The first stop on my adventure was the city of Budapest and I can confirm that the correct way to pronounce the city is with sh instead of t. Now, where to even begin with this city.
We arrived at midnight and within five hours of sleep I was off touring the streets. Most of the pictures that were taken were while we were walking. We made somehow made our way to the complete opposite side of the city. When it comes to this city, there is an interesting fact that most might not know, Budda is on one side of the bridge and Pest is on the other. Pest (where we stayed) is the modern part city where the business district resides, while Budda is historical with roaring green hills. If I had to choose a side of the river, it would definitely be the Budda side.
On our first day, my friends and I somehow climbed a cliff. We don't know how it happened, we just saw a path near a church built within the cliff. Once we made it to the top, the view was well worth the hike. After hiking down and stopping at a park, we finally got to enjoy a Hungarian speciality... Hungarian wine. Another fun fact, you can only get Hungarian wine in Hungry. The wineries are owned by the same families for generations and they believe that only Hungarian people should have access to their wine. These wineries don't sell outside of the country, so I drank wine whenever I could. Our evening ended with a river boat on the Danube River. Though it was a cold and cloudy day, seeing the city lit up was breathtaking.
On to the second day and our last full day in the "Pearl of the Danube", we explored the Budda side more. We explored the old palace where the King of Budapest used to live and attached was a small town close to where the President and Prime Minister live. One amazing thing about Budapest, buying food, drinks and souvenirs are cheap! Our breakfasts, which includes sandwiches, coffee or hot chocolate would be $3.75 American dollars. A bottle of wine would be $10.00. How beautiful is that?
Our last stop ended up at a nice bath house and we stayed for about four hours. We tested the theory of warm vs ice cold baths to increase our immune system. First, you start in the hot bath and sit for about 1-2 minutes. Then, you plunge yourself into the ice bath (yes ice cubes were coming out of the wall to make the bath extremely cold) for 10 seconds. You are suppose to do this process at least three times. I didn't get sick during or after the trip, so it must of worked. One of the baths (maybe pool) was on the rooftop with a grand view of the river and city. We probably could of stayed there for the rest of the evening. It was so relaxing after walking all over the place the day prior.
If I had to pick a city that I was forced to move to on this trip, it would definitely be Budapest. For the most part, everyone was so nice and finding people who knew English wasn't hard. Also, just being by the river was therapeutic and seeing the boats go by. I would love to go back to Budapest so I could enjoy the wonderful wine and sausages again.
Szeretlek Budapestet!
This is only stop number one. More adventures are awaiting in the next few blog posts that are coming out shortly!
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