budaaaa encore

The next day, Saturday 4/3, we woke up and had a great breakfast! The hostel people make waffles every morning! it was awesome. They also had coffee, tea, bread, jam, butter, nutella, cereal and milk. It was great. I love free breakfasts lol. We planned our day (sort of). Our plan for the day included going to the Market, walking down Vaci Utca, buying cute clothes for cheap, hitting up the Museum of Terror and finally taking a bath in the Hungarian bathhouse. As you will see, our day didn't quite turn out like that, but it was still a great day :)

First all of us went to the Market and just walked around there, looked at souvenirs and things, everyone got a few things. Then we walked down Vaci Utca, the fashion street where we stopped for lunch (I got goulash and it was so good!). We continued on our way down Vaci Utca and lost Erin and Beria to the Hop on/Hop off tour lol so they saw all of the city for a few hours while we wandered around randomly, stopping in stores when we wanted, getting hot wine at markets that we stumbled upon, etc. From there we walked down Andrassy, which was the "Champs Elysées" of Budapest, and also the street on which St. Stephens, the Opera House and the Museum of Terror (Museum about the occupation of Hungary by Communism) are located. The Opera house was Olivia's stop since she was meeting some friends to see a show there. Caitlin and I continued on our way and decided we weren't going to make it to the bath, but we might as well go into the Museum of Terror. However, we got there at 5:30, thinking it closed at 7, when in reality it closed at 6. The woman working the desk was also rude because she wouldn't give us the advertised student discount. So we said oh well and left and continued on our merry way down Andrassy. The street ends at Hero's Square which also connects to a park so we went into the park, found a random castle (I love how you can run into castles and cathedrals and other gigantic buildings in Europe. Like in Strasbourg, while walking around the centre ville, you can just turn and be like oh, well hey there enormous cathedral. lol) and then realized we were again going to be late to meet Erin and Beria for dinner. So we turned back and walked back to the hostel.

We met up with Erin, Beria and Olivia (who realized earlier that her Opera ticket was for SUNDAY night, not SATURDAY night... oops!) and started on our way to find this restaurant that Erin's prof had recommended to her: Rosé. We found it on this little side street and went in to be immediately greeted with live music by a violin and weird piano-esque instrument (it looked like someone took the top of a piano off and he was playing with a modified drumstick with soft material wrapped around the top by pinging the strings. I just butchered that description but if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please let me know what type of instrument it was, I'm curious). Anyways, we ordered and were *starving* by the time the food came (that's not to say the service was bad, it was very good, but you know, in Europe, they eat on different schedules). I got chicken wrapped in bacon stuffed with sundried tomatoes with capers a mixed salad on the side. Ohmigosh it was divine. Maybe not the most Hungarian of meals, with the vegetables and lack of sour cream, but still, it was SO good. I only wish I got more of it because I wasn't full at the end. So I promptly offered to finish anyone's meal who needed help and Caitlin offered me her plate, which I gladly accepted and then shoveled into my mouth. After that, we decided that our meals were great so we might as well keep going and get some dessert. We ordered 2 desserts to share: tiramisu and spongecake. We finished both of them in oh... I'd say 86 seconds. Or less. lol it was a little ridiculous, but they were just so delicious!

After dinner we sat and digested for a little and planned our next moves. We had a meeting with 2 other BC kids at the Opera House (in the opposite direction from our hostel), so Caitlin and Olivia decided they would walk there and get them and meet the rest of us (me, Erin and Beria) at the bar across the street, Old Man's Pub. So we all headed off in our respective directions. E, B and I found a table and sat down and since we were sitting, we kind of had to buy a drink, so we each got a beer. We waited for a while, then we decided the others probably were there and so we started making sweeps of the bar. We waited a little longer and the place started pumping, playing 80s american music and all these girls who looked about 15 were coming in will belly baring shirts and skin tight jeans and about then we decided we could've made that place fun... last night. Tonight we were too tired and just wanted to sleep. So we went back to the hostel and did just that.

And now, its time for me to enjoy the sunshine in Strasbourg because i finished my paper so I'm going to go sit in the sun and read :) bises à tous