Budapest

We spent two days in Budapest, Hungary. And we left hungry for more Hungary :) Ha ha. Lame I know. I just really wanted to say it.

Budapest is really two cities separated by the Danube (which also runs through Vienna). The hilly side is Buda and the flat side is Pest. We stayed on the Pest side which had most of the shopping, entertainment, restaurants, etc. The first day we went to the Buda side to see Buda castle and the castle district. There was lots of cool buildings (castles, churches, something called the fisherman's bastion) and great views of the city. We became masters of public transportation and used every kind possible; metro, bus, and tram. We then headed over to what we thought and were led to believe would be a really sweet communism statue park. Note to future Budapest travelers; don't fall for the snazzy advertisements. It's extremely disappointing and costs 3,000 HUF (=$15) The money over there is so annoying. Try this ratio: 1 US $ : 170 HUF. We then went to the biggest and fanciest Bath is Budapest which was by far our favorite thing we did here (see first picture). The baths are in this old, beautiful Baroque style building with an assortment of indoor and outdoor baths all varying in temperature and style. Some have currents, bubbles and jets, fountains, etc. Old, fat men play chess while they stand in the pools, its so fun! The only thing that was bad was that these bath houses are crazes mazes and the boys and girls have to separate at one point. So Chad and I separate, I'm left to change and give my clothes to some lady who keeps saying things to me in Hungarian and pointing at me. Then I finally find the bath portion of the building and spend 15 minutes looking for Chad. But its all worth it, they were so relaxing :) That night we went to dinner right outside the Opera house so we could hear the piano playing and the occasional aria. The next morning we went to the Buda side and hiked up Gellert hill which is the tallest point in the city. Beautiful views! We sat at a look out and dangled our feet over the edge. We then visited the Gellert baths which were nice as well; slightly smaller, but still very relaxing. In our frustration to find a decent, cheap dinner we ended up in Subway for sandwiches and in McDonalds for fries and soft serve. Something I forgot to mention in my "Things we've learned" section from last time. There are McDonalds every 10 blocks in every city we've been to. And there are signs pointing you to the three closest McDonalds every 2 blocks. It's crazy.

Sad news of the day; apparently I left my cord to my camera in our last hostel. The slippery little bugger some how slipped out of my bag! :( They say they haven't found it and we've searched our bags multiple times. We still have Chad's camera, thank you Jesus. However mine was a bit nicer and we liked having two.

Currently we are Ljubljana, but I will update you later about that.

Chad says that Seattle friends should plan on hanging out with us pronto after we get back. Perhaps the 20th or 21st of May? Talk and arrange amongst yourselves :)

He also says horse burgers are very nice. Yum.

Ta Ta for now.