Man am I Hungary!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving, we were off to Budapest, Hungary for the weekend with a small group of 25 or so students. We all boarded the incredibly overbooked train at 1530 for our 4.5-5 hour journey to Hungary. Of course, the 10 Czech students started drinking immediately and were wasted by the time we got off the train. It was an adventure finding the hostel with all of them in tow. 3 steps forward, stop and let them catch up all the way to the hostel. We dropped our bags, and set back out to see some of the city. We walked for a hour or so to get to a pub, stopping along the way for dinner at a greasy spoon. Needless to say, we didn't stay to long because it was a hole-in-the-wall! So back we walked to the hostel, 6 of us, grabbing dinner along the way, and crashing early for a full day of exploring on Saturday.

So Lynsey and I got up early on Saturday morning to leave the group behind and do our own thing for a bit before meeting back up with the group. We ventured down the street to a HUGE market, full of fresh veggies, meat, spices and Hungarian crafts everywhere. Two full floors and probably 25,000 sq ft of shops. So we explored for a bit and then wandered back to the hostel to meet up with the group. We headed back to the market for a bit and then set out towards the Parliament building. We arrived at the Parliament building after an interesting tram ride where none of us had tickets again! Of course, as we get to the Parliament building I stub my toe, bad one of course, and man did it hurt. Could barely walk and of course, no place to sit anywhere! Once we finally got in to the building it was well worth the wait. Beautiful inside and out. The guards were a little anal about wandering away from the group so we didn't see much outside the tour. After the Parliament building we headed towards our genuine Turkish Spa! After a short stop for lunch and a bus ride to the spa we arrived at our 3 hours of pure enjoyment. After several attempts at finding the correct entrance, we entered our paradise! Lynsey was kinda weiry about going into a pool and Thermal bath outside when it was 50 degrees out, but it turned out to be pleasantly comfortable. It was a little chilly once you got out of the water and the crisp air hit ya, but other than that it was great! We ventured around the enitre castle like spa and took a dip in each of the thermal pools and even made a pit stop to join half of the other visitors in the Sauna. After the sauna there was a nice cold carbon dip you were suppose to go in before rubbing some ice on yourself to close your pores, but we skipped the cold dip, rubbed our faces with some ice and we're on our way to the next pool. We tried to get a massage, but were running short on time and they were mostly booked up. Oh well, I guess there's always a next time, I hope! After our relaxing adventure at the spa Lynsey and I walked around down town for a little bit before running into a nice little square market. Since we hadn't eaten almost all day we stopped at one of the little stands and had a traditional Hungarian pepper sausage and some potatoes. We did some walking around and admired all the interesting, yet nice crafts. We ran across a stand that was making handmade sweet bread over charcoal, and of course we had to stop and get one. Hungarian sweet bread with walnuts.....yum!!! Some of the best bread I've ever had. So good we had to go back the next day and get some more! We wandered around the city a little more before heading back to our sauna, i mean hostel, to crash for the night to get up early and go do some more sight seeing.

Sunday morning was yet another early morning for the two of us. After a slight detour we went and saw Europes largest synagogue. It was absolutely beautiful! Lynsey found some silver shoes last night that she thought would be perfect for Jen's wedding so we had to go back and try them on. Sure enough, they fit and they were just what she wanted! Thank god, no more shopping for silver shoes! After our shoe purchase we headed across the river to Buda to go check out the castle. What a breathe taking view. We went to a little grocery store, grabbed some rolls and lunch meat and had a nice little picnic overlooking the river and the rest of the city. We meandered through all the cool sites around the castle before starting our journey back towards the train station. We made a stop at Saint Istran Basilica. There was a church service taking place when we went in but from the view we had it was yet another astonishing European Church. We made our way back to meet up with the group and head back to the train station for our long ourney back to Brno. Overall it was a great trip. Budapest is a beautiful city, probably one of our favorites! Who knows where we will be next weekend. It looks like we are going to try Vienna but with no schedule or any huge constraints, we'll see what we feel like when the time comes! Until next time, take care and we will you all!

Lynsey and Jon