Fall Break Part One: Budapest

Unlike most of my fellow abroad-ers, I only travelled half of my break, spending the other half back in London with my mom (post to follow eventually). I spent two days in Budapest and another two in Amsterdam (also a post to follow eventually). I didn’t really have any expectations for Budapest – my roommate had mentioned it offhand earlier in the semester & it just seemed like a random place to go, so I thought “why not?” Everyone else was going to Italy or Spain, let’s be a bit quirkier and go somewhere possibly sketchy!

As it turns out, Budapest is really freaking awesome. And has a fabulous nightlife, go figure. I would definitely go back, although I don’t want to live there permanently (Scotland is still winning that one, with Germany in second place. Then Ireland, then Amsterdam, then Paris, just in case you’re wondering). My friend & I left early Sunday morning, around 5AM-ish for our flight on Wizz Air. Yes, that’s a real airline. I know. It’s actually less creepy than Ryanair is (oh dear god, I don’t ever want to fly Ryanair again. I’m pretty sure their pilots aren’t trained. Details in the Dublin blog, following eventually).

Once we landed, we went straight to the hostel, which was located close to the train station. Following our trusty map, we found it after about ten minutes of walking…and it looked like this: 

We were pretty sure we were about to die. Or be sold into sex slavery. Or both. For a minute or two, we stood outside, debating whether or not to just turn and run away or be adventurous and go inside. Not like this was some random place we found on the internet, it’s one of the highest rated hostels on HostelBookers, and hey, half of Budapest looks like this thanks to the whole Soviet occupation thing, but still. I’m paranoid by nature. In the end, we figured one of us could probably run away & get help while the other was snatched, and so we proceeded.

End result? (well obviously I’m here so you know it ends well) It’s a hippie commune run by Australians! But seriously. The entrance opens into this large courtyard with overgrown trees, a little tikki-type bar off to one side with some tables and chairs. At the opposite end of the courtyard is another door with an electronic lock that leads to a staircase, taking you one flight up to the hostel itself. We went into the first room we saw and found a bunch of clearly hungover people hanging out in their PJs. One of them looked at us and asked if we were checking in. When we said yes, he gestured us over to sit and go over the necessary info. HE WORKED THERE. We couldn’t tell. Who were these other people? Guests? Staff? Both I guess, haha. See, hippie commune! 

We got our keys, which were RFID chips on bracelets that have to be held up to each door to unlock it. In addition, we were given wristbands with the name, location, & phone number of the hostel. Why? “So that when you’re out and too drunk to get home, someone can help you.” That happened so often they apparently started taking precautions. WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!?!  

We dumped our bags and headed out. First we stopped & had some delicious Hungarian food; after all the stupid sandwiches I’m living on here in London, it was so nice to have a heavy meal of beef stew and potato noodles. I actually felt full for once, what a concept! The best part was when we were paying; the guy asked us where we were from & when we said New York, he asked us which part. My friend said “Manhattan” to which I added “the famous one” because we’ve run into people who don’t know the specifics of NYC before, of course, but everyone knows Times Sq, etc. The guy goes “no offense, but I’m pretty sure Brooklyn is the famous one.” We were both like “…seriously? Huh. Interesting!” 

Also some stores have fake rats hanging in their windows for whatever reason

From there, we saw the opera house – tried to get tickets but the cheap ones (which were three Euros. THREE.) were sold out and we were too cheap to get the expensive ones (which was really stupid because those were like thirty Euros, which is like $40, $45. Hungary subsidizes the arts really heavily, in case you can’t tell) – and so we just walked north through the city. 

This seems out of place for some reason...hmmmm

We stopped at the Terror Museum, which documents the horrors from the Nazi & then later Soviet occupations. Afterwards we continued walking until it got dark, then headed back to the hostel.

Naptime for a few hours to regain our strength, and then it was party time! The party in the courtyard was in full swing by the time we got up, and as we were getting ready, three Brazilian guys who were staying in our room came in to get something. They invited us to join them, so we did, and ended up hanging out with them the rest of the night. At one point we all ended up in this cavern bar thing underneath the hostel for an open mic night.

The next day, we got up mid-morning and went out right away. Saw some sights, walked around a bunch, went to this little market thing, and then decided to take a boat tour on the river. Most of the landmarks are on the river anyways, so this was an easy way of seeing them all in the time we had. By the time we were done, we were freezing and ready to go take another nap before the party that night. 

Parliament

That’s where my pictures end haha. My friend napped while I read my Kindle, and then we got ready and went with the rest of the hostel to a bar a short walk away. That night they had a special of 4 beers for 500 forints – that’s $2. Can we just all live by Hungarian standards of pricing? At some point we met a bunch of guys from the University of New Hampshire who were studying for a semester at the University of Budapest. We hung out with them for the rest of the night, and they reminded me that American college guys are really douchey & I kind of can’t stand them at all. Eventually I looked at the clock and realized it was nearly 1AM, and we were waking up at 4:30 to get a 5AM shuttle to the airport for our flight to Amsterdam. I know a lot of people would just stay up all night at that point, but I am of the mind that a couple hours of sleep is better than none at all, so we headed home.

At the required time, we dragged ourselves out of bed, got our shuttle, and boarded our plane as the sun was rising. Part two coming….eventually, haha.