BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

I love Budapest. I'm not sure if it's because it is the first place that I traveled in Europe outside of Germany, or if it is because I felt so cool with my giant backpack, but the city was fasinating to me! Arriving in the Budapest airport, I was disappointed that they didn't stamp my passport, but found my way with two trains, and two subway switches to my hostel. Did you know that Budapest has the oldest subway system on the continent of Europe? Hungarian is by far the most confusing language I've ever heard (we later learned that the alphabet has over 44 letters and has 29 verb congigations!), but I have learned now to get along fine without understanding much from my time in Germany. The hostel, named NJoy Budapest, was very centrally located, but super confusing to get into, with its outside entrance into a courtyard that required a different code to go into the staircase to the second floor where the front door was located. Greg, the overly zealous attendent, gave me the grand tour of the place (which only had 2 rooms other than bedrooms) and I got my choice of beds for Aubrey Anne and me. I sat in the common room and read about Budapest, which I had failed to research ahead of time, and Aubrey Anne made it to the hostel shortly after.

We learned very quickly that Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, and we headed to the hilly Buda side to take in the views. We also learned, very quickly, that not only do you have to purchase your subway ticket, but you have to validate it every time, or you have to pay 6000forants, like we did! We vowed to hate the Hungarian subway system and validated the heck out of every other ticket. The strangely named Fishman's Wharf gave us the best views of the city at sunset (even though we had to climbs at least 24 sets of stairs to get there). We kind of stumbled on a Brandy and Sausauge festival happening in the courtyard of the old castle, and after paying admission and getting our free tasting glass, we both found out we didn't like Brandy at all. The food was still great, the atmosphere was breath taking, and the music was absoultely hilarious and included a scrawny man singing a song that we like to call "Music is the Best" because he just kept repeating that and kicking his legs in the air. It's starting to get cold here in Europe, so after exploring secret passages around the castle for a little bit, we headed back to the hostel to watch a movie with two Austrailians and three boys from outside of London.

The second day had us on a bus going to the outskirts of the city and looking for the flea market. It was really neat because unlike the used soap and chewed on Barbies sold at our flea markets, this one had beautiful (cheap) silver and real Soviet and Nazi artifacts. For lunch we went to a really cute resturant with an English menu and umbrellas on the ceiling, and I got a saladad with Hungarian goat cheese, which tasted a lot more like mozerella cheese to me. I made Aubrey Anne go to the Museum of Terror, which is the building where criminals of the state during the Nazi and Soviet reigns were imprisioned and executed, but it ended up being more confusing than interesting, since most of it was in Hungarian. The night ended after we paid to see a Battle of the Bands competition that was blasting great American oldies, but turned into Hungarian speeches, chants, and cheering as soon as we paid. We couldn't figure it out, and saw someone waving a gun and a panda bear in the air, so we left.

There are numerous free walking tours in Budapest, but we picked a great one on Sunday morning that was led by a local. She gave us great insight into their tragic past, proud statues and buildings, and their current backward and poor government. Making our way through the hated Budapest subway system, we got a little bit turned around and I started heading toward the correct platform, when I realized Aubrey Anne wasn't behind me. When I walked back I saw her, standing still and flalling on one leg at the top of the escalator. When I ran up, I saw that her shoe and jeans had been skewed by the prangs at the base, and that no matter how hard we tried to pull we couldn't get them out. I got to hit the emergency stop button (awesome!) and I eventually ripped her jeans a little to get them out (she only has 2 pairs for 3 months in Europe) and got the poor shoe out of the esculator, which now has a giant, gaping hole in the heel.. She is still wearing them right now.

Next, we learned that Turkish Baths are pretty confusing but very fun. There were baths that were freezing cold, and some hot tubs that were boiling hot. The outside baths were the best because they had super fast lazy rivers. We met four Irish guys that couldn't believe that our teeth were real. Later, we really enjoyed the fried Langos and spicy goulash they cooked for at the hostel for free, and had great conversation with the hostel owners about Hungary and the toxic mud that had destroyed the suburbs of Budapest.

Aubrey Anne and I ended up meeting the Irish boys at an Irish Pub near our hostel, and got to see first hand how to play exciting Irish games like "Pass the Stool", where you literally just pass a bar stool around the bar until the owner yells at you, from what I could tell. Our tour guide told us about "ruined bars" that are now poping up in the old Jewish part of Budapest. Since most of the Hungarian Jews were misplaced or murdered during the Holocast days, bars have opened using the materials and furniture that was left behind by the old residents of the apartments, and the bar we went to was a whole apartment complex. We played fusball with two guys from Budapest and talked a lot about politics and New York City.

We had no trouble finding our Bus on Monday morning, and then we were on to Vienna!

I forgot my camera cord, so I'll upload pictures at the end of two weeks!