By jadoerge
After a few days of packing decisions, train schedules, and bookings through AirBNB (description later), Morgan were finally about to head off on our first extended trip of the vacation! This first leg of the trip took us through 3 cities: Budapest, Bucharest, and Istanbul. It was a week-long trip, but we wanted to spend the majority of our time in Istanbul, so we only spent one day in Budapest and one day in Bucharest. Despite the short time, however, we certainly made the most of the time that we allotted ourselves in these two cities, and this blog post will focus on our adventures in Budapest!
Our first train ride to Budapest was probably the least eventful of the journey, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. To get around during the break, we used the EuRail Global Pass, which allowed us the opportunity to use nearly any train in Europe and pay only a reservation fee for the train. Anyways, after 8 hours on a very smooth German ICE, we arrived in Budapest, Hungary. The train station is itself quite the breathtaking structure in Hungary. With a mix of industrial walls and more modern glass elements, it was clear that one had entered a distinctly different part of Europe without feeling completely foreign. We quickly contacted our host in Budapest, who we found through the great apartment sharing site AirBNB.com and got acquainted with the area. By this time, we were understandably famished and ventured out into the Hungarian evening to see what we could find. After walking for a couple of blocks, down the road who our host recommended to us, we decided on an intriguing bar/restaurant which advertised a few Hungarian specialties and had a very student-friendly atmosphere. And then came the real test: could I order my food in my limited Hungarian? After trying my best to order a particular pork stew which sounded very good on the menu and having a string of unknown words thrown back at me, Morgan and I sheepishly asked if the waiter spoke English and lucked out! Unfortunately, however, what the waiter had been trying to explain was that they were basically out of pork, which was the meat in every single traditionally Hungarian dish. Darn! So we would up with gnocchi with spinach and pita with hummus. Hardly Hungarian, but tasty nonetheless. After finishing, we decided to try to find a bar which we were very excited to see, after reading about the new fad of “Ruin Pubs” in Budapest which have quickly become some of the most popular and unique bars in the world. After walking past it twice, we finally found the bar simply called Szimpla hidden behind loading-dock-style plastic flaps and two layers of entranceways. After being in Europe for over 7 months at this point, I have seen a few cool bars, but nothing compared to Szimpla. With over 9 large themed rooms, two stories, an outdoor seating area, and market area, this bar was nothing if not unique. Each room had some sort of artistic installation on the walls from old repurposed computer monitors and old suitcases with things inside of them, to a lighted wall with a CAT scan of someone’s brain. In the outdoor area, there was also an old Trabant (East-German car) with the top cut off and the inside made into two large couches with a table in between. After the arts and crafts market cleared out around 9:00, tables were completely re-arranged and the place slowly flooded with young people from all over the world. After a couple of hours of people watching and getting to know some other Americans who sat down near us, the fatigue one gets from sitting in a train seat for 8 hours finally hit us and we decided to pack it in for the night.
The next day, our train for Bucharest didn’t leave until 7:00 in the evening, so we decided to make the most of our day and woke up around 8:00am to get the exploration started. We began by just wandering around the area in which we were staying and ran into the National Museum of Hungary. While the exhibits and artifacts were truly fascinating, one can only understand about 50% of what’s going on historically without an English translation. Nonetheless, it was very interesting to learn about how the two World Wars affected the country and how the people reacted to the many different social movements of the 20th century. After finishing at the museum, we trekked across town to find an attraction which we had heard was supposed to be fantastic and didn’t disappoint: The Great Synagogue. The second largest in the world, the Great Synagogue was truly an amazing site to see. From the architecture, to the Holocaust memorials, it was truly a unique place of worship and clearly important to Hungarian Jews and their history of integration in the predominantly Christian country. By around 1pm, we had finished with our tour and decided to wander into a small kebap shop for some lunch which we quickly regretted as soon as we found the yearly fish festival just around the corner. Despite our bellies full of pita and lamb, we knew we couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. So we finally were able to sample some Hungarian food such as some excellent fried fish, a hot spiced wine quite different from traditional German Glühwein, as well as a very tasty rolled bread baked over a grill and rolled in vanilla sugar. To wrap up our day in Budapest, we crossed the Danube and got some great pictures of the very imposing Parlament building from across the river before heading back to our apartment to get our things and prepare for our first overnight train to Bucharest. Let me tell you, that train ride was an adventure in and of itself…
However, I think I’ve rambled on enough for one post, so I will bid you adieu until next week and the stories from one of our favorite cities from this entire month of travelling: Bucharest!