First meal in Budapest… pasteries!

I set off for my second European excursion in 3 years.  The last trip was a 3 week backpacking trip through 5 countries.  Need I say — rushed?  Well I’m entering this trip with the mindset of a slower pace.  In addition to the extra sleep I hope to gain, the real benefit is to soak up more of the cultures in the countries I am visiting.

I took off from San Diego with the destination of Praha (Prague, Czech Republic).  Of course there are no direct flights to Praha.  I wouldn’t expect that.  I can’t even get a direct flight to DC!  So I bounced around from San Diego to DC (huh.. actually I guess I can.. but only when I’m still en route I guess).  Then DC to Vienna, then Vienna to Praha.  I have no problem with lay overs, but I do have a problem with the airports.  I mean can I actually count Austria as a city I traveled to?  Sure I was in the airport, but I didn’t get a feel for the city.  I wish airports were fitted more to the culture of that city.  I mean I know everyone is in a rush, but for those with layovers over 4 hours there should be more than just shitty airport food.  I digress…

I arrived in Praha the next morning where my girlfriend met me at the airport.  It’s been nearly 2 months since we’ve seen each other, but being across the planet just exacerbates the situation.  Needless to say we were both overcome with excitement once our eyes met after customs.

Jenn, my girlfriend, has been studying in Praha since August and has a really nice apartment there too.  We will be using Praha as our homebase over the next 3 weeks.  It’s interesting to have a temporary “home” while in Europe.  The last time I was here it was really living on the edge of our seats (or park benches), but this is somewhat of an upgrade.  Interesting to see how it unfolds.

I knew we’d have time in the coming weeks to explore Praha, so we decided to leave for Budapest (Hungry) that same day.  (That’s right… after like 20 hours of travel, what’s another 8 more?)


One of the oldest underground metro lines in Europe

After dropping off our stuff at her place we headed to the bus station to catch the 4pm bus.  And the bad luck begins to set in…

So, we decided to meet up with Jenn’s roommates in Budapest.  They left in the AM, but of course I was still flying then so I couldn’t even get to the station until the afternoon.  Therefore, we bought tickets for the 4pm bus… so we thought.  We arrive at the bus station almost 45 minutes early with the intention of being in Budapest that night.  We approach the bus guide and that’s when we get delivered the bad news.  ”Umm, sorry, the ticket for you bus already left,” she said.  Apparently the ticketing agent registered one of us for the 4pm bus and the other for the earlier bus with the other roommates.  Of course the bus filled up and I was told a flat no when asked if I could sit on the ground (or even her lap)!


Statue, Hosok tere (Heroes’ Square), Budapest

Uhh.. so now what?  Not only do we have friends waiting for us, but we also have a hostel waiting for our arrival as well.  (Another reason why planning is bad… although there are so many reasons that justify planning.. but anyway).  After several attempts at failed persuasion and much freaking out we came to our senses and crossed our fingers that we’d be able to get a night train.  I will save you the time of another dragged out story and say that we were successful and made it to Budapest early the next morning!!

But the bad luck continued…  shortly after getting off the train Jenn realized she didn’t have her camera.  Why is it that whenever you are on route nerves are always high and something bad usually happens?  We tried to shake problem #2 off us and take in the new country together.

Hoping the bad luck ran dry, we hopped on the metro in pursuit of our hostel.  As we step off… bad luck #3!  Jenn was stopped by metro police and — bam!  Fined 3000 HUF (~$15 USD).  I tried to see what the deal was and — bam!  I was slapped with the same fine.  I managed to reduce our 6000 HUF fine back to 3000, but we couldn’t shake the full fine.


The 3-day pass we bought after getting slapped with a fine for not having the proper ticket.

Note to travelers to Budapest: If riding the metro, you need to buy additional tickets for every transfer train you ride!  Of course when we purchased our tickets they didn’t tell us that.  And metro police target Americans to get some easy money.  BS if you ask me.

The Good Luck

I’m going to keep this fairly short because we leave for Germany soon, but also because I don’t want to bore you with an already longer than anticipated blog post.

Food

Traditional hungarian (magyar) meal: goulash… and it is damn good!

Bath Houses

The highlight of Budapest was the Szechnyi Bath.  It was right off the metro stop with the same name and attracts both tourists, young couples and older people who we caught playing several games of chess in the water.
These baths had both indoor and outdoor baths, but Jenn and I spent most of our time outdoors.  Although the bath below was hot, the outside temp was cold and caused my feet to numb when bath hopping.


Szechnyi Baths, Budapest, Hungry

Overall impression

My overall impression of Budapest was fairly unexpected.  I think my perspective was formed in part because I had already been to Europe, and it was a lot different the second time around.  I’ve been to Europe, South east Asia and the Middle East (in that order) and each place was uniquely different in both culture and environment.  Perhaps I had thought that I would get a fourth culture shock going back to Europe the second time or maybe I just need to step back and take it for what is it (which I am trying to do now).

Or maybe it was just Budapest itself.  For some reason I was not able to get a real vibe of Hungry.  I consider myself a world traveler and somewhat of a cultural sponge.  I live to laugh, love and learn.  Budapest was a huge city and while the people were somewhat friendly, it was hard to get a feel for Budapest itself because of the city life.  It makes me wonder how traveling will be in the future.

It seems that every culture strives to increase GDP, create more jobs, more roads and more railways.  Some call this “growth and wealth building,” but they are giving up their uniqueness in the process.  And I fear traveling will be very different in the years to come.

Tips/Recommendations

  • The goulash is the best I’ve ever had… so get it a couple times while you’re here
  • The Metro — they are serious and will fine you.  You have to buy separate tickets for each line you are on… even transfers!
  • Visiting the baths is a MUST!  Szechnyi Bath has it’s own metro stop.