazys!

We then went to the Schenzi Baths—Budapest is known for their naturally heated thermal spas! Basically a large naturally heated pool. We relaxed in the spa for about an hour before heading back to the hostel, we walked through some more Easter markets in a big beautiful park – they were selling lots of food so we got a snack!

The next thing on our to-do list was a stop at the Exit Room—it’s basically a scavenger hunt/ riddle/ mind exercise. We went with two of our roommates. They lock you in a room and you have one hour to figure out how to get out of the room. We unfortunately did not figure it out in time—but we were super close! We would have probably been able to get out in time, if one of the guys in our group didn’t drop a key in down the metro ticket slot which prevented us from knowing the numbers to some of the locks we had to open! but it was so cool—we had to unlock a lot of doors, solve number and letter riddles, and search around the room for hints and clues!

After they let us out of the room, Sara and I went back to the same restaurant we ate at the day before because it was just THAT GOOD. We got this open faced Panini pizza type thing and it was fabulous! (it was the same thing Sara had gotten the day before!) I also had an amazing Banana & Bailey’s Milkshake—soooo delicious! We also realized that the people next to us were speaking Spanish-- so we started up a conversation with them. They were some older people traveling around and they live in Madrid! It was cool to be able to use our Spanish to talk to them!

Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for our last night out with the retox crew. Tonight’s festivity was a Sparty—spa party. It was at the same baths that we had visited during the day, but at night there were lights, a DJ and a bar there. It was probably the wildest thing that I have ever witnessed. We also had some new room mates that we met and talked to at the bath party. There were 4 people that were working together in Switzerland and they were all super nice, two of them were from Australia, one from Copenhagen and one from Dublin.

After a while we were just about done with being in this big bath with a bunch of belligerently drunk people so we called it a night and headed home because we still had to pack up!

On the walk home, I was talking to one of our Australian friend and telling him how much I loved Budapest and how I was so sad to being leaving because I didn’t know if I would ever be able to make it back.

He said, “If you have a true passion for somewhere you will find your way back.”

and I know that I will be back to Budapest one day because it was honestly my favorite city that I have visited this semester. I couldn’t really tell you why—it’s not super picturesque, but it’s just such a vibrant city with an amazing atmosphere and so much to do!

See you soon Budapest—I’ll be back for you one day!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Mathias Cathedral and Fisherman's Bastion

Budapest Eats-- Langos-- fried cheese and potato croquettes-- open faces panini

The Market!

Synagoge and monuments-- Jewish Philosophy: Don't put flowers next to graves because flowers die-- put rocks as memorials because they will last forever. Love my religion.