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| Parliament in Budapest |
For the last week of my two week break I had plans to travel to Budapest and Vienna with Victoria and Mara. We were flying out of Brussels on Monday afternoon, which only gave me Sunday night to relax in Amsterdam after Copenhagen. So on Monday morning I repacked, took a 3 hour train ride to Brussels, and then proceeded to hop on a bus to the airport that was an hour away. When I finally arrived Victoria was waiting for me and although I thought I was cutting it close with 30 minuets to spare before boarding, Mara was MIA. After not being able to get in touch with her Victoria and I went through security and hoped we would see her running through the gate at any moment. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and the flight left without her.
It was dark when we landed in Budapest and with no hostle reservations booked Victoria and I picked one from the many pamphlets and found our way to the Boomerang Hostle. Originally we had planned to take a train straight to Vienna, but with Mara stuck at the airport for the night we had to improvise. So on Tuesday morning Victoria and I decided to explore part of Budapest. Since our hostel was right next to St. Stephen’s Basilica that was our first stop. The outside of the church was huge with a circular architecture, but it was what rested inside that was most interesting. Once the King of Hungry, St. Stephan is loved by the natives for being the first to introduce the Christian faith to the Hungarians. Inside the basilica named after him lies a relic, his hand. And it was pretty gross. And black.
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| St. Stephen's hand |
After that lovely viewing we headed down to the river and checked out an indoor market. Now some people may be into dead hands and all, but I thought the market was awesome. It was two floors, the bottom floor fresh produce, meats, and cheese, and the top was vendors selling all different kinds of goods. The culture we saw there was really interesting because we were able to observe the natives in their element. After the market, we walked across the river to the Buda side and were instantly drawn in by a castle like structure carved into the mountain. Out of curiosity we decided to find out what it was. The white crucifix at the top should have given it away, but it didn’t so we went inside and were then told it was a cave church. Further intrigued we took a tour and found it actually to be quite amazing. The inside was a hollow cave that people today still attend mass regularly.
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| Cave Church |
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| Citadel |
After learning a thing or two more about St. Stephen we left the cave church and kept going up the mountain to the top of the Citadel. From the top of the mountain we were able to see an extraordinary view of the Pest side of the city as well as part of the hilly Buda side. We also had enough energy to take a quick tour of the Citadel. We learned that it was used as a military bunker throughout history and was occupied by the Nazi’s during World War II. Inside the bunker were Nazi mannequins and the story of the hardships Hungry endured throughout history as it struggled to gain independence from being occupied time and time again. At the top of the Citadel now lies a statue of a woman holding a feather, which is meant to represent peace. After a long day Victoria and I waited for Mara’s arrival in a little place called Mozart’s Café. I actually read about the cafe on one of the in-flight magazines, but it definitely did not do it justice. The café reminded me a lot of the Paper Moon Diner in Baltimore with random decorations and a unique setting. It also had delicious homemade tiramisu that instantly won me over.
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| view of Pest |
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| part of the Buda castle |
On Wednesday the three of us spent the entire day on the Buda side of the river up in the castle area. We spent most the day exploring the Buda castle as well as the underground labyrinth, which is one of the underground 7 wonders of the world. The labyrinth is a series of tunnels and is essentially a maze underneath the castle. It was used for many purposes, including a wine cellar (now that’s a lot of wine) in the past, but today is just a museum. There were some incredibly creepy things down there, like random statues, cave paintings, and even a part that tried to convince you that, well aliens existed. Hmm pretty sure Dad would have like that. The sun was starting to set by the time we made our way back to our hostel to grab our bags a hop on a train to Vienna.
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| inside the labyrinth |
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| inside St. Stephens cathedral |
Our first day in Vienna was spent getting to know the culture of the city. We first explored the museum area and then headed towards the impressive shopping streets where ironically St. Stephen’s cathedral was located. The church itself was beautiful and the gothic architecture was impressive, but by the end of the trip I decided I had seen enough of St. Stephen. After the church we immersed ourselves in the traditional foods of Vienna, wienerschnitzel and sachertorte (chocolate cake). To end the day we booked tickets to a Beethoven and Strauss concert to complete the three things typical of Vienna culture. The next day we hit the Belvedere Palace, which is now an art museum where we saw famous works such as Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ as well as other equally extraordinary works. After that we headed to Schonbrunn Palace where we walked around the impressive outside gardens and fountains. It was a beautiful fall day with the yellow leaves carpeting the ground, but it was the sight of seeing my first SQUIRREL in three months that made my day. And to top it off the little guy was so friendly and almost ate from my hand! Eventually Mara and Victoria tore me away and our quick trip to Vienna was over as we headed back to Budapest for the remainder of our vacation.
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| Look, a Squirrel! |
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| thermal baths we were in |
On Saturday we were back in Budapest and spent the day hanging out. We also went on a free walking tour, but since Victoria and I had done so much already we didn’t find it that informative. On our last full day in Budapest the three of us went for a walk on the Pest side to the Hero’s Square where we would then go in the traditional baths of Budapest. But on the way we made a stop at the House of Terror, which was the old Nazi military headquarters. The museum was extremely sobering, but equally as interesting to learn about the Communist history of Budapest and the Nazi régime. After the museum we continued on to the Szechenyi Spac, the largest thermal baths in Budapest. If you had told me back in August that in November I would be outside in a swimsuit getting into a thermal bath I would have called you nuts. Yet it was one of the most relaxing experiences and puts the Dombek hot tube to shame. The Szechenyi Spa offers a wide variety of baths and treatments, but we decided to do the most basic, which was a massive outside hot tub filled with natural water supposedly good for your skin.
After our week break in Vienna and Budapest and after seeing plenty of St. Stephens churches and trying goulash and wienerschnitzel the three of us headed back to Amsterdam for the last two months.
