Trip to Budapest

On Tuesday morning we finally arrived at the final destination of our trip- Budapest, Hungary. I was particularly excited to go to Budapest because my late grandmother was Hungarian. Still, I knew very little about Hungary. I knew that one of their largest, if not the largest, export is paprika and that a national dish is chicken paprikash (made with paprika). So basically I was pretty clueless. Our first day in the city we went to some of the city markets, in the building below.

The food was all fresh and looked delicious, but it was much more raw ingredients and a lot less prepared foods, like there had been in Vienna. We were unable to make a satisfactory meal of it, so we had a traditional Hungarian lunch instead- sausage, beef goulash soup, and chicken paprikash. It was delicious. 

After lunch, we gave ourselves a walking tour of the city. Like most European cities, Budapest has a river that runs through it. One side is the Buda side, the other is known as Pest. They used to be two separate cities until they were combined into one.

Our hostel situation worked out perfectly- a pipe had burst closing the dorm room that we were supposed to stay in. Instead, we were given a private apartment for the evening with our own bathroom and kitchen. We stopped at a grocery store to make dinner for ourselves before enjoying an evening out with new friends from our hostel. We went to a karaoke bar then a ruinpub (created from old factories and houses that were to be destroyed). These ruinpubs were each unique and were all over the city- they gave it a lot of character.

The next day we decided to go on a free walking tour centered on communism in Hungary. Our tour guide was a 40 year old Hungarian woman who had grown up in Hungary during the last years of communism. She was extremely interesting to listen to because she included a lot of personal stories and experiences on the tour- I really enjoyed it. 

This is a bomb shelter, meant for the highest party members and their wives. Apparently two of the three metro lines in Budapest were also designed as bomb shelters for the general public. 

A monument to the Soviet soldiers that died in WWII. 

The US embassy is the building that looks out on this statue...kind of ironic. 

The Parliament building. 

Standing on the bridge between communism and democracy, facing the Parliament building.

Shrapnel and bullet holes in buildings leftover from WWII. 

A poorly taken picture of a ruinpub in Budapest. 

After the walking tour ended, we went to Heroes' Square. The statues commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of the Hungarians in the current location of Hungary. They are also all equipped with the famed Hungarian mustaches that we enjoyed seeing throughout our stay in Budapest. 

We ended our trip with a night in at the hostel. We made dinner and watched Pulp Fiction, which we selected from their large electronic movie library. Overall it was a great trip with two of my favorite people (and future roommates). I enjoyed all three of our stops, but I think Budapest was my favorite city of the three!