Hiya!
Wow, it's taking me a long time to do this, I apologize. Things have been pretty hectic the past week. As of now, I've had two out of three of my exams. I didn't really understand why everyone got so stressed out, but now that I've actually started taking my own exams, I'm starting to understand. Most exams here are given in essay format. You're put in a big room with about 200 people from your own class and other classes as well, and a set of proctors administers the exam. My first one was for my English class on Wednesday. We had two hours to complete two questions. It was pretty hard, but in talking to other people from the class afterwards, everyone else seemed to feel the same way. Friday was my Scottish History exam which I think I did ok on. We had two hours to answer three questions, so I felt pretty pressed for time. My last exam is this Friday, and then I'll be all done with the academic part of my semester abroad! And after that, it's only one more week until I'm back in the States. It's crazy to think things are finishing up already! A friend of mine left to go home Friday, which made the notion set in a little more. We had a pizza picnic dinner in the Meadows (the big park in Edinburgh) last night to see her off so that was nice, but after an hour or so of just sitting there, we were all pretty freezing. That's one thing that's been kind of depressing here. It will not get warm! It will be sunny and nice, but with the wind it still feels really cold! Normally in Iowa, I wear shorts and flip flops to my finals. Friday, I wore my winter coat! I'm ready for shorts and flip flops! The weather did get a little nicer this weekend though so I tried to take advantage of it and explore New Town some more. I went to the National Galleries which had some nice art. I thought the best parts were the Scottish landscapes and they also had some nice Impressionist stuff too. Besides that, I just spent a lot of time outside walking around. On Sunday, I walked over to the Stockbridge area which was really nice. It was a lot more residential and less touristy than Old Town and parts of New Town. I think if I actually lived here, that would be a nice area to be in. Of course, it's gone back to being rainy today.
Ok, so back to my holiday.
Paris: April 8-14
Luckily, we flew from Budapest to Paris. After our past two train rides I can't imagine how terrible or long the trip from Budapest to Paris would have been. Unfortunately, the weather was not as hot in Paris as it was in Budapest. When we arrived, it was raining, which it did on and off the whole time we were there. When it wasn't raining, it was pretty pleasant. Anyways, Claire was in Paris with me for two days and we stayed in a hotel in Montmarte which ended up not being very nice, but the location was good. We were right across the street from a metro stop so it worked well. We met up with Katie, a friend of mine from Iowa, who is studying at the Sorbonne for the semester. We had some difficulty meeting up because for some reason, our phones wouldn't work, but we were finally able to figure something out through email. Claire left on Friday and I moved into a hostel in the Latin Quarter. For the rest of the weekend in Paris, and the rest of my trip, I went around with Katie. Her first week of holiday was my last so it worked out well to travel together. I've been to Paris before with my family so it was nice not to spend a lot of time waiting in line at the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre or Notre Dame.
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
Centre Pompidou, Jardins des Tuileries, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Musee Marmottan-Claude Monet, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Galeries Lafayette, Saint Chappelle, Jardin Du Luxembourg
Best Part: When Claire and I got to Paris, we were both definitely looking forward to eating. The cuisine we sampled in Hungary was not the best, leading us to just make pasta in the hostel kitchen for dinner most nights. When we got to Paris, we were definitely looking forward to filling up on anything French and delicious! We ate a lot of crepes and pastries! Also after being in Eastern Europe for close to 2 weeks where the language was so foreign, it was nice to get a menu we could decipher without English subtitles. Claire and I tried our best to make use of what we could remember from high school French, but most people could tell we were not French and spoke English to us almost immediately.
Besides eating, I really enjoyed all of the art we got to see. Claire and I went to Centre Pompidou which had special exhibits by Kandinsky and Alexander Calder, both of which I really enjoyed. Last year we watched a video of Calder's circus in my sculpture class, so it was interesting to see up close! We also went to the Musee de L'Orangerie and saw Monet's Nympheas which was really cool.
Worst Part: On Friday, when Claire left for the airport, I hopped on the Metro with all of my stuff and moved into my new hostel. It took a little time, but I made it there pretty easily. Katie had class until 4:00 so I was on my own for most of the day. After checking in I decided to go get something to eat from the grocery store. My plan was to hop on the Metro and go eat in one of the gardens before going to see the Andy Warhol Exhibit at the Grand Palais. Coming out of the store, I couldn’t find my Metro pass which I had gotten to last me the whole time I was in Paris. I went back into the store and looked around and back to the hostel to look through my stuff, but I had no luck in finding it. The museum was several Metro stops and connections away and I wasn’t sure how to get a new pass so I ended up just wandering around the Ile de la Cite and Il Saint Louis until meeting with Katie around 4:30. She helped me get a new pass and we were good to go! It was disappointing though because I felt like I kind of wasted a day, and of course I had to pay for a new pass.
It was really nice to be back in Paris. It was a good place to relax for a bit. It's such a beautiful city, with so much to do. At the same time, I feel like you could just sit in a different garden everyday with a picnic and have a really nice vacation! Also, it was nice to have someone who knew the lay of the land pretty well and could take me around.
The Monday morning after Easter, we boarded a train to Brussels. The trip itself worked out well and was pretty quick.
Brussels/Bruges: April 14-17
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
Brussels: Mannekin-Pis, the Grand Place, Jeanneke-Pis, St. Cathrine Church, Belgian Center for Comic Strip Art, the Automium, EU headquarters
Bruges: (see below)
We had some difficulty when we first got to Brussels (explained below), but once that got worked out, things went pretty smoothly. We didn't have any luck finding hostels in Brussels so we ended up getting a twin hotel room which ended up being pretty nice. It was located conveniently between the train station andthe Grand Place, the main square. We had our own bathroom and even a TV! The shower was freezing though. The weather was pretty decent most of the time we were there which made walking everywhere pretty easy. The weird thing about Brussels was that you could walk five minutes in one direction and it would look totally different than where you just were. You kind of felt like you were always walking into a different town. It was kind of strange, but interesting I guess.
Best Part: Hands down, the best part of Belgium was the waffles! Katie and I ate one for dessert after nearly every meal.
I also thought Bruges was really nice. We wanted to go after watching In Bruges last semester. It's a pretty good movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. It's a pretty dark comedy, but it's good. The weather was really nice the day we went, and the whole city was just like fairytale land. My favorite parts were the canal tour and the beautiful Beguinage which we just happened to stumble upon. We also climbed the Belfort and went to the Basilique du Saint-Sang which was very beautiful. They had a vile of Jesus's blood that they take out at certain times of the day and and people can touch it and say a prayer. I bet not many other people can say they did that on their spring break.
Worst Part: We ended up getting into the train station around noon on Monday. We got off the train, and our plan was to do like Claire and I had done before and find the tourist information booth to get a better map of the city and directions to our hotel. When we got to the booth, it was closed. We didn’t know if it was just for lunch or if they were closed because it was Easter Monday so we decided to go and get our tickets for Bruges and Amsterdam and then come back and check. When we came back, they still weren’t open. Katie decided to buy a Belgian guidebook but they only offered them in French and Flemish so it really did not come in much use to me. We tried to figure out the metro, but the information place there was closed too so we decided just to walk it. The only problem was, the streets around the station were not marked clearly so we couldn’t figure out which way we had to walk. After we had walked in the wrong direction about four times, we decided to just take a cab. We asked the cabbie to take us to the hotel and he told us it wasn’t worth it, that it was within walking distance, and tried to explain to Katie in French, how to get there. We thought we had figured it out, but we decided to check the map to make sure we were headed in the right direction. While doing this, a guy approached us asking for a lighter. We said we didn’t have one and then he offered to try and help us figure out where we were going. At the same time, another guy had walked behind us pretending to talk on his phone and I turned around to realize he was looking at our stuff, mainly Katie’s purse which was on the bench next to us and had Katie’s passport and our train tickets we had just bought in it. Both guys noticed I saw him and they pretended to great each other and walk off together. It was obvious; they were trying to mug us. Luckily, I was smart enough to turn around. Frustrated we walked back into the station and realized that the tourist center had finally reopened and we were able to get a map and a woman who spoke English to give us directions we could both understand. Sure enough, we had just spent 2 hours trying to find our hotel which was literally just right down the street.
Amsterdam: April 17-18
Though we didn't have much time in Amsterdam, I enjoyed everything I got to see. Some of the parks/squares they mentioned in the book turned out to kind of be duds, but it was still nice to just walk around and enjoy the city.
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, Beguinehof, FOAM Photograpy Museum (exhibit of Richard Avedon portraits)
Best Part: I’d say my favorite part about Amsterdam was just walking around the city itself. I always thought Amsterdam sounded a little scary with the “coffee shops” which don’t sell coffee and the red light district and all. I expected it to be kind of run down and dirty, but it was really pretty! This also made it really easy to get lost considering everything looked pretty much the same, but the houses, the canals, the multicolored bicycles made for a very pretty sight.
Worst Part: The train from Brussels to Amsterdam ended up taking longer than I had anticipated and by the time we got there, we had already lost most of our first day there. Luckily, museums were open later around the weekends, but still, I feel like Katie and I weren’t able to do everything we could have done. Especially considering Katie and I somehow ended up getting really sick during the night, our second day wasn’t the most enjoyable. I felt like I was still able to see a lot but I’d definitely have to put it on the list of places to go back to, along with seeing the rest of the Netherlands.
All in all, it was a pretty successful trip! I think even the parts that were difficult and frustrating, served as a good learning experience. I’m proud of myself because I did most of the planning and I learned a lot about the difficulties of planning a trip and managing money and in all, probably how to act more like an adult. This trip really made me realize how much there is to see in the world, and I hope I'll have a lot more opportunities to travel in the future!
Here's the link to the pictures again:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/EasterHoliday?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHjr8W-oZrx-AE#
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Easter Holiday Travels Part 1
Hiya!
Sorry it’s taken me so long to update. The past month or so has been pretty crazy! After four weeks of traveling, it’s exam time. It’s been really difficult getting back into study mode these past couple weeks, but I’m trying. Anyways, I know no one wants to hear about my studying habits, so let me fill you in on all of my travels. In four weeks, I managed to visit 7 countries and though there were some frustrating parts of the trip, for the most part it all worked out really successfully.
Note: To make the process of writing and reading this a little easier, I’m going to talk about my trip in a series of posts. This post will include our Eastern European tour of Prague, Krakow, and Budapest.
Prague : March 28-31
My sister Claire came over to travel with me for the first half of my trip. I had to be out of the dorms in Edinburgh on March 28 and with Claire’s work schedule, we decided it would be best to meet in Prague. I got there Saturday night and Claire came in on Sunday morning. I was nervous that something might get messed up with our flights and we would miss meeting, but it worked out really well. Our hostel was just off the main square which proved to be a really great location. We were within walking distance of most of the big tourist attractions so it was nice not to have to worry about figuring out public transportation. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t that great most of the time we were there.
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
Frank Gehry’s Dancing House, the Alphonse Mucha Museum, the Charles Bridge, the ossuary in Kutna Hora, Prague Castle, the Infant Jesus of Prague, the John Lennon Wall, the astronomical clock
Best Part: My guidebook had a little snippet about an ossuary in a village called Kutna Hora, about an hour outside of Prague by train. The book described it as ‘a chapel filled with artistic and religious creations made entirely from parts of human skeletons.’ Claire and I both thought this sounded interesting so we decided to check it out. Though the trains proved to be a bit difficult, it was well worth the trip. We walked in and were both pretty amazed by what we saw. It was like we just stepped in a scene from ‘Indiana Jones’ or ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ It was strange and scary, but so unique and beautiful at the same time. We both spent a ton of time taking picture after picture, but I’m not sure if any of them actually do it justice.
Worst Part: The worst part of Prague was the weather. It ended up being cold and rainy most of the time we were there which needless to say, made things less pleasant. We even had to go shopping for Claire to buy a hat and pair of gloves! Since it was earlier in the season and still cold, nothing was really in bloom so we couldn’t see any of the gardens mentioned in our books.
Overall, Prague was nice. We ate some pretty good food, and had some good beer, which is supposed to be some of Europe’s finest. The city was very pretty, with a lot of really nice architecture. It was really touristy, which was fine except for the hordes of obnoxious high school groups. After hearing about it so much from other people, I’m really glad I got to see it, but I think it was probably my least favorite city we went to. That may be due to the fact that the weather was bad and it was our first destination so we were still figuring out a lot of things.
We took an overnight train from Prague to Krakow which ended up being a disaster. We got the 24 hour clock mixed up and realized the train we were trying to catch at 11:30 pm actually left at 9:30 pm. We had gotten to the station early and had missed it by less than half an hour. We had to wait for the midnight train. We accidentally sat in first class and got yelled at in Czech and once we moved, got no sleep in between listening to the other guy in our car argue in Czech with the conductor about his ticket and worrying about missing our two transfers. It was not a pleasant experience, but we did make it to Krakow, on schedule.
Krakow: April 1-3
After a horrible night on the train, we headed straight for the hostel. Again, we were in a good location right off the main square and within close walking distance of the train. The weather was really nice which was a welcome change! The sun was out the whole time we were there which made it warmer and more pleasant to walk around. Again, the city was really walkable so we didn’t have to worry about transportation. One perk in Krakow was our new friend Tom. Tom is the nephew of a woman that works with my dad at home. They made arrangements for us to meet up. He took us out for dinner our first night there and took us out to Wieliczka to see the salt mine as well as showing us around Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter on our last day. He ended up being a nice guy and showed us a good time!
Some highlights of places we went/what we saw:
Wawel Castle, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bunker Art Gallery, St. Mary’s Church, Wieliczka Salt Mines, Schindler’s Factory, Kazmierez
Best Part: On our second day in Krakow, we bought tickets through our hostel to go on a day trip out to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I guess it’s kind of weird to say that one of your favorite parts about visiting a city was going to a concentration camp, but it was. It was really interesting to see it in person after learning about it for so many years in school. A guide took us on a two hour tour around the main camp, Auschwitz, and then we were bused over to Birkenau to look around for half an hour. Our guide was really good, and the whole experience just was very thought provoking.
Worst Part: Though our hostel was nice, and very conveniently located only about a block off the main square, it proved to be kind of a rough stay. We stayed in an eight person co-ed room. When we first got there, there were four Irish guys in the room. They didn’t seem to be too happy that we were coming in and taking up their space. After the first night, they left and were replaced by five Spanish guys that had to be no older than 18. After coming back from clubbing in the wee hours of the morning, they proceeded to talk, not whisper, but talk. As if that wasn’t enough, one of them had another girl with him who was staying in a different room in the hostel. The guys kept talking and the girl’s friend kept coming in telling the girl they had to leave to catch their train. The girl finally left, and we asked the guys to stop talking, and they did, but only for about 5 minutes. At that point we decided to make it an early morning and just get up. We were not looking forward to the next hostel.
Overall, I really loved Krakow. I think it was my favorite city we saw during the trip. It was such a beautiful city, with a lot of really interesting things to see. Again, we ate really well. The sun made it a lot warmer. Also, we were there before tourist season so we didn’t really have to deal with large crowds anywhere. We walked through parts of Wawel Castle, basically by ourselves.
To get to Budapest, we took another overnight train. The tickets ended up being more expensive than we had planned. Then when we got up to the platform, we were told we would have to transfer unless we rode in a sleeper car which was more expensive. We decided to pay extra to not have to deal with the transfers again but we couldn’t figure out how much we’d have to pay because the conductor of the sleeper cars didn’t speak English. After some help from some fellow passengers who spoke French and some English, we were able to get it figured out. Luckily, we were able to get some sleep which made for a more pleasant first day in Budapest.
Budapest: April 4-8
When we got to Budapest, we were surprised to find that it was not only sunny and nice, but it was hot! If I had brought shorts, I definitely would have worn them! Our hostel ended up being kind of a far hike from the train station, especially since we started walking in the wrong direction initially. Our hostel ended up being pretty nice. Since the city was a lot bigger than the previous two places we went, the location was not as central as our other hostels had been. We were staying in a 10 person coed room which we were both nervous about after our last hostel experience. We got there, and it was small, but nice, and it turned out we only had to share the room with one other girl while we were there. She was in town for a conference so was not around too much. We basically got our own room without having to pay for it which was really nice! The staff was also very nice and we didn’t really have to worry about waiting to use the bathrooms, the computer, or the kitchen. It was a great relief after our last place! Since the city was a lot bigger, things were a lot more spread out. We still walked most places but we also ended up taking the metro a few times. It was pretty easy to figure out though.
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
St. Stephen’s Basilica, Heroes’ Square, Museum of Fine Arts, the Chain Bridge, Matthias Church, Fisherman’s Bastion, Hungarian Parliament, the Great Synagogue, swam in a Hungarian Bath, the Applied Arts Museum, the Liberation Monument
Best Part: Besides our hostel, I thought Fisherman’s Bastion on Castle Hill was really cool. It basically looked like a big sandcastle made of stone which in itself is pretty cool. But also, we were able to get really great views of the city including the Danube River and Hungarian Parliament.
I also thought St. Stephen’s Basilica was pretty cool. It was very beautiful both on the outside and inside. We went up to the top of the dome and were able to get some more great views of the city.
Worst Part: One thing that was really difficult to get used to was the currency. Hungary has one of those weird conversion rates where $1 is equal to 223 Hungarian Forints. It was really hard to keep track of how much we were really spending. Our first night there, we decided to eat at a restaurant mentioned in both of our guidebooks and even favorited in one. The food ended up being bad and the service was even worse. We didn’t realize until after we had left, but we ended up leaving the waiter a $10 tip.
Overall Budapest was really interesting. It had its ups and downs. Like mentioned before, the currency was really horrible to try and figure out. Also, we didn’t get very good food while we were there until the last night. The middle two nights, we were so tired from all of our walking we just made pasta in the kitchen at our hostel. And we did a lot of walking which wasn’t terrible, but mixed with the heat, it made for some pretty long walks. It had its positives too though. The city itself was very beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Paris, with the wide tree lined streets. And I thought we saw and did some pretty cool things. I’m sure not many people can say they’ve swam in a Hungarian Bath or backpacked in Budapest at all for that matter.
I’m going to end this post here. Here is a link to all of my pictures from the whole trip including Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam (that post coming soon). I think you can get a pretty good idea of everything we saw and did. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/EasterHoliday?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHjr8W-oZrx-AE#
Sorry it’s taken me so long to update. The past month or so has been pretty crazy! After four weeks of traveling, it’s exam time. It’s been really difficult getting back into study mode these past couple weeks, but I’m trying. Anyways, I know no one wants to hear about my studying habits, so let me fill you in on all of my travels. In four weeks, I managed to visit 7 countries and though there were some frustrating parts of the trip, for the most part it all worked out really successfully.
Note: To make the process of writing and reading this a little easier, I’m going to talk about my trip in a series of posts. This post will include our Eastern European tour of Prague, Krakow, and Budapest.
Prague : March 28-31
My sister Claire came over to travel with me for the first half of my trip. I had to be out of the dorms in Edinburgh on March 28 and with Claire’s work schedule, we decided it would be best to meet in Prague. I got there Saturday night and Claire came in on Sunday morning. I was nervous that something might get messed up with our flights and we would miss meeting, but it worked out really well. Our hostel was just off the main square which proved to be a really great location. We were within walking distance of most of the big tourist attractions so it was nice not to have to worry about figuring out public transportation. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t that great most of the time we were there.
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
Frank Gehry’s Dancing House, the Alphonse Mucha Museum, the Charles Bridge, the ossuary in Kutna Hora, Prague Castle, the Infant Jesus of Prague, the John Lennon Wall, the astronomical clock
Best Part: My guidebook had a little snippet about an ossuary in a village called Kutna Hora, about an hour outside of Prague by train. The book described it as ‘a chapel filled with artistic and religious creations made entirely from parts of human skeletons.’ Claire and I both thought this sounded interesting so we decided to check it out. Though the trains proved to be a bit difficult, it was well worth the trip. We walked in and were both pretty amazed by what we saw. It was like we just stepped in a scene from ‘Indiana Jones’ or ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ It was strange and scary, but so unique and beautiful at the same time. We both spent a ton of time taking picture after picture, but I’m not sure if any of them actually do it justice.
Worst Part: The worst part of Prague was the weather. It ended up being cold and rainy most of the time we were there which needless to say, made things less pleasant. We even had to go shopping for Claire to buy a hat and pair of gloves! Since it was earlier in the season and still cold, nothing was really in bloom so we couldn’t see any of the gardens mentioned in our books.
Overall, Prague was nice. We ate some pretty good food, and had some good beer, which is supposed to be some of Europe’s finest. The city was very pretty, with a lot of really nice architecture. It was really touristy, which was fine except for the hordes of obnoxious high school groups. After hearing about it so much from other people, I’m really glad I got to see it, but I think it was probably my least favorite city we went to. That may be due to the fact that the weather was bad and it was our first destination so we were still figuring out a lot of things.
We took an overnight train from Prague to Krakow which ended up being a disaster. We got the 24 hour clock mixed up and realized the train we were trying to catch at 11:30 pm actually left at 9:30 pm. We had gotten to the station early and had missed it by less than half an hour. We had to wait for the midnight train. We accidentally sat in first class and got yelled at in Czech and once we moved, got no sleep in between listening to the other guy in our car argue in Czech with the conductor about his ticket and worrying about missing our two transfers. It was not a pleasant experience, but we did make it to Krakow, on schedule.
Krakow: April 1-3
After a horrible night on the train, we headed straight for the hostel. Again, we were in a good location right off the main square and within close walking distance of the train. The weather was really nice which was a welcome change! The sun was out the whole time we were there which made it warmer and more pleasant to walk around. Again, the city was really walkable so we didn’t have to worry about transportation. One perk in Krakow was our new friend Tom. Tom is the nephew of a woman that works with my dad at home. They made arrangements for us to meet up. He took us out for dinner our first night there and took us out to Wieliczka to see the salt mine as well as showing us around Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter on our last day. He ended up being a nice guy and showed us a good time!
Some highlights of places we went/what we saw:
Wawel Castle, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bunker Art Gallery, St. Mary’s Church, Wieliczka Salt Mines, Schindler’s Factory, Kazmierez
Best Part: On our second day in Krakow, we bought tickets through our hostel to go on a day trip out to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I guess it’s kind of weird to say that one of your favorite parts about visiting a city was going to a concentration camp, but it was. It was really interesting to see it in person after learning about it for so many years in school. A guide took us on a two hour tour around the main camp, Auschwitz, and then we were bused over to Birkenau to look around for half an hour. Our guide was really good, and the whole experience just was very thought provoking.
Worst Part: Though our hostel was nice, and very conveniently located only about a block off the main square, it proved to be kind of a rough stay. We stayed in an eight person co-ed room. When we first got there, there were four Irish guys in the room. They didn’t seem to be too happy that we were coming in and taking up their space. After the first night, they left and were replaced by five Spanish guys that had to be no older than 18. After coming back from clubbing in the wee hours of the morning, they proceeded to talk, not whisper, but talk. As if that wasn’t enough, one of them had another girl with him who was staying in a different room in the hostel. The guys kept talking and the girl’s friend kept coming in telling the girl they had to leave to catch their train. The girl finally left, and we asked the guys to stop talking, and they did, but only for about 5 minutes. At that point we decided to make it an early morning and just get up. We were not looking forward to the next hostel.
Overall, I really loved Krakow. I think it was my favorite city we saw during the trip. It was such a beautiful city, with a lot of really interesting things to see. Again, we ate really well. The sun made it a lot warmer. Also, we were there before tourist season so we didn’t really have to deal with large crowds anywhere. We walked through parts of Wawel Castle, basically by ourselves.
To get to Budapest, we took another overnight train. The tickets ended up being more expensive than we had planned. Then when we got up to the platform, we were told we would have to transfer unless we rode in a sleeper car which was more expensive. We decided to pay extra to not have to deal with the transfers again but we couldn’t figure out how much we’d have to pay because the conductor of the sleeper cars didn’t speak English. After some help from some fellow passengers who spoke French and some English, we were able to get it figured out. Luckily, we were able to get some sleep which made for a more pleasant first day in Budapest.
Budapest: April 4-8
When we got to Budapest, we were surprised to find that it was not only sunny and nice, but it was hot! If I had brought shorts, I definitely would have worn them! Our hostel ended up being kind of a far hike from the train station, especially since we started walking in the wrong direction initially. Our hostel ended up being pretty nice. Since the city was a lot bigger than the previous two places we went, the location was not as central as our other hostels had been. We were staying in a 10 person coed room which we were both nervous about after our last hostel experience. We got there, and it was small, but nice, and it turned out we only had to share the room with one other girl while we were there. She was in town for a conference so was not around too much. We basically got our own room without having to pay for it which was really nice! The staff was also very nice and we didn’t really have to worry about waiting to use the bathrooms, the computer, or the kitchen. It was a great relief after our last place! Since the city was a lot bigger, things were a lot more spread out. We still walked most places but we also ended up taking the metro a few times. It was pretty easy to figure out though.
Some highlights of places we went/ things we saw:
St. Stephen’s Basilica, Heroes’ Square, Museum of Fine Arts, the Chain Bridge, Matthias Church, Fisherman’s Bastion, Hungarian Parliament, the Great Synagogue, swam in a Hungarian Bath, the Applied Arts Museum, the Liberation Monument
Best Part: Besides our hostel, I thought Fisherman’s Bastion on Castle Hill was really cool. It basically looked like a big sandcastle made of stone which in itself is pretty cool. But also, we were able to get really great views of the city including the Danube River and Hungarian Parliament.
I also thought St. Stephen’s Basilica was pretty cool. It was very beautiful both on the outside and inside. We went up to the top of the dome and were able to get some more great views of the city.
Worst Part: One thing that was really difficult to get used to was the currency. Hungary has one of those weird conversion rates where $1 is equal to 223 Hungarian Forints. It was really hard to keep track of how much we were really spending. Our first night there, we decided to eat at a restaurant mentioned in both of our guidebooks and even favorited in one. The food ended up being bad and the service was even worse. We didn’t realize until after we had left, but we ended up leaving the waiter a $10 tip.
Overall Budapest was really interesting. It had its ups and downs. Like mentioned before, the currency was really horrible to try and figure out. Also, we didn’t get very good food while we were there until the last night. The middle two nights, we were so tired from all of our walking we just made pasta in the kitchen at our hostel. And we did a lot of walking which wasn’t terrible, but mixed with the heat, it made for some pretty long walks. It had its positives too though. The city itself was very beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Paris, with the wide tree lined streets. And I thought we saw and did some pretty cool things. I’m sure not many people can say they’ve swam in a Hungarian Bath or backpacked in Budapest at all for that matter.
I’m going to end this post here. Here is a link to all of my pictures from the whole trip including Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam (that post coming soon). I think you can get a pretty good idea of everything we saw and did. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/EasterHoliday?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHjr8W-oZrx-AE#
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