Budapest

From Poland, we flew to Budapest, which was a much more uplifting, happier trip. And because my friend from HPU, Cassidy, flew out to meet me there!!

Mackenzie, Cassidy, and I got an airbnb near the city center. We all went out to dinner once we dropped our stuff off and got some traditional Hungarian food. After dinner, we all kinda crashed after traveling all day and being jetlagged.

The next morning, we started bright and early!! We got breakfast at The Bake Shop, which is the cutesttttt breakfast and cake shop right next door to our airbnb. From there, we started doing some sightseeing. We saw the huge Parliament building, the Sitting Statue of Attila József, who was a poet, and the shoes on Danube Bank, which is a Jewish memorial to honor the Jews who were killed during WWII by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen.

From there, we went to Gerret, one of the popular thermal baths in Budapest! It was like a maze from the moment entering the building to the locker rooms and getting out. I’ll always be so amazed at European cultures being so accepting of men and women being naked - although there were changing rooms for each gender, a lot of people just changed right out in the open. And a lot of restrooms, everywhere around Europe, have one bathroom with 1 sink and 2 stalls - one for men and one for women. The 3 of us just kinda hung out for most of the afternoon out in the sun and enjoying the warm baths. The architecture and art and all the details everywhere was beautiful!!

After that, Mackenzie went off to do her own thing while Cassidy and I decided to go to the Lenin Park. Cassidy is a big fan of Lenin just because of his name (not for what’s he’s known for or anything don’t worry!!). The dang park was way out of the city that we had to take a bus to get there. And the freaking park was literally like 12 statues and some rocks on the ground that cost 5€ a person to get In. Worth it? Absolutely. We went because the reviews were so great, and we couldn’t help but agree.

On our last day in Budapest, our flight didn’t leave until later that evening so Mackenzie, Cassidy, and I went to the Fisherman Bastion. It was INSANE! It was a huge walkway/building/cathedral with so many details on every inch of it. Jut absolutely incredible. We also had an awesome view of the parliament building from here. I’m still not over how huge that building was and how detailed it was!! We walked around for a bit and wandered into some local stores to check out since it was also raining alllll day.

From there, Mackenzie went to hangout in a Starbucks until we had to leave so Cassidy and I went to get lunch and do some more exploring. We got some goulash for lunch, which was surprisingly really good!! Then we went to the City Park, and watched the dancing fountain. It plays a song, usually pretty modern songs in all different languages, and the water just dances to it. It was so so cool to see!! We hid under the trees to watch it and take pictures while it was pouring rain. From there we walked across the Liberty Bridge, and then had to meet up with Mackenzie to make our way to the airport.

Budapest was such a pretty city! I’d love to come back and explore it a bit further someday.

Check out all my pictures from Budapest here.