I'll say it. we were officially the worst tourists ever in Budapest. first thing we did was one of those hop on, hop off bus tours to get an idea of the layout of the city. once we just rode around the whole thing once, we would pick the spots we wanted to go back and see, then hop back on the bus and go. yeah... the hopping back on the bus thing never happened. maybe it's because we were exhausted from traveling the day before and our sort of scary evening trying to find the hostel.
I've traveled a fair amount in my life and have stayed in some pretty interesting places. but the hostel we stayed in in this city, was by far the sketchiest place I've ever been. ever. don't get me wrong though - I loved the city and the people there were some of the nicest people I've met, but the actual hostel itself and the area surrounding it... whole 'nother story! (don't be upset mom, I made it home safe and sound.) the area was very, I mean very, deserted at night and there was barely even a sign for the hostel. we initially walk passed it the first round of trying to find it and when I told Furi Kuri that we needed to go back I thought she was about to take my head off! finally we found it, with this tiny little flyer posted on the window. they had to buzz you in and when you got in the main door it looked like you stepped into someone's garage. not even kidding. then it was into this beyond ridiculously rundown courtyard and up a flight of steps. once inside the hostel though, it was cozy and the people were very hospitable (the guy working at the hostel was Australian and oh so cute (especially with that accent), which may be the reason why I wasn't so sketched out anymore. who knows).
the idea of time kind of escapes me in this city, but I can tell you that we spent almost an entire afternoon sitting outside at a restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop drinking pitchers of mojitos and making friends with our artist waitress. now what mojitos and tapas have to do with traditional Hungarian culture, I couldn't tell you. but it was an amazing afternoon. I believe this also might have been the day that we did some aimless wandering and happened upon a really cool outdoor art installation, which was next to an actual castle we decided to take a peek into, and then stopped at what we thought was going to be an amazing outdoor concert of euro-hillbilly music but ended up with a bald man with a beer belly playing the flute (not even joking), then finally ended up spending the evening at the Turkish baths.
apparently we lost track of time so much that we ended up seeing the sun rise over the city twice (this is supposed to be a vacation right? way too many sunrises for a vacation) - which of course both were the result of nights out dancing and drinking. and speaking of drinking... Budapest has the best drunk food. ever. it's called langos. it's amazingness in your mouth. seriously. now I will admit that the first time I tried it, I wasn't a fan. but the second time... oh, the second time. first night out was with people from the hostel (cute Australian included) and we ended up going to see the hostel owner's friend who was playing in a band in an underground bar. it was a chill place and the music was really good and even though it wasn't really a dance party, we turned it into one. randomly made our way over to another bar, complete with a roof deck, which stayed open until who knows what time in the morning which is how we ended up seeing the sun rise. the next night (well day too actually) we ended up at this party for a guerrilla music station that was only in business for a month and then threw a huge "going out of business" celebration. we went with our new friend T-Bone who part of this awesome music group - Dr. Relax. as a result of going to this party, we also missed our train to Romania. oops.
however, the best part of this whole city was when we went... wait for it... CAVING!!! we had to meet our guide at a bus stop, take a bus, walk, then another bus to who knows where outside the city. got to wear these gorgeous zip-up jumpsuit type things and the outfit came complete with a helmet and head lamp. sexy, let me tell you. after a few instructions, down into the caves we climbed. I've never received so many bruises before - on my legs, arms, shoulders, back, head - but it was totally and completely worth it. we had to army crawl through spaces that my ass barely fit through, squeeze through another space they called the "wedgie" (and for good reason), crawl like a spider monkey up rocks, slide on our butts through tunnels, and probably everything else in between that I can't think of at the moment. our guide even had all of us turn off our helmet lights at one point to play a game of "telephone" in which we had to line up single file and give directions to the person directly behind us on where to walk in the completely-pitch-black-can't-even-see-your-hand-right-in-front-of-your-face cave. by the time we finished this little game, it felt like we had gone a hundred yards. of course, when we all turned our lights back on we had maybe gone about 10 feet. awesome.
we did unfortunately have to leave this amazing city, but it was on to Romania and the land of Dracula - which I cannot even begin to describe how I excited I was about it! I even took a course in college called the Slavic Vampire - but don't categorize me as one of those squealing Twilight fans! actual vampires (as real or non-real as they might be) are a bit different than Edward Cullen & Co. (I did read the books, however. don't judge. but I don't own the movies. does that make it better?)
(something famous in Budapest)
I've traveled a fair amount in my life and have stayed in some pretty interesting places. but the hostel we stayed in in this city, was by far the sketchiest place I've ever been. ever. don't get me wrong though - I loved the city and the people there were some of the nicest people I've met, but the actual hostel itself and the area surrounding it... whole 'nother story! (don't be upset mom, I made it home safe and sound.) the area was very, I mean very, deserted at night and there was barely even a sign for the hostel. we initially walk passed it the first round of trying to find it and when I told Furi Kuri that we needed to go back I thought she was about to take my head off! finally we found it, with this tiny little flyer posted on the window. they had to buzz you in and when you got in the main door it looked like you stepped into someone's garage. not even kidding. then it was into this beyond ridiculously rundown courtyard and up a flight of steps. once inside the hostel though, it was cozy and the people were very hospitable (the guy working at the hostel was Australian and oh so cute (especially with that accent), which may be the reason why I wasn't so sketched out anymore. who knows).
[overlooking the whole city of Budapest (I don't have a picture of the hostel, because it was just too sketch to photograph)]
the idea of time kind of escapes me in this city, but I can tell you that we spent almost an entire afternoon sitting outside at a restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop drinking pitchers of mojitos and making friends with our artist waitress. now what mojitos and tapas have to do with traditional Hungarian culture, I couldn't tell you. but it was an amazing afternoon. I believe this also might have been the day that we did some aimless wandering and happened upon a really cool outdoor art installation, which was next to an actual castle we decided to take a peek into, and then stopped at what we thought was going to be an amazing outdoor concert of euro-hillbilly music but ended up with a bald man with a beer belly playing the flute (not even joking), then finally ended up spending the evening at the Turkish baths.
("art" in front of the castle)
(the outside pool at the Turkish bath)
apparently we lost track of time so much that we ended up seeing the sun rise over the city twice (this is supposed to be a vacation right? way too many sunrises for a vacation) - which of course both were the result of nights out dancing and drinking. and speaking of drinking... Budapest has the best drunk food. ever. it's called langos. it's amazingness in your mouth. seriously. now I will admit that the first time I tried it, I wasn't a fan. but the second time... oh, the second time. first night out was with people from the hostel (cute Australian included) and we ended up going to see the hostel owner's friend who was playing in a band in an underground bar. it was a chill place and the music was really good and even though it wasn't really a dance party, we turned it into one. randomly made our way over to another bar, complete with a roof deck, which stayed open until who knows what time in the morning which is how we ended up seeing the sun rise. the next night (well day too actually) we ended up at this party for a guerrilla music station that was only in business for a month and then threw a huge "going out of business" celebration. we went with our new friend T-Bone who part of this awesome music group - Dr. Relax. as a result of going to this party, we also missed our train to Romania. oops.
(the sun rising over the city)
(one of the worst bands ever that was playing at the radio station party)
however, the best part of this whole city was when we went... wait for it... CAVING!!! we had to meet our guide at a bus stop, take a bus, walk, then another bus to who knows where outside the city. got to wear these gorgeous zip-up jumpsuit type things and the outfit came complete with a helmet and head lamp. sexy, let me tell you. after a few instructions, down into the caves we climbed. I've never received so many bruises before - on my legs, arms, shoulders, back, head - but it was totally and completely worth it. we had to army crawl through spaces that my ass barely fit through, squeeze through another space they called the "wedgie" (and for good reason), crawl like a spider monkey up rocks, slide on our butts through tunnels, and probably everything else in between that I can't think of at the moment. our guide even had all of us turn off our helmet lights at one point to play a game of "telephone" in which we had to line up single file and give directions to the person directly behind us on where to walk in the completely-pitch-black-can't-even-see-your-hand-right-in-front-of-your-face cave. by the time we finished this little game, it felt like we had gone a hundred yards. of course, when we all turned our lights back on we had maybe gone about 10 feet. awesome.
(one of the tiny, tiny spaces we had to crawl through)
we did unfortunately have to leave this amazing city, but it was on to Romania and the land of Dracula - which I cannot even begin to describe how I excited I was about it! I even took a course in college called the Slavic Vampire - but don't categorize me as one of those squealing Twilight fans! actual vampires (as real or non-real as they might be) are a bit different than Edward Cullen & Co. (I did read the books, however. don't judge. but I don't own the movies. does that make it better?)
No comments:
Post a Comment