Budapest

I was super pumped for this trip, because Budapest has many Turkish baths and I heard that everything in the city would be cheaper. The Turkish baths were outdoor and indoor baths that are naturally heated, and many of them are medicinal baths with natural minerals that help your body relax and improve skin. (Not like I ever knew this before the trip). We flew in late Thursday night and flew our late Sunday evening, so it was the perfect amount of time. The weather was finally getting warmer, but we still needed coats and boots! I went with five of my other friends and we stayed at a Best Western on the Pest side – Buda and Pest are divided by the Danube river. The day began with a cappuccino, chocolate pastry and a bottle of water – which to my shock came out to be only $3.50. (Twice as cheap as anything in Rome). We did a free walking tour of Budapest that lasted about two hours. The tour guide was extremely wise and told us great stories about the locations. We visited the main square, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the US embassy, a monument attributed to soviet soldiers that had died in WWII, and the parliament building. The parliament building was really big and beautiful – and apparently one of the 100 wonders of the world and one of the largest in Europe. We really wanted to come back and tour the inside on Saturday, but unfortunately all the tickets for the tours were sold out and you couldn’t wander in and look around without a guide. After this tour, we found a place called the Hummus Bar and I was SOOO excited to have falafel and hummus! Since this was the day of Unofficial, we wanted to start drinking in the early afternoon. We went barhopping around Budapest, and ended up at the number 2 best rated bar by Lonely Planet - Szimpla Kert. It wasn’t elegant with lots of drink options like you would expect. Instead, it was a ruins pub that was three  stories big with falls full of graffiti and old artistic looking junk everywhere. I actually really liked it and had a lot of fun there that night. Towards the end of the night, I came across guys from a bachelor party who were flying in from Capetown, it was a lot of fun talking with them and telling them inappropriate things. We ended up joining their bachelor party until the next bar – at which point we decided it was late and time to go home. The next day we woke up and went to the large market hall to check out Hungarian spices, foods and other bakery treats. It was a really big indoor market, and I picked up postcards and some desserts here. Next, we went inside Saint Stephen’s Cathedral and saw his preserved hand in one of the back rooms from 1058. It was pretty cool but kind of weird. Everyone wanted to visit a famous underground cave, so we spent the rest of the afternoon taking a tour inside one. I had never been in a cave before so it was an interesting experience. We also went up Fisherman’s bastion and the Buda Castle which were up on a hill. We got panoramic views of Budapest, watched the sun go down, and enjoyed freshly baked cinnamon bread. In the evening, we walked across the famous chain bridge and went to a typical Hungarian restaurant. Hungary is known for meat dishes, so I knew I wouldn’t find much to eat – I actually ate a dish that had fried cheese with rice and tarter sauce….not the best. Our agenda for the night was to visit the number 1 rated bar in the world – called A38, which was a bar/club on a big boat. It was really cool to be on a club in a boat, but it was not what we expected. We ended the night by returning to Szimpla Kert. Our last day in Budapest was planned to be very relaxing. We went to the Szechenyi Baths, one of the best known baths in all of Budapest that had over 2 dozen different types of baths indoors and outdoors. The outdoors ones were mostly hot water – warmed naturally by spring water. It was really nice going into this enormous hot tub because the weather outside was cold. I also tried several of the indoor baths – ones that had natural minerals or were medicinal. It was an interesting experience, because I was not going into pools or water that had any chlorine. I ended my trip to Budapest with an hour long massage – that was half the price of what it would be in the states.