Baths, Buses, Backpacks, Budapest

Last weekend was my first opportunity to travel wherever I wanted to and the consensus my group reached was Budapest. Even though I was only there for a short amount of time, Budapest has my heart. We were able to see breathtaking sights, eat fantastic food, and grow as friends, but believe me, our trip wasn't all sunshine and roses.

Actually, getting there was kind of rough. We took a bus that was overnight, had a three hour layover, and was set to arrive in Budapest at 5:00 am (I'm definitely not a morning person). All not ideal scenarios. Luckily when we got to Brno at 10:30 pm we were able to find a McDonald's to crash at during our layover. When we got back on the bus I had the intent to sleep for the next three hours, but I find it nearly to fall asleep on buses, airplanes, trains, etc., especially when you find yourself in the back of the bus in the middle of five seats, feeling every bump you make and turn you take. Let's just say I didn't get any sleep that night. So when we arrived in Budapest I was ecstatic, but drowsy and out of it.

Another problem we faced was that we had no idea where we were in the grand scheme of Budapest. The only thing we could tell when we got dropped off at the bus stop was that we were not in the best part of town so we were eager to get out of the area. We couldn't use the maps on our phones because some of us don't have international phone planes (me) and others have very limited amounts of data they have to save so we had no choice but to choose a direction and start walking. All of us were able to pack all we needed for the weekend into backpacks and at first I would forget the backpack was even on my back while walking, but after awhile it got heavier and heavier and I started going through my head what all was in it and wishing I would have just left behind some of the unnecessary items. It's just really hard to pack light when you're a girl okay. We started getting hungry and needed to use a restroom after about an hour of walking, but even a Burger King we passed wasn't open this early. We were feeling a little defeated at this point and the all nighter we pulled was taking a toll on us. Finally we stumbled upon a bakery that was open and we were able to sit down, eat, and regain our bearings.

As you can tell from the video they had countless pastries to choose from, but do you know what I chose at 6 in the morning? A slice of barbecue pizza. I know, really weird, but after being up all night it felt more like lunch time for me. It was actually a pretty decent slice of pizza as well! What's crazy to me is that there are bakeries like these all over Europe, while I feel like there are very few in America. Don't worry, I've been taking full advantage of having bakeries at my disposal and I'm constantly eating some type of pastry. Anyways, we stalled at this bakery for an hour trying to develop a game plan and just enjoying the ability to sit for awhile.

Once we mustered up enough strength to keep going, we gathered up our belongings and kept heading towards our hostel. It took us another hour to get to it. Two total hours to get to our hostel. That's a lot of walking that I am not used to doing. You can image we were completely exhausted by that time and really needed to just lay in a bed for a couple hours and take a power nap. Sad thing was though, our room wasn't ready. We were so desperate for naps that we went into their side lobby, which was full of giant couches, and just crashed there. We definitely received a bunch of weird stares, but at this point nothing could bother us. Once we were a little rested up (one and a half hour naps), we headed out to explore Budapest.

Our main objective for our first day was to go to Budapest's famous Széchenyi thermal baths. I've seen plenty pictures of it before so I kind of knew what to expect, but you truly don't understand until you get there. How I would best describe this experience is - imagine getting in a giant hot tub, surrounded by beautiful buildings, with completely random people from all walks of life. Sounds weird, but I was living for it. It was freezing outside (it actually started snowing on us near the end which was really cool), but the water was so hot that it felt amazing. You couldn't overheat since the cold air balanced you out. I felt so relaxed in the beautiful environment and the hot water felt soothing after a long day of walking. I could have stayed there all day. Széchenyi has one big outdoor bath (my favorite), fifteen indoor baths, and some saunas. We tried some indoor baths and I stuck my head in a sauna to see what it was like (can't see anything and it smelled bad), but nothing compared to the big main outdoor bath.

That same night was St. Patrick's Day, so me being extra had bought face tattoos from Walmart before I left and brought them on the trip. So I made everyone, whether they wanted to or not, get decked out in tattoos and go to some Irish bars. Something that surprised me was that St. Patrick's Day is not a big deal over here what so ever. We went to two separate Irish bars, Jack Doyle's and Publin, and while they were busy, they weren't super busy like we were expecting. We still had a great time though and we eventually ended up in a bar that wasn't even Irish, but was the most fun because everyone was dancing and having a good time. It was so fun to experience St. Patty's Day in another country!

The next morning we went to church at St. Stephen's Basilica which was absolutely gorgeous. What blew my mind during mass was how few people were actually attending mass even though they had such a beautiful church! There was a barrier that tourists couldn't cross during mass and constantly there was new people filtering in and out of the church to snap pictures of the church, but all these people were not willing to actually stay for the mass. I will admit though it has been more difficult getting into the mass because it has been in other languages so I never know what is being said. I'm glad I am in the company of friends who keep me accountable to go to church and make me excited to go even though I am abroad.

We then headed to the Great Synagogue of Budapest. I was excited to go here because I have never been to a Jewish synagogue before. This synagogue is the largest one in Europe and was the largest one in the world for a while until the one in New York, USA recently passed it. We had an extremely informant tour guide that made me realize I didn't know a whole lot about the Jewish faith. It was extremely interesting learning about what all the symbolism in their church meant and what it means to be Jewish. One of the most haunting parts of the tour was seeing a rose garden that had to be converted into a mass grave site because of the Holocaust. We learn all about the people who were murdered during the Holocaust in school, but living in America it always seemed so far away and long ago. To actually see examples in person how it effected communities, countries, and the world, is life changing. There were beautiful memorials also throughout the Synagogue such a the weeping willow tree below. Each of the leaves has a name of a person in their congregation that was killed during the Holocaust.

At this point it was starting to get dark so we knew we had to get a move on if we were going to see a few more sights. We hurried over to the famous Chain Bridge (bridge right behind us with the lit up green portions) where we were also able to see the Royal Palace (big building on the left) and Fisherman's Bastion (harder to see, but it's the one far away on the right) in the distance.

Then we ran over to the Parliament which is a must see in Budapest and is on literally every post card. It is just crazy to me how big, gorgeous, and detailed buildings are in Europe. I don't think I'll ever get over it. Also so glad I was able to see this building at night. It was so magnificent completely lit up!

After cramming in as much sight seeing as we could, we started our long trek back to the sketchy bus station. This time though we knew how to use the metro so our walk wasn't quite as long. The bus ride home was extremely rough though. It was another over night bus with a 3 and half hour layover- yay for us. This time our bus left at 11:30 pm and we arrived in Brno at 4:00 am. This is where we made a devastating discovery. McDonald's aren't open 24 hours in Europe. So, we had to wait in the freezing cold bus station so a couple hours until McDonald's opened at 6 am. I don't think I stopped shaking for hours. Also, all of us got colds from this adventure we are trying to get rid of this week lol. Honestly though, it was so worth it. Budapest is an amazing city full of beauty, friendly people, and endless things to do. There were so many things we weren't able to go see and it's definitely a city I want to go back to in the future and properly visit for longer than a weekend. My Budapest experience was full of baths, buses, and backpacks and I wouldn't change it in any way.