Budapest

Have you ever seen all the important sites of a foreign city in one day? I have! Be jealous. Actually don't it wasn't very fun. We were pretty much running around Budapest on Monday. Since we didn't do anything on our half day in Budapest but get our train ticket bought and eat dinner we had a lot to see the next day. We got up early well like 9 and were out the door by 10. We first headed to the Parliament building. It was beautiful. Right away I decided that Budapest and Vienna have two totally different looks and feels. Vienna is very clean, pretty, crisp look and feel where as Budapest has a very strong, masculine, "try to knock me down," dark feel. At least in my opinion. But both were beautiful in their own ways. We then headed to the Chain Bridge that crossed the Danube in to the Buda side of the city. It gave us some great views of the city and the Danube is so pretty. Once we got to the other side we saw that there was a cable car type thing that you could ride up to the top of the mountain. We decided to do it. It was so gorgeous looking out over the Danube and the Chain Bridge, but the ride literally lasted about 5 minutes and it cost us like 700 forints which is like 3 Euros which is like 5 dollars. Not really worth it...but oh well...

When we got done with our looonnnngggg (lots of sarcasm here people.) cable car ride we walked around on top and found a little market. We smelled something absolutely amazing so of course we had to check it out... I mean we all LOVE food! We found it right away and it was called a baumkuchen - or in English, funnel cake, so fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar. Delicious. We all shared one though don't worry, we were huge fatties. Then we headed to St. Ivan's basilica and walked around that area but there was a lot of construction on the basilica so we couldn't see a whole lot of the facade.

So after that we hopped on the metro. Lets discuss the metro. It looked like it was from about 1920, just like everything else in the city. They write out your metro tickets by hand because the city is so far behind the times its not even funny. It is so obvious that it was under communist rule for a long time and that it hasn't been too long since the rule ended. They are not technologically advanced at all. I hardly saw any type of computers or machines anywhere. The one thing that was advanced and fast paced in the city was the escalators in the metro though. It was funny it went so fast you had to get a running start to get on pretty much so you could make it and you had to be ready to run off so you wouldn't fall. haha We loved riding them and I of course had to make a scene and put my hands up in the air... Anyways.... back to getting on the metro from the 20's.... we headed to Hero's square. I don't really know the significance of it and I really don't know why we bothered to see it. It wasn't that cool... just a monument in an open plaza... but oh well... haha By this time we were all dragging so we HAD to find some coffee. After we got our caffeine fix we were good to go.

We then hopped back on the metro to go to the oldest Synagogue in Europe. I was super excited because I had never been in a Synagogue before and this was the oldest one. It was beautiful inside and it was a nice change from all the cathedrals with the same Virgin Mary's and crucifixes - don't worry I'm not converting I'm just stating a fact. (Grandma's schlecker would go 1000 miles a minute and probably jump out of her neck! haha) There was also a Jewish museum attached to the Synagogue. It was so interesting. It showed all the different Jewish holidays and what things are used and why to celebrate and then of course there was a section about the holocaust. Such a mood changer but so interesting. When we left it was pouring, but the restaurant we were planning on going to was within walking distance so we put our big girl panties on and rolled up our jeans and started walking.

Our hostel recommended the restaurant and it was delicious! It was called Fatal and it served traditional Hungarian dishes. I had beef goulash. So good. I couldn't eat it everyday or anything but it was really good. It was like potato/egg noodles with beef and beef sauce. We decided that we would all eat a huge meal since we were getting on the night train and wouldn't be able to eat later, so that's what we did. We then headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and head to the station.

I was excited about being in Budapest because Joey's dad grew up there and yes we are broken up and we don't even talk anymore but I thought it was cool that I was there. So I wrote Joey an email saying that I was in Budapest the past two days and was really enjoying it blah blah blah... The whole time I was there I had an overwhelming sense of Joey's dad growing up there. It was weird. I could totally see him living there and being in the same streets that I was walking down. Well, a day later I got an email back from Joey that read: "I thought the email you sent me was a joke at first because I was in Budapest with my dad the exact same time you were." How freaking weird is that?! I guess my feeling of his dad being in Budapest was real! Crazy how small the world can be sometimes....

We grabbed the essentials - wine and candy and got to the train station with plenty of time. Of course our train ended up being delayed like 30 minutes but it was fine. I was so excited for the night train because I felt like a true Euro-tripper. Weird? So when we finally boarded and saw our room we were all wondering what we got ourselves into. It was pretty much a 6 x 7 room with six beds three on each side. It was definitely an experience. I of course got stuck on the top bunk because "I'm the smallest" - Thanks mom. We had a lot of fun though. We stayed up for about two hours eating candy and drinking our wine, getting enough of a buzz to put us to sleep. The train ride was ten hours but we all slept most of the way. When we woke up the next morning, at 6 am, we were in PRAGUE!! Sooooo exciting!

Praha (Prague) will have to wait... Sorry I'm tired and my parents are here so I have to actually get up early tomorrow and be productive, don't act so surprised. But at least you get some pictures since I have a computer that functions now!

I'm rich!

Basilica near our hostel

On the Chain Bridge

View from the Buda side

Pretty.

Beef Goulash