To be honest I hadn't even planned to go to Budapest during my stay in Austria because it was a city that I didn't know too much about, but am I even happy I went!
First of all, here is Budapest on a map:
It is the capital city of Hungary, and was about a 5 and a half hour train ride from Graz, Austria. Some quick facts:
"As a result of the war Budapest suffered severe economic setbacks which continued in the years between the wars. Towards the end of the Second World War, in the autumn of 1944, Budapest became a front-line town and suffered severe damage, especially in the castle quarter where units of the German army were barricaded in.
From February 13th 1945 onwards Soviet troops controlled the whole of Budapest and thereafter it was ruled along strict Soviet lines. In the autumn of 1956 political turmoil and economic hardship fuelled popular uprisings which were savagely put down by Hungarian and Soviet forces of law and order" (http://www.budapest.com/city_guide/general_information/history.en.html)
As well, you'll see from my pictures that there are a lot of different styles of Architecture in the buildings in Budapest. Some of the people who live in my dorm here told me that when these historical buildings were being constructed, there were architects from all over the world (America, London, etc) competing for their designs to be present, and the judges couldn't decide who the winners were - thus the various BEAUTIFUL styles throughout Budapest.
As well, the inner city is separated by the river Danau, with one side of the river being called Buda, and the other Pest - this I did not know.
The craziest thing - well this is debatable because of some of the stories we got out of this weekend - but the currency in Budapest is just bizarre. It is called "Forints"and it makes you feel absolutely rich because all of the money is in the hundreds or thousands. For example, 1 Canadian dollar is about 250 Forint. It took us forever to figure out what we were buying and all that but things (food, taxis) are actually much cheaper in Hungary, once you are actually able to figure out the conversion.
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| Bill for 10 people at lunch one day, about 21 000 forint haha |
Day 1:
- 6 hour train ride into Budapest
- checked into the most "lavish" hostel called Grandio Party hostel - just kidding - it looked like we were on a low budget trip to some where in Mexico - but I loved it never the less because that's what i feel European hostels should be like. Also, they are very smart here - our Keys to our room were a sensor pad that was attached to our wristbands so that there was really very little way of loosing it :). O and by the way we stayed in a room with 10 people and it was honestly so fun - we thought it would be challenging living and traveling with so many of us but i don't think any of us would have had it any other way - and theyre were even more of our friends from Graz staying in Budapest the same weekend so that was great to meet up with them as well.
- jumped into some sightseeing on the Buda side of the city (The Citadel - like a mountain in the middle of the city with some kind of war fortress and monument on top, a castle which is called "the Castle" which overlooks the city, the main tourist/ market street where there was lots of local "Schnapps" and the baking of this local pastry that looked like Spanish churos - look at this website for an image http://www.vitezkurtos.hu/udvozoljuk)
- by the end of the first day we realized that Budapest is the city of stairs because of how much climbing we had to do to see all of these sites
- we then got ready and went on our "Booze Cruise"! Speaks for itself i would say
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| View from the booze cruise :) |
- most touristy things around the city - we had the best weather this weekend
- got a great view of the Parliament buildings from across the river (it looks like a church and is the most beautiful thing in Budapest)
- then climbed up to the "Fisherman's Bastion" - this was my FAVOURITE site in Budapest. I would go back to the city on a regular basis just to see this. I dont know what it was about it (the styling, the view, or just the fact that a place like it existed up above the city where you would never expect to find it) PLEASE check my facebook page to see a video of this place
- we then walked down "Andrassy" a very historic street with some of the Embassy's as well as the "house of Terror" museum - based on some of Hungary's struggles in various wars (which we didnt actually visit)
- Some of the others wanted to visit the Hungarian "Thermal Bath house" - Hungary is known for these apparently - just looked like a pool to me but the water is "special"
- checked out the park in the city with various monuments and the "Vajdhunyad Castle"- looked very Medieval
- tried some Hungarian Goulash this day too! mmm mm :)
- o and by the way this is on St. Patty's! so we did a great Pub crawl at night - however no Guiness was available :(
Day 3:
- Last day in beautiful Budapest
- went to the farmers market in the park - here we ate VERY local Hungarian (sausage, pickles, literally a loaf of bread, and some more saucy meat) - you could really tell that this was a place where the locals would come to do some clothing shopping and get out and about - great place for souvenirs
- we then visited the Istavan Basilica that was described to us as an essential site - we actually didnt go into the Basilica but rather checked out the view from the top :)
- after this we were so worn out from the weekend that we headed for the train home
So that's Budapest, Hungary! So happy to have come here. We had the perfect combination of site seeing and culture (partying) and got so many jokes out of the weekend.
The city is definitely a hidden Gem of Eastern Europe
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