Visegrad and Szentendre

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This past weekend, I decided to plan a day trip to Visegrad and Szentendre. Normally Darcy plans things and I navigate, so I'm not the best at planning.

After a fun night on Friday, I met Joe, Sam, Chaz, and Niamh at the Nyugati train station at 9 am. We bought tickets for a train to Visegrad and set off. Joe ate his first McDonald's breakfast ever and was so American about it (he's from London). The train was where the insults between Sam and Chaz started. The next 20 hours ended up being about who could insult the other the most. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

We got off the train at Nagymáros where we could see the Visegrad Castle up on a hill. We walked towards it and found the Danube. It was a gorgeous foggy morning, and the riverbank was beautiful. Across the river from us was the small town of Visegrad with the castle set up on a hilltop. The river was quiet and empty, and we spent some time taking pictures.

But wait. Quiet. Empty. THERE'S NO BRIDGE HERE. Oh yes. That moment when you want to cross the Danube and there's no bridge to be found. After asking some people, we found out that there's a ferry that comes across the river for 600 forints. We waited for that and took more pictures. The ferry was more like a driveway pushed by a boat. It was...interesting. When we made it to the other side, we had no idea how to reach the castle because I am terrible at planning. However, we did decide we were hungry.

We saw a small restaurant, and there was a taxi driver right outside who offered to take us up to a panoramic restaurant by the castle for 2500 forints (500 each=less than $2). We made it to the restaurant, which was gorgeous. The hills were right outside and we sat next to the windows so we could see. We had a long lunch of mulled wine, soup, and more insults. We played nose goes to see who would have to eat the cloves and other spices left in the mulled wine. Then Joe ate the spicy paprika paste with a spoon for funsies.

Then we decided to finally go to the castle. We walked down the hill and found out that we had to pay to actually go into the castle. At this point it was midday, and we still wanted to go to Szentendre. So we opted out of the castle and made a long journey down the hill.

On the way down we stopped at another viewpoint and were able to see fog, Visegrad, and Nagymáros. We stayed there for a while talking and soaking it all in. Chaz went ahead, but the four of us stayed for another 5 minutes before following him.

It took us about an hour to walk down the hill. We made the bus to Szentendre with about 2 minutes to spare. The buses only come every hour or so. Sam promptly fell asleep on the bus looking like a homeless person until an old lady sat next to him and nudged him until he moved so that she could have a window seat. We got off at a random stop in Szentendre and found a cafe to sit at. All day Niamh had been saying she wanted a hot drink and a blanket next to a fire. We sat outside the cafe with fire heaters, blankets, and mulled wine. Niamh was happy.

It was starting to get dark, and all we had eaten was soup, so we went to get gyros. We found a little gyro place that turned out to have the BEST gyros I've ever eaten. It was enormous. It took a full 3 minutes of strategizing before I could take my first bite. We all made a mess on the ground outside the stand, but it was so worth it. Then the 5 of us walked to the train that would take us back to Budapest. We got a little area in the back of one of the cars, and Sam practiced hissing in order to ward people away from our area. Joe almost lost his train ticket when the inspector showed up and proceeded to pull what we're pretty sure is three years worth of trash and receipts out of his jacket pocket. Classic Joe.

Niamh was tired, so she went home for the night. Sam went to his flat to change. Chaz, Joe, and I went to Chaz's flat up in Ujpest to hang out. Sam and his girlfriend Petra met us there, and I was so happy to have another girl around (I was worried when Niamh left). We hung out outside and watched three puppies play for a while and then it was time to go out in Budapest. By the time we left, the metro had stopped running, so we figured we would get the night bus.

The first time we tried to get the night bus, we watched it stop right in front of the stop. Although "stop" is too generous of a word. It paused before moving on. We got on a tram and called a cab. We ended up at another night bus stop and stood at the stop. The bus came up to us, paused, didn't even open its doors and left. Rude. Thankfully the cab into the city was cheap, and we watched Joe's coworker sing at a bar and spent the night dancing.

All in all, one of the best days I've had in Hungary.

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Photos

Foggy hills
Notice the lack of bridge

Found this puppy on the way down
look at those eyes!!