Buda + Pest = Budapest (and you all thought I couldn't do math)

Holy cow. I actually went to Budapest. It's the coolest thing to think about and be able to say, "Yeah I've been to Budapest". I would have never thought about going and would have never planned a trip there. But that's why I'm in Europe, to go places I wouldn't normally and experience something I normally can't.

In fair warning, this probably won't be the only post about my trip. I did so much while I was there and I want to make sure I capture it all. So here we go, how I got to Budapest.

A new friend of mine, Anne, made a facebook group about going to Budapest. Since I've been pretty lonely here thus far and still working on getting use to Graz, I thought a weekend away would be great! Plus it would give me an opportunity to hang out with some of the new people I met. Well the few new people I met turned into a group of 34 international exchange students taking over the Austrian and Hungarian trains on our way. Since it was such a big group of us, we got our hostel for 30 euros for three nights and round-trip train tickets for 33 euros. I went to Budapest for 63 euros. Be jealous.

I left Friday afternoon at 3:37p.m. and got on my first train ever. It was a lot slower than I thought it would be! I was very surprised that it stopped so much. It felt more like the buses I take in the city to get around than what I thought of as a train. We changed trains at the Austrian-Hungarian border and were onto our second train. Now on each train after they've start moving someone comes around to check tickets. Our third and final train should be no different right? Well when the Hungarian train people came to us they demanded we pay for our seats. What do they mean pay for our seats? We bought a train ticket! And of course with 34 students who speak several different languages trying to understand Hungarian (which none of us do) we were confused. I was sure the Hungarians were trying to scam us. Emilie (see bio blog) went and asked a local on the train what it was all about.

The verdict: While you have to buy a train ticket, you must buy a "seat" ticket to "sit" on the train. The weirdest thing in the world. So we come to our next problem. Only four of us, myself included, have Hungarian currency. So Ryan, Cody, Luke and myself pool our money and pay for 34 "seat" tickets. When the Hungarian/Euro exchange rate is 270/1 I freak out a bit. A sandwich in Hungary is about 1000 forint. That was something else I had to get use to. But anyways, onto my trip.

We arrived in Budapest around 9:30 or 10. Walking through the city was incredible. The streets were big, 4 lanes which is big for Europe, and there were tall buildings! Nothing like Graz. It felt good to be in a big city and feel like you had room to breathe. Graz is so small even though it's a city and this reminded me more of Denver. Although it was hard to see the architecture at night, I could already tell we were in a beautiful city.

We got to our hostel and it was actually nice! It wasn't anything like a hotel but I was expecting horror story, bugs crawling, smelly, loud hostel. Ours was very cute, yellow and blue and was very clean. While the beds weren't the best and the pillow was lumpy, I was not expecting it to be anything like it was. (I'm now worried about the rest of my hostel experiences. I got spoiled on my first one). After getting our stuff put down, we were all pretty hungry. Kabop time!

Kebop is an Turkish meal that reminds me a lot of gyros. It's lamb with different fixing inside pita bread. It's cheap and the college food of choice. In Graz it's only 3 euros and in Budapest it was even cheaper plus you get a drink. So kebop time is all the time (or just when you're hungry really). It's not the best thing in the world but you can find it basically all over Europe!

Everyone wanted to go out and drink or go to a club but I didn't. I'm just not a big club/bar hoping person. So Paula and I went back to the hostel with the help of our escort, Valtteri. I got into bed (I don't think you all really need to know I brushed my teeth, took out my contacts, put my monkey pj's on, and got earplugs do you?)

Saturday:Sightseeing.

I had the best day I've had in a long time! We went and saw so many different things it was just so fun. But you can't start a day like I did without breakfast. So let's talk about the way Hungarians do breakfast.

The hostel had a menu with a few different options. I went for the egg, ham, cheese, and bread option to make myself a little sandwich. What I got was bread, cheese, a hard-boiled egg and spam. There is no way the ham they gave me was even close to any kind of meat other than spam. Beware! The Hungarians have taken the world's supply of spam and have made it their official meat of choice!

After my lovely breakfast a smaller group of us decided we wanted to go sightseeing. Ryan, Paula, Valtteri, Marco, Ashley, Peter, Mikel, Antonio and myself took off. We first went to see a famous church, St. Stephen's Basilica. It was huge! I couldn't capture the entire building with my camera. But the architecture alone was breathtaking. So much detail went into outside I could only imagine what it looked like on the inside. I was not disappointed. Ever square inch of the church was detailed. It was if someone thought about every inch of the church. St. Stephen's is named after Stephen, the first king of Hungary. He was declared a saint after his death and his right hand is considered holy. He's hand is kept in a gold box with tons of jewels on it in St. Stephen's Basilica. It was just an amazing place to see.

We decided to cross the famous Chain Bridge. It has huge lion statues, two on both sides that help anchor the bridge. It really reminded me of the Golden Gate Bridge. I also saw the Danube river which I had no idea ran through Hungary (I should have probably known that but oh well!). We were off to see the palace, another old church and the Parliament House.

Although we couldn't go inside the palace, it was a really cool building. There were a lot of statues around it. I must admit that I thought it would be more grand. I thought the parliament house looked more like a palace and the palace looked more plain. It was still really fun to walk around the palace though. We also went to Matthia's Church. It's the oldest church in Hungary, over 1000 years old! Just being in a place that has so much history is incredible. This church was even more decorated than the previous one. While smaller, it appeared to be more grand. It also was right next to Fishermen's Bastion. The Fishermen's Bastion was build over 100 years ago and represents the tribes that settled in Hungary and the fishermen that occupied that part of Budapest. It's mostly a terrace that overlooks the city. We got some great pictures from it. (Once I learn how to post pictures I will do it! I still have no idea why it won't work).

The last stop was the Parliament House. Again we couldn't go inside but it was a huge building! It looked like a political building, like it was important. The White House makes a statement because of how grand it is and that's how the Parliament House is in Budapest. On our way back to the hostel we saw this monument that we believe is a representation of when communism ruled in Hungary. I'm still not sure (because everything was in Hungarian, duh) but it was still pretty cool. All over Budapest there are random statues or things that have been there for hundreds of years. It's just amazing to be in a city that has survived for that long and still has buildings and statues to show for it. It makes it a great place to go to.

Again I didn't go out Saturday night (I know I'm such a party pooper) but I decided sleep was more important than getting drunk. I must be crazy! (Can you read my sarcasm?) And again I don't need to tell you how I got ready for bed and all that.

Stay tuned for Bud + Pest = Budapest Part 2. I still have so much more to tell you! But I figure you all need to get up and move around after sitting here reading my longest post yet about a day and a half of my trip. I know you can hardly wait for the Paris post, it's a 6 day trip!

All for now, more to come.

Sara