Money changers and other adventures - Budapest

Yesterday, we hopped a 3 hour train to Budapest. My parents' Eurail pass is for first class, so they paid the difference of my ticket and I got to ride in luxury. The country side was beautiful, and there was a massive field of sunflowers which contained hundreds of wind turbines.

Upon arrival in Budapest we wandered over to the money changer (after being assailed by about 15 taxi drivers looking for fairs) to change some Euros into Forints. Apparently we got hosed, because we only got an exchange rate of 184 HUF per Euro, and we should have gotten more like 240. Then we wandered around the train station and up and down several flights of stairs before finding the right Metro station, but we eventually made it to my parents Mansion of a Hotel.

After reveling in the air conditioning a bit, I set off on my own to find my hostel, which should have only been about 5 blocks away. But I managed to walk about 25 minutes in the wrong direction. In my defense, I did realize something was wrong, but I decided to be a bit bullheaded and continue on anyway. I did finally arrive, and walked up the 5 flights of stairs to the Hostel.

At that point, I was more or less exhausted and just barely managed to make it to the pub across the street for some drinks before going to bed.

I woke up several times during the night, apart from some people getting back at 4 am, and a couple people who's snores sounded like they were chopping down trees, Odin also finally decided to answer my prayers and sent thunder and lightning for about 45 minutes around 6:30am.

It was bright and sunny by the time I was ready to head out the next morning though, and i tramped back over to my parents' hotel to head out for the day. Our first stop was the historic Magyar Állami Operaház (Hungarian State Opera House). We didn't catch any performances, and we could only stand in the foyer, but it was still pretty grand.


From here, we wandered down the road and decided to stop in Szent István Bazilika (Saint Stephan's Basillica). This was one of the more beautiful churches I have ever seen (and I've seen a fair number of churches).

We were also treated to some beautiful Gregorian-sounding chant from the Monday morning mass, with the congregation engaging in call-response.

We decided to pay the 400 Forints (less than $3) to ascend a series of elevators to the top of the dome to get a panoramic view of Pest.


Our next stop was Hősök tere (Heroes' Square), and the lovely Városliget (City park), which contained a statue of George Washington from "The Hungarians of America."



We grabbed an ice cream in the park while marveling at the many interesting buildings, including the Vajdahunyad Castle, with a hodgepodge of architectural styles built for the millennial celebrations of 1900. We also saw what is now one of my favorite statues, depicting the anonymous author of early Hungarian history.


Finally, exhausted, we made our way to the Széchenyi-gyógyfürdő (Széchenyi medicinal baths), and spent 3 hours soaking in the hot water, dousing ourselves in the freezing water and getting Hungarian massages. I definitely plan to spend a full day here the next time I visit Budapest.



Here I split off from my parents and the second I got home, another deluge let forth and continued unabated all night long. I joined some people at the hostel at a Pub for some Karaoke and got back around 3am. The next day was far less eventful... coming soon.