Allow me to preface this post with 3 (three) rumors I was told about going to Budapest.
1.Everything in Budapest is really dirty and they aren't very technologically advanced.
2. The Hungarian Forint is 175:1 with the dollar, so everything will be really cheap.
3. Gypsies will throw babies at you so you catch the baby, then little children will steal all your money from your pockets.
And now, Dan's Journey into Eastern Europe.
We started around 7, leaving Well for Nijmegen and hopping on a train to Frankfurt. Well... that was the plan. We found out that it was going to be 95 Euros, so we decided to go to Cologne instead for 45. Both had a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport leaving at 2:30 in the morning, so it didn't matter either way. We arrived in Cologne around 10 or 11 and realized
Hey, Cologne is AWESOME!
so we spent the next few hours hanging out in Germany - seeing some of the sights within a couple blocks, and just having a good time overall.
We finally got to the budapest around 9 am the next day, after a lot of traveling and waiting to travel. Kristen, Cait and I traveled to our hostel, planning to meet up with Billy, Sara, Jen, Zander and Emma later that day or over the course of the week. We checked into our hostel, which was a beautiful, renovated flat, and passed out. We were exhausted. We got up a few hours later and walked around in search of a place to get some dinner. We settled on a Hungarian/Italian place, which was pretty good. We only paid 12 dollars each and really had a great time.
From here we just spent the night exploring and taking it easy - we knew we had 3 days, and didn't want to wear ourselves out. We made plans to meet the others on Saturday, but then we got lost and they got lost and our phones were dead and ... well it didn't work out. So once again, we set off to explore some more. We've never been much for the touristy stuff, but we had heard good things about the Hot Baths, so we headed to one nearby and relaxed for a couple hours.
Rumor #1- False. Budapest was a beautiful city (mostly). There were plenty of advanced public transportation systems and everything was fairly modernized.
Now, Cait and Kristen will tell you that the baths were creepy and gross, but honestly, they were pretty nice - the main problem was the prominence of all the old guys. There were alot of old guys. However, it was a beautiful place and we enjoyed it. After the baths we headed out to the Labyrinth in hopes of meeting up with the others again, but that didn't work out either. So, the three of us journeyed underground and explored the ancient caverns.
They were overrated.
We went to dinner at a nice little cafe and then headed back to the hostel to clean up and relax a little before going out to the clubs. When we got there, we met our new british friends at the hostel - Tom, Joe, Scott, Martin and Adam. We ended up going out to the club with them, which was really quite fun. There was a place called Mammoth, which turned out to be a shopping mall that gets transformed after 10 pm into a HUGE party. There were PLENTY of hot hungarian women. Mish Mish! One downside, the club was free for girls but 3000 forints for guys.
Rumor #2 - False. Hungary is NOT cheap.
after getting back at 4 am, we crashed, then woke up again in 4 or 5 hours to go to a different hot bath with the guys.
Ok, i take my previous statement back - this Bath was sooo much better. there were over a dozen different rooms, each with baths of different temperatures and sizes - plus there were a few that were outside. Yes, despite a lack of photographic evidence, we spent part of our sunday in our bathing suits out in Budapest in the middle of winter. On top of all that, there were multiple saunas and steam rooms. It was awesome, and this bath put the other one from saturday to shame.
only 5 baths? Please.
After a few hours, we bid farewell to our new friends and got some lunch at a hungarian marketplace. Which reminds me...
Rumor #3 - FALSE. There was no baby throwing, no thieving children. However, one guy did ask me for a piece of my lunch. I nodded yes because that's just how I am.
Then we went back to our Hostel and crashed - sleep was a must. Our last afternoon was very relaxing - we made some new friends, got some cheap chinese food for dinner, and went to sleep, knowing we'd have to get up early.
We traveled to the airport around 6 am and got back to the castle around 6 pm just in time for dinner, which we ate with gusto. Fresh food was such a nice change, and we really appreciated having fruits and veggies again. Note - Hungarian produce looked really nasty. Their diet consists of carbs and packaged goods. Viva the Fresh stuff!
And with that, our weekend came to a close. Tomorrow we'll be going to London for 5 days, then we'll have independent travel. I'll be in Dublin for 2 days, followed by another 2 in Paris - I'm very excited, and you'll hear all about it when I get back.
Wow, I'm awesome.
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