Budapest!!

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I woke up for my first day in Budapest and walked out for breakfast. The Aboriginal hostel is already a great place in my book since they give you a free breakfast! I got some cereal and freshly made waffles and sat down at the large table where about 5 people were already sitting and finishing up their breakfast.
I introduced myself and talked to the others over breakfast, there was an older American guy, Sandy, who was so cool and down to earth. There was a Swedish guy, Andy, and two other Americans (so this is where all of the Americans are hiding). After breakfast I went out to get a handle on the city of Budapest and figured out what I wanted to do with my time there.
The city was very windy and I was almost blown over so many times! The hostel was a little bit of a walk away from the Danube River that separates the Buda from the Pest side (my hostel was on the Pest side) and there are about 5 bridges you can choose to cross on, one prettier than the next!
The architecture of the buildings and the bridges of the city are just amazing, every building was beautifully designed, and I am talking EVERY building!
I ended up get so incredibly lost (typical) and couldn’t find my position on a map (not as typical, usually those things save my butt!). I ended up walking in circles (did I just pass that 20 minutes ago??) I was just so thirsty I wanted to find a little grocer and get some water and then find my way back to the hostel. I finally found a little place and had my choice of about 20 different brands of water, I made what I thought looked like a good choice and was back out on the street looking for my hostel (I was a little bit more found by this point) and opened the water, chhhhhhh. Oh no, I bought soda water and it didn’t look any different from the regular stuff! It wasn’t bad, but I was not sure in the future how to buy regular water.
I finally made it back to the hostel and had some lunch and tried to regroup and get another plan of attack so I wouldn’t get so lost in the future! (Plus it doesn’t help that I can’t pronounce any of the street names) I ended up going back out again since I had seen some nice cheap shops that had some dresses in them that I was going to try on since the hostel was taking people out for the night and I still had yet to find something nice to wear out.
I went to the first shop and found absolutely nothing and I think I tried on everything. I left feeling defeated, but then hopped in another little shop and found a great dress! And so cheap! I was set for the night!
I went back and got ready for the night out (I love it when hostels arrange this because it’s hard to know where to go on your own, and I try my best not to walk around alone at night!) So I put on my dress (yay!) and met some of the other travellers coming out with us. I met Elyane and Emma, two girls staying at the Loft hostel, and were brought over by Andy since he had wanted to stay longer at the Aboriginal but it was full, so he booked at the Loft and still hung out at the Aboriginal (yeah, it’s that cool!) Elyane is from California, and Emma is from Sweden. In total there were about 12 of us, all representing nations such as, the US, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Australia, and Ireland.
Our first stop was a bar on a boat, this would have been lovely except that it was freezing and the wind from earlier was still at it, and so we all were just shivering away! Antonio, a Brazilian in my dorm room had made fun of me when I was bringing my scarf, but once we sat down on the boat I laughed because at least I had something to kind of keep me warm. He was a gentleman and gave me his button down shirt that he was wearing over his tee shirt; I wasn’t going to turn that down!
Half of us had finished our beer (Hungarian beer isn’t all that bad) and the other half of the group had just ordered another one, but the first half was freezing so we went on to the next place and the others were going to meet up with us there, Antonio was staying so I gave him back his shirt, (I was warm for a little bit!) We basically went across the street to an open air bar with a DJ that played the same music all night, but it was fun to dance too. The others showed up not soon after we did and we had a massive circle on the dance floor! Everyone was dancing and having a great time! It was a massive place, with at least 5 different bars and 2 different dance floors with DJ’s and it was all one floor outside.
After getting our fill of dancing we all left and headed back, we met up with one of the guys who had decided to leave early and we found him wandering around (he had been lost for over an hour, and couldn’t remember the name of the hostel, or what street it was on, thank goodness he ran into us!)
We got back to the hostel and I climbed in my most comfortable bed (no joke, this place is awesome) that I have ever stayed in at a hostel.
It was a wonderful way to start my time in Budapest!
B

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Photos

On the Danube
Its windy!