Budapest!

This blog is going to be really long but I saw SO MUCH this past weekend because it was the long awaited trip to Budapest, Hungary! For starters here is a map so everyone can see where Hungary is since I had no idea, just the vague "Europe-ish" so if you know, great if you don't no shame!

I joined a Travel Club through the International Student House, which is an organization in London that gets really good discounts on trips for International Students. This trip had 12 students on it and was a mix of nationalities: there were students from India, China, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Uruguay, Turkey, Canada, Germany and Malaysia. It was an awesome opportunity to meet new people and a unique experience because I realized I have never been in a situation where I was the only American student. On Friday we all met at the ISH house on Great Portland street at 5:30am and went to Heathrow. Our flight was 3 hours long and we got into Budapest around 12. We were met at the airport by someone from our hostel "Happy Flats." The hostel was actually really nice, nothing like the horror stories you hear and no bedbugs I am happy to report! I shared a flat with three other girls from the program. After dropping off our stuff and getting a quick bite to eat we went on a 3 hour bus tour of the city, which I learned was actually divided into “Buda” and “Pest” which are divided by the Danube river and we drove through both. The city is amazing and beautiful and even though it was freezing I had a great time exploring. That night we had a group meal and tried some traditional Hungarian food and I learned that the Hungarians are fond of very large portions, cream, cheese and lots of sauce. They are famous for their paprika so I tried chicken paprika and some sort of traditional noodles that was delicious!

Saturday morning we ate breakfast early then headed to a local indoor market filled with fresh fruit, veggies, butcher stalls, fish and upstairs they had all sorts of souvenirs.

After the market came the best part of my trip:to Szechenyi Spa Bath which was AMAZING. Budapest is famous for their baths and I can see why after this experience. There are all sorts of natural thermal water springs under the city, which they use for their spas. There are plenty of baths in the city and the one we went to was a huge place with about a dozen thermal baths inside and one large outdoor thermal bath. We soaked for hours outside which was a neat experience as it is winter- the mad dash in a swimsuit and flipflops from the pool to the door was invigorating to say the least. I also paid a little extra for a very reasonably priced massage and learned that severe language barrier + little clothing + different cultural conceptions of modesty = a few awkward encounters. My masseuse spoke very little English and I obviously speak no Hungarian. She didn't leave when I was supposed to get undressed like they do in massages I have had in the past and the most awkward moment came when she told me to sit up during the massage so she could do my shoulders (no shirts in massages remember) I didn't move and didn't really know how to say "Um, beg your pardon?" in Hungarian so I just went with the old communication barrier stand-by and stared at her blankly. She sighed and asked "You American?" "Yes" I replied. "You speak English?" "Yeah..." "You not understand sit-up?" Well, ok then! What am I supposed to say to that when my Hungarian is non-existent... so what the hell, when naked in some random back room at a spa in Budapest do as the Hungarians do.

Fun fact about the lions on the bridge: the sculptor forgot the tongue so everyone laughed at him. Our guide said he then drowned himself in the Danube but he was joking about that. I think. We finished Saturday off with more traditional Hungarian food for dinner at a restaurant where we got cheated because we were tourists I'm pretty sure. When I tried to order a glass of tap water (water was safe to drink there) I was informed they did not have tap water. I refrained from sarcastically asking if they had 1. A cup. 2. A sink. But ended up buying expensive bottled water because we had no choice but the food was delicious so I was slightly mollified.

Sunday: In the morning we went to the Castle Labyrinth, which is located beneath Castle Hill. It is a maze miles long of tunnels and huge underground rooms that were originally intended as cellars and bomb shelters. There were reproductions of cave paintings all over the walls and the barely lit passageways reminiscent of an Indian Jones movie made for a creepy and interesting adventure.

Flash makes everything seem brighter, but it was very dark and we kept getting turned around and lost.

This fountain underground was not water but wine!!! With a sign saying DO NOT DRINK.

After the labyrinth we went to the National Gallery and checked out some Hungarian paintings.

National Gallery

View of Parliament and the Danube

After that we had some free time so a few of us went to the House of Terror, which was an incredibly sobering experience. A museum now, in 1944 the building was the “House of Loyalty,” the headquarters of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party- the Hungarian Nazis. Then between 1945 and 1956 the building was home to some notorious communist terror organizations. The exhibit displayed the stories of the atrocities committed by both the Nazi and Communist regimes that devastated Hungary. I watched videos of the heartbreaking testimony of survivors and made my way through a series of disturbing exhibits, ending the tour in the basement of the building that was full of cells and torture rooms where prisoners were held and executed. Not the most cheerful experience, but an amazing one nonetheless. After dinner some of us chose to brave the cold and head down to the Danube to see it at night, which was totally worth it! After the walk we then got drinks as a group at a pub near our hostel and I had a great night getting to know the people on my trip.

Danube at night

Monday: Sadly it was our last day in Hungary so we sought to make the most of it and see as much as possible before our flight that night. The larger group split into about three groups since there were different things we wanted to see and my group went the largest synagogue in Europe located in the Jewish quarter of the city. We went on a tour which was very informative though pretty hard to understand (I though we were on the wrong one at first but then realized the guide was actually speaking English, just with a VERY heavy accent). We learned about the tragic history of the Jews in Hungary during the Nazi occupation which just felt so much more real there than in a textbook. There was a beautiful metal memorial in the shape of a weeping willow with the names of each of the victims inscribed on the leaves that was particularly poignant. On the tour I got the shock of all shocks when I met a girl (Hannah Rosen for those of you who know her) I know from the English Department at Stonehill! She is studying abroad in France and was just in Budapest for the weekend and neither of us knew the other was visiting the city. Small world and amazing coincidence that we both happened to be on the same tour at a synagogue in Hungary at the same time!

Memorial close up

Memorial

Inside the Synagogue

Synagogue from outside

Hero Square in the city center

One of the many amazing views of the city

St. Mathias church, which we got to go inside of.

We had to cut the trip to the synagogue short because we were rushing to do a tour of Parliament, which we were disappointed to find was not doing tours today because of a special event. So we got lunch instead! After lunch we returned to the market we had visited the first day for souvenirs and then it was back to the hostel and then the airport for the trip back to London. All in all it was an amazing experience: I had some great food, visited some beautiful places, had some once in a lifetime experiences and meet some wonderful people!