Budapes(h)t

 We arrived in Budapest early evening, as it was just getting dark. Our first task upon arrival at the hostel was to take the terrifying elevator ride up to its location on the fifth floor. First of all the elevator was tiny, fitting two people plus suitcases was a stretch. Then it had those non-automatic doors, which basically make you feel like you're in charge of your own impending doom. As we got in the whole elevator moved, then began it's very slow, very dodgy ascent, before thudding to a stop. Apparently our companions who had already arrived could hear us crying all the way up. After that traumatising experience we grabbed dinner and took a late night walk. There was an ever ubiquitous turkish takeaway below our hostel, which was incredibly cheap like pretty much everything in Hungary, so this quickly became our regular dining spot. Being introduced to Budapest at night was a great experience. Both sides of the city were lit up beautifully, and we had an excellent spot to view it all from one of the bridges across the Danube.

We started our first proper day in Budapest with a walking tour. We were lucky enough to finally have some really sunny weather, so it was the perfect day to wander the city. Our tour guide was Hungarian, so she filled us in about the language, food and general culture in Hungary throughout the tour. The language was probably the hardest of any I'd encountered so far on the trip, I couldn't even master "hello" and "thank you", but this is largely because Hungarian doesn't share its roots with any other European language, so there was really no basis from which to start. We also learnt that the correct pronunciation of Budapest is more like Budapesht, which made us laugh because any time someone used that pronunciation it just sounded like a bad Sean Connery impersonation. Our tour first explored the Pest side (where we were staying), past the Great Synagogue, St Stephen's Basilica, and various famous statues. Every statue in the city had one particular shiny body part or section, as particular myths would arise about rubbing certain statues for good luck.

We then crossed the Danube to the Buda side, where we walked up the hill to the Castle District. This is famous for it's old houses and churches, as well as the Buda Castle. We walked around the area, finishing the tour outside Matthias Church. This was the perfect spot to finish the tour, as there were amazing views down to the rest of Budapest. Our guide also recommended to us the best place to get proper traditional Hungarian food, in my case mushroom paprikas with spaetzl, which was both cheap and delicious. 

After returning to the Pest side of the city a few of us visited the Great Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe. This was probably the first non-christian religious building I've been in, and it was amazing. Our tour guide was a Jewish New Yorker with the strongest accent I've ever heard. In my head I thought those accents were only exaggerated on television, but I seriously couldn't understand half the things he said. The synagogue itself was really beautifully decorated, and there was also a memorial and garden outside, and a small museum covering Jewish practices, culture and history. It was fascinating to learn about, especially given how little Jewish culture I've really encountered.

That evening we visited on of Budapest's famous ruin pubs, bars located in formerly abandoned buildings, which are usually known for their eclectic style. We went to Szimpla, which was just around the corner from our hostel and had a reputation as one of the best bars in the world. It did not disappoint, with a myriad of different rooms, with all different lights, decorations and art all over the world. We spent most of our time in the outdoor area, which had fairy lights, bucket lamps, cartoons on the walls, and a seat made from the front of a car. It's really difficult to describe everything that we saw, as there was just so much to take in. We did have a friendly reminder of just how far Hungary is from what we know when we went to find the bathrooms and discovered some squatting loos. Luckily they had real toilets as well or I think we might not have been able to handle the jandal. 

The next day we were all absolutely exhuasted, but luckily Budapest is the perfect city to cater to the weary, as it is famous for its Turkish baths. After a late morning we headed out to Szechenyi thermal baths, the largest medicinal baths in Europe. The whole complex was quite large with various hot and even hotter pools, both indoor and outdoor. It was absolutely the perfect way to relax, and we definitely all needed to take a day off our feet. It also felt like even though we took a rest it wasn't really a wasted day because the baths are a major attraction for Budapest.

We ended our day with home-made (hostel-made?) goulash prepared by the hostel staff. This was a nice way to bring everyone in the hostel together, we met a few of the other residents, and also a nice end to our stay in Hungary. It was also the last night our whole group would spend together. We farewelled various groups heading off to Spain, Italy and back to the UK, leaving just 5 of us to hop on the train to Ljubljana in the morning.

Byyyyeeee!