Pudabest

After a long day on the train, we finally arrived in Budapest, Hungary, and right away, we went to the largest of the famous thermal baths that Budapest boasts of: Szechenyi Baths. It was glorious and warm and totally relaxing. The next morning, we went on an awesome free walking tour that took us around the city, including along the river and up a big hill to the castle district. Budapest is divided into two parts divided by the Danube (or Duna) River; the Buda side and the Pest side (pronounced Pesht). The Buda side is more hilly, is a more posh area, includes the castles district and has a beautiful, white Matthias Church at the top of the hill overlooking the river. While the Pest side is flatter and has streets organized in the same way as Paris. The castle district on the Buda side is also home to the Royal Palace, which hasn't been in use since the Hapsburgs, as well as the president's office, the old Ministry of Defence (once a four-story building, but after a bomb attack during WWII, it has been reduced to two), as well as other old buildings from different points in Budapest's history. After the tour, Jesse and I went to find lunch at a Christmas Market near our hostel. Jesse and I shared a traditional Hungarian sausage, a bowl of goulash, a bowl of Rooster Testicle Stew (interesting, I know!) and a cup of the most delicious hot wine that we had ever tasted. Later that night, Jesse and I went to the Budapest Hooters branch strictly for beer and wings. The wings came with ranch. Ranch! In Budapest! Anyways, the next day was our third and last day in Budapest and so we decided to go to the baths again to relax and warm up. That night we decided to check out one of the cities famous Ruin Bars. These are buildings that were once abandoned and dilapidated, but some artists came along, fixed them up, gave each room a different theme and then turned it all into a bar. They are actually really cool. I'm not too sure what the theme of the room was that we were sitting in, but it was pretty cool and had light fixtures made out of old welding helmets. In other rooms, there were bathtubs cut in half and turned into seats, an old car turned into a booth and various other ingenious designs around the bar. At this bar, they were selling carrots as a traditional Hungarian thing, hence the carrot pictures. The next morning, we took the train to Wien (Vienna), the last stop on our adventure.