Abroad in Brussels: Hungary Like the Wolf.

Wow, how time has flown! I know for the most part I’ve been really good about keeping up with my blog, but I now realize it’s been a month since my trip to Budapest, Hungary, & by request of Anna Lingel, I am finally updating! To be completely honest, as the semester wound down, and I slowly realized that with each post and update, the closer I was to the end of my incredible journey. But ENOUGH of that for now, You’re here to hear about BUDAPEST!

First of, the reason for this trip was to celebrate Casey’s birthday weekend, and myself, Jules, Shadi, Lauren, & Casey had booked it way back in September. With the discovery of yet another cheap European airline, Wizzair (34 euro round trip!), and the relatively inexpensive city of Budapest, how could we say no?!

Casey, Shadi, Lauren, and Jules flew out Friday morning, but myself being ever so dedicated to my studies, couldn’t fly out till later that night, because heaven forbid I miss my TWO Friday classes! (And you all think it’s beer drinking and traveling over here don’t ya?) ANYway, that left me to a first in my traveling career: flying solo, internationally, to Hungary of all places! To be completely honest, I was kinda terrified of the whole idea, not knowing what to even expect from a country like Hungary. A short flight and a plane full of Romanians later, I was in Budapest, and met up with the girls, as well as Casey’s friends from home, Lisa (who is studying in Rome, and brought her friend Erin) and John (Studying abroad in the Netherlands, and his friend Justin). To say the least, we had quite the crew.

(For those of you who aren’t aware, Budapest is pronounced Buda-PESHT, making it easily one of the greatest words on the planet to pronounce.)

As soon as I had gotten to our hostel, and grabbed a bite to eat, we were on our way out for the night. The hostel we were staying at, Tiger Tim’s, had been recommended to Casey by a friends that had been in Budapest previously. It easily proved to be one of the most amazing hostel experiences I’ve had in Europe. The first night consisted of a bangin’ bar craw to some of the most unique bars I had ever been to. To say the least, Budapest’s nightlife was awesome, and we spent most of the next day recovering from the previous night’s festivities.

However, when we finally nursed those hangovers enough to get out the door, we went to this awesome indoor market near the river, did a little shopping, and ate some awesome Hungarian food!

Next on the list: BATHS. Budapest is well known for it’s communal baths, ranging from the same sex, nude variety, to the beautifully intricate, almost Roman-esque baths we ended up at. There were three main outdoor pools that we tested out, a hot one that was like one giant hot tub, a center one that was pretty much a big lap pool, and one that was in between the two, but had this super sweet whirlpool like thing (kinda like those ones you used to make in above ground pools as a kid by swimming/water-walking around the perimeter of the pool as fast as you could). There was even an entire series of indoor pools we didn’t get the chance to explore. It was some much needed relaxation and recovery from the night before and to prepare us for the night to come… Casey’s birthday night! When we got back to the hostel, Tim the owner, had cooked everyone there a traditional Hungarian meal of some sort of sausage and carrot stew and pasta. Pretty darn good if I do say so myself, and I don’t even eat sausage! I realized that I’ve yet to mention all of the awesome people we met staying at our hostel! Everyone we met was incredibly awesome, and we seemed to mesh together perfectly, even if we were from literally all over the world (Australia, New Zeland, Canada, US, Brazil, ect.)

So needless to say, we had another wild night for Casey’s birthday, consisting of going to the Hungarian version of a dive bar, and a massive club with a maze of rooms playing all kinds of music. We didn’t come home till the club closed and the sun was on it’s way up J. By this time, it was Sunday, and Casey, Lauren, and Jules had to fly back to Brussels to make their classes on Monday morning. Luckily, Shadi didn’t have classes till later on Monday, and I don’t have any classes on Monday, so we got to spend an extra day in this beautiful and welcoming city. That afternoon/evening, Shadi and I went to the terror museum, and on a walking tour of the Jewish quarter. Terror museum you say? What on earth is that? Well, it’s probably one of the most disturbing museums I’ve ever been to. It illustrated Hungary’s Soviet and Nazi ridden past and the unspeakable things the people of Hungary have experienced throughout the World War 2 era. With the museum leaving a bit of a dark cloud over us, we headed to the walking tour. It was a 3 hour tour (no, not of the Gilligan variety) of the Jewish community in Budapest. With neither Shadi or I, being Jewish in any sense, it was extremely an interesting look into Jewish culture and the history of it in Budapest.

That’s pretty much my Budapest adventure in a nutshell. I had no idea what to expect going into this trip, and came out of it with a new found fascination with Eastern European countries. I was stunned by the amount of English spoken, as well as the amount of Subways, McDonalds, and Burger Kings. I did however, FINALLY get mis manos on some MEXICAN FOOD! Hungarian version of Chipotle? Of course I’m down.

In short, I really think everyone should visit Budapest if they have the chance. It’s a beautiful city rich with culture and beauty, despite it’s rather dark past.

Photos you say? Here ya go :