Hungary? Why wait? TAKE SOME PICTURES!

I know it's been forever. I am getting worse and worse at this whole blogging business!

Anyways, this past weekend was the first of four school-organized excursions to nearby countries/regions. Since I am ISEP-Direct, I get reimbursed for the trips, so of COURSE I'm going on all four (Budapest, Krakow, East Bohemia, and the Slovak Mountains)
We spent the weekend in a pretty nice hostel in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Budapest is divided into two parts - Buda and Pesti - that are separated from each other by the River Danube.




Buda on the left, Pest on the right


We left bright and early Friday morning to travel by bus to spend our first day exploring Pesti, the shopping district. Among our journeys we saw St. Stephen's Basilica,





the Parliament building,














the central market,










and a few random other monuments and buildings.














My favorites included the food in the central market (I had the most delicious hawaiian style crepe (pineapples, ham, corn, cream cheese, and mozzarella cheese)





, st. stephen's basilica (it was INCREDIBLY beautiful inside. i can't even tell you how beautiful. i took lots of pictures but they don't even do it justice, sorry),















and the sunset over Buda.






Though the forecast called for rain all weekend, we were actually blessed with more sunshine than we've had the whole time in Brno! Which made for a great weekend.





Friday night we were all pretty wiped out, so we had a group reading party in our hostel and were passed out (SOBER, mind you!) by 10pm.

Saturday morning's plans began with an 8am breakfast in the restaurant adjacent to the hostel. Our fees for the trip included breakfast, so we were all curious to see what our hardearned money would be paying for. Our imaginations flew from eggs and bacon to croissants and nutella to the more elaborate and extravagant french toast and waffles. By the time we entered the restaurant, we were practically drooling over the prospects of a nice, hot Hungarian breakfast. And then reality hit. haha.

Laying on the beautifully set plates in the restaurant were two saran-wrapped "sandwiches" made up of 2 slices of mystery meat, 2 paper thin slices of cucumber, and 1 slice of banana pepper wedged between two pieces of buttery bread. Yum. We gulped down our yummy, delicious sandwiches and washed it down with what we figured was tea and coffee left over from the commies. By the end of the meal, we could hardly contain our patience in waiting to have it again the next morning!





After our hearty breakfast, we ventured across the windy Danube to see what Buda had to offer





Among the highlights of Buda were Bishop Bill (our nickname for him, at least)





and Wendy the statue of liberty






Saturday afternoon was pretty 'lax, Jessica from Missouri and I walked around Margaret Island which was basically a big park full of people biking, jogging, picnicking, or playing some kind of sport and then headed back to the hostel to meet up with some friends for dinner. We had heard about this really cool inexpensive Italian restaurant that served homemade noodles and had basil trees on the tables for you to season with, but ended up at a pricey french restaurant with a sneaky waitress who tried everything she could to get as much money from us as possible. Gosh I love being a foreigner. Saturday night we were all exhausted from walking around and ready to not have to use our feet for a few hours. We were sound asleep by midnight.

Sunday morning we woke up to the sound of the fire alarm, casually packed our bags and headed down to eat another delicious breakfast. The fire alarm was the result of a few receptionists smoking in the office and went off for a good 35 minutes before the fire department arrived and figured out how to turn it off. Needless to say, this resulted in a bunch of tired and grumpy foreigners. The few of us who had already been awake when the alarm went off and don't run solely on coffee laughed as everyone else stumbled out of the hostel with much to say about the whole situation.

After breakfast, we loaded into the bus for one last tour of the city, a few pictures in hero's square




















and then we were on our way to the GYOR SPA. We all were looking very forward to the spas, which were made up of natural hot springs in the ground. Although we didn't get very many pictures, I can tell you this is really for the best. The spa itself was awesome; seeing hundreds of old men in speedos? Not so much. haha. The spa had several different pools to choose from differing in temperature, depth, location, and experience. Of all the different choices, my favorites were the outdoor spas (think of being in a hottub in the middle of winter and how great that feels) and one of the hotter spas that had shallower water and places where you lay down and look up at stars that had been cut into the ceiling. It was so relaxing. Definitely a great way to end a weekend full of walking and sightseeing!















All in all, Budapest was awesome. While Vienna still tops my list of favorite places, Budapest isn't far behind. :)


For those of you diehard readers, here are a few of my favorite legends of budapest:






The story of Bishop Bill (I honestly can't remember his real name, sorry!)
The story goes something like this:
Bishop Bill came to Budapest to share his Christian faith. The pagan worshipers of the city rejected him, rolled him down the rocky hill into the Danube, and let him drown. He was later remembered with remorse and I guess as a sort of retribution, they made a statue of him and placed it on the very hill where he met his death. The hill also happens to be the city's drinking water reservoir. We tried to stick straws in the ground and take a long gulp, but it didn't work out too well...






Statue of Liberty.
She was originally crafted with a sword in her hand but after the fall of communism, they removed the sword and put a "liberty leaf" in its place. There were also several communist soldier statues and dedications around her that were removed as sort of a purging the city of communism.






The chain bridge.
The story starts out with a man who lived in Pesti and his father who lived in Buda. The father died, but the man was unable to get to Buda due to poor weather conditions and the lack of a bridge connecting the two regions. For five days the man was stranded and unable to attend his father's funeral. As a result, he sought out to build a bridge.
Later, another guy attempted to make a bridge between Buda and Pest. He was so proud of his finished product that he boasted perfection in it, promising to drown himself in the river if any imperfection was found. Unfortunately for him (and also the lions guarding the bridge's entrances) his adversaries discovered the lions were completely tongueless and the man kept his word by drowning himself in the river. If you look closely, you can see for yourself that in fact, the lion's still do not have tongues!





Final stories:
St. Stephen's basilica-
The construction of St. Stephen's basilica was first began by St. Stephen himself. In the middle of building it, however, St. Stephan died and another guy took over. Before he had a chance to finish, natural disaster occurred and the whole structure crumbled. With the hungarian spirit of perseverance, one final guy successfully completed the building as it stands today (third time's a charm, right?)





Inside St. Stephen's basilica is none other than the HAND of St. Stephen himself. That's right, his right hand has been preserved for hundreds of years and even has its own little palace to rest in. Talk about crazy!









And finally, a few parting pictures for you...















This sign was posted in our hostel. I thought it was pretttty funny.


Ahoj for now! :)