Buda-post

Szia!! (Pronounced "see ya" as in "see ya later") That is Hungarian for hello! It is rather confusing because in Hungary hello is good-bye and good-bye is hello. This past weekend Cody and I took a trip to Budapest, Hungary! It was awesome. We started off our trip on Thursday afternoon with a 7 hour bus ride. We used Student Agency to travel and the bus was super comfortable, we got free drinks and there were movies, music and wifi.  Looing out the window was entertainment enough... some of the Czech countryside looks like magical forests and is very scenic. It made the ride go by quickly and was inexpensive. We got there around 10:30 and made our way to our hostel. Upon first entering the hostel it seemed a little sketchy, but once you got inside it was very nice and ended up being a great stay. This was my first ever hostel experience. Hostels are really cool because its pretty much just a bunch of 20-something year olds staying together so it was fun to talk and meet new people. Some of the people we met are actually studying abroad in Italy with one of my friends from Clemson and she is her roommate! What are the chances! The world is getting increasingly smaller I think. Here is a picture of our beds.

 

The next morning we went on a 3 hour free walking tour around the city which was really helpful to see the city and the major sites. Our guide taught us about some Hungarian history and some Hungarian words. He brought us across the Chain Bridge to the palace and told us a lot of other cool things to see on the way. My favorite place by far was Matthias Church at the end of the tour. It was very beautiful and colorful and overlooked the city.

 

Saint Stephen's Basilica

Chain Bridge

Changing of the guard at the palace

 

 Matthias Church- favorite building I've seen in Europe so far

 

The rest of the day we tried to see the parliament building and St. Stephens Basilica but they were closing by the time we got there. March 15th weekend was a national holiday for Hungary- it was the day they lost a war so that was kind of interesting, but a lot of the big sites were free to the public. Normally you have to pay to go into parliament and you get a tour guide. Since we didn't get in on Friday we ended up going the next day when it was free. Unfortunately we had to wait an hour and a half in line and they only had one room open so I was kind of bummed about that. I've heard the whole parliament tour was really cool, but I guess I'll have to go back another time! The building itself was MASSIVE. Also on a side note... Cody and I were taking a selfie in front of the building and then a tv camera guy started filming us and so we are basically famous in Hungary, just saying. Here is our famous selfie if you ever spot us on the Hungarian news...

 

 

 

Inside parliament ^

 

After parliament, we saw St. Stephens Basilica, which was gorgeous.

 

 

After we saw the basilica we headed over to the Grand Market. It was way bigger than Krakow's market and had food, souvenirs and all kinds of Hungarian things. We ate the Hungarian food langos which was AMAZING. Probably one of my favorite meals I've had here. There are different variations of it, but its kind of like a funnel cake, pancake, cheesy bread with a bunch of toppings.

 

Langos ^ :)

 

In the evening we went to the famous Budapest thermal baths which were so relaxing. Our hostel people told us to go to the Gallert baths because of the architecture, but it was pretty small compared to the other ones. Still was great to relax!

 

 

One last thing! We also went on a pub tour and got to see the famous ruin bars. These bars are made basically out of ruins and have random stuff hanging everywhere. One of them was in an old school building which I found funny. One of the ruin bars is ranked the 3rd top bar in the world!!

 

 

 

We had a packed weekend and got to see so many sites. Budapest ranked high on the list, I would definitely go back for another visit.