Day 2: Budapest

courtneymadden13 — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:50:00 GMT

Today we woke up around 8am so that we could get to our walking tour by 9am. It was a free walking tour and at the end you give the guide a tip. We got some starbucks for breakfast (suprise suprise) and then met the rest of the group. The guide was really good, her name was Stefania and she was really friendly. The walking tour took us pretty much all over Budapest. We saw the most famous street in the city, the basilica, royal palace, roman church, synagogue, museums, squares, EVERYTHING! It was really good because we got to see what we would like to come back to and do further in detail. We finished the walking tour at 2pm up at the palace (after we had hiked up 500 stairs) and then decided to get some lunch as we were famished. As always. We sat in a nice restaurant close to the palace and had a yummy salad sandwich. We met a girl who was staying at our hostel named Nora, she was from Bremen in Germany. She was really nice so she had lunch with us too.

After lunch we had a look around the palace, which in my opinion wasn't the prettiest of palaces, but it was still nice. Then we caught a bus back to the other side of the bridge and went to the basilica. The basilica had some ruins burried there of a very famous Hungarian soccer player (nobody cares) but it had this massive tomb for it. We decided to climb to the top of the Basilica to get a nice view of Budapest. I think we climbed 360 steps to the top and the view was really lovely (see photos). We spent 20 minutes up the top just looking out over the city, it's really flat on the Pest side of town but the Buda part is very hilly, which was different.

We were booked in to a bar crawl tonight (of course) so we decided to go home and have a nap and a rest. We woke up and got ready for the pub crawl, I don't know why we bothered putting makeup on because we just sweat it straight off it was so hot. Budapest doesn't do air conditioning apparently.

The bar crawl was pretty shitty. We got a free beer or shot at each place but the bars they took us to were a bit dirty. We did however play beer pong, I have a terrible aim. We got to the final club and decided we didn't like it so we just left and walked home. We bought a gyros on the way home (if you don't know what a gyros is it's a greek souvlaki sort of thing) and it was delicious. Probably because we were a little drunk at this stage but nonetheless it tasted awesome. I think we got home around 2am so it wasn't that bad really.

Day 1: Budapest

courtneymadden13 — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:35:00 GMT

This morning I woke up at 4.30am in order to catch a bus to the airport. Unfortunately they only have one bus that gets in super early, or another that gets in late. So I was waiting around the airport for 4 hours or so. This didn't bother me, I was excited for the trip and they had a starbucks so I got my favourite Caramel Coffee Frappucino mmmm.

My flight with Ryanair wasn't too bad, it's a budget airline but they are really well known for being on time so there weren't any delays. Once I got in to Budapest I sussed out a shuttle into the city centre, which was where our hostel was. I got dropped off outside a very nice looking building and saw that the name of the place was Astoria city hotel. I was supposed to be staying in Astoria city hostel, so I had to drag my case down some stairs, under an underpass and then back up the stairs. Our hostel was definitely not as nice as the hotel. It was nice for a hostel but I can't say I enjoy staying in hostels at all. There was no air conditioning in this one, and the weather was a scorching 36 degrees on that day, and it was only due to get hotter.

I decided to go for a walk around while I was waiting for Tahlia's flight to get in. I wandered around to a nice little square with nice restaurants, down to the river and then back through the market. From my first impressions I thought Budapest was really lovely, really old, a little bit like Prague. I bought some sushi for lunch and ate it at the market, and then slowly headed back to the hostel to rest before Tahlia got in. I passed the Jewish Synagogue on my way and decided to have a peak. I had to wear a shawl over my shoulders but the actualy church was beautiful on the inside. There was a museum and a memorial out the back, which were also really interesting.

I got back to the hostel and had a shower because I was so sweaty and hot. Then I lay on my bed and had a bit of a doze until my phone rang, Tahlia was here.

Once Tahlia was settled we went for a walk along the river and decided to eat along there. We went onto this nice boat/restaurant on the river that looked really nice. We sat on the waterside of the boat and had a beautiful view across the river and up to the palace and Buda part of town. (There are two sides to Budapest, Buda- the side of the river up the hill where the palace is and Pest- the side of the river that is flat.) The Buda part of town is the more expensive and nicer side, but the heart of the city is in Pest. I decided to be daring and try some fish that I'd never eaten before, I think it was St. Peter's fish with sesame seeds and chilli. It was really yum. We had a few cocktails to celebrate our first night and then of course had some dessert. We weren't really familiar with the currency in Budapest, all we knew was 1 Australian dollar was roughly 200 Hungarian Forent. So our dinner was $10,000 in Hungarian, which looked so daunting! But not to worry it was only about $50 australian for the both of us.

We decided to go back to the hostel and have a good rest so that tomorrow we could have a big day. It was really hot back at the hostel so we opened all the windows and slept with no blankets or sheets. I was really tired so I slept most of the night undisturbed.

Adriatic adventures

Day 2: Budapest

Day 1: Budapest