Bloggers of the globe;Hitched a bus to Budapest, Hungary for the weekend... thoroughly enjoyable experience. Let's recap it together, what do you think?
First things first- bus out of Prague at 6.30am. Which means arriving at the bus depot right before 6. Therefore leaving the kolej around 5.20am to switch metro lines and get there a little bit early, as I am nothing if not my father's daughter. Which meant waking up at 4.15 so there would be time for a couple hits of the snooze button and a leisurely bowl of cocoa puffs.. but I digress. Woke up early, got on the bus- yahoo. Stopped off in Bratislava for a half hour, attempted to use a loo but had no Slovakian cash so used the scary bus one with a hole in the floor (yikes!) then back on the bus 4 hours to Budapest.
Our hostel was spectacular.. 'Twas an apartment renovated with open lofts in each room in an Asian/fusion-on-a-budget style run by this former American rocker-boy and his Hungarian girlie. I had access to a real stove, with an oven!! I was very excited about that... made a glorious omelet and Hungarian sausages for dinner one night.. but back to the matter at hand!
Hung out at the hostel a bit, but Katie was restless to see the city, so we set off in search of Hungarian adventures! -
Wandered the area around the river for a long while, shot endless pictures, then made our way over to a supposed underground club.. Which turned out to be wicked amazing courtyard that had been converted into a club with multiple levels, dancefloor in the dungeon-type basement area. However, it was far too early to be clubbing at that time, so we bought a few beverages at the local potroviny (mini-mart) then proceeded to plop down on a statue and have philosophical discussions about life, love, and Halloween whilest sitting. Eventually made it back to the club, fooled around to the reggae music for a bit till we couldn't stand the smoke any longer, and decided to make our exhausted little booties back to the hostel. Little did we know, public transport ends at 11pm in Budapest- oops! Oh, and did I mention it was raining? No? Well.... yeah, it was.
Made it back to the hostel, and didn't resurface till around 10.30am the next day... But then we went exploring with our new mate Chris, who's lived in Budapest for over 6 months, so he should know tons, yes? Not so much... but we still had fun!
Took us up Buda Hill, which was a great vantage point to see the city-
Had tacos for lunch (questionable decision) then explored a bit more, with Chris stopping frequently for a nice cold beer.Eventually made our way to one of Budapest's most spectacular attractions- the Turkish baths. There are apparently hot springs under the city that make for excellent "healing waters". Though I highly doubt they run from the underground in this day and age, the romanticism adds to the atmosphere while you're wading around in a giant body of water filled with people (oftentimes hairy men covered in jewelry with girls curled around them). I've never seen so many speedos in my life! But it was an experience to say the least, and the water did feel amazing. However we got trapped "after hours" and then told to pay 1200 florents (about $8) each to get the gate unlocked for us; which we politely refused, as no one told us of any such restriction, or that we were supposed to have been gone (there were many other people still in the water). So we had to follow an irritable Hungarian woman around for some time, until she finally shooed us and let us free. However, we'd lost Rakel and Chris at that point so I had the wonderful anxiety again of worrying where a kamradka could have wandered off to..
Found our way back to the hostel, had a wonderful breakfast for dinner, chilled with some hostelmates, then ran for the door like excited puppies when we heard Rakel's voice in the hall. A sweet reunion indeed.
Next day woke up early (8am) to hit up a flea market known for former Communist propoganda and 'authentic' Hungarian antiques. Had a bit of an issue with the bus schedule, though... So I did what any rational American girl would do, I stopped at a mall and asked information where to go! Got there no problem after that, and it was truly spectacular.. I nearly bought a coin from a Jewish ghetto in Germany from the 1940's, but it was over $200 and I couldn't rationalize it, though I still wish I had sacrificed good-tasting food for a month and bought it.. But again I digress. Didn't have enough time to look through each booth, but Lord knows we tried. Katie ended up with some gorgeous old buttons and a few second-hand black and white photos; Rakel bought several sets of photos as well; and I got a former Hungarian Soviet militaria satchel. All in all, a successful trip.
Did more walking; saw parliment, saw more of Pest, saw the house of Terror, Hero square, then wandered around the labirynth underneath the palace grounds by lantern light.. pretty cool. Then chinese food, good conversation, and back to the hostel for a good night's sleep for our 7am bus in the morning. -
Oh, but there was a party happening at the hostel! So... very little sleep for the poor little American girls. But it was all good- enjoyable people, stellar music, tolerable beer (everything but Czech tastes terrible now) and they only stayed a few hours, so we still got.... 3 hours.... of sleep. But wait, you haven't heard the best part! Daylight savings just so happens to take hold of Europe at 3am on that particular day, so we ended up waking up an hour early!The girls went back to sleep and I took one for the team and remained awake to make sure we didn't miss our bus time.
All in all, a glorious weekend. Very relaxed, full of great photoshoots, and with people whose company I was actually inclined to crave- definitely a winner.
That's about all I know, hope the states are being nice to ya!
Cheers,
Erin.
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