It's 11:30 on Sunday night and I just got back from Budapest a little while ago. Our train home was at 1:30 pm and we were true champs. We came about 2 minutes close to missing the train because we accidentally went to the wrong train station at first. Unbeknownst to us, there are multiple train stations within close proximity to each other in Budapest. I guess it's all part of this so-called "experience," but I have to say this lack of being able to understand other languages is getting really frustrating at times. But alas, despite our large group of 10 people, we somehow managed to sprint onto the train.
In general, I think that Budapest and Prague are very similar. Both seem to be relatively small and manageable cities. Since we took the overnight train there on Thursday night, when we arrived on Friday we were ready to start the day. [I would no recommend said over night train, yet it was an interesting experience]. We met up with Dan who has now been studying there for 2 and a half weeks. He took us to see The Millenary Monument which is right on the beautiful Andrassy Street.
From the monument there is a great view of the Budapest Fine Arts Museum and we walked to the Turkish Baths and saw the gardens at the agricultural museum. In the Fine Arts Museum there is currently a Medici exhibit which we went to see on Saturday. It was a fair exhibit-- cool, but not unique to Buda. The gardens surrounding the agricultural museum are beautiful. There's a little pond with some chairs and a dock. It was brutally cold outside, but we all enjoyed resting on the waterfront for a while. Apparently Budapest has the most sunny days out of any city in Europe. While it was sunny the entire time we were there, I could not believe how cold it was compared to Praha.
On Friday night we went to a great bar called Szimpla. It was very resemblant of ELS basement--barely insulted concrete floor-- and there were just tables and space heaters. There were just a ton of travelers like ourselves from all over the world. We met a great group of Germans, some Australians, Greeks and some other Americans. I think one of my favorite things about all this traveling is meeting all of these random people my age and getting to talk to them about politics, education and cultural differences.
Also on Saturday, in addition to the Medici exhibit, we went to The House of Terror. If there was one thing I would recommend anyone to do while in Budapest it would be to go see the House of Terror. It was the best exhibit I have ever seen in my entire life, both the content and the way in which the exhibit was set up. The museum stands as a memorial for the victims of the two terror regimes in Hungary and also serves to show what life was like in Hungary during communism and nazism. In the basement there are actual prison cells--it was appropriately terrifying.
I think one of my favorite parts of the trip was when we walked along the Danube River which separates Buda and Pest. The views of Castle Hill are incredible and it was just so surreal to be walking along the river. We couldn't believe what we were actually doing.
Today before our train we decided to split up so that we could each do what we wanted to do before we left. Amy and I decided to venture to the Hungarian Literature Museum. Although there was absolutely no English, I still found it fascinating to read about famous Hungarian poets and see photos and illustrations. The museum is named after the poet Sándor Petőfi. I cannot wait to read his translated poems when I get home.
That was longer than anticipated...
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