Fall Break, Part II: The Rest of Budapest and beginning of Vienna. October 24th and 25th.
To start the day off right on Saturday, we went to the Farmer’s Market across from our hostel. It was incredibly large. So much cool stuff to see! From there we were off to climb Castle Hill. Castle Hill overlooks both sides of the city and is a memorial to the country’s liberty. It had some amazing views. At the top of the hill was a medieval fort and there I had the opportunity to shoot a bow and arrow – so I did. I’m as good as Robin Hood.
After that, we took the funicular up to the Castle and National Gallery. That was a rather short trip. After that we went back across the river to go see Parliament. It was a really great example of Gothic Architecture. It was also Hungary’s National holiday so there were tons of people around.
Next on the list was a boat cruise down the Danube River. It was one of the funniest things I have ever experienced. There were two narrators, one for Buda and one for Pest. They would fight and exchange witty banter while trying to explain the history of the city. We couldn’t stop laughing. With the purchase of the ticket for the tour came a free drink and a free tour of St. Margaret’s Island, which is in the middle of the Danube. That was really fun.
From there we headed to the train station to check-in for the next day. We took the tram back to the hostel and rested for a while and got ready for dinner. Our tour guide, Anna, had recommended this place called A38 which was an old cargo boat, still on the river, that was transformed into a restaurant upstairs and techno club downstairs. It was quite the place. Our food was really good!
After we were done eating we were going to head downstairs and then Justin showed up! Justin is one of my best friends from school and was visiting Budapest at the same time we were! It was so awesome to see him. I missed him so much.
The club downstairs was a ton of fun and we were basically the only people there. I had a dance-off with some sketchy Hungarian guy but it was totally worth it J We headed home not long after that and all slept really well.
The next morning we realized that we had forgotten about daylight savings time and were ready and rearing to go at 8 instead of 9! Haha, funny stuff. Anyhow, we found Coffee Heaven, which is essentially the Starbucks of Hungary. From there we took the metro to Hosof Ter to see Heroes Park and monument.
We walked down the main street to the House of Terror which is a museum focusing on the communist occupation of Hungary. It was really intense and really informative. We saw Sam Buchbauer there who is another friend from school who is studying in Strasbourg.
After that was the Opera house, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and the Jewish Quarter. We went to the 2nd largest Synagogue in the world and the largest in Europe. It was thoroughly impressive. We went to a restaurant in the Jewish Quarter, had some kosher food and then headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and head out for Vienna.
Our train ride was a lot of fun. We had to split up into different cabins but that’s fine. Our hostel, the Wombat, was right next to the train station and PHENOMENAL. It was clean, secure, friendly, and just downright amazing. They directed us in the direction of a place that had good food and would give us a discount because we were staying at the Wombat. The name of it was Mozart-Stube. I got turkey with rice and peas and Viennese beer. I was a happy camper. We all went to bed promptly upon our return to the hostel.
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