To get to Budapest Kate, Josh and I had to get a 10 hour overnight bus because it was the cheapest way to get there. i hate catching overnight buses at the best of times and just to rub it in a little Josh was telling me stories of when he was catching a previous bus he had to sit next to some weird woman who smelt like she was smuggling sausages around Europe. this made me REALLY excited about catching the bus. anyway, it was freezing and the bus was a bit late but lucky for me i didn't have to sit next to any weirdo's (but the customs did look at his passport for a VERY long time). with a bit of broken sleep the trip went quicker than i thought and before i knew it, i was in Budapest.
I wasn't too sure about hungry because i didn't really know a lot about except what Fiona (my good friend from Melbourne who is Hungarian) had exposed me too. and i wasn't sure if i was going to like it much, but so far its been one of my favorite cities. where we are staying is an awesome little apartment hostel which is more like a home than i hostel, its got a really nice vibe too it has a mezzanine level where we sleep and below it has some nice little couches that are nice and comfty, perfect for reading books, it has free internet (hence the long blog) and its so cheap. the only crap thing about Budapest is the currency which is called Forint. only because i was starting to get used to the Euro and the conversion, so i knew how much i was spending. but it is good in the sence that everything is pretty cheap. but i heard that eventually hungary is converting over to the Euro but it may take some time.
something i didn't know about Budapest is that it is divided by the Danube river into 2 sections, Buda and Pest. Buda i believe is roughly translated into 'water'. its called this because it has many natural springs, which is where a lot of baths are (more on that later) but lso its a lot more hilly, we went up to castle hill which is world heritage listed, it has some amazing little streets and and the palace and also some great views from there. while i was up there i saw Parliament house and wondered why, for such a small country, why it was so HUGE! its becuase Hungary used to be a lot bigger than it is today and was built to accomodate, but during WWI (i think) they lost a lot of land.
i checked out a massive old church (i think the biggest in Hungary) that took something like 50 years to build and it was built to commemorate people surviving a huge flood. inside the church was pretty beautiful, rich in marble and gold. and they had the 3rd biggest pipe organ (it had over 6,000 pipes!) to hear it play was amazing you could feel your body shake on a few notes. the best bit was when it broke into Deep Purples 'Smoke on the water'... only kidding. but the strangest part of the church was an area where they helt the mummified hand of St Stephen, who was there first King. bit weird, but whatever floats your boat.
We went for a wander around and found a few different shops which were pretty cool. i really like walking around with a plan and just checking out the old buildings and stuff not only in hungry but everywhere i go, i think its great when you see piece of the footpath that's been warn down from the millions of feet over centuries or the indents where rain drops have made a groove from dropping in the same spot. we found a nice cafe which was a little bit kooky called 'Csendes' which had art painted on the walls, i think we could've spent hours just looking at all the pictures which seemed to all roll into one. and the coffee there was good too, they gave you the option of having sugar or honey i naturally went with honey to give it a go, surprisingly its a winner! One night we came across a bar called 'Szimpla' when i walked in i wasn't sure what i had got myself in for, it was really dark kind of like a cave, but then i turned around a corner and we found where everyone was, the place was packed out and the atmosphere of the place was brilliant. they had a few different levels and an area outside i thought it was one of the coolest places i've ever been too... until i found a place called 'instant' which was an old apartment block that had been converted into a club but each room had a theme for instance we had a drink in the upside down room which had furniture nailed to the ceiling so it looked like we were standing on the ceiling. maybe this is where Lionel Richie got his inspiration from...? and another room was done like a dentist complete with chair and drill, needless to say people weren't lining up to get into that room.
we found a beautiful old market where the locals sold meat and veg, bread etc and upstairs was where you could buy traditional foods. which was really, really good. even the blood sausage with a little bit of help from some mustard. but the best bit about the market was that i saw an old lady who was trying to get up on her chair but was struggling so i asked if she needed a hand but she indicated to me that she was fine. she must have realized i wasn't going to mug her and she began to speak to me. she ask if i spoke English to which i replied 'yes'. she began to say 'my mother was English and my father was German... good mix, ey?' i said 'yeah', she then told me she was born here in Hungry. At that point her husband came over with a drink for both of them, a beer for him, a coffee for her. but she stole a few sips of his beer, looked at us and was like 'good yes? nice and cold...' we laughed and agreed. her husband was a quiet guy but very nice, all i got out of him was that he was originally from Poland. at one point he went to help her off her chair but she said she wasn't ready to go yet and told him to leave her and got a little bit angry at him, so he gave her a kiss on the forehead. she looked over at us and said 'he's a good one' which put a big smile on his face. she told us that they have been married since 1950 and still going strong. they finished there drinks and they said goodbye and told us to look after ourselves. it was really lovely to meet them both. i really enjoy meeting people and taking to locals you take away some much more from that then seeing a big statue.
One day we went and check out a beautiful old Turkish bath and had a swim. they had different pools at different temperatures, some of them really quite hot, hovering somewhere around 38 degrees. and there were fountains squirting out water and when you stood under them, they almost gave you a massage. this was just what i needed because after having a sleep in a bus, it really stuffed my back up, but after the bath my back was feeling brilliant. it was a miracle! the only scary bit was in some baths some people liked to walk around in the nude, and lets just say they didn't have a body like a Greek god, they were letting it all hand out.
something kinda strange about Hungry was there trams or should i say buses. they were a weird combo of both, which i thought was pretty funny. the only hard part about my stay in Budapest was there was a NATO summit and it locked down a bit of the city and sometimes you had to take the long way around. also there was so much road works going on. i didnt get to make it to statue park which is where they have heaps of statues of Lenin and things about communism, which was a bit of a shame i think it would've been interesting. i really enjoyed my stay here, i wish i could've stayed a little longer to see more but its hard to fit everything in.
I wasn't too sure about hungry because i didn't really know a lot about except what Fiona (my good friend from Melbourne who is Hungarian) had exposed me too. and i wasn't sure if i was going to like it much, but so far its been one of my favorite cities. where we are staying is an awesome little apartment hostel which is more like a home than i hostel, its got a really nice vibe too it has a mezzanine level where we sleep and below it has some nice little couches that are nice and comfty, perfect for reading books, it has free internet (hence the long blog) and its so cheap. the only crap thing about Budapest is the currency which is called Forint. only because i was starting to get used to the Euro and the conversion, so i knew how much i was spending. but it is good in the sence that everything is pretty cheap. but i heard that eventually hungary is converting over to the Euro but it may take some time.
something i didn't know about Budapest is that it is divided by the Danube river into 2 sections, Buda and Pest. Buda i believe is roughly translated into 'water'. its called this because it has many natural springs, which is where a lot of baths are (more on that later) but lso its a lot more hilly, we went up to castle hill which is world heritage listed, it has some amazing little streets and and the palace and also some great views from there. while i was up there i saw Parliament house and wondered why, for such a small country, why it was so HUGE! its becuase Hungary used to be a lot bigger than it is today and was built to accomodate, but during WWI (i think) they lost a lot of land.
i checked out a massive old church (i think the biggest in Hungary) that took something like 50 years to build and it was built to commemorate people surviving a huge flood. inside the church was pretty beautiful, rich in marble and gold. and they had the 3rd biggest pipe organ (it had over 6,000 pipes!) to hear it play was amazing you could feel your body shake on a few notes. the best bit was when it broke into Deep Purples 'Smoke on the water'... only kidding. but the strangest part of the church was an area where they helt the mummified hand of St Stephen, who was there first King. bit weird, but whatever floats your boat.
We went for a wander around and found a few different shops which were pretty cool. i really like walking around with a plan and just checking out the old buildings and stuff not only in hungry but everywhere i go, i think its great when you see piece of the footpath that's been warn down from the millions of feet over centuries or the indents where rain drops have made a groove from dropping in the same spot. we found a nice cafe which was a little bit kooky called 'Csendes' which had art painted on the walls, i think we could've spent hours just looking at all the pictures which seemed to all roll into one. and the coffee there was good too, they gave you the option of having sugar or honey i naturally went with honey to give it a go, surprisingly its a winner! One night we came across a bar called 'Szimpla' when i walked in i wasn't sure what i had got myself in for, it was really dark kind of like a cave, but then i turned around a corner and we found where everyone was, the place was packed out and the atmosphere of the place was brilliant. they had a few different levels and an area outside i thought it was one of the coolest places i've ever been too... until i found a place called 'instant' which was an old apartment block that had been converted into a club but each room had a theme for instance we had a drink in the upside down room which had furniture nailed to the ceiling so it looked like we were standing on the ceiling. maybe this is where Lionel Richie got his inspiration from...? and another room was done like a dentist complete with chair and drill, needless to say people weren't lining up to get into that room.
we found a beautiful old market where the locals sold meat and veg, bread etc and upstairs was where you could buy traditional foods. which was really, really good. even the blood sausage with a little bit of help from some mustard. but the best bit about the market was that i saw an old lady who was trying to get up on her chair but was struggling so i asked if she needed a hand but she indicated to me that she was fine. she must have realized i wasn't going to mug her and she began to speak to me. she ask if i spoke English to which i replied 'yes'. she began to say 'my mother was English and my father was German... good mix, ey?' i said 'yeah', she then told me she was born here in Hungry. At that point her husband came over with a drink for both of them, a beer for him, a coffee for her. but she stole a few sips of his beer, looked at us and was like 'good yes? nice and cold...' we laughed and agreed. her husband was a quiet guy but very nice, all i got out of him was that he was originally from Poland. at one point he went to help her off her chair but she said she wasn't ready to go yet and told him to leave her and got a little bit angry at him, so he gave her a kiss on the forehead. she looked over at us and said 'he's a good one' which put a big smile on his face. she told us that they have been married since 1950 and still going strong. they finished there drinks and they said goodbye and told us to look after ourselves. it was really lovely to meet them both. i really enjoy meeting people and taking to locals you take away some much more from that then seeing a big statue.
One day we went and check out a beautiful old Turkish bath and had a swim. they had different pools at different temperatures, some of them really quite hot, hovering somewhere around 38 degrees. and there were fountains squirting out water and when you stood under them, they almost gave you a massage. this was just what i needed because after having a sleep in a bus, it really stuffed my back up, but after the bath my back was feeling brilliant. it was a miracle! the only scary bit was in some baths some people liked to walk around in the nude, and lets just say they didn't have a body like a Greek god, they were letting it all hand out.
something kinda strange about Hungry was there trams or should i say buses. they were a weird combo of both, which i thought was pretty funny. the only hard part about my stay in Budapest was there was a NATO summit and it locked down a bit of the city and sometimes you had to take the long way around. also there was so much road works going on. i didnt get to make it to statue park which is where they have heaps of statues of Lenin and things about communism, which was a bit of a shame i think it would've been interesting. i really enjoyed my stay here, i wish i could've stayed a little longer to see more but its hard to fit everything in.
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