buda buda buda budaaa

So, eastward adventure blog post #2.

Only because certain people (*ahem* Joanie *ahem*) keep pestering me to write more (haha kidding, thanks for the emails, they keep me motivated lol)

Thus, Friday 4/2 Caitlin, Olivia and I woke up in Budapest! Before going we had had a little trouble booking our hostels because we booked one for Friday and Saturday with Erin and her friend Beria, but then when we tried to get it for Thursday night also, it was somehow already filled up! So we had to book a different one for Thursday night. Anyways, when we woke up Friday morning, we had breakfast (free from the hostel - we only stay places with free bfast haha), and we had to strip the beds and check out of our first hostel so we could go and check into our other hostel lol. We checked out by 10 and got to the other one, Aboriginal Hostel around 1030. That one was great. It had all these cool decorations inside and a common room with couches and lounge chairs and a TV with movies and games! It was definitely the nicest one I'd stayed in. And the people who ran it were awesome as well - we couldn't check in right away because the other people hadn't checked out yet, but we could leave our bags there and the guy there gave us a "virtual tour" of Budapest. It was really cute because he had just finished giving the *exact* same virtual tour to a group of girls before us (american girls studying abroad - one was from Connecticut and knew some of the same people as Caitlin and Erin, who are also from CT haha), but he was so enthusiastic about his tour lol. So we sat down and he circled the major spots to see on the map. Afterwards, the map was barely legible because apparently ALL of Budapest is something to see (I swear, there were circles and X's and underlinings everywhere, we literally couldn't use the map anymore lol). So we kind of just headed out. We had planned on taking a walking tour at 2, but we couldn't find it so we gave ourselves a walking tour. I was the tour guide with my Let's Go Europe 2010 book haha, so whenever we went somewhere, I'd look it up in the book and read the little blurb.

I guess before I describe exactly what we did, there are two sides to Budapest (really, three, but we only saw two sides) - Buda and Pest. Buda is on the hill, across the Danube from where we stayed all three nights. It's where the Parliament, Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church are located; I got the impression that Buda is the richer, more historical side while Pest is the more industrial, working class side. That's not to say Pest is the slums, not at all, Pest was really cool also! But there was more construction and more "communist" looking buildings in Pest. There was also less green space in Pest, it was very much a city (at least, where we stayed it was).

Anyways, the first day we stayed around Pest and saw things there: the Opera House and St. Stephen's Basilica, complete with the 1000 year old mummified hand of St. Stephen -- sweet... lol not that you could actually see it, it was on "display" in a dark little box and you had to pay to turn the light on. So, we waited for a few min for someone else to turn on the light. fail. I think everyone else there had the same idea as us lol. Then we went up to the top where there was a panoramic view and took lots of pics and just kind of hung out admiring the view (I was actually recovering from my vertigo due to the 13 million winding staircases to the top, you know, the old ones that wind around a pole and make you all dizzy from walking in circles a thousand times? yeah those all the way to the top of the Basilica. no fun lol) So yeah, we hung out up there and then we saw a little café called "California Coffee" and were like we need to go there! So we headed back down and went to the coffeeshop where the menu was in English and they had things like mochas and filtered coffee. It was amazing. I got a mocha, which I don't usually get at home but I got it there because it was the first place I'd seen it (besides Starbucks, where everything is insanely overpriced - 7 euro for a latte? no thanks.)

So we all had our coffees and were sitting and enjoying then when an... elderly gentleman... sat down next to us and started talking to us. Well, more specifically, started talking to Caitlin. Apparently he's a former pro hockey player who played for the Czech Republic (although I suppose it would've been Czechoslovakia when he played for them) in the world cup, twice. And he has an oil business in Canada, which he started after he finished his career as a doctor. He also told us/her that he has a private jet, used to have a 23 year old girlfriend, and a Canadian passport (I'm not sure of the importance of that one, but he was really into his Canadian passport...). He also offered to fly Caitlin to Cancun in his private jet and then fly her back to Strasbourg. It was hilarious. The girl has a serious magnet for potential kidnappers. His friends were funny too because they were so normal! I was talking to one guy who seemed pretty legit, he had hockey camps on the Cape I think and he had a few in Aspen. He said he was a former pro hockey player (but I actually believed he used to play, as opposed to the Cait's boyfriend, we weren't sure what to believe) and talked to me about his camps. But he didn't talk to me in the creepy way that Caitlin's boyfriend talked to her lol. Their other friend just sat there silently, looking mortified that his 60+ year old friend was hitting on a 20 year old girl. All in all, he was harmless, but amusing and kept offering to buy us things from the café, but we kept trying to leave so we didn't profit at all (well, Caitlin got his business card and hotel address LOL).

From there we went to the Great Synagogue, but it was closed, so we just took pics from the outside and then went back to the hostel to check in for real. We met Erin and her friend Beria there, and it was SO great to see Erin again. I really like all the people in my program, but it was soo nice to see a friend from BC again (I consider the people in my program friends from BC, but I didn't really know them before I came to France, so it was awesome seeing her since she and I hung out a fair amount at school before going abroad). We all met up and then went to dinner at a place the hostel guy recommended for us called Stex. Honestly it was just alright, not quite up to par with what we expected from Hungarian cooking. But thats ok, the wine was good and company was great :)

Then we went back to the hostel and there we re-met the girls from that morning and they were really coo! they were backpacking across Europe (a day in Prague, day in Vienna, day in Buda, etc kind of thing) and so we all decided to go out together with an really cool couple. The couple were a man and woman (he was mid 30s I think and she was early 40s) finishing up a 7 month long tour of Europe with Budapest and a few days in England with their friends. They took us to this really cool ruins pub called Szimpla. A ruins pub is kind of hard to describe, but its an old building that's going to be torn down soon, but someone buys it and turns it into a pub. They don't really fix it up, just make it safe and suitable for a drinking atmosphere and maybe add some decorations, but it really has the feel like you're drinking beer in a building that's been bombed. I'm not sure how to describe it but it was really cool. I also talked to the couple a little while we were there and they were so cool! I hope when I'm in my 30s I'll be like them - really laid back (they took like 12 20-22 year olds out to a bar with them!) and they travelled the world just for fun. They were also from San José I think and they were asian! haha I feel like I notice minorities (especially asians) so much more now just because I never see them! Anyways we all hung out there and had a drink or two and then we decided to go to this club, Gödor, but it ended up being closed so we just went back to the hostel and slept.

Anndddd... now I'm sleepy haha so I'll continue tomorrow... why do I make such detailed lists of my trips? it makes it very difficult to post about it in a timely fashion because it takes so long! Oh well, Joanie I hope you enjoyed this one since I wrote it especially for you :) nighty night!