Budapest

St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest


 Another weekend, another country. I've been to four countries in four weeks. How amazing is that? I have been in the Czech for a month now. Sometimes it feels like I have been here for longer than that and other times time seems to be going by fast. This weekend was Easter and we had Monday off because it is a national holiday. Thirteen of us went to Budapest, Hungary for the weekend. We left early on Saturday morning. It took about five hours to get there and we switched trains in Breclav. It was about noon when we arrived. Budapest is home to about 1.74 million people, but if you include the surrounding suburbs it is closer to 3 million. Budapest is famous for its geothermal springs. There are over eighty springs in the city. You cannot go to Budapest without visiting one of their spas. Budapest is also famous for the Chain Bridge, Fashion street, one of the largest Parliament buildings in the world, and many beautiful churches. The Danube river runs through the middle of the city. One side of the city is called Buda and the other Pesti, the two sides were joined and now the city is called Budapest.  Once we arrived, we bought our metro (subway) tickets. Hungary has their own currency, the Forint. Five thousand Forints is equivalent to twenty U.S. dollars. I've definitely improved my mental math skills by constantly converting currencies to U.S. dollars. We found the right metro line and found our hostel. Unfortunately, our hostel was located far from the city center so we had to take the metro anytime we wanted to go anywhere. The hostel was newer though and the rooms were nice. It was a cold and rainy day on Saturday, but my roommate, Hayley, and I went to the center of town anyway. Everyone else stayed at the hostel. The main square is called Deak Ter. We walked around the square and did some shopping. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the river, but ate inside because it was so chilly. We had a Hungarian beer called Soproni, it was very good. It was a light beer, similar to Heineken. After we ate, we went to a souvenir shop. It started pouring rain and we went to a cafe to escape the rain. We wanted to go on a dinner cruise on the Danube that evening, but it was sold out by the time we got there. So we decided to just go back to the hostel. When we got back, we got some drinks and spent the rest of the night playing card games.  

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. We went to mass at St. Stephen's Basilica. The basilica was very close to the main square. It was a beautiful church with several large domed roofs. The inside was richly decorated in marble pillars and gold trim. There were statues and paintings everywhere. The service was in Hungarian so we didn't really know what was going on. The church was also freezing, so we were shivering the whole time. It was nice though.

Outside thermal pool


 Afterwards we ate at a traditional restaurant. It was very good. We wanted to go to a spa that afternoon so we went to buy tickets. We bought our tickets for the spa and a boat cruise on the Danube for that evening.  We took the metro to the spa called Szechenyi. The spa was basically a huge circular building with saunas, massage places, changing rooms, and indoor pools. Then there were three huge outside pools in the middle courtyard of the building. There were 18 pools total at the spa. It was cold and windy that day, but the pools were like large hot tubs. Some pools were warmer than others and some of the indoor pools had different minerals in them. Some smelled like mint and others smelled terrible because of the sulfur-like smell that came from the natural springs. Two interesting things I observed that may or may not be worth mentioning: European men like to wear speedos, especially the older gentlemen. We could easily pick out American boys as they all wore long swimming trunks. Secondly, couples often engage in intimate activity in the very public pools. We got a kick out of watching some couples get a little "too close" in such a public place. European couples are much more open about their relationships though. It is quite normal to see two people making out on the street or a man grabbing a woman's butt. Americans find it weird to engage in public affection like that, but they do say Europeans are the best lovers... The spa was a great time and we enjoyed relaxing.

Night cruise on the Danube River

 Afterwards we had some time to kill before we needed to meet for the cruise so we went back to the hostel. The cruise began at ten o'clock. We walked as a group to the boat. When we boarded, we were given a glass of champagne. They provided a buffet of traditional food. It was all very good. They had salad, soups, meat, potatoes, dumplings, cheeses, and of course dessert. My favorite was the Hungarian goulash soup. It was a tomato based soup with potatoes, carrots, and chucks of stew meat. The dessert was little cups of mousse. The cruise was about an hour and a half. The city is gorgeous at night. We took a taxi to the hostel after the cruise. We got up early again to catch the first train home. We all wanted to get home so we could rest and get ready to leave again for our group trip to Vienna and Venice and then Spring Break. We leave Wednesday morning for a two day trip to Vienna, Austria and two days in Venice, Italy. We then have a week off for Spring Break.