Budapest + Brittany's visit

Wow, so I am wayyy behind in blogging, but I will try to catch up a bit. Of course I've forgotten important details by now, so this will be the abbreviated update.

So, after our weekend trips with CHP, the next weekend I went to Budapest with my friend Sarah. We endured what felt like a never-ending trainride before finally reaching our destination. Budapest is a really cool and beautiful city! We explored the castle area and what we believe was fisherman's bastion. The castle is on the Buda side of the city and provides excellent views of the Pest side. The two sides are separated by the Danube river and are connected by a number of bridges, the most famous of which is the Chain Bridge.

After the castle, we went to the main market hall for some shopping - mainly pashminas and paprika. We went to the Terror Museum about the Nazi and Communist occupations of Hungary. It was an interesting museum, complete with interrogation and torture cells in the basement. We walked up the main commercial street all the way to the Heroes' Square at the entrance of the park.

The park was really pretty, and had a beautiful small castle that was built for some world exhibition. It was more castle-like than many of the legitimate palaces and castles that we had visited in Europe. We saw the amusement park (from the outside) and we stumbled upon a circus! We decided to see it, and it turned out to be really cool. It was sort of like cirque-de-soleil, but with some interesting acts that I had never seen before. Then, as we were leaving, there was a fireworks show over the amusement park, so we got to watch that as well.

Then we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Menza, recommended by who else? Rick Steves, of course. They had tasty cocktails and yummy food, and it really wasn't that expensive thanks to the 200 to 1 ratio between the forint and the US dollar.

The next day was a busy one. We woke up early to go to the Szechenyi baths in the park, and it seriously was one of the most amazing things I've ever done! The baths were housed in a beautiful neo-classical yellow building. You paid just $15 for an ENTIRE DAY at the baths. We only had about 3 hours to spend there, but it was worth every penny. There were 3 pools outside, 2 hot ones and one colder one for lap swimming. The outdoor baths were in a beautiful and huge courtyard, and there was steam rising from the surface of the heated pools. Inside the buliding, there were a number of pools of different temperatures, and alternating between them is supposedly good for one's circulation.

There were also a lot of different saunas, 3 of which are worth mentioning. First there was the mint sauna! The air inside was so thick and steamy that you could taste mint as you were breathing. It was also very very hot. AMAZING. Then there was the color sauna, where the lights slowly shifted through the color spectrum. Finally there was the cinnamon sauna that was a whopping 80 degrees Celsius (that's really, really, REALLY hot). The air smelled spicy, like cinnamon, and the heat was almost unbearable. It started to feel like your hair follicles were burning after only a few minutes, haha.

Anyway, after a fantastically relaxing morning at the baths, we rushed to check out of our hostel, see europe's largest synagogue, and take a tour of the Hungarian Parliament building. The only downside to the weekend was that we got stuck eating McDonald's twice. Once when we arrived because it was like the only thing open at 11pm, and once right before we left because they were the only ones that would take credit card, and we were out of Forints.

So, the next weekend I got a visit from Brittany! She brought her friend Kristin, who is really cool, and we had a great time! We managed to squeeze two matresses onto the floor of my bedroom, so it was like a big slumber party, haha. First priority was, of course, to take them to eat thai noodles and then to get apple streudel! So we had a little adventure to Zizkov and found the streudel place with no problem since Sarah and I had already ventured out there once before. We also went up inside the freaky alien baby tower to see some views of the city. We had pizza at Kmotra (this great italian place right next to my dorm) for dinner, and I think we may have gone for Hoegaardens at Dogs Bollocks afterward.

The next day we went to see the castle, including the toy (BARBIE) museum! We shot crossbows in the golden lane and marvelled at every type of barbie imagineable. Then we went to Bohemia Bagel for a REAL AMERICAN breakfast, including delicious pancakes. We were pretty much stuffed. We also went to old town square and climbed the clock tower to get some great views of old town, the castle, etc. For dinner that night, we took them to U Fleku, a traditional czech restaurant and beer house, although a little bit of a tourist trap as well. We had some of their delicious 13% alcohol dark beer and forced britt and kristin to try some gulash (which they liked). They even joined a conga line because these old ladies pulled them out of their chairs, haha!

Then we went to PUB (Pilsner Unique Bar) so that they could try the most well-known czech beer. A few liters later, we walked across the street to the five story club and had fun dancing for a few hours. Our favorite was the 4th floor, or the hip-hop/rap floor. The music on some of the other floor was just sort of weird, haha.

The next morning, Sunday, we started the day off with a trdlo for breakfast. That's a traditional czech pastry that is shaped like a barrel and covered in sugar. mmmm. Then we went to see the Wallenstein Palace gardens, the John Lennon Graffiti wall, the Prague bambino statue, and the disappearing man (or monument to the victims of communism). We followed that up with a fabulous lunch at Cantina, our favorite mexican restaurant. Then it was some last minute souvenir shopping before Britt and Kristin had to leave for the airport.

So, all in all, I had 2 very fun-filled weekends leading up to my 9 day fall break (which I will describe in as much detail as I can remember in my next entry).