That's right! I'm back from Budapest!!! Did you miss me? Ok ok, we'll discuss formalities later...onto more important things, like the actual trip...Friday:
We landed around 8 pm, Hungary time - which is an hour ahead of us in the UK. Exhausted from the 1 hour bus ride to the airport, and the 2 hour plane ride there, Z and I decided to get some food and get to bed early. Our stay was made even more comfortable by the fantastic appartment-style hostel we booked. It was cheaper and better than a hotel, and walking distance from metro and bus stops, as well as a few of Pest's sites. Oh, I don't know if I've already mentioned this in other entries but Budapest is divided into 23 districts. The Danube river cuts between the two most common regions - Buda and Pest (hence the name of the city). Buda is known as the mountainous, rural area while Pest is the urban, city centre region.
This was the view from our balcony...most of the buildings in Budapest are very old...we think that those holes in this building are from bullet shots during war time.
Saturday:
We thought it'd be best to get the shopping out of the way earlier in the trip so that we wouldn't have to worry about last minute gifts and souvenirs, and maybe find a little something for ourselves along the way (ahem). Unfortunately, Hungarian isn't the easiest language to pick up quickly. Infact, nothing is pronounced the way it's spelled. For example, the famous pedestrian shopping street, Vaci Utca is actually pronounced Vaat-see Ut-sa (Utca just means avenue or street). So when we were trying to read the map and ask for directions, most people had no clue what we were looking for. I have to admit, I forgot how difficult it can be to navigate your way around a city where few people understand English and everything is written in a foreign language.
We ended up at the largest mall in Eastern Europe (I guess that's what people thought we wanted when we said "shopping") and found someone who spoke fluent English and gave us clear directions on getting to Vaci street. And this is where things get ugly, because it required taking the metro.
Now usually, you would buy your ticket, get on the train and you're good to go. Not in Budapest. What you're supposed to do is pay a certain amount depending on how far you need to travel. That much we figured out. What we missed was that you are required to validate your ticket at this little punch out machine when you get on and off the train. We did neither because a) the ticket lady never told us we had to and b) these validation machines are easy to miss. So two stops later Z and I hop off and head for the exit when we're accosted by this cross-eyed Hungarian man asking for our tickets. We show him our tickets and he says "No good. You did not validate ticket. You pay 5000 HUF fine each" (sidenote: 350 Hungarian Forints = 1 Pound). We argued with him for a good 10 minutes explaining that the ticket woman never told us, meanwhile he's saying that there are signs everywhere (in Hungarian which we speak fluently of course). I ask for his boss (which he pretends not to understand) and start writing down his identity number and name. Z asks if we get a receipt for paying the fine and when he shows us the paper his hands are trembling so we knew something wasn't right. Then he demands to see our passport and we said we didn't have it with us so he threatens to dial the police. Anyways, long story short, we noticed a group of Spaniards being harrassed by this man's partner in crime and banned together with them to rebell against the security people and leave. We didn't pay any fine, no police were involved, and we later validated our tickets just incase at another metro station.
So after being sent to the wrong shopping district, riding the metro and nearly getting arrested, we finally made it to Vaci Utca! It was a lot of fun - tourists all over the place window shopping and buying authentic Hungarian souvenirs. We never got used to seeing prices in the thousands or paying with a 5000 HUF bill.
Sunday:
After Saturday's stress, we deserved a day in a Turkish bath-house. Budapest is known as the city of baths because of the many spas leftover from Turkish rule. There are also many natural hot-springs which is where the water comes from for these thermal bath houses. Z and I took the bus across the Danube into Buda, to visit the third best thermal spa in the world - The Gellert. We soaked our sore muscles in the marble baths and were massaged with peppermint oil, and the most stress-releasing part of it all was that we paid under 20 pounds total. Oh how I love exchanging pounds...Unfortuately I couldn't take any pictures inside the pool area but just to give you an idea of the beauty, here's a picture of the main hall.
When we left Gellert, the skies of Budapest graced us with the most perfect snow. It was ideal for taking pictures of the Gellert Hotel and our surroundings:
And then when we got a little too cold, we found a traditional Hungarian cafe and enjoyed an authentic Hungarian lunch - Z tried Goulash which is apparently like a minestrone but with beef. I had a turkey dish with parsely potatoes. Hungarian food in general is meat and some kind of potato. They also tend to cook with a lot of paprika (Hungarian spice which means "one that is hot"; there are 8 different varieties). Initially I was worried that I wouldn't find anything to eat in Budapest. I was expecting a lot of pork and bland food. But surprisingly, their cuisine is very tasty and well-prepared. And when you get sick of Hungarian dishes, there's also Turkish restaurants on every corner!On our walk back to Pest, we also captured some beautiful night-time shots. What wasn't so beautiful was trudging through all the slush and snow, so please appreciate the great lengths we went to getting these photos!
After a cat-nap, we headed out for our last dinner in Budapest! On our way back to the hostel, we met these three Italian guys who were lost and trying to find somewhere to eat. They were so happy when I started speaking what little Italian I knew with them, and I was even happier that I actually got to put my Italian to use! It was nice to know that Z and I weren't the only tourists having trouble finding our way around...Monday:
We decided to make the most of our last day in Budapest by visiting some of the sites we had missed over the weekend. We decided to try taking the metro again (this time without getting into trouble) and found one of the most popular 'postcard' places in Budapest: Parliament.
We were determined to climb up the citadel to get the panoramic view of Budapest, so we made it our final goal. I can't describe how high this mountain is unless you see the view it gave us of the city. We climbed up stairs and stairs within the mountain for about 30 minutes but once we reached the top it was well worth the effort :)
After we climbed back down and ate some lunch it was time to go back to the airport for our flight home. It's hard to explain the experience other than what we saw, ate and did. Part of me still feels like the entire weekend was some crazy dream that never actually happened. Sure we had our down moments where we got lost or we couldn't find anyone who spoke English but that's all part of the experience. We didn't get to see all the monuments or sites (that would take atleast a week) but we saw as many as we could, tried the food, did some shopping, and got a feel for Hungarian culture. Overall I'd say it was a great start to my European travelling, and I'm ready to do some more! Well, almost...I need a few days to recover... 
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