Budapest.

Budapest by far was my favorite city that we visited. I’m going to try to contain myself from the endless blabbering that I could do about this awesome city.

We stayed in the Hi 5 Hostel, it was the best. If you’re going to Budapest you can’t stay anywhere else, seriously. Everyone was super friendly; there was something to do every night. Our room had a balcony that looked over the busy street. Clearly, we loved this place.

Our first night we went to this really cheap all you can eat buffet, stopped and got some really cheap beers on our way home, and then met up with the hostel for a free pub crawl, which went to all of the best ruin bars. Ruin bars are located in formerly abandoned buildings that local artists have gone in and decorated, recycling the old buildings into popular bars with an interesting flair.

Our first full day we spent meandering the PESCA Flea Market in City Park before going on a free tour of the city, which took us to both sides of the Danube River. The flat side is referred to a Pest, and the hilly side is Buda.

Heroes' Square, the entrance of City park

the market

View from the Buda side on our tour

Our second day we walked back over to the Buda side of the city to explore some more. We hiked up to the Liberty Statue, which was left behind from the Soviets. Keelin found 2 guard stations, and we tried to find this cool labyrinth we read about, but it turned out to be a total tourist trap.

View from the Liberty Statue

The Halászbástya or Fisherman's Bastion

Our evening, my favorite part of the entire trip, was spent at Szechenyi Baths, the thermal baths. Built in 1908 there are more than 12 thermal baths and five swimming pools.The water was over 100 degrees. There were interactive bubblers, a huge fountain, even lounging areas to sit in the water.

We spent our last day meandering the Central Market, sampling some local food, and drinking in the park.

For our last night our plan was to get dinner, have a few drinks, sober up early, pack and go to bed. That idea didn’t fly. We ending up getting dinner and a few drinks, and then a few more drinks, and then a few more. Keelin and I both got about an hour of sleep before getting up at 6am to get ready to catch our flight. We handed the airline attendant our passports to check in, oh what’s that? Our flight has been cancelled due to snow in Frankfurt? We could have slept an extra five hours? Wonderful. They rerouted us through Munich and we ended up getting home two hours  earlier than we were originally supposed to. Although we had a long wait at the airport, everything worked out just fine.