Bopping Through Budapest

The week before we left for Budapest was not a great one for me. As you may know, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday by a long shot. My family has a ton of amazing traditions that are hard to be separated from. This was the first time that my homesickness really took hold.   However, on Thursday, Annie and I skipped one of our classes and went to the gym and then to the mall. I bought some Christmas socks (among other things) so that put me in a much better mood. For Thanksgiving dinner, I went with some of my favorite Barcelona friends to an American bar called George Payne where we paid €15 for Thanksgiving dinner, including turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, the whole nine yards. It was edible, but it was fun to be with these wonderful people.

I got through the week because I was looking forward to heading off to Budapest, and the city did not disappoint. When Annie and I arrived in Hungary, we began to search for Andrea, who was meeting us there. Our original meeting point did not work out because the budget airline we flew had dropped us in a very weird part of the airport, but we found her eventually. We hopped on the bus and then on the metro on the way to our hostel. Our hostel was named the Wombat Hostel which is awesome because wombats are my spirit animal. The hostel was clean and well equipped. And the cost was very affordable. We were in a four person, female room but we didn’t know whether or not we’d have another roommate. We also had individual lockers in the room that only our key cards opened. It was a great hostel experience! It was also located in a great area, very central to the rest of the city.

By this time, it was about 2 PM and we were starving. We were directed in by one of the guys at the front desk to a delicious Hungarian restaurant called Castro Bistro just down the street from the hostel. Two hours later, after we had a deliciously filling lunch and some dessert, we made our way towards the Christmas markets. As it was about 4 PM, it was already dark out. The sun in Budapest sets around 3:45 PM. The Christmas markets were even more magical at the night. We wandered through seas of stalls filled with Christmas ornaments, household objects, and warm hats and slippers! I bought one of the hats, which definitely improved the quality of my time in Budapest.

It is winter in Budapest. Last week in Barcelona (and this week) it’s been a high of at least 60 every day. And while it have rained a few of those days, the weather here is quite comfortable. It was nice to pass that up for the weekend. When we stepped out of the airport, I knew it smelled like winter. And while I needed to wear two pairs of socks and two sweaters at a time in order to keep myself happy, it was really nice to experience winter for the week. It was also nice to not have to wear a coat when we got back on Monday.

After an afternoon of Christmas markets (Budapest is almost as obsessed with Christmas as I am), we found ourselves at a beautiful Ferris wheel. I actually have a small fear of heights that I normally keep hidden but this wheel brought them out. However, once we had made it to the top, I realized it was so worth it because seeing the city at night from one of the highest points was awesome.

Budapest is actually two cities: Buda and Pest, that are separated by the Danube river. We were staying on the Pest side, where most of the central city is, but it was on the Ferris wheel that we caught our first views of Buda.

Inspired by our ride through the air, we strolled down to the river. Actually, on the riverbank, we had a nice guy from New Jersey offer to take our photo.

While the river and the city are quite magical at night, we had been outside wandering around for a few hours by then, and we were absolutely frozen. We followed this chilly walk up with a few cups of mulled wine, which are sold all across the city in every single Christmas market. It was delicious, and they put oranges with cloves in them in the pots so it smelled just like Grancy’s house at Thanksgiving!

It was also on this walk that Andrea told a Hungarian woman who asked her for help that she doesn’t speak Czech…

We decided to go back to the hotel to recuperate and warm ourselves up by snuggling up in our beds. We sat and giggled for a while before we got ourselves out of our warm cocoons. We weren’t hungry yet because we had eaten lunch so late and for so long, so we went down to the hostel bar, where we had each gotten a coupon for a free drink. We actually ended up spending the rest of the night down there: drinking glasses of wine that cost less than a euro, watching weird Mickey Mouse videos synced to house music, and catching up on our lives. Here we also made a friend who was “Loving Life” and offered us a lot of “Restpect.”

When we decided to go back up to the room to chit chat some more from the comfort of our beds, our roommate had arrived. She was asleep when we got in, so after having a quick powwow in the bathroom to make sure that she wasn’t a serial killer, we went back in to our room and were soon asleep.

The next day was a big day. We woke up and grabbed breakfast at an adorable little café just down the street (after a misadventure into the weird Café Vespa across the street). The Christmas spirit continued here with a delicious Christmas mix tea before we headed a few blocks down the street to St. Stephen’s Basilica. The Basilica itself is stunning inside, very colorful and warm (and enormous), but we were really there for the view.  We climbed the many spiral staircases to the top (even the iron ones that are see through, hello fear of heights again) for beautiful views of the city (or cities, we saw both Buda and Pest from up there).

OH also in front of the church, there was yet another Christmas market!

After that it was time for ice-skating! We headed up to City Park to one of the biggest ice rinks I’ve even been on. We strapped on the skates and spent a solid 45 minutes skating around the rink to some awesome American pop throwbacks before they closed for lunch and we were off to the baths.

The baths are one of Budapest’s main attractions. The city is covered in thermal baths, swimming pools and spas. We chose the Szechenyi baths, one of the most popular baths in Budapest, with at least 15 different baths to choose from. Our tickets got us entrances to all of the baths and our own private cabins to lock our things away in. We started in the outdoor thermal baths and even though it was freezing outside, the baths were warm and comfortable. After spending quite a while outside, we moved inside to explore the rest of the place. These baths feel like a step into the past. We bath hopped for a while and even spent a few minutes (just kidding, I mean, seconds) in the sauna that was kept at about 70°C. That was probably the hottest place I’ve ever been in the whole world, but the rest of the baths were extremely relaxing.

For lunch (even though it was already dark out), we headed back to one of the Christmas markets. Annie ate delicious goulash, a traditional Hungarian food, out of a bread bowl and Andrea and I both opted for sausage and sauerkraut. Then, it was nap time.

After nap time, we prepared ourselves for a traditional Hungarian dinner at the Strudel House. Andrea and I both chose cheese and shrimp soup in a bread bowl (this was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten). For dessert, we chose the yummiest strudel I’ve ever had that’s all homemade on the premises. Apple strudel, with vanilla ice cream, and cinnamon sauce. It was perfect. My stomach was quite happy with me after the meal ended.

Post dinner, we hit up one of the ruin pubs that are famous in Budapest. The bar we chose, called Szmipla Kert, is one of the most highly rated in the country. But its not one of those super expensive, fancy-schmancy bars. After the end of the cold war, Budapest was left with a ton of abandoned factories and tenement buildings. At the beginning of the 21^st century, these spaces were turned into bars and filled with furniture from abandoned houses and garage and estate sales. So this was basically one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. There were a ton of connecting rooms, each with a different kind of bar, as well as an outdoor terrace and a garden. We drank and explored and it was awesome.

The next morning we cleared out of our hostel and headed to the most adorable café down the street from the Wombat called the Bluebird café. Then we were filled up and ready to head out on another day full of activities. We started at the Great Synagogue, which is the biggest synagogue in Europe. And also the most beautiful one. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a synagogue except the ones my friends had their bat mitzvahs in. This one was ornately decorated and actually extremely similar to the inside of many of the churches we’ve visited this semester.

It also had a gorgeous metal tree sculpture in the back that was a memorial to the Hungarian Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. It was striking and hauntingly beautiful.

Then, we headed across the Chain Bridge and the Danube River to Buda. We walked up the hill to the Palace and wandered around the Budapest History Museum (kind of boring actually, could have passed on this one.) But it was warm! When we were leaving, we got a little lost and ended up walking along the backside of the palace. This was odd, and I’m sure most tourists don’t see this side of the building, but we actually saw awesome views of the real Buda. Then we kept wandering through this side of the city to the Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion. These places offered stunning views of the Pest side too.

After that, it was back across the river for us. Time was passing too quickly! We headed to the Shoes on the Danube, a memorial to the Jews who were shot and killed in Budapest during the Holocaust. In one incident, they were forced to line up along the water, remove their shoes, and await their deaths. Their bodies then fell into the river and floated away. This memorial is beautiful and terrifying, featuring about 40 pairs of iron shoes.

The last stop of the day was the stunning parliament building. This is one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen. And then we headed for a quick lunch to Spiler Bistro Bar before we had to rush off to the airport for Andrea’s flight.

The night was not over here. Annie and I were flying home on Ryanair, a budget airline. This was the first and last time we will ever fly on this airline. About 45 minutes before our flight, we were shepherded out of the airport and into a weird building that looked like a place in which you would herd cattle. This was a weird part of the experience. It got weirder. After standing in this pen for about 30 minutes, a man in a yellow jacket came out and told us there was something wrong with the plane and that they were taking us back. They took us back upstairs and told us to wait. And so we did. For four hours. Around 10, they gave us a ton of free food, including sandwiches and water and soda. Like a TON of snacks. And around midnight, they put us on a plane. We didn’t get home until 3:30 AM. It was definitely an extreme way to get home, and not the best option, but it didn’t put a damper on the trip. Also, Annie walked straight into a glass door before getting on the plane round two so that made us laugh a lot.

In parts of Budapest, you could feel the eastern European influence. In others, it seemed quirkier and more funky than other cities affected by the Cold War. Budapest reminded me of Prague in that it was something mythical, but it definitely wasn’t a fairy tale. It was more like Game of Thrones, a darker version. Something where people’s heads were chopped off and magic wasn’t always used for good. It was awesome.

Also, Budapest loves Christmas.  It’s all around the city.  And that’s awesome.

Budapest was the best.  It hasn’t topped Vienna in my mind, but it is definitely at the top of the list.