For a number of weeks several of my Erasmus friends were planning to go on a trip to Budapest. The idea seemed good and everyone was really enthusiastic about this trip, people talked about it and made even more people want to join our trip. However, the lack of organization or lack of money made most of them dropped out, and the trip was only really a vague idea. As the supposed date of departure was approaching and as no concrete plans were made, even more dropped out. At some point, our clear lack of organizational skills made it quite obvious that this trip will probably not happen. Under a week before we were meant to go we finally go ourselves together and met up and realized that our traveling options were quite limited and we realized that the actual chances to go were very slim. Somehow a last-minute urge to go motivated us to go and buy our bus tickets and book a hostel. Quite unbelievable the trip that no one believed that would happen was actually going to happen and 9 motivated souls were going to go to Budapest!
We took on Thursday night a night bus from Prague to Budapest. It was definitely one of the worst bus trips of my life. Not only that the bus was not particularly comfortable, not only that the road was incredibly bumpy, but on top of that there was a snoring competition going on, resulting in the fact that I maximum got 2 hours sleep.
Arriving in Budapest at 5:30 am felt quite miserable, we were exhausted, it was cold, it was still dark, it was raining and only one of us had some Forints. 3 of the people with us were staying at a friend's place so they had the luxury that they could sleep for a bit after that terrible bus ride. The rest of us went to drop off our suitcases at the hostel, but we had to stay up until 2 pm as it was only then that we would get our room. It felt even more miserable to have to stay up for another 7 hours. However, it turned out to be a fantastic morning. We went to a hotel and had a all-you can eat breakfast for 2 hours, we literally ate all we could until the waiters started to give us some dirty looks. And then we went for a walk around the city, it was incredible because the weather was beautiful and we somehow found some superpowers to go and discover the Hungarian capital.
These are the pictures I took on that walk with a disposable camera.
We walked all the way up the hill to discover this views of Budapest. It was quite cold, the wind was pretty strong, but it was definitely worth the effort as we saw the morning sun rising on the city, and a combination of shadows and lights over the city.
We stayed on the hill a couple of minutes to absorb the beauty of these views, before we decided to start walking down. On the way we stopped to play in a children's park. Very mature, indeed.
We continued our way to see the rest of the city.
By the time we came back to the Hostel we were really exhausted, but glad that we made the most of the day light and manage to see quite a bit of the Budapest. Later on we went to different bars and discovered the interesting Hungarian night life and those incredible bars with incredible decorations. Very hipster indeed.
The next morning we went again around the city. Tried a goulash in an Irish pub, obviously.
And towards the mid afternoon as the sun was going down, we went to the thermal baths.... an incredible relaxing experience. We were in a out door pool with was very warm and the we saw the sky getting dark and it started to snow while we were relaxing.
And we also discovered the magic of the Christmas markets
I was really glad that I did go on this trip, I discover a new city, it was a great way to spend some time with a couple of my Erasmus friends, I petty all those people that didn't come with us, but I hope for them that if they haven't been to Budapest yet that they will some day.
Helena
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