Well we arrived in Budapest around 10am. And we had a much better experience on
this overnight train! When I woke up the other woman in our cabin had already
gotten off. So it was just Meredith and I. I put on a face and then worked on
my blogs.

Oh, I forgot to mention! That our train went through Croatia and Slovakia on
the way to Hungary. And each time that we came to a new stop in those countries
we had to show our passport. So they would come to our cabin while sleeping
knock and say "Passport!" .... Although we only had four stamps on our passports
in the morning, Meredith and I counted SIX times that they woke us up to show
our passport!

It wasn't that bad, because by the third time I was handing them my passport
still with my eyes closed... You know that expression "I could do that in my
sleep" well literally that is what Meredith and I were doing with handing the
police our passports.

Well anyways, the train eventually came into Budapest and off Meredith and I
were. Although we slept fairly well on the train, I still felt completely brain
dead when we got off. I had read the directions to our hostel and knew that we
had to buy a metro and bus ticket in HUF (Hungarian Fontate). The currency is
what is going to be hard to adjust to. Because $1 is like 230HUF ... which is
really hard to do conversions when they are like 1,400HUF.

In the train station we were bombarded with Hungarian people giving us flyers
for tours and different hotels. We eventually made it to the metro and then to
the bus. The bus station was right outside the Parliament building which is
absolutely gorgeous! Oh, and I also forgot the the metro stations had
escalators! For this reason alone I would recommend traveling to Budapest.
Even London didn't have escalators so you had to carry all your luggage up and
down hundreds of stairs.

The tram that we were supposed to take to our hostel was not running and was
replaced with a bus. And luckily we got on the right one! It was only about
three blocks away. But we got off and found our hostel (after walking right by
it the first time) ... We couldn't get the front door open initially. We had to
key in a code, which we did but it was not unlocking. So Andrew (the owner of
the hostel) came down and got us. He is honestly the nicest man on this earth,
especially compared to the men running our hostel in Venice :( .... Anyways,
Andrew took us up to the hostel and showed us our room.

The hostel was cute. It was exactly what I had imagined hostels to be like.
Our hostel in Paris was more like a hotel. Florence was just overly too nice to
be considered a hostel, and Venice was just absolutely disgusting ... but this
was the stereotypical hostel.

It was hodgepodge decorated but came together in a really hip way. There was
random paintings and wall art and one wall was a huge mirror that everyone who
stays here signs! There was a common space with a big sectional and TV and a
couple bathrooms. Andrew made us feel right at home, and showed us where to put
our stuff.

After he made me some coffee and grabbed a map to start marking some "must sees"
for us. He recommended about a thousand different restaurants which Meredith
and I are not really into. Just because we are trying to save money by going to
grocery stores. But he also marked out the important buildings to see.
Including the Opera house! Just in Venice Meredith was talking about how she
wanted to see and Opera. I knew that they were very popular in Vienna, but also
very expensive. So when Andrew told us that you could get tickets for about 3
or 4 Euro for the Budapest Opera, we were extremely interested!

We didn't stay at the hostel long because we knew that we had limited time in
Budapest and wanted to see all the main things. So we set off towards the city
center. The architecture is very Austrian in style and so were many of the main
buildings. We went by Parliament again, and got some more pictures :) We also
just wandered the streets and found ourselves at the Opera house :)

We went in to buy tickets and this is how the conversation went:
me: "hello, do you have tickets available for the Opera tonight"
ticket person: "yes, we do"
me: "okay, we will take the two cheapest ones"

Ha, we were not even concerned that they would be next to each other.

After the Opera we decided to cross the main bridge and go up to the Budapest
castle. It was quite a hike up to the castle but well worth it. It was
absolutely gorgeous up there and the castle was impressive. The roof of it is
bright and colorful designs. It was also a great look out over the entire city
and of Parliament. From that side of the river you could actually see the
magnitude of Parliament... it is amazing.

When we were up there we were approached by a guy... and he was like "do you
speak English" ... Meredith (of course) was like "yes" ... I keep telling her
that she just needs to ignore them and keep walking ... haha but anyways. The
man started giving us a spill about how he was looking for donations for a
charity to feed the hungry people of hungary (haha which is really fun to say
out loud) ... so basically he was asking for money. We told the guy sorry, but
that we had no money and that we are actually not eating ourselves because we
don't have the money...

Which I don't think he liked our response, but it is the honest to God truth.

After wandering around the castle we decided to head back to the hostel. Which
was about an hour walk. On our way back we stopped by the supermarket and got
water, a pastry and an apple. When I got back to the hostel I made my Nutella
and apple sandwich and rested a little.

It was about 5pm and the Opera started at 7pm, but we had to be there 30 minutes
early. We were both dying to shower, because we hadn't since Venice (and I am
still not convinced that my shower in Venice didn't make me more dirty) ... So
we relaxed, showered and headed off to the Opera.

We were in the third balcony (so the nose-bleed section) ... but the worst part
about being up there were the steps going up there! Goodness there was like
5,000. Inside the Opera was absolutely gorgeous, and so of course we got some
pictures. It was cheaper for us to buy tickets to the Opera to see the inside
that it was to go on a tour of the Opera, which I think is just crazy.

Anyways, the Opera started and was completely in a different language. I
honestly don't even know the name of the production we saw. But one thing that
I found interesting was that there was a monitor above the stage that showed the
lines, in case you couldn't make out what they were singing.

**Chinese music videos also do this because the words change with the tones. So
if you didn't have the words at the bottom of the music video you would only be
able to make out about 50% of the song **

I also didn't know that at the Opera the people come out at the end of each act
to be applauded. After one of the main acts all the performers came out and
bowed, and then all the lights turned on in the Opera. Meredith and I had no
idea if it was over or just intermission. We still have no idea, because we
decided to leave :)

We really had no idea what was going on, and everyone else was standing up too.
So either it was over or everyone had to use the bathroom? Hmm... regardless I
had my first Opera experience. And I must say that I prefer Broadway &
showtunes :)

After the Opera we decided to just head back to the hostel. We were on a search
for a coke for Meredith, but couldn't find a grocery store. We made it back to
the hostel, watched an episode of Chuck and headed to bed.

Tomorrow is the baths and our last full day in Budapest!
-brooke.