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The story begins in the Krakow train station because that's where we met Andreas. Jeremy, Melissa, Benny and I were buying our train tickets to Budapest and a guy asked Jeremy whether the backpack sitting behind him was his. When Jeremy said that it was, the guy said that he had overheard that we were headed to Budapest and that if he wanted to keep his things, he'd better keep a better eye on his things...that his backpack would've vanished in seconds had we been in a public area in Budapest! That was our introduction to Andreas, a German-Pakistani law student who studies in Budapest at the moment. We saw him later on in the train and he sat with us for a while and told us all of the interesting things that we could see and do in Budapest. He is probably one of the friendliest and most helpful people I have met in a long, long time.
Our first day in Budapest was pretty relaxed. We walked around the centre and took a nap in one of the parks (we were all exhausted from the overnight train). We met Andreas for dinner that night and he took us
to an Indian restuarant (called Indigo) that served us the best Indian food I've ever tasted! It was by far the best meal I've had since leaving home.
Very early the next morning (around 4 am), we had to say goodbye to Benny who went back to Finland to finish her classes. We had a great week with her and were definitely sad to see her go! Thanks for the memories Benny!
Later on that day, we met up with one of the many Mikes we've met throughout the course of this trip (this Mike is from Philadelphia and we met him on our way to Auschwitz) and did some more wandering around the centre with him (the centre is bigger than some of the others we've encountered and you have to take public transit to cover it all). The transit system in Budapest is one of the best I've ever seen. Maybe it's because I work for public transit at home that I find different systems so interesting but it was so incredibly easy to get around in Budapest. They use a combination of metro, trams and buses. What makes this system so efficient is that the
Holocaust Memorial
Each leaf has a name of a Holocaust victim. The synagogue kept records of members, which made it possible to keep track of who was lost during the war routes are idiot-proof - you don't really have to figure anything out because everything is so logically laid out. There are a lot of cities where transit routes are horrible, confusing and completely inefficient because they're so complicated and require a lot of transfers.
After a full day of wandering (we still hadn't done any real siteseeing yet), we decided to get some traditional Hungarian food (the common theme in Eastern Europe is a lot of meat!). The meat theme makes things difficult for Jeremy and Melissa who don't eat red meat. I have to say though, I'm impressed at how adventurous they're being with the food (meat) here. We went to a restaurant in the back alley of one of the major streets thinking that we may find a place that was less expensive and offered more traditional food. We weren't disappointed - we found a place that we almost didn't go into because it was completely empty. We decided to give it a shot and each had a big meal which was accompanied by musicians who were playing a mixture of traditional Hungarian folk music and less interesting adult contemporary music. The guy playing the violin was
amazing - the music gave us the perfect atmosphere for our dinner 😊.
Day three was when the siteseeing began. We began by hitting up the big market for a picnic we wanted to have that afternoon and then went to Gellert Hill where the Independence Statue and rock church are located. There are also incredible views of the Denube River and the city centre from Gellert Hill. After seeing the sites on the hill and grabbing a snack after seeing the rock church, we decided to check out Margaret Island because Andreas said that this was something we absolutely needed to see. Margaret Island is a park situated on the Denube River and there's a ton of things to do there. You can play football (a.k.a. soccer), go running on the rubber track that runs all around the island (constructed by Adidas), watch the musical fountain do one of its routines to classical music (the water "dances" in time to the music), have a walk around, grab a bite to eat, have a nap... there's a ton to do! The other great thing about this park is that other than buses, car traffic is not allowed on the
island. This makes the island really peaceful. After having a pizza with Mike and saying goodbye (he was heading to Switzerland), it was time to head back to the hostel for our last night. The following morning, we were on our way to Sarajevo!
More to come...
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