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Hungary officially stole my heart! I thought my clear favorite was Switzerland but now I don't know anymore!!
On our train, we met a woman and her son who we ended up sitting with and chatting with the whole time. They are from Zagreb but have family in Budapest so they have us so many suggestions of things to do, see, eat, and our chatting made the 6 hours just fly by. I'm really glad we got to meet them!
We arrived about 6pm after our 21 hour journey from Dubrovnik. We found our hostel with no problem and checked in. We settled in, took a breather, then realized we were starving. We asked the reception for food suggestions, and she gave us a flier for a restaurant with a three course meal for like 7 USD (so cheap) and the flier got us a free coffee, that was great! On our way out there was a poster advertising a free pub crawl, so we thought, what the heck, let's go meet some people. We enjoy a delicious traditional Hungarian meal full of goulash and paprika, then headed to the meeting place for the bar crawl. How weird is this, my desert was deep fried cottage cheese! Weird right? Tasted pretty good though!
With the pub crawl like I said it was free so unlike all the other ones we've done nothing came included, they basically just showed you cool places to go, but you had the option to buy a wristband that got you free drinks. It was a super awesome deal so I got one, and it allowed me to drink all the wine I wanted (which Hungary is known for) and it was just great. I also for some free shots, the first one had Tabasco/paprika in it and I didn't know and I just about died, I bet it was hilarious to watch. I had all the local drinks, from their wine to their liquor to this spritzer called shrek, the night ended pretty late because we were just having a great time with all our new Swiss and Australian friends. Who needs sleep? We just slept for a whole day straight on the bus and train!
We were up early the next morning for a walking tour, it wasn't our trusty Sandeman's but was still free and equally as great. We saw about 90% of the sites and our guide gave us suggestions for the things we didn't see. After the tour us and a few others went to lunch with our guide, met some cool people including an older couple from Arizona that travels all over and stays in hostels still! That will be me and my husband. When we left the restaurant we were headed towards the church and Fisherman's Bastion, but we passed a MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF PHARMACY! I kid you not, it was seriously the coolest thing ever. I was in heaven. We then explored the Church of Mary and the Fisherman's Bastion. The views from there were great. We then wandered and made our way to Margaret Island, where we ate some ice cream, watched a water show where the big fountain sprayed in tube to the music in awesome ways, and wandered through the park. We made our way back towards the hostel, with a pit stop to get langos, which is this delicious road side snack food that our tour guide suggested, which was essentially a huge piece of fried dough with garlic, sour cream, and lots and lots of cheese! It. Was. So. Good. Megan wasn't hungry enough to finish hers, so she had a marvelous idea. She was going to feed it to the tens of pigeons hanging out around us. Well, that was a horrible idea because they flocked by the hundreds to this lango and attacked each other for it. We had to run away because it was terrifying. After getting to the hostel and dropping some stuff off, we headed back out. While we were at the hostel, I was skimming Facebook, and happened to notice that a guy we met in Munich on our pub crawl that I had connected with on Facebook was also in Budapest! So I contacted him to tell him we were there too, and we made plans to meet up. We climbed up the mountain to the Liberty Statue, and say there overlooking the city which was lot up beautifully in the night time. We hung out there for quite a while, then decided to check out one last ruin bar suggested by our tour guide. It's name was Szimpla, and it was so cool! The decor was so random I don't even know how to explain it, and it had themes areas including a wine bar which was great. I got to drink some Hungarian wine which they are known for and just enjoy the cool place. I went to the wine bar while Megan and David, our Munich friend chatted, and while in line I met some people from Canada that were pretty cool. They were going to come join us at our table, but when I went back to the table, Megan and David were gone, I guess to the other bar. I couldn't find them for a while so I just hung out with the Canadians for a while. There were there on a pub crawl, and it came time for them to leave, so I headed back to find Megan and David again. When I found them, about two seconds later, a kid walks by in a UF shirt. I stop him, and we get to chatting with him and his friend who go to UF. Turns out we know a ton of the same people, one of them is from Melbourne, and his older brother is one of my really good friends! Such a small world! So glad he was wearing that shirt or we would have never known!
The next morning, we checked out and headed out to check out a Hungarian Bath, which Budapest is known for. On our way there, though, we stopped at St. Stephen's Cathedral to see it and also decided to climb the tower and see the beautiful panoramas of the city, that was beautiful, but a ton of steps. The bath was kind of like a spa and public pool mix. It was very crowded, I guess that's the only form of water entertainment in Budapest. I experienced my first sauna, that was miserable, but I went in dry which was probably the problem. We stayed for a few hours, then headed out to visit the little market around the bath. We got some cool little trinkets including local paprika, wandered to Heroes Square, then it was time to go back to the hostel to grab our stuff and head to the train station. The train is direct to Vienna, so hopefully there are no problems!
Budapest, you may have just topped the list of my favorite cities! The architecture was so amazing everywhere and you were so pretty to look at and explore! In a different way than Switzerland, though, so I can't pick a favorite! You were perfect, and I can't wait to see you again!
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