Budapest

Getting into the station in Budapest was interesting. We didn't have any money. There was no ATM machine. No one could speak English so we couldn't figure out what to do. After an hour of trying to figure out what to do we eventually just jumped on a bus to get to our hosts place and hoped no one would catch up without a ticket. It worked. We got there eventually and when we walked in to our hosts place, Bernhard. We knew that there were going to be other people there when we arrived but we walked in to a room full couchsurfers. There were two girls from Canada, one guy from Japan and then our host Bernhard who was born in Budapest but raised in Germany but now back in Budapest. The six of us hung out for the night and went on an adventure to get food which ended up being a very interesting night.

The next day Hilary and I explored the Buda side of Budapest. This mostly means the Castle district whcih believe it or not is where the castle is. The castle is on a hill so we climbed our way up and enjoyed the views from the top, which were gorgeous. After hanging out at the castle for awhile we headed into what we think is downtown Buda and eventually ended up at a restaurant that was advertising a Napi Menu which we later found out was translated into a Daily Menu. This is essentially a dinner for a really really cheap price. It was great. We could get a two or three course meal for $4. Love it! We did this a couple times while we were in Vienna and ended up having some amazing meals. If you are ever in Vienna I highly recommend these.

After lunch we got lost a time or two and eventually ended up on a bridge that took us to a little island in the middle of the city. The Danube river runs through the middle of Buda and Pest and the island was in the middle of the Danube. It was a really cool island which was essentially a really big park for the city. We walked around it for awhile and kept discovering new and random things on the island. It was a really nice day so there were a ton of people out running, biking, kayaking and just hanging out. I love people watching.

We finally decided to head back to our hosts place which took us 2 hours to walk to. The great part was that once we got there we discovered the Canadian girls were making pasta and garlic bread for dinner. Yay! Once Bernhard got home from work we all sat down for a nice little family meal. Afterward none of us felt like going out so we played a couple of games of Uno and then headed to bed.

The Canadian girls left today (Thursday) so we said goodbye to them and then headed to the Pest side of the city to explore. Of course on our way into the city we ended up getting check by the transportation people to see if we had tickets. Along with getting jaded as we travel we have discovered that you don't really have to pay for most transportation in the city. If you are just watchful for the people who check on the public buses, trams and metros you can really get by without paying at all. This may be the unethical thing to do, but when you are short on cash and everyone else around you is doing the same thing, sometimes ethics gets thrown out of the window. Everything is relative I guess. However, we didn't know what to look for yet at this point so we didn't know how to spot the ticket checkers. Luckily, I'm really good at playing dumb. So when the guy came up to me to ask for our tickets I pulled off dumb like you have never seen dumb pulled off before.

The ticket guy came up and started talking in Hungarian. At first I didn't know what he wanted and was confused. Then I finally realized that he was checking for tickets. I got out the packet of tickets our host had given us just in case and ripped off one then gave it to him acting like I didn't know what the hell I was doing. He then tried to inform me that I was supposed validate it. Validate it? I ask with innocent eyes acting like I don't know what he is talking about. He then points at the machine and I shrug my shoulders asking him which way to put the ticket in. The whole time Hilary is trying not to laugh at me. I'm not sure how I pulled it off without laughing but thank god I did. I should probably have felt bad about scamming the system, but I'm poor and the system is easy to rip off. I say, not my fault. :) Anyways, the guy validated our tickets for us and the said "next time" and I agreed. Ha.

On to Hero's Square and the city park. We walked around a lot as usual. Saw the sights. Found another Napi place because it is so inexpensive there is no reason not to. And it is delicious. Score. After lunch we walked around some more. Did some research on the Turkish baths Hilary wanted to go to the next day and then visited a castle that was just hanging out in the park. We headed back to our host's place for dinner and he took us to some Hungarian buffet place that was not that good but we were told it was filling. I stayed to mostly the potato dish which was the best of everything else. After that he took us on a 'walk' up a hill that was to steep to be considered a normal walk. We headed to the Citadel where their holds a statue of a lady holding a palm leaf looking over the city. On the way back we stopped at a Teahaz which we would visit another two times before we left. It was good, and cheap. Good tea. Good cake. Yum all around.

The next day we headed to the major central market. There was a lot of food and a lot of souvenirs to buy. Hilary tried some pepper cabbage concoction and then we went to get some gyros and headed to the underground caves of Budapest. It was a trip and a half with all of the buses and trams we had to take to get up to the caves. The caves were cool. The tour was slightly disappointing. They did it in Hungarian first and the English. Somehow the English version was usually about a fourth as long as the Hungarian version. We got jipped. Oh well. Who doesn't like being in caves, right?

At night we went out with a bunch of our CS host's friends to these things called ruin pubs. Essentially they are bars in run down buildings that are no longer lived in. The ruin bars hang out there for a few months until they either get caught and are thrown out or the building is knocked down. Sweet. We got home around 4 or so in the morning and then slept in nicely the next day. Love sleeping in!

The next day was Saturday. The three of us got up, had breakfast, laid around the house for awhile and then finally got our act together and headed out to rent bikes for the day. We rode around the city and I tried not to kill myself or other people. I hadn't been on a bike in about 6 years and was not comfortable at all, but I sucked it up and everyone is still alive so the mission was a success. Although of course I got the bike that was out to get me. The seat screw was not tight enough so it kept moving on me until we found someone in the park that could fix it. Then one of the wires came lose and I thought it was going to get stuck in the tires and cause them to stop working. In the end I made it though. After that we headed to Bernhard's friend's place for a BBQ and out for the night.

Sunday Hilary really wanted to go to a Turkish bath and I wasn't as interested so we decided to spend the first day in 6 weeks apart. Probably a good idea. She went. I slept in. It was great. We both enjoyed our days. When she got back we went on a hung for a grocery store to get food to cook traditional hungarian food. Since it was Sunday not all of the stores were open so it took us a couple tries before we found everything that we needed. Bernhard didn't really let us do much of the cooking so we just hung out, skinned some potatoes and then ate his food. If I could remember what the name of what he made was I would tell you. But I can't. It was good though. We had it for dinner and then for breakfast the next day. Yum. I love cheap, good food.

Monday we went back to the market to get souvenirs for ourselves and family, then headed back to the Teahaz once again. We sat and talked for couple of hours, I really enjoyed staying in a country long enough to go back to one place multiple times and really enjoy ourselves. Then we went back to our hosts, made food, packed, hung out and eventually headed to our train from Budapest to Krakow. It as an overnight train that we boarded at 8pm and was getting into Krakow at 6:30am.