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| view from the chain bridge of parliament in the background on the Pest side |
I'm going to start by saying that Hungarian food is divine. Wow. It was all literally everything that i love-grilled vegetables, raw veggies and something that resembled RANCH, normal breakfast with egg white omelettes, giant apples, great wine, even better cocktails, tasty real red meat, I could go on and on.. From our first lunch after the all-nighter at a quaint little restaurant where I had an "appetizer" of three scallops in a great sauce to our last meal there at a fantastic really nice restaurant, everything was better than perfect. Can I just say that I had my first FILET of real thick, juicy, medium-rare steak in over eleven weeks??? It did not disappoint. Bleu cheese and horseradish crusted filet with a giant grilled pepper filled with every other kind of veggie in a yummy sauce. It was basically the USA in my mouth. Yum. After a few bottles of wine between the three of us- Abby, Ben, andI- and a lovely dinner with a great string quartet playing, we experienced the best of Hungarian cuisine, that is for sure.
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| my STEAK dinner with grilled veggies. still drooling and it's been 6 days since.. |
In researching this new city Abby, Ben, and I were about to explore, I discovered the city is actually two- Buda on one side of the Danube river and Pest on the other! Learn something new everyday.. Budapest was never somewhere I had on my list to visit while I was here, but when Abby found these super cheap flights from Barcelona there for a weekend, we decided it was something we couldn't pass up. What are the chances we would randomly decide to go to Budapest for the fun of it? So we took one for the team and used one of our three absences for class and headed to Barcelona on a late Thursday night for what ended up being the weekend of a lifetime. What began by spending our first entire night in the airport ended by spending our first entire day in the airport as well.. What college kids do for cheap flights.. The overnight part was surprisingly not as bad as I anticipated, we got some sleep on a McDonald's bench using our giant backpacks as pillows while hugging our purses, only to wake up at 4:30 am for a good ol McDonald's breakfast to start our day of wine tasting, touring, and first night out!
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| love sleeping on hard benches.. |
The return was deadly though. May have been a little self-inflicted but also terrible to come off a wild night out to sit in an airport all. day. long. Anyways, on to the exciting part :)
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| good morning barcelona airport! |
We woke up to search for our gate and at around 5 am, we figured out we were in the wrong terminal :) good thing we still had 4 hours until our flight!
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| the magic vending machine that gives you free oreos :) we camped out right here. |
Arriving in Hungary, we made our way to the hotel (not hostel after last time..) right in the heart of Pest- a few blocks from the river and next to the Chain Bridge. We got settled and headed for a Hungarian Wine Cellar up a giant hill near the Buda Castle for a tour and tasting by a Sommelier- someone who runs the cellar. It was so far underground that they don't take any sort of credit card because they don't even get a signal! After walking down all of these stairs through stone into the center of the earth, we began our tasting of 9 Hungarian wines. They were really good! Except for the one that tasted like whiskey.. We both dumped that one out.
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| literally, the center of the earth. |
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| this is what happens when you don't have a mom to take a picture of you.. #selfie |
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| the descent. bad part was, the bathroom was also at the top of the stairs.. |
After 3 hours of wine after wine, we wandered around the Fisherman's Bastion, a huge stone church it looked like with beautiful carvings and mosaics.
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| before the wine tasting.. |
Power nap and shower later and we were ready for Ben to arrive and to hit the town running.
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| the fisherman's bastion at night |
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| view from top of castle hill at night. beautifullll |
After walking into many bars that were filled with smoke, (I forgot how nice it was to have that law) we finally found one where you couldn't smoke. Happened to be a really hip place with about three stories, random hidden rooms, awesome decorations, and great drinks! What more could I ask for?
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| Abby and I at Instant, for the second night :) |
The night continued as I introduced myself to a few people and quickly made friends with a group of guys from holland on a fraternity trip to Budapest for the weekend :) perfect. They knew where to go for the clubs and places that were open late, so Abby, Ben, and I headed to the Hungarian version of a Spanish discoteca. So. Wild. Those people know how to party!
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| deadly.. |
Another awesome place with great Mojitos and my all around favorite drink sex-on-the-beach. All of a sudden, 4:30 am rolls around and we realize we need to head home for some sleep so we can actually function for our one full day of sightseeing!! our new Dutch friends were so much fun, they were hilarious! A group of like 12 crazy 30 year olds basically.. We expected to never see them again because 1-there are a million bars to go to in budapest, 2-we have really cool flip phones for our international numbers that may or may not have enough money on them to use.. and 3-it's two 21 year old girls and their 30 year old cousin.. like seriously, why would we run into them again.. just wait.
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| looks like trouble to me.. |
Good thing we stumbled across a great brunch spot in our search for a bar without smoke the night before-this place had egg white omelette, chocolate chip pancakes, regular omelettes, French toast, eggs Benedict, and every other thing on the Arsenal Brunch menu I have been craving for months. After a bloody Mary and 4 entrees for the 3 of us, we were feeling a little better to head to parliament for a tour of the beautiful building.
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| Brunch |
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| Parliament.. from the outside :( |
Except trip advisor failed us for the first time yet.. It was sold out!! It said online tickets could be bought right before, no big deal.. Well that was a lie. We saw it from the outside but weren't able to go inside unfortunately..
Saw the "shoes on the Danube" monument-very sad story of Jewish people that were executed and shoved into the river during the Holocaust. Their shoes are bolted to the bank as a reminder of the event.. it was neat to see and understand but interesting that there wasn't anything explaining what happened on a plaque or something.. We googled the significance afterwards to figure out what it was about.
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| the monument |
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| on the banks of the Danube |
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| random statues we found walking around |
Hiking up to the Castle District was a fun time too! Great weather, a little chilly compared to Spain but still nice. Great views from the Buda side of parliament, the river, and the beautiful Chain Bridge.
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| view from Buda on to Pest across the Chain Bridge and to St. Stephen's Basilica in the background |
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| Ben and I on the hike up the castle |
We then were in for a treat-Hungarian Baths! Natural hot springs that are open all year long outside. Perfect way to spend the afternoon lounging in the pool, running in the whirlpool spiral everyone created, and seeing our Dutch friends again!! It is a small world when you run into the same group of guys randomly 4 times in a giant city with a million bars and clubs and things to do.
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| the baths. coolest pool i've ever seen! |
We had a great time until we had to get out. Then the mini hand towels I thought were a good idea were the worst idea I've had.. We froze. But it was ok because the milka bar Abby and I sniped in the train station warmed us up.
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| I think that is a dominican cloister church steeple? it was on the way to the wine tasting, not really sure.. this is when a tour guide comes in handy. |
We picked up some appetizers and got ready for the best dinner yet! The gypsy band, more great wine, amazing meat and a nice start to our evening was perfect. After wandering the streets a little bit we headed back to the first bar from Friday because it was a safe call and we knew where it was :) then made a call to some new friends and met them at possibly the coolest dance club in Europe. I've been to a lot now between Madrid, alicante, London, and Granada, and this one was so awesome. The drinks were great, the decor was even better, and we were with our new best friends who were so much fun.
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| the coolest new best friend because his name was PIETER-spelled the Dutch way (the right way) and Gram's way :) Uncle Piet, I now know 3 of the coolest Pieter's in the world. |
Unfortunately, Abby and I had to get dragged out of there by Ben at 430 am because it was time for our 6:30 am flight back to Barcelona! Talk about roughing it. Holy cow.. That was potentially the worst flight I have ever had. Ryan air, no reclining seats, the last row, and not sober. Oh ya, and a massive backpack on my back full of stuff I have no idea where it is because I threw it in there at 5 am.. We made it, and stayed in the Barcelona airport all day because the original plan of "seeing Barcelona for the day" was not in the cards after our night..
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| sorry mom, this is disgusting, but i had to do it.. |
After hitting the McDonald's one too many times (obviously...), we entertained ourselves for 12 hours and made it back to alicante in one piece.
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| one last Moore cousin shot, until April 27th when Ben comes to Alicante!! |
That was definitely one of the best weekends of my life. I didn't do as good of job describing the amazingness of it than it really was but all I know is if you ever have the chance, go for at least 4 days. And don't choose a 6 am flight. The company is more than half the fun too. Between Abby, Ben, and the coolest Dutch guys ever, I had such a great weekend just hanging out with them! Soooo worth the bad flights, I had an incredible weekend.
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| where in the US would i ever see this.. |
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| Goodbye Budapest, Until next time!! |
Now, the mid terms I have this week. Ouch.
-k
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