To Buda Pest and beyond!

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This was my very first trip! I think it was the first for everyone else in the group too. I mean we had already been to Vienna with the school and Oktoberfest and traveled before but this was our first Salzburger trip and for me my first solo overnight trip in Europe (meaning it was only us students, and in
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this case only us salzburgers). We were so nervous that we just booked the hostel that other salzburgers had used when they went and we left for the train station 30 minutes early (it is a 10-15 minute walk). Of all the times I have a traveled from Salzburg, this was the only time a train had ever been late. And it was sooooo late. It was somewhere around 45 minutes late. We were freaking out! Of course nothing was open because the train was supposed to leave at 12:30. We had planned what would become habit- book a Thursday night train, sleep on the train, and wake up in the city and have all day Friday for exploring. Eventually the train came and we slept the whole way. Sadly while waiting for the train we had eaten all the food we had packed so when we arrived we didn’t have anything to eat and we were starving. Outside the train station the only food was what I suspect to be a crazy homeless cat lady who was selling old cabbages and a burgerking. We opted to go to the hostel and ask for directions from there. Luckily we were uber prepared so we had the directions how to get there with the metro, even how to buy the metro tickets. We bought the tickets and waited for our train to arrive. What came were in fact the oldest subway cars I’ve ever seen. It was kind of like two old metal bathtubs welded together on wheels. The sound they made when coming was so terrible we were sure they were going to collapse. But we go on any because we had already bought the tickets and we didn’t want to walk the whole way. We got to our hostel no problem, and we checked in. Since there were 6 of us we got the whole room to ourselves which meant we could lock the door and not worry about our stuff. The room was actually really pretty. It had red walls and people had done really beautiful charcoal sketches of different parts of Budapest. The hostel people were really nice and we went to a nearby restaurant they suggested immediately after unpacking because we were starving.
This place was amazing! Even after all our travel we still talk about that place as in our top 10. We ordered and it took forever to come but it was worth the wait. I had ordered chicken that inside had some kind of ham or prosciutto wrapped around a smoked cheese that was stuffed with apple. And it came with rice cooked with bacon as a side. Everyone ordered some kind of different meat dish but they were all great. After lunch we walked around and took pictures and made our way to the synagogue. This synagogue is the biggest in Europe and perfectly preserved despite the war. After this we made our way downtown and went to the St Stephan’s Basilica. We couldn’t take pictures inside but it was impressive. The outside was so tall we couldn’t even fit it all in one picture. After the church we walked towards the main area where the government buildings are. There were a lot of very beautiful historic buildings and lots of art of the way but we really wanted to see the government buildings. We didn’t know yet that the biggest one is across the river because even though Hungary was part of a huge nation and actually governed many smaller nation the Habsburgs feared revolt and made Buda and Pest separate cities but made it so they couldn’t have walls on the river. This made it divided to keep the power from growing as much and made them more vulnerable to invasion by river since the Danube runs through the center. So we were on the side that held the original very old government buildings but not the one built after independence that was huge. But we did see that one on the way back to the hostel with the sunset behind it. It was very pretty. The building was white and there was this big bridge that ended right in front of it. Because it is white the sunset colors kind of painted it, but it was impossible to take a picture of it. On the way back we decided to shop a little bit. Even though it was dark everything was still open because it was the end of October so it was not so late. We went to the famous market and there scarves and bags and souvenirs but also other really cool stuff. We went back towards the hostel and got some Kebabs for dinner because we had already decided to go out and us and kebabs are cheap but going out isn’t so cheap. We had a few beers in the room and then went out to the street that had all the bars on it. It was fun we went to a few places, and tried lots of different kind of Hungarian beers. The final placed we stopped was oddly enough Scottish themed. There was even a kilt and bagpipes on the wall. There weren’t so many people there so the waiter talked to us for a while and he was nice and funny and to and told us about the traditional drink that was a liqueur. He said it’s not so strong, not even strong enough to be considered a hard alcohol and it’s made from cherries so it’s fruity and very good. We try it. It was of course like cherry gasoline. It was so strong. We all kind of choked a bit and of course he laughed. After that we went back to the hostel because it was almost 1 and we had to get up somewhat early the next day to go see stuff.





Today we woke up early, like 8 am, got ready packed out stuff (left it in storage at the hostel) and went out for breakfast at a nice place nearby. After breakfast we went across the river and saw the parliament building, a church with a really cool roof, and a sort of fairy tale castle where we had lunch. After that we started the long journey towards finding the Turkish baths. Budapest had been in the area under the first Turkish rule until it came under the rule of the Austrians. This means that it was generally very German/Austrian but there are some remnants of Middle Eastern rule such as authentic Turkish bath houses. Of course researched which ones were best and which ones accepted both sexes into the area. We sadly let pat the idiot navigate so it took us a while but we eventually made it. And it was awesome!!!! There were a lot of parts to the bath house but we mostly stuff to the main area. There was an area that was sloped with arm rest and jets so you could kind of lay there like on a sun chair but with jets and a big area to swim around in but the best part was this round area that had a very strong current so you could just float and you would go around the circle kind of fast. It was so fun!! We spent like 2 hours there! Then we showered and dressed and went back to the hostel to get our stuff. We walked around Budapest for a while just looking around and taking pictures and eventually went to a restaurant that looked good. It was Italian food but it was soooo good! We took the leftovers and went to the train station. Here I changed some money back to euros and somehow I dropped ticket when I put it and the money back in my pocket! I didn’t know it until we got on the train and I had to buy a new one L but it was only 20 euros so it wasn’t that bad. We slept the whole way and arrived in Salzburg early the next morning which was Sunday so we unpacked, then picked up the room did laundry and homework and waited for the Sunday dinner and meeting.

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Photos

Hungarian currencey
...not really worth much but pretty!

1st Synagogue picture
This is the outside of the synagogue..all pictures after this are all the synagogue