I am finally getting around to writing about Budapest. I got back almost 2 weeks ago but these past two weeks have been incredibly busy. Since my last post I have met with my new pricing tutor 3 times, handed in a paper worth 30% of my grade, applied for one job, spoke to another company about a potential job, and spend many hours searching for a job.
Now I am focusing on studying, writing a paper that is 100% of my grade, and my thesis. This weekend I plan on setting up my survey for my thesis and I once I do, I would appreciate all of my readers taking it and sharing it with friends and family.
Okay moving onto Budapest! I got back from Mallorca on Wednesday the 9th and spent the night in Trier at Sarah's house. In the morning I got up early to take the train back to Bad Honnef. I arrived in Bad Honnef around 12:30 and quickly unpacked and repacked. Luckily Carina had a washer and dryer in her apartment so I was able to wash my clothes as I planned on taking a majority of the same clothes. Claire and I grabbed some lunch before heading out to catch the 3:30 train. Once we arrived at the train station we noticed that our train was running late. After 15 minutes of waiting I talked to one of my friends who was also waiting and he told us that the train was not running anymore. They had just canceled the train and we needed to find another way to the airport. We contemplated our options which were either take a taxi or take a different train to Bonn then take a bus to the airport from there. We knew if we took the train and bus we would be cutting it close to making our flight. We decided on option one and the three of us split a taxi to the airport.
The driver of our taxi was this hilarious man from Iran. He asked Claire and I where we were from and when he heard our answer was "USA" he quickly responded with "Ah, I am from Iran, but do not worry, you are safe." (Insert creepy laugh)
Once we arrived at the airport we had no problem getting through security and catching our flight. We arrived in Budapest around 8 p.m. and my friend Emily and her boyfriend met us there. We headed back to her boyfriends apartment as that is where we would be staying since he was heading out of town for a few days. That night was pretty low key just made some food and enjoyed some great Hungarian wine.
Friday, Claire and I went on a free walking tour of Budapest and explored the city while Emily was at work. After Emily finished work we went out to dinner with her and then met up with some of her friends for drinks.
Love locks
In front of a pretty fountain
St. Stephen's Cathedral
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Gate at the 4 Seasons
View from the hill
It was so hot, I am sure he was sweating
Matthias Church
Matthias church.. absolutely beautiful
Late lunch at Hummus Bar
Outside of the market
Saturday was supposed to be really hot so we headed to Margaret island for a picnic lunch and to explore. We stopped at the store and grabbed some food for the picnic and headed out. Margaret island was quite close to where we were staying so we walked there and found a nice shady spot to enjoy our lunch. Things started out great, just eating and doing some reading on my kindle and then we were approached by a guy asking for money. Not a big deal, told him no and he was gone. After that men kept approaching us asking for money, ideas on what to do, and just general craziness. Our nice picnic lunch turned annoying quick and then all of a sudden it was back to a nice lunch with no other interuptions. Once we finished we decided to walk around the island to find the old ruins and a musical fountain. We found so many great things to see in the park but unfortunately the musical fountain was closed for maintenance. Here is a link to see what it does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fs9E7M9Mvc
After we spent the day on the island we made a quick stop at the Parliament building before heading back to the apartment to get ready for dinner. Emily's grad school was having their reunion that weekend so we were going to dinner with Emily and her friends from grad school before they headed to their reunion. On our way to dinner I took my camera out to take a picture and I also had my umbrella open since it was raining. When I took my camera out a huge gust of wind came and turned my umbrella inside out and in the process of trying to save my umbrella I dropped my camera and broke it. I was so upset as I only need this camera to last two more months and here it is broken. We went to a fantastic restaurant where I got marinated chicken breast rolled with dried tomato, spinach and ricotta lasagna with cheese sauce. It was delicious!
After dinner Emily recommended we check out Szimpla this amazing ruin bar near the restaurant. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures in the bar but here is the link to their website where you can check out some photos: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hu&u=http://www.szimpla.hu/&ei=fCfBT4nhIYur-QaE3NX7CQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CHYQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dszimpla%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1281%26bih%3D578%26prmd%3Dimvns
Pretty building
Chain Bridge
Margaret Island
Ancient ruins
Ancient ruins
Ancient ruins
Pretty church
More ruins
Cotton candy that only cost $1
My giant thing of cotton candy. Don't worry I didn't eat it all! I shared with Claire and then we ended up bringing it back with us.
Enjoying my cotton candy
Parliament
Funny sign
Parliament through the construction fence
Parliament
Pretty building
Sunday, we had plans to go to the thermal bath houses with Emily but first Claire and I went to the Terror museum. The terror museum is a museum that shows the history of the two terror regimes that occupied Budapest throughout the 1900's. The building where the museum is located is the actual building where people were tortured and killed. The museum taught me a lot and definitely gave me the chills. I will not go into details about what happened in the building but I will tell you that it made my skin crawl.
Bath house
After that we headed to the thermal baths which were really nice. Each bath was different and we got to experience about 7 or 8 different ones. We also enjoyed two different saunas. After the thermal baths we headed back to the apartment to get ready for dinner. We decided to go to Iguana, a mexican restaurant a short walk from the apartment. We got almost to the restaurant when I noticed the street was closed with a bunch of trucks and people in the street. For about ten seconds I was completely confused until I remembered that Bruce Willis was in town shooting the last of the Die Hard movies "A Good Day to Die Hard." I got super excited and quickly explained to Claire why it was closed. Luckily only one block was closed so we were able to walk around and still go to the restaurant. Iguana was AMAZING! We shared an order of chips and salsa and for the entree I enjoyed the Monterrey Burrito which was chicken breast, beans, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce and cheese wrapped in a large flour tortilla. Which came with tomato rice and beans. It was SO DELICIOUS. if you ever find yourself in Budapest I would highly recommend you go there after you try traditional hungarian food.
As we left the restaurant we decided to go back around the block and check out the park where the street was blocked off. We found a statue of Ronald Reagan along with an interactive touch screen that showed movies and information about Reagan and what he did for Hungary. It was really cool. We noticed there were some people lined up along the fence watching the set of the movie. I wanted to check it out since it didn't look like much was going on. The only thing I saw was a bunch of people standing around a SUV. A group of people walked out of a trailer and a man and a woman got in the SUV before it sped off with another car following close behind. As soon as the SUV left everyone started to pack up and head out for another day. I didn't get a good look at Bruce as they were far off but it was quite obviously him. As Claire and I walked away we saw the two SUVs drive by. It was a great way to end the trip, that is until we got to Monday morning.
Movie Set
Ronald Reagan statue
Our flight was set to leave at 8:50. We were planning on taking the underground train to the end and then take the bus from there. Emily suggested we take the above ground train directly to the airport instead as the train station was close to the apartment and was a much shorter ride. We got the train station around 6:50 and got on the train we thought was set to leave at 7:03 (due to fact that an employee said it was the right train). It didn't leave then and so we knew there was another train at 7:09 so we figured that it was that train. At 7:11 we officially started to get worried and realized that it was the express train that was supposed to leave at 7:24 which would still get us to the airport an hour before out flight. Unfortunately at 7:30 when it still hadn't left there was an announcement saying that the train would be leaving at 7:50 which meant we would not get to the airport before 8:15 meaning we would most likely not be let on our flight. We quickly jumped on and got on the train that was set to leave at 7:38. At 7:45 it hadn't left and we found out that the train was also running late. We decided out only choice was taking a cab so we ran outside got in the first cab we could find and of course the driver did not speak any english so we did our best with German which luckily he did speak. At this point it is 7:50 and we are stuck in rush hour traffic in downtown Budapest. We finally made it out of the city and were just praying that we would make our flight. We told the driver which terminal we were in and hoped for the best. As we approached the airport I checked the meter and started taking out money. We were told it would be 10,000 forint which didn't seem too bad. When I checked the meter it said 13,000 which was more than expected but we just needed to get there. Once the driver parked (on the side of the highway) he told us it would be 17,000 forint which we did not have. I think he had some way of upping the meter because when we started pulling over it was only at 14,000 and there is no way in 30 seconds we racked up another 3,000! We were panicked because he didn't take credit card and we were out of money. He then informed us that it would be 20 euros on top of the 16,000 we gave him which is about 17 euros more than what we should have been giving him. We ended up caving because we had no choice, we were about to miss our flight because it was 8:15 and we still had to run across the highway and check into our flight.
We handed him the money, grabbed our luggage and RAN! I am sure people thought we were crazy but we could not miss that flight. There was no other flight to Cologne that day and I did not want to spend any more money on flights. Thankfully the check in counter was still open when we got in and we made our flight. Thankfully, the rest of the trip home went great. It was definitely an experience and I am still a bit bitter about getting ripped off by the cab driver but there is nothing I can do about that now.
I hope you enjoyed the crazy ending to a wonderful trip. Budapest is a beautiful city that you should visit if you ever get the chance.
Happy Memorial Day to all my friends and family at home. Thank you to all the people who serve today or have served in the past. I am so thankful to those who gave their life to keep me free.
This is the view I had tonight while writing my blog. You can't see the beautiful sunset that well but it is there.
God Bless the USA!
After we spent the day on the island we made a quick stop at the Parliament building before heading back to the apartment to get ready for dinner. Emily's grad school was having their reunion that weekend so we were going to dinner with Emily and her friends from grad school before they headed to their reunion. On our way to dinner I took my camera out to take a picture and I also had my umbrella open since it was raining. When I took my camera out a huge gust of wind came and turned my umbrella inside out and in the process of trying to save my umbrella I dropped my camera and broke it. I was so upset as I only need this camera to last two more months and here it is broken. We went to a fantastic restaurant where I got marinated chicken breast rolled with dried tomato, spinach and ricotta lasagna with cheese sauce. It was delicious!
After dinner Emily recommended we check out Szimpla this amazing ruin bar near the restaurant. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures in the bar but here is the link to their website where you can check out some photos: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hu&u=http://www.szimpla.hu/&ei=fCfBT4nhIYur-QaE3NX7CQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CHYQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dszimpla%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1281%26bih%3D578%26prmd%3Dimvns
Sunday, we had plans to go to the thermal bath houses with Emily but first Claire and I went to the Terror museum. The terror museum is a museum that shows the history of the two terror regimes that occupied Budapest throughout the 1900's. The building where the museum is located is the actual building where people were tortured and killed. The museum taught me a lot and definitely gave me the chills. I will not go into details about what happened in the building but I will tell you that it made my skin crawl.
After that we headed to the thermal baths which were really nice. Each bath was different and we got to experience about 7 or 8 different ones. We also enjoyed two different saunas. After the thermal baths we headed back to the apartment to get ready for dinner. We decided to go to Iguana, a mexican restaurant a short walk from the apartment. We got almost to the restaurant when I noticed the street was closed with a bunch of trucks and people in the street. For about ten seconds I was completely confused until I remembered that Bruce Willis was in town shooting the last of the Die Hard movies "A Good Day to Die Hard." I got super excited and quickly explained to Claire why it was closed. Luckily only one block was closed so we were able to walk around and still go to the restaurant. Iguana was AMAZING! We shared an order of chips and salsa and for the entree I enjoyed the Monterrey Burrito which was chicken breast, beans, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce and cheese wrapped in a large flour tortilla. Which came with tomato rice and beans. It was SO DELICIOUS. if you ever find yourself in Budapest I would highly recommend you go there after you try traditional hungarian food.
As we left the restaurant we decided to go back around the block and check out the park where the street was blocked off. We found a statue of Ronald Reagan along with an interactive touch screen that showed movies and information about Reagan and what he did for Hungary. It was really cool. We noticed there were some people lined up along the fence watching the set of the movie. I wanted to check it out since it didn't look like much was going on. The only thing I saw was a bunch of people standing around a SUV. A group of people walked out of a trailer and a man and a woman got in the SUV before it sped off with another car following close behind. As soon as the SUV left everyone started to pack up and head out for another day. I didn't get a good look at Bruce as they were far off but it was quite obviously him. As Claire and I walked away we saw the two SUVs drive by. It was a great way to end the trip, that is until we got to Monday morning.
Our flight was set to leave at 8:50. We were planning on taking the underground train to the end and then take the bus from there. Emily suggested we take the above ground train directly to the airport instead as the train station was close to the apartment and was a much shorter ride. We got the train station around 6:50 and got on the train we thought was set to leave at 7:03 (due to fact that an employee said it was the right train). It didn't leave then and so we knew there was another train at 7:09 so we figured that it was that train. At 7:11 we officially started to get worried and realized that it was the express train that was supposed to leave at 7:24 which would still get us to the airport an hour before out flight. Unfortunately at 7:30 when it still hadn't left there was an announcement saying that the train would be leaving at 7:50 which meant we would not get to the airport before 8:15 meaning we would most likely not be let on our flight. We quickly jumped on and got on the train that was set to leave at 7:38. At 7:45 it hadn't left and we found out that the train was also running late. We decided out only choice was taking a cab so we ran outside got in the first cab we could find and of course the driver did not speak any english so we did our best with German which luckily he did speak. At this point it is 7:50 and we are stuck in rush hour traffic in downtown Budapest. We finally made it out of the city and were just praying that we would make our flight. We told the driver which terminal we were in and hoped for the best. As we approached the airport I checked the meter and started taking out money. We were told it would be 10,000 forint which didn't seem too bad. When I checked the meter it said 13,000 which was more than expected but we just needed to get there. Once the driver parked (on the side of the highway) he told us it would be 17,000 forint which we did not have. I think he had some way of upping the meter because when we started pulling over it was only at 14,000 and there is no way in 30 seconds we racked up another 3,000! We were panicked because he didn't take credit card and we were out of money. He then informed us that it would be 20 euros on top of the 16,000 we gave him which is about 17 euros more than what we should have been giving him. We ended up caving because we had no choice, we were about to miss our flight because it was 8:15 and we still had to run across the highway and check into our flight.
We handed him the money, grabbed our luggage and RAN! I am sure people thought we were crazy but we could not miss that flight. There was no other flight to Cologne that day and I did not want to spend any more money on flights. Thankfully the check in counter was still open when we got in and we made our flight. Thankfully, the rest of the trip home went great. It was definitely an experience and I am still a bit bitter about getting ripped off by the cab driver but there is nothing I can do about that now.
I hope you enjoyed the crazy ending to a wonderful trip. Budapest is a beautiful city that you should visit if you ever get the chance.
Happy Memorial Day to all my friends and family at home. Thank you to all the people who serve today or have served in the past. I am so thankful to those who gave their life to keep me free.
This is the view I had tonight while writing my blog. You can't see the beautiful sunset that well but it is there.
God Bless the USA!
